He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but in the end swallowed the words back down.
With his carefully groomed face lifted, Sasakibe followed Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni's gaze and looked up at the sun rising high in the sky, then let out a quiet sigh in his heart…
As vice-captain of the First Division, it was his duty. He did not want Seireitei—much less Soul Society—to descend into chaos.
But if things truly came to that point…
his fingers rubbed against [Gonryōmaru] at his waist, and just as the captain beside him—his old friend—had said, then all that remained was to draw the sword.
And fight.
Whoosh—
A breeze stirred, carrying spiritual particles with it.
The little courtyard fell quiet again, just like that "nuclear blast zone" in the Demon Slayer world. There was no trace of life left there. The mountains and plains were nothing but charred, carbonized earth. Everything was empty except for one person sprawled on the ground in the shape of a cross, facing the night sky with his back to the scorched land, silently recovering his Nen.
Tap… tap…
Roy had no idea how much time had passed. It almost felt like he'd fallen asleep and dreamed another dream. When he slowly opened his eyes again, he stared at the bright moon and the flood of moonlight, then asked toward the west without even turning his head,
"Got any water?"
On the western outskirts of Kyoto, a tall figure slowly emerged from the heavy darkness, one measured step at a time.
He wore a brown haori. On the left side was the Buddhist phrase Namu Amida Butsu. On the right side were the words Great Sun Majestic Dragon. Beneath it was the pitch-black uniform of the Demon Slayer Corps. A string of bright red prayer beads rested against his chest.
As he approached, he pulled a waterskin from his robes and tossed it over.
Then he placed a hand over his chest, dropped to one knee, and bowed devoutly.
"Praise the Heavenly Sun… Lord Rōichirō, please punish me."
Glug, glug, glug.
The waterskin flew over. The boy lying on the ground, his flame-red hair spread loosely around him, casually reached out and caught it. Without caring about manners at all, he yanked the stopper free, tilted his head back, and drank the entire thing in one go.
Then he tossed it back in a clean arc through the air.
Gyomei Himejima caught it easily in one hand.
Roy let out a satisfied breath, then smiled at Gyomei and said,
"Punish you for what? What did you do wrong?"
"I was weak."
"I was arrogant."
"And I couldn't help you at all."
Gyomei pressed his hands together and spoke with deep shame in his voice.
Compared to before, the monk's huge body seemed even larger now. Clearly, after opening his aura nodes and formally beginning to learn Nen, his body had been refined by it. Compared to the man he used to be, he could no longer be measured the same way.
Roy noticed a trace of "gray" drifting through the Nen rising from the top of Gyomei's head—a hint of dejection. His thoughts stirred, and he opened the believer panel, glancing over it.
[Believer: Gyomei Himejima (Note: Absolute Loyalty)]
[Current State: Practicing Nen…]
[Physique continuing to be refined and strengthened by Nen…]
[Current: 628 (Note: An ordinary person is 1. Before aura nodes were opened: 107)]
[Visible Aura Quantity: C- (84154/100000) (Note: Still increasing)]
[Potential Aura Quantity: C+ (54988/100000) (Note: Still increasing)]
[Four Major Principles: [Ten] Mastered… [Zetsu] Mastered… [Ren] In Training… [Hatsu] Undeveloped]
[Affinity: Inclined toward [Enhancer]… Pending Water Divination…]
[Rating: C-]
[Note: Compared to Chimera Ants, your believer "Gyomei Himejima" has reached the level of an elite squad leader and is only a step away from a squadron leader. He possesses very high potential.]
Roy then went on to open the believer panels for Kyojuro Rengoku, Giyu Tomioka, Sanemi Shinazugawa, and the others one by one.
Most of them were rated around D+.
Only Kyojuro Rengoku, who had his aura nodes opened a little earlier, had reached C- as well. But whether it was [Visible Aura Quantity], [Potential Aura Quantity], or their mastery of the [Four Major Principles]—[Ten], [Zetsu], [Ren], and [Hatsu]—
all of them were clearly more than a full tier below Gyomei.
It was obvious… with the monk's extraordinary talent, he had truly overtaken the others from behind and become, beyond question, the number one among Roy's believers in the Demon Slayer world.
Roy finished reviewing the information and closed the panel. Then he gave Gyomei a gentle glance.
"Gyomei… having a clear sense of your own limits isn't a sin. You saw it too. That was an opponent even I couldn't defeat."
That battle with Yamamoto had made Roy deeply realize just how terrifying the "strongest Shinigami in a thousand years" really was.
Never mind the Zanpakutō.
Never mind the spiritual pressure.
