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Hunter x Hunter: The Sun Breathing Zoldyck - 24
🕑 Added 2025-10-04 14:12:50 +0000 UTCChapter 24: A Thousand Faces X Illumi's Gaze
Nanno Hiroshi's words finally stopped. He sighed with regret, the wrinkles on his face deepening.
Humans are emotional creatures—who could truly achieve complete acceptance in such a situation? In his small home, not only was his daughter waiting for him, but also his wife, his mother, and all his familiar and unfamiliar relatives and friends were concerned about him.
Yet look at him now—nothing but a lonely ghost dependent on others.
"You are both fortunate and unfortunate." After a long silence, Roy helped Nanno Hiroshi up with a solemn expression. "I accept your request. Tanjiro, bring your water flask."
"Okay."
Though Tanjiro didn't know what his brother needed the flask for, he obediently carried the oil lamp and walked into the shrine through the wind and snow.
Roy held Nanno Hiroshi's hand, wrapping his remnant soul with Nen, silently following behind. Stepping over the high threshold, he closed the shrine door, blocking all the wind and snow outside.
Cold wind howled through the mountain range like wailing ghosts. The shrine had been cleaned and was refreshed, free of bloody smell.
Splitting broken wooden boards for kindling and lighting a campfire, the interior quickly warmed. At this time, Tanjiro also brought over the water flask.
Roy unscrewed the cap and pulled out his own flask from his chest, pouring all its water into Tanjiro's flask, leaving only an empty one. He said to Nanno Hiroshi, "Please bear with staying in the flask tonight. When dawn comes, I'll take you to find your family."
"Thank you for the trouble, Lord Eiichiro." Nanno Hiroshi bowed.
When he raised his head again, he had transformed into a wisp of light that, as Roy manipulated his Nen aura, entered the flask. A soft thud—the stopper fell into place.
Only then did Roy smile. "No trouble. We were heading to Mount Sagiri anyway—this is just on the way."
The flask trembled slightly, as if responding.
Tanjiro leaned over curiously, looking left and touching right. This was the first time he'd seen someone collected into a flask. He couldn't help asking, "Can people really be collected into flasks?"
"People can't; demons can." Roy slapped away Tanjiro's little hand, keeping the flask close to his chest and warming it with a trace of Nen.
Considering Tanjiro's question further, the first demon that came to mind was Upper Moon Five of the Twelve Kizuki—Gyokko. In the original story, Gyokko could not only shrink and hide in pots but could also enlarge through molting, clearly possessing considerable talent in spatial matters.
"Oh, I thought I could be collected too. That way I could stay with you anytime, anywhere." Tanjiro was obviously disappointed, dejectedly crouching to the side.
Roy tossed two dumplings at him, hitting his head. The foolish little brother really thought his flask was some magical artifact, believing people could be sucked in with just a call? Pure fantasy.
Night gradually deepened, and the wind and snow outside showed no signs of stopping. Roy and Tanjiro sat around the campfire, ate two dumplings, drank some water, and made beds on the ground.
The blanket was what Mother Kie had stuffed into the basket to cushion the charcoal—shaking off coal dust made it usable as bedding.
After eating his dumplings, Tanjiro lay down beside Roy, turned on his side to watch the dancing campfire, and said absently, "Say... is the outside world very cruel?"
Whether it was the woodcutter eaten by Sato Takeichiro or Nanno Hiroshi, who had his intestines ripped out alive by Dohihara—these past few days Tanjiro had seen too many dead people and witnessed the terror of demons.
He tossed and turned, unable to sleep, staring at Roy with bright eyes.
Roy clasped his hands over his abdomen and simply closed his eyes, feigning sleep. A thousand people, a thousand faces—each person's perception of the world differed. Perhaps in some people's eyes, this was hell, but from another angle, from the perspective of demons led by Muzan, what hell? Clearly it was paradise. A paradise with readily available blood meals everywhere.
Not receiving an answer, Tanjiro huffed and turned away in a sulk.
Roy was too lazy to deal with him, attempting to empty his mind and soon entering dreamland. The familiar sensation of falling came.
The young man opened his eyes again, returning to the familiar bedroom. This night was both long and short, as if nothing happened yet everything did. Only the grandfather clock chiming in the corner reminded Roy it was now 4 AM—time to run.
Hot. That one word summed it up perfectly.
Roy put on his tank top and shorts, running through Kukuroo Mountain, appreciating scenery completely different from the Demon Slayer world. He was still somewhat dazed, seemingly not yet pulled out from the cognitive world.
While running to the mountainside, he saw lights on in the butler's villa with many people already bustling about. He could even faintly smell baking bread from the kitchen. Only then did Roy suddenly snap back to reality, his pace continuing downward toward the mountain base.
'One kilometer, two kilometers... this pace seems somewhat faster than before.'
Thanks to breathing techniques and progress in Shadow Step, Roy clearly felt his speed improving. Opening his status panel for a glance—Constitution had grown from 10.05 to 10.55, equivalent to adding "half an ordinary person" to his original foundation.
Not bad—not tremendous progress, but at least breaking through the bottleneck.
Roy's lips curved into a shallow arc, his mood slightly more pleasant. With wind at his feet, in another glance he arrived at the security room.
"Good morning, young master." Zebro, guarding the security room, didn't yet have the appearance he'd have later in life. In his prime despite a severely receding hairline that would only worsen with age, already trending toward a severe pattern.
He removed his hat and bowed to Roy.
Roy returned a smile and was about to leave when a tremendous crash rang out.
The gate symbolizing the Zoldyck family's "absolute strength" was pushed open from outside to inside—three doors. The gate, also called the "Testing Gate," had seven doors from top to bottom. The smallest weighed two tons, then doubled with each door opened. Opening three doors meant the opponent's strength reached an astonishing fourteen tons.
"Welcome home, Young Master Illumi."
Just having bowed to Roy, now having to bow to Illumi, Zebro removed the hat he'd just put back on, somewhat surprised to discover this was the first time at this hour he'd encountered both young masters.
The gate closed with another tremendous crash.
Illumi walked in expressionlessly, completely ignoring Zebro. A pair of hollow eyes locked onto Roy.
"Letting you know... I've also opened my aura nodes."
