PAIN.
SLAP!
Rei's head was violently whipped to the side, the stinging heat on his cheek instantly jerking him back to full consciousness.
"Hiss... Ah, you motherfucker!" His eyes snapped open, blazing with pure fury.
Ignoring the disorientation, he pushed himself off the floor, ready to tackle whoever had just assaulted a four-year-old child. But before he could take two steps, a heavy, calloused hand grabbed his shoulder from behind, easily halting him in his tracks.
"Alright, alright, chill out, buddy," a relaxed, teenaged voice sighed above him. "The kid's just a little disappointed. Don't take it personally. At the end of the day, we're all technically the same person here."
Rei blinked, shaking off his rage to take in his surroundings.
The guy holding him back was a tall teenager with shaggy dark hair, dark eyes, and a laid-back posture. And standing a few feet away, glaring at Rei as he had personally set his house on fire, was a small boy with spiky, sea-urchin-like black hair.
Rei looked around. There were no walls, no ceiling, no floor—just a terrifyingly endless expanse of blinding white void.
"Where the hell am I?!" Rei yanked his arm free from the teen's grip and took a swift leap backward, taking a defensive stance. "Who the fuck are you guys?!"
The hedgehog-haired kid crossed his small arms and scoffed loudly. "Idiot. Did you really not notice the massive memory dump and the changes in your own soul structure yet? What a useless waste of space."
"Excuse me, you little brat—"
Before Rei could finish cursing the kid out, a sudden wave of unfamiliar information violently unlocked in his brain. It felt like someone plugged a high-speed flash drive straight into his mind, playing a movie reel at ten times speed.
Images, concepts, raw power signatures, and cosmic history flooded his consciousness.
As the memories digested, the angry scowl on Rei's four-year-old face slowly dissolved. A grin started to take its place—spreading wider and wider until he looked like an absolute lunatic.
"Bwahahaha! Hahaha!" Rei threw his head back and burst into wild, villainous laughter. "I finally got my golden finger! I got my cheat! I'm fucking invincible!"
"Shut the hell up, you worthless leech!" Megumi roared, his veins practically bulging from his forehead. "You have no idea how excited I was when I saw a new soul pop up in the room, only for you to bring nothing useful to the table!"
Rei completely ignored the sea-urchin kid's hysterical screaming and turned toward the dark-haired teenager. "Brother... why is hedgehog boy over there so damn pissed? He's acting like I kicked his dog and murdered his family."
According to the memories he had just processed, this endless white realm was an artificial sub-space created by the original, first version of themselves.
That original self had reincarnated into the world of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime. Unfortunately for him, he landed in a dark, failed timeline where Rimuru Tempest didn't exist to carry the world. After trying and failing repeatedly to survive, he was eventually snuffed out like a bug by Veldanava, the Dragon God.
In his final moments, the original self shattered his own soul into infinite fragments, launching them across the omniverse while creating this soul-hub. Whenever a soul fragment entered the hub, all connected incarnations would automatically sync their memories, abilities, and physical talents.
Of course, nothing in life came entirely free—even from another version of yourself. The soul contract embedded in this space had one strict rule: once any of them accumulated enough divine power, they had to eventually jump back into the Tensura world and beat that motherfucking dragon to death. Other than that? They were free to do whatever the hell they wanted in their respective universes.
And the two guys standing in front of him were from very familiar worlds.
The hedgehog-headed kid throwing a temper tantrum was Megumi Fushiguro—the infamous "Potential Man" from Jujutsu Kaisen.
And the laid-back teenager was Kevin Levin—the metal-absorbing Osmosian from Ben 10.
Kevin rubbed the back of his neck and offered Rei an apologetic shrug. "Don't mind him too much, man. Here's the deal: Megumi was actually planning to force the Mahoraga taming ritual today."
Rei raised an eyebrow. "Today? Isn't he like... five?"
"Yeah," Kevin sighed. "It's super risky, obviously. So when the alarm went off showing a brand-new soul had entered the hub, Megumi thought he was about to get a massive stat boost from a powerful alternate self. He was counting on that extra power to carry him through the ritual. But then he synced with you... and got your power level, which is basically non-existent. It broke his brain, so he took his frustration out on your face."
Rei's mouth twitched violently. "Wait, seriously?! Why the fuck are you blaming me for your stupid plan?!" He glared at Megumi. "I'm four years old! I spent the last four years actively trying not to train! How was I supposed to know you were waiting on me to carry your suicidal ass?!"
Despite the unfair slap, Rei couldn't stay mad for long. The subtle, surging energy pulsing through his soul was far too intoxicating.
