Chapter 56: Metal Ningen Rising: Requite
Part 3: Can't fear your own heart (3)
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(((Hotaru)))
"??!!"
Hanabi looks frantically all over the place. All she can see is white space, infinite in its emptiness.
"Relax Hanabi Alter, we're in your Mindscape. Well, the edge of it that is. Now, what codename did Shisui gave you?"
She glared at me fiercely, but she can't do anything. The Mindscape Stage is a game that Shisui prepared for me as the only person capable to rival his Mindjutsu. The last time Injave to deal with this bullshit, I am forced to relive Kakashi's life and give him therapy.
Which was pretty stupid. Who the hell thinks I know how to console people? I just call Kakashi's feelings to be stupid and be done with it.
The Alter has to comply with Shisui's design. She cannot attack me in here, not that she could even without her programming limitation. I'm like Lord Morty in here when it comes to Legilimency.
Man I hope someone get that joke.
"I am known as Blind Heart.", she reveals her codename with venom.
"Of course he calls you that. The girl with All-Seeing Eyes is Blind in her Heart. Has anyone told Shisui that he is a shitty poet?"
The space within the Mindscape quakes with a cacophony of psychic wavelengths. In here, Time, Space, Matter, Energy, they are nothing more than just suggestions. If I want to, I can create a universe within my own Mindscape and rule over my creations like a god. I can control the Waves and its gonna be Wuthered damnit.
I don't even know what wuthering means. I don't have the Oxford Dictionary here damnit!
Anyway, at the last second when Blind Heart delivers her killing blow, I used whatever energy I could muster at the last second and deliver a palm strike the her face. Its called Bitch Slap no Jutsu, my most fearsome Raijin Fist move.
Man, remember when I was going for Taijutsu build before completely abandoning it for a Kenjutsu build? Those were the times, man.
Anyway, I made contact with her nervous system and establish Ethernet linking between her and me. Then I dilate the Time Perception and accelerate our thought process. In less then a second, my palm will lose contact with Blind Heart's face and cut off the connection.
But in here, you may as well call it eternity.
The quake subsides as a brand new mental construct has formed into existence. It is…
A tower.
With a suspicious amount of climbing routes.
Motherfucker, did Shisui somehow played Dying Light coz this looks suspiciously like a parkour gameplay map. There's probably zombies in there too.
Hello, I am Kyle Hotaru Crane and I'm going to climb the Babel Tower to save Hyuuga Hanabi from Donkey Kong.
For fucks sake.
"Uchiha Shisui wants you to know this. He had underestimated your capacity for empathy. To think a monster like you is capable to heal Hatake Kakashi mental wounds… So this time, he prepares another challenge for you. Here's the hint, one must endlessly wait, the other must endlessly climb. Only then a Miracle will be born. Climb on, Makoto Hotaru, and fell in despair as you will never reach the top!"
"gee, now he just ripoff Realta Nua ending. Shisui is such a trash writer. All he can do is ripping off someone else ideas."
"Grrrrr"
Before she can complain any further, Blind Heart is yanked upward to the top of the tower. Knowing the Jedi mindtricks going on here, I conclude that the Babel Tower is an infinite looping tower where there is no end to the climb. Once I gone inside, I can never escape, forever stuck in perpetual parkour maneuvers.
Abandon all hope, ye who enters here.
This is where I should call it quits and just leave. Hanabi's clearly can't be saved. He had laid out the perfect seal to contain Hanabi away from me.
Still, Makoto Hotaru is not known for making smart decisions. My entire gimmick is winning through sheer stupidity.
Now everyone, search on youtube for Dying Light 2 OST Empowering Yourself Extended. That is the OST the Writer vibe with over the course of writing this stupid Chapter.
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(((Narrator)))
Makoto Hotaru cross over the psychic threshold and accepts the Terms and Conditions. Mindscapes operates according the rules set by their designer, so even with his might over Brainwaves, he cannot exert control through a properly built Mindscape Construct. Just like Shisui can't play god against Hoshino Ai due to the psychic defenses which Hotaru installed in her, Hotaru cant play god against Shisui's brainwashing as he is forced to comply with Shisui's rules.
