Chapter 164: Illuminate the World, Infinity...... (Patreon)

"Haaah—!"

Even bound hand and foot in chains, the Nine-Tails strained its neck upward and blasted a foul gust of breath straight into Uchiha Ayato's face, which was right in front of it. Its refusal couldn't have been clearer.

Its beast eyes were full of fury and bitter resentment.

Yae Miko?

Kokomi?

Those two names sounded absolutely awful.

Faced with the huffing Nine-Tails, Uchiha Ayato's eyes gleamed with amusement. He asked with obvious interest, "Oh? How so?"

"So you don't like the names I picked?"

"I think they're quite interesting."

"Cut the act!"

The Nine-Tails snorted heavily, two plumes of white smoke jetting from its nostrils.

"Both of those names sound, and feel, unbearably dutiful. They sound like the name of some loyal hound that'd tear a target apart for its master…"

"Besides, the very act of 'bestowing a name' is a condescending show of enslavement, isn't it?"

The Nine-Tails stiffened its neck, trying to hold on to the last of its dignity.

"I'm free!"

"I won't accept some ridiculous name with such rotten taste!"

"Free?"

Uchiha Ayato looked as if he'd just heard a great joke. He raised a hand and lightly rapped a knuckle against the Nine-Tails' nose.

"Do you have some kind of misunderstanding about your situation?"

"The sealing technique is nearly complete and the chains are practically cutting into your soul. How do you have the nerve to say the word 'free'?"

The Nine-Tails choked.

It turned its head away to avoid those eyes that made it shudder, snorted coldly, and said stubbornly:

"I don't care!"

"My name is Kurama, and Kurama is Kurama!"

"That's not up to you."

Uchiha Ayato idly looked over the Nine-Tails' body, his smile deepening.

"Since you're dissatisfied with both 'Yae Miko' and 'Kokomi'…"

He rubbed his chin, his tone dripping with mischief.

"I see real potential in you for standing in the middle and playing both sides. How about 'Tamamo-no-Mae'?"

"An ancient relic of ages past, wanting nothing to do with the world."

As the saying goes, no child is filial at a long-sick bedside. Someone who endured BGO for that many years could succeed at anything.

"Tamamo-no-Mae?"

The Nine-Tails' fur bristled on the spot.

"What kind of ghastly name is that?"

"That sounds even more dutiful than the first two!"

"All right, all right."

Uchiha Ayato waved a hand carelessly, too lazy to keep arguing with the fluffed-up fox.

"We can sort out the name later. We'll have plenty of time."

"After all…"

"From now on, we'll probably be keeping each other company for a very, very long time."

His gaze sharpened and he pressed his palms together.

"Now, be a good boy and get inside my body."

The instant he finished speaking, the chains wrapped around the Nine-Tails erupted in blinding light.

"Clatter-clatter-clatter—!"

With a continuous rattle of tightening chains, the Nine-Tails' mountain-sized body rapidly shrank.

It lost its physical form and turned into a mass of crimson Chakra in the shape of a fox, radiating a terrifying aura.

The glowing ball of energy kept struggling, but in the end the chains dragged it into Uchiha Ayato's abdomen.

Uchiha Ayato kept forming seals.

A searing, stinging pain spread from his abdomen. Intricate black seals crept outward from his navel, interweaving until they formed an unbreakable spiral sealing array.

The Eight Trigrams Sealing Style.

The light faded, and over the churning sea there was only the sound of waves again.

The Nine-Tails, caught by Uncle Ayato!

Standing on the sea, Uchiha Ayato gently rubbed his stomach through his clothes and laughed helplessly.

"Big fox, you're a tsundere after all~"

Before beginning the sealing, Uchiha Ayato had actually prepared for the worst.

He knew very well that even locked in a cage, the Nine-Tails could still resist by refusing to supply Chakra if it wasn't willing.

So he'd planned to forcibly extract its Chakra by brute force once the seal was complete, to support tonight's cleanup.

To his surprise, after entering his body, the Nine-Tails really did share its Chakra obediently, letting the vast stream pour into his channels.

