Such intense blood aura!
Some fruit seller once described [Enhancers] as all brawn and no brains. That might be a little one-sided,
but when it comes to raw physical ability alone, if the [Enhancer] type dares call itself second, no one dares call themselves first.
A faint trace of blood aura drifted out through the second-floor window on the air. Netero stopped in front of the butler villa and suddenly looked up.
Beans nearly crashed into him because of that abrupt stop. He stumbled, caught himself, and glanced at Netero. A rare trace of seriousness had appeared on the old man's face beneath those white brows and drooping earlobes. Clearly… he had noticed something.
"Chairman…"
Beans' tiny bean-like eyes shifted toward the second floor as well.
Creak—
At that moment, the front door of the butler villa opened. Zebro stood by the door and made a polite gesture.
"Chairman, this way."
Netero cast one last glance at the second floor, gave Zebro a slight nod, and entered in silence with Beans.
One step, then another. Through the corridor, around the corner, up the stairs…
The closer they got to that bedroom on the second floor, the stronger the naturally drifting blood aura became.
Until finally—
they reached the second floor, and the bedroom was right there.
Netero could even hear it now.
Thump. Thump.
A faint heartbeat, but strong enough, pounding in his ears like war drums.
The strongest man alive suddenly stopped and closed his eyes to listen.
A strange state began to spread outward from his feet, slowly reaching toward the bedroom…
The moment Beans noticed it, he let out a soft "Shh," stopping Zebro from opening the door and guiding them inside.
"Shh. No need. The Chairman is already 'looking.'"
Zebro's hand was still on the doorknob. He glanced at Netero in surprise, quietly withdrew his hand, and stood aside without a word.
Buzz—
That mysterious state slipped in through the crack beneath the door, spread along the floorboards, and wrapped itself around the entire blood cocoon.
Inside the cocoon, Gotoh lay sleeping peacefully, his hands folded over his lower abdomen. Then, almost imperceptibly, his brow twitched.
In that hazy instant, it felt as if his consciousness had been pulled into a blank white void—
with no east, west, north, or south,
no time,
no space,
only him,
and only him, standing there in confusion, facing all of it.
…
Zoldyck family mansion.
Dong—
Eight in the morning. The sunlight had already begun turning sharp and hot.
Roy had just finished breakfast under Tsubone's care. After receiving Zebro's message, he paused briefly before heading to the training room and casually flipped through the [Game Guide] Silva had given him.
Then, at some point, his heart stirred.
His heartbeat slowed for a fraction of a second.
The boy's beautiful silver hair swayed lightly in the wind, the glazed golden shine at the ends dazzling in the light. He looked out the window, his gaze deepening, as though it pierced straight through the lush forest and landed directly on the butler villa.
A streak of white hair drifted into view.
Before Roy could move, Zeno walked over with his hands behind his back and said, after glancing at Tsubone,
"Killua's awake and crying for milk. Kikyo can't leave him. You go upstairs."
Tsubone immediately bowed.
"Yes."
She gave Roy a small respectful bow, gathered the clothes he would need changed later, and withdrew.
Tap… tap…
Her footsteps gradually faded away.
Roy's gaze remained fixed out the window, as if he hadn't noticed.
Zeno casually pulled a chair over and sat beside him, speaking as if to himself.
"So, you sensed that stream of mind too."
A stream of mind was different from [En]. Rather than relying on Nen as a foundation and attaching imagination to it, it was closer to a state—
a state of separating the heart from the body and moving with consciousness alone.
Commonly known as [Heart's Drop: Fist Listening].
[Heart's Drop: Fist Listening]: Listening to the heart, listening to the fist—using spirit and will to guide bodily perception and enter a kind of super-sensory state. It usually appears in clashes between top-level masters and reveals several extraordinary traits.
First: when in the state of [Heart's Drop: Fist Listening], a person can read the opponent's mental activity in advance. In the instant they exchange blows, they can "hear" the other's thoughts or intent, rather than merely predicting from movement.
Second: subjective time slows. To the user, time feels stretched out, similar to a life-flashing-before-your-eyes effect, but triggered by oneself, and it can be used to improve reaction speed.
Third: it is not true time manipulation. Through a kind of trance, the user breaks free from the body's dependence on time and changes their own perception of its flow. In truth, real time itself does not change.
Of course, to master [Heart's Drop: Fist Listening], the user had to be strong enough—or, more precisely, possess a high enough martial level.
