What is water?
It is waves, a small river, a great river or sea, the congee one eats, the source of life that maintains the human body's functions.
Everyone's understanding of it is different, but without exception, all thoughts about "water" ultimately point to human cognition.
Urokodaki Sakonji sat on the tree stump, carving the mask. The rough bark was gone, and the edges were smoothed, faintly revealing the shape of a fox... He carved intently, his mind simultaneously conjuring the figures of Giyu Tomioka and Eiichiro.
One was cold and taciturn, the other was vigorous and sharp... He had fantasized more than once, if anyone could push the "Water Breathing" further, surpassing himself... It used to be Giyu, now there was one more, Eiichiro.
There was no other reason. The boy just learned too quickly, far beyond ordinary people.
By the waterfall.
Giyu Tomioka stood on the treetop, facing Roy from a distance.
After hearing that Roy also had a technique, his cold eyes clearly wavered for a moment. He refocused on Roy.
The young man rested his hand on his short-hilt sword, a faint smile emerging on his calm face. Giyu knew he wasn't joking.
'He just learned the Breathing Style yesterday, and today he's already created a new sword technique...' His cognition felt as if it had been thrown to the ground and trampled fiercely... Giyu Tomioka struggled to find a trace of reality in the absurdity.
He rarely cracked a smile...
"That... Senior Brother Giyu smiled? How strange... The sun must have risen from the west today!" Shinsuke noticed this scene, gave a strange cry, and leaned his face forward. *Slap... Slap... Slap...* He was slapped hard across the face several times by Fukuda.
Confirmed... He wasn't dreaming! That means he... really smiled!
'Senior Brother once said that Senior Brother Giyu never smiled again after his sister died... So what's going on now?' Makomo tilted her head and glanced at Sabito.
The fox-masked boy was also clearly stunned. He looked at the two seriously. A moment later, his brow gradually relaxed, and a smile appeared.
Makomo: "What did you see, Senior Brother?"
"It's happiness," Sabito said with emotion. "It's the happiness of meeting a worthy opponent, of having a successor."
Sabito didn't say any more. He knew in his heart that Giyu had always believed he hadn't passed the test back then based on his own strength, and thus was unworthy of being a Hashira. This was the reason in the original story why he always stayed alone and was unwilling to mingle with the "Hashira" group.
And now... 'He feels that the one capable of taking on the name of "Water Hashira" has appeared...'
"Eiichiro?"
"Yes, Eiichiro."
Many gazes converged on Giyu Tomioka. Giyu Tomioka was truly happy today.
He looked at Roy with a burning gaze and simply said, "Good."
The sword tip pointed diagonally at the treetop... A 'drip' of water fell. The space, with the tip of his Nichirin Sword as the epicenter, rippled outwards, spreading towards Roy's position, neither fast nor slow...
Shinsuke and Fukuda didn't notice at first. Suddenly, they saw a sparrow fly over Giyu Tomioka's head, and it was abruptly sliced in half... They suddenly realized, the wind seemed to have stopped... Even the sound of the branches swaying and rustling was gone...—
The group shivered. When they looked up again, they saw...
Giyu Tomioka walked towards Roy, stepping on the ripples. Everything around him, the moment he passed, was sliced in half by the high-speed sword qi!
"Water Breathing, Eleventh Form: Nagi... Dead Calm..."
Closer... Roy could already sense the killing intent that plunged all things into a dead silence!
*Puff!* Two suns ignited in his pupils as he squinted... Giyu Tomioka was using his supreme slashing technique to weave a defensive net. This was also why he could easily block the "Slicing Thread Rotation" Blood Demon Art unleashed by "Lower Moon Five, Rui."
But unfortunately, a "dead calm" created through physical means was ultimately not "stillness."
True "stillness" lies in... the heart no longer wavering... "Drip." It was also a single drop of water falling...
