"For you humans, gender might mean something. But for us Summoned Beasts, it's meaningless—especially across races," hissed Ten Thousand Snakes. "If Katsuyu weren't your Summon, I might've already bitten her in half."
"You couldn't," Katsuyu replied calmly, her tone mild but unshakable. "No matter how wide your jaw stretches, you can't destroy all my clones at once. As long as one fragment remains, I live."
"Oh? Want to test that theory?" the serpent's eyes narrowed dangerously.
"If you want to fight, I'll accompany you~" Katsuyu said sweetly, though her antennae quivered with warning.
Feeling the rising tension like the charge before a storm, Ryuuto sighed and rubbed his temples. "Alright, enough. Ten Thousand Snakes—you started this, so shut it. If you keep pushing, I won't be as nice as last time."
That last part hit home. The giant serpent lowered its head in reluctant submission.
Clearly, there was no making peace tonight. Ryuuto dismissed them both with a wave. He'd wanted them to reconcile for a reason: in battle, Katsuyu's healing and Ten Thousand Snakes' offense could form the perfect balance—one mending wounds, the other wreaking havoc. But getting those two to cooperate was like forcing oil and fire to dance.
As the beasts vanished, Ryuuto stood alone in the cracked courtyard, surveying the damage. His lips curved into a dry smile. "Great. My backyard looks like a meteor crater."
He turned and walked off, unaware that the world outside was unraveling faster than even he expected.
Two Days Later — Chaos Erupts
The peace didn't last.
Across the United States, Mutants began attacking civilians—unprovoked, brutal, and inexplicable. Within forty-eight hours, multiple cities were in flames.
The U.S. government responded with panic and policy.
Mutant detection checkpoints appeared everywhere: airports, highways, even Walmart entrances. Those flagged as Mutants—whether their powers had awakened or not—were seized and sent to so-called "asylums."
But Ryuuto knew better.
Those "asylums" were just research prisons, dissecting the X-gene like a threat to humanity.
The government's fear was simple: if they couldn't control evolution, they'd erase it.
First, they'd study Mutant physiology.
Then, if that failed… they'd start extermination.
It was déjà vu from the ugliest pages of history.
Ryuuto frowned as he read the reports.
The "cure" injections once advertised across the news were gone. Their formula? Derived from the serum of a young Mutant—one Ryuuto had personally executed weeks ago. With the source dead, the formula was unreproducible.
Now, the government had no leash left—only a knife.
And as Mutant riots escalated, extremist factions gained control of national power. The tone of authority shifted from cautious containment… to full-scale purge.
Axville Mutant Academy
A week later, Ryuuto stood in front of the broad windows of the headmaster's office—once Charles Xavier's domain.
Now it was his.
Charles had stepped into the shadows, leaving Ryuuto in full command of the X-Men.
He'd planned to use the downtime to experiment—combining data packets and chakra styles, maybe even forging a new ninjutsu to rival Rasengan itself.
But fate had other plans.
Every hour brought a new crisis alert.
The riots were multiplying like viruses—more frequent, more violent.
Initially, there had been one or two small incidents a day. Now, it was dozens—each larger than the last.
In Manhattan alone, fifty thousand people were caught in a single riot. Twenty thousand civilians dead. Only five Mutants confirmed among the casualties.
"Insanity," Ryuuto muttered, scanning the casualty maps projected in front of him.
Captured Mutants were fitted with metal collars—bio-suppressive devices linked to their X-genes. The moment their genes fluctuated, or they tried to remove the collar—boom. Instant detonation.
Clever. Cruel. Effective.
He sighed. "Someone's engineering this. There's no way all these Mutants just 'snapped.'"
Across the table, Susan's hologram flickered to life, arms crossed, eyes sharp. "I agree. I infiltrated one of the New York shelters last night. Most of the captured Mutants had no idea why they'd attacked anyone—or even how they got involved. Their minds were fogged. Classic puppet behavior."
"So, a puppeteer," Ryuuto said flatly. "And their goal is to push Mutant-human relations past the point of repair."
"Already done," Susan said grimly. "Every district's under martial law. Cops are raiding bars and schools, rounding up anyone who triggers a Mutant detector. It's 9/11-level lockdown out there. Honestly, I think the government's preparing for open war. If you don't act soon, they'll storm Axville itself."
Ryuuto smirked. "They won't. Not yet. To them, this school's the most dangerous place on the continent. If they attack, they die. Simple math."
"But doesn't it bother you," she pressed, "that they've ignored you for a full week? No contact, no propaganda, no threats on live TV. Nothing."
Ryuuto's eyes narrowed slightly. "Yeah… it's too quiet."
Susan's voice dropped to a whisper.
"Then maybe it's not that they've ignored you—
Maybe they're already making their move."