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Chapter 65: The Death of Mui, and Satori
With fused bloodline traits, Konan's chakra capacity had greatly increased, allowing her to cast such a massive Water Release effortlessly. The torrent roared and filled the chasm, water spilling back onto the yard.
Many prisoners had already been drained by Mui's seals. The sudden deluge meant most of the rest would not survive either. Between the two blows, the Hōzuki Castle prison—entrusted by the Five Great Shinobi Villages—was essentially emptied of living inmates.
Alex and other sheets of white paper circled Konan. Everyone watched the water's surface in the pit, waiting for it to calm.
"This is for the best..." Ryūzetsu murmured with a complicated look. "All the prisoners dead. Mui's ambition—"
The calm surface began to bubble violently. Dry corpses burst from the water, pouring out in dense numbers like fallen petals. Then with a great splash, a purple-black monolithic box shot up and slammed onto the ground. It was the Box of Ultimate Bliss.
Its material was neither metal nor stone. One side bore an extravagant human face representing joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness. The "Joy" face looked straight at Konan, its gaping mouth a dark void.
A gaunt figure dropped out of the box: a hollow, sunken man with bulging eyes. From his hair and clothes Konan recognized him immediately.
Hōzuki Castle Lord Mui.
He lived, but barely. Having been drained by the box, he had only a single breath left. Ten years of obsession kept him barely alive; he had to see the result and to see his son.
"Muku..." Mui's cracked voice rasped.
Konan watched the box expressionlessly. Mui was already a corpse in everything but motion.
Alex studied the box. Had the mass sacrifice satisfied its conditions? He was uncertain. The box hummed and then stilled. A black vortex formed in the open mouth of the "Joy" face and an even colder, more dangerous aura seeped out.
Mui's eyes brightened weakly at the change. After ten years of feeding chakra, at least something had responded. He clung to hope for Muku.
The vortex stabilized and an arm pushed through, followed by a face. Pale, not like the living. Mui tried to cry out, faint with joy.
Then a thunderous white hammer struck the mouth of the box, smashing the protruding figure back into the vortex. Mui wailed.
Konan's white hammer of paper burst into a flurry of sheets that wrapped the entire face of the box. She would not let that thing come out. Whether or not it was Muku, it was not human and had to be stopped.
Alex watched Mui with a trace of pity. Muku had died ten years ago. The face trying to emerge was not his son but Satori's disguise. Alex shifted his gaze back to the Box of Ultimate Bliss and braced himself. From the earlier signs, Mui's sacrifices likely fulfilled the box's opening criteria. Konan's paper might not hold the entity inside for long.
The box hissed. A flat voice whispered without emotion.
"Born with Satori, move with Satori, die with Satori."
A bulge formed on the paper covering the "Joy" face and expanded until the paper could no longer hold. With a pop, a black shadow darted out and landed before Mui.
"Mu...ku..." the figure half-opened his eyes, and Mui thought he was seeing his son again.
Mui's hope shattered as the thing stabbed a black claw through his heart. He looked up along the blade, disbelief curdling into despair. The creature before him was not his son. His son had been dead. The thing wore his son's skin like a costume. Mui's eyes closed and tears fell as he toppled backward, killed by the monster he had released.
The creature roared.
Its pale human exterior peeled away in layers, revealing Satori's true form: a huge black orb with a gaping mouth at its center, thin limbs, massive black wings. It leapt aside as Kunai rained down where it had just stood.
Konan squinted and continued to launch paper kunai. But Satori dodged them as if it could anticipate attacks. Honoka used Adamantine Sealing Chains, firing nine white chains that briefly pinned Satori in midair, yet the creature flapped its wings and ascended beyond reach.
Alex realized something about Satori: it fed on fear and could read people's minds. That explained how it avoided Konan and Honoka's moves. But then Alex remembered his own wind blade had struck earlier. That blade had hit Satori squarely.
Perhaps the monster could not read Alex's thoughts.