Re: Killua vs. Morau
A lot of things should have been clear by my previous posts and by what we have already read in the manga. I'll clarify more to let people see what I am on to here; Seems my lengthy posts were wasted on readers with a limited fact-based imagination and a lack of consideration about a lot of aspects of these two fighters.
The most possible opening scenario would be:
- Morau opens up with Deep Purple to scout.
- Killua is on the defensive.
Now it's obvious that Killua will not spam lightning or waste nen here, 'cause we all know he's on a tight budget and his opponent has wicked deep pockets regarding nen. So he defends himself with yoyos. He's quite adept at killing with them. We all saw how he dealt with the two Chimera Ants at Meat Garden. And we remember how he fought Ikarugo/Sniping Ant and Oroso Siblings. In the first part of that battle he used meager amounts of nen and swept most of them by "speed" and "skill" [I put those two in quotes because people don't seem to know what I'm referring to when I use those words to describe what Killua has]. His problems started when Furatta butted in and gave Sniper Ant coordinates. Flea-Bullets hit Killua and inflicted "open wounds" status on him. Some hits later, Killua successfully deduced the position of the Sniper and killed him. Proof that he's "intelligent". Morau's puppets has no sniper and no dragonfly Communications Satellite. And they're pretty frail when they're in swarm mode. So they'll just run away and Throw Rock at Killua in hopes of inflicting damage, or try to actually melee him. Problem is, even without Kanmuru, Killua has great speed. He's received a huge speed boost ever since he got rid of that blasted Illumi needle. So they'll be swept. Even if Morau spams smoke all around to hide, Killua has no problems moving in the fog because he's used to moving in the dark; as I've said, the Technique of the Dark Step is a technique ued to attack in low visibility. They'll all be swept. Or simply evaded, for more nen-savings. Morau will spam more. Killua will realize it's not efficient nen-wise and stamina-wise to dive into the fog, and will try to move out of it. Morau will capitalize by spewing more smoke.
So is Killua at a disadvantage now? No, it's actually a stalemate.
You all know Deep Purple is a defensive technique. It's not really a finishing move. What other techniques have we seen from Morau? Smoke Jail, smoke rope. Both are dumb to use in this fight as Morau's likely objective is to hide, scout, annoy and stall. Those two nen-techniques will bring Killua closer to him. So they won't probably be used. So what has Morau left? A lot of nen in his tank. How Morau would kill Killua would likely require him to move in close. The mods already stated that the fights in this tournament is heldin a place that gives either contestant no advantage, so the chance of Deep Purple puppets picking up steel bars to beat him senseless is not likely. That will also mean that this fight is not held in a place with infinite area, because if that's the case, that gives Morau an advantage over Killua because he will just run around and spam from far away. The battleground would have a modest size, maybe around the size of a stadium or amphitheater; they're both open but the combatants mustn't leave the designated area. Another point: Morau's only kill is using carbon dioxide poisoning against a stupid lion who overestimated his own strength. What does all of that tell us? Morau has no decisive finishing techniques. He's strong because of his immense amount of nen [for a human], he's wise and experienced, and has a great defensive approach that boggles most lesser enemies [who can't handle Deep Purple]. That's why Netero put him near his level. But that doesn't mean he can kill strong people at will. No sir. He has a totally weak offensive capability against higher nen-users, which will wreak havoc on his smoke puppets. And those higher level nen-users include the latest incarnation of Killua. Simply put: He's near Netero AND Zeno, but is still weaker because he relies on a pipe for most of his effectivity, and those two trained enough to leave them with no glaring weakness. But that doesn't mean he has Netero's AND Zeno's offensive capability. Everyone's assuming the smoke clones will do a better job than the cluster of Chimera Ants at hurting Killua, but has anyone seen anyone getting beat up bad by the smoke clones? Everybody does not seem to realize they're just there to distract the target so that Morau could sneak and land the real blow. Unless you want to tell me that Morau has a secret solve-all killer technique we haven't seen yet. Those kinds of arguments won't hold up in a tournament like this; this ain't a skill speculation thread. Therefore we need to work with what we have already seen. Another thing is that their nen expenditure rate will be close to each other. Morau has a lot of nen, but will constantly spew smoke and create puppets, which will all be wasted. Killua has a lot of control on his nen expenditure, and has the Kanmuru-less speed to get in close to the puppets or evade them, and the yoyo-handling skills to crush them. Therefore, it's pretty much a stalemate at that point, with both fighters negating each other out.
Both fighters will ultimately have to do a critical string of moves for the win.
As I've said before, Morau needs to be in melee range to hurt Killua. We can't rely on him having an unknown killer technique that he'll bust out for the sake of this tournament. So he'll have to rely on basic nen-abilities such as Gyo, Kou and Shu (if applicable to his pipe; it probably is) to inflict a lot of damage. He has a lot of experience and probably a lot of time spent on training, so he could muster a thick Kou or Gyo punch. He'll employ some Morau clones, which people say can't be distinguished from the real one. So... Morau for the win here.
