"As long as you can eat, you can live..." Hashirama murmured, then turned his gaze toward "Uchiha Madara." He could sense Food's presence overlapping with the person standing before him, as though the two had shared the same origin all along.
For a moment, Hashirama did not know how to address the person before him. Food had clearly been forced into this, yet the two were one and the same—or at least, that was what Food himself had said. But if he assumed the worst, that Food had been the original all along and had only said that to comfort himself once his fate was sealed, then Hashirama had indirectly caused his death.
Hashirama asked, "So, does your return mean I'm food too?"
Hashirama could hardly be blamed for thinking that. As long as you could eat, you could live, and food represented "the ability to work" in this world. If that was the case, then "Uchiha Madara" himself must also have been subject to this illusion's restrictions.
"Uchiha Madara" fell silent for a moment, then said dryly, "I don't believe I've sunk so low that I need to eat dirt."
Hashirama: "..."
After spending so long here, he had almost forgotten that he was already dead and now had only a reanimated body. At that thought, Hashirama inexplicably pictured Uchiha Madara with a mouthful of dirt. If the timing had not been so inappropriate, he might have burst out laughing.
Even so, Hashirama forced his wandering thoughts back under control and asked the most important question. "If you're Uchiha Gen, where is Uchiha Madara?"
"Uchiha Madara" made no attempt to hide anything. "He's in the illusion on the other side. The passage between the two illusions only opens briefly at the point where one day meets the next—midnight. Of