The capacity for techniques handling aura is also finite. For example, 'En' would be useful if it could be used during combat, but this is also a technique that greatly consumes concentration and aura. If I'm going to allocate capacity to that, it's better to pour everything into physical enhancement.
It is a problem of cost-effectiveness. As long as the amount of manifest aura is limited, if I use 'En', I must reduce the aura spent on 'Ren' or 'Ken' by that amount. If I'm going to use a ridiculous ratio of aura to correct a slight discrepancy in recognition, there are plenty of other things I should do.
'Yōkyaku' can improve this dilemma. It can only be used on enemies in contact with the ground, and naturally, its precision drops greatly compared to 'Sympathy' or 'En', but it can be used with almost no concern for the occupation ratio of aura usage. By capturing the enemy with vision and then supplementing information via the sense of touch from the soles of the feet, more accurate recognition becomes possible.
This discrepancy in recognition coming from subtle illusions was a serious problem for me. Boxing utilizes the lightness of footwork to toy with the opponent through agile movements. However, its weakness also lies in footwork. Steps where the center of gravity is light and feet often float are difficult to manage when that moment is targeted. In a state where feet are not touching the ground, one exposes their defenselessness.
Then, if you ask if one should fight with feet firmly planted, that isn't always correct either. A posture with a low center of gravity is certainly easier for dealing with incoming enemies and can unleash powerful blows, but lightness is lost. It is a "waiting" stance, and that has its own drawbacks. It has advantages and disadvantages.
While practicing steps, I somehow came to understand the importance of reading the enemy's movements. A step with mistimed timing becomes a huge opening. Consciousness has waves, and that fluctuation has a rhythm like breathing. The important thing is to read one's own and the opponent's breathing, and move one's feet to thread through the gaps in that consciousness. For that purpose, it is definitely better to be able to sense more detailed information than what is simply seen with the eyes.
This breathing does not become visible unless one observes the enemy truly well. For the current me, it was not something I could do unless I used 'Sympathy'. However, I had a flash of insight upon seeing the technique called 'Yōkyaku'. If I become able to master this without the aid of 'Sympathy', wouldn't it become much easier to read the enemy's breathing than now?
It's a Shingen-ryu technique, but maybe it can be incorporated into boxing steps. The nature of being able to handle enemy detection and foot movement simultaneously is understated but useful. It is not a technique intended solely for enemy searching. Did the developer of this technique not create it with such intentions? I try speaking such considerations to Katroi.
"Eh... no, I haven't received such teachings from my master... but certainly, there is a point to it. I had never thought about it despite using it until now. I am still immature..."
There is no need to be humble. I reached this conclusion by using a cheat technique in a sense called 'Sympathy', but he has accumulated proper training and mastered this technique. He should already be intimately familiar with the essence through bodily sensation, not theory.
"What is this conversation? I don't understand the meaning at all."
"Well, both of them look like they're having fun, so isn't that fine?"
After that, I exchanged arguments with Katroi regarding martial arts whenever something came up. However, the quality of the aura he emitted was slightly unpleasant (it seems he can't suppress it completely without Zetsu), but since I wanted to gain knowledge to become even a little stronger than that, I didn't mind it much.
Usually, he appeared to be a man who stuttered often and didn't speak much, but being a warrior, it seems he has an interest in those kinds of topics. As expected of the Shingen-ryu, he was knowledgeable about Nen training methods and such, and I was able to hear various useful stories.
Chel proposed that I might as well become Katroi's disciple. That's not bad either. Regarding martial arts, he is a person at a height far exceeding me. If I could study under him in earnest, I could learn more deeply.
However, I was refused regarding that matter. He is a busy person too. He probably isn't free enough to look after an amateur who started self-taught boxing a few weeks ago. It's regrettable, but it can't be helped.
Three days later, we finally reached the destination. I can see a hill with exposed rock surface in the distance. Located inside a forest where trees grow thick and lush, only that hill exposed earth tones as if it had gone bald.
Actually, I have been near this place before. But I didn't step in. A phenomenon that is visibly abnormal is occurring.
On top of the hill, I saw one large rock moving slowly. Since there is distance, I don't know the exact size, but it is a giant rock that even several Nen users gathered together couldn't move. The rock, having started to move on its own, floated as if defying gravity and flew off somewhere, carried by the wind.
From that hill, rocks of various sizes are floating up as if flying helium balloons. There is no mistake that something is there, but I didn't approach just to verify it.
Regarding that hill, reconnaissance had been done beforehand by the Nen birds Tokunosuke controls. A portion of the floating rocks was already brought back to the investigation ship, and precise inspections are being conducted. As a result, nothing special was detected in the components. It is a rock of no strange distinction. However, only the mass has become abnormally light.
This rock is not the Return. It is an object whose mass was changed by some factor. In other words, the possibility is high that the thing generating that factor is the Return. Through the investigation of the Nen birds, a likely prospect had been located.
