The body slammed heavily onto the ground with a dull thud, sending up a faint cloud of dust. That pale and familiar face lay turned toward the doorway, the empty eye sockets still leaking blood as if they were staring at Hinata Ryoma Mirai outside. For a moment, time seemed to stop.
Hinata Ryoma Mirai stood stiffly at the doorway with her small body frozen in place, the color draining from her face until it was as white as a corpse. The Pure Byakugan that always carried fear were wide open now, filled with shock, terror, and a dull confusion she could not understand. Her lips trembled, and only after several seconds did she force out two broken breaths from deep in her throat.
"Fa…ther?" Her gaze fell on the familiar back. "Neji Hyuga, brother?"
The call was soft, almost like words spoken in a dream, as if she feared waking something.
Neji Hyuga snapped his head around.
Those Pure Byakugan, bloodshot from violent emotion, locked onto the suddenly appearing Hinata Ryoma Mirai. Shadows covered half his face, while the weak flickering candlelight clearly revealed the other half. It was a face smeared with tears and blood, muscles twisted by pain into something nearly unrecognizable, filled with madness and a frightening presence, like a demon crawling out of a pool of blood.
This was not the Neji Hyuga from Hinata Ryoma Mirai's memories, the brother who was cold yet sometimes showed complicated concern and even guided her training. He looked more like an evil spirit.
All the blood in Hinata Ryoma Mirai's body seemed to freeze as fear took control and made her shake violently. She kept shaking her head and turned to flee without thinking. No, no, this was impossible, it had to be fake, it had to be a dream, the most terrible and absurd nightmare.
Wake up, wake up now.
She stumbled and fell hard to the ground, her elbows and knees smashing into the floor as sharp pain shot through her. The pain was so real and clear that it shattered her last trace of hope, and tears burst from her eyes. This was not a dream, but a reality more cruel and terrifying than any nightmare.
Neji Hyuga had truly killed her father.
Just then, heavy and steady footsteps sounded from the direction she had run from, slowly closing in on her. Hinata Ryoma Mirai rolled over, ignoring the pain, and crawled backward with her hands and feet, staring in terror at the darkness at the end of the passage. A figure slowly emerged from the shadows.
The tears and blood were still on Neji Hyuga's face, but all the distortion and madness had settled, leaving only a chilling, almost numb calm. He looked at Hinata Ryoma Mirai sprawled on the ground, at the child he once meant to protect as a sister. On her face, Neji Hyuga saw only confusion, fear, and cowardice.
There was no Wrath, no hatred.
Even now, there was still no Wrath.
A trace of disappointment flashed through Neji Hyuga's eyes. Fugaku Uchiha, with someone like Hinata Ryoma Mirai, how could she survive in a world that was only growing more cruel and chaotic?
"Why…" Hinata Ryoma Mirai kept shaking her head as her tears finally broke free. "Neji Hyuga brother, why, why did you do this…"
Neji Hyuga's voice was hoarse and low, carrying deliberate coldness and mockery. "You are still so cowardly and weak. It is pitiful."
He stepped closer, his footsteps echoing through the silent passage and striking her heart. "I avenged my father. And you?" he said softly. "A fledgling hiding under your parents' wings, without even the courage for Wrath or resistance."
"You were born with the right to fly into the sky, yet you have already lost the courage to do so."
"Someone like you, facing your father's brutal death, facing me standing right in front of you, is nothing but a useless thing that can only cry and tremble."
As he spoke, a complicated look crossed Neji Hyuga's eyes, as if he were speaking to Hinata Ryoma Mirai and also to himself. It vanished quickly, replaced by cold indifference. "My cowardly little sister, your only value is to be killed by me and have your Pure Byakugan taken."
The moment the words fell, Neji Hyuga vanished from where he stood. In the next instant, he appeared before Hinata Ryoma Mirai like a ghost.
A sharp, piercing howl cut through the air.
That bloodstained hand, fingers slightly curved and filled with merciless killing intent, lunged straight for Hinata Ryoma Mirai's face. The force of the sleeve even lifted strands of her hair.
Fear instantly filled Hinata Ryoma Mirai's eyes, yet a trace of unwillingness surfaced within it and drove her to raise her trembling arm.
A dull, explosive crash sounded in front of her.
The pain she expected never came, only a violent gust of air brushing across her face. A slender yet steady arm wrapped in black cloth blocked between her and Neji Hyuga, stopping the deadly strike with precision. Neji Hyuga's hand was held less than half a foot from her eyes, unable to move any farther.
Neji Hyuga slowly raised his head and cast a cold gaze past that arm toward the figure that had appeared before Hinata Ryoma Mirai.
"Neji Hyuga!"
Lady Aoi's eyes burned with shock and anger as she stared at Neji Hyuga's terrifying face. She spoke each word as if grinding it out. "What have you done?"
Neji Hyuga ignored her and looked past her toward the person behind her.
Homura Mitokado.
At this moment, Homura Mitokado's gaze was heavy with frost as he watched the blood-soaked Neji Hyuga, his brow slowly tightening. He had been sent by Fugaku Uchiha to lure out Lady Aoi, who might leak information to the Branch Family Members, but upon returning to the Ryoma Clan he found the bodies of Branch Family Members guards.
Unease drove the two of them to rush to the clan head's residence, where they saw many corpses from both the Otsutsuki Clan Main Family and Branch Family Members, deepening their shock and fear.
Even so, they never expected to see this scene.
"Lady Aoi," Hinata Ryoma Mirai said in a trembling voice. "He killed my father."
Hearing the faint Wrath buried in her words, Neji Hyuga lowered his eyes. Yes, this was it, Wrath. Hate him, resent him. Only unwillingness toward one's fate, Wrath, and hatred could drive someone to grow strong in this cruel world.
Lady Aoi and Homura Mitokado both changed expression at once, staring in disbelief at the killing intent radiating from Neji Hyuga. Was this a joke? Neji Hyuga had killed Fugaku Uchiha, the clan head?
"Neji Hyuga!" Homura Mitokado roared in rage. "Have you lost your mind?"
At the same time, in the Secret Chamber at the end of the passage, the flickering candle gave a final faint crackle. The flame shrank, struggled, and went out completely. Darkness poured in like a tide and swallowed the entire space.
Only the faint glow of fire barely outlined two blurred figures.
"It seems you succeeded."
Shadow looked down at the corpse that Neji Hyuga had set aflame and waved a hand to extinguish the fire. "Letting you die so easily would have been a waste."