Nanika

Nanika (ナニカ, Nanika) is a mysterious Dark Continent creature who came to possess Alluka Zoldyck under unknown circumstances. The two currently coexist inside Alluka's body.

Appearance
Nanika's real appearance is unknown. When it manifests itself, it tinges Alluka's sclerae, irises and mouth pitch black, also causing the latter to appear larger.

Personality


Like Alluka, Nanika is very fond of Killua Zoldyck, whom it fondly calls by name ("Big brother" in the Viz translation). Nanika strives to earn people's praise and especially Killua's by granting wishes, and usually asks him to pet it. When Killua orders it never to appear any longer, Nanika becomes hurt and cries. It later forgives Killua, after Killua promises to protect both Alluka and Nanika and to pet Nanika whenever it wished. Nanika also appears to be on good terms with Alluka, as the latter was very upset when she felt its misery.

Nanika's way of speaking is extremely concise.

Background
It is unknown when and how Nanika came to possess Alluka, but the two have shared the latter's body at least since Alluka was a young child. The Zoldyck Family is in the dark about Nanika's nature. Killua once saw Alluka turn into Nanika, and learned about the general nature of its abilities by asking it how to revert the transformation. As a toddler, Alluka once asked Mitsuba, an attendant of the Zoldyck family, to do three simple things: carrying her, going up a staircase, and raising Alluka up in the air. After Mitsuba did what she was told, Alluka's eyes and mouth suddenly turned pitch-black. Freaked out by this, Mitsuba called for help. Killua came and changed Alluka back to normal by asking Alluka to make himself go high-high, which Alluka did. After the accident, Killua had to tell his parents about Alluka's secret because Mitsuba had already reported it to them. It turned out that when Alluka had three requests fulfilled, her eyes and mouth would turn pitch-black, and they would change back to normal only when she heard and granted a wish.



To test the ability, her mother Kikyo ordered Mitsuba to decline any request of her, no matter how small it was. Due to that, Mitsuba and her lover Hasama, who was not around Alluka at that time, were mysteriously crushed into minced meat simultaneously. Killua explained that this was the consequence of saying 'No' to Alluka's requests 4 times.

Some time afterwards, Yasuha, another female servant of the Zoldyck family, gave Alluka a piggyback ride at her request, thus activating wish-granting mode. Giving in to her greed at the time, Yasuha wished that Alluka would make her a billionaire. Nanika agreed and suddenly a large amount of banknotes started to rain down from a blimp in the sky. It was later reported that a currency transport vessel had suddenly gone missing and by the time it had been found all the money had disappeared, and the captain and crew kept giving nonsensical answers.

Illumi became interested in Alluka's power and asked for Silva's permission to deal with Kasuga, the next servant, to take care of Alluka, in his own way. He told her to listen to Alluka's requests in exchange for his tolerance of her romantic relationship with an outsider to the Zoldyck family. When Kasuga was with Alluka, Alluka suddenly asked her for her liver, which Kasuga declined. She followed up with three continuous requests for her duodenum, spine and brain respectively, which were all declined as well. As a result of Kasuga's refusal to fulfill those four requests, a total of 67 people, including herself, were killed at the same time by Alluka's strange power. This occurrence revealed that her ability had a cumulative effect; the greater the previous wish was (in terms of fulfillment difficulty), the greater the consequences of refusing her next set of requests. From this, they also learned the requests became much more difficult to fulfill after Nanika granted a large wish. Following the blimp incident, Nanika's power caused the death of six couples, for a total of twelve more people: two were necessary for Kikyo to be convinced, two more to test the rules, and two when Milluki sacrificed tourists in exchange for cheap toys. At some point, there was also another big incident which resulted in the death of 13 people, caused again by Milluki, who asked Nanika to kill his target for him. Milluki had a tourist named Muuna pay the price by telling him to just ignore Alluka's requests. More recently, Milluki used Nanika to get the latest - at the time - computer.

Abilities & Powers
Nanika has the ability to attach itself to another living being and coexist within their body, taking control of them when certain conditions are met. Its physical abilities are dependent upon those of the body it inhabits. Currently, it has the strength of a normal child. Alluka shares an empathic link with Nanika, which allows her to perceive its emotions.

Nen
Nanika's power is speculated to be infinite. Since it releases aura, it appears to be a Nen ability. Illumi and some of the Zodiacs were deeply impressed with the immense amount of aura it could output. It is unclear if Nanika retained its ability to grant wishes after Killua told it to stop doing so.

Quotes

 * (Upon granting wishes) "'Kay."
 * (To Killua Zoldyck) "Brother, pet me!"
 * (To Killua Zoldyck) "I love you, brother!"

Trivia

 * First of all, there is no solid evidence or confirmation in the Manga nor from the mangaka, Yoshihiro Togashi himself that Nanika is one of the creatures from the Dark Continent. This idea however came from the explanation of one of the Five Great Calamities - specifically the "The Gaseous Life Form Ai" and the fact that one of the Zoldyck member [Zzigg Zoldyck] came with Chairman Netero when they explored the Dark Continent.
 * "Nanika" literally means "something" in Japanese, which is Nanika's name in the Viz translation.
 * The Viz translation of the manga reverses the way Alluka and Nanika refer to Killua. In the English version of the manga, Alluka calls Killua by name while Nanika calls him "big brother". The reason for this change in translation is unknown.




 * Throughout the story, many hints are scattered suggesting the possibility of Nanika being an Ai:
 * As revealed in Volume 33, both originated in the Dark Continent.
 * Nanika's victims are either squashed or wrung to death if her requests are refused; some of the ascertained victims of the Five Great Calamities were killed exactly that way. It was also stated that, although their manner of death was described in Journey to the New World, those bodies were all found in the known world rather than in the Dark Continent, and that the massacre is ongoing. Ging Freecss has also revealed that victims of Ai and Pap have been found in the known world.
 * Nanika has a peculiar way of saying "yes" (translated as "'Kay" by Viz) in the original: instead of "hai" (はい), she pronounces it "ai" (あい). When written in katakana (アイ), this is the name of one of the Five Great Calamities, Ai, as well as its distinctive call (in hiragana again).
 * Nanika has the same deep black eyes as Ai. Furthermore, in the extras, Alluka's skin while possessed is colored black with the same technique used to draw Ai.
 * Nanika's possession of Alluka, her wish to please others and her devotion to Killua could be related to Ai's description as "codependence of desire".