"Oh." Illumi climbed out of the pit expressionlessly. With a hook of his foot, he hung upside down from the willow tree, his black hair scattering down like a ghost. He stared straight at Roy and said, "Do you want to whip me?"
A ripple stirred in the boy's hollow, godless pupils... he seemed to be looking forward to it?
He added, "If it's you, you can do anything to me."
Roy: "..."
He took a deep breath, said nothing, and walked straight away.
Out of sight, out of mind; out of earshot, out of trouble. Perhaps, for his stupid little brother, whipping him wasn't a punishment, but a reward?
Whoosh~ A taste of wind blew past, swaying the sprouting willow branches... Roy walked faster than running. Stepping with [Grandmaster Dark Step], he left trailing afterimages in his wake, vanishing from the garden in an instant, only to reappear in the basement.
"Young Master."
"Young Master."
Scarface and One-Eye bowed and opened the security door.
Roy stepped inside. Over the next few days, using his grandfather Zigg's Nen ability [re: The Game of the Dead], he entered and exited the Dark Continent. Comparing his progress against the guide Silva had given him, he slowly ventured deeper into the Uzuki Forest to explore. While increasing his knowledge, he also encountered quite a few bizarre magical beasts and monsters.
[Monster Encyclopedia Recording...]
[1. Iron-Armored Rhinoceros: D-Class Magical Beast. (Note: Ratings are based on Ants. Elite Squad Leaders are D, Division Commanders are C, Royal Guards are B, Ant King is B+)]
[Manifested Aura Amount: D+ (7481/10000)]
[Potential Aura Amount: C—(1250/100000)]
[Increase: Life Energy +7...]
[Innate Nen Ability: "Iron Skin" (Note: When attacked, the Iron-Armored Rhinoceros's skin undergoes "Ironification" to attack and defend)...]
[Prompt: "Iron Skin" has been analyzed... Suspected to be highly coincident with [Ken]... [Ken] +10...]
[2. Withered Leaf Chameleon: D-Class Magical Beast. (Note: Ratings are based on Ants. Elite Squad Leaders are D, Division Commanders are C, Royal Guards are B, Ant King is B+)]
[Manifested Aura Amount: D+ (4715/10000)]
[Potential Aura Amount: C (72540/100000)]
[Increase: Life Energy +10...]
[Innate Nen Ability: "Background Board" (Note: When the Withered Leaf Chameleon is attacked, it integrates into the natural background on the spot, disguising itself as part of nature to become invisible and confuse the enemy, or to launch a sneak attack)...]
[Prompt: "Background Board" has been analyzed... Suspected to be highly coincident with [Zetsu]... [Zetsu] +10...]
Overlord Porcupine. Innate Nen Ability: "Needle". Under stress, it imitates "Emission" to release "Nen Bullets," shooting out the spikes all over its body like bullets, forming absolute suppression against the enemy..."One-Tsubo Pink Mist". Innate Nen Ability: "Dry Heat". Note: A mist-shaped phantom beast that feeds on "lust". It can release pink mist to enter humans, magical beasts, or any life form with reproductive consciousness, stimulating the opponent's reproductive desire, making them unbearably hot... If not released in time, they may fall into a manic state, difficulty to calm...
It was night. In the Zoldyck family castle, a lamp was lit in Roy's bedroom.
Under the soft light, the boy ate dinner while being served by Gotoh. He reviewed his earnings from the past few days, flipping through the guide Silva had given him. He was only two or three days away from reaching the human settlement his father had mentioned... the "Home of the Frustrated"—Iron City...
"Young Master, I have already instructed Kastro. The flight is at nine o'clock tomorrow night. We arrive in Yorknew City at seven the next morning, then transfer to a car heading north. We will arrive at Meteor City in less than two hours..." Gotoh poured a glass of milk and handed it to Roy, tentatively asking, "Do you really not need me to go with you?"
Several days had passed, but the young butler pushed the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose; it seemed he still hadn't forgotten...
That meaningful "Me" that Roy had mentioned...
Indeed, people cannot imagine things beyond their own cognition...
Roy washed down the last bit of bread with the milk. He calculated the time; there was less than a minute until the "Clone" unlocked.
The panel's prompt sounded in his mind at the right moment...
[59... 45... 32... 10... 5... 3... 1... 0...]
[Prompt: The life form with individual name "?" has hatched. Host, please name it immediately...]
A "bloodline bond" so strong it couldn't be dissolved surged into his heart. Roy calmly pulled out a tissue, wiped his mouth, and said, "Come out, Taiyi."
