Morel Mackernasey

"The minute you start talking about who can win in a Nen fight, you're wrong. In most cases, you won't know your opponent's abilities. You can't make assumptions based on the amount of aura displayed. The battle can turn at any point. That's what fighting with Nen means."

- Morel Mackernasey, to Killua

Morel Mackernasey (モラウ=マッカーナーシ, Morau Makkānāshi) is a Single-Star Sea Hunter who uses a giant smoking pipe and smoke as weapons, and was one of the members of the Chimera Ant Extermination Team. He is also the master of both Knuckle Bine and Shoot McMahon.

Appearance


Morel is a tall, well-built middle-aged man with shoulder-length white hair and noticeable facial features including a broad face, a strong square chin and a crooked nose. He is always seen wearing pince-nez sunglasses, red tie and typically has his black shirt tucked in his pants and carries a giant smoking pipe.

Personality
Despite being a large and strong man, Morel is very emotional and has a great sense of compassion. His emotionalism is even passed on to his disciples, especially Knuckle Bine. As the story progresses, Morel is shown to be a good negotiator and have good leadership skills.

Morel is very patient and calm man, willing to wait for quite some time for his plans to come to fruition and also able to keep his cool in the middle of battle.

Chimera Ant arc


Morel makes his first appearance accompanying Chairman Netero into NGL along with Knov. Upon meeting Killua at a checkpoint on the border of NGL, he taunts the boy about the state of fear that he is in. Killua replies that he thinks the 3 of them won't stand much chance against Pitou, but Morel laughs it off, telling Killua that the outcome of a Nen battle is never certain and one has to fight with absolute confidence in victory. He then advances into NGL with Netero and Knov after complimenting Killua on his idea of knocking Gon out. They estimate it will be at least 2 months until the birth of the King.

The exterminators' only target is the Queen, but because the range of Pitou's En is too long, making a surgical attack on her impossible, they decide to quietly and slowly take out the Ants one by one. Morel then creates an army of bunny Smoke Troopers to find out how many enemies they will have to deal with. Later, using Deep Purple, he creates a thick fog that covers an entire forest near the Ant Queen's colony and continuously tricks various Chimera Ant divisions to a room conjured by Knov, where they are decimated by the Chairman. However, the Ants wise up, and by the end of the 3rd week they no longer fall into Morel and Knov's trap. Knov wants to initiate their plan but Netero tells him and Morel to wait for their disciples.

At the end of week 4, an Ant named Colt comes to them with the intention of surrendering, telling them about the premature birth of the King, the Queen's condition and the threat posed by the Division Commanders in case the Queen dies. This is even worse than their worst-case estimation so Morel decides to take Colt to the Chairman, who quickly asks the Hunters Association to send a team of expert surgeons and artificial organ specialists to the Queen's nest. Still, all they can do is to prolong the dying moment of the Queen for a few minutes. Seeing how Colt cries and vows to protect the last offspring of the Queen—a prematurely born baby Ant tinier than a pinky—at all costs, Morel gets emotional and promises Colt that if they stop eating humans, he won't allow anyone to harm them until the day he himself becomes blind.

After capturing Kite in the Queen's nest, Morel and his disciple Knuckle are called in to handle Cheetu, a Division Commander Ant with superhuman speed who killed and injured a number of humans in the vicinity of Pata City. The two of them ambush Cheetu on a road. Even though they can't match his speed, their experience and the versatility of Deep Purple allow Knuckle to put a Hakoware on him with ease. They then let him run away, deciding to leave him to other Hunters who can match up well with him.

10 days before their planned attack on the King, Morel, Knov, Knuckle, Shoot, Gon and Killua head for the Republic of East Gorteau; this is also the day the Hakoware Knuckle put on Gon expires and he can use Nen again. The Chairman sends Morel a message, telling them to break into 3 groups of two and separate the Royal Guards from the King. To test if Gon is competent to participate in the extermination mission, Morel tells Gon to imagine that he is Neferpitou and attack him with full force. He is then amazed by Gon's power and determination and allows Gon to join him on the mission.

9 days prior to the planned attack, in the evening, Morel and Knov talk to Marcos, a military leader in Ming Jol-ik's government, persuading him to sign an agreement according to which he shall disclose all military information in exchange for the protection of him and his family in a third country. Morel tells Marcos to continue his regular daily routine before leaving. Later, he talks to someone from the committee of the Hunters Association and gets angry with them over their decision not to use a Hunter he recommended, which led to the escape of Cheetu. He also expresses his frustration at the shady moves of the pro-Vice-Chairman faction to sabotage Chairman Netero's plan and win the next Chairman Election. On the same night, the Ants manipulate Ming Jol-ik's corpse to place all of East Gorteau under martial law. To prevent them from slaughtering the 5,000,000 citizens, Morel puts the capital city Peijin under siege using his Smoke Troopers.