In the center of the hill, at the bottom of a basin that had sunk like a crater, something like a mineral crystal has been confirmed. It has considerable size and is sturdy, so it couldn't be carried out using Nen birds. That crystal itself seems to have a decent weight. Therefore, it is necessary to go to the site directly and harvest it.
There are many unknown parts regarding the influence this mineral has on surrounding matter. Its danger has not yet been determined either, but as a result of several verifications, it seems mass does not change immediately just because one approached it. The floating rocks are thought to be things that had their weight changed little by little over a long period.
That is all the information known regarding the Return, but what is concerning is the calamity—the Risk. Actually, regarding this too, a certain degree was known. At the time this place was discovered, Quantum had already produced a large number of victims, but the total number was still 97.
The units, which had been divided into several squads and scattered for exploration, gathered to hit this hill as a top-priority point and investigate with full force. And of those, 89 died due to an encounter with the Risk.
The investigation team has given this Risk the pseudonym 'Worm'. As the name suggests, its shape is close to a caterpillar. However, its total length easily exceeds 20 meters. It has long, sharp multi-legs like a centipede, and its movement speed is fast.
Many larvae of butterflies and moths have large eye-shaped patterns on their heads as an evolution to escape from their natural enemies, birds. This 'Worm' also has a similar eyeball, but it is not a pattern. A real, giant eyeball is equipped there.
Just because it resembles a caterpillar and has a soft body doesn't mean it's easy to wound. Its skin, boasting tough elasticity like rubber, is impervious to half-hearted attacks. It possesses a chimney-like vent on the top of its head, scattering large amounts of poison gas from there. To top it off, it even launches attacks spitting thread from its mouth at high speed.
It is a demon-like creature, but actually, at the time of the initial encounter, it wasn't guarded against that much. Certainly, there was no mistake that it wasn't an opponent humans could beat, and several victims resulted, but damage did not expand beyond that.
Its movement speed is fast, but not so fast that a Nen user couldn't outrun it if sprinting at full power. It was possible to defend against the poison gas by equipping masks. As long as one was careful of the thread, it wasn't an enemy that difficult to deal with. Rather, because a large dinosaur-type creature looked like it was going to intrude from outside the area during the operation, they decided to retreat temporarily to guard against that.
Through several encounters, they were able to learn about the Worm's ecology to some extent as well. Those guys inhabit the forest around the hill in large numbers. A warning net of threads is stretched across the ground of their habitat, and although it lacks adhesiveness, intrusion is detected immediately if one steps in.
It was a very troublesome existence, but once the trick was known, there were ways to counter it. Rather than fear of the Worm, the morale of the members was high due to the excitement before the Return.
But, that Risk raged not during combat, but when they retreated and were regrouping. Several members began complaining of eye pain. By the time the doctor began the examination, it was already too late. Humans died one after another within a short time.
An urgent investigation of the cause of death was demanded. As a result of autopsying the corpses, an abnormality was discovered immediately. Parasites were confirmed inside the brains of the deceased members. Judging from the shape, they were determined to be larvae of the Worm.
How were they infected by this parasite? The route is unknown. As a result of proceeding with the investigation, there were no members who had directly touched a Worm. There is a possibility that the already deceased members had touched one, but even so, there are too many infected people. Even while proceeding with inquiries, many people began complaining of eye pain.
The hypothesis surfaced that the forest itself where the Worms lived was contaminated, and one was infected just by stepping in there. If that were so, total annihilation could no longer be avoided. Quarantine of patients wouldn't make it in time either. Despair spread through the camp in the forest.
However, as information gathered, it was understood that there were common matters among the infected. First, the parasites found in the corpses are always two. No more, no less. Those two hatch inside the eyeball and reach the brain while devouring the optic nerve.
Next, among the patients, there were many who felt something strange in their eyes during the battle with the Worm. Symptoms of eye strain such as blurred vision, tired eyes, and slight headaches. Spasms of the muscles around the eyes. Among them, some felt unintended eye movement.
And, the trigger for when those patients' symptoms began is also common. It was when they visually observed the giant eyeball on the Worm's head. Many members in the pre-infection group said that the moment those eyes met, they had a sensation like something jumped in. That was truly a momentary sensation without pain, a trivial discomfort to the extent one would dismiss it as their imagination.
When eyes met, were eggs implanted? It was an overly unrealistic deduction, but no one could deny that possibility. In this place, that unreality strides about as if it were natural.
What is terrifying is the point that eye pain began appearing even in the members who were devoted to support in the rear. They never caught the Worm in their vision. However, when they joined up with the members who had retreated—to be exact, when they met the eyes of those who returned—they said they felt a sensation like something jumping in as well.
When that fact was revealed, the dead had apparently already reached over 50. What happened to the remaining survivors, close to 40 people, after that? And now, why are there only four members of Quantum left?
I couldn't ask.