"What the hell is that?" Jeremiah muttered under his breath, looking at whatever was dropping from the skies in his general direction.
At the same time as he spotted the object, sirens around the city started to go off, sending the people in the park into a frenzy.
Jeremiah looked at his phone, which was blaring with an emergency notification.
"Ah! A nuclear warhead. Makes sense!" Jeramiah muttered once again, placing his phone face down on the bench he was sitting on.
He didn't make any hasty movements as he took another sip of the coffee, savouring the taste by spreading it on the roof of his mouth.
It wasn't the best coffee he had had in his life. A shame. He at least wanted his last coffee to be memorable, but it seemed that wouldn't be the case.
"AAARGHHHHH!!! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!"
Jeremiah noticed Mr. McLovin, who had been walking his dog as usual with the same nonchalant smile, screaming and running around like a headless chicken.
Jeremiah chuckled as he took another sip. He knew the old man was a poser.
"WE'RE ALL GON—!!!!" The old man repeated his scream once more, but before he could complete his scream,
SWISH!!!
With a swish and a splatter, the nuclear warhead had splattered the old man across the pavement, which in the next instant cracked and cratered.
Jeremiah, who wasn't sitting far from the old man, was thrown off by the collision of the raw warhead on the concrete.
The warhead didn't detonate for a second for some reason.
As Jeremiah was airborne, his coffee sailing through the air, he spotted the Mr.McLovin' Dog, which was just as airborne as him.
He smiled and waved at the Doberman. It was as if, to him, time was crawling.
The next second, the warhead that had planted a bit into the earth exploded.
The city was vaporised.
The world's biggest atomic bomb was deployed against a city that day. The nuclear fallout from that single warhead was theorised to pollute the entire continent if left unchecked.
But it didn't.
…
Kaguya floated behind Isshiki, her expression as calm as it had always been.
They were now inside a separate dimension where the juvenile ten tails, the seed for the god tree, was housed.
The juvenile ten-tailed was pinned to the ground using enormous chakra rods, which incessantly drained its chakra in an attempt to immobilise it. But the beast never ceased its struggles, repeatedly lunging at Isshiki in an attempt to devour him.
It was just an instinct for the ten tails, as its sole purpose was to devour an otsusiki and become the God tree.
Kaguya pitied the beast.
Once the apex predator of the cosmos, a species that singled-handedly brought all life in the universe to near extinction, now existed as mere seeds for the Otsutsuki to plant and be harvested.
It was a laughable fate, but at the same time, it reminded her of the immense power the Ostsusiki wielded.
"Calm down boy," Issijki said, his voice steady, but there was a hint of a smile to his usually stoic expression, "You'll be fed soon."
Kaguya's hands clenched inside her sleeves, but her face remained as stoic as ever.
Yes, the beast will be fed, and she will be its food.
The Otsusuki clan's entire purpose was to follow the path of evolution and achieve godhood. And the method in which they achieved this was through eating chakra fruits harvested from populated planets, using the genetic material and chakra it contained to evolve into perfect beings.
For that, they hunted the ten-tailed species for their ability to consume chakra, genetically modified them so they could serve as seeds to be planted into worlds to be harvested.
But for the ten tails to transform into a god tree, it needs to be fed an Otsusuki; the healthier the sacrifice and the more chakra they contain, the better the quality of the chakra fruit harvested.
But using powerful Otsutsuki clan members as sacrifices was highly inefficient, and so they devised Kara, devices made from an Otsutsuki which contained their genetic and spiritual information, which could then be planted in a suitable vessel, which they could use to resurrect after being consumed by the tails.
But finding a suitable vessel for an Otsutsuki was the hardest part; they could only be found among populated planets where an Otsutsuki had mingled enough for their genetic information to be available among the natives or where cakra had affected the natural evolution of the world, but even then, it wasn't easy.
Kaguya was the unlucky one as she couldn't find a vessel before she was conscripted, and her partner wasn't kind enough to wait till she found one.
Being from the branch of the Otsusuki clan, she was naturally expected to serve as a sacrifice for the Isshiki, someone who was a high-ranking member even among the main family members of the Otsusuki clan.
She was expected and was indoctrinated to serve the main family with her life in pursuit of their godhood… but.
"Do you have any last words, Kaguya?" Isshiki asked, his Kokugan glowing faintly as he used a jutsu.
