The Man-Tree Debate X Maha's Guidance

"How many days has it been?"

"Eight days."

"That's still early. It took me half a year to get the feel for it back then."

Sabito stood on the branch of a birch tree, Makomo by his side, silently watching the scene below...

Roy was hugging a large tree, doing a bit better than before, having persisted for two hours without falling asleep.

"Half a year is already very fast," Makomo said, boredly squatting on the branch and drawing circles. "Master always praised me for being clever, saying I was the fastest to grasp 'Breathing' after you. In the end, it still took me nearly a year."

Sabito smiled. "Your spiritual aptitude lies elsewhere."

"Besides..." Sabito gazed at the boundless mist, his tone tinged with nostalgia. "The fastest was Giyu."

"He was truly gifted; he learned 'Breathing' in three months and sliced through a boulder after three years of training. It's just a pity he was a bit timid back then."

"What about him?" Makomo stared with wide, sparkling eyes at Roy below. "I think he's more impressive than any of us."

"Perhaps he can break Giyu's record."

Sabito rubbed his chin, lost in thought... Would he?

Eiichiro, that guy, was truly impossible to figure out...

"Hiss... Hu..."

After two and a half hours, Roy finally couldn't hold on any longer, pressing against the trunk and drifting off to sleep.

The familiar sensation of falling struck—

The boy rolled off his bed, returning once again to Kukuroo Mountain.

He nimbly dressed, ran, ate, endured the electric therapy, and went back to hugging that willow tree in the garden.

Illumi woke up in the pit as usual, consistently later than Roy for several days now, seemingly numb to it... He didn't even glance at Roy, waiting only for the numbness in his body to fade before heading down the mountain.

The grudge over his eighty-win streak being ended was a debt that needed to be settled.

Illumi wanted to personally gouge out the other's heart to celebrate his own opening of the aura nodes.

Of course, compared to that detestable guy nearby, that Emission-type Nen user was just a small appetizer. If he could really... gouge out Roy's heart... Illumi felt he would shake with excitement.

"Keep your malicious intent to yourself... It's disgusting me..."

Roy hugged the tree with his eyes closed, looking as if he were asleep...

Illumi hung his head, his shoulders trembling as he suppressed a low growl. He spread his arms, his long, straight black hair dancing wildly, startling a flock of sparrows perched on the willow tree.

"Heh heh, is that so... You'd better pray you never have a moment of weakness... When that time comes, I'll cut off your head and make it into a pillow, sleeping with it every single night."

Illumi glared with his hollow, dead-fish eyes and left in a huff...

Roy kindly reminded him, "Step slightly to the left, don't step in Milluki's dung."

Alas, it was too late... Illumi awkwardly lifted his right foot, his face looking indescribably ugly...

Who could he blame?

It was he who had personally ended Milluki's happy childhood, customizing a hellish training regimen for him.

He shouldn't be surprised that Milluki would retaliate by defecating near his pit...

"Caw—"

A few crows brought clouds that blotted out the sun, dropping a few tail feathers.

Roy could almost hear the sound of Illumi's mind snapping. Figuring that Milluki would have a miserable few days ahead, he finished his morning tree-hugging training and headed to the kitchen.

Still unable to find that sense of "merging with the tree," Roy decided to cook two small dishes to clear his head. He instructed Gotoh to prepare the ingredients and picked up the spatula.

"Steamed Fish" and "Stir-fried Beef" were the lunch he prepared for himself today.

Compared to when he had chased the cooks away before, this time Roy allowed them to watch, and when he was in a good mood, he even explained a few key points to them...

About half an hour later, the two home-cooked dishes were served on the table.

Gotoh stood to the side, waiting on him as he ate.

Roy didn't start eating immediately; instead, he asked him to add an extra set of bowls and chopsticks, placing them opposite him. Not a moment later...

Following a familiar "old wind" that swept past...

Roy respectfully called out to his great-grandfather, and the next second, he immediately began to eat, clearly having learned the lesson from last time when he didn't get a single bite.

The old man's eyes widened. His grandson was being unfilial, but he didn't care about the details, his chopsticks moving like thunder and lightning, swift and incomparable. In the end, he still managed to eat a few more slices of beef and half a fish head than Roy...

After the meal, the old man was satisfied. Unusually, he didn't leave, instead asking Gotoh to bring a cup of coffee to settle his stomach...

While picking his teeth with a toothpick, he said leisurely, "How is it, my good grandson?"

"Is hugging the tree fun?"

"Great-grandfather, it's 'hugging,' not 'humping'." Roy had a face full of black lines.

"What's the difference?" Maha slanted a glance at him. "The total time this old man spent hugging your great-grandmother doesn't even add up to the time you've spent humping that tree."

"What's the matter, planning on marrying a tree in the future?"

Roy: "..."

He remained silent, head bowed.

Maha took the coffee Gotoh handed him, took a sip, and ignoring the boy's silence, said leisurely: "A person is a person, a tree is a tree. If you mistake a person for a tree, the person won't be happy; if you mistake a tree for a person, the tree won't agree..."

"How can a person ever become a tree?"

Roy pricked up his ears to listen.

Maha finished his coffee, walked to the window with his hands behind his back, and looked through the sunlight at the willow tree in the garden, saying with a hint of nostalgia: "Therefore, a person need not treat a tree as a person, and a tree does not know how to be a person... If you force it, that is 'striving in vain'..."

"The person will be confused, and the tree will be dissatisfied..."

"Then what should I do?"

"Don't you already have the answer in your heart?"

The old man turned his head and gave him a beaming smile: "Everything is just a matter of letting nature take its course..."

Letting nature take its course...

Roy chewed on these words. Did his great-grandfather mean... that he shouldn't deny his own position as a "human" to forcibly contemplate the life of a "tree"?

But if that were the case, if a human cannot become a tree, how could he empathize with a tree and merge with nature?

Roy pondered for a moment, raising his head with a belly full of doubts. At a glance, Maha's figure was already gone from the window. Only the corner of the curtain, lifted by the breeze, proved he had been there, along with... the two empty plates on the dining table...

"Young Master, have a cup of coffee first." Gotoh thoughtfully brought over a cup of coffee.

Roy drank it along with his tangled thoughts, left the kitchen, returned to the garden, and sat down with his back against the willow tree.

The willow bark was a bit abrasive, and the thousands of hanging branches brushed against his neck, making him itch as the wind blew... The young man wore his Sun and Mountain Earrings, deciding not to overthink it this time.

Forget about "trees"... "humans"... Zetsu... or "breathing"...

He simply relaxed and took a nap right there against the willow tree...

"Chirp... chirp..."

Accompanied by the cicadas and a gentle breeze...

Drowsily, Roy let his eyelids droop, and in a hazy state, he saw an image...

In the image, a man held the hand of a pregnant woman, personally dug a hole in the garden, planted a small tree, and happily told his wife: "This symbolizes new life."

A few years later, the small tree grew, and the man brought over a child, teaching him how to water the tree...

A few more years passed, the child grew up and insisted on going to the Dark Continent, only to be dragged by the man to the tree and given a sound thrashing...