"Sage, there are different religions with the concept of the trinity, 'soul, body, and spirit', right?" Kai asked hurriedly as he looked at the beautiful miniature fairy flying by his side, who quickly nodded.
"Certainly, Master. Although it's a concept commonly associated with Christianity, there are more religions that have similar or equivalent concepts."
"Then, if we take that into account, we can say that, according to many religions, a human being is made up of three elements, isn't that right?" As if on the verge of a transcendental revelation, Kai looked at Sage and asked in an almost rhetorical manner, to which the beautiful fairy nodded, slightly confused.
"That's right, Master."
"Therefore, following that logic, we could suppose that, since humans are made up of three factors, it's very possible that only two—let's call them body and spirit—interact, while the third, the soul, remains imperceptible unless something transcendental happens.
"And if we force the logic a bit, human life might work like this: the spirit is the personality or self-awareness, closely related to the body—or the brain, to be more specific—and is therefore affected by whatever happens to it.
"But the soul, being immaterial and unshakable, is different. It's like a data storage that records all memories, emotions, and thoughts over the course of a lifetime and only gets released at the moment of death, right?"
Kai hastily voiced all his thoughts while looking directly into Sage's eyes, who couldn't help but reply in an insecure tone as she displayed holographic screens of what he was explaining.
"You are interpreting the concepts too freely, Master. Although in Buddhism, there is the concept of 'alaya-vijñana' or 'storehouse consciousness', which has something to do with what you're mentioning, in the Christian concept of the Trinity, the soul is linked to emotions, the mind, and the personality…"
"It doesn't matter if we're that precise; for now, just follow me on this journey. I only need you to tell me if what I'm saying has any logic." Kai shook his head and commented with a smile, at which Sage could only nod a bit defenselessly.
"If we stretch it a lot, we can say it does have logic, Master…"
"Hehe, I know, but that's not what's important. What's important is that if we follow this line of thought, and if the 'soul' really is some sort of 'total backup' of the human mind, and if reincarnation is also possible, it's logical to think that in very, very special cases, a person might be able to access the data in their soul about their 'past lives', right?" Kai commented with a huge grin, prompting Sage to open her beautiful eyes wide and look at him in surprise as she exclaimed.
"Master, could it be that…?"
"That's right! If we think of human life that way, my memories of my past life make sense: my mini-self is my soul, which contains all the data from my previous life and somehow awakened during 'that event', which gave me my Haki. And the same thing might have happened with Mom, which is why she's so similar to Daniel's mom and also had Haki! Everything is real, and somehow we ended up as mother and son once again because she's my mother forever and ever!!!"
Kai exclaimed with excitement in the middle of the 'medical room', accompanied only by an 'artificial monster' and a 'Nen beast in the form of a miniature fairy', who couldn't help but ask in an uncertain tone.
"Master, are you sure about keeping that 'explanation'? It has too many holes…"
"I know, it's just an initial thought. You could even see it as a crazy idea born from my need to find mental peace, but it will serve as a useful foundation to build upon later..." As he began to 'reassemble' the Nomu at high speed, using his Mystical Palm, Kai responded with a casual smile.
"I understand, Master. I'll keep it in mind, and from a certain point of view, it could indeed help us have a better understanding of how your abilities work, especially Haki because it's very possible that what we perceive as 'voices' is actually what you defined as the 'spirit', Master." Sage said in a thoughtful tone, to which Kai nodded with a satisfied smile.
"That's exactly what I'm thinking because if we think it through carefully, if the soul is like a backup that records everything but is also unshakable and untouchable, there should be an intermediary connecting the immaterial with the material. That would be the 'spirit', which, despite being as immaterial and abstract as the 'self' or consciousness, is heavily influenced by the state of the brain and uses it as hardware to function. That's why my personality is so erratic sometimes—it's the incongruity born of my 'mature' memories clashing with an immature, hormonal body!"
Kai commented with eyes slightly gleaming, somehow feeling that something in his mind was clicking into place, relieving a constant source of discomfort. After all, he wasn't stupid or blind, and he was perfectly aware that his personality was strange—sometimes erratic, immature, and childish—a major incongruity that had always weighed on his mind.
This became especially evident in his first days at UA because although in his time as Daniel he wasn't exactly a shining example of maturity, resilience, and sanity, he had lived through and experienced a lot. Under normal circumstances, he shouldn't have acted the way he did, nor should he have become so depressed when he thought Nemuri would leave him. Yet somehow, in those situations, his emotions constantly overwhelmed his rationality.
When his mind—or perhaps Daniel's personality—told him he should remain calm and focused, keep a low profile, and avoid stupid things like intimidating teenagers and all the nonsense he pulled at UA. His body—or maybe his personality as Kai—drove him to do those meaningless, unnecessary things, like a real teenager with emotional management issues, something that caused him a lot of stress and uncertainty.
This was likely one of the reasons for his incredible fear of things he couldn't understand, such as 'destiny' or, worse yet, the reason behind his rebirth and his own existence. He wasn't sure what he was, why he was in that place, or even if it was real—an enormous weight on his mind that these outbursts only made worse.
But now, if his forced, flimsy hypothesis had some truth to it, it was certainly a relief. Because in the midst of a sea of doubts and unresolved issues, understanding himself and the strangeness of his personality was a major advantage—it meant there would be an end to it. All he had to do was go through puberty, and once his body matured, his personality and emotions would gradually fall back under his control, or in other words, one less problem.
