Inside a weapon store, fiery sparks flew through the air in a scene familiar to an Uchiha who used to breathe fire. This time, however, the heat was the result of the metal being shaped by Sasuke's hands, not his lungs.
Back in Elemental Nations, only a blacksmith who spent years pounding iron would be able to create a real weapon, even more so one with precious metals capable of conducting and resisting Chakra. In Remnant, on the other hand, the process was so facilitated with technological tools that anyone could do it after receiving the necessary instructions from the forge master.
In fact, people were encouraged to make their own weapons and this was almost unusual. However, Sasuke was beginning to get used to the peculiar tendencies of this new world to go against his common sense.
The metal to be used was already refined and even molded into various shapes and sizes where it was only necessary to finalize within the customer's taste. A strange concept, which should have been extremely costly, but which worked thanks to the Semblance of the man in charge of the place. Like the other abilities seen, this one was also somewhat unique and allowed metal to be worked as if it were clay.
On a battlefield, this could be a terrifying ability. Sasuke imagined the opening gained from the enemy's confusion at having their weapons rendered useless, but it wasn't omnipotent. Everything has its weaknesses. This particular man would be that he needed to come in direct contact with metal to have an effect, and it wouldn't work if there was already someone else's Aura being conducted on it. Even so, it is still useful, even more so in the line of work he has chosen.
Thanks to that, in no more than half an hour, Sasuke had in hand a straight blade of the exact size, not to say perfect, of the sword that had been with him for the last few years.
What remains now is to test whether the quality really is top of the line, as this man said. Discreetly, over the shower of sparks as it was sharpened on one type of grinder and with the forge master's attention elsewhere, he made a different type of spark flicker on the unfinished sword. Would the metal assigned to the Huntsman of this world be able to withstand my Chakra? The answer was soon to show itself with pure electricity circulating, more and more intensely as the charge increased and surprised Sasuke in a positive way. It seems that the metal is as good as it should be.
Because he had to hide his power so as not to scare the hell out of this man and the people outside for no reason, Sasuke, for a brief moment, had used his Six Paths Chakra to turn the blue electricity into black, and yet the metal showed no signs of breaking, so he stopped when the forge master dropped what he had in hand and began to look around with startled confusion, certain that this blade would not be destroyed without him really trying, being more than capable of sustaining his power.
Excellent. Sasuke was pleased, once again getting something as necessary as healing his injuries to a satisfactory level and without complications, because this time only money was needed and nothing else. All that remains now is for this... thing to finish the grip and sheath.
He still had some difficulty accepting his own ignorance regarding the technological advances of this world and his opinion of this so-called '3d Printer' machine, whatever that meant, would be no different.
Soon after, when the forge master had calmed down from a momentary fright, the finishing touches were done and the resurrection of his Kusanagi was complete to the point where it was impossible to differentiate this copy from the original that was lost forever.
With one less item on his list, Sasuke returned to the top of the buildings to consider his next steps, align his thoughts, and reflect on the words spoken to him by a stranger.
"You seem angry," was what the man who helped remake Kusanagi said before he left. "Try not to let it affect you, since nothing good comes from a blade blinded by emotion."
He drew his sword as polished as the dedication put into completing this masterpiece, reflecting his normally indifferent face. This time, however, not even the light of a beautiful fragmented moonlight could hide what he really felt and begrudgingly admit that that man was right.
His expression was cold, representing the anger born out of his frustration with what was not according to his will and went against his expectations.
He wanted to forget, not to think about what was bothering him and his mind had been doing nothing but contradicting him since he arrived in this world.
The revolution and the only goal he still had in life was flawed;
An imminent fight against a Goddess could happen at any moment and bring unimaginable consequences as a result;
This new world was heading towards its own destruction regardless of whether some outside influence occurred or not;
More and more the possibility of a world-devouring Clan still existing was becoming real;
The unexpected feeling of concern for this foreign world when he had the Elemental Nations to focus on;
Finally, the existence of girls that contradicted his pessimistic belief about the opposite gender.
Weiss's apparent resistance to him and Ruby's unprecedented purity were not really a problem, but what it represented.
Once again, he was wrong about what he adopted as truth.
In that case, what else was he wrong about?
Was history really bound to repeat itself in each and every choice Sasuke made and in what he believed?
