At last...
He was sent out looking thoroughly bedraggled.
There was no displeasure on his face, only a hint of surprise.
It was his first time seeing an old man so "possessive."
Influenced by him, Zeno rarely went in a direction opposite to his bedroom.
With his hands clasped behind his back, he strolled through the deep, quiet corridor, his feet barely touching the mottled stone floor. He soon arrived by Roy's window.
His Shadow Step had indeed reached the point where silence was golden.
He appeared without making a sound and quietly watched the boy inside through the glass.
The boy, however, noticed nothing. He was engrossed in a book.
"Nen Ability isn't actually anything mysterious..."
"The Heart Source School's [Point], [Tongue], [Ren], and [Hatsu], and the [Ten], [Zetsu], [Ren], and [Hatsu] passed down among the general public..."
"They're all just stages in the process of 'opening one's aura.'"
"By focusing inward and organizing 'aura' into language, then refining it with imagination and finally releasing it with 'Hatsu,' one gets to the essence of using Nen Ability."
"As for derived techniques like [Shu], [Ko], [En], and [Zetsu], they're simply further refinements built on imagination."
"For example, [Zetsu] suppresses one's presence by eliminating their aura. In fact, it gathers all the aura escaping from the body's surface back inside. Naturally, this reduces one's presence to a minimum, but the consequence is..."
"The body loses the protection of aura and can no longer withstand attacks from a Nen user's Nen Qi..."
"To sum it up, practicing Nen Ability isn't about how one uses it, but about Nen Ability itself and the user's knowledge and understanding of Nen."
"Understanding the 'transformation of form' and 'transformation of properties' of Nen Ability is what every Nen user should focus on."
"Rustle..." The evening breeze stirred the curtains.
At some point, Roy finally pulled himself away from his book.
He glanced up at the window. Zeno was nowhere to be seen. In his place hung a bright full moon, seemingly gazing back at him and giving Roy the illusion that he could see himself clearly from a different angle.
Perhaps that was the difference between having "guidance" and going without it...
"Systematic learning might not be great, but it definitely won't be bad..."
"By contrast, unless they're exceptionally gifted, Nen users who learn on their own will find it difficult to even approach the ranks of the top Nen users in their lifetime..."
Roy closed the book, deep in thought.
After thinking for two seconds, he pulled a pen and paper from the drawer and wrote down three words in the blank space.
[Numbers]... [Control]... [Mechanism]...
"Numbers" meant "aura capacity"... "Control" meant how a Nen user applied Nen... "Mechanism" meant "Vow and Limitation"...
For a mature Nen user, all three mattered, and all three needed to be strong.
So, for now, there was nothing wrong with his current direction: strengthening his body and increasing his numbers.
"Dong..."
At ten o'clock that night, the clock in the corner chimed, reminding Roy it was time to sleep...
Further mastering Sun Breathing and extending the time he could maintain "Concentrated" breathing would also depend on getting enough "sleep."
Roy closed his notebook and stretched. He didn't force himself to keep going, and promptly flopped onto the soft bed.
"Chirp, chirp..." The cicadas continued to lull him to sleep, as they always did...
With the moon at its zenith, a little boy with vacant eyes dug a hole, leaving only his head above the ground... A chubby child dressed as a girl by his perverted mother dreamed of gnawing on a chicken leg... In the master bedroom on the second floor, one floor up, a woman screamed again, while the electronic eye was covered in static...
Roy set his phone to white noise, folded his hands over his abdomen, and tried to empty his mind...
Soon, he passed through the dazzlingly colorful corridor and arrived at the sea of his subconscious. Once again, he saw the wooden doors standing on the surface of the water.
This time, Roy didn't rush to push open the Gate of Demon Slayer. Instead, he wandered over to the other doors and examined them one by one with interest.
Some doors bore a symbol of the sea... Some were marked with paper pinwheels... And one had an ornament shaped like an eye hanging above it. It looked familiar, and as he approached, he could clearly feel an intense pain...
It reminded Roy of a poor soul.
Someone who, like him, couldn't control his own fate and was toyed with by layer upon layer of shackles.
"So, I'm still not strong enough... If I were truly strong, I could pass my pain on to the whole world. I could really make everyone else wrong me, but never wrong anyone else."
Roy murmured softly, turned away, and chose to leave the pain behind. He reached out and pushed open the Gate of Demon Slayer.
The familiar sensation of falling swept over him—
When he opened his eyes again, he saw Tanjiro's face, his scar strikingly similar to a Demon Slayer Mark.
"Nii-san, wake up. We're going to town to sell charcoal today."
They would spend one day making charcoal and another selling it. If they were strong walkers, they could make it home before dark. If not, they would have to camp in the mountains or find a kind family willing to put them up for the night, then set out again the next day.
In the original story, Tanjiro often stayed at the Small Wooden Cabin belonging to Koizumi Saburo at the foot of the mountain.
"Why are you so close?" Roy slapped Tanjiro's face away and climbed out of bed, pulling on his clothes.
Takeo and Shigeru were still fast asleep.
He got out of bed as quietly as he could, with a smaller version of himself trailing behind him, looking aggrieved. He opened the door and saw the seemingly endless Snow Country once more.
And the spot beneath the wall where his father, Tanjuro, had stood the night before.
There were no traces of his father's footsteps by the wall anymore... But—
Tanjuro's words were still fresh in his mind.
As if they shared an unspoken understanding...
Roy turned his head toward the main house. On the wooden veranda beneath its eaves, Tanjuro looked back at him. Food had already been set out beside the hearth where they often sat together.
"Eiichiro, Tanjiro, come eat."
"Coming."
Tanjiro ran over, instantly forgetting the grievance he'd felt moments earlier.
Roy followed at a leisurely pace. He took off his shoes and entered the main house. Seeing only his mother, Kie, and Nezuko there, he realized that Hanako must have made a fuss again last night, and Grandma was probably asleep with her now.
He lowered his voice and spoke quietly with his parents.
Breakfast was dumplings and miso soup made with the little pork cutlet left over from the night before.
Knowing Roy was going to sell charcoal today, Kie had gotten up early and packed plenty of food for him and Tanjiro to eat on the way.
Roy had no objections. But when he saw that Nezuko's raised sleeve had a patch on it, he took a sip of soup and said, "I might be gone for two days this time."
"First, I'll buy new clothes for Nezuko, Takeo, and the others..."
"Second, I need to visit Mount Sagiri..."
The former Water Hashira, Urokodaki Sakonji, lived on Mount Sagiri as a cultivator, training people for the Demon Slayer Corps, led by the Ubuyashiki Clan.
Roy had decided to visit while he was there. It would be best if he could get personal instruction from Urokodaki.
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