"Kōri..."
On the platform leading to the giant tanuki's cockpit, Pakura called out her lover's name, her expression complex.
But at this moment, her voice, so light it seemed ready to shatter, was more like she was confirming that the existence standing there was still the person she knew.
Resentment, hatred, lamentation, obsession... The ominous aura around Hii Kōri was like the precipitation of a deep and fierce curse. Emotions so intense they nearly became substance intertwined, tangled, and coalesced into a heavy, massive anomaly.
Even though Pakura wasn't skilled in spiritual perception, she could clearly sense this from her lover—or rather, it was precisely because of this that she was so worried.
"Mm. I'm here."
Hii Kōri, who was performing the final adjustments on Shukaku Zero, looked up and met Pakura's gaze with calm eyes. "What's wrong? Does the old lady have some plan that needs my cooperation?"
"...No... I'm just a little worried about you..."
Pakura's gaze fell on the cockpit interior. The discarded chakra suppression bindings tossed carelessly to the side might explain the source of the atmosphere twining around Hii Kōri right now.
Just how far would the Yin Release chakra, further intensified by such swelling of negative emotions, condense, What kind of effect would that crystallization have on Hii Kōri? Probably no one but himself could know.
But just approaching him, Pakura could feel an intense wave of sadness and another indescribable emotion.
"Ah, if it's about big brother's matter, don't worry. When all's said and done, if you're doing work like being a ninja that invites grudges, everyone encounters something like this sooner or later, right?"
"Killing and being killed. That's all."
Showing a smile that was hard to read, Hii Kōri's hands never stopped tapping on the keyboard. But this level of reassurance clearly couldn't soothe Pakura's heart, which was affected by the gloom he exuded.
"But I can tell from your face that's not what you mean."
"I just thought through some things clearly, and I'm going to act in a way I'm better suited for. Why make that kind of face?"
At this, Hii Kōri was genuinely a little puzzled.
"Because, Kōri, your whole body is giving off an aura like you're going somewhere far away."
"Ah, is that what you think? No helping it then—mmph!"
With a short sigh, Hii Kōri suddenly reached out, somewhat forcefully grabbed Pakura by the collar, and seized her lips in a highly aggressive manner.
One second, five seconds, ten seconds... Only after several dozen seconds did Pakura, with an instinctively watery mist in her eyes, get freed from this almost suffocating deep kiss, then off-balance fall into Hii Kōri's embrace.
"Ha... Wh-what are you suddenly doing..."
A slight timidity mixed in with the wet breaths, Pakura's tone carrying a fair amount of anger.
Of all the serious occasions to pull such an underhanded move, what was that supposed to mean!
Though saying that while being someone who got completely routed by a single deep kiss was a bit lacking in confidence.
"Hm? Didn't you feel my feelings? That's strange. From what I read in picture books and stories, just by kissing you could feel each other's thoughts and such."
Both hands pinching Pakura's flushed cheeks, he made her look at him.
"There's no such thing!"
Pakura, who was always no match for these 'staring contests,' turned her reddened face away, shouting quite angrily.
"Yeah, because there's no such thing, I wasn't planning on making anyone understand~"
Making a slightly rising tone, Hii Kōri's expression could hardly be called a smile.
"My head is sober, in fact, it's so clear it's almost sickening. For you and Karura, the old lady and Sasori... I have no intention of pulling a suicide attack."
Upon hearing the news of Mataza and Shūko's deaths, he had indeed felt immense grief. That overwhelming emotion had almost completely breached his cursed energy defenses.
Yet this wanton burst of spiritual energy had also prompted him to complete the fourth layer of Divided Thinking.
Two hundred and fifty-six parallel thought streams of processing power instantly allowed him to rein in the runaway cursed energy, but at the same time, this exponentially increased computing power also suppressed his emotions.
Using this grief to rapidly increase cursed energy and Yin Release... further optimizing the operation of the Seven Essence Release Gates and continuously keep it open to balance Yin and Yang Releases... Plans such as these sprung forth almost instinctively, even surpassing his own thoughts to 'want to think.'
He even felt as though his emotions and thoughts were completely fragmented, as if the former was only retained because it was 'still useful to his thinking.'
At this, Hii Kōri felt an intense aversion.
That's why he had undone the bindings inhibiting his Yin Release, allowing that immense gloom to flow wantonly.
At least at this moment, let him be driven by emotion to do something, rather than subconsciously using this very emotion.
"If that's the case, at least let me go with you..."
"Hmm...I'm afraid not. It's not that I think you're weak and can't help, it's just that you're simply not strong enough yet."
Lifting Pakura by the waist, he walked out of the cockpit. After giving the door a kick to shut it, ensuring no one else could get in, Hii Kōri pressed another kiss to her forehead, then without hesitation pressed a spot on the back of her neck.
"After losing big brother, I don't want to part with someone I love again in such a short time."
He placed the unconscious Pakura on a chair on the platform, pulled a blanket from the scroll on his wrist, and draped it over her, carefully tucking in every gap.
Hii Kōri's claim that he couldn't command army battles wasn't a lie. In his previous life, the entire jujutsu world didn't even have enough people combined to talk about 'army battles.' And now as a ninja, he also tended towards solo breakthrough, at most leading a squad of no more than twenty.
Moreover, whether in the past or present, he had always positioned himself as a 'researcher.'
But if he really had to do something, after all, it was only when alone that he could fully stretch his limbs, or rather, only when it was just himself.
Magnet Release: Iron Sand Clone.
Ninja Art: Transformation Technique.
Gojō Satoru, Yorozu Kōkichi, and Fushiguro Tōji,a trio that didn't exist, at this moment.
"Let's... raise some hell."
Feeling the anger surging through his body, an anger that felt like it was boiling his very blood dry, the three beings with completely different appearances revealed identical, vicious grins.
***
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