The possible answer to these questions was what resulted in the inflating hatred within him that should have been under control from the moment he decided to become Hokage.
This anger was at boiling point and Sasuke could only clench his fists, and grit his teeth, having no other way to vent these raw emotions. Ironically, he was beginning to regret the fact that Naruto wasn't there with him. His only friend would surely be just the right opponent to help him get rid of this frustration that could affect his logical choices and force him to act on those emotions, possibly taking him back to his self that fought against Danzou and that couldn't happen at all.
Just then, as if some sadistic god answered his questionable prayers, not far away, the sound of breaking glass rang out and Sasuke spotted men in black carrying boxes out of a store. Judging by the hurry and bustle of this suspicious group on the orders of someone dressed entirely in white, he could easily tell that something wrong was going on, but to help him be sure that those before him were trash, there was an old man being held hostage with a blade to his neck.
Just what I need, no sarcasm this time, Sasuke sheathed his new Kusanagi and placed it between the rope tied around his waist, finding just the perfect opportunity to test a few things with guinea pigs that probably no one would miss and still help appease his anger. The problem now is to do this without being seen, caught, or interrupted.
Surveillance, alarms, and things like that would not only flag him with the authorities but also trigger the police and that couldn't happen.
In that case. Sasuke smiled as he remembered a Jutsu that gave even Kakashi's borrowed Sharingan a lot of trouble, raising one arm toward the sky and positioning the other in front of his face to form the necessary seals. Water Style: Hidden Mist Jutsu!
Thanks to his Rinnegan, it was possible to access and manipulate all the elements of nature, and with that, his arsenal of Jutsus was only limited to his knowledge and imagination.
Should the great opponent to come not be a goddess who could absorb ninjutsu, Sasuke would be a walking nightmare for anyone else.
Fortunately, Naruto was the one to be gifted with all of this.
With his Jutsu taking effect, the bright moon disappeared into the sky above and everything in the mile radius was covered by nothing but mist so dense that it would be hard to see more than a few feet around one. Not only that but there was also the fact that the temperature plummeted with the terrifying cold of the ominous Chakra present in the technique.
Even though he was aware of the fear imposed on hundreds, maybe even thousands of people, Sasuke would disregard the mental health of others in favor of his broken selfishness.
Shall we begin, then? Snapping his neck, he had his eyes shining along with a smile that could only be described as predatory. With this game.
Soon after, Sasuke disappeared into the mist, and immediately any and all power boxes that supplied electricity to the area exploded.
There would be no interruptions, no records to be made, and no recognition that could compromise his Identity.
Above all, there would be no mercy.
A box crashed and cylinders of Dust rolled across the floor, accomplishing the feat of knocking out two other men and adding more damage to the ongoing robbery.
What a useless bunch, Roman resigned himself to merely sighing at this cheap labor that Junior got for him and being thankful that nothing had exploded. Alerting the authorities was all he didn't need right now. I should have known at this point that cheap always comes at a price.
Still, he couldn't help but economize, since that Cinder bitch didn't give him a quarter to help and this whole operation was coming out of his pocket.
Talk about plans well made, he sneered at her for the thousandth time, to himself, obviously, repudiating the idea of having his dissatisfactions reaching the ears of his new boss. Dismissal in this line of work is a dead-end path to a shallow grave...or a pile of ashes.
Most of the time, he meant. In the past, he had barely made it out of the Spiders alive, and he had learned the hard way that cheating in the chain of command without having the power to back him up made everything... extremely problematic. That way, he knew better than to try his luck again and go against someone with one of those damned Semblances capable of turning bodies into nothing but ashes in mere seconds.
Damned sadist. Roman was hardly averse to killing, or torture since Neo was kind of crazy in that regard, but even the little multicolored girl had limits and they definitely didn't include destroying bodies to the point of non-existence. Something like that is just... evil.
In a way, not that he cares about customs and all that, but he himself would like to have a proper burial when his day comes, a hundred years from now if possible.
It was still hard to believe that this kind of power, which was supposed to be fictitious, existed.
Power... Roman loved this word and all the benefits that came with it, just as he disliked the fact that he was at its mercy. If I had such power, what would I do?
It was funny to ask when the answer was obvious.
