Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki looked even more solemn than he had last time.
In truth, he had never gone far.
Or rather, his attention had never left this "anomaly" or the Tailed Beasts he was hunting.
The base of his staff touched the gray-white ground without a sound. Yet it seemed to strike the fabric of another space, sending out invisible ripples.
Namikaze Yoru "looked" at Hagoromo. He said nothing, but his gaze made his meaning perfectly clear: What are you trying this time?
"You who defy the natural order..."
He paused. A note of inquiry entered his ancient, gentle voice. "Could you spare Gyuki?"
"No."
The refusal was absolute, leaving no room for negotiation.
With that one word, Yoru cut off any appeal to mercy, balance, or justice.
Hagoromo fell silent for a moment. He understood the resolve behind the answer.
As a Perfect Jinchuriki, however, Killer B shared a bond with Eight-Tails Gyuki that went beyond the usual relationship between a host and a Tailed Beast. They had accepted each other on the level of consciousness and lived as one.
If Namikaze Yoru used that mysterious ability on them, it would not be Killer B alone who vanished. The Eight-Tails' chakra and the essence of his soul would disappear as well.
One-Tail Shukaku had "vanished" because Hagoromo had been caught off guard. He had never imagined anyone could truly annihilate a Tailed Beast down to the soul.
But now that it had happened, Hagoromo could only expend part of the essence he had accumulated through years of slumber and use the other Tailed Beasts' chakra scattered across the Shinobi World as a catalyst.
Then Shukaku might, after some long stretch of time, "split off" into existence again.
The Eight-Tails was different.
Gyuki's chakra was more complex, his bond of coexistence