He was scanning the world in which the dimension was folded into, to find the point at which the natural energy channels of the world coalesced, to maximise the natural energy extracted from the world.
"..." Kaguya didn't respond, her long, tough nails digging into her palm as her clenched fists tightened.
Isshiki wasn't expecting an answer, though.
He knew Kaguya was an unusually feisty one, one who seemingly resented him for not giving her enough time to find a vessel.
It was rare among the branch families of the Otsutsuki as they were always loyal to the main family.
Not that Isshiki cared, Kaguya's resistance was almost amusing to him. And he even chuckled a bit when she tried fighting him on the way here.
There was a reason the Otsusuki was divided into branch and main families. Kaguya, being from a bottom-feeding branch family and almost a millennium younger than himself, had lost to him in a single moment.
He had sealed her afterwards, dragging her here with all her abilities sealed so nothing unexpected would disrupt his plans.
Without waiting for a reply, he was about to execute the Justu when Kaguya's emotionless voice interrupted him.
"To serve the clan wholeheartedly in their pursuit is my greatest honour."
Kaguya's voice was emotionless, but Isshiki immediately picked up on the despair hidden within.
He turned to look at the dull eyes of Kaguya, which told him all he needed to know.
Even the clenched fist inside her robes was now unclenched, quietly dripping blood.
"Heh." Isshiki turned around with a snicker.
The woman had given in to despair, not even struggling one last time as he'd hoped.
He had really hoped she'd struggle.
People tend to maximise their potential when they are struggling with everything they have. Ishshiki was hoping for something like that to happen, so that the cakra fruit's quality could grow.
But alas.
With that, Kaguya was no longer in his mind.
He executed the jutsu, his senses expanded rapidly, exiting the confines of the dimension they were in and enveloping the blue planet.
That did not mean he was distracted, however.
Although his senses were focused on the world, his byakugan was still active, constantly keeping watch on his surroundings, on the ten tails and Kaguya.
The world was almost 90% water, the rest a landmass that jumbled together.
In his senses, the world was covered in a spiderweb-like energy line coalescing underneath the landmasses.
This world was one of the bigger populated worlds out there, and such would yield a better and perfect chakra fruit once it was harvested.
Isshiki could feel the excitement bubbling up within himself, something he hadn't felt in countless years.
And as he scanned the world more, his excitement only continued to grow.
This was a great find; the natural energy the world contained was unlike anything he had ever seen.
He was sure his strength would increase significantly once he consumed the fruit born from the world.
As Isshiki's excitement grew and reached its zenith, something caught his attention.
At the landmass where the world's natural energy vein coalesced, he found a speck that stood out.
It was out of the ordinary.
The spot was emitting an aura similar to a dojutsu or a Kekkei mora in terms of potency, but different. It was odd.
Isshiki focused his senses.
Two pieces of bone were the culprit. It was buried beneath the landmass, and it was lifeless, but it was unmistakably there.
Isshiki grew curious.
…
Inside the dimension where the juvenile ten-tails was imprisoned, Kaguys's eyes gleamed.
This was the moment she was waiting for.
While Issiki was still using his Byakugan to keep an eye on her and Ten Tails, majority of his focus was on the world.
Isshiki was a cautious and patient man. That much she understood from the time she observed him.
Before she was chosen as his partner, the man had made sure to investigate her background. And her branch clan head had made sure to feed the man all he could to incite him against her.
He had made sure to make Ishikki understand that she had a rebellious nature in her and that she could potentially betray him.
The clan leader was right though; she had done things against the branch leader's wishes in the past. Oh, how she regretted it now, had she known how her future would play out, she would've played her cards more carefully.
And it seemed like Isshiki took the branch leader's advice to heart.
From the day they departed on their journey to find a suitable planet, Ishshiki had kept a close eye on her, and it seemed like he would continue to do so until he was sure that Kaguya posed him no threat.
And she had, once again, understood that Isshiki had no intention of letting her find a suitable vessel.
The man wanted to feed her to the ten tails, body and soul, to make the best quality chakra fruit possible.
Along the way, she understood something else.
As much as he distrusted her, he trusted his own abilities.
That was when she started plotting.
She started showing her hostility toward him for not letting her find a vessel, ever so subtly, so subtly that Ishiiki would think he found something she tried to hide from him.
She set up an ambush for him, and, isshiki, already knowing she had set up a trap for him, walked into it willingly.