Never mind the horrifying accumulation of nearly two thousand years of battle experience.
Roy knew very clearly that Yamamoto had held back—and by a lot.
Otherwise, what Gyomei would be looking at now wouldn't be Roy.
It would be a burned-through skeleton.
"Who was he?"
"Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni."
"A person from this world?"
"No. Not from this world."
Gyomei's towering body shook violently.
Then he raised his head again, tears still streaming down his face, and asked Roy tentatively,
"Lord Rōichirō… is there really another heaven beyond the heavens?"
"Of course."
The boy clasped his hands behind his head, looking up as moonlight poured down.
"Gyomei, never let your own understanding become your cage."
"The fact that you think something is impossible only means you think so. That doesn't make it the truth."
Just like how Roy himself had never imagined he would transmigrate, much less land straight in the Zoldyck household and awaken the Nen ability [Gate of Cognition], starting his journey across countless worlds.
A human life really was a miraculous thing.
"Praise the Sun…"
Gyomei's chest rose and fell sharply. His breathing suddenly became ragged. Even with all the calm and self-discipline he had built through years of Buddhist training, he still couldn't withstand the impact of that revelation.
What hope would anyone else have?
Tap… tap…
More footsteps approached now, some heavy, some light, drifting in from all directions.
Roy lay there quietly, hands behind his head as he admired the moonlit sky. The Nen he had recovered was enough that he didn't even need [En] to sense who those footsteps belonged to.
Among them were Kyojuro Rengoku.
Giyu Tomioka.
Sanemi Shinazugawa.
Tengen Uzui.
And one by one, all the people who had formed bonds with him—men and women, young and old—people like Kagaya Ubuyashiki and Sakonji Urokodaki.
Every single one of them was someone who cared about him.
Someone who worried about him.
They were the result of the hope he had given them.
And at the same time, they were the warmth and hope they had returned to him in kind.
Faintly, Roy seemed to recall once more that moment when he had observed the [Sun] from a negative distance.
Then the boy rose to his feet, dusted himself off, and gave the approaching crowd a bright smile.
Pop—
The dream shattered.
His consciousness returned.
The next morning, at four o'clock, with a dong from the wooden clock in the corner of his bedroom—
after lingering with the people of the Demon Slayer world a little longer—
Roy slowly opened his eyes.
Passing through the "Sea of Cognition" and the dazzling tunnel of dreams, he fully left the Demon Slayer world and returned to the Hunter world.
Whoosh—
It was summer. Cicadas cried in waves.
A fan turned by the window, sending cool gusts of air across the room.
Kukuroo Mountain, Republic of Padokea. Inside Roy's bedroom in the Zoldyck family mansion.
The boy's silver hair was spread loosely behind him across the bedsheets.
But unlike before, at some point the ends had taken on a layer of gold, gleaming with a radiant glaze that was dazzling without losing its elegance.
[Notice: "Faith Power" +170… Source: settlement of faith from the common people of the Demon Slayer world…]
[Note: Current "Faith Power": 417]
[Current "Life Energy": 384]
Total… 801.
Roy took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the urge to immediately dash to the bathroom and spend points.
Then he turned over and sat up.
At that exact moment, a string of tractor-like snores rumbled right beside his pillow.
The boy smiled and poked the patch of golden feathers on Goldie's forehead.
Then he froze.
Why did it look like… Goldie had somehow grown a little?
Roy's gaze shifted. Then he came back to himself and ran a hand along the chubby crow's soft belly, down toward its feet.
Its third leg, which had once barely been there, was now clearly visible. It still wasn't as long as the other two, but compared to that tiny little thing it had been before, it had grown a great deal.
Roy immediately opened Goldie's panel.
[Nen Beast: Three-Legged Golden Crow]
[State: Juvenile (10000/1000000)]
[Rank: S+]
[Visible Aura Quantity: D+ (964/10000) → B- (40000/1000000)]
[Potential Aura Quantity: ?]
[Racial Talents: Sun-Chasing (Inactive)… Control of Sunflame: Lv1 (25/1000) → Lv4 (70000/100000)… Chariot Driving: Lv1 (37/100) (Note: Activated)]
[Rating: Growth-type Nen Beast, limitless potential]
[Four Major Principles: [Ten], [Zetsu], [Ren], [Hatsu] all mastered along with host]
[Advanced Applications]: [Shu], [Ken], [Ko], [Ryu], [En] all acquired at Entry Level
[Rating: B-]
[Note: Compared to Chimera Ants, your Nen Beast "Three-Legged Golden Crow" has already reached the level of an elite squadron leader.]
