IV
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Author's note:
A certain reviewer asked me the interesting question if Asami's Sharingan had been active at the end of the last chapter. As I am the author and therefore the only one entitled to an authentic interpretation, I could give you the answer straight away, which I won't do though because I am an evil person, muahahahah. And more important there isn't one, at least a clear one. Instead, I will hand out a bit of gratis information to everyone who has survived my atrocious grammar and made this far.
To reiterate, the answer is yes and no thanks to the scene being a bit ambiguous in that regard, which was by the way fully intended to be so. Because what is the world without ambiguity? Quite boring I tell you.
Nowhere is explicitly written anything about her using the Sharingan at any moment, and surely not in front of Kakashi and Sasuke otherwise they would have probably freaked out.
Nonetheless, there are indeed a few points supporting the usage of the Sharingan like the slight hint "red coloured eyes" I have given at the beginning.
Although it could be simply a more evident case of the same phenomenon that had occurred during the fight with Lee when her eyes appeared to fluctuate between the inactive state and the first stage of the Sharingana as a reaction to Asami's emotions. You see, I take the phrase "eye that reflects the heart" a bit more literally.
However, the fact that her Susanoo had unconsciously stated to materialize strongly implies that Asami either had her Mangekyo activated or has achieved such a degree of mastery over her Susanoo that she can deploy it without using her Sharingan at all. Like for example, another certain, *cough* Madara *cough*, Uchiha.
And last but not least, the circumstance that her purple Chakra, which has the uncanny tendency to show up, notwithstanding a few clear exceptions, every time Asami is a bit more passionate and wants to blast you to kingdom come by utilising her Sharingan to its fullest extenthas, has once again made a fiery appearance. Neither is obviously a coincidence as there is indeed a link between said Chakra and her eyes.
In conclusion, both versions of the event are plausible, her activating and non-activating the Sharingan, and you can choose either depending on which you like more.
.
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Arc IV Chapter IV
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Little Asami crossed the sparsely lit corridors of the tower making her way back to the arena stances, which took her, however, longer than initially expected. Without a real clear destination and solely guided by her subconsciousness which increasingly took control over her body, Asami was stepping erratically through the darkness. Instead of being distracted by such mundane matters like the right way, the Uchiha girl was more focused on kicking metaphorical dust over the ground while still interiorly fuming over the earlier events. Normally, nobody got a glimpse of this side of her personality, alive at least.
She was partially frustrated, simply dissatisfied and primarily angry. Asami was angry with herself for failing so spectacularly in the previous situation. She cursed her own shortcomings, her inattentiveness and her arrogance which, no matter how justified the latter might be, had ultimately cost her today's victory. A victory given away so easily, so readily. Thanks to a single moment success had slipped through her hands. Especially, because of such a stupid mistake. Stupid Asami, stupid Asami, stupid Asami.
Asami clenched her fists tightly until they turned white, which didn't make much of a difference though considering her natural skin colour. She was most of the times hard on others, often condescending in her tone, albeit mostly for legitimate reasons in her eyes. Therefore, she had to be hard on herself too by consequentially holding herself to the highest standards possible.
Failure was not acceptable. Failure was not admissible. Failure was not forgiven by reality. Asami hated failure as it was a sign of inevitable imperfection. The polar opposite of the purely idealistic perfection she always aimed for in her every action, an unobtainable ideal she yearned for and always wanted to come closer to.
Annoyed and mainly distracted by her botched assassination attempt, she had almost got the little fucker Orochimaru, an oblivious Asami nearly forgot that she had officially announced her slightly megalomaniac phantasies to the world, which weren't really megalomaniac though. Megalomaniac would be something like conquering the world or whatever.
Asami mused while nodding affirmingly. Becoming Hoakage was rather a realistic objective, a position which could be hers if fate decided to be generous to her and provide her with a bit of luck. And a mostly spontaneous decision she made in a fulminant moment of inspiration.
It may be a bit challenging considering the fact that she was just 13-year-old, albeit age didn't count as she was a bit of a special case, that she lacked any sort of seniority, and that no set precedent was aiding her cause. Except for the recently deceased third Mizukage who should have been more or less 15-year-old when he was appointed. And what did the boy have what she didn't? Intelligence? Hopefully not. Experience? Most likely not.
