Shiratori stood in front of the mirror admiring his flawless, 360-degree, no-bad-angles face and body.
Only a €130 wig, €75 makeup, €650 custom cosplay outfit, and €1200 katana could be worthy of his sculpted features and physique.
Cosplaying as Okkotsu Yuta, he hesitated for a moment before heading out.
After all, there had been frequent accidents at recent comic conventions, two teachers had already died in freak incidents.
Between staying alive and looking good, he ultimately chose to look good.
Cautious as he was, and to avoid following in the footsteps of the two unfortunate teachers who had met the Virgin Mary way too early, he chose to walk along a guarded pedestrian path and take the subway.
Looking at the subway entrance not far away, he showed a relaxed smile.
See?
It was not like he was the main character or anything!
But how could something that bizarre possibly happen to him?
He was just overthinking it.
Shiratori let out a breath of relief and finally put down the anxiety that had been gripping his heart all the way.
He stepped forward.
BEEP BEEP...
A deafening, piercing horn blared behind him. At the same time, screams erupted from the pedestrians nearby.
"..."
The smile froze on his face.
No way, right?
He turned his head.
What he saw was a blinding white light and the vague silhouette of a truck's front end emerging from it.
But the strange thing was... He wasn't even on the highway!
At such a close distance, even Captain America wouldn't be able to dodge in time.
Damn.
It was at this moment, he knew he fucked up.
He was really screwed.
Realizing this, he closed his eyes. In his heart, tears were already streaming.
Goodbye!
World!
This parting… really might be forever.
---
Cold!
Shiratori felt freezing cold.
His whole body was cold, so cold his teeth chattered.
The chill crept deep into his bones. He felt like he was freezing to death.
Oh, wait, that's the wrong phrasing. He was already dead.
Dead or not, it didn't matter.
What mattered was: why was it so damn cold?
Even while shivering, he couldn't help but ponder this question in his heart.
Something wasn't right.
Why could he even feel cold?
Shouldn't he be feeling... pain?
After stacking multiple truck-related debuffs like blind spot, mechanical failure, brake malfunction, complete system breakdown... he shouldn't have survived, right?
Who turned off his pain receptors?
He realized something was wrong and snapped his eyes open.
Plop!
A drop of water fell onto his face.
It was bone-chillingly cold.
Before he could even take in his surroundings, he shivered violently. His teeth clacked uncontrollably. He trembled like someone with a severe neurological condition, like Parkinson's disease.
Gusts of cold wind sliced across his body like blades.
He stared at the scene before him, wide-eyed, utterly stunned and unable to process what he was seeing.
The ground was rough, mixed with sticky mud and sharp gravel. His back rested against a cold, hard stone wall. Just a few meters away was an irregular, two-meter-wide cave opening.
It was clearly a cave.
He blinked. Someone, please tell him: how did he get hit by a truck in the city and end up in a mountain cave?
How did he go from city dweller to cave dweller?
The semi-enclosed cave was pitch-black, the dim sky light outside swallowed by the gloomy curtain of rain. He couldn't see clearly, but he could vaguely make out fields and mountain ridges in the distance.
Not a building or any trace of civilization in sight.
Had he traveled back to primitive society?
He then looked down at himself, post-truck-hit, and was stunned.
Not only were all his limbs intact, he didn't even have a single scratch on his body.
What was even more bizarre was, he had shrunk.
His expensive cosplay costume had shrunk with him and turned into a child-sized outfit.
But what tormented him the most was that all the muscle he had painstakingly built had completely vanished.
So what was the point of all that protein powder he drank?
He simply couldn't accept the reality that he had turned into a brat.
Utterly devastated, he hugged his knees. By now, he had a rough idea of what had happened.
He had transmigrated.
And unfortunately, that much was clear.
Aside from that, this damn mountain cave provided no useful information.
"There's a child here!"
Suddenly, a stranger's voice made hope light up in Shiratori's eyes. He looked around warily, perverts were most likely to appear in these remote wildernesses.