"I'm just paying up on a lost bet."

The Nine-Tails' childish voice echoed dully in Uchiha Ayato's mind.

In the dim sealed space, it lay behind the iron seal gate with its head buried in its forepaws, its tone conflicted.

"You took my Tailed Beast Ball and didn't die. And on top of that…"

"You might be the old man's descendant, so I'll grudgingly lend you my power."

It suddenly lifted its head and bared its teeth at Uchiha Ayato through the seal.

"So!"

"Stop thinking about giving me those disgusting names, and don't even think about turning me into some weird shape!"

By the end, its voice had visibly weakened, full of bluster.

"The way you look at me… it scares me."

Hearing this, Uchiha Ayato chuckled.

A brand-new, unopened Nine-Tails really is the best.

It was a blank sheet of paper, and he could slowly knead it into the most ideal shape.

Not turn into something weird?

Sorry, no such obligation. Uncle Ayato's Idle Transfiguration doesn't reason with anyone.

Besides, a Tailed Beast is essentially just a mass of aggregated Chakra with no concept of gender.

Turning a fox into a girl was perfectly legal and perfectly in line with Uncle Ayato's logic.

The most important thing in life is keeping yourself comfortable.

Didn't you know Uncle Ayato is the feminizing demon of modern society?

Oh, you really didn't.

Uchiha Ayato gave the Nine-Tails' demand a noncommittal answer and simply said:

"Let's clean up this mess outside first."

He raised his head, his gaze passing over the rolling black waves to the bright moon hanging high in the night sky.

Fed by the Nine-Tails' Chakra, his channels, which had been nearly drained dry, filled once more.

The Mangekyou pattern spun swiftly in his pupils, and the vast Chakra was instantly converted into the purest ocular power.

The next second, a miracle descended.

The pale, cold moon looked as though it had been dipped straight into a pool of blood, a scarlet halo spreading outward.

Then a huge, intricate Mangekyou pattern was projected directly onto the moon's surface.

Red moonlight poured down, drenching the entire world.

Illuminate the world, Infinity…

Sorry, wrong channel.

"You… what are you planning to do?"

In the sealed space, the Nine-Tails sensed that terrifying surge of ocular power and couldn't help asking.

He'd only just received its Chakra, and he was already pulling off something this grand?

"Shh."

Uchiha Ayato raised a finger and laid it lightly against his lips.

"Just watch quietly."

With the crimson moon as a relay, Uchiha Ayato's field of vision rose without limit.

From a god's-eye view, he took in all of tonight's devastation.

The ruins of Shibuya, reduced to scorched earth.

The abyssal rift, cut mercilessly open by sword qi and stretching across Meguro and Shinagawa.

Tama Ward, utterly collapsed in the explosion.

And of course, the worst of all: Chiba Prefecture, wiped off the map by the giant Tailed Beast Ball and turned into a silent, dead bay.

"They really did take a heavy toll…"

Uchiha Ayato gave his assessment calmly.

Then his ocular power erupted with a roar.

First, Chiba Prefecture to the east.

Chiba looked the most frightening, but it was the easiest to fix.

All of its devastation came from that single Tailed Beast Ball, so the cause was simple.

He only needed to negate the cause: "the Tailed Beast Ball hit Chiba Prefecture."

Magatsuhi, activate.

Beneath the crimson moonlight, an unbelievable sight unfolded in an instant.

The boiling seawater flowed backward, and land that had been pulverized to dust rose again.

Reality was brutally rewritten. Amid warping waves of distorted space, the Chiba Prefecture that had completely vanished miraculously reappeared on the far shore of the strait.

Buildings still stood tall and the streets were still brightly lit.

The millions of civilians who had been vaporized into atoms the moment destruction arrived reappeared untouched in the exact places they'd been.

That world-ending black meteor might as well have been a shared, absurd nightmare.

Next, Uchiha Ayato turned his gaze to the Tokyo urban area, where the causes of damage were far more complicated.

The destruction here came in every form.

There were the traces left by Sukuna's battle with Mahoraga, and the fault lines left from his own brawl with the Nine-Tails.