Granted he was two insignificant years ahead of her and the Jinjuricki of the Three Tails, but Asami was pretty much sure that she could have eaten the poor boy for breakfast. Regardless of his age and the beast sealed inside his body, he practically stood no chance. If necessary, she would have personally minced the latter and used it to make soup from this giant oversized magic turtle. After all, the Sanbi should be, all things considered, a turtle, right? Asami's mind was briefly occupied with the important culinary question how her imagined turtle Biju soup would taste. Surely, it should have had an interesting flavour. Especially, if she spiced the soup correctly, mmmm.
Anyway, the main question was though which sane person would make practically a child the next Hokage? Because Asami certainly wouldn't despite all the strange paediarchal tendencies existing in this world.
In conclusions, the odds were heavily, heavily, heavily stacked against her candidature., Asami didn't think, however, that it was humanly impossible. And if something was humanly possible, then she considered it still within her reach. It simply required a small amount of effort from her side and then it would be hers. And in the end, there was a first time for everything.
Because why not? What did differentiate her form her soon predecessors who were only normal human like you and her too? Why couldn't she be the next Hokage, a position which was within the grasp of her small white hands?
Especially, if she played her cards correctly this time. As a matter of fact, Asami knew that Hiruzen planned on stepping down again and passing on his famed hat to someone else, which wasn't that surprising though. After all, it was her and her squad who delivered the letter to the Fire Daimyo and annouced that the inauguration would be prospectively held a few months after the completed Chunin exams when a suitable candidate had been chosen.
And it was her who had thoroughly and extensively checked the sealed scroll in question for potential explosives hidden within and not because she was actually interested in its contents. As the more experienced shinobi might know, you could never be sure if there wasn't anybody threatening the esteemed life of our Daimyo and such a cowardly assassination attempt had to be clearly prevented at any cost.
Furthermore, she knew that the electoral college consisted of six members according to her knowledge. The three current village elders plus the three different chiefs of staff who were together the precious prince-electors in this imperial election. And the "advisory opinion" of the previous Hokage which was de facto rather obligatory and binding in nature. Fortunately, she could deduce that the Third was currently relatively indecisive in regard to designating his potential successor, otherwise he wouldn't have hesitated this long.
The vote wasn't decided by unanimity but by a simple majority, which meant 4 or mere 3 votes cast in your favour and you could be Hokage. Provided, no other contender achieved a similar result and the Hokage didn't particularly oppose the choice, which was, however, rather important, not to say extremely important.
The ANBU Commander should be automatically on her side and support logically a fellow ANBU as long as Kakashi didn't participate. The Army and ONI were both neutral in general. But they susceptible to any sort of secretive and less official bargains. Give them additional funds, resources, etc. and you could count on their loyalty at the right moment. She didn't know though, what preferences of the two remaining councillors were, Homura and Koharu. Who was their favourite? Difficult to say. Who knew. They were both a potential wild card. Perhaps, perhaps not.
And Danzo, who was the central figure in this entire game and everything theoretically depended on. Because her problem was primarily getting into the exclusive circle of candidates, the rest could be achieved by other means. She needed someone who would nominate her officially to the council and opened her thus the door to power.
And Danzo was her man, in a certain sense. He was often alone with his opinions and had an overall disastrous reputation, understandably by the way, within the village, which practically prevented him from ever becoming Hokage himself.
Seriously, who in their right mind would ever support Danzo as the next Hokage? Well, the answer was pretty much obvious due to his not so insignificant popularity issue. Absolute nobody, aside from his apparatus of mindless Root drones, had any interest whatsoever that the old man with his cane acquired even more power.
Danzo, a man who was based on rumours and facts responsible for a variety of unsolved assassinations, ehm, I mean mysterious and purely coincidental deaths of high ranking Konoha shinobi, abductions of children, etc., etc., etc. Basically all the nasty stuff and little state secrets you wanted to be buried deep down under the earth and a many. many layers of thick concrete while praying every night that they wouldn't be discovered for the next ten thousand years.