Just in case, he rolled himself into the dark corner of the cave, cautiously watching the figure emerging from the curtain of rain outside.
A vest over the chest, a kunai in hand, a forehead protector... All silently confirmed their identity.
Ninja.
Are you kidding me?!
The light of hope instantly died in his eyes.
God was messing with him, right? He got shrunk and then thrown into the world of Naruto?
Were they trying to get him killed?!
"Looks like a stray kid."
Two ninjas walking side by side turned their eyes toward the corner where Shiratori hid. One of them said to his companion, "Let's kill him."
The other ninja calmly decided Shiratori's fate and pulled out a kunai, striding toward him.
"..."
He hadn't even said a word yet!
Sure, he said he didn't want to live anymore, but he didn't mean it!
He wasn't seriously trying to die!
Shiratori watched the ninja approaching closer and closer, his heart thumping wildly, as if it would jump out of his chest. He stared desperately at the nearing ninja, trembling more and more violently.
"Can you spare me…?"
With nowhere left to retreat, pressed up against the wall, he was so terrified that his body started heating up despite the cold. Tilting his head upward, he pleaded with sincere desperation.
He really didn't want to die!
The ninja in front of him paused for a moment, a flicker of regret in his eyes. But then he resumed walking with an expressionless face.
"There are ninjas everywhere around here. Even if I let you go, someone else will kill you. Might as well end your suffering now."
"To be born in this era… is your misfortune."
He raised the kunai.
The gleaming white light on the blade's tip stung Shiratori's eyes.
Death loomed ever closer.
"..."
Was he the fastest-transmigrated person to die?
Probably.
But he still wanted to make one last attempt.
"System?"
"System!"
"System..."
After yelling that, he switched to another term:
"ROB?"
"ROB!"
"ROB..."
A flash of pity crossed the ninja's eyes.
Had the child gone mad from fear?
The kunai's tip was now just a centimeter from Shiratori's neck. Yet there was still no response to his cries.
It really seemed like R.O.B. had abandoned him.
Fine then, he accepted his fate.
Next time, just send him to the World War II era, he'd take down every last Nazi and rise as a true hero
"Yuu… Yuta…"
"Don't hurt Yuta…"
"Don't you hurt Yuta!"
"I'll kill you all!"
A chill seeped out from behind Shiratori. Goosebumps rose on his back and neck.
A faint female voice, filled with a vicious killing intent so tangible it felt almost physical, surged toward the ninja.
Crack!
The kunai and the ninja's hand were crushed by a giant pale hand, almost as large as Shiratori's entire body.
It was as easy as crushing an egg.
"AAAAAAAHHH!"
The ninja's shrill scream echoed through the cave. But just moments later, the scream was abruptly cut off.
In its place was nothing but a pile of torn flesh.
Two giant hands stretched out from behind Shiratori, twisting the ninja apart like wringing a towel.
Blood splattered everywhere.
Just as it was about to hit his cheek, a massive figure stepped in front of him.
The entire cave trembled under the weight of its enormous body.
He looked at its raised back, pale-greenish skin, and mouth full of fangs, and could more or less guess who it was.
A special grade cursed spirit, Orimoto Rika!
"A… a monster…"
The other ninja trembled all over, staring at the towering figure in front of him. His lips parted slightly, pupils shaking, and his voice came out hoarse, as if squeezed from deep in his throat. He kept backing away, trying to put some distance between himself and Rika.
"Don't you hurt Yuta!"
With that high-pitched, eardrum-piercing screech from the cursed spirit, the fleeing ninja was effortlessly torn in half by a pair of sharp claws.
The cave was thick with the stench of blood.
Nearly every stone was soaked in it.
Shiratori looked at the pile of flesh in front of him. The overwhelming smell of blood rushed into his nose and flooded his body, making his stomach churn violently.
His stomach convulsed under the strain.
"Urgh…"
He scrambled and stumbled out of the cave.
He fell to the ground, propped himself up with his hands, and couldn't help but vomit. Unfortunately, he hadn't eaten much before going to the cosplay convention, so now he only threw up some acidic bile.
