Kaizen watched as Uchiha Sasuke leapt lightly into the air, moving up the tree trunk as if he were walking on flat ground.
Before long, Sasuke reached the hole in the trunk.
Ponzu's eyes widened sharply.
What the camera showed was shocking — the ground was littered with the corpses of bees, including the queen bee herself. An unusually thick and oppressive aura gathered there, far stronger than anything they'd encountered elsewhere.
As Uchiha Sasuke appeared, the aura seemed to find a target.
It surged forward, swarming toward him.
But because Sasuke was just a Nen Beast, the aura couldn't latch onto him.
"These parasites can only survive by clinging to living flesh," Kaizen explained as he gave Sasuke a second order.
Sasuke dropped from the tree and landed near the entrance of the village.
The excitement that had been on Gogus' face earlier had already faded. The sight of the village left him grim.
"There are way more bugs here than I expected," Gogus said. "I'll need to stay here for a while to study them. What do you want to know?"
He glanced at Uchiha Sasuke — or rather, at the wireless camera Sasuke was holding.
Kaizen hesitated for a moment.
"Gogus-san, we want to know how these bugs appeared, what happened to this village... and whether there are any survivors."
"There might be survivors," Gogus replied. "Usually, an outbreak like this doesn't happen overnight. It's a gradual process. Survivors often make it through the early stages."
"As for the source of the outbreak and the full story... that's going to take time to figure out."
He paused. "You said earlier your friend's grandmother was here? Where is she?"
Kaizen turned to look at Ponzu.
"Gogus-san, I'll have my Nen Beast take you there."
"Good."
...
Soon, Sasuke led Gogus to the wooden house where Ponzu's grandmother had lived.
Gogus pushed open the door.
Inside, Ponzu's grandmother sat motionless on a reclining chair, her body utterly still.
Suddenly—
A black thread shot out toward Gogus.
But Gogus neither dodged nor resisted. Instead, he calmly extended his hand and let the thread pierce into him.
He closed his eyes.
Kaizen could clearly sense Gogus' aura undergoing a massive shift.
The next moment, a cloud of aura erupted from Gogus' body, forming a large sphere. Within the sphere, an image materialized — it was a scene from the past, showing Ponzu's grandmother.
The village was already crumbling then, heavy with deathly silence.
A trembling queen bee floated before Ponzu's grandmother, the two seeming to communicate, as if exchanging a final farewell.
With a soft slap, the queen bee's wings ceased moving, and it fell to the ground.
Crack!
A fracture appeared across the queen bee's body, and from the crack, a black thread extended toward Ponzu's grandmother.
She didn't move to avoid it. Instead, she just sighed deeply, a guilty expression crossing her face.
Then, she slowly returned to her chair inside the wooden house, sat down, and closed her eyes. Her life force faded away bit by bit.
But the black threads remained.
Gogus opened his eyes.
"Did you see all that, Kaizen?"
"I did."
"This is my ability," Gogus explained. "I developed it specifically for studying these bugs. When one of them enters my body, I can extract fragments of its memories."
He continued, "These particular bugs aren't too aggressive. They have a strong drive for symbiosis. They don't immediately kill their hosts — they just wait until the host dies naturally. Before they find a new host, they even mimic the previous one."
"And importantly, they'll only parasitize one life form at a time."
"When the host is injured, they'll even help repair the wounds."
He pointed toward Ponzu's grandmother, still slumped in the recliner.
"She was already at the end of her life when she was parasitized."
...
At that moment, a breeze drifted through the open doorway.
Under the gentle force of the wind, Ponzu's grandmother's body collapsed into powder, scattering into the air and disappearing completely — even her clothes dissolved away.
Gogus turned and left the wooden house, continuing his investigation elsewhere in the village.
Kaizen glanced at Ponzu.
"Are you okay?" he asked gently.
"I'm fine," Ponzu said, her voice steadier now.
Hearing Gogus' explanation had brought her some peace. Even though the village's fate remained a mystery, at least she knew her grandmother hadn't been murdered — she had simply reached the natural end of her life.
...
Gogus soon discovered a second bug.
Strange changes spread across his body — green, leaf-like growths sprouted from his skin, and his flesh took on a rough, bark-like texture.
Another giant sphere of aura appeared before him, revealing a new set of images.
What Kaizen saw inside left him stunned.
The infection wasn't spread through physical contact.
It was transmitted through hatred.
Before a host died, their strongest hatred would find a target — and the bug would follow that hatred, seeking out the hated individual to parasitize next.
The infection fed on negative emotions, spreading through grudges rather than touch.
Once parasitized, the host's body would gradually transform — leaves would sprout from them, their skin would roughen like tree bark, and their movements would slow.
Until, at last, they died — and became nothing more than a rotten piece of wood.
Gogus staggered slightly.
This strain of bug placed a heavy burden on his body. He needed a moment to recover, suppressing the effects with his Nen.
He might be passionate about studying parasites, but he wasn't reckless enough to risk his life. After all, without his life, there could be no research.
...
Outside the village, Hanzo and the others continued training their Nen.
Uchiha Sasuke stayed close to Gogus, standing guard.
Altan documented everything that had happened.
Kaizen, too, found himself fascinated by these bugs.
Even if they couldn't be directly used, understanding their behavior and recording the information would be valuable. When facing similar threats in the future, they'd be better prepared — instead of facing the unknown blind.
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