Obsession

"Rip—rip—"

The sound of consciousness being torn apart echoed through the empty mental realm, shrill and despairing.

Genki's spirit was already on the verge of collapse. Under the ghostly claws' assault, it grew even more hollow and numb.

His gaze lost all focus, his pupils went unfocused, and his tightly clenched hands slowly loosened. Even his strength to struggle was slipping away, bit by bit.

The memories in his mind blurred and faded at lightning speed, like sand paintings washed away by the tide—Izumi's smiling face, Hazuki's gentle reminders, the laughter and chatter in the clan compound, the burning rage and resentment of revenge... Everything was fading, becoming indistinct.

"I... who am I..." He parted his lips, but couldn't form a complete sound. Only broken breaths caught in his throat.

He couldn't remember why he was here, what the corpses weighing down on him were, or what he had fought so desperately to protect.

His consciousness was like a candle guttering in the wind, ready to go out at any moment. The pitch-black hell before him gaped with a fearsome maw, waiting to swallow him whole.

Just as the darkness was about to completely engulf his consciousness, two indistinct figures suddenly flickered through the endless blackness.

One figure was tall, the other short. Their outlines were blurry, yet they carried an indescribably warm presence, like a faint glimmer in the depths of winter, piercing the thick darkness in an instant.

The taller figure wore the familiar traditional Uchiha clothes, a gentle halo surrounding her. Every movement carried the loving kindness etched into his very bones.

The shorter figure wore the hairstyle he knew best and seemed to clutch the kite he had given her as a child. She bounced about, brimming with innocent vitality.

At the sight of them, Genki's unfocused pupils suddenly contracted. A faint yet impossibly stubborn spark flashed in his once-empty eyes!

That spark was a flame, quietly kindling in the ashes of despair.

"Mo... Mother..." He forced every last bit of strength into the broken call, his voice as hoarse as a battered bellows. "Sis... Sister..."

That call seemed to trigger some mysterious pact.

The black claws that had been pulling at him suddenly froze for a moment, and the darkness closing in began to recede strangely, ebbing away like the tide.

At the same time, a faintly glowing kite string appeared in his spirit's hand. A tiny kite was attached to the other end. Carrying his soul, it began to surge forward without hesitation, toward the place where the two figures had vanished.

"I... I can't die yet!"

A beastlike growl burst from his chest, filled with boundless resentment and stubborn resolve.

Fragments of his hazy memories began flashing wildly through his mind—his mother's resolve as she took a fatal blow for him, his sister's tenderness as she shielded him with her body in her final moments, and the vow he had made amid a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood: he would bring them back to life, and make them return to his side!

"Mother... Sister... They haven't been brought back to life yet..." His gaze grew brighter and brighter, fierce flames reigniting in his once-empty pupils. "No matter the price! No matter how many worlds I have to crush! No matter how many universes I have to defy! I can't die!"

As his obsession grew stronger, the light in Genki's eyes erupted like a wildfire.

He threw back his head and roared with unyielding desperation: "I absolutely... absolutely refuse to fall here!!"

His roar unleashed an unprecedented force from his spirit.

He suddenly raised his hand, seized the black claw wrapped around his arm, and yanked. The claw, hard as iron, tore apart in his grasp!

Black soul-blood poured from the severed claw and splattered across his spirit, but only made his gaze grow more frenzied.

He stopped passively enduring the assault and began to fight back.

He tore at the corpses piled on top of him, one after another. His fingernails wore away until they were slick with blood, and his bones were exposed, yet he didn't even notice.

Each time he shoved aside a corpse, he advanced a little farther toward the two figures.

And with every step forward, his resolve grew firmer.

The mountain of corpses and sea of blood crumbled beneath his frenzied efforts. Sticky pools of blood splashed beneath his feet, and the stench of decay hung around him, but nothing could sway him anymore.

"Even if I have to destroy every parallel universe! I'll bring them back!"

His final obsession erupted like a volcano, instantly smashing through every barrier in his memory.

His memories began pouring back—the warmth of his mother sewing clothes for him as a child, the joy of flying kites with his sister, the despair and hatred of the clan's annihilation, the loneliness and madness of his path to revenge... Every memory became crystal clear, flashing through his mind like a movie.

At the same time, his soul stopped passively enduring the erosion of the surrounding spirits and actively unleashed its power to devour.

The corpses of souls piled on top of him, like dust caught in a black hole, were drawn to his soul and devoured. With every spirit he consumed, his own spirit grew more solid and his strength increased.

"Ah—!!!"

A roar, neither wholly human nor ghostly, rang through the entire mental realm, brimming with power and obsession. The endless mountain of corpses and sea of blood shuddered violently, and ripples spread across the pitch-black sky.

As he roared, Genki's spirit suddenly grew taller. His once-small frame became upright and powerful, and his crimson pupils reformed, shining with unshakable resolve.

He looked up. At the edge of the mental realm, the two indistinct figures stood quietly. They no longer flickered past—they were clear as day.

The taller figure gazed at him tenderly, her eyes full of heartache and hope.

The shorter figure waved to him, a familiar smile on her face.

It was his mother, Uchiha Hazuki!

It was his sister, Uchiha Izumi!

Looking at the figures so close, yet seemingly worlds away, Genki's eyes held none of their former despair or emptiness. Only burning obsession and undying faith remained.

He clenched the kite string and roared each word, his voice piercing the endless darkness and resounding through the entire mental realm:

"As long as time still has meaning! As long as there's even a glimmer of hope! As long as there's even a sliver of life left! I... absolutely refuse to fall!!"

His roar had yet to fade from the mental realm when, in the real world, Uchiha Genki's body began undergoing a cataclysmic transformation as it took on the terrifying power of the fused souls.