Natural Energy

Next to Adachi Ward,

Katsushika Ward was surrounded and crossed by three rivers: the Edogawa River, Arakawa River, and Shin-Nakagawa River. There stood a strikingly enormous silver-white building.

The building had a distinctly modern design. From above, it was shaped like an "X," both imposing and heavily fortified! Surrounded by lawns and trees, it had the air of a luxury apartment complex. It even had a helipad.

Many tourists who didn't know the truth would pass by on the train and sigh:

"One day, I'll live in an apartment like that, with such good security and such a high quality of life!"

In reality, though, getting a place there wasn't difficult.

Because this was the Tokyo Detention House!

Despite its name, this was a place that struck fear into the hearts of many criminals: it was also where the island nation carried out executions.

The island nation's death penalty was extremely complicated and troublesome. On top of that, the Cabinet kept changing hands, with one administration after another passing the buck, leaving many high-profile prisoners waiting here to be hanged. They often waited for more than a decade.

For example, the man who released poison gas in the subway, injuring more than five thousand people.

The infamous leader of XX Truth had waited here for over twenty years before finally being hanged six years ago.

This led many people online in the island nation to joke that the cult leader had boundless magical powers, floating through the air for twenty years with the "human levitation" technique before finally running out of strength and passing away unwillingly. The sarcasm was unmistakable.

On top of that, the island nation's prisons had regular routines, clean facilities, and advanced medical equipment.

The island media often mocked them as "retirement homes," though it did no good.

In the end, society still ran according to the will of the powerful.

In the night sky, a crow landed on the roof of the building.

Illusion Technique: Body Bind Technique

Activate!

Silently, an invisible illusion swept over the building, leaving everyone inside unable to move!

Then the crow transformed into a mysterious man in white robes and floated toward the building's control room.

Click, click, click.

The sound of cell doors opening one after another echoed farther and farther down the quiet corridor.

It was quite some time before prisoners in their uniforms cautiously poked their heads through the doorways, looked around, and exchanged baffled looks with their "neighbors" next door and across the hall.

What was going on?

Had he slept so long that it was already the next day?

"Is this some kind of trap to lure us out and kill us?"

"Don't be ridiculous. Do the guards have the guts to do that?"

A bold prisoner stepped out of his cell and looked toward the end of the corridor. The security door there had been opened too, as if they didn't care whether the prisoners escaped.

Soon, one prisoner after another emerged—some burly, some vicious-looking, some frail, and some... handsome—all wearing bewildered expressions.

"Hey, what the hell are you—"

Unable to help himself, one prisoner looked up toward the security cameras.

The next second,

a voice from above cut him off.

"...This thing should be used like this."

"Good. Judging by your reactions, you've all heard me. Heh, what interesting human toys."

?

"Did the warden forget to take his medicine?"

"No, I think whoever's in the control room is probably high."

The hardened criminals looked at one another, wondering if they were hallucinating.

It made no sense. They were all vicious criminals, but they'd kept themselves clean. None of them had ever touched drugs. Everyone here was an "elite" who had crossed wits with the police. You didn't end up in this place without being capable.

"Well then..."

The hoarse voice continued to come through the speakers overhead.

"Those who want freedom, come to the courtyard. I'll give you freedom, and more."

??

"I'm sure of it. The warden's drunk."

One prisoner said it with absolute confidence. Why else would he be making a fuss instead of sleeping?

"Or maybe he just watched some game like Saw and wants to play 'Battle Royale' with me?"

They claimed they didn't believe it, but still, nearly half the prisoners headed for the security door. They walked the route to the courtyard several times a day and knew it by heart.

Whatever the prison authorities were up to, it couldn't hurt to go and take a look.

At least it would liven up their boring routine~~

As for the rest,

something about tonight felt strange. It was safer to stay in their cells.

"What the..."

"Are they filming a movie?"

"No, I think we might have run into some kind of supernatural phenomenon."

When dozens of hardened criminals arrived in the courtyard, they saw a figure floating in midair. He wore a loose, old-fashioned hunting robe and a towering black crown. A piece of white cloth marked with the character for "three" hung down to cover his face.

There was also the warden, standing with a blank expression and lifeless eyes, along with a line of guards.

"Hey, hey, hey, doesn't this scene look..."

A lot like some kind of "prisoner slaughter" experiment the government might run in a manga?

One prisoner instinctively backed away, preparing to return to his cell.

Shhk.

In a synchronized burst of gunfire, the blank-eyed guards drew their pistols and aimed them at the door leading from the courtyard back to the cells.

?!

"Now that you're here, there's no leaving."

The mysterious man floating in midair gave a cold laugh. Even with his face covered by white cloth, the prisoners could imagine the look on it.

"I want to recruit a few subordinates, but there are too many of you—"

As the mysterious man spoke, the blank-eyed warden swung his arm and tossed the bag he was holding toward the prisoners.

Clatter,

daggers spilled out, gleaming with a cold light.

"I don't need to tell you what to do next, do I?"

So this really was a "Battle Royale" scenario?

"Hey, Warden!"

A frail-looking prisoner shouted at the blank-eyed warden.

"You're just going to let this guy do whatever he wants?"

"Don't forget, my father visits every month. If anything happens to me—"

"Silence,"

the mysterious man said, pointing casually into the air.

The frail prisoner's arm suddenly twisted around.

Crack!

With a grating snap, his arm twisted three full turns in midair.

"AAAAAAAH!!!"

As he screamed, his other arm and both legs began to twist in midair too.

Crack, crack, crack.

His bones snapped, his flesh unable to withstand the twisting force, and split apart!

Blood sprayed from the prisoner, whose body had been twisted like a towel into the shape of the character for "big." His head began turning along with his body, and his scream abruptly stopped.