"Tai" as in Sun (Taiyang), "Yi" as in Only One (Weiyi)... Boom! Milky white Nen aura burst out from his body. Exploding outward with Roy as the center, the blast made the skin on Gotoh's face tighten. In his surprise, the butler narrowed his long, thin eyes and suddenly saw...
The surging Nen aura was split in two by Roy's "imagining," "conjuring" a human figure...
That person glowed with specks of fluorescence, going from blurry to clear, from hazy to real, gradually solidifying to reveal... shoulder-length black hair, a defined jawline, a back as straight as a pine tree. He looked like the Young Master—no... he was a complete carbon copy of the Young Master's appearance!
Gotoh stared blankly!
"C-Clone?"
"Yes, a clone."
[Taiyi: In the name of the "Sun," possesses the reality of a "Clone." Can exert 80% of the Host "Main Body's" power...]
[Current Constitution: 503.52 (Note: Average human is 1)]
[Manifested Aura Amount: C— (14283/100000) (Note: Ratings are based on Ants. Elite Squad Leaders are D, Division Commanders are C, Royal Guards are B, Ant King is B+)]
[Potential Aura Amount: C (54992/100000)]
[Nen Ability: 1. "Sharing." (Note: "Taiyi" can share all of the Host's abilities, including "Vision," "Smell," "Taste," and "Nen Abilities.")]
[2. "God's Descent." (Note: "Taiyi" can silently recite the Host's name in his heart to accept 100% of the Host's true body's power. Duration: 10 seconds... Cooldown: 1 day)]
Roy threw a set of training clothes he had prepared before hand to Taiyi. Taiyi caught them with one hand, quickly put them on, and said with a smile, "I'm going out for a stroll to get familiar with the environment."
Roy waved his hand. Taiyi walked past the dumbfounded Gotoh. Before leaving, he patted Gotoh on the shoulder, and under the butler's stiff gaze, he went out the door... walking leisurely along the mottled corridors of the castle, feeling the joy of "living."
Tap... tap... His footsteps were unhurried...
He met the butler and smiled at him. He puts Mike and rubbed Mike's dog head. He met Illumi... seeing that Illumi had just returned from a mission, Taiyi took three steps in two, pulled him into his arms, stroked his back, and said warmly, "You've worked hard."
The suitcase full of money in Illumi's hand fell to the ground with a snap . Tens of thousands of banknotes scattered, blown by the wind into a "money rain"... The stupid little brother stood there in the dim light, messy... Taking another look, Taiyi was walking away, the corner of his mouth still holding that warm smile. Soon...
He arrived outside that dim little room.
"Great-grandfather."
The newborn boy, wearing Roy's face, bowed respectfully toward the room.
The old man, who had just eaten dinner and was slumped in his rocking chair listening to cartoons and dozing off, grunted upon hearing this. He turned over, showing Taiyi his scrawny back.
Taiyi smiled, straightened his back, and continued his stroll... suddenly hearing a voice by his ear... "Child, do you have a name yet?"
"I do. Taiyi. Tai from Taiyang (Sun), Yi from Weiyi (Only One)."
"Hehehe... Good... Good name... Now get lost. Remember, when you are out and about in the future, don't disgrace your master's reputation."
"Please rest assured, Great-grandfather," Taiyi stopped, turned his head, and said calmly, "If the Master is humiliated, I die."
"Nonsense! You can't die either!"
"Yes."
Taiyi took a deep breath, lifted his foot again, bid farewell to Maha, and exited the main gate of the castle. Heading down the mountain path, he passed the garden and turned his head to see... Silva was supporting Kikyo as usual, taking a walk in the garden after dinner. Taiyi stopped at the right moment, bowed slightly to the two, and called out, "Dad...Mom..."
Silva freezes while holding Kikyo. The latter, heavily pregnant, suddenly had a "?!" appear in her electronic eyes. She stared at Taiyi in disbelief and said, "What did you call me?"
"Mom."
"Silva, this is bad, the child actually smiled at me... He must be sick!"
"He isn't Roy..." Silva gently stroked Kikyo's back, his gaze sharp as a knife, looking down to pollize Taiyi. A moment later, his gaze passed over the boy and looked toward the depths of the castle. "Roy, aren't you going to come out and explain?"
"Father asks even though he already knows, what is there to explain?" Taiyi's gentle eyes opened and closed, and in that split second, it was as if he had become a different person... That person, like Silva, had a stream of "stubbornness" flowing recklessly in his eyes. He looked at Silva calmly and said, "He is me, and he is not me. Just like Father is not the Father in the dream, right?"
Silva: "..."
His tall body suddenly stiffened. Taiyi's eyes blinked again, restoring that gentle, faintly smiling appearance. He waved to the two, wished them goodnight, lifted his feet, and went down the mountain.