Roy rested his hand on his short-hilt sword, letting the tip hang down, piercing the treetop. He recalled the scene of watching the sunrise in the midst of a storm, split in two by the Sea Mirror, and activated [Phantom Sword]... "Vmmm..."
Ripples instantly covered the heavens and the earth, enveloping everything in the vicinity, including Giyu Tomioka, who was already close... Sabito and Makomo, watching from the trees... and the utterly bewildered Shinsuke, Fukuda, Shimizu, and Watanabe, who still didn't know what was happening...
At this moment, everything and everyone seemed to have lost the ability to move, as if time had frozen...
They could only stare, watching as a red sun slowly leaped up from the sea level, followed by... the image of the young man calmly resting his blade on Giyu Tomioka's shoulder...
*Whoosh.* Nine o'clock in the morning.
The mountain wind dispersed the mist, casting down a ray of sunlight.
At a certain moment, Urokodaki Sakonji stopped his carving knife and looked outside the courtyard...
Giyu Tomioka, draped in his red, yellow, and white haori, walked over slowly, a faint smile on his cold face.
The old man was stunned. "You're back."
"I'm back."
"How was it?"
Giyu Tomioka sat down next to Urokodaki Sakonji, his lake-blue eyes brighter than ever. He looked at Urokodaki Sakonji seriously and said, "Master, you were right. Eiichiro will be the answer."
Urokodaki Sakonji was stunned for a moment, then picked up his carving knife again, muttering, "Then I'd better hurry, or I won't finish before he leaves the mountain..."
"Clack... clack... clack..." The carving knife shaved off woodchips, which rustled down...
...
In the parallel world, after the battle with his senior brother Giyu Tomioka, Roy completed another six sets of "ten thousand practice swings" that day.
Before bed, he chatted with his master and senior brother for a while, then lay down on the kang in his clothes and fell into a deep sleep.
"Hss..." Faint snores drifted about...
When he once again passed through the dream passage via "Deep Sleep" and returned to the Hunter world...
A red sun was right before his eyes, its morning glow blooming wantonly, painting the sea a beautiful, ruddy red.
"Young Master, breakfast is here!"
Six o'clock in the morning.
Kurajing, just like yesterday, pushed the food cart to the bow and passed it to Gotoh.
The girl's blonde hair was tied back, and she had two dark circles under her eyes, having madly "crammed" knowledge about "Nen."
Even without thinking, Roy knew it must have been Gotoh giving her a violent "cram-style" lesson.
In the young butler's words: "If you can't learn it, you should look for your own shortcomings. Did you listen carefully? Did you use your brain? You say it's 'hard,' where is it 'hard'? There are so many Nen users, didn't everyone learn it this way?"
In short... with Gotoh around, Kurajing could forget about having an easy time!
"Young Master, your meal." Gotoh took the cart and began peeling shrimp for Roy.
Roy admired the morning glow, stretched his arms wide, and glanced casually... In the shadows, the strange man peeked out, his head flinched, and he sank back down through the hole in the deck.
Faintly... he could hear old Captain Maxim's exasperated cursing: "Which bastard did this? Won't learn anything good, just learned to dig holes like a rat! You'd better not let me catch you, or I'll revoke your qualification for the exam!"
It had been days... He'd find a hole here on the deck, or a hole there. He'd patch it up, and it would be dug open again... It almost made Maxim ascend to the heavens in a spiral of rage!
But that hole-digging "rat" was too good at hiding. Once he used [Zetsu], he couldn't even be sensed. He'd pop his head out when you weren't looking... It was so annoying, it could drive a person to death!
Fortunately, after a dozen or so days of sailing, Dolle Island was almost in sight.
The old captain pinched his nose and endured it for one more day. He could already see a stretch of land slowly appearing where the sea and sky met. "Tooooot—" The ship's horn blared...
After the long journey,
The anchor was dropped, securing the ship, and the gangplank was lowered. The ten candidates who had won the point-scramble emerged from various corners of the ship.