He would be the king who gave the orders without fear of repression, and not the frightened horse being whipped around to exercise someone else's will under threat of death.
In short, he would go back to being what he was before that damned Cinder appeared and be free to continue doing as he pleased, increasing his notoriety and earning money to buy his happiness alongside his partner.
Speaking of that devil, Cinder said that she would come today to check on my... 'performance'. At this point, she should be arriving with a Bullhead, probably stolen, to assist in loading the cargo and escaping, but nothing so far, and Roman hated delays. This kind of stupid mistake could put me behind bars, so I wonder where she went ... huh? he stopped complaining to himself, noticing his breathing becoming visible with a sudden drop in temperature that permeated the air with cold. With this strangeness of feeling the weather change from a beautiful summer night to a winter one out of nowhere, his hands began to tremble and confusion gave way to unconscious fear. "What the hell?"
More and more noises of falling boxes sounded and Roman couldn't even complain, feeling difficulty breathing with the involuntary increase in his physical trembling and he wasn't the only one. In fact, the others around him were getting ten times worse than he was, some hyperventilating and panicking as they fell to the ground, others running around to get away with nothing but terror stamped on their faces and noticing that the old man taken hostage had disappeared without a trace.
Before he could begin to understand what in the seven hells was going on, everything within his field of vision began to disappear with the appearance of a mist that could be anything but natural.
What the hell is going on here?! Staggering a few steps, Roman was seriously beginning to think he had entered Silent Hill or some kind of madness because more and more he became afraid and didn't even know the fucking reason! Could it be... some kind of Grimm?
As unlikely as it was to have one of these things appear in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world, guarded by the second-best defense system, inferior only to Atlas, there were some Grimm types capable of making crazy shit as this happens.
Then, to make what was already bad worse, there were explosions that hardly originated from all the Dust poured around, coming from above and as a result, the local lighting disappeared completely.
The mist itself made it difficult to see to the extreme, after the lights went out, not even the moonlight could be seen and darkness reigned along with absolute fear.
Before the thought of escape could take shape in Roman's shaken mind, an agonizing cry of pain from one of his men sent shivers down to the last hair on his body. Whatever was going on around him could not be seen and that was exactly what made it so frightening, with these screams bringing imagination to life in the worst way and adding a new wave of fear in his body.
What should have been an impossibility began to become more and more real with the feeling that some sinister monster was carrying out a massacre in the middle of the city.
He wasn't wrong.
Scream after scream and cries for help drenched in despair echoed on and on, and Roman trembled like a helpless child with his increasingly erratic breathing, barely able to stand as his legs gave way and he made real use of his cane for the first time to support himself.
I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die, he kept repeating to himself over and over, certain that the karma of a lifetime of mischief on the streets and harming other people had come to collect on this long list of debts.
Closing his eyes as if accepting the end imposed by his cursed fate, he saw brown and pink in the form of a small girl who had been with him for a long time.
Neo... Next to the name was a memory of a kiss that seemed to mean nothing more than a tease, but at the same time possessed such meaning and mutual trust shared with his partner. If you saw me now, scared to death of something unknown, what would you say?
Nothing, as expected of her, but she would certainly mock him and run away without a second thought.
After all, Neopolitan valued her own life, knew when to retreat, and did so without hesitation. Definitely, something he himself failed to realize in most of the messes he got himself into with his never-ending thirst for notorious recognition.
If I'm that pathetic, she'll never see me like a real man... With a small glimmer of a spark of hope and the realization of a goal that went far beyond a joke, Roman ignored the chaotic commotion surrounding him along with the overpowering fear to punch himself in the face with everything he had, without using his Aura to defend himself and having blood drip from his nose. So how can I ever win her over if I'm a fucking coward?!
He didn't even try to fight Cinder because of all that dangerous display of power, certain that it was a futile effort, but how would he know without trying? He just didn't know! That was because Roman was afraid of losing everything he had achieved so far, including the girl who was always by his side when he needed her most but giving up on himself in the process.
Being submissive never suited him, and another punch to his face finished waking him up once and for all, as well as relieving the anger he felt at himself for giving up without trying, yet again!
Pain brought him back, and the image of Neo in his mind made that spark of hope rekindle his willpower to stand up on his own two feet and fight his way out alive, regardless of what the fuck this damn thing was!