It was overall likelier that Konoha got destroyed rather than him getting near to the Hokage hat in a lifetime, a fact that he knew too despite being extremely, euphemistically speaking, "ambitious". Whatever, say what you want about Danzo, the senile gerontocrat had connections, and these were what she needed for her plan to succeed. Because in the end, his opinion still carried a lot of weight among the village council.
Moreover, the old militant goat loathed Hiruzen with every fibre of his being and attempted to sabotage at every opportunity, which was a further plus point. Therefore, it was a safe bet to assume that Danzo, the reliable antagonistic asshole he was, would neither back Tsunade nor Jiraiya who were both Hiruzen's former students.
Such was the current situation and Asami brooded over a few minor details of her future power grab while she was still striding through the seemingly infinite dark catacombs. Was she simply so slow or were the corridors so endlessly long that? This wasn't Le Mans, right?
First step, recruit Danzo by calling in the favours she all had for considering his "helpful advice" during certain missions, namely kill them all instead of attempting to achieve a peaceful solution. Acting sometimes against the Hokage's explicit orders due to very unfortunate circumstances. And working accidentally closely together with Root operatives who were tasked with carrying out unsanctioned missions in the background.
Otherwise, let him know that in the case that he should fail to demonstrate the desired will to comply with her wishes, a very thick set of files containing very, very sensitive information would quickly land on the desk of the Hokage. And little unforeseen incidents could happen to his precious field agents every time she encounters them operating without any official orders, like for example being nailed to the nearest by a sharp tool called a sword.
Second step, persuade the ANBU Commander to support her. Highly likely to be achievable without threats or significant blackmailing.
Third step, guide Inoichi and Shikaku to their personal enlightenment that her election could be rather beneficial to their according branches, also known as bribe the notoriously underfunded and neglected Army and ONI with new shiny toys and additional personnel. Both suffered from the budget cuts as a consequence of the peace dividend and couldn't be considered combat ready by any means. What they needed direly and urgently in her opinion, was a classical massive rearmament programme, especially as a response to Kumogakure's massive military build-up in the recent years.
And voilà you had 4 votes and you were the new Hokage. You see, relatively simple to accomplish, on the paper at least. Everything sounded so wonderfully easy in her mind, first, second and third step. But she knew reality wasn't that nice and her plan full of holes. So much could go wrong, so much depended on dumb luck, so much that couldn't be influenced by her.
Perhaps it wasn't a good idea. Asami's mood went down like a roller-coaster, down into the dark valley of depression and insecurity before climbing up again. No, this wasn't the right attitude. The girl banished any sort of qualms from her mind. She would get this damn red painted hat as sure as the sun rose in the east because she was the one who presumably deserved it the most. And what could possibly go wrong in the pursuit of her modest dreams?
Furthermore, she hadn't the patience to wait another century until such an opportunity presented itself again to her.
Provided, the Fifth displayed the same stupendous longevity as Hiruzen, which was an exception however. Hashirama, passed away early. He died from… Good did the "God of Shinobi" actually die from? Sickness, alcohol, gambling, women, his young age? Tobirama followed him soon afterwards. And the blonde Namikaze didn't set a record for the longest term of office a Hokage ever had too. He barely lasted a year before biting the dust and leaving behind his last living legacy.
Moreover, if she succeeded in at least one of these points, then the chances were high that she could win the vote by default thanks to a lack of competition. Because from her perspective, who were her competitors?
Tsunade? An alcoholic, gambling and famously short tempered woman. Asami used mentally her most dramatic voice adding a proper accusing tone to her speech. A woman, who had abandoned Konoha, a woman, who had turned her back to them in one of their direst hours of need for no known reasons at all. Could such a person truly be trusted with the fragile future of Konoha? No, definitely not.
Jiraiya? A renown pervert who wandered aimlessly across the wide lands with way too much time dedicated to his special research and the production of literature on the lower end of the quality spectrum instead of doing what an official spy master was supposed to do. Do you see this man as a good choice for the next Hokage? The Sannin who was almost as famous for his poorly written and generic books without any intrinsic artistic value whatsoever aside from being used a fire wood as for his combat capabilities. No, no, no, he was right there where he belonged to.
And Kakashi? Well, he was admittedly a harder nut to crack and not the easiest target to defame without completely making things up. Fortunately, he didn't strike Asami as the power hungry politician type compared to herself. He was more like a reliable pillar operating in background, far away from the centre of the boring playground called politics. And that was her advantage.
