Chương 18: A Certain Shingen-ryu Senior

The next morning, Aren created cups, water, and leaves. Uvogin watched the setup with deep suspicion.

"If this is study again, I'm leaving."

"It's water divination," Aren said.

"A standard method from the Shingen-ryu school, the same lineage as Isaac Netero, if that means anything to you."

"Who's Netero?"

"Chairman of the Hunter Association. One of the strongest Nen users alive." Uvogin's suspicion vanished.

"What type?"

"Enhancer."

"Good method."

"You hated it two seconds ago."

"I matured." Aren placed a leaf on the surface of the first cup.

"Pour aura into the water. The reaction tells us your type. If the water volume changes, Enhancement. If the taste changes, Transmutation. If the color changes, Emission. If impurities appear, Conjuration. If the leaf moves, Manipulation. Anything strange outside those patterns may be Specialization." Uvogin went first. The moment he used Ren, the water swelled and spilled over the rim. He slammed a fist into his palm. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road.

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"Enhancer."

"No surprise," Nobunaga said. Nobunaga tested next. The water rose too, not as violently as Uvogin's, but clearly enough. He stared at it, then laughed.

"Enhancement. Works for me." Machi stepped forward last. Her aura entered the cup in a thin, controlled stream. The water did not rise. The color did not change. No impurity formed. The leaf stayed still. Uvogin leaned in.

"Did it fail?" Aren picked up the cup and tasted a drop. Sweet.

"Transmuter." Machi's gaze shifted to the steel thread around her finger.

"Transmutation."

"It suits you." She did not answer, but her grip on the thread changed. After the tests, Aren began the next lesson.

"Gyo." He raised one finger and gathered aura around it, shaping a faint number one in the air.

"Focus aura into your eyes. Gyo lets you see aura more clearly, including aura someone tries to hide." Uvogin squinted until his face twisted.

"I see something."

"Your face?" Nobunaga asked.

"Want to die?"

"Focus." They trained until all three could see the number. Then Aren split them by type. For Machi, he created a simple Transmutation exercise: shape aura into numbers from one to ten on a fingertip, each one distinct, each one clean. The goal was to complete the sequence in five seconds without the shapes collapsing. Machi listened once and began. By the third attempt, her number one already looked sharper than Uvogin's handwriting. For Uvogin and Nobunaga, Aren created two piles of rocks.

"Use aura to strengthen one rock and smash the others. Maintain the aura. Don't just throw strength at it. Control matters." Uvogin picked up a rock and grinned.

"I like this training."

"Of course you do." Nobunaga took his own pile with more dignity, then immediately tried to break Uvogin's rock with his.

"Wrong target," Aren said.

"I was testing."

"Test on the pile." Aren watched them work for a while. The methods were not his inventions. They came from memory: an old Shingen-ryu senior, a tiny woman who looked harmless enough to be underestimated by fools and was dangerous enough to break most of them. Somewhere far away, a small blonde woman relaxing in a hotel room suddenly sneezed.

"Who is talking about me?" she muttered. A soft-looking masseuse continued working behind her. Back in Meteor City, Aren left Uvogin and Nobunaga to their rocks, Machi to her aura numbers, and returned to his room. He locked the door. Now that everyone else had a road, it was time to look at his own.