In this area, simply negating a single outcome wouldn't work.

Uchiha Ayato spent nearly ten minutes locking onto his targets, then took a deep breath, and the Mangekyou pattern in his right eye began to turn counterclockwise.

Amenotokotachi, activate.

Time began to rewind.

The collapsed skyscrapers in the Shibuya ruins rose from the ground again like building blocks. The fissure running across Meguro and Shinagawa closed with a rumble. Shattered glass flew up from the ground and fit precisely back into window frames.

And the people who had died in the catastrophe began to miraculously revive.

Spilled blood flowed back into veins, broken bones knitted together, and stilled hearts began to beat powerfully once more.

Beneath the glow of the red moon, every innocent victim was forcibly dragged back from the Yomi.

In just a few minutes, everything was restored to the way it had been before the Shibuya Incident.

The signals at the crossings alternated normally and the shop signs shone as bright as ever.

Only the ordinary people standing in the streets were wide-eyed, looking around in terror and confusion.

A new memory had been added to their minds.

About death, and about monsters running rampant.

Those memories told what kind of chaos had befallen Tokyo tonight.

After a moment, the crimson moon lost its color and returned to its pale, cold glow.

On the sea, Uchiha Ayato slowly exhaled a breath of white mist.

Compared with his first attempt, the efficiency of his ocular power this time was markedly higher.

Even after rebuilding Chiba and restoring Tokyo, he had only spent about 2E of Chakra, which was hardly a loss at all for him now.

He reasoned that the change was most likely due to his Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan and Yang Release power, whose progress had now surged to 75% and 70% respectively.

"So…"

In the sealed space, the Nine-Tails spoke, barely able to believe it.

"You used all that Chakra just to do this?"

"I never thought you'd care about the lives of ordinary humans."

"And…"

Deep shock and wariness surfaced in the Nine-Tails' eyes.

"The power of those eyes of yours is a bit too absurd. Rewriting causality and controlling time…"

"Even the old man didn't have an ability like that."

Uchiha Ayato spread his hands, completely at ease.

"Can't be helped. I happen to be a reasonably responsible person."

"Those people died because of my willful whim. It'd be hard to justify leaving them like that."

"As for the power of these eyes…"

"I guess it's because I'm the only one of my kind in this world, so the world dotes on me."

With that, Uchiha Ayato stretched and narrowed his eyes.

"Tonight's finally over. Time to go home."

The next moment, Uchiha Ayato's figure vanished from the sea.

The sea was empty. The night wind passed over it, stirring up a thousand waves.

*

Minato Ward.

Grand Ayato Estate.

Standing in the entryway of his own home, Uchiha Ayato felt the constant warm air wash over him, and his nerves finally loosened completely.

Waves of cheerful laughter drifted from the living room, the girls' voices clear and lively. It reminded him once more how many weighty anchors and bonds he now had in this world.

The Shinobi World, his old home? Never mind.

Uchiha Ayato changed into slippers, took off his trench coat, still carrying a trace of the night wind's chill, draped it over one arm, and followed the light into the living room.

On the oversized circular sofa, five girls sat huddled together in a subtle arrangement.

Sumita Mana sat on the outermost end, with Uika Misumi beside her, hugging a cushion.

Togawa Sakiko sat in the middle, her cheeks faintly flushed, looking a little embarrassed.

Wakaba Mutsumi sat between Togawa Sakiko and Soyo Nagasaki, and was clearly enjoying it.

"What are you talking about that's making you so happy?"

Uchiha Ayato stopped behind the sofa and interrupted the tea party with a smile.

At the sound of his voice, Sumita Mana was the first to leap up.

"Ayato, you're back!"

She bounded over in three quick steps and took the trench coat from his arm with practiced ease.

After hanging the coat on the stand, Mana returned to stand in front of him and asked with a bright smile:

"Is everything taken care of?"

"Mm, every problem's solved."

Uchiha Ayato reached out and ruffled the top of her head.

"I restored everything to the way it was."

"So, dear Mana, can I join your conversation too?"

