He didn't hesitate.
He wasn't putting on a show of "false virtue" or "fake righteousness." He acted according to his own heart—and the moment the sun tears through darkness and rises, it is, by nature, open and upright: meant to nurture all things and bring salvation to all.
Pinpricks of light gathered in Roy's hand.
[Eclipse] took shape, and Roy caught it in one hand, then lightly tapped Gyomei Himejima on both shoulders.
The panel chimed:
[Notice: "Investiture Ceremony" completed…]
[Follower: Gyomei Himejima]
[Physique: 47 (Note: ordinary person = 1)]
[Nen Ability: None (pending activation)]
Roy's gaze flickered. Compared to Kyojuro's current physique… Gyomei's aura nodes weren't even open yet, and still—purely on natural strength—he was already pressing close to Kyojuro, who had opened his nodes and was continuously tempering his body with Ten.
"Stone Hashira… the strongest among the nine… lives up to the name."
"Praise the sun." With the investiture complete, Roy withdrew his blade and helped Gyomei up.
And the hazy feeling in his mind—like fog—became even clearer.
Especially the moment he touched Gyomei… Roy's eyes rippled, and he faintly saw a thread of causality: one end hooked to Gyomei, the other hooked to Roy.
The fog in Roy's heart trembled, and that last thin "paper wall" that he'd never been able to pierce started to wobble—like it might tear at any second.
A bond, and also cause-and-effect… an invisible causal thread linking them.
Roy let his focus sink through that thread. Dimly—then more clearly—he saw Gyomei's past: his joy, his grief, his rage, his laughter, his pain, his despair… everything.
In that instant, Gyomei was like a boiled egg with the shell peeled clean—nothing about him could remain hidden from Roy.
'I control everything… and I can vaguely sense a follower's life and death too… just a little more… just a little…'
A breath of wind seemed to graze the "paper wall" in Roy's heart. It felt like it would tear open any second.
Following the causal line, Roy caught a deep, wordless craving inside Gyomei—something he wanted, but didn't know how to ask for.
It was about "divine power."
And that wasn't just Gyomei. The Hashira—maybe even Kagaya—now that they had a reason to live again, couldn't help but grow hungry for it.
Roy smiled faintly. He raised one palm and gently pressed it to Gyomei's broad chest.
Nen surged like a wave and swallowed the towering monk whole.
Something seemed to snap.
Gyomei heard Roy say, "Hold your mind steady. Try guiding the 'divine power' back into yourself."
His aura nodes opened.
Pale Nen erupted outward from Gyomei in a violent burst—
And Gyomei felt as if the first part of his life had been wasted.
In one breath he shed the "mortal shell" and stepped into the world of Nen. That rush of power—that sensation of the body's hidden treasure vault being pried open—was intoxicating.
"Namu Amida Butsu!"
A huge hand clapped shut.
Following Roy's instructions, Gyomei pulled the Nen back into his body. His blind eyes shifted as he stared, dazed, at the thin "Nen film" over his skin, and blurted out:
"So this is divine power."
The Nen storm subsided. Everyone stared at him the way they had stared at Kyojuro—unable to name what they were feeling, only sensing that Gyomei's presence had deepened. The same, and yet not the same. Strange, mystical… and envy crept in.
"Praise the sun. Congratulations, Gyomei." Kyojuro stood behind Roy and could see Nen more clearly than anyone else. The eruption from Gyomei had been even more overwhelming than Kyojuro's own awakening. Kyojuro was genuinely happy for him.
"All thanks to Roy-sama." Only after experiencing it firsthand could one truly understand how vast the gap was between "Nen" / "Nen-users" and ordinary people. Gyomei could feel the surging power inside him—compared to himself one second ago, he was in a different world entirely. And this was just opening his nodes—he hadn't even begun forging himself with Ten.
[Notice: From follower Gyomei Himejima's awe and gratitude… Faith Power +1…]
"Mm." Roy held Gyomei by the arm, signaling him not to overdo it.
Then Roy stepped past him and stopped in front of Sanemi Shinazugawa.
The Wind Hashira—who'd once challenged Roy in front of everyone—kept his head down, refusing to meet Roy's eyes. He was clearly still hung up on his earlier recklessness.
But that was also what extremity looked like when it centered on "loyalty."
Footsteps sounded.
A pair of straw sandals entered Sanemi's lowered field of view…
Sanemi lifted his scarred chin, and the moment he met those warm eyes, his shoulders sank. He tried to speak—
—and then, like Gyomei, he was lightly palm-pressed in the chest, and a surge of pale Nen detonated outward.
"No need to say more. Hold your breath, steady your mind, and focus on drawing the divine power in…"
Roy's gentle voice landed in Sanemi's ears, and something in Sanemi's chest loosened. Even his fierce eyes softened—just a little.
"Yes!" he answered.
The panel chimed—investiture successful, Faith Power +1…
Roy immediately gained another follower.
After that—Muichirō Tokitō, Tengen Uzui, Shinobu Kocho… even Obanai Iguro, who was jealous because of Mitsuri—were all invested, and then—
Roy opened their aura nodes.
The panel kept chiming: Faith Power +1 +1 +1… until it hit nine points in the blink of an eye.
Only one remained at the far end of the corridor—Giyu Tomioka, wearing that red-yellow-green haori, his Nichirin blade at his waist, silently watching… quietly waiting.
"Senpai."
"Roy-sama."
Their eyes met—senpai and kouhai. Not even half a year had passed, and yet—
After parting at Sagiri Mountain, Roy had grown so much that he was nearly taller than Giyu now.