Then the mysterious man took out a stone.

To everyone's horror,

a wraith resembling the frail prisoner flew out of the twisted corpse and was sucked into the stone in the mysterious man's hand.

Thud.

As the twisted corpse hit the ground, the prisoners' worldviews shattered along with it!

?????

This...

We want to be transferred to a psychiatric prison.

Shhk.

While everyone else stood stunned, a short prisoner had already rushed forward.

He bent down and grabbed a dagger, jolting the other prisoners into action.

Damn it, he beat us to it!

Everyone there was a hardened criminal with blood on their hands, and they reacted much faster than ordinary people. A series of vicious glares fixed on the short prisoner.

But the short prisoner knew that grabbing a weapon first would make him the target of everyone else, so—

Shhk.

With his other hand, he snatched up the bag on the ground and hurled it at the others.

?

The bag smacked into the chest of a burly prisoner, and the daggers inside spilled out.

Before the burly prisoner could react, several fists around him came crashing down!

The bloody slaughter began!

Not bad.

Akihi Yu, controlling the Paper Clone, nodded. These hardened criminals were first-rate in terms of ruthlessness and decisiveness. They were in good shape, too. Prisoners had to work, and spending eight hours a day at a sewing machine could, in a sense, count as exercise.

They were good specimens for "experimentation."

The experiment Akihi Yu planned to conduct was to find out whether Natural Energy existed and whether it could be absorbed.

Natural Energy was a type of energy possessed by the planet itself. It had special properties that could prolong life and strengthen ninjutsu.

Unlike the "chakra" produced by living beings, Natural Energy represented the planet. Even the Otsutsuki Clan was very interested in it.

But Akihi Yu didn't know whether this world's planet had Natural Energy, and he had no intention of testing it on himself. What if he accidentally turned himself into a stone statue? He'd never live it down.

And if this planet did have Natural Energy, would a group of old monsters jump out?

What a joke. Even Naruto, the child of destiny, had struggled through his training.

Anyone who dared to touch Natural Energy had to be at least Kage Level. How could ordinary people in this world absorb it?

As Akihi Yu's thoughts wandered, the courtyard had already become a bloody mess!

"Ah!"

"Spare me—"

"Die! Hahaha!!"

The prisoners who had grabbed daggers laughed maniacally as they stabbed viciously at the others.

The other prisoners didn't just sit there and take it. They fought back with punches and kicks, striking the groin, temples, and backs of heads—whatever would kill their opponents.

Within minutes, more than half of them were down.

"That's enough,"

the mysterious man said, and the prisoners, already lost in a killing frenzy, stopped at once.

An invisible force bound them, leaving them unable to move.

"Come, receive this gift."

A drop of ink dripped from the mysterious man's fingertips, suddenly splitting into nine and flying toward the surviving prisoners.

"You will all cast off your mortal bodies and serve me—"

"AAAAAAAH!!!"

"Ughhh~~~"

As the ink entered their foreheads, the remaining prisoners clutched their heads and howled. First they dropped to one knee, then they couldn't help rolling onto the ground, smearing themselves with blood.

This time, Akihi Yu hadn't simply bestowed chakra on them. He had also given them a Cursed Seal!

The Earth Curse Mark.

That's right, the same thing Orochimaru had developed to tempt Sasuke!

Not the advanced Heaven Curse Mark, but the inferior Earth Curse Mark. At its core, it was a low-grade, bargain-basement version of Sage Body fluid.

This Cursed Seal gave those marked a weakened, vastly inferior ability to absorb Natural Energy.

Come on, then. If you succeed, it'll prove that this world has Natural Energy.

If you fail, it won't matter either.

As the prisoners screamed and writhed, one of them began to swell.

Countless bumps of all sizes wriggled beneath his flesh. In the blink of an eye, he had swollen to two meters. Then—

Boom!

Like a balloon stretched past its limit, the prisoner's body exploded, turning into a blood-and-flesh bomb. Flying bones shot out like bullets, while blood and flesh splattered over the three prisoners around him.

A failure?

No, a success!

It was precisely because Natural Energy existed that he'd exploded.

Then...

His gaze fell on the other prisoners still struggling. Would any of them be able to withstand the invasion of Natural Energy?

Boom!

Another prisoner exploded into a bloody bomb, but Akihi Yu noticed something unusual.

Two energies were flowing into the remaining prisoners.

One was vast and immense. Even the tiniest trace was enough to make a prisoner burst apart. Without a doubt, it was the omnipresent Natural Energy.

And the other one...

Was it actually a jumble of spiritual energy?

As an expert who played around with Illusion Techniques all the time, Akihi Yu was no stranger to spiritual energy.

Everyone produced spiritual fluctuations; that was normal. Without chakra, an ordinary person's spiritual fluctuations were just an illusion, all impotent rage.

But with chakra, that spiritual energy became something extraordinary. The few prisoners still struggling were clearly absorbing the "ownerless" spiritual energy to balance the sparse Natural Energy inside them.

Senjutsu was the result of balancing Natural Energy, physical energy, and spiritual energy.

Of course, these prisoners couldn't even begin to compare to the Sound Ninja Five, let alone master Senjutsu. But the principle was the same: they really were using the spiritual energy gathering unconsciously to stabilize the Cursed Seal Power within them.

"Interesting. Very interesting."

As prisoner after prisoner exploded, the last two gradually calmed down. The mysterious figure played by Akihi Yu spoke slowly.

"Give me your names, lucky ones."

"Saito Kai,"

The short prisoner who had snatched the dagger first, and been the first to stabilize, spoke calmly.

"Ichihashi Toru,"

A man with a handsome, melancholy face wiped the bloody grime from his face.

"Yamagami Toru,"

The last man slowly rose and gave his name.