And besides, Uchiha Shisui is a master of his craft. If there's anyone capable to combat Hotaru's Legilimency, it would be him. There is no hole in his programming for Hotaru to break through, so he is forced to play by his term.
Quickly, Hotaru's run across the parkour circuit, evading monsters along the way and overcoming obstacles. He did not bother to keep count of how many floors he had climbed. At this rate of pace, he had perhaps climbed over 50 floors already, but the top of the tower is nowhere on sight.
He enters the tower, evading many monsters along his path while simultaneously solve the parkour puzzles the Babel Tower generates automatically. Soon enough, he reach the other side of the tower and resume his climb.
The Babel Tower rule dictates that he can only climb without using any form of power. He can only do so through tools and his own personal physical ability. Perhaps Shisui thought he can shut down Hotaru by denying the ability to climb walls like a gecko.
Jokes on him, Hotaru can't use Gecko Foot technique to begin with.
It is perhaps over 700 floors now. The Mindscape simulates hunger and fatigue, but Hotaru power through it. In order to torture him, Shisui didn't program Death simulation within the Mindscape Construct. He had thought once he trap him there, he will have Hotaru trapped in an unending hell for eternity.
He did not anticipate that Hotaru had long since stop caring for himself. One year. Two years. 10 years. 100 years. 1000 years. It doesn't matter. No amount of torture can work on someone who doesn't really care for his well-being.
Two thousand four hundred and eighty six floors. That is how much floors he had climbed. Once again Shisui had made a mistake. To keep his torment eternal, Hotaru's psychic avatar never lose its form. Hunger and pain may be simulated but whatever damage done to his avatar construct will be restored to original form.
Forty thousand and a hundred thirty one. That is how many times his body was damaged by the monsters. Hotaru had been careful enough to at least avoid complete capture. Sacrifice a foot. sacrifice an arm. Stabbed through his abdomens in all angles. No matter. His avatar will be restored anyway, so sacrificing his body parts is a zero cost investment on his part to ensure his steady climb.
6012 floors.
Hotaru hooked a rope and swing himself to the other side of the wall, landing into another room where he jumped over a few more monsters and climb the stairs 10 floors up before getting to the outside wall and climb the ledges.
8377 floors.
Hotaru crushed the charcoal he had let burn in his grip and mix it with the saltpeter and Sulphur he had grabbed along the way. He compacted the mixture inside a lead pipe while on the run and put in a few steel balls into the barrel. He aimed it a Volatile in front of him and light it with a lighter, igniting the impromptu gunpowder he prepared over the course of 200 floors run. In a single shot, the steel balls run through the Volatile's eyesocket and shoot it dead, giving Hotaru room to jump through the window.
11265 floors.
Hotaru hacked yet another Viral on his way with the impromptu axe he made by tying a ski shoe to a baseball bat, sharpen along the way by dragging the edge it across the concrete walls for the past 100 floors. He had long gotten use as to how to line the edge to cut through anything his way. He jumped over the balconies and enter another room, avoiding the horde at the middle of the path. Then he take the stairs and climb six more floors before going to the outside once again to climb the balconies.
17443 floors.
Hotaru maneuver between the incoming horde of Virals with shivs in both of his grasp. With practiced movement, he cut away their arteries and fled the room before the first drop of blood touch the floor.
29043 floors.
He dislocated the Virals neck with minimal movement. With just a nudge on the chin he dislocated their jaw, preventing him from being bit. With but the slightest twist, he dislocate their arms, preventing himself from being grabbed. With just a gentle stomp, he dislocate their knees, preventing them from pursuing him.
52339 floors.
Hotaru had become so accustomed to parkour climbing that he did not even think about it anymore. He is a perpetual parkour machine, evading the monsters with minimal ease and solving climbing puzzles instantaneously.
However
90002 floors
His mind is long gone
134895 floors
There is no end to this climb
187992 floors
The tower is endless
245872
The hunger is unending
576321
The fatigue is eternal
712742
The end does not exist
1092400
2042812
3725183
5553894
He is the one who climb endlessly. He had long forgotten who he is. He has lose his name. He has lost his image. He has lost language. He has lost him.