Although she was only putting on a show for Isshiki at that time, she had a vain hope that somehow, she would manage to injure him.
She had used every last bit of chakra in her to unleash that jutsu, only for Isshiki to vanish from where he stood and appear right in front of her.
Isshiki was far stronger than he let himself be shown, and the man was indeed exceptionally confident in his own abilities.
He had simply placed his hand on her head, and in that instant, all her chakra pathways were sealed, leaving her incapable of even using her byakugan.
She understood then and there that she would not have stood a chance against him had she comforted him while he was still suspicious of her.
Not even if she used all her cards.
So she had let herself be captured.
While it limited her options, Kaguya could see how the man had dropped his guard around her once she was in his control.
And how he had become almost reckless as he neared the fruition of his goal.
Of course, she had shown her defiance along the way, it wouldn't have fit her persona otherwise.
And it all fit perfectly into the narrative Isshiki had of her, playing to his expectation, once again proving his own power.
She had acted for years on end, and carefully laid out her persona to him, making him understand that she had, in the end, given into despair.
This was it.
This brief window of his carelessness was all she got for her years of gruelling hard work.
From all her years of observation, she knew. The man was actually excited, almost skittish, to have found such a high-level world for his first chakra fruit.
He would be the most vulnerable at this moment.
Ishikki's seal acted in a way to immoblize all of Kaguya's chakra, not her physical body. Without chakra augmenting the physical body, a young Otsutsuki's body was only stronger than a bipedal without chakra.
It was not in the least bit a threat to Otsutsuki's such as Isshiki, whose physical body was incomparably stronger even without chakra.
Kaguya hadn't expected Isshiki not to immobilise her; she had contingencies in place of he had, but it all worked in her favor.
She couldn't dispel Isshiki's seal on her chakra in a short moment, but she had a way to certainly kill him.
With a swift motion that betrayed all of which Isshiki knew about her speed, Kaguya moved.
She lunged forward, her right hand emerging from her sleeve and shooting out like a water bird plunging into a lake.
The nails on her hand gleamed like the sharpest metal on existence, but it did not lunge out toward Isshiki; instead, the nail dug into her own left forearm, cleaving through the skin like hot metal on butter.
With a ruthless yank, the flesh of her forearm tore open, her nails scraping across the ash coloured bones as it dug into the wrist joint.
Without any resistance, the joint along with her left wrist, hanging muscle and flesh from her forearms were ripped out, leaving only her wrist bones showing.
Of course, there were bits and pieces of her flesh stuck to her bone, but that did not matter. She only wanted her all-killing ash bones to make contact with Isshiki fast enough and long enough.
There was about a three-meter distance between herself and Isshiki, and she had already ripped open her forearm to show her bone as soon as she crossed 1.5 metres.
And that was when Isshiki noticed Kaguya's movement.
And isshiki, who was intrigued by the odd find, could only float a bit upward as he turned around before kaguya's all-killing ash bone pierced ten centimetres down his heart.
His heart, Kaguya's original target, was missed, prolonging Isshiki's life for a moment longer.
It was a shame, but Kaguya's goal was almost accomplished.
As the all-killing ash bones petrified all the chakras in Ishshiki's system, only his Kokugan remained gleaming.
Kaguya did not waste even a second, and she did not notice Kokugan's golden gleam.
With her bone piercing his body as an anchor, she tossed the immobilised isshiki into the gaping mouth of the ten tails.
With a violent snap, the ten tails bit into Isshiki's body, crunching down as it swallowed.
It looked at Kaguya in utter contentment, anticipation and even a bit of appreciation?
Kaguya looked at the left wrist in her right hand, which was still dripping blood. She tossed it to the ten tails, who opened its maws wide, swallowing the wrist.
It closed its rinne sharingan, and there was a hint of a smile on its beastly appearance.
It started glowing, a violent chakra storm erupting from it as the centre, shrinking itself.
And finally, Kaguya breathed a sigh of relief as the flesh and bones that were missing from her left hand started regrowing.
It had worked; her years of painstaking effort had finally paid off.
She had killed Isshiki, the strongest among the younger generation of the Otsusuki clan.
A smile crept up on her usually emotionless face, and as the ten tails started transforming into a house-sized seed.
But, after a moment, the simile vanished.
Sure, she had successfully outsmarted Isshiki, but she had no confidence in weathering what came after.
All she wanted was a peaceful life away from all the bloodshed, but circumstances had brought her where she was.