There was a certain reason why the Blood Prison was relatively free of riots and conflict between prisoners compared to other facilities that offered criminals mandatory refuge.

The number of low-lives with twisted sense of morality and borderline psychopaths that enjoyed inflicting all sorts of torture to their victims were abundant in this place, yet the prisoners were kept mostly in line and rarely displayed aggressiveness within watch of the guards. Escape attempts past decade could be counted on hand, of which the successful ones added up to grand total of zero.

The reason for Hozuki Castle’s success was standing right in front of me. The man named Mui, who possessed a special technique – Celestial Prison, that put fear in each and every prisoner’s soul. There was no sneaking past the warden or guards no matter how skilled you were; you would simply burn to death.

The man was a formidable shinobi and the most valuable asset the Hidden Grass possessed. Unfortunately for them, I was planning to change that.

Judging from his chakra signature alone, he was comparable to Kakashi. And while I doubted that Mui could best the famous copy ninja, I could tell that he wasn’t too far off. When you took Celestial Prison into account, he became someone that even I had to take seriously.

Next to him stood a tall, dark-skinned man with brown hair. I could recognize him as a shinobi from Kumo, Moroi, if I remembered correctly. I dismissed him as a real threat and shifted my gaze towards Mui.

Without waiting any further, I moved forward. The two of us clashed, my fist colliding with his kunai. I put more force into my arm, and Mui’s emotionless face shifted into an alarm as the kunai broke. He raised an arm to block the kick from the right and jumped back to avoid any follow-up.

The room shook from the force that the artifact emitted and I was sure that it felt by entire prison. Judging from the cracks in the walls around the box, the structure wouldn’t be able to withstand another blow like that.

Another clash, and Mui was pushed further back. I pushed again, not giving him time to perform the hand signs. I caught his punch with my palm and looked him into the eyes.

“How foolish,” I said as I tightened my hold. “Do you think this will bring back your son?”

Mui’s eyes widened at the abrupt question and the momentary lapse in concentration was enough to pull him towards me and drive a fist through his stomach. Mui gasped as the air suddenly left his lungs and took a knee to his jaw with enough force to throw him in the air.

Moving aside, I dodged the lightning that pierced the blur I left behind and struck the wall on the other side of the room.

The man flinched when I shifted my gaze toward him and raised his hands in the hair. “Sorry. I won’t do that again.”

“No need to worry.” I reassured him as I waved a hand. “You won’t be able to.”

Threads circled around his leg and planted him to the ground. I appeared next to him moment later, knocking him unconscious.

Mui coughed blood as he forced his body to stand up. “I don’t know who told you that, but it doesn’t matter. Even if you kill the boy, the ritual is in its final phase. Nothing will stop it.”

I took a step forward, approaching the table that Sora was lying unconscious. Mui tried to stop me, but the threads restrained him. “I guessed as much.”

Sora was in visible pain, his brows were furrowed and his forehead was drenched cold sweat. I hovered my hand over his stomach, where Mui had placed a seal that transferred the boy’s chakra to the artifact. It wasn’t anything too complex, I could deactivate it given some time. Killing him to stop the transfer wasn’t option at this point. It might result in worse outcome instead and drain him of the remaining life-force, awakening Satori in its stronger form.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

“It seems,” I shifted my attention to Mui. “You don’t mind sacrificing someone innocent to accomplish your goals.”

Mui didn’t deny that. He was aware of what he was doing. But unlike some, he wasn’t entirely devoid of conscience. “My goal is to correct the biggest mistake I committed. I don’t care if I have burn in depths of hell as long as my son will return.”

The seal was breaking down, but it would still take a minute or two before I could dispel it. “I can respect that. You don’t rub me as a hypocrite.”

Mui didn’t answer. His face didn’t show it, but I could sense that his feelings were more complex than that.

“What about your son? Would he want to come back knowing what it took to accomplish that?”

“Nothing is without a cost in this world.” Mui answered. “I only hope that my life will be enough to atone my wrongdoings.”

