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[Stand Name: The Hand]
[Five-star]
[User: Nijimura Okuyasu]
[Ability: The right hand can scrape away all matter. Water, fire, stone, everything can be scraped away, and it can even scrape away space itself.]
[Anything that gets scraped away will be completely erased from the world, annihilated and gone, impossible to recover.]
[If space itself is scraped away, it produces a teleportation effect, allowing instant movement to a target location, or instantly pulling the target to the user's side.]
[Current Level: Level 1]
[Notes: "Do you think I'm some kind of idiot?!"]
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Ryosuke truly hadn't expected that a single spin would replace the not-very-useful "Oasis" with the spatial-type "The Hand."
It was no different from trading a stainless-steel basin for a smartphone.
As mentioned before, for the current Ryosuke, most five-star Stands, whether in terms of damage output or the abilities themselves, did little to help him. They even took up Stand slots in battle, negatively affecting overall output.
But The Hand did not fall into that category of "most."
Erasing space meant that no matter how strong the opponent's defensive abilities were, it would inevitably cause corresponding damage.
On the other hand, by scraping away space, Ryosuke could instantly close the distance between himself and the enemy, forcibly pulling them into his firing radius, without wasting time-stop duration just to travel.
That said, the corresponding limitations were also obvious.
"Against enemies with extremely large bodies, like the Ten-Tails or Moryo, the space erased by a single swing of the hand is far too small relative to their size."
"And also…"
Ryosuke summoned The Hand and tried it out.
"The attack frequency is pretty low."
Of course, this "low" was relative to Ryosuke and Star Platinum, people who could throw hundreds of punches per second.
For The Hand, an attack frequency of about once per second was basically the limit.
In the original work, Nijimura Okuyasu would usually activate it once, then stop to show off or chat, never engaging in rapid-fire, continuous space-deletion combat.
A relatively low attack frequency meant that against enemies like Kars or Kaguya, who possessed ultra-fast regeneration, once the initial surprise kill effect passed, they could calmly repair their bodies.
But small range plus low attack frequency were drawbacks inherent to The Hand itself.
As long as you paired it with any other Stand, Star Platinum, Killer Queen, Weather Report…
They were all absolute trump cards.
This was also the limitation of five-star Stands.
At Ryosuke's current level, six-star Stands were the core means of combat. Excellent five-star Stands were important tactical expansions.
As for four-star Stands, like the arsonist Ghost Room or Hermit Purple, they were functional supplements.
Another 7,400 soul fragments were spent, upgrading The Hand to level five. Its attack frequency increased from once per second to twice per second, and the range of space it could erase was greatly expanded.
———
Putting away The Hand, Ryosuke took a satisfied sip of black tea. Looking down, he realized the tea had already gone cold.
Humming a little tune, he stood up. After gulping down the remaining tea, he took a can of soda from the fridge.
Click!
He opened the can.
Ryosuke gulped down more than half of it.
'Refreshing!!!'
He glanced at the remaining 27,000 fragments.
'Continue.'
This time, he threw in Green Day.
Clatter~ Clink!
No change.
Again.
No change.
Again.
Small fireworks, bang, bang, bang, and what came out was… Horus.
An ice-type Stand. Not very useful.
Ryosuke first used it to make a few ice cubes, dropped them into his soda, then turned it into small marbles and tossed them back into the roulette.
'Continue.'
———
Ryosuke's mood rose and fell. By the time he came back to his senses, the original budget of 50,000 had been reduced to just 400.
"Should I dip into savings, scrape together a thousand, and spin one last time?"
The thought arose. Ryosuke paused for half a second, then chuckled softly. He slowly leaned back in his chair, waved his hand to close the system interface, and dismissed the lucky roulette.
Gambling was always more losses than wins.
Those 27,000 fragments sounded like a lot, but it was just 27 spins. Green Day was swapped in and out again and again, without replacing it with any particularly satisfying Stand, and certainly without hitting the slim chance of swapping into a six-star Stand.
In the end, Green Day was replaced by Beach Boy.
This was an item-type Stand shaped like a fishing rod.
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[Stand Name: Beach Boy]
[Five-star]
[User: Pesci]
[Ability: Its fishing line and hook can penetrate any object, drilling into a target's body to attack vital points. It can also reflect attacks received by the fishing line (including Stand abilities) back to the target through the hook. Additionally, it can sense, through breath, the number of enemies along the path of the fishing line and hook.]
[The power and precision of Beach Boy largely depend on the Stand user's wrist strength and operational skill.]
[Current Level: Level 1]
[Notes: "When the words 'kill them' surface in our hearts, the enemy should already have lost their lives."]
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A Stand that combined enemy detection, control, and offense, all in one.
But within the same "star rating," the more effects a Stand had, the more average the strength of each effect tended to be.
'I'll keep it for the occasional fishing trip.'
