Chapter 232: Illumi's Anomaly x Light Comes x Seeing Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto Again
Illumi was stubborn. He limped back, to that same corridor, that same window, and that same shriveled old man with his hands behind his back looking out at the boy in the garden... The young boy slowly walked up to Maha and insisted, "I know I am inferior to him."
Is it that you are inferior... It's because your heart is entirely filled with him, leaving no place for yourself!
Maha watched Roy's back cast a slanted shadow in the sunlight. Without even looking at Illumi, he said, "You are inferior to him. He has grand visions in his heart; what do you have?"
"Don't talk to me about love. The Zoldycks do not lack love. Not in the past, not now, and certainly not... in the future!"
"Illumi,"
The old man raised his hand and grabbed the boy's head. What was bizarre was that despite his small stature, having to stand on his tiptoes just to reach Illumi's shoulder, he still managed to firmly grip his head. He rubbed it roughly and said, "Stop being so paranoid and obsessed!"
"If you don't want to be left far behind by your older brother, you must start thinking more about yourself."
The Buddha says... "Save oneself before saving others, is that what it means?" Held in the old man's palm, Illumi swayed along with the movement. Expressionless like a puppet, he suddenly popped out this sentence... Maha instantly stopped his hand. Looking at him as if he were an alien, he asked in surprise, "Who did you learn that from?"
Illumi calmly brushed away Maha's large hand, pointed at Roy, and said, "I peeked at his notes. Shingen-Ryu, Biscuit."
"Does he not know?"
"He knows." Illumi stated matter-of-factly, "I sneak into his room every night. He knows, and his bird knows too."
"Then he really dotes on you."
"Great-Grandfather knows too." Illumi looked seriously at Maha and said, "You did it on purpose."
Maha remained silent. After a long while, he sighed faintly, "I had no brothers. Your Grandpa Zzigg, your Grandpa Zeno, your father... none of them did..."
"I'm just reminding you,"
"And also envying you."
"Envying that I have a good older brother?" Illumi leaned against the window, staring blankly at Roy's not particularly tall back. After a while, the boy squeezed a few words out from between his teeth, "Great-Grandfather is right. I will think more about myself. It's just..."
"Him first, me second. The order,"
"Cannot change."
Maha cast a sidelong glance at him. "Why not for Milluki? Or for your soon-to-be-born brother? Who knows... he might have white hair and be the next heir of the Zoldyck family?"
Milluki?
"He's a pig, not a human."
As for... the unborn brother... Illumi looked expressionlessly at Maha and said, "You said it yourself... who knows. Who becomes the head of the family in the future has nothing to do with hair color."
"I can't argue with you." Maha neither agreed nor denied it. He turned his head away from him. "It's rare for you to speak so much. Tell me, what do you want?"
Illumi took a step back. Like a zombie, he gave a deep ninety-degree bow, respectfully saluting Maha: "I want to ask you to guide me. I want to be Great-Grandfather's disciple!"
Whoosh~
A gust of wind blew in, rolling up a green leaf, and at the same time, swept away the noise in the corridor...
Maha was stunned. This was a development he had absolutely not expected... When things are abnormal, there must be a demon at work, but the way this demon was acting... seemed somewhat beyond imagination...
"This must be hard for you..." The old man looked weirdly at this grandson (great-grandson) of his, as if knowing him for the first time, and asked in surprise, "What made you decide to do this?"
Illumi lowered his head, touching his chest where the [Shinso Wooden Nail] was kept close to his body. Word by word, the boy blurted out, "Myself."
"It's because I myself am too weak. That's why he gave me the 'Nen Tool', gave me the 'Breathing Style', to protect me."
Maha: "You don't like it?"
"I like it, and I don't like it." Illumi looked straight into the old man's eyes and said faintly, "He thinks I'm weak..."
So... you just couldn't accept that?
Maha's mind was clear as a mirror. He looked the boy up and down, and finally, waved his hand. "Scram."
Tap... tap... Illumi turned and walked away...
Sunlight filtered through the window, hitting the boy and stretching his shadow very, very long, until it reached Maha's feet. The old man said expressionlessly, "One hour before lunch every day. Any more... you know,"
"This old man finds it annoying."
Illumi stopped abruptly. "Acceptable."
"Can't you say thank you?" Maha glared at him, his volume invisibly rising.
Illumi stiffly turned his head to look at him. "Great-Grandfather, it is what you ought to do."
"What I ought to do?" Vein pops~ Visibly, a cross-shaped vein suddenly bulged on Maha's bald head with only a few hairs left... The old man silently bent down to take off his shoe...
Illumi walked backward, half of his face merging into the shadows, silently slipping around the corner and disappearing...
Should I say he runs fast... or that... there's a whole hour waiting for him every day from now on... Seeing that he knew what was good for him and slipped away, Maha spared him this time. He then raised his eyes to look at the boy in the garden, sitting silently under the sun with his eyes closed in meditation, stroking his sword.
Because of his existence, it seemed that the entire Zoldyck family, top to bottom, had undergone no small changes. Sometimes... even he himself... Maha couldn't help but wonder, had he been too sentimental lately?
To actually agree to such an outrageous, ghost of a request from Illumi?
Leisurely white clouds drifted by, slightly blocking a ray of sunlight and casting large swathes of shadows. Maha returned to his senses, put his hands behind his back, and quietly stared at Roy, lost in thought.
After his Great-Grandfather pointed out the keyword "Gratitude", Roy immediately entered a meditative state, beginning to ponder... "What to do" in order to repay the "swordsmanship that nurtured him" with the "most sincere" and "most devout" great kindness...
Should he be like Netero, offering a "martial arts" response with a "straight punch" preceded by a "prayer" every time...
Or like Yoriichi Tsugikuni, using his "innate swordsman's vessel" augmented by the "innate Transparent World" and the "inborn Demon Slayer Mark" to condense "formidable talent", making "swordsmanship" willingly bow its head...
As Roy pondered, listening to his inner voice, his intuition told him... neither.
Whether it was Netero or Yoriichi Tsugikuni, they were humans first, and only then "fist" and "sword"... Just as Great-Grandfather said, they had their paths of invincibility, they had their strong personal styles, and not... his, Roy's...
So, "What is my style?"
"And what should I do?"
"Why did I learn the sword in the first place? Why did I run to Mt. Sagiri and take Sakonji Urokodaki as my master?"
"To become stronger,"
"For the sun in my heart," "To be the sole honored one above heaven and under earth, in ultimate arrogance!"
"And also to... become that ray of light that can bring warmth to the people of the world!"
Roy suddenly opened his eyes and whispered, "Light, come."
Shiiing~ A sharp sword cry!
[Solar Eclipse] unsheathed. The straight blade, the tip pointing forward... the moment the cold light was bared...
The white clouds overhead broke apart, casting thousands of rays of light that converged entirely on the blade, making him radiate, emit heat, and shine!
Transforming into a blade of light, piercing through the inside and outside of "Nen", transcending "Cognition"...
Suddenly whipping up waves...
Causing the door in the Sea of Cognition with the "horned corpse demon" ornament hanging above it to tremble violently. As if sensing something, it cracked open again...
A corner was revealed through the crack...
It was that familiar small courtyard, a corridor, an old man, a middle-aged man, and two cats—a large orange one and a raccoon dog—all peaceful in their own ways. Only... as the old man sitting cross-legged in the corridor, with a long white beard trailing down and both hands resting on a wooden walking stick, faintly opened his eyes...
Everything changed!
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