So he had accepted that outcome could be something any father would fear. From what I remember, his son was a gentle person. It was entirely possible that the boy might end up killing himself or live a life of misery. I didn’t bring that up. Mui already knew that much, after all.

“Do you believe that this thing will truly bring your son?”

From his reaction, however subtle this stoic man was, he seemed to sense that I knew something. “It’s the only option that I have.”

“I disagree. I’m standing right in front of your eyes.”

There was a tremble in his gaze. But the glimpse of confusion quickly faded as his eyes narrowed. “You mean…”

“Why do you think that I didn’t kill you already?

The seal finally broke. The chakra transfer stopped. The slow rumbling that was filling up the room until now was replaced by silence.

“What you’re actually doing, Mui, is awakening a demon.” I continued. “Satori isn’t a wish-granting fairy that the foolish elders believe. He’s a monster that only knows violence. It will grant you material things; after it takes them from others with force. It can’t bring back dead.”

If you could describe an emotionless face even becoming even more devoid of emotion, it would probably not be enough to do the justice of the void in Mui’s expression. For him, there was only two ways to take my words. Either I was wrong, or what I believed in was the truth. There was no reason for me to lie. He never had a guarantee that his son would come back. What the Hidden Grass knew of Satori were legends. And the legends were rarely true.

Mui sighed. “What is it that you’re after?”

“I just want to prevent a disaster. We don’t need to stir the chaos even further. The shinobi world faces enough troubles as it is.”

Mui gave me a deadpan look.

“Alright, fine.” I shook my head in a justified disbelief. Did he take me as a heartless man? That couldn’t be furthest from the truth. I had four already. And I was going to take the fifth one from the kid over there. “I'm trying to gather some capable people. You see, I’m short of manpower.”

Mui raised an eyebrow. “And you think I'm the good choice?”

“From what you told me, you did pretty much betray your village.”

“Even then… to ally myself with Akatsuki is not a sin I will commit.” Mui shook his head. “Satori will be sealed once more, but whatever Akatsuki is trying to do will plunge this world into chaos. Even if I bring Muku back, what good is it if he’ll live in a world like that?”

“If that’s what you’re concerned about, you can rest easy. My allegiance is not with Akatsuki. It quite the opposite. My goal is to bring the organization down.”

Finally, I saw some proper emotion on the guy’s face. Mui’s eyes widened from my revelation, and quickly narrowed in suspicion. “I do not like your smug expression.”

I ignored the remark and released the threads restraining him. “What do you say? Saving the world ought to count for something. It might not be enough to atone for what you have done, but your son will at least get behind that goal, won’t he?”

“I’m still not convinced. I don’t have a reason to trust your words.” He looked towards the artifact and sighed. “But my choices are limited… It’s about to awaken. I guess we’ll see how much your words turn out to be truth.”

“I guess we will.” I said. “Since we have a visitor from hell for the first time in millennia, I should greet it properly.”

The earth shook once more, but this time with much higher magnitude. We watched as the walls and roof began to fall apart and rubble smash into the ground. The box began to rise, as the faces on it glowed in bloody red.

I pointed at the thing. “Is that supposed to happen?”

“I’m afraid the details of the process were not properly documented.” Mui answered. “The chakra will converge, take form, and Satori will reveal itself. Things like this, however, are beyond my knowledge.”

Our attention suddenly shifted to the table, where Sora loudly gasped as his eyes shot open. There was panicked look on him as he tried to free himself.

“We have to go into the courtyard.” Mui urged me. Our time was running short. Satori could begin wreaking havoc at any time. We had few minutes at best.

“I will be ripping his heart out. You have problems with that?”

There was a momentary silence as Mui processed my question. His eyes shifted to the person in question. He spoke after some hesitation. “I don’t. I did not wish for boy’s death, but I still risked his life for the ritual. I didn’t think that he would surviving this. I do not have right to judge you.”

“Well great,” I hovered my hand above the boy’s ribcage. “Because some power up might be needed for this.”

My hand descended to end yet another life.