All the drama was scripted.
All the fighting was real—every hit landed, full contact.
The dark deity's brand, naturally, did not exist. It was designed after the mark on HSR's Sparkle character, with modifications.
"You look so beautiful when you pull a ten-pull gold—and so utterly miserable when you try to cope afterward."
Part of the fight had been for the shoot. The other part had been a genuine test against her master.
And the conclusion was clear: her current level was just way too low.
She caught her breath. The damage across her body was already beginning to knit.
She could feel Zhuixia slowly tightening its coil around her—and with each tightening loop, her body was steadily repairing itself. The damaged costume repaired alongside it, cleaning her as it went. The description hadn't mentioned a self-cleaning function, but it was there. In theory, she could keep wearing this indefinitely without ever changing—even the, ah, routine inconveniences would take care of themselves.
"That works well."
Besides needing to replenish chakra, her body was back to peak condition.
"Now to see what the cost looks like."
She tried to remove Zhuixia—and confirmed it: it wouldn't come off. Modes could be changed, but removal was off the table until the price was paid.
"Let me check…"
Hanabi pulled up the Stage's system interface. The fight had been captured in full, every angle, no dead spots.
She could pull clips from the footage as needed.
"I'll make the opening sequence one long unbroken take—show off everything."
May as well. She'd fought hard enough for it; a little showing off was only fair.
Then she glanced at a secondary display.
It showed her filming time limit: 30 days, 12 hours.
"A shame it's only an OVA. I could fit so much more otherwise."
She had a richer script in mind.
But an OVA ran twenty to thirty minutes. Packing a structurally complete story into that runtime was already a challenge.
The arc she had planned: while sorting through Kushina Yukii's personal effects and intelligence files, Hanabi stumbles onto information about the dark deity and the god of death—and launches her own investigation.
The island was gone, but the loose ends still needed tying up.
So Hanabi heads alone to Kushina Yukii's hidden base—located on the Fire Country side of the channel facing the Land of Waves, more precisely in the part of Fire Country near the Lightning Country border, along the route connecting Lightning Country to the Land of Waves.
She had previously arranged for Yukii to have made a scouting trip to Lightning Country, so planting the Warring States Uchiha clan records there was perfectly natural.
Here, Hanabi learns something new: Kushina Yukii's original plan had never been the Nine-Tails. Her real goal from the beginning had been to locate an Uchiha clan weapon of last resort—one that had been sealed away since the Warring States era.
And her actual objective—beyond destroying the Hidden Mist Village—was to use Uchiha Nanashi's power and the force of the dark deity to bring everyone into a perfect, peaceful world.
Surprised? Obito. Infinite Tsukuyomi was my idea first.
After wrapping everything up, Hanabi dismantled her sets and returned to Konoha.
The resonance charges needed saving up.
And the Carved Wound cost needed paying.
Back in the village, she did take a detour to look up the historical records of the Warring States era—the rigorous, documented, well-sourced kind.
A serious director's script always needs a solid foundation.
As a Warring States-era ultimate weapon, there was historical documentation—thin, sparse, frustratingly vague. Like a single throwaway sentence in a middle-school history textbook. The Warring States Seal History she'd found gave much more detail, effectively expanding that one line into an entire chapter, and most importantly it contained the location of the seal.
Once all the arrangements were in order, Hanabi returned to her detached residence that night.
She couldn't risk it at the Hyuga estate—everyone there had the Byakugan. If Hinata got worried about the strange sounds coming from her little sister's room and activated hers at the wrong moment, that would not be funny.
"Here will do."
After confirming no one was nearby, Hanabi closed the door.
Zhuixia's payment of the Carved Wound cost apparently factored in the surroundings. If people were present, or if Hanabi was in danger, it would hold off.
But here, in this empty space with no one around, she could feel it clearly—something building, something that was about to arrive.
Then her kimono began moving on its own, the bells ringing in a strange, melodic rhythm.
"Ngh—!"
Hanabi arched her spine forward, arms slowly drawn upward by some invisible force, raised into position like the opening stance of a dance.
Crack.
Red cord exploded outward from her body, filling every corner of the room.
Carved Wound.
A negative ability. A "loan" ability.
The synthesized Zhuixia had inherited the original item's curse—the original killer's curse buried in its core. The synthesis had weakened it, yes, but it had not reduced its lethality.
Hanabi was prey caught in a red web.
The rope twisted her arms into unnatural angles.
Both arms broken. Then both legs.
Like an interrogator torturing a prisoner.
The worst part was the fingers. Every single one, broken one by one.
Every finger severed.
Then the rope worked inward, through her whole body.
Throat. Torso. Legs.
"Ngh—aaah!"
A feeling of suffocation hit her.
"Ha… haah… is that all you've got…Zhuixia… Konoha's interrogation division puts you to shame…"
Hanabi didn't yield.
The defiant quip, though—that seemed to provoke Zhuixia.
A series of sharp, wet sounds followed, and then it was as though her skeleton had simply ceased to matter. Breathing stopped entirely. Every muscle locked in convulsions.
Still and silent, Hanabi looked, for all the world, like a victim at a crime scene.
Zhuixia, which had kept her alive through the fight—now collected what it was owed.
After a stretched, quiet moment, her body began to repair itself. Bone by bone, crackling as it reset.
"Ha—!"
She gasped. Air rushed back.
Hanabi woke from it—cold sweat soaking through her, the pain still radiating in every direction.
"Well. That's it? Already over?"
Not bad, honestly.
Being genuinely killed—and then genuinely brought back—left a feeling like a hard reboot. The clarity was real.
Not only was her body restored, but her chakra circulation felt cleaner, more efficient than before.
A thought surfaced immediately:
"If I actually pulled out my own Byakugan—then had Zhuixia restore it—then pulled it out again, over and over—could I just… keep harvesting Byakugans?"