To everyone else, it looked like Inuyama He just zoned out for a moment.
But two or three seconds later, the head of the Inuyama family staggered, as if waking from a nightmare, staring at the girl in front of him with a look like he'd seen a ghost.
"Not bad… Instant," Uchiha Hikari said, licking her lips, her gaze calm. "But you're only at the seventh tier?"
Instant, a kekkei genkai-like ability known for its "godspeed," could multiply the user's speed by powers of two. Seventh-tier Instant meant 128 times normal speed. At that velocity, a swung blade would vanish from an opponent's sight, leaving only a faint shimmer in the air.
Compared to something like Black Sun, Instant had a lower sequence number—72—making it easier to analyze.
Well… "easier" for Uchiha Hikari, at least.
Inuyama He clearly didn't agree.
After emerging from the Tsukuyomi space, his face was even more terrified than Uesugi Koshi's had been. "It's you… you're that…" He stopped short of saying "Dragon King" in front of others.
"Shh—" Hikari made a silencing gesture, then stepped forward. "Practice more. Come challenge me when you hit ninth-tier Instant. If you manage to impress me, I might toss you a reward. Oh, and that Tamamo-no-Mae club you run? Pretty nice. Got a VIP card? I might swing by sometime."
"...?"
Under Inuyama's stunned gaze, Hikari hopped into the elevator, heading to the floor where Eri was.
"…We meet again, Miss Hikari," Uesugi Koshi said, his face unreadable as he sat on the sofa outside the wooden room. "I've heard from Chisei and the others about you. Thank you for helping the Eight Families root out Tachibana Masamune, the traitor. Is there anything we can do for you?"
Chisei had said something similar a few days ago, but as the "young master." Uesugi, though not yet officially reinstated as the patriarch, carried a different weight with his words, having once led the families.
"Three things," Hikari said, holding up three fingers with a light tone. "First, the serum samples and research data—I mentioned this to Chisei already, and I want them ASAP. Second, I need to meet everyone in the Eight Families with high-tier kekkei genkai. Won't take long, just a minute or two per person. No harm done, maybe a few days of feeling drained afterward."
Uesugi and Chisei exchanged a glance, their expressions a bit odd. They'd both experienced that "drained" feeling firsthand. Hikari had called it a "side effect," but it still felt… weird.
"Those two are fine. What's the third?" Uesugi asked.
"Third, I hear you're planning a raid on the Fierce Ghosts soon. I want in, especially for taking down the 'King General.'"
Hikari hadn't fully cracked the mystery of the Shadow Warrior technique or figured out where Herzog's real body was hiding, but she could start by taking out a few King Generals. She doubted the Shadow Warrior could be mass-produced like the 20,000 Misaka Sisters from another world.
"And a fourth—"
"Wait, didn't you say three things?" Chisei interrupted, blinking.
"Isn't it common knowledge that the Four Heavenly Kings always have a fifth?" Hikari quipped, pushing two sheets of paper across the coffee table, filled with manga artist names and lists of books and DVDs. "Don't worry, this one's easy. Just pick up some stuff for me. Make sure to grab a few copies of each."
"Manga, huh? Didn't peg you for the type, Miss Hikari," Uesugi said, glancing at the list before passing it to Chisei. An old guy like him didn't read manga, so he left the shopping to the younger generation.
Chisei scanned the list, then froze when his eyes landed on a line with the names of some adult manga artists, sinking into deep thought.
Over the next few days, Hikari sent out a few Shadow Clones to join the Eight Families' enforcement team in tracking down the Fierce Ghosts.
Her real body stayed at Genji Heavy Industries, hanging out with Eri, playing games, and meeting with the heads of the other families.
The Ryoma family head, Ryoma Genichiro, had the Thunder Pool kekkei genkai, manipulating environmental charges to unleash lightning or static barriers—basically a Naruto-style Lightning Armor.
The Miyamoto family head's kekkei genkai was Whirlpool, controlling water to form vortex-like walls or blades for defense or attack, not unlike a Hard Vortex Water Blade.
Both were straightforward for Hikari, who'd mastered the five elemental releases.
But the Sakurai family head, Sakurai Nanami, had something interesting: Immortal, a kekkei genkai that reinforced her body to near-titanium strength, letting her punch through bulletproof steel. It was similar to Tsunade's monstrous strength but worked differently, enhancing the entire body rather than focusing chakra at one point. In theory, it was even stronger.
It took a ton of Hikari's Sharingan power to mimic Immortal with chakra and ki, and she slept a full day afterward to recover.
Despite Uesugi's gag order to keep Hikari's details under wraps, rumors spread among the Eight Families. The most popular one painted her as a modern "Tamamo-no-Mae," a seductive figure who left everyone—man or woman—drained for days after meeting her.
Another rumor, not entirely baseless, claimed the new patriarch had a thing for Sakurai Nanami, sparking tension with the Ryoma and Miyamoto heads, leading to a duel where Uesugi still came out on top. After all, Nanami had a messy romantic history—ties with the Ryoma and Miyamoto heads, a fling with the Fuma family head, and a late husband who'd been the previous Sakurai head. Tossing Uesugi into the mix didn't sound that far-fetched.
Hikari caught wind of the gossip but didn't care. She was already "the reincarnation of Tsugikuni Yoriichi," "Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto," "humanoid demon," and "White King incarnate." Adding "Tamamo-no-Mae" to the list was no big deal.
She'd rather play a few more rounds of games.
It was 2009, the golden age of console gaming. Eri's room was stocked with discs for all the major titles—Final Fantasy, Call of Duty—but the girl's favorite was Street Fighter 4. As a royal-grade hybrid, Eri's reflexes were insane, and Hikari could barely keep up until she activated her Sharingan, finally trading blows evenly.
After another Street Fighter 4 match, Hikari stood up in her white socks, peeled two oranges, and handed one to Eri. The girl tugged at her pant leg, holding up her notebook: "Brother's coming."
Sure enough, about thirty seconds later, Chisei walked in, wearing the enforcement team's black trench coat. "Miss Hikari, we might've found the King General's location."
"Where?"
"The Fierce Ghosts' Osaka headquarters—a place called Elysium Hall."