lasted fifty-three minutes.
Meruem knew because he counted.
Not deliberately at first. There was simply nothing else he could do.
Mitu had ordered everyone out of the examination room except Komugi. She had shut the door, drawn the curtains, and warned Meruem that if she felt his aura pressing against the walls, she would stop immediately.
He had considered the warning unnecessary.
Then he had realized he was already using En.
He withdrew it.
Now he stood beneath the narrow awning outside the house while the morning continued around him with an indifference he found increasingly offensive.
The carriage remained where they had left it. Its horse occasionally lowered its head to pull at the grass beside the road, unconcerned by whether Komugi survived the week. Edrin had disappeared toward the nearby village to purchase additional water after Mitu suddenly doubled the amount she wanted carried. Somewhere behind the house, the elderly neighbor who had assisted with Komugi's walking test was hanging washed cloths on a line.
Everything moved.
Everything except him.
Meruem looked toward the closed window.
Fifty-four minutes.
He corrected himself.
There had been a time when waiting was something other beings did for him.
Now an old woman had placed him outside a room and told him to remain there.
And he had obeyed.
The realization should have angered him.
Instead, his attention settled on something more useful.
The test.
Four steps.
The sequence remained perfectly preserved in his memory. Komugi's first movement had been stable. The second had produced an increase in aura output. The third had concentrated that output around two specific regions. The fourth had preceded a reversal of circulation and immediate muscular failure.
Mitu had called it abnormal.
That description was insufficient.
Abnormal compared to what?
Nen was already a system shaped by individuality. Two Enhancers could train identically for years and still produce radically different expressions of the same principles. Conditions, intention, personality, trauma—all could alter the behavior of aura.
Komugi herself was an extreme example.
Her Nen had first emerged through Gungi.
Not combat.
Not survival in the conventional sense.
A game.
A board.
An obsession refined until concentration became something deeper.
If her current anomaly was responding to physical intention rather than exertion, then measuring her as though she were simply ill could be fundamentally wrong.
Meruem's gaze lowered.
He had no evidence for that yet.
Only possibilities.
And possibilities multiplied faster than answers.
The door opened behind him.
Meruem turned before Mitu spoke.
She looked tired.
That was the first thing he noticed.
Not frightened.
Not defeated.
Tired.
Her shoulders sat lower than they had an hour earlier, and the lines around her remaining eye seemed deeper. In one hand she held the pocket watch from the earlier examination. In the other, a folded sheet covered in narrow handwriting.
"Inside," she said.
Meruem entered.
Komugi was lying on the narrow bed near the wall. She appeared asleep, though her breathing told him otherwise.
Too deliberate.
She was listening.
Edrin had not yet returned.
Mitu placed the sheet on the table and sat down.
Meruem remained standing.
"Well?"
Mitu rubbed the bridge of her nose. "She can travel."
Komugi's breathing changed.
Barely.
Meruem heard it.
His relief lasted less than a second.
Mitu had not finished.
"Today?" he asked.
"If nothing changes over the next two hours."
A condition.
He expected one.
"What did you find?"
Mitu turned the sheet around.
The page contained columns of numbers, short notes, and three hand-drawn diagrams. Meruem read them once.
Then again.
Pulse.
Temperature.
Respiration.
Aura output.
Response to Ren.
Response to Zetsu.
Recovery after controlled stimulation.
No second walking test.
He looked up. "The reversal did not repeat."
"No."
"Then it was caused by exertion."
"I did not say that."
"You attempted to reproduce it."
"Without making her walk."
"And failed."
"Yes."
Meruem's gaze returned to the page.
That should have been good.
Instead, Mitu looked more concerned than before.
"You expected it to repeat."
"I expected something to repeat."
She reached for the pocket watch and placed it over one of the diagrams.
"Death Judge has three useful functions. The first is observation. I can detect abnormalities in aura circulation that would normally require hours of conventional examination."
Meruem already knew that much.
"The second?"
"Intervention. If I recognize a destabilization pattern early enough, I can interrupt it."
"Which is what you've been doing."
"Yes."
"And the third?"
Mitu's fingers stopped on the watch.
"I can impose a temporary equilibrium."
Meruem's attention sharpened.
"You never mentioned that."
"Because it is the part most people misunderstand."
Komugi opened her eyes.
Mitu looked toward her. "You might as well sit up if you're going to listen."
"I wasn't pretending very well?"
"Terribly."
Meruem moved before Komugi could attempt it herself and raised the upper half of the mattress support. She gave him a look that suggested she had noticed his attempt to make the movement seem incidental.
He ignored it.
Mitu continued. "Imagine two forces pushing against each other. If one becomes stronger, Death Judge can increase pressure on the other side until they balance again."
