Among them were Razor, Gotoh, Elena... and Ging.
These images played like film reels in Roy's mind. The young man's consciousness was submerged, and he stepped into the one closest to him—Razor's heart. Inside a vast wilderness filled with Razor's memories from childhood to adulthood, a tall man stood in the center. He had his arms crossed, his back turned to Roy, expressionlessly watching the memories replay before him.
He spoke softly, "I was wondering who it was. So, it's you."
Razor reached out and grabbed a frame. It showed him as a child, being subjected to domestic violence by an alcoholic father. He was enduring his father's belt while his mother desperately shielded him in her arms.
"Cry... what are you crying for... damn it, if it weren't for you two dragging me down, I'd be living the high life!"
The sounds of the father's verbal abuse, the crack of the belt hitting the woman's back, her screams of pain, and the trembling boy in her arms with eyes full of terror—the scene played out frame by frame.
Roy came to a stop beside Razor and heard him say, "If you wanted to hear my story, you could have just asked. I would have told you. There is no need for peeking."
Roy replied frankly, "If I said it wasn't intentional, would you believe me?"
Though his body was in the Hunter world, his consciousness was in the Demon Slayer world. The boy watched as the man in the image grew tired of the beating. Staggering, the man grabbed the woman's hair, dragged her into the bedroom, and locked the door behind them, leaving the young Razor to pound fruitlessly on the door. Roy added an extra explanation, "I just had a breakthrough in my insights and couldn't quite control the intensity. Don't take offense."
"What kind of ability is this?"
"Heart Worm. You should have noticed by now—as long as someone has a connection with me, I can use the Heart Worm to enter their heart and read their memories and past."
"Truly perverted." Razor let go of the image, allowing it to fly away. He turned his head to look seriously at the boy. "I suddenly regret meeting you."
If anyone with even a slight connection to the boy could have their memories read, what was the difference between that and standing naked before him?
Roy shook his head. "It's not as exaggerated as you think. Only the deeper the connection, the more I can read. For example..."
Roy pointed to the alcoholic man who had just appeared in the images. "I can't see his memories or his past."
"That's my father," Razor said expressionlessly. "There is nothing worth knowing about an alcoholic abuser."
Roy nodded. "So, you killed him?"
"He sought death himself, and... I didn't kill him." Razor reached out again, and another memory frame fell into his hand. It showed a woman cornered against a wall by four or five burly men. She clutched her chest, shouting 'No,' but her arms were forced open and her clothes torn away. The abuse continued for nearly two hours until the boy rushed home.
Naked and looking like a discarded rag doll, she saw Razor return. She pursed her lips and smiled at him. Then... she stood up, walked toward the window into the sunlight, and as the boy's eyes widened in shock... she spread her arms, closed her eyes, gripped the windowsill, and dived headfirst.
With a dull thud, the woman turned into a blooming flower of blood.
"Mom!"
Roy heard the boy's roar and saw the young Razor rush to the window, his hand grasping at empty air. In his moment of despair, a storm of Nen erupted violently from him.
Roy fell silent.
One must know that there are only three ways for an ordinary person to become a Nen user: first, being born with extraordinary talent and opening the nodes naturally through meditation; second, having the nodes forcibly opened by another Nen user; and third, through extreme psychological shock. Razor was clearly the latter.
"The ones I killed were them... them... them..." Razor let the image fly away. His hand acted like a ladle as it dipped into the river of his own memories, scooping out frame after frame. These were the men he had personally killed—the thugs who had humiliated his mother, cornered her to extort the deed to their house, and driven her to suicide. They were his enemies.
"Hays... Black... Maury... Thorn..."
The last one had his head crushed by one of Razor's Nen bullets just a few days ago. His name was Adrian Reid.
Supposedly, he had become a somewhat famous mob boss. The image showed him writhing on top of a lover before Razor smashed through the window, grabbed him by the neck like a chick, and punched him to death.
Roy clapped his hands in praise. "Well killed."
"I think so too," Razor laughed with relief. "If my mother knows from the afterlife, she would definitely agree."
"She will." After Roy finished skimming Razor's story, he heard the man speak again. "Is it too late to break off our friendship now?"
A panel notification sounded in his ear.
