Sanjay hit the egg back toward Nico with brute force. As the egg approached him, Nico felt a gust of wind and hit it harder than the feeling of being rejected, which means he hit that egg really hard over the net.
Sanjay was smiling confidently as he prepared for a blessed pendulum serve. The ball sailed over the net, and Nico thought to himself that if he didn't beat Sanjay, he'd give up everything. At the same time, Sanjay was perplexed by the immense aura Nico was releasing without seeming to realize it. "But what the hell?" Sanjay exclaimed as he chopped the ball. Nico responded with a fast, long serve, and the intensity of the game escalated. Jack watched, clearly impressed and feeling a tinge of jealousy, wishing he could play this well.
"This match will end soon," Sanjay proclaimed, confident he would win. "No, it won't," Nico replied with a straight face. "And how sure are you?" Sanjay asked with a smirk. "Kiri ga naikara." Nico says with a straight face, Sanjay has no idea what the hell "Kiri ga naikara" means. Nico told him to look it up. (The phrase is Nihonese and means "'cause it's endless." Nico is familiar with the words because he is partly from Nihonia, where the lingua franca is Nihonese, as I mentioned earlier.)
Sanjay performed a pivot step followed by a backhand drive with spin. "Your reverse pendulum won't work on me. Even if it did, Clown was able to deflect it, and I'm better than him in this game, so I'd obviously still block it," Sanjay said, trying to provoke Nico. Nico ignored him, and as the ball bounced, he struck another reverse pendulum. Sanjay easily returned the ball over the net. Nico replied with another reverse pendulum, but Sanjay just extended his hand to let the egg bounce off his paddle before sending it back over the net for Nico to receive and perform yet another reverse pendulum.
Sanjay taunted Nico, claiming he was destined to lose. Nico continued to execute the reverse pendulum, driving Sanjay to his limits. Finally, Sanjay decided to counter with his own reverse pendulum, but Nico surprised him by doing a pendulum serve. Although Sanjay managed to return it, the egg bounced out of bounds, meaning Nico won.
"When I said 'kiri ga naikara,' I meant 'Omae no haiboku wa ore kara kiri ga nai.' (The phrase means "your losses from me are endless".) Sanjay still has no idea what Nico said at all, and Nico replied, "I don't give a flying monkey."
Applause erupted from several guildmates. Nico turned to see five friends, including Jack, applauding him. An elf-eared guy told Nico he had passed the test, which shocked Nico since he had only defeated Sanjay and lost to two others. How had he passed?
The elf man explained that Sanjay was the best table tennis player on the volleyball court. Comparing the others to him was like comparing a hydrogen bomb to a coughing baby. He said that by defeating Sanjay, Nico had practically defeated everyone in the guild.
"Nico, you really did pass, and you also emitted aura from your body. Your aura was overflowing. Are you a vessel or can you manifest?" Sanjay asked. Nico was confused and didn't understand what Sanjay meant.
A guy with a durag and glasses, only wearing underwear, approached to explain. "You see, Nico Stars, your aura is the output of your life energy. Through this, humans are blessed with two abilities: one is called manifestation, where you use your aura to create an object that resonates strongly with you, granting you abilities. Sanjay, Jack, Gold, and I use manifestation. The second ability is being a vessel. A vessel is basically a regular human who cannot manifest objects but instead embodies the powers themselves. The vessels in the crew are Jojo, Clown, Iris, Rocky, and Paulina. I wonder what you are—a vessel or a manifester?" he inquired. Percy, the guy who was speaking with Nico, bet twenty thousand marion on Nico being a vessel, while Rocky bet the same amount but on Nico being a manifester, sparking a fight between them.