Roy sat there in silence, staring at Goldie, and a realization gradually took shape in his heart.
So-called [Nen Beasts], rather than being mere manifestations of imagination, were more like manifestations of spiritual power.
If he grew stronger, Goldie grew stronger.
If he weakened, Goldie weakened.
The Three-Legged Golden Crow shared his fate entirely, rising and falling with him as one.
Compared to the [First Embrace] he had given Gotoh,
the bond between Goldie and himself was even deeper.
His thoughts grew clearer and clearer.
His eyes brightened.
Roy reached out with one finger and lightly poked Goldie's cheek.
"Gah—aw…"
The fat crow drowsily opened its sleepy eyes, forced its heavy lids up, then bit down hard on Roy's finger.
"What'd you wake me up for?!"
Roy's mouth twitched. He could practically see the anger puffing out of Goldie's cheeks.
With his other hand, he flicked the bird hard on the forehead.
"Enough sleeping. Get up. Take me for a ride."
[Chariot Driving] had already been unlocked. Roy hadn't forgotten that line clearly written on Goldie's panel.
The boy locked eyes with the fat crow, gaze burning with determination.
Goldie sulkily released Roy's finger, flapped its plump wings, and wobbled out the window. It swept across the hallway and landed in the garden beside it.
Then, with a harsh cry—
"Gah—aw!"
—it expanded into the wind!
As it spread its wings again, a golden-glazed harness emerged from its neck, drifting out with the breeze—one end connected to Goldie, the other extending from the void itself…
Slowly,
it pulled out an ancient, weathered sun chariot.
Buzz—
A halo of sunlight wrapped around the chariot, making its true form impossible to see clearly.
And when it finally rolled completely out of the void on its two wheels and revealed itself—
the entire Zoldyck estate
was suddenly struck by a beam of immeasurable light from above.
It became bright as broad daylight in an instant,
startling the whole Zoldyck mansion awake!
"Waaah!"
From a second-floor bedroom, the cry of a baby shattered the silence of the night.
Before the massive floor-to-ceiling window, a flash of silver hair appeared.
Silva, in his sleepwear, stepped out carrying baby Killua in his arms.
On the first floor, in the westernmost bedroom, a huge hole suddenly opened in the floor, and a pair of empty-looking eyes peered out. Then someone leapt up out of it.
At the butler estate on the mountainside, Tsubone emerged with Kurajing, her twin pink ponytails hanging behind her.
At the front gate, Zebro—already bald on top in middle age against his will—was sipping tea and reading the paper. He looked up, tilted the teacup in his hand, and spilled tea all over the newspaper.
Then came Mike. The butlers. The maids. The trainees…
One after another, the Zoldycks woke to the light and false dawn that had come too early, their sleep and body clocks thrown into chaos.
Then came Zeno.
His silver hair was a mess. He had just returned from his usual "one kill a day" routine, and now, with nowhere left to hide from the light, he simply stepped out from the shadows of a corner and glared at Roy helplessly.
"What are you doing this time, brat?"
The huge ancient sun chariot, streaming with golden radiance, stood right there like something out of myth.
Roy moved.
One step.
His body turned to light.
In the next instant he was already in the garden, brushing past Zeno's shoulder, and raising a hand to touch the wheel of the chariot.
"What else would I be doing?"
"I want to fly, Grandpa."
His silver hair spilled down behind him, the golden glass-like color at the tips swaying together with the halo radiating from the sun chariot.
The reflected light fell into Zeno's eyes—
and immediately this lifelong assassin froze.
"Roy, your… hair!"
"It changed color," Illumi added, appearing at the window beside Silva.
From the second-floor bedroom, the big silver-haired man held the little silver-haired baby and looked down, his expression tightening.
The golden glaze at the ends of Roy's hair was dazzling, brilliant—almost no less radiant than the [Sun Chariot] itself.
For a moment, three generations of the Zoldyck family found themselves unable to look away.
"Maha, can you tell what happened?"
A hoarse mutter came from the dim little bedroom.
The television was still playing cartoons.
The old rocking chair was still there.
Summer dawn was supposed to be the best time to be sleeping.
And yet—
the shriveled old man, whether woken by the light or by a lifetime's worth of bladder trouble, snapped his eyes open the instant the [Sun Chariot] appeared and the gold at Roy's hair ends shone in the wind.
Maha Zoldyck—
the true "pillar supporting the sky" of the Zoldyck family—
was suddenly wide awake, just like the rest of them.
"I can't say much yet," the old man said, taking Betty around the waist with a grin through the rising mist.
"But one thing is certain…"
"This child Roy…"
"has evolved again."
~~~
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