A rare smile touched Giyu's cold eyes.
"Finally, it's my turn."
Roy smiled back. "Even if you didn't say it, I would've helped you awaken."
"I believe you," Giyu said. "Master was right—you're the sun. You're the demons' natural enemy."
"Roy—kill Kibutsuji Muzan and give the world peace."
The causal thread linking Giyu to Roy was thicker, heavier, than Gyomei's… heavier than Sanemi's… heavier than Muichirō's, Tengen's, and the others who'd only just opened their nodes.
And the moment Giyu voiced that hope—
the fog in Roy's heart violently churned.
With a rip—it smashed through that last thin "paper wall."
The haze vanished.
Understanding dropped into place, clean and complete.
[Notice: En +10 +30 +45…]
[Current En: Lv1 (84/100) → Lv2 (78/1000)]
[Note: En strengthened. Range +200m. "Hear the hearts of all things" evolves into "Heart-Worm."]
[Heart-Worm: Through bonds and the causal thread, the host can split a "heart-worm" that forcibly burrows into a target's heart, glimpsing their past and a sliver of their future (Note: shows one angle of the future; duration 3 seconds).]
Know the past, glimpse the future… ages pass like water, years like a shuttle—under the sun's witness.
Past, present, future—
Roy pressed his palm to Giyu's chest. Giyu's nodes opened, Nen surged, and he slipped into a sacred, serene trance.
It was as if his spirit unsheathed itself—soaring up through beams, through roof tiles, riding the wind, wearing clouds—until it merged with the blazing sun at noon…
Hunter World.
11:00 p.m.
On Yorbian's west-coast seaside city—Vibis—the nightlife was, as always, in full swing.
A taxi beeped past, and the driver rolled down the window to rage at someone…
Inside the seaside hotel where Ging, Roy, and Razor were staying—
Goldie was yawning, sleepy, snuggling near Roy's pillow… when, suddenly, it sensed something.
Its pea-sized green eyes spun, and dizzy circles swirled in its tiny pupils—then it flopped straight down beside Roy's pillow.
Wisps of something like "Nen-insects" drifted out as Roy—still asleep—rolled over without thinking, his En spreading outward…
In another room, Razor—still awake, reading Water Breathing under the soft glow of a lamp—corrected his posture and technique. His brow suddenly tightened and he snapped his head toward a corner of the wall.
In the dim corner, a worm appeared and began to crawl toward him along the floor…
Razor flicked a Nen bullet—controlled perfectly to kill the worm without blasting the floor or causing a scene.
But—
The shot punched straight through the worm's body and struck the floor, leaving a shallow crater.
Nen can only be dealt with by Nen. That was common sense.
Yet the worm ignored the shot and kept crawling toward him, steadily closing the distance no matter how far Razor backed away.
Razor's pupils shrank. He smelled rules.
Someone was forcing rules onto him.
Rules = settings—a class of Nen abilities that impose special conditions on oneself and/or specific targets.
Razor watched the worm, seemingly ignoring his will entirely, crawl along the causal thread and burrow into his heart—then vanish.
This "top-tier Emitter" sat back down with a dark expression. Instead of panicking, he used that very "rule pressure" to steady himself.
He wanted to see what the worm was trying to do.
If you want no one to know, don't do it.
When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back.
Roy, unconsciously releasing En, split off "heart-worms" along the causal threads he shared with people—one into Razor's heart… and a second, a third, and a fourth creeping toward other directions.
One went to the sofa beside Roy—the place where Wutong was resting and recovering.
One passed through a wall, down the corridor, into Room 7415—crawling up a sleeping woman's pale leg and into Elena's chest. Even in sleep she frowned, rolled over, and a thin silver line of drool slipped from the corner of her mouth.
"Mmm…" she murmured.
The last heart-worm slid under the corridor lamps, turned a corner, reached Room 7403… and slipped through the door crack.
On the far side, Feccha's Parrot chirped "pew," lifting its head toward the gap.
Ging—now hatless, in pajamas—turned his head.
The pale "heart-worm" crawled closer and closer along Ging's causal link to Roy.
Ging's eyebrow lifted. He looked interested.
He asked the parrot on his shoulder, "Little Sakura, can you tell what it is?"
"It feels… familiar… like an intention…" The parrot cocked its head, fluttered down, and pecked—its hooked beak passing straight through the heart-worm.
On the bed, Ging's eyes sharpened.
"You can't peck it," Ging said, watching the parrot's beak sink into the floor and then pull back out. "That worm isn't a physical thing, and it isn't Nen either. It's more like… a 'rule-formed' worm carrying someone's will."
"You've seen it before?" the parrot fluttered back, staring hard as the worm climbed onto the bed and kept approaching Ging.
Ging's eyes gleamed. He remembered old records from his ancestor's New Continent Travelogue—gods, disasters, servants, faith…
Calmly, he said, "Not directly. But…"
"Whatever it is—and whose will it carries—once it hits, we'll know."
Ging watched it climb up his foot, his calf, his knee… up and up… into his heart.
On this perfectly ordinary night in Vibis,
Ging and Razor both closed their eyes.
They focused, following the worm's movement.
And gradually—the past began to spill out in frames, like film—sucked up by the heart-worm, devoured and carried away…
Demon Slayer World.
Right after opening Giyu's nodes and receiving the panel prompt—[Faith Power +1]—
Roy stood rooted on the wooden corridor like an ancient pine.
And his mind filled with images.
~~~
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