After leaving the restaurant, Nara Dan went to the guest room Netero had arranged for him.
A "woman" was already waiting for Nara Dan.
"I didn't know you had a soft side."
"You're a corpse now, after all."
"It should be hard for the feelings of the living to affect you."
As soon as Nara Dan entered, he teased "Machi."
He was referring to how "Machi" had spared Alluka at the end and even arranged for a guard to look after her.
"If someone poses no threat, I don't mind showing them some sympathy."
"Machi" remained expressionless. With her facial nerves dead, it was difficult for her to make any other expression.
The reason Nara Dan said this was that although "Machi" was his clone, she was a wisp of soul he had severed using some of the properties of Shadow Clone together with Rank.
In a sense, she had her own thoughts, much like a Shadow Clone.
"And besides..."
"If we're talking about being nonhuman, you're the one who's more of that now, aren't you?"
"Machi's" Rinnegan studied Nara Dan. He still looked human on the outside, but his inner structure had changed completely.
Rather than a human, he was more like some kind of humanoid creature born with a higher talent and Rank.
"Will you turn into another kind of life-form? A Void human?"
"Or will you cast off your physical form entirely and become a formless Void consciousness?"
Nara Dan shook his head at that.
"It's not that simple. I've only just come into contact with Void Spirit Qi and condensed a True Nature Talisman. I'm still in a period of rapid growth."
"Maybe the changes are more obvious right now, but once this period of rapid growth is over..."
"I'll run into a new bottleneck—my essence