"How do you choose?"
Tokugawa Shingen quietly stared at Ryosuke, waiting for his answer.
"Choose?"
Ryosuke's smile slowly faded, thin threads of golden flame burning across his skin.
He once again heard the "breath" coming from the world.
Ideals, resistance, sacrifice.
Whether glorious or tragic deaths were happening in every corner of the city, and behind this moment, Ryosuke heard, "The breathing of betrayal."
Ryosuke's gaze gradually turned icy, "You think…"
"Who has the right to give me the question?" Tokugawa Shingen pointed out the window, "But those people…"
Ryosuke gave a light laugh, "You, them, and those who hide in the dark, peering at this disturbance like insects, seem to have a slight misunderstanding about me."
"I just go and do what I think is right."
"This world doesn't treat people like people, I think that's wrong, so I go and change it."
"Some people do bad things and aren't punished; I can't stand that, so I go and punish them."
'Right and wrong, all lie in my heart.'
Human hearts, face, reputation… these are merely things that naturally attach to him because Ryosuke is doing the right thing.
"Those outside who were deceived and misled are indeed pitiful; I'll try to find a way to save them, but I will not take myself for an omnipotent god."
Ryosuke could understand the commoners waving at the rich and the samurai.
They are angry at the existence of rot, that's a good thing.
If even that anger disappears, then this world will truly be finished.
But that pure, simple anger shouldn't be turned into a tool.
Warsaw city does need a reform, but not like this, not now, and the initiator of the reform shouldn't be a conspirator planning to profit from it.
Ryosuke took a deep breath and made a decision in his heart, "Stop this wrong riot first, and then kill the conspirator who started it."
"How will you do that?"
Tokugawa Shingen stood by the window, "This is a city-wide rebellion."
Killing is easy; saving people is hard.
Stopping two groups of people who have gone blind with rage and don't care about their own lives is even harder.
After all, if they're not afraid of death, how can Ryosuke shock them?
Tokugawa Shingen looked down over Warsaw city, as if the whole city had fallen into chaos, rats, scholars, commoners already contemplating rebellion, bandits taking advantage of the chaos.
Of course, as one might expect, there were certainly people hired by conglomerates disguised as rebels, shouting for blood around the city, constantly stirring up conflict to fan the flames of rebellion.
"Water."
Ryosuke said, "I need a lot of water."
Hearing this, Tokugawa Yukino froze for half a second, her cheeks flushing.
In the dark, Tokugawa Shingen hadn't noticed his daughter's odd reaction and asked in surprise, "What do you need water for?"
"To put out the fire."
———
'Courtyard.'
Ninjas don't have notions of righteousness.
If Monk Faichi dares to come out and show off alone, he should be mentally prepared to be beaten up by Rasa and Granny Chiyo together.
Rasa had strings of sand-gold, and Granny Chiyo had chakra strings and several kunai; they were about to act on Monk Faichi at once.
Suddenly, a figure appeared from the darkness, charging toward Rasa and the others.
They were in an unfamiliar city, not knowing how many enemies were in play, so they were naturally cautious. Rasa and the others set up defensive networks; the two retreated while launching ranged attacks to probe the enemy.
From the darkness came the continuous clanging of metal, and shadow after shadow fell to the ground, but after a short time they all stood up again.
"Puppets?"
Rasa frowned slightly.
Judging by the stiffness when the shadows moved and the sounds when sand-gold pierced their bodies, they should be puppets.
But…
His nose twitched.
'Where does that bloody smell come from?'
"Living Puppet Technique."
Granny Chiyo's voice grew cold.
The number of puppets a puppeteer can control is an important measure of their skill.
For example, Granny Chiyo's secret technique, Chikamatsu Ten, is controlling ten puppets in battle simultaneously.
Scorpion, after physical modification, uses his secret technique, Hundred Mechanisms Maneuver, to control hundreds of puppets at once.
When it comes to puppet technique, Scorpion of Sand truly stands at the peak.
Besides honing skill, there are two methods to control a large number of puppets.
The first is pre-setting the puppets' action paths; the puppets will only act according to the mechanism's design, one beat at a time, usually used in factories or base defenses.
"The second method is the most despised by all puppeteers."
"Living Puppet Technique."
Dozens of puppets stood up, their stiff shadows emerging.
Moonlight shone on their faces, revealing one after another tender, youthful faces, this was inevitable.
Living Puppet Technique is used to make up for technical shortcomings, the caster must cast illusions and brainwash living people, modify their bodies, and maintain their life force.
In this way, in battle, even if the puppeteer's control is technically insufficient and occasionally fails, the living person can, by subconsciousness, keep moving.
In other words…
Semi-automatic control.
To ensure the smoothness of semi-automatic control, young people with light bodies and good flexibility are usually chosen as puppets.
This technique isn't difficult; from a sensibility standpoint it's inhumane, and from a rational standpoint it wastes young manpower, a forbidden technique no shinobi village would use.
"Didn't expect they're all 'old acquaintances,' huh."
Centipede stood on the roof, his eyes bulging crazily, rolling about, "How's my puppet army?"
Granny Chiyo looked at the one youthful face after another, finally fixing her gaze on Centipede, "I remember you. When you were very young, you came to ask me about puppet technique."
"Back then you treated puppet technique like a life-and-death matter, but now… you call this thing an army?"
"Heh,"
Centipede snorted, "Teacher Chiyo, not everyone has the talent you and Scorpion have."
"For ordinary people like us, the harder we work, the more we feel our limits."
"I can only use my ways to make up for it."
Granny Chiyo slowly nodded and took a scroll from her back.
Whoosh~
The scroll opened, and ten ghosts "flowed" out from it, finally coalescing into ten puppets of different shapes.
"Since you called me teacher, then as a teacher, before you die, I'll give you a final lesson."
Having treated the whole journey like sightseeing and never truly feeling the urge to kill even against Kakashi, Granny Chiyo now, after more than a decade, once again felt the impulse to kill someone.
Why was puppet technique developed?
There are many explanations, for convenient assassination, for installing various mechanisms, for controlling multiple puppets at once, fighting many with one, and so on.
Granny Chiyo once asked the founder of puppet technique, the first Kazekage, Shamon.
"Why develop puppet technique? Big sis, that question of yours…"
Granny Chiyo was the first Kazekage's wife; Shamon used to be the first Kazekage's bodyguard, so it made sense for him to call her big sis.
Shamon scratched his big bald head, "Our village was poor, everyone struggled. I thought this puppet thing, when danger comes, it could let people take fewer risks!"
The purpose of puppet technique is to sacrifice puppets to protect the living.
From its founding, it was a gentle art.
In Centipede's hands, it has become a technique that shreds others into wreckage.
"Spare the boasting, Chiyo, you're already old!"
"Old…"
Centipede pulled the chakra strings from his hand and controlled dozens of living puppets to pounce.
"Just behave and die!"
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