In the mountain.
Kanzai and Pyon walked along the mountain path.
"Hey, rabbit."
Kanzai suddenly spoke up.
Pyon glanced at him and waited for him to continue silently.
Kanzai stared straight ahead and said without hesitation, "You really like Moses very much."
"What do you mean?"
Pyon sensed something amiss and looked at Kanzai's profile.
Kanzai shook his head and said, "Nothing, just feeling a bit sentimental."
"Ah, did you take the wrong medicine today?"
Pyon narrowed her eyes slightly.
This time, Kanzai didn't retort, but remained silent.
Pyon sensed something and refrained from speaking further.
The two continued down the mountain path in silence.
After a while…
Pyon suddenly sighed, "Kanzai, you're not as dumb as you look."
"Tsk."
Kangzai snorted coldly and was too lazy to argue with Pyon, mainly because he really couldn't win verbally against Pyon.
"I…"
Pyon stopped walking, then turned to look back towards the direction of the temple, and said, "A long time ago... well, I should say that I fell in love with Moses when we were dealing with the Swamp Man Incident."
"…"
Hearing this, Kanzai also stopped walking and turned his head to look at Pyon.
Pyon slowly withdrew her gaze from the temple and said seriously, "It's just that at that time... I was attracted by his talent and potential. Moses, he… was really outstanding. The closer you get to him, the more you feel the 'light' on him is so dazzling."
"So that's why you started to 'haunt' Moses from then on."
Kanzai put his hands in his pockets. It was rare for him to be able to hit the nail on the head.
Pyon smiled and said, "I won't deny it. I'm even willing to pay for it. If it were you, you couldn't possibly ignore a potential stock that has such a promising future, right?"
"…"
Kanzai fell silent again, this time in acknowledgment.
That's right.
No Pro Hunter would ignore a potential stock with such a dazzling brilliance.
Moses's ability...
is a dark shadow.
But that talent and potential were shining lights.
It was so dazzling that it blinded him, and even if he wanted to deliberately ignore it, it would be impossible.
"Kanzai, I don't know what's wrong with you, but..."
Pyon looked at the silent Kanzai, slightly restrained her smile, and said calmly: "My current attitude towards Moses, and even my feelings... do not have anything to do with 'exploitation'."
"I see."
Kanzai raised his hand and scratched the back of his head, then snorted, "I don't understand women, but I'm not so dumb I can't see anything."
"So what was wrong with you just now?"
Pyon said bluntly.
Hearing this, Kanzai looked in the direction of the temple and said, " After all, I've been getting food for so long, so I have to do something I think I can repay."
"I have no interest in what you think."
Pyon stared at Kanzai, the cheerful smile in her coral-colored eyes quickly faded, replaced by a sharp luster, and she said in an unquestionable tone, "But don't even think about interfering with us."
"You can rest assured about that, Pyon."
Kanzai raised his hands and held the back of his head.
He had already confirmed that Pyon's feelings for Moses were pure, so he walked straight toward the mountain path, saying as he walked, "What I hate the most is requesting for trouble. Even if you want to rely on Moses to do something in the future, I won't get involved because people like you always like to complicate things. It gives me a headache just thinking about it."
"It's asking for trouble, you language idiot, when will you make any progress?"
"Stinky rabbit, why do you care what I say? As long as I can understand it, isn't that enough?"
"Can that be the same thing?"
"I don't care."
"Idiot."
The two continued to descend the mountain path.
The slightly heavy atmosphere just now dissipated silently.
…
With Kanzai and Pyon gone, the temple suddenly became much quieter.
Although Menchi was happy, she also felt a bit uncomfortable.
The same is true for Moses.
However, he quickly adjusted, not even bothering to change the rabbit-patterned bedding Pyon had left behind.
In the days that followed, Moses no longer swung his sword, but instead spent more his time and energy on practicing Ryu and Ko.
Moses's current mastery of these two advanced Nen Techniques was probably around [D-].
Without shortcuts from Perception, he would have to work harder to improve his proficiency in these two skills.
During these days of practicing advanced Nen Techniques, Moses had not yet started to create the Kyoka Suigetsu ability system.