Otherwise, he wasn't a bit of an emotional brick wall for example, but who wasn't after serving in the ANBU? After all, nobody was flawless and besides a few minor details he would be by far the best candidate in her rather humble opinion, except for herself clearly.
Because honestly, wouldn't she be a great Hokage? Didn't she have everything necessary to be the Hokage who found Konoha a city of bricks and left it a city of white marble after her merciful reign? She wasn't exactly the stupidest person on earth, or at least enough to run circles around all the country bumpkins in her vicinity according to the intelligence category of these stupid data scrolls. You know, these funny and unreliable coloured octagons, seriously never trust them or you will regret it because they didn't list many of the important details. Asami only managed to get a meagre 33 points by the way. Which was a rather shameful display form her point of view. She could, no, should have done better.
Anyway, the course of the HMS Asami had been set and our little Sharingan user would follow it even if she had to gently push aside a few lesser icebergs in her way. While her warship was peacefully sailing across the vast turbulent ocean her mindscape was, she was distracted by something else, something relevant. How should she call her future underlings, ehm, fellow Konoha villagers of her crown lands?
Concerned about the right choice of terminology, Asami mused to herself by tipping her fingers against tilted head. Serfs? No, way too medieval. Minions? Not what she wanted. She searched for something more neutral. Citizens? No, too much Enlightenment and Liberalism. Comrades? No, she wasn't the politburo. Subjects perhaps? No, too monarchic probably, wasn't it?
However, in Asami's vivid imaginations the idea of being called and crowning herself Empress had such an undeniable nice touch, hadn't it? Because seriously, Hokage? With all due to respect to the traditional reasons which gave the title a modicum of sense, but what the fuck was Fire Shadow even supposed to mean? Clearly, Land of Fire, ergo Fire. But which idiot would call themselves an amorphous Shadow of whatever? Water Shadow, Wind Shadow, Lightning Shadow, Earth Shadow? What were these? Were these names?
The titulature was obviously lacking in necessary pomp and were no fun at all. Too short, too simple, not humongous enough. Almost as if a normal person was supposed to being able to pronounce it. Changes had to be made to the protocol, phrases to be added.
For example, something like this one. Asami had hastily constructed it on the spot and therefore some refinement was still needed. Her Imperial and Royal Majesty, Asami I, By the Grace of Heaven enlightened Empress of the Chrysanthemum Throne, of the Land of Fire and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Fifth Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato, decrees bla-bla-bla-bla-bla… you get the point.
Aside from creating obnoxiously long titles out of thin air for the sake of annoying anyone, the ambitious Uchiha had indeed a few things, great things in mind, if they should ever offer her the position of Hokage and put their trust in her leadership. Because in the end, Asami was the one Konoha needed from a purely practical standpoint. The village had to move on and brace itself if it wanted to stand the test of time as the day of small nations had long since passed away.
On the surface everything appeared calm, but it was evident to the careful observer, and such one was Asami, that the wheels of history were moving again in the background. The same socio-economic mechanisms which had caused the Third Great War were gaining momentum again invigorated by the brief intermezzo of these peaceful interwar years.
Mechanisms, which had never truly ceased to stop working. A peace treaty may have ended the previous war, but the underlying causes still existed. The text was a peace treaty in name only and the letters were merely an armistice granting precious time in order to recuperate. Under the pacific surface, the situation was boiling and the temperature was steadily climbing.
The signs were undeniable and everyone was holding their breath waiting for the moment open hostilities should break out. The day of Empires had come and the next war was inevitable, purely a matter of time. Personally, she gave the world 5 to 6 years at most.
Old border disputes were starting to flare up again along the various demarcation lines. Amegakure had grown suspiciously silent in the last years like the rest of the small neighbouring countries. Kumo was expanding their forces beyond comparison supported by their growing economy and their closest ally Iwa followed their example. According to Konoha's intelligence network, both powers were increasing their number of shinobi at an alarming rate. Fortunately, Kirigakure was currently no major threat thanks to the destabilizing effects which the bloody mist had on the village.