There was the bandaged man, the snake charmer, the boy with the bow, the bald ninja Yusuke... as well as the strange man, Kite, Kurajing, Gotoh, and Roy!
Everyone gathered at the head of the gangplank. No one was the first to go down; they just stole glances towards the bow...
Gotoh called out at the right moment: "Young Master...."
Roy casually tossed the branch in his hand to him, picked up the cane-sword that had been resting on his knees, and stood up....
In the next glance, he was walking over, neither fast nor slow... followed closely by Gotoh and Kurajing.
At this time, the sunlight was just right... Perhaps out of reverence, as long as Roy didn't move, no one dared to disembark before him.
Watching him approach, they automatically split to either side, clearing a path for him.
Since that was the case—
Roy didn't dally. He stepped onto the gangplank and was the first to walk off the Sea God.
*Whoosh.* Faint sounds of relief came from behind him as he disembarked... Next was the strange man, then Kite... They stepped onto the gangplank one after another. In a blink, only old Captain Maxim was left, clenching a pipe, silently watching the group walk away. His gaze lingered for a moment on Roy, Gotoh, and Kurajing. He reached into his pocket, took out a phone, and dialed a number...
"Ring-ring-ring..." A ringtone sounded, followed by a child's voice on the other end.
"Grandma! It's Grandpa Maxim from the [Sea God]..."
"Maxim?"
"Gye gye gye... That boy has arrived?"
An old woman, leaning on a cane, with a string of green prayer beads around her neck, smiled, revealing only a few sparse teeth...
She took the phone, and just as expected... the old captain's rough voice came from the other end...
"Bachan, not dead yet?"
The old woman's eye twitched. She cackled, "What a pity, this old lady is tough."
"Not dying anytime soon, sorry to disappoint you..."
"Ho ho ho..." How could Maxim not hear the taunt in her words? He blew a smoke ring. "If you're not dead, you're close..."
He said meaningfully, "This year's candidates are not simple. You old-timer had better take it easy. If it comes down to it, just let them pass..."
He had finally seen that young man off. Thinking back to how a few of his slashes had nearly dismantled his ship... Maxim couldn't help but sigh...
He was grateful the other party had some sense, and held back in time...
"Ho ho ho This old lady may be old, but I'm not as feeble as you think."
"At the very least, I'd have no problem teaching you a lesson with one hand." The old woman slammed her cane on the ground.
A group of children in white robes and masks surrounded her, chanting things that were hard to understand. One could faintly see impressive "Nen auras" on them.
"Doke... Doke..."
"A ton of iron and a ton of cotton, which is heavier?"
"It's iron."
"Wrong. They're the same weight. Both are one ton."
"An older brother and a younger brother, which one is older?"
"The correct answer is unknown. Because they are twin brothers."
"It's that group of 'children'!" Maxim heard the "noise" from the other end of the line and wasn't surprised at all. He took another drag from his pipe and said with a frown, "Old lady, I've already warned you..."
"Don't be too stubborn!"
"At the very least..." Maxim's voice turned grave, "When you encounter a young man holding a cane-sword, with a male and a female servant, you'd better let them pass. After all..."
"That boy is a monster who can practice his sword in a storm... I've never seen a candidate like him. It's like nothing can stop him. Never mind you, even the Kiriko family would probably have a tough time."
'Wait... what storm?' The old lady might be old, but she wasn't blind or deaf... "Maxim, you brat, don't you try to scare this old lady."
'Can't you understand the literal meaning?'
Maxim said flatly, "Anyway, I've warned you... Remember, it's a young man with a cane-sword..."
"Beep—" The call disconnected.
The old woman, surrounded by the children, frowned as she held the phone... At a certain moment, her ears twitched...
She faintly heard the sound of approaching footsteps and heartbeats...
*Thump-thump... thump-thump... thump-thump...*
It was beating.—