When he first landed in the Naruto world, he had quickly realized his ceiling. Without a broken system, an Uchiha bloodline, or Senju chakra, he was capped at basic Shadow-level power. That was precisely why he chose to become a lazy slacker—what was the point of grinding your bones to dust if you were still just cannon fodder to god-like aliens? He figured he'd rather live comfortably, enjoy his family's vast wealth, and maybe appreciate the local scenery—specifically Tsunade's magnificent double mountain peaks and Konan's scenic paper river. (Hey, a man of culture has priorities).
But now? Everything had changed!
He didn't just have the Ten Shadows Technique—including the broken adapt-to-anything monster Mahoraga—he also possessed the genetic template of an Osmosian from Ben 10!
In the grand scheme of power scaling, the Naruto world was small fry compared to the multiverse of Ben 10, which brushed shoulders with cosmic sci-fi concepts.
Forget Alien X for a second, Rei thought, his eyes glittering with joy. Just a To'kustar like Way Big would make me a walking deity in Konoha! I could literally walk sideways through the entire Ninja World!
"Kaguya Otsutsuki, what are you waiting for?!" Rei let out a quiet, perverted, maniacal laugh under his breath. "If you don't want a full-powered Cosmic Ray blasted straight into your face, you better come over here obediently and serve me tea!"
As Rei was lost in his megalomaniacal fantasy, his eyes subconsciously drifted over to Kevin. A creepy, predatory look formed in his gaze.
Kevin felt a chill run down his spine and held his hands up defensively. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't look at me like that, buddy."
Rei squinted. "Kevin... you're in the Ben 10 world. Where is my To'kustar DNA? Where is my alien power?"
Kevin let out a long, exhausted sigh. "Look, I only unlocked access to this white space about a month ago. Before that, I had no idea I had any cheats either! My mindset back then was literally identical to yours—I just wanted to avoid trouble, steal some car parts, and enjoy my teenager life. I didn't want to get involved in alien bullshit."
"And now?" Rei pressed.
"Now I'm planning to get in touch with Ben and the gang," Kevin explained smoothly. "I have a pretty good life right now, man. I really don't want to mess it up by making Ben my enemy early on and getting beaten into a pulp. I'm waiting to build a solid friendship with him first before I ask to touch the Omnitrix and absorb some alien DNA. It's called playing the long game."
"If that's the case," Rei grumbled, crossing his arms, "then why the hell is hedgehog boy over there in such a rush?"
In this white space, connected souls could freely read each other's memories, but they couldn't read passive inner thoughts—only what the person had actively experienced or seen. So neither Rei nor Kevin quite understood why Megumi was acting like a ticking time bomb.
"Why am I in a rush?!" Megumi exploded, completely losing his cool again. "Do you assholes have any idea what my life is like right now?!"
Kevin held up his hands, trying to play peacemaker. "Buddy, calm down. You're five years old! You have like eleven or twelve years before the canon story even starts! We have plenty of time! I promise you, as soon as I get close to Ben, I'll pull some Way Big DNA for you to play with. When that happens, who cares about Sukuna or Gojo? You can literally crush them underfoot. Just relax!"
"Relax?! Go fuck yourself!" Megumi spat, his little face twisting with rage and paranoia. "You guys get to sit back and enjoy your comfortable lives while I have to live completely at everyone else's mercy! Do you really think the Zenin clan will not send assassins after me just because Gojo put a word in?! How much influence do you think a teenager like Gojo actually has over those corrupt old heads right now?!"
Megumi took a deep breath, his hands trembling slightly with repressed anger.
"Sure, in the original anime plot, I survived," Megumi snarled. "But this is reality now! What if an assassin succeeds this time?! What if Gojo turns his back?! I refuse to let anyone hold my life in their hands. If I didn't have the ability to change things, I'd suck it up and endure it. But I do have the ability!"
Megumi glared at both of them with intense, cold eyes. "Even if taming Mahoraga is uncertain."
Without waiting for either of them to respond, Megumi snapped his fingers. His figure began to fade as he disconnected from the space.
"Go fuck yourselves. I'm leaving."
With a sharp pop, Megumi vanished into thin air, returning to the Jujutsu world.
Silence fell over the blinding white space.
Rei and Kevin stood side by side, staring at the spot where the angry five-year-old had just been standing.
Rei scratched his cheek, where the faint memory of Megumi's slap still lingered.
"Man..." Kevin muttered, shaking his head. "He is way too edgy."
"It's all that gambling bastard's fault," Rei sighed heavily, rubbing his face in sympathy. "Toji completely ruined what should've been a cute, innocent kid version of us. Now he's so twisted he's hard to even recognize."
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