Jager's Notes X First Descent

Finally...

He was kicked out, looking disheveled and covered in dust.

His expression held no displeasure, only a hint of surprise.

It was his first time seeing the old man so "protective of his food."

Influenced by him, Zeno took a rare path, heading in the direction opposite to his own bedroom.

With his hands behind his back, he paced through the deep, quiet corridor, his feet treading on the mottled stone floor with such silence that he might as well have been floating. He soon arrived at Roy's window.

Having practiced Shadow Step to his level, he had truly reached the realm of "the greatest sound is silence."

He appeared without a sound, quietly watching the boy inside through the glass window.

The boy, however, remained completely unaware, engrossed in a book.

"Nen ability actually has nothing magical about it..."

"The [Ten], [Zetsu], [Ren], and [Hatsu] defined by the Heart Source School, and the [Ten], [Zetsu], [Ren], and [Hatsu] passed down among the general public..."

"Are actually all just the [expressive] processes of 'Opening Nen' practice."

"By gazing inward, organizing 'Aura' into language, processing it with the aid of imagination, and finally 'releasing' it—that is the essence of Nen ability application."

"As for derivative techniques like [Gyo], [Ken], [Ryu], and [Ko], they are merely processes of deep refinement based on that imagination."

"Take [Zetsu], for example: eliminating one's own aura is actually just retracting all the aura leaking from the body surface back into the body. Naturally, one's presence drops to a minimum, but the consequence is..."

"Without the protection of aura, the body cannot withstand the Nen attacks of other Nen users..."

"In summary, the cultivation of Nen ability does not lie in the application of Nen, but in Nen itself, and in the Nen user's cognition and understanding of it."

"Understanding the 'morphological change' and 'nature change' of Nen ability is what every Nen user should focus on."

"Rustle..." The evening breeze stirred the curtains.

At some point, Roy finally managed to pull himself away from the book.

He looked up at the window, but Zeno's figure was gone. In its place hung a bright moon, just as he was looking at it, giving Roy the illusion of seeing himself from a different perspective.

Perhaps this was the difference between having "guidance" and "no guidance"...

"Systematic learning might not necessarily be great, but it certainly won't be bad..."

"Conversely, Nen users from 'wild' backgrounds, unless they are exceptionally gifted, will find it hard to even touch the edge of top-tier Nen users in their entire lives..."

Roy closed the book, feeling a sense of realization.

After two seconds of contemplation, he took paper and pen from the drawer and wrote three words on a blank space.

[Value]... [Operation]... [Mechanism]...

"Value" represents "Aura Capacity"... "Operation" represents the Nen user's application of "Nen" ability... "Mechanism" represents "Vows and Limitations"...

For a mature Nen user, all three must be grasped, and all three must be strong.

So, for now, strengthening his physique and increasing his "Value"... this path was, at the very least, not wrong in its direction.

"Dong..."

At ten o'clock at night, the grandfather clock in the corner chimed, reminding Roy that it was time to sleep...

To further master Sun Breathing and extend the duration of "Total Concentration," he would have to rely on "sleep" to make up for it.

Roy closed his notebook, stretched briefly, and without further hesitation, threw himself onto the soft bed.

"Chirp, chirp..." The cicadas continued to lull him to sleep as they always did...

With the moon high in the sky, a certain hollow-eyed brat was digging a hole, leaving only his head exposed... a certain chubby child, dressed as a girl by his perverted mother, was dreaming of gnawing on a chicken leg... one floor down in the master bedroom, a woman was screaming, her electronic eye covered in static...

Roy set his phone to white noise mode, placed his hands over his lower abdomen, and tried to empty his mind...

Soon, he passed through that colorful tunnel and arrived at the sea of his subconscious, seeing once again those wooden doors standing on the surface of the water.

This time, Roy didn't rush to push open the Demon Slayer door; instead, he walked up to the other wooden doors with interest to examine them one by one.

Some doors were marked with ocean symbols... some were imprinted with paper dragonflies... and one had an eye ornament hanging from the frame... it looked familiar, and as he approached, he could clearly feel a surge of intense pain...

It made Roy think of a pitiful person.

A miserable soul who, like him, could not control his own destiny and was played with by heavy shackles.

"So, I am still not strong enough... If I were truly strong, I could shift my pain onto the entire world, truly achieving the state of 'I would rather betray the world than let the world betray me.'"

Roy whispered to himself, turned around, chose to move away from the pain, and reached out to push open the Demon Slayer door.

The familiar sensation of falling washed over him—

Opening his eyes again, he saw Tanjiro's face, his scar resembling a Demon Slayer Mark.

"Nii-san, wake up. We're going to town to sell charcoal today."

Dig coal for a day, sell charcoal for a day; if their pace was good, they could make it home before dark. If their pace was slow, they would have to camp in the mountains or find a kind family to borrow a room for the night before heading out again the next day.

In the original story, Tanjiro often stayed overnight at Koizumi Saburo's small wooden cabin at the foot of the mountain.

"What are you getting so close for?" Roy slapped Tanjiro's face away, threw on his coat, and crawled out from under the covers.

Takeo and Shigeru were still fast asleep.

He climbed out of bed with light steps, followed by a pitiful-looking, smaller version of himself, and pushed open the door to once again behold the endless, snow-covered landscape.

And the base of the wall where his father, Tanjuro, had stood the previous night.

There were no longer any footprints left by his father at the base of the wall... but—

Tanjuro's words remained vivid in his mind.

As if they shared a telepathic connection...

Roy turned his head toward the main house, where Tanjuro was looking back from the wooden veranda under the eaves, having already set out a meal beside the stove they had been huddled around for so long.

"Eiichiro, Tanjiro, come over and eat."

"Coming!"

Tanjiro trotted forward, instantly casting his earlier grievances to the back of his mind.

Roy followed at a leisurely pace, took off his shoes, and entered the main house. Seeing only his mother, Kie, and Nezuko, he knew Hanako must have been fussy again last night, and their grandmother was currently putting her to sleep.

He lowered his voice and spoke quietly with his parents.

Breakfast consisted of dumplings paired with miso soup made from the leftover pork cutlet from the night before.

Knowing that Roy was going to sell charcoal today, Kie had woken up early to pack plenty for Roy and Tanjiro to eat on the road.

Roy naturally had no objections, but upon seeing a patch on the sleeve Nezuko raised while eating, he took a sip of soup and said, "I might be delayed for two days before I can return from the mountain this time."

"First, to buy new clothes for Nezuko, Takeo, and the others..."

"Second, I need to make a trip to Mount Sagiri..."

The former Water Hashira, Urokodaki Sakonji, was a trainer on Mount Sagiri, cultivating talent for the Demon Slayer Corps led by the Ubuyashiki clan.

Roy decided to take this opportunity to pay him a visit; it would be for the best if he could receive personal guidance from the man himself.