"No—!!!"
Another shrill scream rang out, and the Mangekyō Sharingan in Uchiha Genki's eyes abruptly changed.
The three black patterns resembling Reaper's Scythes shattered with a thunderous crack beneath the terrifying surge of ocular power!
Countless tiny fragments of pattern whirled and spun in his pupils, gradually coalescing into six pitch-black Tomoe.
The six Tomoe constantly shifted their arrangement within his pupils, forming one eerie, intricate pattern after another and radiating a light that made the heart tremble.
This was a more powerful form of ocular jutsu, the crystallization of the ocular power of countless Uchiha clan members!
But Uchiha Genki felt none of the exhilaration that power should bring. All that remained was pain and despair that reached to his very bones.
His soul was torn apart, forcibly reassembled by Ōkuninushi's power, torn apart again, then reassembled once more... over and over, without end.
This pain was a thousand times more despairing than Lingchi!
Lingchi eventually ended, but this power forcibly kept him from dying, leaving him to endure the hellish torment without end.
After who knew how long, following countless rounds of excruciating soul-rending and reassembly, the torrent of memories pouring into him finally began to subside.
Uchiha Genki lay battered and bloody on the ground, his breath as faint as a candle in the wind. His limbs still twitched uncontrollably.
Just as he was about to sink completely into darkness, two familiar figures suddenly flashed through his mind—his mother Hazuki's gentle smile, and his sister Izumi's tender gaze as she offered him a piece of candy.
They were the only warmth he had in this cruel world, the last thing keeping him alive.
His unwillingness to part from his mother and his guilt toward his sister were like a faint glimmer in the darkness, forcibly anchoring his fading consciousness.
Using the last of his strength, he painfully dragged himself up from the ground, inch by inch. Every movement made his body feel as if it would fall apart, and his bones throbbed with agony. Still, he stubbornly raised his head and, with unfocused eyes, looked toward where his mother and sister had fallen, wanting to see once more the two figures who had protected him until the very end.
"Mother... Izumi... Mother..."
A hoarse, broken voice scraped out of Uchiha Genki's throat, like a rusty bellows struggling to draw breath. Every word brought searing pain.
The lingering pain of his soul being torn apart and reassembled still surged through his bones. His muscles twitched uncontrollably, and his entire body felt crushed to pieces and forcibly put back together. Even the slightest movement made his vision darken with pain.
But his fixation on his mother and sister gave him the strength to prop up his tottering body.
His bloodstained fingers dug desperately into the flagstones. His nails split, and blood seeped between his fingers into the cracks, leaving behind a series of gruesome streaks.
His vision remained blurred. He could only force one eye open a sliver and painfully lift his head toward where he remembered his mother and sister falling.
But the scene before him held not even the slightest trace of the warmth he had hoped for. Instead, it was a terrifying sight, enough to crush the last shred of his sanity completely—this sight plunged him straight into an abyss of despair from which there was no escape!
"Ugh... I... no..."
Faint, hollow moans sounded behind him, countless and close together, like ants gnawing at the air. Uchiha Genki's whole body stiffened. A chill shot up his spine to the crown of his head, making him forget his physical pain.
Stiffly, he turned his neck and slowly looked behind him.
Countless pale-blue souls stood dazed in the Yomi Domain—nearly ten thousand of them!
They were Uchiha clan members devoured by his Magatsunokami. Now they stood with vacant eyes and blank expressions, like puppets whose strings had been cut.
The blood-red aura of resentment still clung to their souls, but they had long since lost all awareness of their own. They could only sway mechanically in place, uttering meaningless sobs.
With their memories completely devoured by Ōkuninushi, they had lost everything—their past joys and sorrows, their bonds with loved ones, everything that made them human. Even their names and any sense of purpose in their existence had been completely erased.
All that remained were hollow shells of souls, reduced to sustenance under the control of his ocular jutsu.
Countless familiar faces passed before his eyes— the neighbor who had given him candy when he was little, the clan elder who had taught him how to hold a Kunai, the friends who had played with him at the end of the alley... Every face had once been alive, and each had left its mark on his memories.
But now, all those faces held nothing but numbness and emptiness.
As he looked at the familiar yet unfamiliar souls, a horrifying suspicion that made his blood run cold slithered into his mind!
No... It can't be!
Absolutely not!
He shook his head frantically, trying to drive away the terrible thought, but his gaze searched the countless souls against his will.
Soon, two slender souls pierced his heart like the sharpest blades!
They were two figures he would never forget—one slightly taller, wearing the familiar plain-colored clothes. It was his adoptive mother, Uchiha Hazuki.
The other was petite, the hem of her clothes still stained with fading blood. It could only be Uchiha Izumi, the sister he had always regarded as his own!
Like the other clan members, their souls had vacant eyes and blank expressions. There was no sign that they recognized him.
The gentle light had vanished from their eyes, leaving only deathly stillness. The warmth that had once emanated from their souls had been replaced by a chilling void.
They stood quietly among the crowd of souls, just like the other devoured clan members, part of his ocular jutsu.
"No—!!!"
A heart-wrenching wail burst from his throat, so hoarse it barely sounded human, brimming with utter despair and collapse.
He stumbled backward a few steps, fell hard to the ground, and kicked wildly with his limbs, like a dying beast.
It was me!
I killed the people I most wanted to protect with my own hands!
He had thought his ocular jutsu was hope in a desperate situation. He never imagined it would be the most cruel executioner of all!
Not only had he failed to protect his mother and sister, but he had used his own power to devour their souls, completely cutting off every chance they might have had to come back to life!
Even Impure World Reincarnation or some other forbidden jutsu could never bring them back to this world without their intact souls and memories!
The people he had fought so desperately to protect had ultimately died by his own hand!
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