I will not die here, he wanted to believe... No, he needed to believe and make such thoughts a reality! I refuse to die here!
He would fight his way out of this place no matter what!
With his weapon in hand, Roman focused on the unpleasant sound of flesh being cut, the nauseating smell of blood, and the disturbing screams of the massacre taking place to determine the safest path and find his way out of this shithole.
In just a second, somehow managing to maintain his sanity despite the fear of a heart nearly drowning in despair, Roman just found what he needed based on his hazy memory of the area and took action immediately to disappear from this hell on earth!
However, before he could take more than two steps toward salvation, the sound of nearby movement put him on full alert and the weapon firmly clutched in his trembling hands was before him to fend off whatever the hell was coming at him, only to prove to be an unnecessary effort when it turned out to be one of Junior's henchmen. Only, before relief could assuage the turbulent fear within him, hot blood struck his face when from this man's chest the gleaming tip of a sword protruded to his panic, but none of that compared to how terrifying the red and purplish glow coming from behind the dead henchman was.
A sword and the eyes of a monster, a combination that made no sense and didn't matter in the least amidst this madness.
"Fuck!" Without a second thought, Roman hurled a red crystal of Dust from his pocket and brought his Melodic Cudgel to fire a shot fueled with his Aura to the limit, wanting nothing more than to destroy whatever the fuck that was!
The only problem with that was the extreme proximity to use such an attack.
The resulting explosion hurled him against the wall of a nearby building, and the heat generated in waves managed to light up the place and push away some of the surrounding mist. Only when Roman regained his senses from his near-suicidal attack did the disfigured, charred body of that henchman hit the ground before him to remind him of this ongoing nightmare. For a second there was hope that he had killed, wounded, or even scared that thing away, but the next there was despair again as he saw his own death happening over and over and over and over and over again, each time different from the previous one and more brutal!
"Bluerg!" Roman fell to his knees and vomited up even his breakfast with such fear consuming him to the point of almost losing his mind. W-what is this? What's happening?!
He had never felt this way before, not even when he was just a brat abandoned on the streets to starve to death.
This that he was feeling was... was a sensation of outsize helplessness where the mere act of trying to breathe was as laughable as the desire to oppose this thing because Roman was sure that he was in the presence of Death itself.
Again, the thought of all those scenes becoming real gained strength to weaken his resolve, and this couldn't go on like that!
Move! Roman commanded his terrified body with everything he had and couldn't do anything but shake. Move, damn it! Biting his lips between tears that fell from his eyes until he could almost feel his teeth meeting inside his flesh with excruciating pain, he tried one more time! Fuking move, Roman!
With difficulty, but steadily, he finally stood up with the support of the wall behind him and his weapon in hand. His legs felt like they would give way at any moment and only the will to live to see the girl he didn't know was so important in his heart guided him to keep going.
Then this small flame of determination was almost extinguished when his body froze in place, trapped by the sudden icy voice that rang in his ears like the whisper of a demon in delight.
"Using pain to get rid of fear?" Sasuke considered, almost amused to watch this man drowning in fear somehow manage to overcome the exposure to his Killer Intent, much like he himself had done in the past before Orochimaru. "It's not bad."
Roman somehow managed to look into the abyss that loomed over him and all there was a humanoid silhouette in his limited vision, displaying that pair of red and purplish eyes to stare at him as if he were nothing but a piece of meat ready for slaughter. To make matters worse, in addition to the mocking tone of that cold voice, he could see the flicker of a blade dripping blood and be certain that the thing before him really was Death.
"And yet," Sasuke looked at the charred corpse right next to him and made the air even heavier to deepen this man's despair, "After all the trouble I've had, you do this?"
While he was relieving his frustration and attacked each of these men mercilessly, each cut was precisely performed in a non-lethal way... Well, the hospital bills were definitely going to kill them, but that wasn't his problem. The point was that even this last henchman that Sasuke pierced from the back, he had taken all the care in the world to avoid the spinal column, the lungs, and the heart, an extremely difficult feat, only for this coward in white to use some kind of explosive and put all his effort to no avail.
Using Killing Intent just now was a means of showing his displeasure about this, but it seemed that this man in white had some attachment to his own life.
Irrelevant, though.