Yet, this body will not stop climbing.
No matter what he lose along the way, He Who Climb Endlessly never lose the sight of his goal. He had long forgotten her name. Had long forgotten the contour of her face. He had long forgotten the luster of her hair. The only thing he remembered about her now is the color of her eyes. Lavender moon.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, he felt he didn't like the color that much. Deep amethyst would have been a better color really. Still, it was her eyes.
So he had liked it regardless.
He has continue to climb endlessly.
But could she keep waiting?
10498572 floors.
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(((Blind Heart)))
Why wont he stop!!
He's getting closer!
No!
No!
Noo!!
I don't want him to reach here!!
The tower may seem limitless but it is still a mental construct made out of a mortal's mind. Mortal is finite, therefore the tower is finite. The distance is not physical but rather it is mental.
When Shisui reveal the truth to me, my heart shatter. I have been playing myself blind, refusing to admit it.
I had long known that Makoto Hotaru had murdered my father.
However, I had the luxury of pretending of not knowing anything. With no evidence, Hotaru remains as nothing more than a suspect. I can keep fooling myself that way, convincing myself that perhaps Hotaru did not do it. That perhaps Sabaku no Robert really did murder Hyuuga Jeff.
Then Shisui came along and shatter the illusion I put myself into.
Pathetic, isn't it? That a Hyuuga who's eyes sees through all illusions had fooled herself with self-delusion.
I am truly Blind in my Heart.
I was born the second daughter of Hyuuga Jeff and Hyuuga Virginia. Curses Hotaru's stupid false naming really. Because of my mind now connecting to him, I have been referring to all Hyuuga members with these weird names. Only Hinata, Natsu and I were spared from the nonsense.
I was born as nothing more than a Branch to be branded. The Hyuuga Main bloodline maintained the tradition of raising the younger child as nothing more than a bodyguard for the firstborn. The idea is that the bond of siblinghood will bind us to our eldest with the utmost sense of loyalty.
When I saw Uncle Abe got his head fried just because he shown the slightest agitation to Hinata's training while his son, Bitch Slave was denied the right fit for his potential, I saw my own future.
That one day, Hinata will do the same to me.
I feared the future that awaits me.
So when the Kumo's Peace delegation came into the village, I had slipped to them the weakpoints of our securities. I was nothing more that just a five years old at the time, the age where I will be branded when my birthday comes in a month. So in childish fear, I gave them the way in in hope they take away Hinata, sparing me the fate of being branded.
And they did took her away, murdering my mother in the process.
Because of my selfishness, I killed my own mother.
Since then, I dedicate myself to gain the Heiress title. At the start, with basic Jyuken I will damage Hinata's tendons in secret while she asleep. Not too obvious, just enough micro tearing to disrupt her dexterity at a miniscule amount. That is why at the start she can't train herself well. She can't move the way she wants.
Then, our father will keep scolding her, ruining her self-esteem. Father become especially harsh after mother's death. In grieve, he subsconsciously blame Hinata and so he was hard on her.
Soon enough, I don't need to sabotage her anymore. Hinata herself believe herself to be incompetent, and so does everyone else. It was a feedback loop that keeps feeding her anxiety and confidence issues.
I loved Hinata, but I feared her even more. I feared that she will one day find out what I did to her and take revenge. By the time I had developed proper conscious and morals its already too late. I ruined Hinata into a stuttering anxious mess.
The guilt was killing me, so I turn my heart blind to it. I swore to gain the Heiress title to atone for my sins. I swore that when I become Chief, I will never use the Brand against Hinata. I will never marry and have children to suffer the same fate and tragedy. I swore that I'll adopt Hinata's children as my own, so that instead of a Main child branded into slavery, I elevate a Branch child into leadership.
Then perhaps, that child will do better than me…
However, I was nothing more than a child with wishful thinking. Just when my path into Heiress is secure, there he came.
He has the face of an angel. His eyes are dull, lacking the luster of life. However I likened it to unpolished sapphire. From the day I saw him, I had liked him.