Mana squinted contentedly under the head pat and eagerly reported:

"We were just listening to Saki, Mutsumi and Soyo talk about CRYCHIC from before!"

"You came back right when we'd finished analyzing who was most at fault for the band blowing up."

Uchiha Ayato: "?"

Good grief, was this untouchable slippery slope now fair game for discussion?

And as a group discussion, no less?

"Oh, right!"

Mana clapped her hands together and pointed toward the kitchen.

"I made a late-night snack in the kitchen. Are you hungry, Ayato? Want it now?"

"The snack can wait a bit."

Uchiha Ayato's gaze swept over the faces of the remaining four girls in the living room, one by one, and he teased with a smile:

"I'm very curious what conclusion you came to."

Hearing this, Togawa Sakiko, who'd been wearing a radiant smile to welcome him, froze in an instant, and her already flushed face turned redder still.

She glared at Uchiha Ayato, then muttered in a small, embarrassed and annoyed voice:

"W-what business is it of yours?"

"It's a private topic among girls, so don't butt in…"

Wakaba Mutsumi, sitting beside her, very cooperatively turned her head away and stared at the night view outside the floor-to-ceiling window, clearly feeling a little guilty too.

"I'll tell you, I'll tell you!"

Uika Misumi raised her hand and betrayed her own niece without hesitation.

"After our discussion just now, the blame for CRYCHIC's breakup came out to about Saki eighty, Mutsumi twenty."

"Uika!?"

Togawa Sakiko turned to Uika in disbelief.

Heh. Sure enough, no matter how they talk about aunt and niece, in the end, the husband comes first.

Uika ignored Sakiko's protest and went on loyally reporting to her Grand Commander, Uchiha Ayato.

"Saki's the biggest problem. She quit the band on her own without giving any reason."

"And Mutsumi's line, 'I never felt like playing in a band was fun,' basically put the full stop on the band. That's not a small problem either."

"That's a pretty objective analysis."

Uchiha Ayato nodded in deep agreement.

When Uncle Ayato had been framed into watching the girls' band show, he'd been confused. These people loved music less than the audience at a Wu Bai concert. They were just a group of high school girls with an astonishing need for the company of other girls.

Most of them played in bands using the band as a front, taking turns asking other girls:

Can you play with me?

Can you play only with me?

Can you play only with me for the rest of your life?

"Uchiha Ayato!"

Togawa Sakiko, flustered and furious, grabbed the cushion beside her and made as if to throw it.

Uchiha Ayato dodged to the side with a laugh, circled the sofa, and sat down next to Soyo Nagasaki.

The sofa dipped slightly under his weight. Soyo instinctively adjusted her posture, moving her shoulder a little closer to him.

"Were you scared tonight?"

Uchiha Ayato turned his head and looked at Soyo Nagasaki's delicate face with its soft lines, and asked gently:

"Nothing happened on the way here, did it?"

Soyo Nagasaki shook her head and tucked a lock of curly hair that had fallen against her cheek behind her ear, her face full of trust and tenderness.

"I wasn't scared."

"Because you were there, Ayato."

"As long as I think of you, I don't feel uneasy."

She paused, looked him over, and a trace of small confusion entered her voice.

"But…"

"Ayato doesn't seem surprised at all that I'm at your house?"

"Why would I be surprised?"

Uchiha Ayato blinked, puzzled, and asked back:

"Didn't I make it perfectly clear in the message I sent you?"

"If anyone feels scared or lonely at home, they can come over here to Mutsumi and the others anytime."

"And I sent you the gate passcode too."

Soyo Nagasaki: ???

The gate passcode?

Just how much information was buried in that message I never received?

How big is my loss this time?

Carrier!

I'm suing you!

"U-um…"

Soyo Nagasaki barely held her smile and said, a little embarrassed:

"It seems there was a problem with my network, so I didn't get your message…"

"Mutsumi came all the way to my house to bring me over tonight, too…"

Realization dawned on Uchiha Ayato.

He patted the girl on the back to reassure her.