Sasuke moved in the blink of an eye and Kusanagi glowed with electric sparks to slash that staff capable of firing explosives, pierce this man's shoulder and efficiently pin him against the wall behind.
"Argh!" Roman screamed as pain hit him out of nowhere, dropping the two parts that his weapon had become and grabbing the hilt of the sword that pierced through his Aura without breaking it and prevented him from moving. "Fuck!" He felt his legs waver again and the pain worsened with his own weight bearing down on the sharp blade inside his flesh. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!"
Amidst his flurry of curses, his face was hit full on by the familiar sensation of a fist and his head smashed into the concrete just behind along with the rest of the Aura that failed to protect him, nearly knocking him out, not to mention tearing the life out of him, but the sword reaching into his bones kept him conscious in the worst possible way.
Sasuke hated loud people, especially the kind that just talked nonsense, but apparently, he was being too soft as this man didn't seem willing to shut up even after having his little Aura destroyed.
"W-who are you?!" Roman managed to pronounce amidst the blood that dripped non-stop down his face from the top of his head and painted his clothes red. "Just what the fuck are you?!"
There was no immediate response, where Sasuke considered what to say or if he should even say anything at all since he himself was no longer sure of who or what he was and this reminder didn't please him at all.
"What do you want to hear?" touching the hilt of his sword, he made this man shudder in pain as he answered with another question. "That I am a hero passing by?" Pressing the blade deeper in anger at remotely using such a dirty term to define himself, he made him scream and grab his hand in a futile attempt to make him stop. "That maybe I am a monster?" again, a self-definition that displeased him, mostly because of the truthfulness behind it and twisting the hilt of the sword to pure agony almost breaking this man. "Or perhaps Death itself?"
Sasuke was called as such by a girl who had sharp instincts, so why not give this trash a dazzle of the same?
By this point, Roman had understood what this thing wanted to do and it was quite simple: doesn't matter what it was, he was fucked.
"J-just let me go..." Roman practically begged, not taking any more of this physical and mental torture. The thought of biting his own tongue was tempting, but every time death came close to becoming real, the one he wanted to see again came back to him. No... I can't... give up.
If he died, he would leave Neo alone in this shitty world and that couldn't happen, because he himself didn't want to be alone anymore and he repudiated the idea of putting her in such a situation once again.
Roman needed to live!
Sasuke had hoped that the will itself had left this guy, but surprisingly that was not the case. In those almost unconscious eyes, there were still remnants of the willpower that kept his hands on his own.
"If you hadn't killed that man just now, I'd even be inclined to let you go." Sasuke didn't give a damn why such perseverance, but he would at least acknowledge the effort for someone so weak. "However, since that is not the case." He brought his hand to this man's neck and made him look into his eyes. "Blame the kind of life you have decided to follow for what happens next."
As his consciousness drifted away, Roman saw the strange pattern in that pair of eyes change and felt in his own soul that this was the end.
"I'm sorry... Neo," was all he could say before plunging into the hell of darkness in his mind soaked in pain and suffering.
Sasuke used his Mangekyou to test the use of Genjutsu on a larger scale than that of the base Sharingan, hoping to see if it would have any effect, even more so after he had broken the Aura of this guinea pig that probably no one would miss.
Well, except for this Neo, Sasuke would keep the name in mind, almost having it as this man's last words, considering that his pulse was slowing at an alarming rate after this failed Genjutsu attempt. What had gone wrong? It couldn't have been the injuries, since he avoided any kind of fatal damage. His Aura is exhausted, so there should be nothing else to interfere with.
What could it be, then?
As he pondered for an answer, about to make use of his eyes for further analysis, light and heat came from above in the form of fire where Sasuke only needed a glance with his Rinnegan to disperse the unexpected attack. However, it didn't stop there, for as soon as remaining flames touched the surrounding ground, under his feet a burning symbol appeared to give life to another explosion, drive away the darkness in the form of a pillar of fire and accomplish the feat of worsening Sasuke's not-so-pleasant mood.
It seemed that someone really wanted to die by his hand on this day.
I just finished editing this week's chapter and it's almost midnight here. I know it's early for a lot of people, but I'm almost passing out in front of the keyboard and I have to wake up in six hours to go to work. So read and review, take a look at my P t r & on (slash) Bertoti if you want because I'm going to bed.
Until the next one.