Isshiki froze completely, staring fixedly at the fragments behind Shuo-one, two, ten, fifty, packed together, all glowing, a sea of white standing in formation behind Shuo. Pairs of pale purple eyes stared straight at him without moving.
The lights were faint, like fireflies at night, scattered points of light, but there were too many of them. So many that they lit up all of Konoha's ruins, even tinting the dust in the air with a faint white glow.
"This is..." he murmured. For the first time, his voice held no mockery, only disbelief.
Shuo said nothing. He slowly fished a candy out of his pocket, his fingertips trembling slightly. It took him a long time to unwrap it before he tossed it into his mouth. Sweetness spread, but it could not quell the aching swell in his heart.
Chewing the candy, he looked up at Isshiki. His tone was casual, yet carried a stubborn resilience. "You wanted my light, didn't you? Here it is."
Isshiki stared at him for three seconds, then suddenly laughed-not in amusement, but with an icy laugh that carried a bone-piercing chill. "Interesting," he said. "Fucking interesting. A bunch of fragments actually managed to put on a show this big."
He raised his hand, and dense black light instantly surged from his palm, thicker and darker than when he had fought Kaguya, like ink, shooting fiercely toward the fragments. Kaguya instinctively moved to rush forward and block it, but the fragments were far faster than her.
Hand Princess Big charged out first, reaching that tiny white hand straight toward the black light.
White light struck black and exploded with a boom. As though struck by a heavy hammer, Hand Princess Big flew a full ten meters and slammed into the ruins, lying motionless for a long