Komugi glanced toward Meruem. "Another money explanation would have been easier."
"No," he said. "Continue."
Mitu did.
"The equilibrium isn't natural. My aura is part of it. Remove my influence too soon, and the original imbalance remains."
Meruem understood.
"You are not repairing the system."
"Exactly."
"You are becoming part of the system."
"For a short time."
"And each intervention changes the next state."
Mitu nodded.
That explained her caution.
A healer who repeatedly stabilized Komugi could eventually make the body adapt to the stabilization itself. The more effective Death Judge became at suppressing immediate danger, the more difficult it might become to distinguish Komugi's original condition from the consequences of treatment.
Meruem looked at the sheet.
"How many times have you imposed equilibrium?"
Mitu did not answer immediately.
"Six."
His eyes rose.
"In how many days?"
"Since you arrived?"
"Mitu."
"Four."
The room cooled.
Not physically.
Komugi looked between them.
Meruem's voice remained quiet. "You intervened six times in four days."
"Three were minor."
"That distinction is irrelevant if the accumulated effect is unknown."
"I am aware."
"Then why continue?"
Mitu's expression hardened for the first time.
"Because the alternative on those six occasions was allowing the instability to progress."
Meruem said nothing.
The old woman leaned forward.
"You keep searching for a clean solution. There isn't one. If I intervene too often, Death Judge may begin influencing the pattern I am trying to read. If I do not intervene when necessary, Komugi's condition can deteriorate."
She tapped the paper.
"This is not a puzzle where one correct move removes all danger."
Meruem stared at the diagrams.
"No."
Mitu paused.
He continued before she could.
"It is a position where every move changes the board."
The old woman's irritation faded slightly.
Komugi smiled.
"Now you're both speaking Gungi."
Meruem ignored her.
"What exactly happened during the four steps?"
Mitu's gaze returned to the sheet.
"That is the problem."
"Explain."
"I cannot."
Meruem's tail shifted once behind him.
Mitu noticed.
"I can describe it. I cannot explain it."
"Then describe it."
"The aura did not merely reverse."
She pulled the paper closer and pointed to the first diagram. It showed a rough human outline with arrows moving outward from the center.
"This is ordinary circulation during mild exertion. Simplified, obviously."
Her finger moved to the second figure. The arrows converged near the spine and chest.
"This is what happened at the third step."
Then the final diagram.
The arrows did not simply point backward. They curved toward several points and disappeared.
Meruem stared.
"Where did the aura go?"
"That is what I spent fifty-three minutes trying to determine."
He looked at her.
"You counted?"
"I knew you would."
Komugi covered a smile.
Mitu continued. "It did not return to the nodes I expected. It also did not dissipate externally. For a fraction of a second, Death Judge read a reduction in active circulation without reading a corresponding loss of total aura."
Meruem's eyes narrowed.
"Impossible."
"Inconvenient word, isn't it?"
"If total aura remained constant while active circulation decreased, then the aura was stored somewhere."
"Or became inaccessible."
"Those are functionally similar states."
"For measurement, yes. Not necessarily for treatment."
Meruem considered it.
Aura could be suppressed through Zetsu, concentrated through Ko, separated through emission, bound to conditions, stored within conjured systems under certain abilities. None matched what she described.
Komugi had not consciously activated anything.
At least, she claimed she had not.
He looked at her.
She noticed immediately.
"I didn't do anything."
"You attempted to walk."
"That usually isn't a Nen ability."
"Usually."
Komugi frowned.
Mitu watched them both.
Then she asked, "What were you thinking about?"
Komugi blinked.
"During the test."
"I was thinking about walking."
"Only that?"
Komugi opened her mouth.
Stopped.
Meruem saw it.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Komugi."
She sighed.
"I was thinking about the carriage."
Mitu leaned back slightly. "Why?"
"Because I wanted to reach it without being carried."
Meruem's gaze sharpened.
Komugi looked at him and immediately understood the direction of his reasoning.
"No."
"You were attempting to prove independence."
"I was attempting to walk six meters."
"For what purpose?"
"To walk six meters."
"Why?"
"Because being carried everywhere is annoying."
"That is a purpose."
Komugi gave him a flat look. "You can make drinking water sound suspicious."
Mitu, however, was no longer amused.
"Were you thinking about Whale Island?"
Komugi turned toward her.
"A little."
"And Meruem leaving?"
The room became still.
Komugi's eyes moved away.
That was answer enough.
Meruem felt something inside his analysis shift.
Intent.
Not exertion.
The possibility returned.
Mitu appeared to arrive at the same place, but unlike Meruem she did not pursue it immediately. She folded the paper.
