[Well, I have independent thinking, Host. That way, I can serve you even better.]
Shion's smug voice rang out, and Ryuuto froze.
Independent thinking? Wait. Hold on. Didn't Ultron also start like that? What if this cheeky AI one day materialized as some final-boss mecha waifu hell-bent on world domination?
"…Nah. No way. That'd be too insane, even for me." He shook his head, brushing the thought aside.
Focus. Step one—kill Toad and Sabretooth.
Those two? Small fry. Crushing them would be easy. The problem was the big boss standing behind them—Magneto. That was the real headache.
Ryuuto darted upward, bounding from branch to branch until he perched atop a towering tree. From there, he spotted Magneto's group, still waiting in place.
"They're not leaving, huh? Good. Saves me the trouble of chasing."
With a single motion, he blurred forward—lightning-fast.
But Magneto was no rookie. Metal shards rose into the air, hundreds of them, spinning around his body like a deadly cyclone. Shields, blades, bullets—he wielded them all at once.
Step too close, and you'd be shredded.
Ryuuto halted ten meters away, grinning. "Gotta say, your welcome party's… unique."
Magneto's eyes narrowed. "Are you the real one? Or a trick?"
"You'll know when I hit you."
"Then I'll find out right now."
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Four shards screamed toward Ryuuto. They pierced his body clean through, blasting into the trees behind. But when Magneto focused—
The target was gone.
"Hiding won't help you. Show yourself!"
From all around came Ryuuto's mocking drawl: "Man, your hospitality's too enthusiastic."
Dozens of him appeared at once—thirty shadow clones fanning out, circling Magneto's group like an army. The duplications didn't rush in, though; the wall of swirling metal was a death net waiting to snap shut.
Tch. This guy's harder to approach than Wolverine in a bad mood.
Still, that was Magneto for you. The X-Men, the Avengers, even the Justice League treated him as a walking natural disaster.
Magneto's gaze swept the ring of identical Red Mirages. "Impressive. Join me, boy. The Brotherhood has a place for your kind."
"Yeah, sure. Says the guy who tried to skewer me a minute ago." Ryuuto's smirk widened. "I'm not here for job interviews. I'm here to test you. And kill those two clowns behind you."
His blunt arrogance actually made Magneto laugh. Toad and Sabretooth, though? They shrank back, remembering how this kid had fought the Hulk.
Magneto lifted his hands. Every shard of metal rose higher, trembling with lethal intent. "Power without restraint is arrogance. I'll teach you the difference today."
"Sorry, old man," Ryuuto shot back, "you're not qualified to be my teacher."
He spread his stance. His clones mirrored him in perfect sync.
"Eight Inner Gates… First Gate, Open!""Second Gate, Open!""Third Gate, Open!"
One by one, the locks inside his body snapped open. Chakra roared like a hurricane, flooding the clearing. Thirty-one bodies—his true self and all his clones—erupted at once, skin darkened, hair bristling from sheer overflow.
The ground quaked beneath the storm of energy.
Magneto's eyes widened—not in fear, but in wonder.
So many mutants he had seen. So many powers catalogued. Yet none stirred him like this. This was not mutation—this was something else, something uncharted, raw and beautiful in its violence.
He laughed, manic with excitement. "Marvelous! Absolutely marvelous!"
Toad and Sabretooth trembled in terror. Mystique's face shifted uneasily, caught between awe and disbelief. Thirty-one Red Mirages. Did that mean thirty-one times the strength?
Ryuuto sneered, raising a hand. "Let me show you what terror really means."
His clones moved with him, voices overlapping:
"Ninjutsu—Expansion Jutsu!"