Chapter 25: Light - My Name is Uchiha Hikari
A Ray of Sunlight
The nameless girl bit her lower lip so hard it nearly drew blood. "Are you... are you pitying me?"
Her fists clenched so tightly that her nails dug deep into her own palms, drawing drops of bright crimson blood that fell and splattered against the scorched earth.
Kazuki shook his head slowly and began removing his outer jacket without speaking.
Rather than offering empty words, he chose to express his thoughts through direct action.
He gently draped the jacket over the girl's bare shoulders, covering her exposed skin with careful, respectful movements.
After their fierce battle, the white jacket was somewhat tattered and dirty—stained with ash and blood. Yet Kazuki's simple gesture undoubtedly brought a ray of dazzling sunlight into the girl's dark inner world.
The first act of genuine kindness she'd experienced in years.
The nameless girl froze completely, her expression becoming complicated as she slowly lowered her head. Her slender, pale fingers gripped the oversized sleeves tightly. Her delicate nose twitched slightly as she caught an unfamiliar scent—something clean and warm that didn't reek of blood or darkness.
Noticing the girl's disheveled hair falling across her face, Kazuki frowned slightly and reached out to gently brush a stray strand from her temple.
"No... I don't need your pity!"
The girl's eyes widened like a startled animal, as if she'd been violated somehow. She forcefully pushed the boy away, her tone full of defensive threat. She stared at him with a volatile mixture of wariness and barely concealed fear.
But in Kazuki's experienced eyes, her aggressive reaction resembled nothing so much as a frightened wildcat—using intimidating displays to protect its fundamental vulnerability.
Beneath her messy black hair, her eyes glistened with barely suppressed moisture.
Her heart—shrouded in accumulated darkness for so long—seemed to have suffered a tremendous shock. Looking into the boy's genuinely gentle gaze, she felt a warmth she'd believed permanently lost.
"I won't advise you to let go of your hatred, nor am I offering you pity."
Kazuki smiled softly and took two deliberate steps forward, raising his hand to stroke the girl's tangled black hair with surprising tenderness. His voice remained gentle and refined. "I cannot possibly comprehend all the suffering you've endured over the years, so I will never ask you to simply 'forgive them.' If you wish to take revenge on the Uchiha clan and Konoha, I won't stop you. That is your freedom—your right."
He paused, letting his words sink in.
"If you believe this world is fundamentally wrong, then go forth and correct it yourself with your own hands."
His voice was calm and measured, but to the girl's traumatized ears, each word struck like a resonating bell—reverberating deep within her wounded heart.
Freedom's Weight
"You're... you're not going to stop me?"
The nameless girl unconsciously bit her lip again, confusion evident. "Don't you think what I want... what I am... is cruel? Monstrous?"
"Why should I stop you?"
Kazuki met her gaze directly, his Sharingan reflecting her own. "If I were to advise you to let go of your hatred and forgive those who inflicted such suffering upon you... who would repay you for the sin of being sealed in absolute darkness underground for decades? Who compensates your stolen life?"
Don't advise others to show kindness when you haven't experienced their suffering.
Kazuki understood this principle intimately. If he had been sealed underground by his own clan for decades—abandoned, forgotten, treated as a disposable weapon—his thoughts would likely be far more extreme than this girl's.
"Thank you..."
The girl's voice emerged barely above a whisper. She bowed her head deeply, her long black hair falling forward to obscure her expression completely.
But from her trembling shoulders, anyone could sense that her heart was far from calm—emotions warring violently within.
"What do you intend to do with me now?"
After several moments of internal struggle, the girl took a deep, steadying breath and looked up at him directly. "You've witnessed my power firsthand. You should understand its strategic value—what someone like me could be worth to Konoha."
Kazuki smiled gently and shook his head with finality. "From this moment forward... you are free. No one can decide your future except yourself."
"Freedom?"
The word was so foreign—so impossibly distant from her experience—that the girl could only stare in stunned incomprehension.
"That's correct. You are free now."
Kazuki observed the girl's bewildered eyes and chuckled softly. "From this moment onward, you can enjoy your future however you choose. Whether you decide to take revenge on Konoha and the Uchiha clan, or somehow find it within yourself to let go of your hatred entirely—it's all your freedom. Your choice. No one has any right to interfere with your future anymore."
"You're... you're not lying to me?"
The girl's lips parted slightly in disbelief, her pupils trembling. Her delicate face reflected profound doubt mixed with desperate hope.
"Why would I lie to you?" Kazuki countered reasonably.
"But... if you release me, aren't you afraid?"
The girl's voice stammered, her large dark eyes widening further. "You've already witnessed my eye technique's power firsthand. Yachihoko can control a person's thoughts and memories at any time—rewrite their very identity. Aren't you terrified I'll use it to control you?"
