Chapter 81: A Discipleship Gift No One Could Refuse
If one word could describe the open space in front of the Spirit Wave Style dojo, "bodies everywhere" would be entirely accurate.
An uncountable number of people were sprawled across the ground, some groaning, some completely still. Either way, only two people were left standing in the whole clearing.
One was Master Genkai, expression measured and appraising. The other was Ross, dusty all over but full of energy.
Ross had knocked out every single competitor for the Spirit Wave Style on his own.
He had used essentially three techniques throughout: Sonic Impact, Whirlwind Kick, and Back Throw.
Think of a bowling ball hitting bowling pins. Ross was the ball. The competitors were the pins.
For the current Ross, opponents who hadn't even opened their Nen were, genuinely, just a matter of numbers. If they had all been armed with firearms he might have had to think harder, might even have been suppressed or taken damage. But with everyone empty-handed, dealing with them was simply a question of time.
It was only after the clearing was empty that Ross thought of something.
If Master Genkai's trial question for them was to defeat him, what was his trial question? She had never said.
"Everyone who fell: disqualified."
Genkai had already delivered the result without hesitation. None of those on the ground had the energy or the nerve to object.
When ability speaks, a few hundred people being put down by one person doesn't leave much room for argument.
"You. Come inside."
Genkai didn't spare any further attention for the injured crowd and waved Ross in directly.
Ross grabbed the large backpack he'd left leaning against a pillar and followed quickly.
The door closed. Those left outside, recovering a little strength at last, began struggling up in twos and threes, some moving on their own, some leaning on each other, and headed down the mountain.
They all knew. The Spirit Wave Style had found its successor.
"Sit wherever."
The little old lady gestured at the cushions on the tatami, then turned and started pouring tea at the low table without any further preamble.
Ross didn't rush to produce the letter of introduction. He set his things down and crossed his legs on the cushion.
"Netero told me about you. A young man who wants to apprentice under me."
After taking a quiet sip of the steaming tea, Genkai went directly to the point.
"Why do you want to train in the Spirit Wave Style?"
"...Because the Spirit Wave Style is, to my knowledge, the most comprehensive system available. In theory it covers practically any situation that could come up."
Ross chose his words carefully and answered plainly.
This wasn't flattery. In his understanding, there genuinely was no other teachable ability framework that matched the Spirit Wave Style for coverage and versatility. Integrating into the more theoretically complete Nen system might require some adjustment, but the core of it should hold.
Genkai listened, said nothing, and took another sip of tea.
"You're not being honest."
She said it with complete certainty.
This time it was Ross who went quiet.
"I'll give you one more chance to put it differently. Why do you want to apprentice under me?"
Genkai asked the same question again.
"...Because we have the same hobby, Granny."
Ross, finally producing something honest.
At the same time, his arms formed a loose cradle in front of his chest, Nen moving, and under Genkai's watchful gaze he conjured the Little Tyrant console into existence.
She had heard from "that old man" about Ross's obsession with electronic games. But seeing him actually conjure a game console still managed to surprise her.
So the love was real. Not a trace of performance in it.
"Conjuration type?"
Genkai asked.
"Yes. But I can temporarily adjust if needed."
Ross nodded, then dropped the real surprise.
"...Adjust? Using what?"
Ross's answer made Genkai pause. Every Nen user's innate type was fixed, with almost no exceptions. For Ross to say he could adjust it was genuinely unexpected.
"Using this."
He tapped the console on his lap.
Adjusting your innate Nen type through an electronic game?
The hand holding Genkai's teacup went still. Something in her eyes shifted, the look of someone who had just spotted something interesting.
"By rights, the only type that suits the Spirit Wave Style is Enhancement. It requires the most solid physical foundation and the largest Nen reserves before any other direction of development is even possible. Among all the types, only Enhancement's straightforward output can sustain the Spirit Wave Style's demands."
"Since you say you can adjust, demonstrate."
Genkai placed her teacup on the tray as she spoke. A small piece of tea stem was still floating in it.
Ross nodded, set the console to one side, and activated Ren in front of her. Relatively complete electronic components began condensing inside the teacup. Classic Conjuration type.
Then he inserted a cartridge into the console slot, put on the Power Glove, and ran the Water Divination again. The tea level began rising on its own. Enhancement type.
But the question was: while the tea level was rising, solid matter was still forming inside it at the same time.
This wasn't an adjustment. This was going from single-type talent to dual-type talent.
Dual type. Both at one hundred percent.
"Kid... are you redistributing your Emission, Transmutation, and Manipulation values into Enhancement?"
Genkai was trying to understand what Ross was showing her.
Based on her gaming instincts, the most plausible framework was that Ross, while maintaining his original Conjuration type at full value, had pushed Enhancement to one hundred percent by borrowing points from his other types, the way you'd allocate stats in an RPG, and completing the dual one-hundred configuration with some trade-off applied.
That was the only thing consistent with normal Nen vow-and-restriction logic.
But Ross shook his head.
"No. Right now I'm at full Conjuration and full Enhancement simultaneously. All other types are intact. Not redistribution, pure addition. And that's not all.
"Currently I can only add one extra type on top of my native type. Enhancement and Transmutation are both available. As of tomorrow there's a reasonable chance I'll be adding Manipulation as well."
Genkai was looking at Ross with the expression of someone watching a student show off a perfect report card to an adult.
She very much wanted a cigarette right now.
She was genuinely curious how that battle-obsessed old man had managed to willingly hand over something this promising and send him here instead of keeping him close and shaping him into whatever he wanted.
"Granny?"
Ross had just opened his mouth when Genkai gave him a sideways look.
"Still calling me Granny? Boy, time to change that."
"Master!"
Ross, realizing he had been taken on, visibly brightened. Then, under Genkai's mildly puzzled gaze, he hauled the enormous backpack over.
"Master! The discipleship gift!"
"We don't stand on ceremony in the Spirit Wave Sty..."
The sentence didn't finish. Genkai stopped.
Because what Ross had pulled out was nothing like the traditional discipleship gift she'd been imagining, and nothing as predictable as money. It was console after console after console.
A complete physical collection chronicling the history of gaming hardware in the Hunter world.