Really?
The answer to this should be so dang obvious: The clones cannot create one of their kind. So if a supposed Morau clone suddenly spews a puppet, that's the real Morau. Also, clones, no matter what quality they are, no matter if they look like Morau or not, can only move in a definite pattern. Morau's smoke pawns are based on programmed movement. Therefore, their movements can be studied and that will distinguish them from the true Morau. Despite the variety of moves displayed in the two-page spread showing the Knuckle clones doing a lot of stuff, that could be simplified into: "Taunt when far, attack when in range", or something similar. "But what if Morau doesn't satisfy the two things necessary to distinguish him from the other puppets?" There are other ways. First, look for an opening. Killua has what it takes to find one; he's patient, and has the speed to take an opening however small it is, with Kanmuru or not. Next, if the window of time for the opening to show is too narrow (like hell it is for Killua) to use Narukami, leave a marker on the opponent which is hard for the opponent to see or get rid of and will definitely give out his position. Hisoka did it by recognizing absence of damage or blood on Kastro's clone. The clones don't manifest changes; Heck, Knuckle's clones don't even manifest beads of sweat on their bodies, so did Morau's. So that would definitely help Killua.
Now, once a decent opening for Narukami is set, and Killua pulls it off, how do you suppose Killua will kill Morau?
If you didn't already notice, Narukami either halts or slows down nen flow through the body. If nen flow is still normal, Yupi would have been able to do something nen-wise. He has an ability that looks like he could emit nen in large amounts (ugly-guy-face-blaster-rifle arm), so he could definitely emit nen in low volumes. He could have emitted nen in Killua's face to frantically defend himself, but wasn't able to. Narukami definitely did something to mess up his nen flow, if not temporarily disable its use. The Royal Guard was lucky he had Chitinous Plating, so it seemed he was only bitten by a roach or something.
Based on what was said in the paragraph above, Morau's nen flow would be messed up. His Ken will probably turn to Ren, or something weaker, or worse, no defensive nen-application may work. He wouldn't even be able to do that thing Machi did with her stomach muscles to stop Killua's knife-hand to sink in if he could. He'll rely on his physical toughness now, which is not good against nen-attacks. Killua will from there use Shippuu Jinrai in conjunction with the decapitating slashes he used to off the Oroso Siblings, Ramotto, that female-looking Mosquito Ant who injected him with some sort of poison, etc. That would leave Morau headless, or shredded, or both. Or he could just steal that freaking pipe and annoy the heck out of him, as I've said. It's not like Morau could chase Killua anyway. He's still dangerous, but not the immediate threat that he was when he could smoke. But, in all simplicity it's already a win for Killua at that point.
Alternatively, Killua could defeat Morau by stealing the pipe once it lands on him. Yupi said that the clones "don't feel real" when he opened a can of whoop-ass on them, so that's another indicator of the true Morau. He can react instantly, so he can test if the wielder of the clone is Morau or not, by immediately attacking the wielder; it's not like they can, in turn, immediately react against Killua. If the wielder is a puppet, it will be destroyed, and the pipe gets stolen. If the wielder is Morau, he'll take a hit, take another hit in the form of Narukami, and will probably get amputated, decapitated, or mugged [Stole Morau's Pipe x1!]. And it's not like the reaction ability through Kanmuru uses up lot of charge, so it could be used for a reasonable amount of time. But this is a risky strategy since Killua does not have an idea how much he has left, and might be out of charge when he needs it the most. Knowing Killua, he'll use methods that will leave him with a lot of charge for longs periods of time, but I only mentioned this for the sake of completeness.
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Oh hey, I got an idea, how about Morau stalls by filling the battleground with smoke and just employ evasive maneuvers until Killua develops lung cancer and dies? Well, Morau could die faster than Killua that way, though...
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It's funny. People whom I've seen argue for Morau's side in this fight instantly assumes that just because he's near Netero's level means that he could easily kill his opponents when it's been demonstrated that he has no concrete offensive technique. Even the puppets will fall easily to Killua. And everybody does not seem to remember how Zitoh dragged Morau in the first place and how much time it took Morau to set up his smoke when the battle against Leol started. These two scenes simply mean that Morau's not fast enough to set up the smokescreen at the beginning of a battle and he's not fast enough to physically react to things like Zitoh. No one can't even give a reasonable battle simulation based on the manga that would demonstrate how Morau would "easily kill Killua before he even steals the pipe". They don't realize Leol scratched Morau in their fight, and from the looks of it, Leol isn't even Reinforcement. Meaning Morau has relatively weak melee defense. People who vote for Morau don't realize that this fight could all be over in just mere seconds:
- Ready? Fight!
- Killua used Kanmuru!
- Morau spewed smok-- ohshi...
- Killua used Narukami!
- Morau is paralyzed! He can't move! He couldn't even use his nen properly to defend himself with Ryu, Ken, Gyo or Kou!
- Killua used Shippuu Jinrai+decapitation slashes on Morau's neck!
- Morau died!