Am I dead?
I must be...
After all, when that entire room full of explosive tags detonated, how could a mortal body possibly survive that?
Still, at least I managed to do what needed to be done before the blast.
The explosive tags shouldn't be strong enough to break through this shell, and they shouldn't have harmed Danzo, who I shielded underneath me.
Everything around me is pitch black.
My consciousness is hazy.
Yet there's this strange sense of liberation, of being freed from all worldly restraints. It's oddly... peaceful.
No... something's off.
Deep within my soul, I see it—a white, thrashing creature, snarling and writhing, trying to attack me.
And then, without my control, my very soul begins to absorb it slowly.
Pain.
A searing, unforgettable pain that cuts deeper than any wound ever has.
What... is that?
What just burrowed into my soul?
"AAAHHH!!"
A scream tears from my throat.
My eyes fly open.
I don't even have time to register my surroundings before that soul-searing pain hits me again.
But this time, it's not just my soul. My body itself aches, feels foreign—like it no longer belongs to me.
"First time adding Hollow genes into a regular human… still a bit rough. Please bear with it, White Fang-senpai."
Even through the blinding pain, I force my eyes open once more.
There—standing right in front of me—is a familiar figure.
The young man who led the Senju into the encirclement and rescued us.
Senju Yukika.
What... what is he doing?
I slowly, painfully shift my head. My entire body is covered in bandages. Countless tubes and needles pierce my skin. The feeling alone sends a shiver through me. I try to speak, but nothing comes out.
I'm too injured.
"Orochimaru-sensei, you recorded the whole process, right?"
Setting down his scalpel, Yukika turns toward the man beside him, also wearing a white coat.
Orochimaru's eyes are still wide in awe.
From the start of the experiment to now, he has been completely speechless.
He can't forget what he witnessed.
After they found what was left of my body—half-destroyed from the explosion—Yukika told him I wouldn't die.
At first, Orochimaru didn't believe him.
But now, seeing me pieced together and alive again, he is utterly shaken.
This experiment... it's divine.
And the energy that was implanted into me... what even was that?
He can't comprehend it.
This process wasn't just a medical miracle—it was nearly necromantic. Reviving the dead, reassembling the body...
"In truth, I hadn't planned to begin the Hollowfication experiment this early," Yukika says, raising his hands in a helpless gesture. "But if I hadn't intervened, he would've died for sure."
Plans had changed.
Originally, he wanted Orochimaru to be the first to experience the effects of Hollow genes.
But White Fang—myself—was too valuable to lose. Letting me die would've been a waste.
Instead, Yukika tested whether the experiment could work.
He exchanged system points to acquire a Hollow soul from the system store, used a sample of Ulquiorra's blood (just a fragment of his own blood) to weaken the Hollow, and finally let me absorb and devour its power.
It was just a theory.
And during the actual procedure, the system provided essential support.
Support he could only gain by spending his system's function points.
But in the end—
Yukika succeeded.
He created the first Hollow in the ninja world.
Even a basic Hollow possesses incredible regenerative power.
And as I underwent the transformation... the wounds that should have killed me began to—