In conclusion, the collective strength of their enemies kept increasing day by day while their own was in contrast effectively decreasing. Konoha's sole ally Sumogakure was plagued by a state of steady decline, economically and militarily, and slowly turned into a burden rather than a helpful asset. And Konoha itself, albeit they may have won the war in a certain sense, was stagnating.
From her perspective, drastic measures had to be taken to reverse this concerning trend. Even if it meant that she would be ultimately the one to start the last Fourth Shinobi World War by initiating her pre-emptive strike against Kumo and wipe them off from the face of this earth like everyone else that opposed her. The Fourth Shinobi World War would be the last of its kind settling once and for all the old question who reigned the world, such was sure in her opinion.
Asami reached finally the end of this damned labyrinth like dark corridors. She saw literally a light at the end of the tunnel getting nearer and nearer to the lonely rays of sunlight awaiting her entrance, yearning for her missing presence.
The cheerful girl exited the tunnel behind her stepping into a seemingly forgotten room devoid of any human presence. Asami was alone here, alone as usual.
Aside from being a dead end, the place was clearly different, the aura, the design different from the ones she had seen before in this tower. The walls were covered by black marble plates, a black that augmented the serene silence. The polished stone reflected her similar pigmented eyes and she touched its surface, cold and forsaken, betrayed by its original white colour. The sole thing that brightened up the melancholic atmosphere, was this immanent feeling of decline and solitude and the pale rays of light entering through the windows rendering visible the floating particles in the air.
Asami would have enjoyed the wonderful scenery, hadn't her mood been ruined by a small little detail. Her pleasant stroll got her lost and she had absolutely no idea where she currently was, dammit.
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In the end, Asami was able to somehow reach her final destination and thus concluded her long-lasting odyssey through the veritable jungle the tower was.
Fortunately, it only took her a few hours and not years while fighting various mythological creatures along the way and passing most of her time on the island of Calypso. And it had nothing to do with the fact that she got herself lost time and time again in this confusing structure without anything resembling a helpful sign, which she was hesitant to admit though.
As a consequence of the latter phenomenon, Asami slowly started to believe that the naturally malevolent walls, these corridors around her were actually moving, changing position, leading her intentionally into dead ends and opening new passages where she could have sworn none were before. Which couldn't have been possible, however, and was obviously the result of her own treacherous imagination.
The simplest way to solve her dilemma would have been to breach the walls, a tempting option she briefly considered but quickly discarded together with other stupid ideas like asking some of the various ninja for help. Pff, help. Asami didn't need such things as asking for directions. Because the right direction was automatically the way she walked, even when she hadn't succeeded yet in actively distorting reality through the power of her will.
Moreover, the childish part of her soul enjoyed the prospect of triumphing over this sworn enemy by beating the labyrinth on her own. Therefore, Asami didn't give up that easily to her intellectually inferior opponent by using any sort of cheap tricks and resort what she frankly regarded as cheating.
And thus her inner child went on Grand Tour and gradually explored the tower. On her expedition, the girl mapped the entire area in her mind where the still undiscovered regions were marked by bold red letters expressing "Hic sunt leones". Unfortunately, Asami didn't accidentally stumble over the New World on her journey or anything interesting for that matter.
The Uchiha girl challenged her adversary which mainly consisted of paved floors and insidious stairs with little success though. She went up ↓, left →, right ←, down ↑.
(^ᴗ^) motivation. ↖→←↘↓↓→→↑→↖→→↙←←↓↑↗→↙←→←↓↑↑↗↘↑↑↗↘↘→→↙←↗←→→↙←↗↘←↑↗↘→→↙←↗←↓↑↑↑←↓↑↓↖→←←←↓↑↑↗↘↑↘↗↗↘↗↘→↖←←←↓→ ←←←↖→←→↙←↗←↗↘↓↓↑↗↘→ ↙←↗↘↓↓→↖ ↘↓←↗↓↓→↖ →↖→ ←←←↖→←→↙. Still motivated (^_^'), someway.
(^-^) high-spirited, second attempt. ←↗↘↓←←←←↓↑→↙↓↓→↖→←←↗↘←↖←↗↘↓↘→ ↙←↗↘↓↓→↖ →↖→ ←←←↖→←→, ∠(^ー^) greeting random Hokage, ↙←↗↘↓↓↑↗↘→ ↙←↗↘↓↓→↖ →↖→ ←. (-_-) disappointment.