"Therefore, we could say that the soul might have a certain level of 'hierarchy' over the spirit or consciousness, which is why it is capable of perceiving and/or overwhelming it—what we call Observation and Conqueror's Haki. Furthermore, what we perceive as intentions and other such things might actually be a kind of hacking into the communication between the spirit and the soul during the process of registering everything."
Kai added in a calm and rather satisfied tone, having just 'assembled' the Nomu. It turned out to be quite resilient, and although it didn't have super regeneration, its body recovered fairly quickly, making his work much easier.
"That makes some sense, Master. But then, what about Armament Haki…?" Sage asked, full of curiosity as she recorded everything for future reference. Kai fell silent in thought for a moment, then responded somewhat uncertainly.
"Mmm… well, for now, we're just speculating randomly, so it's hard to know, but maybe the soul itself has the power to remain unshakable and untouchable—that aura of the mini-self we perceive. So, when we cover ourselves with 'Armament Haki', what we're actually doing is extracting part of that power, which works like an invisible armor that only we perceive as something black—something outside our perception."
"That might certainly be the case… and if we see it like that, we could say that the advanced states of the Haki are really the 'soul' merging more deeply with the 'spirit', allowing it to interact more fully with the 'material world', sensing the environment and being able to affect it. And maybe that's what caused my evolution!" Sage said with bright eyes, to which Kai nodded with a smile.
"That's what I think too. By merging the 'soul' and the 'spirit' more deeply, they affected each other and became stronger. Not only did you evolve—pretty much all my Nen abilities did, and even my body changed. So, in reality, we might have unknowingly combined soul, body, and spirit at a deeper level through yoga."
"But that leads us to a question, Master: what is Nen…?" Sage asked, confused, leaving Kai rather at a loss. He could only sigh and respond casually.
"I have no idea. In the original work, it was defined as 'vital energy', something supposedly produced by every living being for survival, sort of like what we call bio-energy. But aside from me, we don't know anyone else who can use that energy for anything beyond their own quirks, and we haven't managed to awaken Nen in anyone else, no matter what we do.
"Also, though Dad really did seem like a true Enhancer, there's always the possibility that I've simply misinterpreted my abilities and that they only behave the way they do because I think that's how they work, since we haven't been able to identify my quirk factor. And even though there are obvious differences between my body and a normal human's, we've gotten tired of replicating my traits in test subjects without achieving anything.
"But considering this little speculative session we're having, we can say the 'spirit' definitely plays a very important role in Nen because it relies heavily on my perceptions. Plus, the pacts—a big part of many of my Nen abilities—are basically promises I make to myself, to my own consciousness. So from now on, maybe we can focus more research on my brain; we might find some clues over time."
"We still haven't tried replicating your traits in someone without a quirk, Master…" Sage commented quietly, causing Kai to just shake his head before explaining in a serious, solemn tone.
"Well, we don't have anyone without a quirk, and even though I'm not a good person nor do I pretend to be, I'm not a murderous beast—I have my principles. The rats owe me a blood debt so deep that even if I killed them a thousand times, they wouldn't be able to pay the interest. But I have absolutely no intention of capturing an innocent person. Besides, we want to replicate my aura to give it to the girls, and they all have quirks, so it's not really that crucial to have someone like that."
"I know, Master. Also, according to my simulations, those without quirks wouldn't make a significant difference. I was merely mentioning a possibility worth considering if an opportunity arises. For now, I will adjust a new research project on the subject. Additionally, I will update Project QM, Project RS, and Project SDR with the new findings."
Sage nodded and spoke in a calm tone as her tiny wings began to flash different colors at a terrifying speed. Kai nodded with satisfaction, then asked curiously.
"Perfect, Sage. Although, one thing—what happened with the SDR project?"
"In the SDR (Spatial Dynamics Research) project, using the new discoveries as a base, it can basically be confirmed that the portal quirk is actually an 'artificial quirk' born from mixing various different quirks. In some way, it does something similar to what we theorized about Emission, although unfortunately, we failed.
"This 'artificial quirk' 'emits' that kind of black mist at a specific point in space, and using it as a type of anchor or marker, it bends space-time through a higher dimension, allowing it to interconnect two separate regions in our three-dimensional space."
Upon hearing the question, Sage quickly created a pair of holographic screens in front of Kai—one displaying a complete file with the information, while the second began projecting a graphical representation of his words. This led the blue-eyed boy, who was checking the Nomu one last time, to ask with a tone full of doubt.
"Then, what did we do wrong when we tried?"
"Most likely we still lack a deep understanding of how to bend space through a higher dimension, a gap so large that even our pacts failed. Theoretically, achieving it requires 'negative energy', something currently incomprehensible and highly speculative.
"For that reason, I'm carefully studying that specific part of how the quirk works because there's a high probability there are 'quantum tricks' at play to achieve the 'negative energy' effect, very likely the Casimir effect or something similar."
Sage responded in a calm tone, which made Kai feel thoughtful as he removed the white isolation suit he was wearing.
"Then I'll leave it to you, Sage. And isolate this thing, please."
"You can count on me, Master."
As the Nomu vanished from sight, Sage responded with firmness and dedication. At that moment, Kai headed toward one of the doors in the 'medical room', where a small bathroom with a shower was located. There, he finished undressing and took a quick shower.