I ashamed of myself for finding myself yearning for a clanless rat. I was but 10 years old, a little girl that had just starting getting her period, but there I was swooning like a street harlot. The only redeeming quality Makoto Hotaru has is a pretty face and nothing else. He is an idiot and he doesn't respect authority. He is exactly the kind of ghetto badboy my father warned me to stay away from.
Like a fool, I fall for him anyway.
Things would have been easier if Makoto Hotaru doesn't look alive every time he sees me. In a family where I am treated as nothing more than a greedy younger sister coveting the firstborn rightful place, however incompetent she may be, the sight of someone who gives me such warm attention despite his lack of passion for himself was…
I may be viewed as the better candidate, but I sure was not loved. Not even by Father. All his attention had always been for Hinata's. I think he and the elders knew I was the one who leaked the breach of security. They just…
They just can't get rid of me just in case Hinata's really can't break through her mental block. I am the convenient spare they kept around just in case. Regardless of qualifications, the Hyuuga Clan value tradition most of all. And it would be a shame if they don't do everything to improve the firstborn before finally giving in and resort to me.
I knew it was over the day I face Hinata for the assessment duel after her training under Hotaru's guidance. I just turn my heart blind to it.
Despite my loss, I felt liberated in an odd way. I no longer has to push myself forward. I have failed. My path for penance forever denied to me. I tried my best and I failed, so what can I do anymore?
At the very least, I can marry Hotaru.. That's the consolation I had thought. As a Branch, I wouldn't be subjected to political marriage. In a way, the Branch is free compared to Main.
What I had not expect was that father would Brand me at the very same day. Finally, he had the excuse to banish me and punish me as I have deserved. I who had commit matricide deserves this.
Then, he came in like Lightning, desperate to stop my branding. He was easily defeated but it took a crack in the skull to finally put him down. I begged father to let him live. And so he complied just this once.
Despite I was not loved by father, I cling to him like the fool I am. All I want was to atone to him and Hinata. As the one who taken away their light, as the one who take away mother, I want to spend the rest of my life paying for my sins.
I hate Makoto Hotaru for denying me that chance.
He is the opposite of me. Everything he does is for his sole benefit. Damned anyone who ever get in his way. Makoto Hotaru doesn't care. It's always him against the world.
So why….
Why wont he stop climbing?!!
30002110, that is the number of the floors he had climbed. In my perspective, his climb is sped up beyond the actual time he experienced. For me, only three days had passed. One day to me is equal to 10 million floors of Hotaru's climb over the Babel Tower.
What form of madness reside in him? Why can't he just stop? All he needs to do is give up and he will fade into oblivion. Mortals are finite, so even the tower's torment will not last forever as Hotaru's soul will fade away against the tides of eternity.
GRRUUUUUUU
The tower shivers in fear. In the tower perspective, the tower had fight against Hotaru for so long that it has developed it's own sentience. So many times it had captured Hotaru. So many times it had destroyed him.
Yet he wont stop climbing.
He won't stop fighting back.
GRRUUUUUUUUU
The Infinite Tower is losing to the Infinite Climber. The Tower had developed sentience in order to advanced its abilities, but that prove to be its greatest mistake. Now, it is a matter of willpower versus willpower.
The Endless Tower is losing to the Indomitable Will of Man.
GRRUUUUUUU
GRRUUUUUUUU
GRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
The tower began to crack. Infinity is split apart as it clashed against his will. It try to fight back, but nothing faze him. He continues to climb the balconies and defeat the hordes in his way. With nothing more than regular mortal prowess, he surpass each obstacles through experience and sheer will.
With nothing but the soul of a man, Makoto Hotaru is fighting the might of divine will. The Babel Tower, the tower said to be built for humanity to reach the Heaven is nothing more than a ladder to him.
GRUUUUU
CRAKKKKK
KRAAAKK
The tower could not bear it anymore. One time, I spoke with Naruto and Sasuke and they told me that no one ever managed to beat Hotaru in a petty fight. He is the Pettiest Man in the World and he will beat anything on his way with sheer spite.
There is no winning against Hotaru unless he allows it.
He had always been one for Mutual Assured Destruction. That is why he is strong. Makoto Hotaru winning condition was never him reaching a happy end.
