It didn't stay defiant for long.
Hiruko folded.
After suffering a brutal beating.
"What technique is this?"
His body was no longer under his control. Even the unruly Kira had settled down.
As obedient as a child.
As its own mother, even she had never seen Kira this docile.
"It doesn't matter."
Mimi said.
"Lead the way."
There was a dimensional gap between their strengths. Even if she explained, there was nothing worth explaining.
Mimi didn't want to waste the effort.
"Lead where?" Hiruko asked.
"To see your boss." Mimi said.
Terumi Homura.
She was no longer humanoid, sleeping peacefully inside a Cultivation Tank.
Her body had twisted into an alien shape. As dense fleshy tendrils writhed, one human face after another appeared across them.
They looked somewhat familiar.
On closer inspection, they were Madara.
"I told her there was a certain chance it could succeed." Hiruko obediently explained from the side, saying, "But she refused to listen. She even said she'd kill me if I couldn't do it, insisting on adding the cells of Uchiha Madara and Hashirama Senju. The result was exactly as you can see: failure."
"She was the mastermind. I was simply protecting myself."
Hiruko still tried to argue.
"If you don't believe me, you can ask them."
Mimi looked at Hiruko and said, "As an accomplice, you can't get off completely scot-free either."
"I know." Hiruko nodded repeatedly and extended both hands. "Jail time, right? I'm familiar with it. Lock me up for as long as you want this time."
He was quite practiced at admitting guilt.
But the more practiced he was, the less sincere it seemed.
"Punishment isn't the goal; education is." Mimi said. "You didn't forget what you learned during your hard labor, did you?"
"Operating a sewing machine." Hiruko said. "How