6 days before the attack on the King, Morel encounters Cheetu again while keeping Peijin under watch. He is immediately hit and transported to a place conjured by Cheetu which is isolated from the real world. Despite being unable to get back his aura, Morel catches Cheetu with little difficulties thanks to his superior intelligence and experience and gets out of the conjured space unscathed. He then meets up with Knov, who has just killed Flutter, an Ant specializing in reconnaissance. When they see the sudden disappearance of all of Pitou's dolls in Peijin, they know something serious has happened in the Palace and decide to split up—Knov is going to infiltrate the Palace to create an Exit while Morel stays in Peijin.



Due to his lack of knowledge about the area, Morel is led into an underground church by Leol. Realizing that the Nen ability Leol uses is that of his friend, he rages, swearing to make Leol pay. Despite having fallen into the enemy's trap, he remains confident and manages to kill Leol using CO2 and his superhuman lung capacity. Meanwhile, Knov suffers a mental breakdown upon coming into contact with Pouf's heinous aura in Zetsu state.

D-day, even with just 35% of his full power and Knov's withdrawal from the mission, Morel still decides to continue with the plan to lead a team consisting of himself, Knuckle, Shoot, Gon, Killua, Ikalgo and Meleoron in an assault on the King's Palace. They break in through an Exit Knov created previously near the central stairway. The moment they are inside, they unexpectedly meet with a rain of Nen dragons created by Zeno and Youpi, who has been guarding the central stairway. Morel quickly uses Deep Purple to trick Youpi and slips through, leaving Youpi to Shoot.

He then goes straight to the throne room, where he encounters Pouf. Pouf tries to get away immediately, but Morel has him trapped in his Smoky Jail to separate him from the King. However, after a while, Morel is tricked into cancelling the Jail because Pouf splits himself into minuscule particles and slips through it. Pouf then takes Morel by surprise and steals the pipe, rendering him unable to use any new Nen ability.



Left defenseless, Youpi quickly encounters Morel, but is saved by the arrived of his student Knuckle. Without his pipe, Morel decides that the best strategy is to change the remaining 89 Smoke Troopers into clones of himself and Knuckle to support him against Youpi. Youpi quickly defeats all clones and goes straight ahead to kill Morel. Before that, he praises him for being and excellent warrior and before he landed the final blow, he disappears with Meleoron's God Accomplice ability. Nevertheless, Morel is struck and leaves and blood path in his way, so Youpi goes after him until Knuckle arrives and asks him to leave them and fight him alone. Youpi doesn't agree but he will do it if he cancels his Potclean ability.

Despite Morel's refusal, Knuckle does so and Youpi decides to spare their lives. When Youpi has left, Knov appears and takes Morel to a safe place so he could be healed. Before his departure, Morel tells Knuckle that he must go and defeat the Chimera Ant despite the latter changes of attitude.

13th Hunter Chairman Election arc
After the Chimera Ant Extermination mission, Morel is hospitalized and along with many others is worried about Gon's critical conditions. He soon calls Colt to tell him that he and Meruem's younger sister are safe being classified as new magical beasts. After learning that the child has Kite's memories, he tries to tell Gon about it at once but all to no avail. Later, when talking to Killua over the phone, Morel tells him they should leave the matter to a nen remover, but Killua asks Morel to leave it to him.

Leorio then visits Gon in the hospital and has a heated conversation with Killua and his butler Gotoh on the phone. Gotoh says to heal Gon there must be nobody but Gon in the hospital, to which Leorio replies he can't evacuate this national hospital. Seeing that, Morel takes Leorio's phone and assures Gotoh that this condition will be met. He then calls Knov, telling him to prepare a room where there will be nothing but Gon. Soon afterwards, he finishes 8th in the 4th round of New Hunter Chairman Election and becomes one of the 16 candidates in the 5th round. It is also suggested that he may qualify for a Triple-Star Hunter License thanks to his contributions to the extermination of the Chimera Ants.

Teradein is seen asking Morel for support in his advancement to try and become chairman. In response, Morel sends a video to Teradein telling him that he refuse, complaining about his groups activity, not knowing that Teradein is dead.



