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『Earth's Cancer』: Byakugan?!
The moment Fujiwara Chika saw Veyron tag her in the chat, she instantly understood what he meant—and got excited.
『Earth's Cancer』: Wait—did Sensei's research really get results already?!
『Ordinary Human』: Actually, it's gone even faster than you think.
『Ordinary Human』: The reason we didn't call you sooner is because we figured evolving the Byakugan wouldn't be something you could pull off with just one or two fusions. So… we prepped a few extras for you.
A few… extras?
Chika used a group task glitch to teleport straight to Eientei—and the moment she laid eyes on the massive wall filled with jars of Byakugan, she gasped hard enough to choke.
"You call this 'a few'?!"
"Let's begin," Veyron said, gesturing toward the display. "Need me to stabilize your genetics and walk you through fusing the first pair?"
"No need."
Chika shook her head. "The moment I saw all these eyes… I felt this weird sensation in mine. Like… I dunno, a hunger?"
With that, she stepped up to the wall and grabbed a nearby jar containing a single pair of Byakugan.
The veins at the corners of her own eyes popped slightly as her instincts kicked in, guiding her. Without any help, she naturally began drawing out the essence of the eyes inside the jar.
A few seconds later, the once pale-blue eyes in the jar turned dull and gray.
She'd done it—her first successful fusion.
Stunned, Chika turned back to look at Yagokoro Eirin.
"Did you feel anything unusual?" Eirin asked. "They were cloned entirely from your own ocular cells, so everything should be fine… but they're not exactly original Byakugan, so—"
"No, no," Chika waved her hands quickly. "It's not that—just… the result is way better than I expected."
How much better?
If her original Byakugan, the one she drew from a lottery, had started at Level 1… and the version she'd trained and purified herself over time had reached Level 2… then the pair she just absorbed had to be Level 3. Maybe even Level 4 or 5.
And knowing her Sensei's obsession with precision, Chika was sure that one jar wasn't some lucky fluke. These Byakugan jars—all of them—were likely at that same enhanced level.
In other words, even though they were cloned from her own cells, her Sensei hadn't just copied them—she'd upgraded them.
Which… made all her previous efforts at evolving the Byakugan herself feel a bit awkward in hindsight.
After a brief pause to collect herself, Chika returned the drained jar to its spot on the wall and picked up a fresh one with another pair of active Byakugan inside.
One pair. Five pairs. Ten pairs. Twenty pairs.....
As she absorbed one after another, fusing them with her own eyes, the trio watching nearby—Veyron, Eirin, and Kaguya—could clearly see it. The pale-blue glow in Chika's eyes was intensifying with every merge.
And finally—
After she absorbed nearly a third of the Byakugan clones, her eyes—which had originally glowed faintly blue-white—suddenly shimmered with a vivid, crystal-clear azure light.
"Don't stop now," Veyron said, noticing her hesitation. "You're not at the limit yet. The evolution isn't done."
Eirin had already calculated that fusing about one-third of the clones would push Chika's Byakugan to the edge of a new evolution. The rest had been prepared not only as a safety net, but to help her skip over months—maybe even years—of gradual progression.
If she could evolve her Byakugan here and now, then there was no reason to slow down.
Chika nodded silently, then went right back to fusing the remaining Byakugan clones.
Just like how the original pale blue color had transformed into deep sapphire after reaching its purest form, now, as she kept merging and refining the purity of her eyes, something new began to emerge.
The blue deepened further, and faint hints of light purple began swirling within.
Then that light purple slowly shifted again—this time into light gold.
Eventually, even that brilliant light gold faded back into the same dazzling gem-like blue that had appeared right after her first evolution—only now even clearer, purer, and more radiant.
Chika looked down at her hands.
This strange new feeling...
She walked over to a corner of the dimensional space—specifically, the "target range" where she'd trained her spiritual energy control in the past. Raising one hand into the air, she clenched her fist.
WHOOM!
Dozens of meters away, a massive boulder the size of a millstone flew toward her like a missile.
With a casual push of her palm in the opposite direction, it suddenly reversed course—slamming into the ground behind it with cannonball force, leaving a half-meter-deep crater.
"Gravity and repulsion?" Eirin raised an eyebrow, instantly analyzing the move. "Got anything else?"
"Oh yeah... how about this!"
A surge of spiritual energy burst from Chika's body, wrapping her in a blazing, white-hot aura like a cloak of light.
Then—three pitch-black orbs appeared, floating in her hand.
"This," she explained, "comes from the unique perception my new eyes provide. When I let my spirit energy wrap around my body—what you called the fusion of physical and mental energy—I can form these things."
She held out the orbs proudly. "They're made of seven elemental forces—water, fire, earth, wind, lightning, yin, and yang. Just based on how they feel... I'm pretty sure they're insanely powerful."
"Besides just throwing them around or using them as shields, I can also pump more energy into them to make them stronger. Like this!"
The three black orbs, now infused with spiritual energy, began to spin around her hand.
The energy surrounding them formed a glowing white ring—and suddenly, a massive tornado of destructive force shot forward, tearing through everything in the target range like it was paper.
In the blink of an eye, the entire training field was completely obliterated.
"There's actually another move that's even stronger than that," Chika admitted, deactivating her power with a slight sigh. "But I don't have enough energy right now to pull it off."
"As for whether there are more abilities hidden in this evolution... well, I won't know until I dig a little deeper."
"Then try this."
Eirin calmly adjusted the barrier formations around their little pocket world, repairing the destroyed field and expanding it to several times its original size. She then tossed Chika a small test tube filled with glowing blue liquid.
"This potion will temporarily boost your total energy and speed up your recovery. It should give you enough to attempt that big move you were talking about."
Chika popped the stopper off the vial without hesitation and downed the glowing liquid in one gulp.
As her energy surged again, her spiritual aura reignited, and this time—six pitch-black orbs emerged instead of three.
They hovered, crackling with energy, before merging together in her palm—forming a massive golden blade of light.
She swung it.
SHRAK!
The strike cut clean through the newly rebuilt training field—and even the bamboo forest behind it—splitting everything down the middle in one glorious, overwhelming slash.
Fujiwara Chika stood frozen in place.
Eyes wide.
Mouth slightly open.
Staring at her own hand in shock.
"…Did I just do that?"
"I'm...OP?"
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