User blog comment:Abdulrahman93/About Silva's nen type/@comment-93.197.94.112-20120828203543

Well I suppose there are two main possibilities, really. Either he didn't want to use a Transformation ability at that time...or he couldn't.

One of the key-rules Silver taught Killua was to never reveal one's abilities unless absolutely necessary and preferably without any witnesses. I would assume that Silver and Xeno had a pretty decent idea about Illumi's contract on the ten godfathers. He knew to stop as soon as Illumi radioed them (as that meant their employers were dead) and Illumi likewise knew that they were after the guy who had hired him (Kuroro). If he knew there was a chance that the hit was going to get canceled he might have simply decided not to reveal his real ability.

The other possibility is that he couldn't use his Transformation ability because Kuroro stole it. Before the fight started he warned his father of that specific ability. The only way he could have known about this ability is 1. he saw it in action (e.g. by having Kuroro use an ability he stole from someone Silver knew) or 2. he stole Silver's ability. We know from Killua that Silver killed a member of the Ryodan/Phantom Troop (the previous number 8 to be precise). I think there was a flashback kinda image of Silver fighting a younger Kuroro so there was certainly a chance for the theft to have occured. Of course the odd thing about that would be that Silver didn't try to regain his ability when he fought Kuroro.

Well I suppose there is a third possibility but given the family's professionalism I consider it to be extremely unlikely: Silver is like Kastro in that he wants to use an ability that does not belong to his Nen-type. Kurapica wanted to be a Reinforcer, Gido used Emission and Manipulation for his regular spinning top-attacks. Still, I can't imagine that Silver would willingly be less than 100% efficient in his use of his Nen-potential.