The ruins above were still smoldering. Cracks split the earth where Haji and Jigen had fought, the sky now quiet and starlit. Where once stood a temple, only scorched stone remained.
Haji stood alone among the rubble, his armor humming faintly, silver-gray plates flecked with ash. In the center of the devastation, a single stairwell remained that he smash open, spiraling downward into the unknown. He walked forward and began his descent.
The stairwell twisted deep into the earth. The deeper he went, the colder it beca. The stone walls gradually gave way to sleek tal, dim lights flickering along the edges like failing veins of a dead machine.
Halfway down, the shadows stirred.
From the wall to his left, a claw-like gash appeared, pure black, like space torn open. A figure stepped through.
White hair. Cold lavender eyes. A faint Kāma mark glowed on his chin.
Code.
Not a second later, a second presence dropped from above, his body encased in a dark, tallic sheen. His face twisted with hunger, bloodlust in his eyes.
Deepa.
"Stop," Code said, his voice calm, but the tension in his stance betrayed him. "Where is Lord jigen."
Deepa cracked his neck and using his ability hardening his body. "Ohh, did you defeat Lord Jigen?"
Haji didn't slow down. He looked at them both, and said nothing.
Code narrowed his eyes. "You defeated Lord Jigen?" he asked, disbelief mixing with rising anger. "You tricked him, didn't you? There's no way anyone could've"
He didn't finish.
Haji vanished, and appeared in front of him.
The air cracked.
With a single blow to the chest, Code was sent flying, crashing through the staircase wall and into the tal below. The claw-mark portal he relied on blinked out before he could reactivate it.
Before Deepa could fire his carbon bullets, Haji was already upon him.
Fist to jaw.
A dull, shattering crunch echoed down the corridor as Deepa's face twisted. He staggered back, armor splintering. Haji didn't stop. A precise, brutal and powerful punch, hitting him to the chest, removing his armor and sending him flying back.
"This is impossible!" Deepa howled as he tries to stand but can't. "You shouldn't be able to"
His words ended as Haji drove a knee into his chest, cracking through the last layer of armor. Deepa's body dropped, twitching, then stilled.
Code tried to rise, clutching his chest. Blood dripped from his mouth.
Haji appeared beside him.
"I just Killed your God." Haji said quietly.
And then he drove his foot into Code's skull, burying it into the steel floor.
Neither rose again.
Haji looked down at their corpses for a brief mont, then turned away.
The path forward was now clear.
He descended further.
At the bottom, a cold, sterile silence waited. A massive laboratory stretched before him, tallic walls, tubes, and machinery humming faintly. Pod chambers lined the sides, so filled with fluids, others empty. Strange symbols marked the floor, blending chakra tech with sothing alien.
Scientists froze in place the mont they saw him.
So tried to run.
They didn't get far.
With a flicker of movent, Haji appeared behind them, his eyes cold. "No alarms."
He bound them with chakra threads and dragged them into a side chamber, locking them inside.
Only one remained at the center of the lab, trembling, but composed.
Amado.
The man adjusted his cracked glasses, eyeing Haji with guarded calculation. "You defeated Lord Jigen."
"Yes," Haji replied flatly.
Amado exhaled slowly. "Then you're here to end this. I suspected as much."
Behind him stood a reinforced pod, thicker than the others, heavily guarded by cables and shielding. Inside floated a young girl, peacefully asleep, her features delicate, eerily lifelike.
Haji's eyes lingered on the pod.
Amado followed his gaze and raised both hands slowly.
"She's not a weapon," he said quickly. "That's… my daughter."
Haji didn't speak.
"She died. An incurable disease," Amado continued, voice quiet. "I preserved her brain. I tried everything, Kara's tech, genetic stabilizers, splicing... This version still isn't perfect. It's taken years."
Still no response.
Haji finally turned his gaze toward him.
"I don't care what she is," Haji said. "If she's innocent, I won't harm her."
Amado looked surprised.
"Remove your own seals. I won't stop you," Haji said. "Then download everything you've stored. Every file. Every blueprint. All of it."
The older man hesitated, then nodded. "Understood."
As Amado walked to the terminal, one of the captured scientists nearby suddenly acted.
He slamd his palm onto a console panel.
A soft hiss sounded behind Haji.
One of the dormant pods flickered to life.
The fluid drained.
A clone stepped forward, naked, muscular, long white hair tied back.
Haji turned just in ti to see the figure open its eyes.
Familiar eyes.
Jiraiya's eyes.
But there was no kindness in them, only programming. Instilled loyalty. Weaponized mory.
"He's the prototype," the scientist muttered behind a cracked smile. "Jiraiya's clone. Fully conditioned. Kill the intruder, but don't damage the equipnt. It's… expensive." still thinking of saving the equipnt.
The clone's hands clenched.
Sage Mode activated instantly.
Chakra surged through the clone's body like a storm. Muscles tensed. Feet slid into stance.
He leapt.
A punch ca down like thunder.
Haji raised one hand, and caught the fist.
The lab shuddered from the force.
The clone's eyes widened in brief confusion, then Haji locked the arm in place.
With his free hand, Haji raised his fist slowly, like a hamr of judgnt.
Then he brought it down.
A single, diagonal strike across the clone's skull.
Crack.
The clone's head twisted violently, spun sideways, body dropping like a doll. It didn't move again.
(Image)
Silence returned.
Haji turned to the scientist.
"You wasted a clone of a great man," he said. "For nothing."
The scientist backed into the wall and collapsed.
Amado, watching from the terminal, only nodded slowly. "That Was a clone of jiraiya, it was supposed to be stronger and perfect than jiraiya, but it wasn't finish yet"
Haji said nothing.
Instead, he moved toward the main console, watching as data scrolled across the screen, nas, coordinates, experints. Maps of the world.
"I'll take it all," Haji said. "And then I'll burn this place down."
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