Chapter 131: Instead of Grinding Yourself Down, Put Pressure on Your Master's Senior Disciple
Floor Masters and the so-called Olympic of Fighters were both bottomless pits dug by the old thief himself. And in the entire original story, exactly one Floor Master ever actually appeared.
That being the Phantom Troupe's leader. Chrollo.
Which meant the remaining twenty or so Floor Master slots, however many were actually filled, were wide open for anyone to occupy.
Younger Toguro had indeed given up his human identity and become the leader of the Dark Brokers. But looking back at the original story, the number of demons he killed far exceeded the number of humans. As someone who had transitioned from human to demon, he clearly wasn't the man-eating variety, and gratuitous killing wasn't a habit of his. In terms of actual human kill count, Hisoka probably had considerably more on his record.
Togashi had been hammering this idea since his YYH days, and it carried even further into HxH: the worst of human evil is more frightening than actual demons. From that angle, Castlevania's Dracula was in a certain sense also a product of human evil. As long as human evil persisted, Old Drac could theoretically come back from any number of deaths.
In any case, Ross had genuinely never expected to run into a familiar face among the Sky Arena's Floor Masters. Just a short while ago he had been wondering whether Younger Toguro would come looking for him, and here the man was, arriving not with a threat but with a perfectly legitimate and socially respectable identity.
Dangerous? Ross didn't think so.
Even having fully converted to a demon's body, Younger Toguro's essential character hadn't changed. His personality was actually considerably more upright than most people would assume. If he ever decided he wanted a death match with Ross, he would issue a proper formal challenge. He wouldn't do anything underhanded.
So Ross made some preparations and accepted the invitation.
Knowing someone's character was all well and good, but a few precautions were still the sensible approach.
What Ross genuinely hadn't expected was that Younger Toguro's breakfast invitation would turn out to be considerably more... modest than he'd imagined.
The location: Younger Toguro's personal room on the 249th floor. The food: rice, miso soup, pickled daikon slices, and grilled saury. About as classic a Japanese saury set meal as it was possible to get.
No one else was present. That repulsive, conniving elder brother of his was nowhere to be seen.
When Ross came in, Younger Toguro put down the glass he was holding. Ross's sharp eyes caught the orange liquid inside, almost certainly fresh orange juice.
Even with a body that had fully converted to demon physiology and no real biological need to eat the way humans did, Younger Toguro's personal food preferences hadn't shifted. He had kept the "no alcohol" habit he developed during his training years, and when he wanted something to neutralize the flavor in his mouth, he drank juice.
He had clearly confirmed Ross's identity as the Spirit Wave Style's senior disciple through some channel. He pointed at the complete saury set laid out on the opposite side of the table and gestured for Ross to sit.
"What has Genkai been teaching you? Still working on basics?"
He asked it the moment Ross sat down, with the easy directness of someone speaking to a familiar acquaintance.
Ross, who wasn't particularly comfortable with this kind of very Japanese meal format, found himself uncertain about where to begin. After a brief hesitation he used his chopsticks to peel back the grilled saury's skin, pulled out a piece with no bones, and put it in his mouth.
"I'm different from Yusuke. My progression is unusual. Right now I've covered everything except the Spirit branch."
He said it as if genuinely reporting his training progress to a senior. The fish tasted almost entirely of salt. He couldn't help frowning. Then he reached into his waist pouch, pulled out a packet of chili dipping powder, and shook it over the saury. Younger Toguro couldn't help raising an eyebrow, and it was not entirely clear whether the reaction was to Ross putting chili on the fish or to the training speed just described.
The Spirit Wave Style was Genkai's creation, but at its root it grew out of the school they had both come from originally, and the centrality of body tempering ran through both lineages without change.
Body tempering wasn't something you could throw together in a few months and call a foundation. It required years of groundwork followed by decades of uninterrupted practice to build a physique that was genuinely refined to the bone.
Younger Toguro himself had gone all-in on that path.
The "fight" with Yusuke and Kuwabara had been an entirely deliberate throw on his part, and that choice had been made after he saw Yusuke's potential.
Where Yusuke stood right now, he was still a long way from being any real match.
But Ross, in the same amount of training time, had already begun formally engaging with the four advanced branches of the Spirit Wave Style. That was genuinely surprising. The pace was beyond what he had expected.
In Younger Toguro's memory, Genkai's training philosophy in her younger years had been extremely strict and exacting. Every step had its proper place. The approach looked harsh from the outside but stayed within what was manageable and recoverable. Which also meant: if base conditions weren't met, she would never force advancement.
In other words: Ross's foundational physical condition had already met the threshold, and his natural ability was sufficient. That was why the advanced material had started this quickly.
"Before this year is completely over, I'm going to kill Genkai."
"If you don't want Genkai to die, train with everything you have, both of you, and try to kill me."
Said with the same light, unbothered tone as someone discussing another person's affairs.
Ross was holding something that passed for miso soup mainly because some paste had been dissolved in hot water and a few cubes of tofu and kelp knots had been thrown in for appearances. He didn't so much as twitch when he heard the killing declaration. He wrinkled his tongue, put the soup bowl down, and picked up a piece of sweet-savory pickled daikon to clear the aftertaste from his mouth.
Then Ross delivered an answer Younger Toguro had not anticipated in any way.
"If we take you out before year end, doesn't that mean you never get to take a trip to the Dark Continent? Makai?"
At those words, Younger Toguro, who had maintained a quietly dominant presence from the moment Ross walked through the door, involuntarily tensed every muscle in his body.
Behind the sunglasses, his gaze at Ross sharpened into something that was pure assessment.