[HINT: YOUR POTENTIAL BELIEVER, RAZOR, HAS OPENED HIS HEART TO YOU. LOYALTY +5]
Roy gave Razor a strange look and said with a mischievous smile, "Too late. Ging said the same thing."
"Heh, heh..." Razor let out a low, suppressed laugh. "I've really boarded a pirate ship."
"Who hasn't?"
The boy blinked, and his consciousness began to fade, retreating from Razor's heart. Guided by the Heart Worm, he entered Ging's heart.
In Room 7403 of the seaside hotel in Tibilisi...
The man stood with Feichuo's Parrot on his shoulder, his eyes closed and his consciousness immersed. He stood in the vast field of his heart, staring blankly at the images. A boy with a red-beaded fishing rod on his shoulder, wearing a green tracksuit and sporting spiky hair, stood with his back turned, conversing with a future version of Ging who had a bit of messy stubble on his chin.
After a long while, Ging spoke gloomily to the Roy who had appeared beside him, "To be honest, I thought that for the Zoldycks to stand at the peak of the assassin world and become the number one assassin family, their foundation must be very deep. But..."
Ging turned his head to look at the boy. "I didn't expect it to be this deep!"
Ging's eyes flashed with sharp light as he scrutinized Roy. "If Silva Zoldyck and Zeno Zoldyck are like you, with abilities appearing one after another, then it really is quite terrifying."
"You can feel fear too?"
"Of course."
Ging glanced at Roy and pointed a finger at the boy in the image standing beside his 'weathered' self. "Don't let him turn around. I don't want to see him yet."
"You know who he is?" Roy's brow twitched as he looked over.
Ging crossed his arms and snorted, "Who else could it be but my son?"
The man rolled his eyes. "The dragon slayer eventually becomes the dragon. To predict the future is to be consumed by it. Roy, your 'thread' is showing."
Ging hooked his foot and picked up a thin line. Both ends of the line connected him and the young master. It was the Thread of Causality generated by the bond between Roy and Ging.
"As expected of one of the world's top five Nen users," Roy praised sincerely. At least... "Razor didn't see it."
"It's not that he didn't see it, but rather... he doesn't have that level of awareness." Ging gently pinched the Thread of Causality. The milky-white thin line looked no different from a Nen thread, but it couldn't be pulled or burned. Unless the memories the two had of each other were erased, it would persist forever until both perished.
The three seconds of future sight expired. The image of Gon and Ging meeting at the top of the withered World Tree shattered like a mirror.
Ging let out a breath with a complex mood full of longing and regret. Looking at the boy again, his gaze turned dark. "Razor doesn't know about the existence of faith, and he certainly never imagined... that you, Roy Zoldyck, would one day step onto this one-way path of faith!"
"The dragon slayer becomes the dragon. Since you can see it," Roy met Ging's gaze calmly, "it means you have also stepped onto this path!"
"Have you read the New Continent Records?"
"Have you been to the Dark Continent?"
"No."
"No."
In the vast heart-field, the man and the boy spoke at the same time and fell silent at the same time. It was as if they were looking at another version of themselves across space and time, both rich in the spirit of adventure and exploration. For a moment, they both stopped speaking and fell into silence.
Ging's past appeared on the screens of his heart in the form of images.
There were warm scenes of him and Mito living on Whale Island as children. There was the image of the man fishing out the Lord of the Swamp for the first time in the forest. There was the scene of him bidding farewell to Mito, comforting the crying little girl, and swearing he would return, only to participate in the Hunter Exam and then explore ruins without returning for years... until Roy saw Ging supporting a woman out of an ice coffin. Amidst the flickering images...
Ging swept his sleeves and lightly wiped them away, causing them to dissipate completely.
'That woman...' Roy noticed Ging's abnormality and silently memorized her appearance.
Ging said, "That's my wife. There's no need for you to see the private matters between us as a couple."
As he spoke, a sense of rejection arose. Roy's consciousness faded and retreated from Ging's heart. Afterward...
Using the third and fourth Heart Worms, he took a tour through the pasts of Gotoh and Elena respectively. Then, he returned to the Demon Slayer world.
The boy woke up from his meditation to find a circle of people surrounding him.
