Chapter 143: A New Life Skill
Time slipped by in unbroken silence.
The treatment didn't take nearly as long as the onlookers had anticipated.
Natsuya hadn't picked an aggressive surgical route—attempting a full corneal
transplant in the middle of the Ubuyashiki estate without modern sterile tech
was asking for an infection. Instead, he stuck with the safe, blue-and-green
"Low Risk" protocol.
Medicinal poultices, acupoint stimulation, and gentle thermal therapy to coax
dormant nerve pathways back to life.
When the final silver needle was drawn, dark medicinal residue clung to the skin
around Gyomei's eye sockets. The massive man sat unmoving, resembling a
weather-worn stone carving.
"Feel anything?" Natsuya asked, sounding genuinely unsure.
Gyomei trembled.
"Warmth..." the Stone Hashira rasped.
"What was that?"
"This monk feels... a faint sensation of heat deep within the sockets." A look
of bewildered shock appeared on Gyomei's tear-streaked face. His voice shook.
"It is faint... very faint. But it is there."
For the first time since infancy, those dead eyes had registered a sensation.
Still, it stopped right there: just a sensation.
Natsuya frowned slightly.
Gyomei was thrilled, but Natsuya felt the results of Medicine LV.4 had fallen
short of his internal benchmark. The damage had settled during infancy after a
high fever and subsequent infection, causing structural nerve atrophy. LV.4 was
only capable of delivering a low-voltage jump-start to the surviving tissue.
It was like running a micro-current through an ancient, rusted machine—one wire
warmed up, but the engine was miles away from turning over.
Level 5? Or will I need Level 6? he calculated mentally.
Lady Ruka, Gyomei, and now the Boss himself... why does every VIP on this server
need me to grind my medical skill through the roof?
As Natsuya stood silent, Gyomei misinterpreted his brooding expression. The
giant assumed the young prodigy was drowning in guilt over failing to produce a
miracle.
"Nngh... ah..."
A choked sob escaped Gyomei's chest. Tears gushed down his cheeks once more.
"Lord Kokonoe, you must not blame yourself."
"That you possessed the kindness to attempt such a thing for this monk... it is
already a debt I cannot repay in this lifetime."
Natsuya blinked at the crying wall of muscle. Wait, why are you crying? I
haven't even fixed you yet.
Kagaya and the surrounding Kakushi also stepped in, assuming the experiment had
failed.
"Natsuya-kun, do not diminish your own achievement," Kagaya said gently.
"Gyomei's condition has baffled the finest minds for decades. To restore
sensation to his eyes is already an extraordinary feat."
Natsuya shook his head. "Wait a second. I never said his eyes were a lost
cause."
The room went dead still. Given his earlier silence, they had assumed he'd hit a
dead end.
"If he can feel heat, the optic nerves aren't completely dead. The biological
stimulation took."
Natsuya pulled up the summary report on his HUD. "If he keeps applying my
poultice formula and I do a follow-up acupuncture session every couple of
weeks... he should see some progress."
"Give it roughly five or six years, and he should recover a small percentage of
his sight."
The news landed like a thunderclap. Gyomei sat frozen, unable to process the
words. Yet the comforting warmth in his eye sockets was undeniably real. A seed
of wild, long-buried hope began to sprout.
To actually see the world again...?
Kagaya's face lit up with an unreserved, radiant smile. In terms of both duty
and personal affection, restoring Gyomei's sight was a dream he'd held for
years.
Natsuya immediately threw out another developer promise:
"My medical skill rank is still a bit low. Once I level up to the next tier, the
treatment cycle should shrink considerably."
"And the percentage of recovered vision will jump significantly."
"Namu Amida Butsu..." Gyomei murmured reverently. "Lord Kokonoe... this monk has
no words to express his gratitude."
Overcome with emotion, the Stone Hashira brought his heavy hand down onto
Natsuya's shoulder in a gesture of brotherhood.
CRACK.