Thinking this, Ryosuke put Beach Boy away as well.
To say that spending over 20,000 soul fragments like this didn't hurt would be a lie, but Ryosuke didn't dwell on it too much.
After a major battle, drawing some cards and playing a bit of a game, letting his emotions rise and fall, was enough to slightly release the pressure from the previous fighting. More importantly... Resource conversion.
What Ryosuke wanted most was still a six-star Stand, or one level above that, a Requiem.
In the past, that meant consuming ascension star cores and destiny ink.
Those were non-renewable resources.
Now, with the lucky roulette, consuming renewable soul fragments gave him a chance to obtain six-star Stands… an exceptionally good deal.
Ryosuke tossed the empty can into the trash, took a deep breath, and walked out of the break room.
"Break time's over."
"Time to get back to work."
———
The core battlefield was in the desert of the Land of Wind.
With Ryosuke's advance preparations, asking the Slug Sage to take action and arranging defensive manpower, normally speaking, there wouldn't have been too many casualties.
Unfortunately, the lineup of Kaguya, Momoshiki, Kinshiki, Isshiki, plus Ten-Tails Obito and the Edo Tensei army, had nothing to do with the word "normal."
The Anhilation Army, ninjas and samurai from all regions, and local capable individuals like rats from Warsaw City did everything they could, but it was still impossible to completely avoid numerous natural and man-made disasters.
These were true natural and man-made disasters.
Just a bit of residual shockwave from the battle between Ryosuke and Kaguya and the others was already a city-destroying catastrophe, not to mention the advance of the Edo Tensei army.
Ryosuke joined the Anhilation Army in rescue operations.
Unexpectedly, Kabuto Yakushi voluntarily applied to join the rescue, he could control the remaining Edo Tensei personnel.
With the addition of several hundred elite ninjas, rescue progress immediately sped up.
From daytime to nighttime, and then to dawn of the next day.
The rescue work ended.
Those who survived were all pulled out from ruins and deep pits across various regions. Those who weren't rescued… Were truly gone.
Ryosuke carried a man's body out of a deep pit.
He was very young, around thirty or so. There were impact wounds on his back and the back of his head.
The moment he was brought out, a son and daughter rushed over, clinging to the man and wailing loudly.
"What's the situation?" Kamihara Hayato asked, striding over after finishing his work.
Ryosuke gestured with his chin toward the man's body. "He's the father of those two kids. When the house collapsed, he held up a beam. After the two children escaped, he couldn't hold on anymore and was crushed to death."
Kamihara Hayato's expression shifted. He fell silent for a moment, then said, "A real man… What about the kids' mother?"
Ryosuke raised his hand and pointed not far away.
"Their mother was at work earlier. On her way here to find her family, she was killed by falling rocks."
After Dustless Death Reversion returned, Ryosuke had only about forty minutes to prepare. Not every city was like Kyoto, having experienced major disasters and possessing dedicated underground shelters.
With billions of people across the ninja world, even the Slug Sage's little slugs would inevitably miss some.
Death was unavoidable.
But for something like this, happening to an entire family...
"Damn those Otsutsuki. Damn Obito," Kamihara Hayato cursed under his breath.
The two children had already cried once when they found their mother's body. By the time they reached their father, they were completely exhausted, left with only constant choking sobs and quiet sniffles.
The more Kamihara Hayato listened, the more suffocated he felt.
He flicked out a cigarette, put it in his mouth, and handed one to Ryosuke.
Ryosuke waved it away.
At times like this, having one would make you feel a bit better.
But Ryosuke wanted to remember it more deeply.
"As expected… the weak and the backward get beaten."
Farewells to the dead were happening all across the ninja world. Some were innocent victims, and others were Edo Tensei ninjas.
Naruto and Minato Namikaze.
Gaara and Rasa.
Nagato and Konan.
———
One after another, the departed made their final goodbyes with friends and family, embracing each other.
Of course, there were also some guys who didn't really have friends.
Deidara shouted at the top of his lungs, "Hey! That's enough already, let me go die already!"
Deidara, Sasori, Kimimaro, and many other dangerous individuals were not released from control by Kabuto Yakushi. Rather than being manipulated like puppets, with their pride, they would rather die cleanly and be done with it.
When the first ray of sunlight appeared in the east, Kabuto Yakushi formed hand seals and softly said, "Release."
All those summoned by Edo Tensei turned into fragments and dust, scattering into the wind.
Watching the fragments fill the sky, Kamihara Hayato said regretfully, "If only Edo Tensei could be maintained forever. Hundreds of powerful figures whose names are written in history books, even if not used for combat, just their experience and talent in ninjutsu would greatly accelerate research progress if they joined the institute."