Gyomei Himejima, Kyojuro Rengoku, Giyu Tomioka, Sanemi Shinazugawa, Muichiro Tokito, and the rest of the Nine Hashira were there.
Roy smiled and shared the cultivation method for Nen—which he called Divine Power—specifically the Four Major Exercises. Slowly, he absorbed and buried the remaining images in his mind. A moment later, he began to discuss the battle plan to defeat Muzan Kibutsuji with Ubuyashiki Kagaya and the Nine Hashira.
"I understand Muzan Kibutsuji. He is actually sensitive, suspicious, and cowardly by nature."
Ubuyashiki Kagaya was already able to sit up on his own. After a short rest, his body gradually regained the lightness of his youth, and his voice carried more strength and speed.
"Therefore, as I told Master Eiichiro last time, based on the information gathered recently, he likely plans to go into hiding again... waiting for Master Eiichiro to pass away before he resurfaces."
Indeed, compared to a demon's long life, a human's life was like a short-lived flower. Moreover, Roy was currently under the deadly condition of the Curse. He had no intention of wasting time waiting for Muzan.
"The Blue Spider Lily... we shall see if he can resist the temptation of becoming a perfect being."
Early morning, April 27, 1987 (Year 2 of the Taisho Era).
After a Hashira Meeting that lasted all night—during which he took the Nine Hashira as his disciples—Roy and Ubuyashiki Kagaya used the Blue Spider Lily to devise a battle plan with the Hashira. That night, he left the Ubuyashiki estate and killed several demons along the way, gaining thirty points of life energy.
Afterward, through Deep Sleep, he crossed the multicolored dream corridor and returned to the Hunter world.
As usual, after his morning run, he took Gotoh to the hotel restaurant for breakfast, preparing to set off for the undersea secret realm to capture the Elephant Baku.
Today's breakfast consisted of mashed potatoes with chickpeas, sausage and fried eggs with buttered bread, and a bowl of fresh seafood soup. Under Gotoh's service, the boy ate unhurriedly. He ordered the butler to sit and eat with him; there was no need for so many rules when traveling.
Several chairs across from him were pulled back one after another by two men and a woman. Ging and Razor sat down next to Roy one after the other, with Elena following. They pushed the blue-light glasses up on their noses and looked at Roy.
The boy scooped a spoonful of mashed potatoes into his mouth, his expression calm as if he knew nothing of last night, treating their gazes as thin air.
"Ahem..." A light cough broke the awkward atmosphere. Ging gave Elena a look.
The woman took another deep look at Roy, remembering how he had suddenly appeared in her dream last night and startled her. She organized her scattered thoughts and used her Nen ability, Global Control, to condense a azure screen. She said to everyone, "I've already rented a boat in advance. We set off at nine this morning and expect to reach the target sea area by two in the afternoon. After that..."
Elena looked around. "It will depend on everyone's methods to withstand the water pressure and dive to the seabed to enter the ruins."
A human's diving ability is not unlimited. Due to water pressure and the fact that oxygen becomes thinner the deeper one goes—to the point where the seabed is basically anaerobic—simply reaching the seabed was an impossible task for a normal person!
Roy finished his breakfast, pulled out a tissue, and slowly wiped his mouth. He glanced casually at Ging, not believing that Ging would have come unprepared after doing his research.
"Water Warding. This is a Nen ability I mastered before." Noticing the looks from Roy and Razor, Ging took over from Elena and held up three fingers. "It allows me to move freely on the seabed without being restricted by water pressure or oxygen. The condition is... including myself, I can only bring two people."
Excluding himself and Elena, that meant Roy, Razor, and Gotoh had to decide who would go. The remaining two would have to find their own way.
"I don't need it." Whether it was water pressure or oxygen, in the end, it tested a person's cardiopulmonary capacity. It just so happened that Roy, who had mastered Breathing Styles, was best at exactly that. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that even without using Sun Breathing, just the characteristic of Water Breathing to dissolve into water made him as comfortable as a fish.
"The young master doesn't need it, and neither do I." Master and servant were of one mind. Roy had thought of it, and Gotoh had thought of it at the same time.
As he followed Roy's lead, Razor looked at the two of them and said thoughtfully, "Are you going to rely on Water Breathing?"
Ging and Elena raised their eyebrows in confusion.