"Is that... a newcomer?" Tohsaka Shirou mused.
"Let's go take a look."
Following the direction of the snoring, Celestial Dragon Shirou took the lead.
As they drew closer, the snoring gradually grew louder and louder.
Before long, a new creature came into the three men's view.
In the center lay a huge Black Western Dragon, sleeping soundly on the ground. The snoring came from him.
Beside his head, a Water Blue Slime lay perfectly still, looking like a spherical toy.
At the dragon's side, four identical young men continuously formed hand seals.
The cloaks on their backs bore the words "Fourth Generation Water Shadow," making their origins obvious at a glance.
"What are you doing, Mizukage Shirou?" Celestial Dragon Shirou called out.
At that moment, all four Mizukage Shirous stopped forming seals and swarmed over, taking positions in front, behind, left, and right to form an encirclement.
"How did you know the name Shirou? I've never mentioned it to anyone. Could I be under a genjutsu? Release!"
Celestial Dragon Shirou paused briefly, then quickly understood and laughed.
"How long have you been transmigrated? You're ridiculously alert, yet you still couldn't react when I called you Mizukage Shirou."
"I just didn't bring my Bubble Helmet when I came in today. Otherwise, you would've recognized my origins instantly."
"Bubble Helmet?" Mizukage Shirou looked him over from head to toe and cautiously asked, "A Celestial Dragon?"
"That's right."
"The Main God Space?"
"Uh... completely wrong! We're all Shirous Originally Surnamed Kotomine, Double Transmigrators. Does that make sense now?"
Confusion appeared in Mizukage Shirou's eyes. After a few seconds of stunned silence, he suddenly understood.
"I get it! Clone Style."
"Your reaction is way too slow, isn't it?" Celestial Dragon Shirou looked at him speechlessly, then glanced at the Slime circling around him. "Even it understood faster than you."
"Haha... a Slime." Mizukage Shirou sighed. "That really is unexpected. Can memories and abilities be shared?"
"Of course. Just shake hands." Celestial Dragon Shirou paused, then added, "Any body part works. As long as there's physical contact, both sides will instantly share memories and abilities."
"Ooh...! Let's do it."
Mizukage Shirou eagerly extended his right hand.
"Wait." A somewhat feminine voice suddenly came from the Slime. "If that's the case, then that Black Dragon over there should be one of us too, right? Shouldn't we shake hands with him as well?"
"He's asleep. It won't be too late later." Mizukage Shirou curiously examined the Slime. "So you really can talk. You were silent the whole time, so I thought you couldn't."
"I didn't understand what you were doing, so naturally I had to observe carefully."
An arm gradually emerged from the Slime's body, touching both Mizukage Shirou and Celestial Dragon Shirou at once.
In that instant, different memories flooded into all three minds simultaneously.
Mizukage Shirou was seventeen this year and had been transmigrated for thirteen years.
As a commoner, when he left the village on a mission at the age of ten, he encountered Uchiha ninja and nearly died.
From then on, he abandoned his inner moral boundaries and began secretly conducting human experiments.
At thirteen, he transplanted Uchiha Residence genes into himself.
Two months later, he awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan through genjutsu stimulation.
His left eye could emit a ray of light that turned any man it shone upon into a woman, though it had no effect on women.
His right eye could also emit light, causing whatever it hit to break apart, whether human or object.
Three months later, he used cloning to evolve his Mangekyō into the Eternal Mangekyo.
From then on, an unknown Masked Man appeared in the Ninja World. The number of female ninja increased dramatically, and the male-to-female ratio in the Ninja World gradually became unbalanced.
And amid that atmosphere where everyone feared for their safety, a commoner named Shirou succeeded as the Fourth Mizukage.
That same year, the Fourth Mizukage married his childhood sweetheart, Mei Terumi, and gained the surname Terumi before his name.
Celestial Dragon Shirou released Mizukage Shirou's hand and teased him.
"Mangekyo abilities are related to the deepest desires in a person's heart. What exactly did you desire to awaken such bizarre abilities?"
"We're all the same person. Even if I don't say it, you already know." Mizukage Shirou smiled awkwardly. "Wanting to be the only man in the entire world... lots of people have probably thought about that, right?"
"Thinking about it and actually doing it are two different things. And you got married at sixteen? You animal!"
"Pah...! You're the one everyone should envy, aren't you? You're a Celestial Dragon. Once you grow up, who knows how outrageous that'll be."
Black Dragon's Roar
Black Dragon's Roar
"Who knows what the future will bring?"
Celestial Dragon Shirou smiled and shook his head, then turned to the Slime with a sigh.
"Your Mimic ability is really useful. When I eventually set sail, I can turn into a bird and easily fly across the Four Seas."
Slime Shirou raised his head and met his gaze for several seconds before asking.
"We're already quite strong. Even if we go to sea, we probably won't run into much danger, right?"
"I can turn into things I've eaten. You should have received all my abilities already."
"That means when you encounter enemies, you can simply take an animal form and burrow underground to escape."
"No." Tenryuu Shirou shook his head slightly. "No matter how much you have, if the quality isn't enough, it's useless. The Water Shadow's abilities and yours are highly versatile, but their quality isn't particularly high. What if we encounter monsters like Kaido at sea? Wouldn't that just be throwing our lives away?"
