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Hunter x Hunter: The Sun Breathing Zoldyck - 30
🕑 Added 2025-10-06 15:48:04 +0000 UTCChapter 30: Nanno Hiroshi's Gift—Life Energy Column Activated
Roy drank tea in silence. Tanjiro felt like a fishbone was stuck in his throat, sitting restlessly.
The old woman's and young wife's faces became extremely pale. The latter initially hadn't realized, but now understanding, her hands twisted together, ten fingers digging into her clothing hem.
A moment later, a sigh. The old woman seemed to age ten years in an instant, saying quietly, "That child Hiroshi is single-minded. Usually when traveling north and south, he values money more than his own life. He said, 'Unless he's gone, no one should touch his backpack.'"
Now the backpack had returned, but the person hadn't—the meaning was self-evident.
"Child, tell this old woman the truth." By the end, the old woman's voice trembled, seeming on the verge of collapse at any moment, yet suppressed by her powerful willpower. "Hiroshi... he's not coming back, is he?"
The already oppressive air in the wooden house instantly froze. Though a brazier sat on the table, it felt colder than the severe winter outside.
Tanjiro twisted his stiff neck, looking to Roy as if seeking rescue.
Roy noticed little Shizuhime looking at her mother one moment, her grandmother the next, then at him and Tanjiro with confusion. He waved, signaling Tanjiro to take her outside under the pretext of a snowball fight.
Neither the old woman nor the wife objected.
Only then did Roy set down his teacup, saying quietly, "To be honest, I think it's more appropriate for Uncle Nanno himself to explain this matter."
Both the old woman and wife froze. Then they felt a warm current from the table traveling up their knees, spreading to their eyes, and then they suddenly discovered a familiar figure had appeared before them at some point.
It was Mother's child, child's father, and the wife's husband—Nanno Hiroshi.
"Hiroshi!"
"Mother... Naoko..."
Using the table as a medium, the Nen connecting the old woman and wife fluctuated violently. Roy closed his eyes to rest, leaving space for the three, but his heart knew clear as a mirror—this was the manifestation of being impacted by "intense emotions."
Emotions directly reflected in Nen abilities would show different colors. If everyone in the room were Nen users, the small wooden house would appear filled to the brim with surging emotions—only these emotions leaned gray and dark, filled with indescribable sadness and pain.
Outside the window, the north wind howled, carrying in several children's cheerful laughing voices. Roy subconsciously opened his eyes to look outside. Shizuhime was running happily with Tanjiro's company.
Beside the snowman she and her mother had built lay the bamboo horse Nanno Hiroshi had bought her. She called out, laughed, bent to scoop snow and throw it at Tanjiro. Tanjiro forced a smile, pretending pain, fleeing in embarrassment, making her excitedly chase after.
In contrast, inside the house gradually calmed down. The tea boiled, pushing open the lid, spurting hot steam.
Having finished speaking with Nanno Hiroshi, the old woman and wife placed their hands folded before their foreheads, prostrating fully toward Roy in gratitude.
"Thank you, Lord Eiichiro, for avenging my son and husband!"
"It was merely done in passing." Roy helped them up, glancing at Nanno Hiroshi and speaking honestly. "We brothers were going to lodge anyway. Encountering the demon's attack was also for self-preservation. Grandmother and Auntie need not thank me."
"Lord Eiichiro is too modest." Nanno Hiroshi smiled, saying to the old woman and wife. "Mother, Naoko, you may not yet know how Lord Eiichiro toyed with it that day. I watched clearly from the side. That demon was completely no match for him. If not for Lord Eiichiro's intention to train his brother, Lord Tanjiro, I estimate that demon couldn't have lasted even one exchange!"
On this point Roy didn't modestly decline. Having finished tea, delivered gifts, and completed the task, he rose to leave.
The old woman and wife insisted he stay, but seeing traces of tears not yet dry on their faces with signs of more welling up, Roy firmly refused, pushed open the door, and walked into the courtyard.
The old woman and wife rose to see them off. Tanjiro led the tired Shizuhime forward. Under everyone's gaze, Roy handed the flask housing Nanno Hiroshi to his mother.
"This is Uncle Nanno's dwelling place. Grandmother, keep it as a memento."
The old woman tremblingly received the flask and held it to her chest, tears again flowing uncontrollably. Seeing this, the wife forcibly restrained her grief to support her lower back. Only Shizuhime looked bewildered at everything, not knowing what to do.
Nanno Hiroshi chuckled at this moment, quite open-mindedly consoling. "Don't cry, Mother. Since ancient times, who escapes death? Consider that I've gone early to enjoy paradise."
Speaking thus, as if to verify his words, Nanno Hiroshi could no longer control his soul and began dispersing. The old woman and wife, seeing this, became even more heartbroken, pulling his hand and refusing to let him go.
Roy silently watched all this from the side, seizing the opportunity to ask through Nen communication, "Don't you want to say goodbye to Miss Shizuhime?"
Nanno Hiroshi looked lovingly at Shizuhime running to her mother's and grandmother's sides, wiping tears for one, then the other, repeatedly saying, "Don't cry... don't cry."
With infinite attachment, he gently shook his head. "Lord Eiichiro, I, Nanno Hiroshi, rarely thank people. Besides my mother, I've never bowed to anyone. Even years ago when I encountered bandits and was stabbed, I never knelt begging for mercy. But this time, truly, thank you. Thank you for bringing me home, letting me die content."
Cold wind blew, and white smoke drifted from the flask mouth. Nanno Hiroshi's voice grew smaller and smaller until he smiled, taking one last deep look at Shizuhime. Transforming into spots of light flying toward Roy, instantly entering his body.
[Notification: Detected you have cleansed a soul...]
[Entrusted by him, bearing his karma, the other party transfers their final energy to you...]
[Notification: "Life Energy" +1...]
[Host may freely allocate this to the "Constitution" column.]
Roy froze, suddenly feeling the copper coin he'd dug from the snow near Nanno Hiroshi's backpack become abnormally heavy—so heavy that he had to take a deep breath to feel somewhat better.
'So this is the true gift?' The young man murmured softly, standing silently in place through wind and snow for a while.
When he came to his senses, he called Tanjiro, bid farewell to the Nanno family, and turned to advance deep into Mount Sagiri.
"Goodbye, Tanjiro!"
"Goodbye, Shizuhime."
"Goodbye, Nanno Hiroshi..." Roy didn't look back, silently adding in his heart.
The sun and mountain earrings hanging below his earlobes swayed in the wind, gradually disappearing into the snow.
Wind grew fierce, and snow fell heavy. The Kamado brothers' footprints were erased. Heaven and earth stretched vast, leaving only a fenced courtyard with two grieving people and one bewildered child, seeing them off from afar, remaining in place for a very, very long time.