A taste of wind blew, curling up a trace of chill...
Kikyo pressed against Silva, burrowing into his arms, and asked, "What's wrong, Silva?"
The man stood there like a stone statue, stunned for a long, long time... Finally, he took a deep look in the direction Taiyi had left and said, "Nothing."
"It's getting cold. Let's go back inside, don't freeze the baby."
"Mhm."
The couple left the garden and returned to their bedroom... Passing a corner, Silva suddenly looked toward a dark corner. Illumi's figure flashed; he watched Taiyi go down the mountain, left Silva's field of view, and walked toward Roy's bedroom.
Dong~ At eight o'clock in the evening, the wooden grandfather clock in the corner chimed...
Roy had finished his dinner and was bent over his desk with a cup of hot tea, pondering the "Doctrine." From time to time, he wrote a few strokes on the blank paper spread out before him. His ears twitched, hearing a string of footsteps. He looked up at the window...
Illumi was pressed right against the glass, staring straight at him. "You are duplicitous."
Roy: "..."
Illumi: "You ignore me, yet you still want to hug me."
"That wasn't me."
"It was you."
"It wasn't me!"
"It was you... it was you... it was you! It was your clone!" Illumi lifted his chin. "Father said so!"
Roy: "..."
Illumi: "That is a clone conjured by your Nen ability. It represents your true inner thoughts, so..."
The boy's mouth broke previous and pulled into a smile. He looked at Roy earnestly and said, "You have me in your heart."
Roy: "Come here."
The window slid open. Illumi's heart stirred, and he poked his head in. "Close."
Illumi closed his eyes.
Then...
Hearing only a loud bang , the boy's head throbbed with pain, and his person went floating, flying off into the night sky!
Roy, with a dark face, shook his fist. "Now, that wasn't me!"
He hadn't expected "Taiyi" to cause him trouble as soon as he hatched.
Just as Illumi said, the "Clone" carried Roy's will and represented his true inner thoughts.
Therefore, based on Roy's expectations for "Shuayi" (Taiyi) using the "Visualization Object" [Brushing Sun], he hoped that he could be warm and congenial to those close to him like the "Brushing Sun," while also being as cruel and ruthless as the "Darkness" to enemies.
Because "Illumi" was his younger brother, "Taiyi" automatically adopted the role of "warm and congenial" as soon as he was born. It seemed it was time to set some boundaries for him...
The night was hazy, the moon bright and stars scattered...
That night, after letting "Taiyi" run wild outside for a trip, Roy recalled him with a single thought and taught him "property and limits."
Afterward, he spread out Taiyi's hand. Noticing that the "Curse" had been replicated and also appeared on him, counting down his life... Roy unsurprisingly sent him off to sleep, waiting to set off for Meteor City with Kastro tomorrow to preach.
He sat alone under the lamp, twirling his pen in deep thought...
The gaze from [God] obviously wasn't something that could be resolved by "cleverly" creating one or two clones. Just as [Nanika] targeted the Zoldyck [Bloodline]... Shuayi, using his blood as a guide and Nen as a foundation, naturally could not escape the fate of being "marked" by [God] as well.
However, this wasn't a big deal. After all, Shuayi wasn't him, and he wasn't Shuayi. If he really used Shuayi as a shell to transfer his main consciousness, that would actually be no different from killing Shuayi and killing himself.
Thoughts swirled in this night that was cold despite the warming weather.
Roy gathered his mood and simply stopped thinking about it.
He turned off the light, threw himself directly onto the soft large bed, relaxed his mind, and in a few moments, fell into dreamland.
Siya~ Slight snoring echoed... Shuayi had been arranged by Roy to sleep in an empty room prepared by Gotoh... Through "Deep Sleep," he passed through the colorful dream passage and arrived at the familiar Sea of Cognition.
This time, unlike usual, he didn't immediately push open the Demon Slayer door to enter the Demon Slayer World. Instead...
With a movement of his thoughts, he stepped into his "Unconscious Domain" and, through the "Dream," changed the sky...
He began to test the [Generalized Dream Gate], which had been upgraded and modified by merging the second Blood Demon Art obtained from Mameng a few days ago with his own Nen ability.
[Note: "Generalized Dream Gate" can randomly open a gate through "Dreams" and pull people into the dream. The target of the opened gate possesses a certain randomness and is not controlled by the Host...]
In other words... who the other party is, and where they come from, is entirely determined by "Generalized" randomness...
Roy's eyes flickered as he said gently, "Open the gate."
Crash~ Waves slapped against the reef, shattering into water foam...
Ethereal mist melted into the "Body's" subconscious ocean, splitting into two wisps en route and drifting in different directions...