Ryosuke shook his head. "A group of elite ninjas who don't need to eat or drink, whose bodies and chakra can regenerate on their own, and who can be stored infinitely… At that point, we might as well invent a perpetual motion machine."
Kabuto Yakushi couldn't endure it, and the ordinary people used as sacrifices to summon souls couldn't endure it either.
From a rational standpoint, using one ordinary person's life to bring back an elite ninja, like Senju Hashirama, was absolutely a very 'profitable' trade.
But it wouldn't do.
Just as Ryosuke didn't need someone like Orochimaru to work for him, he also didn't need to summon the dead at the cost of consuming living people's lives.
If it ever came to using living people as resources…
Then it would be better to reboot the universe.
———
One week after the war ended, the signing ceremony was restarted. However, the location was changed from Kirigakure to the desert battlefield of the Land of Wind, right on the crystallized sand created by a single blast from the planet-destroying cannon.
From that moment on, the concept of nations officially disappeared, and the Human Federation was established.
Another half month later, the public trial of Uchiha Obito was held in Kirigakure.
This trial invited villagers of Kirigakure who had been harmed by the Bloody Mist era, the last survivor of Amegakure, Konan, and Queen Sara, whose daughter had been killed by Obito.
Of course, there was also the wife of Ichishi.
These were people Ryosuke was familiar with, as well as many more he did not know or understand. Upon hearing about the trial, they came specially from all over the ninja world.
The reason Obito's trial took so long was to wait for the families and friends of the victims to arrive.
They were the ones most qualified to sit in the jury seats and personally witness the judgment of the sinner.
The trial was broadcast live across the entire ninja world. Oda Ieyasu read out Obito's crimes one by one. After finishing them all, he announced the death sentence. Under the gaze of the entire ninja world, two medical personnel put headphones on Obito, then injected him with Hidan's flesh and blood.
Obito closed his eyes.
From the headphones came the recorded heretical doctrine of Jashin.
The Hidan flesh that had fused into his body entered self-destruction mode, slowly and irreversibly taking Obito's life.
Suddenly, he struggled violently, as if experiencing a final surge of life. With a sharp crack, Obito forcibly snapped his own wrist and broke free from the restraints.
Four or five members of the Anhilation Army rushed forward to pin him down again.
But...
Obito dropped to his knees, bowing his head toward the jury seats in a dogeza posture.
"I'm sorry."
"I committed unforgivable sins. I hope my death can make you feel even a little lighter."
"I will go to hell. Please rest assured."
The Anhilation Army members who rushed forward froze in place.
They hadn't expected Obito to say something like that.
After quite a while, they came back to their senses. Seeing Obito still kneeling, unmoving, they went over to check, he was dead.
Kakashi, seated among the jury, let out a soft sigh.
Although he had been the one to capture Obito, and knew very well that for what Obito had done, even dying a thousand times wouldn't be enough, witnessing the death of a former friend was still not something to be happy about.
A thousand words and countless emotions converged into one sentence, "Why didn't you die earlier?"
It wasn't a curse.
If Obito had died at the Battle of Kannabi Bridge, none of the subsequent tragedies would have happened. He wouldn't have been a sinner, but a hero who saved his comrades.
"Do you think he truly believed he was wrong at the end?" Kakashi asked.
Ryosuke was sitting beside him. After hearing that, he didn't know how to answer.
Maybe he truly repented.
Or maybe it was the effect of hormonal changes in the face of death.
No one could know.
You couldn't exactly resurrect Obito with Edo Tensei just to ask him.
Jiraiya, sitting at the other end, saw the complicated expressions on Ryosuke and Kakashi's faces. After thinking for a bit, he leaned over and asked, "Want to grab a drink?"
Ryosuke and Kakashi exchanged a glance.
"Let's go."
They didn't go far, heading to the izakaya that Iwamine had previously run.
As soon as they pushed the door open, Ryosuke saw a familiar back.
Hearing the door open, Iwamine turned around. When she saw Ryosuke and the others, she immediately showed a bright, gentle smile.
"When did you get back?" Ryosuke asked.
Iwamine smiled and said, "I escorted Miss Yui to attend the trial, and then came back to take a look."
Miss Yui was Ichishi's wife.
With her legs inconvenient, even using teleportation gates required someone to take care of her. As a fellow woman, Iwamine was naturally the most suitable.
After Ryosuke and the others sat down, Iwamine served food and drinks as she used to. Then she prepared to close the shop and leave.
Ryosuke gently grabbed her arm.
"Join us, Teacher Iwamine."
Hearing the address "Teacher Iwamine," Iwamine's eyes shimmered, and a flush rose to her already captivating face.
"Then… I'll be intruding."
As she spoke, she knelt and sat beside Ryosuke.
The four of them drank cup after cup, talking about Obito, talking about history. Suddenly, Jiraiya asked:
"Ryosuke, now that you've unified the world, what are you planning to do next?"
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