"All right, let me try it," Julian White said, springing up from the bed in a single fluid motion, like a carp leaping from water.
After listening to Mito Uzumaki's analysis of the situation, Julian understood one thing with absolute clarity. Before the outbreak of the Second Shinobi War, he had to seize the best possible window to reveal this ability.
If he missed this chance, he had no idea when he would be able to justify exposing it again.
More importantly, if the ability were ever revealed accidentally, then mastering *how* to use "Please Do Not Die," and *when* to use it, would become critical.
The core condition of "Please Do Not Die" was simple and cruel. The user had to enter a near-death state. What exactly qualified as "near death" was the most important part of the problem.
Julian took a deep breath. *It's just research,* he told himself. *How hard can that be?*
As a transmigrator, he could not embarrass the countless predecessors who had walked this path before him.
Focus. Stay sharp. Do not disgrace yourself.
That said, using something like a knife fight to reach a near-death state was obviously far too dangerous.
After careful thought, Julian came up with three possible methods.
---
### Method One: Chakra Exhaustion – The Art of Emptying Everything
He remembered Kakashi's explanation from the anime. Chakra was created by mixing physical energy and mental energy. It was consumed as needed and could not truly be stored.
If the last trace of chakra in the body was exhausted, death would follow. Julian decided to test whether this path could push him to the edge.
He put the idea into action.
"Burning through chakra? That's easy," Julian muttered confidently as he sat down cross-legged.
Recalling the meditative postures he had practiced in his previous life, he closed his eyes and took a long, steady breath.
Hand seals formed instinctively as he began extracting chakra at a manic pace, like a pump forced beyond its limits.
At first, it felt incredible. Chakra surged through his body, lifting him into a dizzy, euphoric state, like adrenaline flooding his veins.
For a brief moment, Julian felt like a living tailed beast. It was as if he could condense a massive Tailed Beast Ball with his bare hands in the next second. He felt omnipotent, capable of anything, ascending to the heavens and reshaping the world.
He immediately realized this had to be an illusion.
Sure enough, he could not remain calm for even three seconds. Half an hour was completely out of the question.
Everything fell apart in an instant.
His vision turned into black-and-white static, like an old television with no signal. His ears filled with a deafening buzz, as if hundreds of bees were holding a meeting inside his skull, sending stabbing pain through his head. The floating sensation from before became violently nauseating, like cheap liquor churning in his stomach.
"This is bad. I'm probably seeing the light because I overdid it," Julian collapsed onto the floor, murmuring with the last of his strength. "Dr. Yosano, wherever you are in the *Bungo Stray Dogs* universe… if I activate 'Please Do Not Die' now… is it still in time?"
The moment the words left his mouth, his body felt like a sponge wrung completely dry, so light it was as if his soul were about to drift away.
This was real. This was undeniably a true near-death experience.
Just as his consciousness was about to vanish, a cool, gentle force surged outward from his heart.
Several translucent butterflies appeared out of thin air, painted in soft pastel hues. Stardust-like light scattered from their wings.
They circled Julian gracefully. Wherever the glowing motes landed, the tearing pain caused by overexertion receded like a tide. His icy limbs warmed rapidly, and even his chakra began surging again, wild and abundant, as if injected with a powerful stimulant.
A familiar notification chimed inside his mind.
"Your near-death experience package has concluded. Welcome back to full health."
Julian sat up abruptly, flexing his limbs in disbelief. "I almost actually died," he muttered.
Then his eyes lit up.
"But the results are amazing. Next time, maybe I can try something even more extreme."
---
### Method Two: Physical Exhaustion
Next, Julian wanted to see whether he could reach a near-death state by repeatedly pushing his body to its limits during physical training, then activating the recovery ability.
The idea was simple. Run until collapse. Trigger recovery. Run again until collapse. Repeat. A loophole-driven cycle of breaking limits.
"Just running laps, right? Fine. Ten laps around the village."
Fifty minutes later, Julian lay near the starting point, gasping like a broken bellows.
"Next… one thousand push-ups."
By the time he reached three hundred, his arms trembled like dying fish, and his face slammed into the ground.
In the end, after stubborn persistence, Julian chose to crawl forward while shouting hoarsely, "Let this body know who the real master is!"
He tried to squeeze out hidden potential through sheer willpower.
Unfortunately, he crawled like a slug, inching forward at a humiliating pace.
Reality proved a harsh truth. Human will could not override the body's absolute limits. When you tried to force the impossible, the body answered with punishment.
He succeeded only in exhausting himself to the point of foaming at the mouth, his entire body shaking uncontrollably.
Even so, he raised a trembling hand, trying to activate his ability.
The sight was tragic.
Too tragic to look at directly.
---
### Method Three: Overdosing on Soldier Pills
For shinobi, soldier pills were the equivalent of stimulants. Once consumed, they forcibly enhanced the body.
Much like the Akimichi clan's pills, swallowing one triggered a terrifying burst of power.
Afterward, the body might collapse completely, or even die, but in front of an ability called "Please Do Not Die," that risk felt almost laughable.
Treating the ability as a safety net, Julian decided to gamble.
"Soldier pills, huh? One to clear the mind, two to banish fatigue. Ten… maybe that opens a door to another world."
Julian stared at the heavy bottle in his hand. It gave off a strange, ominous aura that reminded him of Devil Fruits from anime, along with the infamous, nauseating scenes associated with powerful pills.
His stomach churned.
Driven by a stubborn, almost scientific obsession, Julian steeled himself, tilted his head back, and poured the entire bottle into his mouth.
He bit down hard. The moment the pills touched his tongue, they melted into a bizarre, non-Newtonian sludge.
The taste was indescribable. Rotten honey mixed with rusted fish, followed by a sharp, fermented stench like spoiled eggs, all rushing straight up into his skull.
Every foul flavor blended together. He could not swallow. He could not vomit. It was suffocating.
Julian gagged violently, tears streaming from his eyes. This was no longer about taste. It was the body's instinctive rejection of something utterly vile.
He forced himself to swallow. The viscous mass slid down his throat like a living thing, carrying the smell of wet earth and an overwhelming mix of sweetness, sourness, bitterness, spice, and salt.
Suddenly, nausea hit him like a hammer. Violent spasms curled his body inward as cold sweat soaked his forehead.
The sensation was like chewing on a thousand-year-old, discarded foot binding.
Then, without warning, it was as if a powerful stimulant had been injected directly into his veins.
A primal force erupted from his lower abdomen, and his body began violently squeezing out chakra.