"It's not your fault. I get so many calls and texts that it probably caused congestion."

"If you want to know what the message said, Soyo, I'll just send it again."

At this, Soyo Nagasaki straightened her back at once.

She clutched Uchiha Ayato's sleeve with both hands, a resolute look in her eyes, and said, word by word:

"Please, Ayato!"

"Please send me that message again, no matter what!"

Seeing Soyo like this, the girls all burst out laughing.

Just then, Togawa Sakiko seemed to remember something.

Her breathing quickened.

She stood up from her seat, moved over to sit beside Uchiha Ayato, and looked up at him, asking in a trembling voice:

"Ayato…"

"You said just now that you restored everything?"

"Including the destroyed districts and the people who died?"

Uchiha Ayato nodded.

"Yes. I rewound the time of the damaged areas and cut tonight's losses to the minimum."

Rewinding time.

Losses cut to the minimum.

If he could bring back even the destroyed city and the people who had already died, did that mean…

"T-then…"

A captivating light lit up in Togawa Sakiko's eyes, and she asked, full of expectation:

"Could Mother also…"

The girl's voice was very soft, afraid of disturbing this fragile dream.

Hearing this, Uchiha Ayato's expression turned a little more serious.

He met Togawa Sakiko's eyes and nodded.

"I was just about to find a chance to talk to you about this."

"Saki, have you kept your mother's ashes safe?"

"As long as I have her ashes as a medium, I can rewind her time and bring her back to life."

Yet in the face of this practically free-handout condition, Togawa Sakiko showed not a trace of joy.

The little flame called "hope" that had just lit in her eyes went out in an instant, leaving only ashes.

"I don't have them…"

She lowered her head, her hanging hair covering the side of her face, and large teardrops fell onto her loungewear shorts, spreading dark stains.

"Mother's ashes… are gone."

"I followed her last wish long ago and scattered them all… into Tokyo Bay."

The girl's voice was full of the despair and desolation of being toyed with by fate.

Uchiha Ayato: "?"

Scattered into Tokyo Bay?

Holy crap, does that mean my showdown with the Nine-Tails in Tokyo Bay today counted as dancing on my mother-in-law's grave?

"How could this happen…"

The girl who hadn't shed a single tear through her grueling daily training, or even in the recent battle with the previous tyrant, was now sobbing uncontrollably.

"I finally… I finally saw hope…"

Uchiha Ayato didn't make any ill-timed jokes. He simply put an arm gently around Sakiko's shoulders and drew the trembling girl into his embrace.

"Saki, don't rush to cry yet."

"Without the ashes, the clumsy method of just rewinding time won't work anymore."

"But I never said I was out of other tricks."

The girl in his arms went stiff.

Togawa Sakiko sniffled, her nose sore, slowly lifted her head from his chest, and asked with tear-filled eyes:

"Really?"

"Of course."

Seeing how pitiful she looked, Uchiha Ayato couldn't resist pinching her tear-stained cheek.

"Have a little confidence in your man."

"It's just that the other method will need you to wait a while longer, Saki. Is that all right?"

In theory, without Togawa Mizuho's remains as a target for his ocular technique, neither rewinding time nor negating the fact that "Togawa Mizuho is dead" could be activated, much less something like Impure World Reincarnation.

Uncle Ayato's ocular technique might be overpowered, but it wasn't quite overpowered enough to grant any wish.

But…

Now that the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan's evolution had reached seventy percent, Uchiha Ayato could see more than ever before.

Among the many threads of causality wrapped around Togawa Sakiko, he saw one that was dim and severed.

Uchiha Ayato's instinct told him that once the Sharingan had fully evolved, he might be able to follow that thread of causality and fulfill Togawa Sakiko's wish.

Togawa Sakiko stared blankly at Uchiha Ayato, then nodded firmly.

"Mm!"

"I believe in you!"

The next second, she suddenly lunged forward, wrapped both arms tightly around Uchiha Ayato's waist, buried her burning face deep in his chest, and said coquettishly:

"But… don't make me wait too long, okay? Or I'll get mad, desuwa~"