His winning condition is to destroy you no matter what. Getting any form of benefit and reward from each fight is nothing more than a side bonus. He is perfectly fine to settle with mutual lose. As that itself is a win to him.
And that is why he keeps winning.
Endless is cut asunder.
Eternity shatters.
With one final punch, Makoto Hotaru punched through the final ceiling and reach the top of Babel Tower.
34,856,903 floors.
That is the limit Babel Tower had reached before it is finally defeated by Makoto Hotaru.
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(((Hotaru)))
After his endless journey, his soul is akin to a god instead of mortal. A soul that defeated the Endless Tower. If he return to mortal plane as he is right now, he will surely ascend to Deva right away.
The God of Will. His throne awaits him in the divine realm. His crown hovers in Deva to coronate him. Makoto Hotaru had surpassed the limit of mortality and ascend to godhood with nothing more than his sheer will.
However, none of that matter to him.
To remember her name, he discard his Divinity.
To remember her appearance, he discard his accumulated skills.
To recall who he is, he let go of his experience in the Tower.
To regain all meanings and emotions for the scant few precious people in his life, he return back all the blessings.
The God of Will dies as soon as it is born, and what remain is Makoto Hotaru.
A petty little shit.
Blind….
No.
Hyuuga Hanabi shed tears. Hotaru doesn't smile to most of anyone ever. Not even to Naruto and Sasuke. He may smirk or grin to mock but never a smile.
He had only even smiled ever so faintly to Hanabi and Konami.
"Why wont you stop, dummy?"
As usual, with his stupid, deadpan pretty face, he answers.
"Because a cute girl is waiting for me on top. Why else would I bother?"
His desire is simple. It was not noble. One may say it's pretty damn cringe. But that is enough for him.
Ideals is for pussies.
For Hotaru, petty desires is enough reason for him to save even the world itself.
Though, that's Naruto and Sasuke job, so he's not going to bother do anything.
One day, this thought process will bite him in the ass, but that is a story for another time.
He grabbed both of Hanabi's hands tenderly.
"Let's go home, Hanabi."
))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
"Khkkk! Khhookkk!!"
Makoto Hotaru spit out blood as he returns back to the real world. Hanabi's strike to his heart inject him with both lacerating rock and burning blaze chakra. His heart would have been destroyed if it weren't for him gradually strengthening it beyond its normal limit over the years.
"HOTARU!!! HOTARUI!!"
Hanabi frantically tried to regenerate his heart. However, the basic medical jutsu taught as rudimentary academy skill is not enough to fix it. Hotaru body enters a near death state mode to lessen the need for oxygen as much as he could, but he was already dying from fatigue and battle wounds before. He does not have much time.
"Well well, Partner. I thought your motto is to let someone else do the dangerous job while you sips water at home. I didn't figure you to be a hopeless romantic, Makoto."
Hanabi looked up and see a silver haired man with round glasses.
"Yakushi Kabuto??"
Before she can ask further, Kabuto slam a tag to Hotaru and seal arrays spread across his body.
"Stasis Seal. This should buy him some time."
Before Hanabi can ask further, Guren dropped to the ground glaring at Kabuto.
"Yakushi Kabuto! You traitor!!"
Kabuto just chuckles.
"Now now, I may have left Orochimaru's organization, but we still have a friendly partnership. Hardly a traitor material, isn't it?"
"Lord Orochimaru saved you and your mother and you owe him your eternal servitude! Leaving his banner after he had been so kind to you, just so that you can spread your own wings is betrayal enough in my eyes!!"
"Oh Guren, ever the zealot. You and Kimimaro will be his downfall, I swear."
"KABUTO!!"
Guren throws crystal shurikens yet it hit nothing but mirage. Kabuto had already extracted Hanabi and Makoto away and is now miles away running and Flickering.
In rage, she punched the ground and crystal spikes shoot out of earth, destroying the buildings in vicinity. How?! Just How?! Not only Makoto Hotaru had defeated the entire city worth of army in just a day, he had also broke whatever spell that Hyuuga brat was under in an instant!
