"I lean on two worlds, with two giants offering shoulders as footholds..."
Roy's fingertips glimmered with a faint glow, allowing the carving knife to transform into a Nen stream, anti-conjurating back to the realm of cognition. With a thought, he opened the panel and looked at the "Nen Ability Property Change" section...
["Water": Level 3 (1453/10000)]
["Earth": Level 2 (354/1000)]
One comes from "Water Breathing"... another comes from the "Swamp Space"...
His gaze deepened, and as the Nen swirled, he gathered a strand of "Water" and "Earth," emulating Ging's open palms to condense a "Water Sphere" and an "Earth Sphere," attempting to merge them under a warm sunlight...
Behind him, Ging was lazily basking in the sun, but suddenly detected a slight movement of telekinesis, instinctively sitting upright, and looked towards Roy...
"Water" and "Earth" intertwined, permeating each other, then merged, until one was within the other, indistinguishable... As Nen Light blossomed, Roy gently pushed his palms outwards, revealing a piece of raw wood about two decimeters in diameter!
"Wood?"
"Yes, wood."
Roy turned slightly to face Ging, holding the piece of raw wood up to his eyes, casting a modest shadow with the sunlight, smiling as he spoke.
Ging's bright eyes, filled with strong individualistic opinion, flashed rarely with a trace of brilliance, his stiff back slumped down, returning to his lazy demeanor, and he laughed with relief...
"Alena mentioned yesterday that she could never fully understand you. Every time she thinks she's seen the full extent of your capabilities, you turn around and surprise her again..."
"Not a fright?"
"Also a fright."
"And you?" Roy fiddled with the wood in his hand. It was good wood, albeit too short and thick to make a dagger or short sword. It could make... a nail, he said casually.
"Hohoho... Me?" A gust of wind from outside lifted a corner of his hood, revealing unruly hair at Ging's temple.
He lay in the chair, his palm gently stroking the armrest, as his eyes traveled over the boy to the sky beyond, confidently stating, "You, Roy, have your path to walk, and I naturally have my way too, neither of us needs to envy the other."
"People who built their way on plagiarism speak with such boldness!"
"I said it was imitation, a reference!" Ging gave Roy a displeased side-eye, called back Fetcher's parrot, "Now, can I trouble you, Lord Roy, to remove your damned insect from my heart?"
[En] retracted, the heartworm wriggled out from Ging's body, carrying a hint of information, and swiftly disappeared into Roy's palm.
Without waiting for Roy to read the information, Ging straightforwardly said, "Razor doesn't want to follow me; help me persuade him... Greed Island can't function without him."
Without cause, one does not visit the palace... "Would you call this a request?" Roy shot a playful glance.
It's puzzling how someone so young could possess so much cunning... Ging simply said, "Don't phrase it so harshly, it's more of a transaction."
"Once Greed Island is published, it'll be completely open to you,"
"Exclusively, only to you."
"Deal!" Roy smiled and offered his right hand to Ging.
Ninety-nine cards imprinted with various "Nen abilities," a veritable treasure trove, placed in the Hokage world, were like ninety-nine different levels of jutsu of varying power... Roy had no reason to refuse.
As for Ging,
Without Razor, a top-tier "Emission" Nen user, to provide Nen output for Greed Island, he could not hope to sustain its operation, let alone... publish it.
Unless he himself took Razor's place in prison on Greed Island!
"Alright... please gather up your fake smile before it falls on the floor..."
Ging glared at Roy, slapped his hand into his, blinked away faster than the wind outside the window, disappearing without a trace, leaving only one sentence lingering in the young man's ears...
"I'll be waiting for your message." He said thus.
Then... the door slammed shut, leaving Roy's smiling face isolated inside.
"Hoho..." Roy pulled out a chair and sat down, unfazed, simply opening the follower panel, looking at the section belonging to Razor... [Potential Follower Razor... Loyalty, akin to a follower... Would entrust his back to the host...]
Roy's lips curved into a faint smile, his left hand outstretched, once more materializing a carving knife, attempting to imprint the [Divine Spear] into a divine character on the newly materialized piece of raw wood...
Soon, after several consecutive failures,
A [Divine Spear] "wooden nail" quietly floated into view... caught single-handedly and grasped by him.
"Knock... knock... knock..."
"Master, I am back."
"Creak~" The door opened, as Wutong returned with tickets.
Suddenly a streak of dark light grazed his cheek, piercing the air, and nailed into the wall behind the butler.
Wutong instinctively reached for his gun but reconsidered... it was the young master... adjusting the glasses perched on his nose, swallowing hard, and saw Roy holding the nailhead, satisfied and softly murmuring, "Welcome back."
The [Divine Spear Wooden Nail] suddenly extended nearly ten meters before shrinking back, reverting to its regular nail appearance, flipped over and tucked into Roy's pocket.
The young boy smiled, "Let's go."
He patted Wutong's shoulder as they left.
"Yes." The young butler snapped out of it, quickly packing up his luggage to follow.
Master and servant, one ahead of the other, walked slowly forward, stopping in front of Razor's room.
The door was ajar, revealing the tall man's silhouette, simply clad in a vest, leaning against the window pane, silently practicing Water Breathing. Hearing the noise, he didn't look back, only said: "He came to find you?"
"Yes." Roy entered, getting straight to the point, "I didn't refuse."
Then came a brief silence.
After a moment, Razor finished the last move of "Water Breathing: Tenth Form: Lifeflow Variance" with his hand as a sword.
He opened his mouth, slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air, then turned to look at Roy, his narrow eyes fixated on him, "You do know, don't you? I care for you, not for him. If he doesn't jailbreak, I can leave anytime."
"I believe you."
"Then you..." Razor furrows his brow.
Waiting silently for the boy to continue.
Yet... Roy offers no further explanation.
The boy doesn't elaborate further on this matter, but instead saunters to stand shoulder-to-shoulder at the window, watching the bright sunshine, the bustling tourists, the busy traffic, casually saying, "Razor, I'm not yours to command, nor do I have the right to ask of you."
Roy turns to the man sincerely, "Truth be told, from a killer family, I'm no different from you,"
"So, I pondered, follow your heart; whether you care to or not is your own affair."
"Of course, if you agree, I'll teach you the remaining two forms of 'Water Breathing.'"
Razor's gaze moves, wondering if the Tenth Form is not the endpoint of 'Water Breathing'?
His stature, taller than Roy's, squints at the young man for a moment: "Are you threatening me."
"No," Roy's thoughts ripple, conjuring "Eleventh Form: Nagi" and "Twelfth Form: Illusion Sword: Water Mirror Illusion" through Nen, coalescing into a stream of information, and with two fingers, he points to Razor's forehead,
Turning to leave, not even taking a speck of sunlight, leaving only a phrase: "Even if you don't agree, I'll give it to you."
Leaving Razor, alone by the window, silent,
Only after Roy and Wutong had vanished, reappearing downstairs, stepping into a taxi, with a roar of the engine speeding away...
Razor's brow finally relaxed, his lips curling into a warm smile, "You... truly are someone hard to turn down, aren't you?"
"Didn't even say goodbye."
Yet still, goodbye...
Followed by a gentle sigh, carried far by the wind...
Unbeknownst to all, Ging appeared, leaning against the door...