Leaf Hospital.
The smell of disinfectant seeped into her nostrils. Kiyomi opened her eyes, but the glaring ceiling lights made her squint. She tried to sit up, then stopped when she felt a tug on her left hand.
"Don't move around. The needle will come out." Kawaki sat in a chair beside her, his right hand wrapped in thick bandages—the burns left by the rampaging Chakra.
Kiyomi looked at his hand. "Your injury..."
"I'll live." Kawaki stared out at the night beyond the window. "You, on the other hand, were seconds away from being smashed to pieces."
"Sorry."
"Save that for Boruto. He's still throwing up next door after taking the brunt of that shockwave." Kawaki stood and walked to the bed, looking down at her. "What did that 'beacon' feel like?"
Kiyomi was silent for a moment, then placed a hand over her chest. "Like there's a living thing inside me. It wants to devour me, and it wants me to devour everything around me."
The door opened, and Amado walked in with a tablet in his hand. Shikamaru followed behind him, his expression grave.
"You woke up faster than expected. Your physical condition really is extraordinary." Amado went to the foot of the bed and studied the readings on the monitors. "The Resonance triggered a chain reaction. The beacon's activity has increased by fifteen percent."
"What does that mean?" Shikamaru asked.
"It means those 'harvesters' can sense the frequency here more clearly." Amado swiped across the screen a few times. "The mechanical soldiers we saw this time were just an appetizer. They're an automatic response system left behind by Shennong. The real trouble is whatever's heading this way after sensing the signal."
"You mean the Otsutsuki?" Kawaki's gaze turned cold.
"Perhaps. The Ōtsutsuki Clan scatters seeds across the