Clearly, Netero belonged in that class.
And judging from the fact that he could activate [Heart's Drop: Fist Listening] at will, he had already mastered it to the point where it came as naturally as breathing.
As expected of the founder of the Shingen-ryu, the great martial artist standing at the pinnacle of the [Enhancer] type.
Roy's silver hair spilled down behind him, the gold at the ends glowing with a glasslike sheen in the sunlight. He gently set down the game guide.
Then, with a whoosh, two suns ignited in his eyes.
[True Eye] activated.
[Transparent World] unfolded.
A similar strange state began spreading from the boy, slowly sweeping through the surroundings…
Zeno, who had been about to explain [Heart's Drop: Fist Listening] to Roy, suddenly froze.
The moment [Transparent World] swept over him, he felt as if he had fallen into a swamp, his limbs being dragged lower and lower into it, until in an instant—
he lost all bodily sensation,
and all awareness of the flow of time.
[Heart's Drop: Fist Listening]?
His body felt bound and heavy, and even his thoughts seemed to slow.
Zeno's wild white hair stirred. He frowned and stiffly turned his neck to glance at Roy.
"No. Not [Heart's Drop: Fist Listening]…"
"It's [Heart's Drop: Sword Listening]…"
"There are sword shadows!"
Riiing—
A sharp, resonant sword cry rang through Zeno's ears as [Transparent World] spread.
Throughout the Zoldyck mansion, countless tiny illusory swords flickered faintly into being. Some radiated terrifying heat, some roared with surging flames, some pulsed with devouring magnetism, some shone with immeasurable light…
In a single instant, they hovered above the heads of every Zoldyck, every butler, every servant, every bird, flower, fish, insect—everything living or unliving—
forcing all of them to stop what they were doing.
Whoosh—
On the second floor of the mansion, the blackout curtain in the bedroom was suddenly yanked open, revealing a man holding an infant in his arms.
Silva, bare-backed and showing off a body packed with hard muscle, looked calmly at the high-temperature sword floating before him. Then his gaze swept downward and turned cold and sharp as it locked onto Roy's bedroom.
At nearly the same moment, Illumi's, Scarface's, and One-Eye's attention followed.
Roy acted as if he noticed none of it.
His eyes remained quietly fixed on the mountain slope.
At that moment, his consciousness walked with his spirit, almost like his soul had left his body. Step by step, he crossed a bridge of phantom flying swords in the air and strolled toward the butler villa.
Then, at one point, a voice drifted over.
"You brat… your swordsmanship improved again?"
Roy stopped.
He stood atop a phantom sword radiating a solar halo and turned toward the dim little room on the first floor, bowing politely.
"Great-grandfather, your eyes are as sharp as ever. I did gain a little insight recently."
Creak…
From the dim room came the slow sound of a rocking chair swaying.
Maha, hiding in his little room with the air conditioner on while it was still cool enough to breathe, twitched faintly at the mouth and snorted.
"That's not 'a little.'"
And that was true.
Though Lv. 4 and Lv. 5 were only a single level apart, the gap in accumulated experience between them was as vast as an ocean.
At the very least, after observing the [Sun] from negative distance and pushing his swordsmanship to Lv. 5, Roy had discovered that his understanding of the sword and the sword path had deepened immensely.
Now it wasn't just [Transparent World]. He could use it almost casually, with no less natural ease than Yoriichi Tsugikuni, who had been born with it. Even the "Breathing sword arts" like Sun Breathing, Water Breathing, and Wind Breathing had become incomparably stronger in his hands than before.
The boy shook his head.
"A little is a little. No more, no less."
Roy would never forget the sight of the "fusion slash" he had unleashed with everything he had, after emptying all his Nen, being casually blocked by Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni with a single stroke.
This was far from the time to be proud.
Tick—
The curse on the back of Roy's left hand kept counting down his life like a clock, utterly unaffected by [Heart's Drop: Sword Listening].
Maha lightly tapped the armrest of his rocking chair. After a moment of silence, he said quietly,
"You're a kid who knows his own limits. I won't say much else—just one thing."
He paused, then gave a cold snort.
"Someone came right to your door to stir up trouble. You can't just sit there and watch."
Roy: "..."
His mouth twitched.
For a moment, he truly had nothing to say.
Was Netero actually here to pick a fight?
Obviously not.