"So you want to become the strongest in the world before setting sail?" Slime Shirou looked at him speechlessly.
"At the very least, I need the ability to protect myself. Once I develop Time Freeze, I'll set sail immediately."
"That'll take too long! The Snow-Snow Fruit is still not the Ice-Ice Fruit. It can only control ice indirectly."
"But there's hope, isn't there? This is the best method I can think of."
As he spoke, Celestial Dragon Shirou's gaze unconsciously shifted to Mizukage Shirou, and he smiled.
"Those closest to the water get the moon first. As the Water Shadow, obtaining the Yukigakure Clan's Kekkei Genkai should be easy for you, right?"
"I can do that. But are you really planning to stick with ice abilities all the way?" Mizukage Shirou paused. "This isn't some especially powerful ability. Even if you can freeze time, once information leaks out, someone can just use a Shadow Clone and your ability will be useless."
"That's true, but isn't it extremely useful for escaping?" Celestial Dragon Shirou said with a smile.
"True enough. Before I went to war, the first few ninjutsu I learned were all for self-preservation and escape. Those people who mocked me back then have grass growing over their graves now."
Perhaps the Shirous were talking too loudly, because the distant Black Dragon abruptly opened his eyes and let out a roar.
In an instant!
A huge wave of black energy came hurtling toward them.
Slime Shirou suddenly expanded. A massive blue mouth split open across his body and directly swallowed the energy wave.
"Calm down! Black Dragon, we're Shirou too. We're all on the same side."
However, the Black Dragon gave no response. He beat his wings and shot straight into the sky.
From above, he spat out another black energy wave.
"Don't push it too far! Mimic—Veldora!"
The Slime bounced twice on the ground, then abruptly transformed into a blue dragon and flapped his wings into the sky.
After the Slime transformed into a blue dragon, powerful black magicules instantly erupted from the Black Dragon's body. His eyes turned blood-red as he stared fixedly at him, as though they shared some bitter blood feud.
In the sky, the two massive dragon species began fighting in the blink of an eye.
"Ooh...! This is quite the iconic scene."
Celestial Dragon Shirou held a plate of snacks in his hands as he sat in a chair, staring unblinkingly at the sky.
"It really is worth watching." Mizukage Shirou took a snack from his plate and ate it as he spoke. "The Veldora he mimicked may only be an imitation, but compared to ordinary dragons, he definitely isn't much weaker."
As they spoke, both men involuntarily recalled Slime Shirou's past.
He had been transmigrated as Rimuru for less than a month.
But with his familiarity with the plot, his growth rate had been like riding a rocket.
If abilities had not been shared, he would undoubtedly have been the strongest of all the Shirous at present.
As they spoke, the Black Dragon in the sky suddenly hovered in midair. After roaring, strange black magicules began surging around his body.
At the same time, an intensely oppressive sensation rose in every Shirou's heart, causing their bodies to tremble involuntarily.
"Hey, hey...! You've got to be kidding me. Just his killing intent has completely immobilized my body. I'm a Water Shadow who's been through countless battles!"
"What exactly is going on with that guy?" Celestial Dragon Shirou stared at the sky in shock. "Was he playing with us all along until now?"
Tohsaka Shirou clenched his teeth, stepped forward several paces, and shouted.
"Hey...! We're all Shirou. Are you trying to kill yourself?"
The Slime, who had been evenly matched with the Black Dragon, had already fallen from the sky once the Black Dragon got serious.
At the same time, he transformed back into a blue Slime.
Hearing Tohsaka Shirou's question, he could not help speaking up.
"It's useless. He has no rationality at all. Only instinct controls his body, so he can't possibly respond to us."
"I see! No wonder he looked abnormal."
Seeing that the Black Dragon seemed about to dive down, Tohsaka Shirou hurriedly said.
"Then we can only find a way to make physical contact with him. Maybe that can bring his rationality back."
"Alright! Let's go together."
Since they were all Shirou, naturally no one objected.
Rather, this proposal was a shared thought among all the Shirous.
"Water Style: Great Waterfall Technique!"
"Snow Burial!"
"Lightning Style: Ground Walk!"
"Water Clone Jutsu! Lightning Style: Lightning Binding!"
All the Shirous charged forward at once, each using the ninjutsu they considered most suitable.
"Roar...!!"
The Black Dragon made no other move. With only a single roar, every Shirou was blasted away, and all clones created through ninjutsu were instantly destroyed.
After Mizukage Shirou crashed to the ground, he was about to get up when he suddenly felt his legs go weak and nearly fell over.
"Haha... I was actually scared so badly my legs went weak! The gap is way too huge, isn't it?"
"Sorry, everyone. It looks like we can only run."
Tohsaka Shirou's heart sank as he instinctively looked behind him.
In that direction lay the shared treasure of all their selves.
Compared to Celestial Dragon Shirou's treasures, he had placed only a Black Grail there.
Run back, grab the cup, and leave? No, there was no time.
If they left directly and that irrational Black Dragon got the Grail, it was impossible to say what might happen.
"I have an idea. The reason he went mad just now was probably because of the Veldora the Slime transformed into."
"Though we don't know the Black Dragon's past, he seems to hate other dragons intensely."
"So, I have a proposal!"
"We'll all Mimic Veldora at once and draw his attention from the front. Meanwhile, the Slime will take the opportunity to rush over and make physical contact with him."
Before you continue