→↙←↗↗↘↙←→←←←↓↑→↙←↗↘↓↓↑↗↘→ ↙←, (◕ヮ◕)/*:・゚✧ trying magic to solve this existential crisis, ↗↘↓↓←←←↓↑→ ←←←↖→←→↓↓→↖→←←↗↘←↖←↗↘↓↓→↙←↗↘↓←↙←↗↘↓←←↓↑↓↑↑↗↘→ ↙←↗↘↓↓→↖ →↙←↗↘↓↓→. (¬_¬) logical failure.
(ㆆᴗㆆ) feeling of existential helplessness. ↗↘←↖←↗↘↓↓→↖→←→←↓→↖→↙←↓↑↑←↗→←←↗→↖→↓→↖→←←↗↘←↖←↗↘↓↖←←. (︶。︶) tired.
↘↓↓→↖→→→↙←↑↓↑↑↗↘↑↑↗↘→→↙←↗↘↓↓→→↓→↖→←↑→↖. (¦ꃩ[▓▓] sleeping.
\(*O*)/ waking up. →←←←↖→↓←←↓→↖↖→←←←↓↑↗↘→→↙←↗↘↓↓→↘↑↑↗↘→→↙←↗↘→←↑. ( ・・)つ-●●● hungry, eating dango. Still hungry.
↖→←↘↓↓→→↑→↖→→↙←←↓↑↗→↙←→←↓↑↑↗↘↑↑↗↘↘→→↙←↗←→→↙←↗↘←↑↗↘→→↙←↗←↓↑↑↑← ↓↑↓↖→←←←↓↑↑↓↑↑↗↘↑↘↗↗↘↗↘→↖. (⌒_⌒;) no change in sight.
←↓↑↓→↖←←↓↑→↙↗↘↓↓→↖→←←↗↘←↖←↗↘↓↓→↖→←←↗→↖→←↑→↖→→↙←↗↘↘↓↓→↖→↙←↓↑↑←↗↘↓↓→↖→←←←↖←↓↑↑←↗→. (*^◇^)_旦 tea pause.
↖→←←←↓↑↗↘→→↙↗↘↓↓→↖←↗↘↓↓→→→↙←↗↘↓↓→↖→←←←↓↑↑↑← ↓↑↓↖→←←←↓↑↑↑→↖→→↙←↗↗↘↗↘→↖→←↙←↗↘↓↓→↖←←. (x_x) K.O.
As the graphical version of her journey had clearly shown, Asami had failed to make any significant progress on her way. Her subconsciousness seemed to interfere rather actively with her pathfinding producing a series of aggravating lapsus as if she had never actually the intention to get there in her lifetime.
No matter where she planned on going, her mind mysteriously wandered into the opposite direction preventing her from ever reaching the ever distant, fucking, arena. Albeit the arena was technically only a few minutes away from her, Asami didn't come closer to the place.
Her mind wanted to go left, her body turned right. She up, her body down. Baffled by this kind of atypical obstacle, Asami could only scratch her head while searching for a potential solution to her problem. And eventually, the girl found it by viewing her situation from a different perspective. Asami had simply to do the exact opposite of what she was doing all this time. Paradoxical as it might seem, you simpy had to take the wrong route where you didn't want, ehm, wanted to go while convincing yourself from the sensibility of your own choice in order to get there where you didn't want to. Wasn't she a genius and wasn't her plan brilliant, right?
And thus Asami was currently hopping up the stairs tasting the sweet fruits of victory, Asami 1: Tower 0. Down in the stadium, there was going on an insignificant fight between the Oto mummy and a voluminous Akimichi. Seriously, she had never seen a not dangerously obese one and personally asked herself how they didn't suffer all from diabetes. Instead, they were even famous for their physical strength and extraordinary Chakra reserves, what a strange world.
The returning girl approached her sensei, Katsusane, and Hisaaki. She briefly blinked and wondered what the two have exactly done despite having a certain hunch. The trio viewed her with surprise, understandable, after all she was one, two, three, ehm, for some time occupied with something else of immense and unimaginable importance. And certainly not with getting repeatedly lost.
" I am back. So, what have I missed?"
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