Instead, he first injected the Super Speed ability foundation into the Black Sword system, thereby obtaining a powerful attack method.
'The more abilities you master, the slower the efficiency and speed of improvement will be, and there is also a risk of falling into mediocrity.'
'But with perception, sometimes being greedy might also be a good thing.'
'For now, I should focus on improving not only Ryu and Ko, but also my Manifested and Potential Aura, as well as the momentum of All Extinct.'
'Before that, I'd really want to try out the combat effectiveness of All Extinct.'
'After Hawk returns, I should go to the Heavens Arena again.'
'By the way, I wonder if Killua is still in the Heavens Arena. It's been a long time since I contacted him.'
Moses stopped in front of the altar in the main hall, and a thoughtful look appeared his eyes.
Even when he was just thinking about things, he didn't waste the time that could be used for training. He directly closed his Aura Nodes and put himself in Zetsu state.
In this way, Moses could ponder things while improving his mastery in Zetsu.
He even deployed his shadow clone, which allowed him to simultaneously enhance his proficiency in Hatsu to some extent.
Originally, after Hawk was officially out of danger, Moses had thought he wouldn't need to be so obsessed with speed on his pursuit of becoming stronger, which would make things a bit easier for himself.
However, some habits are hard to change once formed.
"Hmm?"
After a long time, Moses's shadow clone noticed a figure walking up along the mountain path.
It's Hawk.
'If you were coming back, you could at least give me a heads-up.'
Seeing Hawk return without any prior notice, Moses felt a bit helpless.
…
Outside the temple's gate.
Hawk looked at the brand-new wooden door, and his gaze involuntarily fell on the three-dimensional wooden carving of a tiger head on the door panel.
"Really? This broken door did need to be replaced, but a place like a temple shouldn't have such an aggressive wood carving."
Looking at the tiger-head wood carving on the door, Hawk felt that it shouldn't be something Moses would come up with.
'It must have been made by some idiot who lacks common sense.'
He thought to himself.
(Kanzai, who is thousands of miles away, suddenly sneezed three times in succession.)
"Forget it, I'll just cut it off some other time."
Hawk shook his head, then raised his hand and knocked on the wooden door.
Moments later.
The door slowly opened.
Menchi poked her head out and, upon seeing Hawk who had returned from recovering from his injury, was initially stunned but then greeted him somewhat awkwardly, "Uncle Hawk, you're back."
Since it was essentially her first interaction with her master's father, she wanted to leave a good impression.
Hawk looked Menchi up and down and asked tentatively, "Are you... Moses's partner?"
"Ah?"
Menchi was stunned again, and after realizing what he meant, she hurriedly shook her head and said, "No."
Hawk quickly followed up, "What is your relationship then?"
"We are master and disciple!"
Hawk asked quickly, and Menchi answered just as fast.
"Master and disciple, huh..."
Hawke pondered for a moment, then said seriously, "That's okay. These days, societal norms are very open, and a master-disciple relationship won't be a barrier."
"Ah?"
Menchi was a little overwhelmed by Hawk's train of thought.
Just then, the sound of Rat Jewel bouncing was heard, which attracted Hawk's attention and helped Menchi out of the predicament.
"Yo, Rat Jewel."
A smile appeared on Hawk's face as he walked over quickly.
When Rat Jewel saw Hawk, it immediately jumped on Hawk excitedly, chirping continuously.
Hawk gently stroked Rat Jewel's little head with a smile on his face.
However-
When Hawk saw Rat Jewel, he couldn't help but recall the conversation he had with Cheadle in the hospital.
"The cause is uncertain. It could be the aftereffects of Libra's curse, or it could be that you overused your abilities. In any case, you don't have many years left."
"Cheadle, I am still a patient, can't you be a bit more tactful?"
"No."
"This…"
"Do you want to tell Moses?"
"No, not for now..."
Hawk continued to stroke Rat Jewel gently.
'I can't be sure how many years I have left…'
'But it should be enough.'
Enough for him to concentrate his will during this period of time so that the Rat Jewel would not dissipate because of his death.