The floorboards groaned under the sheer kinetic impact, the wood splintering
slightly. Only someone with Natsuya's monstrous physical stats could have taken
that affectionate pat without collapsing into a heap.
"Keep the gratitude," Natsuya grunted, expressionlessly peeling Gyomei's iron
grip off his shoulder.
"Just spar with me more often down the road. And when I'm busy, take a train up
north to cover my patrol shifts."
He added with a smirk, "Don't worry. The Boss's stipend covers unlimited white
rice."
Free top-tier labor and a walking sparring dummy—you'd be an idiot not to cash
this check.
Kagaya coughed into his sleeve. Covering shifts? Stipends? Natsuya-kun, I am
standing right here.
Gyomei didn't take it as a joke. He nodded solemnly. "Whenever this monk is free
of urgent duties, you need only send word, Lord Kokonoe. I shall depart for the
north immediately."
What an honest, earnest guy, Natsuya thought, rubbing his chin. His eyes
suddenly locked onto the slender bamboo instrument tucked into Gyomei's waist
sash.
"Hey, Blind Monk. You know how to play that pipe, right?"
"Teach me over the next couple of days?"
Gyomei wiped his tears, an expression somewhere between laughter and weeping
appearing on his rugged face. "Lord Kokonoe... it is not a pipe, but a
shakuhachi."
Yet, remembering how the boy had sweated over his needles hours ago, the monk's
heart softened completely. A healer's heart...
"Still, the principles are quite similar to a flute," Gyomei conceded gently.
"If my lord possesses an artistic inclination, this monk would be honored to
share everything he knows."
"No time like the present," Natsuya said, cracking his knuckles. "Let's clean up
the gear and start right now."
Mindful of the Hashira's busy schedule, Natsuya added, "I'm a fast learner. I
won't waste your time."
Gyomei didn't offer empty pleasantries; he simply bowed his head, his sightless
eyes growing moist again.
From the veranda, Kagaya watched the two warriors bond. From high-stakes combat
to this effortless trust... it was the birth of a true brotherhood. He felt as
though he were watching the dawn of the strongest generation in the Corps'
history.
Over the next two days, the serene atmosphere of the Ubuyashiki estate was
occasionally broken not by sword-strikes, but by the reedy, awkward, yet
undeniably soulful notes of a shakuhachi.
Gyomei was a strict instructor, but the basics of a single wind instrument
weren't overly complex. Combined with Natsuya's supernatural motor coordination
and his "Gamer's Muscle Memory," the boy was playing full pieces by the third
evening.
Gyomei departed for the Kansai region the following morning.
In return, Natsuya's Life Skill menu gained a fresh entry:
[Performance LV.0 (5/250)] (NEW)
- Summary: Seasons across the fingertips, the cosmos beyond the strings. When
the five notes scatter, they reflect the rhythm of heaven and earth.
- Effect: Slightly increases musical sense and fine motor coordination.
Learning one instrument unlocked an umbrella skill for all instruments? System,
your efficiency brings tears to my eyes.
Now that the guests were gone, Natsuya knew his time in the "Safe Zone" was at
an end. It was time to head to his assigned territory in the north. A Hashira
had duties; he couldn't camp out in the tutorial lobby until the next patch
dropped.
Packing his travel gear, Natsuya was once again loaded onto the back of a
Kakushi runner under the watchful eyes of the estate staff.
The relay would carry him back to Nagoya, where he would catch a northern steam
train directly to Sendai—the capital of the Luminary Hashira's territory.
Bouncing along the mountain trail, Natsuya leaned forward and asked the female
runner beneath him:
"Hey, out of curiosity... when you guys have to carry Gyomei, do your spines
just snap in half?"
The Kakushi nearly lost her footing on a wet stone.
"L-Lord Kokonoe!" her voice gasped from beneath the black cloth mask. "Please...
do not speak of such things while I am running!"
Her Breathing rhythm... was about to collapse completely.
☆☆☆
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