Chapter 124: First Conjuration × Netero Gets a Warning
Not just Nen beasts. They should be called Conjurer-type Nen beasts, to be precise.
Roy studied the old woman and the group of "children" behind her. Like Kite's Crazy Slots, they appeared to have physical form—something ordinary people could touch and perceive. Naturally, that meant Rika, who had not yet opened her aura nodes, could see them too.
In the original story, Gon, Leorio, and Kurapika had been able to see them for the same reason.
Aboard the airship bearing the giant Hunter Association logo, Zeno's white hair swayed as he finally tore his gaze from Rika and shifted it to the group of child-like Nen beasts. He glanced at Netero in surprise. He had not expected the Hunter Association to be hiding someone like this.
To maintain a whole group of Nen beasts alone, the old woman looked to be around his age, but her aura capacity was anything but ordinary.
"Hohoho. No need to be surprised," Netero said, finishing his cake and taking a sip of the tea Beans handed him. "Sachiko is not a combatant. She wants to raise them, and this old man cannot talk her out of it."
"Squandering aura freely shortens your life. That is common knowledge."
"She is not an ordinary person. Beans, explain it to him."
"Yes, sir."
Beans, ever perceptive, poured Zeno a cup of tea and carefully handed it over. "Nakajima Sachiko is the old woman blocking your grandson's path in the footage."
Tch. Calling her an old woman when Beans was far older than her. If you were counting years, it was the oldest one in the room.
Beans suppressed the strange feeling and gave a brief introduction to Sachiko's past. Zeno listened quietly. She, too, was a woman with a tragic history.
She had once been the director of an orphanage in Yorknew City. A fire had taken all the children. The shock awakened her Nen ability: Dolls of Heaven. It allowed her to channel aura and conjure dolls to fight for her.
But Sachiko had chosen not to do that.
At the ruins of the orphanage, she made a vow: she would never fight, never raise her hand against anyone. In exchange, she gained True Imagination—the power to recreate, as perfectly as she could, the faces and voices of the children she had lost. She conjured them as Nen beasts, filled dolls with them, and brought them back. That was how the "children" in the footage came to be.
"Nen reflects the truest desires of the heart. When the Chairman learned of this, he was moved by the depth of her love. He found a sanctuary for her and the children—this town you see now."
"A shame," Zeno said, setting down his teacup. He thought of Milluki. According to reports from Gotoh, that boy was hopeless, too. Weak talent and terminally lazy. He had tried to steer him toward the assassin's path, but it looked like a losing bet.
Netero shot him a look. "Not everyone is like you, Zoldycks, fond of killing and fighting."
The old man leaned back lazily into the sofa and drifted through memories of Sachiko. "The Hunter Association fully respects the dreams and choices of every Hunter. Sachiko loves being with children. Even if she cannot fight, that is fine."
"This old man does not need her as a combatant."
Zeno nodded in agreement. "If Beyond were here and heard you say that, he would probably cry from how moved he was."
"Shut your mouth!" Netero snapped, hurling his teacup. Zeno caught it mid-air with a snort.
All those high-minded words, and the man still could not manage his own son. Zeno pretended not to see the murder in Netero's eyes and turned his gaze back to the monitor.
Nakajima Sachiko thumped her cane on the ground, her face twisting into an exaggerated expression as she bellowed, "Give, give! Heartbeat Two-Choice Quiz!"
Her voice was so loud it made Rika jump. She clutched Roy's arm even tighter.
Crack. Gotoh clenched his hand into a fist. His knuckles popped like roasting beans. He glared at Rika as if she were already dead.
Roy stood unmoved, his gaze drifting between Sachiko and the group of children behind her, thoughts turning in silence.
"Next, I will ask a question," Sachiko said, keeping a wary eye on him. "You have five seconds to answer. A wrong answer means elimination."
Needless to say, she was an examiner. The red-beaded cane in her hand caught Rika's attention. The girl squinted and noticed it bore the same examiner's insignia as Captain Mark Seam's. She frowned. "Do all three of us have to answer the same question?"