"Yuta…"
"Yuta…"
"Yuta…"
He kept hearing Rika's anxious voice calling out.
Yuta?
Was she calling him?
Oh, right. He was wearing Yuta's outfit.
Shiratori forced himself to suppress his fear and cautiously looked up, only to immediately come face to face with a giant, eyeless, noseless face, with only a gaping mouth full of fangs.
The sharp teeth were almost longer than his entire head. Standing before her, he was like a tiny caramel candy.
No wonder she was called the Queen of Curses!
This pressure... this was royalty!
"Yuta… Yuta…"
Rika kept trying to get closer to him.
"..."
Watching it in anime was one thing, but damn, facing it in real life was something else entirely.
He swallowed hard, his entire body trembling with tension. He nervously reached out his hand and placed it on the upper part of Rika's faceless face.
The touch was cold.
Not as terrifying as he had imagined.
He mustered his courage and gently touched it again. He carefully watched Rika's reaction.
"Yuta!"
She nuzzled against his palm, and all of her terrifying aura instantly vanished. Even her voice turned sweet and adorable.
Adorable?
He was shocked at how strong his own heart was.
Suddenly, Rika went limp, like a toy switched off.
The next moment, she turned into smoke and drifted slowly into the ring on his middle finger.
He looked at the ring on his finger.
In order to fully cosplay Okkotsu Yuta, he had paid attention to even the smallest details, including the engagement ring with Rika.
Could it be that just from his outfit alone, she had mistaken him for the real Yuta?
He didn't think it was that simple. He stood up and walked over to a clean puddle that hadn't been stained with blood.
The still water reflected his current appearance like a mirror.
He had completely transformed into the childhood version of Yuta.
He pinched the baby fat on his cheeks.
It felt pretty good.
As expected of a child, his face was full of collagen.
Now that he had been handed this kind of gift, he could only accept the reality.
He had become the child version of Yuta and somehow ended up in the Naruto world.
Reincarnated? No, that didn't seem right.
Transmigrated? Maybe, but the body wasn't native to this world either.
In the end, he just settled on calling it "traveling." That was easier.
He let out a sigh.
At that moment, his reflection in the water disappeared, replaced by a transparent blue screen.
Seeing the screen glowing faintly with blue light before him, he looked up at the sky. But the blue screen remained in front of him.
That meant, it was following his line of sight.
Text appeared on the screen with a mechanical notification sound.
[System Alert]
[Congratulations: Successfully pacified Cursed Spirit - Orimoto Rika]
[Cursed Spirit Mother Support System: ACTIVATED]
[Objective: Maintain bond with Cursed Spirit through energy absorption]
[Note: Your Companion Cursed Spirit requires energy replenishment]
"..."
This had to be a system, right?
After seeing the system's interface, Shiratori felt somewhat relieved. At least it seemed straightforward.
Still, whether it was useful or not, he had a ton of questions to ask right now.
"Are you the one who brought me here?"
[Query acknowledged.]
[Transmigration process: INITIATED by unknown external force]
[This system: ACTIVATED upon arrival.]
"I want to go back!"
He had never encountered such a situation before... well, how could he? It was the first time he'd met Truck-kun! Anyway, the shinobi world was way too dangerous, he just wanted to go home!
[Return protocol requested.]
[Analyzing possibilities...]
[Analysis complete.]
[Current physical form incompatible with origin dimension]
[Termination required for dimensional transfer.]
"What does that mean? It's not what I think it is... right?"
[Clarification: Your original body was destroyed. Return requires termination of current form]
[Confirm return request: Yes/No]
His gut was right.
There really was no free lunch in this world. He read it over three times to make sure he wasn't seeing things.
"I want to return in one piece."
[Request parameters: Invalid]
[Single outcome available.]
"..."
Shiratori felt the same helplessness as dealing with an automated phone system. It was like talking to a wall that occasionally threw information back at him.
Expressionless once again, he gave up. "Fine, I'll stay here. Understood?"
[Acknowledgment received.]
[System operational mode: ENGAGED.]