Just as Roy's [Sword] would not deceive him, Netero's [Fist] wouldn't deceive him either. Roy was sure that not only he himself, but his father Silva, his grandfather Zeno, and even Maha could all clearly sense it—
the reason the "strongest human" had suddenly used [Heart's Drop: Fist Listening] was simply out of curiosity, a gentle move to get a deeper read on Gotoh's condition.
There was no hostility in it.
Still, when orders came from above, those below followed. And putting Maha's words aside, Roy himself had no intention of standing by. Gotoh was at a critical stage. Roy would naturally keep watch to prevent any mishap.
Whoosh—
A breeze passed straight through Roy's half-illusory body.
The boy gave the dim little room a helpless nod. Then he turned back and rode the wind away. With every light tap of his toe, a small sword formed beneath his foot, carrying him out of the mansion, over the trees, and down the mountain toward the butler villa.
In the blink of an eye,
he appeared beside Netero.
"Ho ho ho… looks like the old man's still angry with me…"
At the exact moment Roy arrived, a phantom figure suddenly slipped out of Netero's body. The old man stood there in harmony of body and soul, his robes flowing as he turned and gave Roy a helpless smile.
Then the watery light in his long old eyes rippled once—
he noticed Roy's hair color and froze.
"Silver… silver hair? But not pure silver…"
Netero's gaze lowered and landed on the glazed gold shining at the ends of Roy's hair, like the sun leaping over the horizon in the morning, spilling halos in all directions.
The old man's eyes narrowed at once. A sharp gleam flashed within them as he looked deeply at Roy.
"Zeno told me you said you'd defeat Silva within a year. At the time, I treated it like a joke. But looking at you now… I can see it was my own vision that was shallow."
"You're different now, Roy."
Their parting at the Hunter Exam felt like yesterday.
Standing face to face with Roy now, Netero could feel the boy's surging blood aura and Nen rising like two thick pillars of light, punching straight through the villa ceiling.
With [Heart's Drop: Fist Listening] active, Netero's heightened senses told him clearly—
the boy before him had profound aura reserves, vigorous life force, and had become utterly incomparable to what he once was.
It was no longer possible to look at him as just "a kid."
"You overpraise me, Chairman…"
Roy greeted him politely. In his eyes, the twin burning suns still blazed, casting immeasurable light over Netero.
A line of information appeared in Roy's mind.
[Name: Isaac Netero]
[Species: Human]
[Physique: B?]
[Manifest Nen: B?]
[Potential Nen: B+ or A-?]
[Rating: B]
Roy quietly withdrew his gaze, lingering on the question marks for two seconds. He vaguely guessed that those uncertainties likely had something to do with Netero already entering the stage of declining vitality.
As the saying goes:
"A fist fears youth; a staff fears age."
A person's fists are heaviest in the prime of youth. But after decades passed, time had carved into Netero's body like a butcher's knife, sealing his peak forever on the day he comprehended the "Gratitude Punch" and descended the mountain to defeat countless dojo masters.
"You're sad?"
A gray-white sorrow drifted from above Netero's head, revealing the fluctuation in his mood.
Noticing Roy's gaze, Netero looked back.
The boy spoke slowly.
"No. Just a little sentimental."
Roy looked quietly at the deep wrinkles cutting through Netero's face like trenches and said honestly,
"You really have grown old, Chairman."
Netero's body jolted.
At Roy's current height—already close to Silva's—Netero could no longer look down on him.
He stood there blankly for a long moment before finally coming back to himself. Then he planted his hands on his hips and burst into laughter.
"I stand under the bridge looking at your butler, and you stand on the bridge looking at me—ho ho ho… Roy, you should understand, not everyone is as fortunate as your great-grandfather, able to come across Longevity Rice."
"People like me, like your grandfather Zigg, are still only human. We can never escape aging."
Was it really that simple?
Perhaps it was also because their "paths" were different.
Roy thought of [God]. He thought of the [Calamities]. He thought of the mysterious Dark Sonata drifting across the continent.
In a Nen world, where almost anything was possible, concepts like aging, death, and birth could never be sealed away under one simple definition.
Just like his own transmigration and rebirth—absurd beyond reason, beyond human will.
And just like Gotoh, whom Roy had remade with [First Embrace].
Crack. Crack. Crack…
The blood cocoon, which had been lying still and silent, suddenly moved.
~~~
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