In the world of Kyoka Suigetsu, up and down were reversed, and light and shadow ran wild.
Uchiha Itachi's consciousness was trapped in a labyrinth of shattered mirrors.
Beneath his feet hung an inverted night sky and crescent moon. Above his head were the upside-down rooftops of the Uchiha Compound, streaming with blood-red light.
Countless figures of "Liuyu" appeared, overlapped, and dissolved within the broken mirrors.
Every one wore that cold, mocking curve of a smile. Every voice converged from all directions, burrowing into his ears and stabbing into his brain.
Tsukuyomi.
Itachi screamed inwardly, his Mangekyō Sharingan spinning furiously as he tried to unleash his strongest genjutsu.
He would drag this twisted space, and this monster that desecrated the Uchiha, into an eternal hell of torment.
Yet nothing happened.
The Tsukuyomi World he "saw" had barely formed a sliver of blood-red sky and a cross studded with kunai before it vanished silently, like a scribble wiped away by an eraser.
The "Liuyu" in the mirrors did not even attempt to defend or counterattack.
He merely "watched" Itachi calmly with those violet eyes, as though observing an insect struggling futilely inside amber.
"In my presence..."
The Liuyus in every mirror spoke at once, their overlapping voices forming an echo that made his scalp crawl.
"You dare play with genjutsu?"
"Laughable."
Crack! Crack! Crack-!
Every mirror shattered at once.
Countless razor-sharp fragments swept back, engulfing Itachi's conscious form like a blizzard.
Agonizing, tearing pain erupted from the depths of his soul. This was no physical injury.
It was a deeper collapse, born of having his cognition forcibly denied and his very existence "ridiculed."
In the real world, atop the utility pole.
Itachi's body shuddered violently. Blood seeped from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Bloody tears, in particular, wound down his