What if one of them got it wrong?
Sachiko grinned. "Would that not be faster and better?"
A cold wind cut through the broken street, raising goosebumps.
"Young Master…" Gotoh looked at Roy. Rika tipped her chin up and looked at Roy, too. Sachiko narrowed her eyes at Roy as well. Her keen observation told her in an instant: this boy was the one in charge.
"Mark Seam said this kid can train his sword in a storm. He only warned me because he knew I would not fight anyone and was afraid I would be at a disadvantage." But she never made things hard for anyone. She let everyone through, no matter how they answered.
Of course, if they answered wrong and got lost and ran into magical beasts, that was no longer Nakajima Sachiko's problem.
Every eye was fixed on Roy. The boy seemed lost in his own world, oblivious to the outside. Then his pupils focused, and he smiled at Sachiko. "Grandma, how about we make a deal?"
"No de—"
Sachiko had been about to refuse when the word caught in her throat. She looked up and saw the boy's eyes change. Two suns seemed to crawl out from his eye sockets, blazing with harsh light that fell across her.
In an instant, she felt as if someone had stripped her naked and thrown her into the street, exposed from the inside out. She swallowed hard and glanced toward a shadowed corner.
An arc of electricity flashed. A camera caught Roy's gaze—burning like twin suns—as it swept toward it.
Even through the screen, the glare was blinding.
"Hohoho. Cheeky brat. He is threatening the examiner," Netero said aboard the airship, as if he had finally reclaimed a bit of ground. His gaze lingered on the boy's blazing red eyes. They reminded him of a certain great "beauty": the Scarlet Eyes of the Kurta Clan.
He shot Zeno a casual glance. "What category is the boy?"
Nen abilities involving eyes were rare.
"Never tested," Zeno said.
He added honestly, "He said it was his trump card. He would rather take three lashes from his father than tell anyone."
"Hoho. Stubborn one, is he?" Netero paused, then looked at the boy again. Roy had used the hidden camera to "warn" a certain someone, then turned his head toward Sachiko and waited for her answer.
The old woman had not expected him to be so sharp. After a moment's silence, she wisely agreed.
Only then did Roy smile. He bowed slightly to her. "Please do not take offence, Grandma."
"Ask whatever you like. I will answer however I like. If I am wrong, we will turn around and leave. If I am right…"
The boy straightened and looked at her intently. "I ask that you teach me how to conjure Nen beasts."
So he did see through it. Sachiko glanced at the cane-sword in Roy's hand and chose to trust Mark Seam's judgment.
She steeled herself. "Fine."
After steadying her nerves, she posed her question. "Listen carefully. My question is this: if your mother and your wife both fell into the water, which one would you save?"
"I think you are deliberately messing with the Young Master."
This question was so classic that it had been done to death. There was no correct answer.
Gotoh stared dangerously at Sachiko. All the killing intent he had been directing at Rika now swung entirely toward the old woman. Rika felt the weight lift from her back. She looked up at Roy, her pretty eyes filled with curiosity. Yes, it really was a question with no right answer. But somehow, the girl suddenly wanted to know how the boy would respond.
Was the mother more important than the wife?
The answer was: both mattered, and neither mattered.
"Five… four… three… two… one…" Sachiko began counting.
Roy smiled and stayed silent.
Sachiko's expression shifted from confident to deflated in the span of a single breath. After five seconds, she let out a sigh and forced a smile at Roy. "Congratulations. You answered correctly."
She waved him over to the side.
Gotoh: "…"
He stood frozen.
Rika felt the warmth leave her arms. A sense of loss washed over her. She turned and glanced at the butler, then caught on and explained, "There was never an answer to that question. Staying silent was the optimal solution."
"I do not need you to remind me," Gotoh snapped, glaring at her. While the Young Master was "consulting" with the old woman, he added, "Let us talk about the fact that you overstepped."
Rika froze.
She swallowed hard, took two steps back, then bolted after Roy.
