For years, Chrollo Lucilfer’s Skill Hunter made him the face of Hunter x Hunter‘s “ability thief” archetype, a book stacked with other people’s Nen. But the manga just quietly handed that crown to someone far scarier.
Kurapika’s Steal Chain doesn’t just borrow a technique like Chrollo’s book does; it physically rips one out of an opponent’s body, and Stealth Dolphin lets him aim that stolen power at literally anyone. It’s a chilling upgrade on an old idea, and it might be doing more damage to Kurapika than to his enemies.
Spoiler Alert !!!Potential spoilers from the Hunter x Hunter manga ahead.
Hunter x Hunter: Steal Chain Turns Kurapika Into an Ability Thief
Kurapika’s Steal Chain from Hunter x Hunter | Credits: Shueisha
Steal Chain sits on Kurapika’s index finger, and it works very differently from Chrollo’s Skill Hunter. Where Chrollo has to fulfill several conditions before he can steal an ability, including witnessing it, asking its owner about it, and having them answer, Kurapika only needs to successfully pierce his target with the syringe-like end of his chain. The instant it enters the body, it drains the victim’s aura and steals their Nen ability. The target is forced into a state similar to Zetsu while it happens, and the process looks genuinely agonizing on the page.
What makes this nastier than Chrollo’s version is how quickly Kurapika can disarm someone. Chrollo’s Skill Hunter also takes an ability away from its original owner once the theft is complete, meaning the difference isn’t that Kurapika leaves his victims powerless while Chrollo doesn’t. Instead, Kurapika’s method has far fewer prerequisites and can even steal an ability that is being activated against him. The stolen ability is generally available for one use before being returned to its original owner, making Steal Chain more like a temporary forced disarmament than permanent theft.
We’ve already watched this play out on-page: he tore Little Eye away from the possessed bodyguard Sayird after learning what his ability did, and later ripped Air Blow away from Vincent in the middle of an attempted attack, stopping the ability before Vincent could use it. Even Bill willingly let Kurapika “steal” Erigeron so it could be transferred to other people during the Nen training sessions. That’s the part that makes Steal Chain so unsettling. It doesn’t need Kurapika to understand an opponent’s ability beforehand, and one successful piercing can turn an enemy’s trump card into Kurapika’s temporary weapon.
Stealth Dolphin Is Where This Ability Turns Genuinely Broken
Credits: Shueisha
Credits: Shueisha
If Steal Chain is the theft, Stealth Dolphin is what makes the stolen goods usable, and it’s where things get genuinely absurd. The moment Kurapika activates Emperor Time, he can summon a dolphin-shaped Nen construct that only he can see or hear, and it immediately gets to work analyzing whatever ability was just stolen, spelling out its name, its function, and its conditions. From there, Kurapika can either use the power himself or hand it off entirely, and this is the truly broken part: to another person, even someone who wasn’t previously a Nen user.
He’s already done exactly this, transferring Little Eye to Queen Oito so she could spy through a fly. The process also forcibly opened Oito’s aura nodes, allowing her to use Nen, and Stealth Dolphin remained connected to both of them while she used the stolen ability. Kurapika later used Bill’s Erigeron during Nen training to help awaken the abilities of previously untrained bodyguards and servants. Sixteen people eventually gathered for the training, although several were already secretly capable of using Nen. That’s not just a fighting technique anymore; it’s a way of temporarily putting someone else’s Nen ability into another person’s hands.
The catch, and it’s a brutal one, is that Kurapika can’t leave Emperor Time while Stealth Dolphin is holding a stolen ability that still needs to be used and returned. Every second Emperor Time remains active burns an hour off his lifespan, and when Kurapika pushed the ability beyond roughly three continuous hours, he eventually collapsed and remained unconscious for nine hours, with the stolen ability still keeping Emperor Time active. The experience ultimately cost him roughly five years of his life. Chrollo steals abilities under a complicated set of conditions, but Kurapika is quite literally risking his lifespan every time he turns his own stolen-power system into a weapon.
What are your thoughts on Steal Chain and Stealth Dolphin? We’d love to know your opinions on Kurapika’s Nen abilities in the comments below.
Every Chapter of the Hunter x Hunter manga is available to read on Viz Media and Manga Plus.
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