Urokodaki Sakonji truly had a wealth of training experience.
The first step in the training method he gave Roy was—tree-hugging practice.
He even dressed it up with the saying, "All things have breath; every flower and blade of grass is alive. So the first step in learning the 'Breathing' method isn't practicing sword techniques. It's figuring out what 'breathing' is..."
"Eiichiro, start by training with a tree. You can't hold a sword until you understand how a tree breathes."
After successfully becoming his student...
Urokodaki Sakonji left Roy beneath a birch tree after giving him a few simple instructions, walking away with his hands behind his back...
A squirrel poked its little head out from a branch and watched him curiously. It saw... the human ponder for a moment, then strangely spread his arms and hugged the birch tree.
Not even a few minutes later...
He was fast asleep...
"Absurd... How can a person become a tree?"
That familiar feeling of falling swept over him—
Roy sat up in the soft bed, still seeming to be caught in the scene of himself bear-hugging a birch tree before dozing off.
According to Urokodaki Sakonji, only by truly thinking of himself as a tree could he put himself in its place, feel how it breathed, and experience its sorrow and joy. But—
This training method, based on "pretending," had one condition...
He couldn't get so immersed that he fell asleep.
Like he had just done.
"Dong..." At four in the morning, the wooden clock in the corner reminded Roy, as usual, that it was time to go running.
The boy rubbed his face, pulled on a tank top and shorts, closed the door behind him, and set off beneath the faint streak of dawn on the horizon, weaving through the silent, vast forest.
From the Ancient Castle at the mountaintop to the Butler Villa halfway down, where the lights were already on...
Roy could clearly feel that his body had become lighter again, and his steps had quickened along with it. It was probably because his constitution had improved by another "Minamino Hirotomo."
[Shadow Step: Mastery (89→99)]
[Rhythm Echo: Mastery (67→84)]
[Snake Awakening: Beginner (83→98)]
The panel clearly recorded the transformation brought by "Constitution +1."
Even though Roy hadn't made a point of practicing these assassination techniques over the past few days, the increase in his "stats" had still made him steadily stronger.
"So I should take Urokodaki Sakonji's advice and finish the tree-hugging training as soon as possible."
Sweat dripped from Roy's hair. He wiped it away, and his hand accidentally brushed past his ear, touching something that made him stop in his tracks.
The thing seemed quite light. He could feel it sway with the wind, and when he touched it, he realized—
It was the Sun and Mountain Earrings, passed down from Tsugikuni Yoriichi and then hung on his ears by his father, Tanjuro!
"When did this happen? How did I conjure it into reality?"
Roy froze for a moment, thinking it over... Then he heard a door slam ahead. He looked up and realized he had already reached the Testing Gate at the foot of the mountain.
"Bang—"
Someone violently kicked open the "side door" at the bottom right of the Testing Gate. Then—
Three or four burly men filed in... Behind them was Zee, wearing an ingratiating smile and holding a key.
The "old" gatekeeper, still in his prime, took off his hat and bowed to Roy. "Good morning, Young Master."
"Whoosh!" The greeting drew several vicious, murderous glares!
"A young master of the Zoldyck family?"
"Excellent."
"Capturing him should earn us a hefty bounty!"
"Third Brother, look up how much he's worth... We're going to make a fortune today!"
Roy didn't know if they'd make a fortune. He only knew Mike would be getting another extra meal this morning.
"Roar—"
The Magic Beast swept through like a tornado... The burly men's vision went black. When they could see again, half their bodies were already inside Mike's mouth. It tipped its head back and swallowed them, then opened its mouth and spat out only a few scraps of clothing, which it picked up with its claws and tossed outside the gate.
Mike carried out the whole routine with practiced ease.
Zee brought out the broom he'd prepared ahead of time and began cleaning up the scene with equal skill.
Roy watched silently for a moment, then turned around and ran back toward the mountaintop.
The world's number one assassin family was bound to attract reckless gamblers with its reputation. They thought that by being ruthless and fearless, they could climb over the Zoldycks to the top. Little did they know that, in the end—
They usually ended up as a pile of dog shit.
"Tap... tap..."
Roy kept running, his train of thought undisturbed by the unexpected little incident.
As he ran, he pondered...
Considering how suddenly the earrings had appeared, he could only think of one possibility...
The Nen Abilities a Conjurer developed, or the items they could conjure, were connected to the things or events etched most deeply in their hearts...
Kurapika, for example, had developed the Judgment Chain specifically to target the Spiders after his clan was wiped out...
And Shizuku, who was so forgetful, had imitated the idea that "a fish's memory only lasts seven seconds" and developed Blinky...
Things like that were tied, to a greater or lesser extent, to their hearts and deeply rooted in their personalities...
"And I... became stronger because of Minamino Hirotomo's gift..."
"And because my father, Tanjuro, valued me enough to entrust the inheritance to me, I came to treasure these earrings so much that I unconsciously conjured them through a dream..."
Roy fell into thought.
He ran past the Butler Villa, then through the forest. The Ancient Castle was just ahead...
He circled behind a tree and tried to send the earrings back into the world of his imagination.
"Nen light" flowed around the earrings...
Unfortunately, they seemed to have decided to stay with Roy. They refused to obey his thoughts, hanging stubbornly from his earlobes.
Clearly, Anti-Conjuration had failed... Or perhaps Conjuration was one-way from the start: he could use his imagination to turn Nen Abilities into real objects, but he couldn't reverse the process and turn real objects back into Nen, taking them back into himself...
That wasn't good news for Roy—or even for Tanjuro.
Perhaps the principle that "matter and energy can be converted into each other" didn't apply in the mysterious world of Nen Abilities.
Roy gave up on the attempt and came out from behind the tree...
With the brightening sky at his back, he returned to the Ancient Castle.
It was four twenty-five in the morning. Gotoh wouldn't arrive with breakfast for another five minutes.
Roy strolled along the corridor, propping a foot on the window ledge to do a few more stretches. From the corner of his eye, he spotted a tall man appearing around the corner. He approached without hurry, his expression solemn...
He stopped as he passed Roy.
"Father." Roy lowered his foot.
Silva glanced down at him. "What day is it?"
"Tuesday."
"When's the test?"
"Next Sunday."
"Good. As long as you remember." Silva put his hands in his pockets and walked away.
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