She needs to pursue them and capture them. And perhaps kill Yakushi Kabuto on the side! That man may still be working with Lord Orochimaru as an independent agent but he can change his allegiance any time! He must be put down before he can ruin the Lord's plan!
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(((Yakushi Kabuto)))
Yakushi Kabuto is perhaps the best spy ever produced by the ROOT.
After being liberated by Orochimaru, Kabuto has worked as an independent agent both for Danzo and Orochimaru and act as liaison for their collaboration. However, Kabuto's loyalty is not with any of them.
His Loyalty is to the Orphans. His brothers and sisters.
For a long time, he had seek for the next Namikaze Minato. What Konoha… no, what the Shinobi World needs is a revolution. Namikaze Minato had tried to break the system but he had failed. For everyone under the oppression of Shinobi System, their hope had died along with Yondaime Hokage.
However, a new spark of hope has been reborn.
A genius had failed to defeat the Collective Intelligence of the Shinobi World.
In that case, perhaps what the world need is not a genius with a golden heart, but rather an idiot who is a petty and spiteful little shit.
Makoto Hotaru took on the Clans of Konoha like an abrupt storm. One by one was defeated by the sheer genius of Outstupid Maneuvers. He had witnessed himself how Makoto Hotaru had crashed the NaraNet through sheer stupid, and so Kabuto had been convinced he had found the leader he had been waiting for.
The Firefly of Truth will lit up the bleak hopeless world shaped by the Shinobi System.
So now here he is in his secret lair in Snow. One of the many he had set up across the nations. He put Hotaru into the life support tank and begin to restore his body. Makoto Hotaru must stay alive so that he can take his rightful place as the leader of the resistance.
Call him unoriginal, but he thinks the name Aotsuki to be pretty lit. Red and Blue Moons, clashing their ideals to reshape the Shinobi World to a new form.
At the end of this saga, only one of the moons will reshape the world.
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(((AN)))
Holy shit, Kabuto ex Machina. Not even I see that coming.
Everyday I dig myself deeper with my bullshit. Fuck!
To Guest, lmao, at this point you may as well email me at corvideclair@gmail. I feel like I'm back to the pre-internet era with the delay of your reviews. Considering my frequency of updates, this Review—AN interaction is like a really bizarre chat exchange. I would like to converse in Discord or some shit coz well,
I'm flipping bored.
Now, on topic of Matou Shinji, I personally don't hate him. I hate how oddly misplaced he is within FSN character writing. Based on his background material I think he was a tragic character with his deteriorating relationship with Emiya Shero. Yes I spell his name wrong, it's an inside joke with my irl fren. I hate Matou Shinji the Strawman Villain. He was written as a cheap villain to be hated which is really weird in FSN style of character writing.
I like Uncle Melon funnily enuff. Guess who that is lmao. Clue, he quit Magecraft and become a colonel selling fried chicken.
Now, Makoto Hotaru character is written to be a total unrepenting asshole. This fic comedy formula mostly revolves around Hotaru capability to just shut down his empathy on demand and just terrorize anyone with no remorse. Granted he doesn't resort to the extreme until someone annoy him hard enough. Based on cringy edgy pseudo-psychologist YouTube videos, Hotaru is a Dark Empath, capable to understand others emotions yet capable to not feel and relate to it personally.
I want to clarify that while a lot of the trash take "Makoto Hotaru's Controversial Opinions" is based on my own, which I exaggerated further for comedic purposes, some of them does not reflect mine but rather just an in-character thought process. I want to clarify that I hate Matou Shinji as a caricature comic relief villain in FSN and not the potential he could be written based on the background material from pre-FSN. Though once he, ya know, become a grape farmer, he's already too far gone.
Like shit, keep beating the dead horse would you, Nasu. If you want an irredeemable villain just put in Dio. At least that guy was a blast to watch. The only thing worst than a pathetic whining pussy MC is a pathetic whining Karen villain.
In the case where I did ended up writing that Fate fic, I swear I will make Shinji to be the best character on par to Sabaku no Robert! Mark my words!
Shinji Ikari can go to hell though. I don't like Evangelion. That is the Controversial Opinion of the Week.