She understood all too well the existential threat her ability represented.
That's precisely why the Uchiha clan—fearing her power—had gone so far as to unite with both the Senju and Uzumaki clans to seal her permanently in underground darkness.
"Your eye technique is certainly powerful and dangerous," Kazuki acknowledged with a confident smile. "But it's ultimately useless against me specifically."
He wouldn't speak too presumptuously about other matters, but at least on the 'mental and spiritual' level, as a Beyonder of the Spectator pathway, even the legendary Kotoamatsukami—the strongest genjutsu technique—couldn't permanently alter his fundamental will.
My mind is my fortress.
"I'm... I'm really free?"
The girl stared at her own hands—pale and trembling—still finding the concept impossible to believe.
"Yes. You're free."
Kazuki repeated patiently, his tone reassuring. "From now on, you can do absolutely anything you want."
"But I... I don't know what I want to do."
A hint of lost confusion appeared in the girl's eyes—like someone suddenly released from lifelong imprisonment without any preparation.
Aside from revenge—aside from hatred and anger and the burning need to make others suffer as she had—she'd never allowed herself to think about what she might do after gaining freedom. What purpose could exist beyond destruction?
"Hmm..."
Kazuki pondered for a moment, then offered a gentle suggestion. "Perhaps you could start simply. Take a proper bath. Change into some clean, new clothes. Then try some of the local delicacies—experience taste again without the shadow of violence hanging over you."
"Can I really do that?"
Hearing this unexpectedly mundane suggestion, the girl seemed somewhat tempted but still hesitated. "Like you said... I can do anything? Even something so... normal?"
"Of course you can."
Kazuki's lips curved into a teasing smile. "If you want, you could even try falling in love someday."
The Moth and the Flame
A hint of profound longing appeared in the girl's eyes—emotions she'd believed completely dead stirring back to fragile life.
Perhaps she had lived exclusively in darkness before this moment.
But now—finally—she had glimpsed true light.
Her eyes grew hazy as she gazed with desperate longing at the boy standing before her.
His handsome features and genuinely gentle eyes seemed like the sun itself—dispelling the accumulated darkness in her heart, granting her an unfamiliar sense of peace.
She could have endured the darkness forever... if she had never seen the light.
Cruelty and coldness had been like thick layers of protective ice, shielding her fragile heart from further damage. Anger and hatred had served as hard armor and sharp weapons, defending her shattered self-esteem.
But deep down, she had always longed for redemption.
The deeper one drowns in darkness, the more desperately one craves even a single ray of light.
Like a straw placed before a drowning person in a turbulent, endless ocean—even knowing it offers no real salvation, one will still grasp at that straw with everything they have.
The girl's wavering, uncertain heart finally solidified at this precise moment.
She wanted to grasp that straw. To grasp that ray of light shining before her.
Like a moth drawn irresistibly to flame—even knowing the inevitable end is burning to ashes—at least before that final moment, she could feel the warmth brought by the 'flame' itself.
Even if it destroys me, at least I'll have felt warmth once more.
"Can I... can I follow you?"
The girl asked timidly, her voice barely audible. She clutched the tattered hem of Kazuki's jacket nervously.
Her cautious gaze held desperate expectation mixed with deep-seated terror—like an abandoned stray cat, yearning to be taken home but absolutely terrified of being rejected and abandoned yet again.
Kazuki gazed steadily at the girl, reading profound dependence in her vulnerable eyes.
Everything is proceeding as calculated.
After a measured moment—watching the girl's expression grow increasingly anxious—he smiled warmly and nodded. "Okay. You can come with me."
Perfect.
Everything had unfolded exactly as he'd predicted and orchestrated.
The more desperately someone yearned for redemption and salvation, the easier they became to manipulate and guide toward specific purposes.
Like someone dying of thirst while lost in an endless desert—a mere single drop of water could quench their parched soul. And the price required was nothing more than cheap 'hope' and carefully crafted kindness.
She's mine now—bound by gratitude and dependence rather than seals.
"Light..."
The girl suddenly mustered her courage, tugging gently at his sleeve. She whispered something so quietly he could barely hear.
"What was that?"
Kazuki leaned closer, genuinely unable to make out her words—her voice had been soft as a mosquito's buzz.
The girl who had been called "Nameless" for her entire existence raised her head slowly.
Tears streamed uncontrollably down her delicate face, leaving glistening trails. Her nose twitched with suppressed emotion. She sobbed openly—but this time, the tears weren't born purely from pain.
"My name is Uchiha Hikari!"
Her voice rang out clearly—claiming an identity, a self, a name for the very first time.
Hikari. Light.
The name she gave herself in this moment of rebirth.
[End of Chapter 25]
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