Gotoh snorted and followed.
At the corner, the boy listened quietly as Sachiko spoke. The old woman recalled the past and described how she had felt when her Nen awakened for the first time. Her voice carried a faint sorrow that would not dissolve.
"I came back from buying food that day and saw the house on fire, burned to ruins. My mind went blank."
"All I could think about was saving the children."
"Then I felt something open inside me. When I came to, a doll had appeared beside me."
Sachiko pulled one of the children over and patted its little head tenderly. It was the largest among the group. This must have been the first Nen beast she conjured the day her ability awakened, born from intense emotion and will.
"Later, I named him Ryota, in memory of my child who died. Then…"
"There was Kazehana. Shizuko. Juro. Ken'ya…"
One by one, she named the children, and they gathered around her until she was surrounded.
She stroked one, patted another, and said lovingly, "Later, I met someone. He told me that what I had opened was called Nen. Because I wished for it so deeply, I 'imagined' the doll into being."
So—
Ask your heart, then visualize, then put it into practice. Was that what she meant?
Roy listened quietly, touched his earrings, and remembered the day Tanjuro had taken him to the back of the house, fastened them on with his own hands, and patted his shoulder with a smile. "You look spirited!"
That had triggered a surge of emotion in him, and without realizing it, he had conjured them.
Then, following Sachiko's explanation, as long as he wanted something and dug deep into his mind to construct it from the heart, theoretically, he should be able to transform aura into a real object through imagination.
The boy stood lost in thought, surrounded by children. Gotoh and Rika flanked him on either side. Beyond them, Sachiko watched him with a deep gaze.
The old woman signaled the children to be quiet and summarized, "The difficulty varies depending on what you conjure."
"Imagining a pen is far simpler than imagining a car. Based on my experience, you should start with the simplest object you can think of, try to conjure it, and then develop your own Nen beast."
Simple? What was simple and familiar to him?
Roy rubbed the cane-sword in his hand. A light flashed in his eyes as clarity dawned. A blade.
The one hanging in Master's house. The partner he practiced ten thousand swings with every day. The foundation he would rely on in the Demon Slayer world. His brother. His bond.
The boy opened his palm. His eyes shone brighter than ever. He let aura flow into his hand, focused his mind, and thought of the short blade's form. From the scabbard to the hilt, the blade, the tip, down to the patterns etched into the steel. He visualized it in perfect detail and brought it into being.
In the parallel Demon Slayer world—
Giyu Tomioka, who had been carefully recounting the details of the day's battle to Urokodaki while Roy slept, now sat at the table under Urokodaki's guidance, writing a letter to report back to Master Ubuyashiki Kagaya.
He hesitated over whether to add a recommendation: skip the "Tsuguko" apprentice stage entirely and push Roy straight into the Water Hashira position.
After Urokodaki heard him out, he was silent for a moment. "There has never been a precedent for that."
"You can certainly make the recommendation. As for whether the Master will agree…"
The old man glanced back at Roy, who slept soundly, and smiled warmly. "That does not matter."
"As long as Eiichiro does not want it, no one can force him. Not even the Master."
"What do you think, Senior?"
"I agree with Master," Sabito said, picking up a brush and writing a line on the table beside Giyu. "Knowing Eiichiro, it does not matter whether he joins the Demon Slayer Corps or not."
"In fact, as long as he can kill demons, he does not care about titles or positions. Including…"
"The Master."
The brush paused. Sabito suddenly thought of a possibility and wrote again:
"Giyu, when you go back, keep an eye on him. Eiichiro does not seem like the type to kneel before anyone. When the meeting comes, I am afraid…"
"There is no 'afraid,'" Giyu cut him off firmly. "If he does not kneel, the other Hashira will definitely cause trouble."
Under the lamplight, no one's face looked pleased.
They could already picture what kind of explosive scene that would be. In the silence, they suddenly heard a humming vibration. They all turned at once, shocked to see the short blade hanging on the south wall—Roy's blade—glowing faintly with light before vanishing into thin air.