Later Morel leads Killua and Alluka to Gon and witnessing from outside the room Gon's miraculous recovery, sensing Alluka monstrous power while healing Gon. After Gon was fully healed he leads him to Leorio, who was in the voting room were all the hunters were voting for the 13th chairman, and the two have a moving meeting that causes all the hunters in the room to applause. While everybody was celebrating Gon's recovery, Morel requests from Leorio to not let Gon know that it was thanks to Killua he was healed, and although Leorio doesn't understands the reason, he complies nevertheless.

Dark Continent Expedition arc
Ginta reveals he has agreed to take the navigation from the New Continent's border to the Gate upon himself, so he suggests to leave it in the hands of his team.

Abilities & Powers
Morel has shown himself to be both a good strategist and an experienced and resourceful fighter. He uses his pipe not only for his Nen abilities but also as a melee weapon that he can swing single-handedly and without effort despite its weight: his body is in fact highly honed. Even so, he claims that his abilities work better as a support and that he doesn't think of himself as a very strong fighter.

Enhanced Strength: Morel can increase the size of his muscles and enhance his strength and defense in preparation for a strong attack. This was shown when he called Gon out after Gon receives his Nen back to see if he was strong enough to continue. Aside from this, he can wield his giant pipe as a club without effort, both with one and two hands.

Enhanced reflexes: A clone of Morel managed to intercept with his pipe an arrow shot by Cheetu at close distance. Since the abilities of a copy cannot exceed the original's, it can be assumed that Morel himself can accomplish such a feat. Earlier in the story, after being repeatedly struck by Cheetu's astoundingly fast punches, he managed to at least see the Chimera Ant moving, rapidly getting accustomed to his speed.

Decent durability: When facing Cheetu along with Knuckle, Morel easily withstood the quick blows of the creature. Moreover, he was hit by the waves and maelstrom produced by Leol without his breath getting knocked out of him. And a strong kick from Shaiapouf, one of the Chimera Ant King's Royal Guards didn't do any noticeable damage, and he got back up quickly on his feet.

High intelligence: Morel is can formulate accurate predictions on his opponent's move and has proved to be able to analyze hostile capabilities and thought patterns efficiently. He can devise effective strategies in a matter of instants, always exploiting his or his students' capabilities to the fullest. Even Shaiapouf praised him for his intellect. According to the royal guard, his determination, unshaking will and confidence in himself bolster his defensive powers greatly. Also, Morel's years of experience can unconsciously lead him to pick the best option. He can keep his cold blood in extremely dangerous situations.

Nen
Morel is a Manipulator. He uses a giant smoking pipe and manipulates the smoke released from it with his aura. The drawback of his abilities is that if Morel loses his pipe he will not be able to produce smoke anymore to manipulate and have to rely on the existing smoke. His Deep Purple ability probably entails Emission as well, since he needs to detach a portion of his aura from his body to create his puppets. He might even use Transmutation to change the color of his smoke (Hisoka's Texture Surprise falls in this category): if that is indeed the case, Morel's abilities are even more remarkable, as Transmutation is at the opposite corner of the Nen chart from Manipulation, his natural category.

Other Skills


Superhuman lung capacity: As a Sea Hunter, Morel has excellent lungs, allowing him to stay underwater for an extended period of time without taking any breath. He is confident that they are second to none. It is his proficiency in apnea that helped him win the battle against Leol in an underground church filled with water, first by letting him stay safe at the bottom, then by allowing him to exhale immense quantities of carbon dioxide to poison his opponent. Despite emitting enough of it to fill a good portion of a church, he managed to swim without breathing long enough to escape the maze-like building.

Trivia

 * His name in romaji, Morau Makkānāshi, is an anagram-like reference to Ramo Nakajima, a respected Japanese cult novel writer who often wore sunglasses.
 * Morel's eyes are never shown. He wears sunglasses even underwater and at night.
 * His trademark technique Deep Purple is a reference to an English rock band with the same name. Moreover, the kanji for this technique makes reference to the famous song "Purple Haze," by the musician Jimi Hendrix.
 * During his fight with Leol, Morel creates a raft out of smoke to stand atop the water. This might be a reference to the famous song of the Deep Purple "Smoke on the Water".
 * Morel's attack names, the preview for episode 107, and the fact that the character is based on Ramo Nakajima suggest that Morel likely isn't smoking tobacco in his pipe.
 * His technique Smoky Jail's alternate name, Jailhouse Rock, is a reference to Elvis Presley's famous song.

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