The floor beneath Mamoru's feet instantly turned into a circle of deep darkness. Before he could even react, he fell defenselessly into the abyss that had suddenly appeared, his figure swallowed in an instant.
"Mamoru!" Kurenai cried out and rushed forward.
However, the circle of darkness had quickly closed, returning to the original floor as if nothing had ever happened.
"Yakumo, what did you do to him?" Kurenai asked urgently, her voice tight.
"Don't worry, I just made that nuisance disappear." Yakumo's face was terrifyingly calm, her eyes hollow.
"Yakumo, don't do something you'll regret." Kurenai slowed her voice and took a step forward. "If you want revenge, just come at me alone."
"I know what I'm doing."
Yakumo raised a hand, and a portrait of Kurenai floated in front of her. She picked up a sharp palette knife, scraped a large glob of grey-black paint from the palette, and slowly smeared it over Kurenai's legs in the painting.
The next moment, the real Kurenai let out a muffled groan and looked down—the part below her knees had instantly turned into nothingness, as if erased by an eraser.
Kurenai couldn't help but gasp at the sight, cold sweat instantly seeping from her forehead.
Yakumo's tone carried a hint of twisted pride. "How is it? I'm amazing, right? Now I can freely control sensei's life and death. Tell me the truth. It was the Hokage who ordered my parents' death and made me and the Kurama clan disappear from Konoha, wasn't it?"
"No." Kurenai endured the abnormal sensation in her body, her voice still firm. "Hokage-sama never gave such an order."
Yakumo's voice trembled violently. "Why are you lying? Wasn't Mamoru planted by you at my side? That person... you actually did something so cruel..."
She gripped the palette knife in her hand, her knuckles turning white from the excessive force.
"Please, tell me the truth."
Yakumo dipped the blade in paint again and smeared it over the waist and abdomen of Kurenai in the portrait.
"If you don't, you will disappear."
Before she finished speaking, Kurenai's legs above the knees also vanished into nothingness.
"If my disappearing from this world can take away your pain, then do it. If it can make your pain and hatred disappear together..."
Kurenai's voice remained firm and sincere. "Yakumo, don't hurt Mamoru. You must have some misunderstanding about him."
"Misunderstanding..."
Yakumo suddenly looked up, her eyes filled with pain. "Shut up! Don't mention that person again!"
"Yakumo..." Kurenai wanted to continue her persuasion.
Just then, in the middle of the studio space, a scene slowly emerged—Mamoru's figure was in it, appearing to be in another strange space.
Kurenai couldn't help but look up at the screen of light.
"I've already prepared a stage for him." Yakumo looked up following her gaze, a sickly and satisfied smile appearing on her face. "Since he dared to deceive me like that, let him accept my punishment."
At the same time, the portrait of Mamoru on the easel was slowly becoming blurred and transparent, as if being erased bit by bit by an invisible eraser, until it finally disappeared completely into the air.
...
The sound of wind whistled past Mamoru's ears, and his body was falling out of control. An instant before falling completely into this boundless darkness, Mamoru seemed to vaguely hear Kurenai's sharp and panicked cry.
Then came absolute darkness where he couldn't even see his own hand. His body lost all points of reference, with only the endless sensation of falling wrapping tightly around him, as if dragging him into a bottomless abyss.
In this heart-pounding darkness, two points of blue light suddenly lit up. His brain worked rapidly, thinking of all possible countermeasures.
However, before his thoughts could fully unfold, a speck of light abruptly lit up from the surroundings. The light was initially faint, but it quickly expanded and brightened, swallowing the surrounding darkness like a rising tide.
Before he could fully understand the meaning of this change, the scene before him had completely turned upside down.
His feet felt the solid touch of the ground. The sound of wind and the sensation of weightlessness stopped abruptly.
Mamoru looked closely and found himself standing on a familiar street in Konoha. The bright sunlight cast long shadows of the buildings, and the surroundings were unnaturally quiet.
"I'm back?" He instinctively looked around, trying to sense whether this was real.
The moment this thought arose, a groundless shudder surged up his spine, making him flinch involuntarily. The hair on his body stood on end instantly, and a fear originating from the deepest part of his life gripped his breath.
The sense of incongruity was so strong that Mamoru was stunned on the spot, his mind going blank.
After a moment, he suddenly realized. This was the first time since his transmigration that his instinctive sense of crisis had been passively triggered.
He knew that something was coming.
The next moment, a heavy sense of pressure, as if it were tangible, descended from above.
Mamoru looked up at the sky and saw a figure floating there quietly.
That person had a face slightly more mature than his own, and a pair of Six Eyes that were exactly like his. That gaze was calm and indifferent, like a deity sitting on the clouds, looking down at the ants below.
"You've got to be kidding me..." Mamoru opened his mouth in shock, his voice dry.
He had originally just wanted to force the 'Ido' deep within Yakumo's heart to appear, but now look at this. He had created an over-the-top existence instead. He had really stirred up a hornet's nest this time.
In the sky, the phantom of 'Mamoru' finally moved. He pointed one hand at the sky and the other at the ground, his posture seemingly leisurely but carrying a majesty that could divide the world.
Although it didn't make any sound, the meaning conveyed by that gesture was clearly imprinted in Mamoru's mind—
Throughout heaven and earth, I alone am the honored one.
Mamoru's eyelids twitched violently. For a moment, he had no idea what kind of expression to put on his face.
He now had only one thought in his mind, praying frantically: I hope this impostor's strength is also a fake. Otherwise... I might really be in big trouble today.