"We are not testing that hypothesis today."
"Agreed," Meruem said.
Both women looked at him.
He frowned. "Why are you surprised?"
Komugi's expression became innocent. "No reason."
Mitu rose and crossed toward the medicine cabinet.
"The important thing is simpler. I can still stabilize her for travel, but I cannot guarantee that Death Judge will always be able to interrupt whatever this is."
There.
The sentence Meruem had been waiting for.
The true limitation.
He looked toward Komugi.
She was studying the blanket now, tracing the edge of its stitching with one finger.
"How likely is failure?" he asked.
"I cannot quantify it."
"Estimate."
"No."
"Range."
"No."
"Mitu."
She turned.
"If I give you a number, you will build your entire plan around it. And the number would be invented."
Meruem disliked her answer.
Which did not make it wrong.
"What can you confirm?"
Mitu considered.
"I can confirm that she is currently stable enough to be transported under controlled conditions. I can confirm that prolonged physical effort is a bad idea. I can confirm that repeated fluctuations in external aura appear to worsen her recovery. I can confirm that Death Judge can interrupt the patterns I already recognize."
"And the one from this morning?"
"I cannot confirm that."
Komugi looked up.
"So if it happens again?"
Mitu's face remained calm.
"I will do everything I can."
Meruem heard what she did not say.
Everything might not be enough.
Komugi heard it too.
Her finger stopped moving against the blanket.
For several seconds, nobody tried to soften the silence.
Meruem appreciated that.
Then Komugi asked, "When can we leave?"
Mitu checked the watch. "If you remain stable, two hours."
"Good."
Meruem looked at her.
"That pleased you."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because staying here won't make Folklore closer."
The logic was obvious.
He still disliked hearing it from her.
Komugi saw that too.
"You're doing the face again."
"What face?"
"The one where you agree with me but wish you didn't."
"I do not have such a face."
"You do."
Mitu closed the cabinet with a dry click. "You absolutely do."
Meruem decided the conversation no longer deserved participation.
He walked to the window.
The carriage remained outside.
Beyond it, the road descended between trees toward the valley.
Yesterday it had been a route.
This morning it had become a risk calculation.
Now it was something else.
A boundary.
Once they crossed it, every hour would place greater distance between Mitu's current supplies, known shelter, and the certainty of immediate retreat. They would trade a controlled environment for movement because remaining still offered no path toward the only solution they possessed.
Bad position.
Necessary move.
Behind him, Mitu began explaining travel restrictions to Komugi. No walking without assistance. No intentional use of Nen. No Gungi for extended periods if concentration caused measurable aura changes. Rest every few hours whether she felt tired or not.
Komugi objected only to the Gungi restriction.
Naturally.
Meruem listened without turning.
Then one phrase caught him.
"If the pressure returns behind your eyes, you tell me immediately."
Komugi answered too casually. "Of course."
Meruem turned.
Mitu did too.
Komugi froze.
Meruem's eyes narrowed.
"You are lying."
"I haven't even done anything yet."
"You intended to."
"How can someone lie in advance?"
"You have demonstrated the ability repeatedly."
Mitu looked exhausted again.
"If she hides a symptom, I stop the journey."
Komugi's expression changed.
That worked better than Meruem's stare.
"You would really turn around?"
"Yes."
"Even if we're halfway there?"
"Yes."
Komugi looked at Meruem, perhaps expecting disagreement.
He gave none.
Her eyes widened slightly.
That seemed to bother her more than Mitu's threat.
"You agree?"
"If you conceal information necessary to evaluate your condition, you become an unreliable variable."
Komugi stared at him.
"That was almost caring."
"It was entirely strategic."
"Of course."
But she smiled.
Meruem turned back toward the window before the expression could demand a response.
Two hours.
Then the road.
Then the river.
Then the coast.
Then Whale Island.
After that, separation.
And after separation, the true search would begin.
He had been thinking of Folklore as the distant objective and Komugi's condition as the reason to reach it.
That model was incomplete.
Komugi's condition was also the clock.
Death Judge could slow it.
Interrupt it.
Hold certain pieces in place for a time.
But Mitu had finally shown him what her ability could not do.
It could not stop the game from advancing.
Outside, the horse lifted its head as Edrin appeared at the end of the road with water skins hanging from both shoulders. The merchant saw Meruem through the window and raised one hand, apparently pleased with himself.
Meruem looked past him toward the valley.
They would leave today.
Not because Komugi was well.
Not because the danger had passed.
Because waiting for perfect safety would eventually become another way of losing.
And somewhere beyond every road visible from that window, Folklore remained exactly where it had always been.
Unmoving.
The only thing running out was time.