Chapter 226: Fragmented memories.

--Saturday, May 30, 2172

“Where are we, Master?”

After a few moments, Sage appeared next to Kai and asked while curiously watching the darkness and the sea of swords. Realizing that even Sage could materialize just by his will, Kai replied as he looked at the sword in his hand, which was exactly the same as the conjured swords.

“I have no idea. That thing bit me, and I ended up here.”

At that moment, the tremor of the dark space calmed slightly, and the swords started to vanish along with Sage. The beautiful fairy looked at her body disappearing into wisps of light with curiosity, while Kai, wanting to somehow use his aura to keep Sage present, focused entirely on conjuring her for real.

Soon, all the swords disappeared, and the black space began to fluctuate violently, but Sage remained and soon began to regain her original form, with her beautiful dress of blue light. At that moment, Kai asked, full of curiosity, while extending his hand for the little fairy to land on it.

“How do you feel?”

“The same as always, Master. I don’t feel any different.”

Sage replied as she landed on Kai’s hand, though traces of guilt and apprehension could still be seen on her face. Kai used one of his fingers to touch the little fairy’s face and commented with a smile.

“Don’t worry about what happened with Chatora. I know you just wanted to help me.”

“But I disobeyed you, Master… If I can’t even follow your orders, how can I keep being your reliable assistant…?” Sage replied in a sad voice as she took Kai’s finger between her hands and rested her forehead against it, filled with visible regret.

“That’s true.” Kai nodded, then added with an amused smile. “Therefore, the disobedient Sage needs a punishment.”

“A punishment?”

Hearing her master, Sage looked up in surprise and asked, only to find a mischievous smile on his face that made her feel a little nervous. But at the same time, a strange feeling of anticipation stirred within the innocent fairy. Kai smiled calmly and, looking at the darkness that was starting to fade away, commented.

“Yes, a punishment—but let’s leave that for later. It looks like something’s changing.”

Holding her master’s words close to her heart, Sage quickly nodded and turned to look at the surrounding darkness, just in time to see it vanish completely, revealing a strange scene. Looking around, Sage realized they had returned to the tribal camp they had first seen.

Things looked very similar to what they remembered of that camp. There were wooden houses everywhere and people with a ‘normal’ appearance, showing no signs of quirk-induced mutations, all dressed in coarse jute clothing. The people were going about all sorts of tasks—sewing clothes, smoking meat or fish, building new houses—seemingly without noticing them at all.

Full of curiosity, Kai approached a man in his twenties who was dragging a log and tried to touch him, but his hand passed right through, as if the man were a ghost. Sage quickly flew up a bit and settled on her master’s shoulder as he asked, curious and confused.

“What do you think this is, Sage?”

“We're probably inside that spider woman’s mind, Master. We're here because of her, after all.” Sage replied somewhat uncertainly as she looked around. Kai responded in a calm tone while gazing toward the nearby forest.

“That seems to be the case. That girl looks a lot like the woman from before.”

Looking in the direction Kai had indicated, Sage saw a blonde-haired girl with reddish eyes running with tears in her eyes, being chased by five other children carrying wooden sticks. At that moment, a man carrying several meerkats tied together with a rope over his shoulder quickly ran toward the girl and shielded her behind him, shouting at the other children.

“Get lost, brats!”

Perhaps because they were inside the spider woman’s mind, Sage and Kai could perfectly understand what the man meant. The man quickly embraced the little girl and began to comfort her with a fatherly gentleness. Meanwhile, Kai stepped closer to them and, staring intently at the man, asked—more to confirm than anything else.

“Is that the young leader?”

“That’s correct, Master. Based on an aging analysis of the leader’s face from the records, there's a 98% match.”

Sage responded in a calm tone as she attempted to create a holographic screen to show her master. Curiously, the holographic screen appeared—but Sage realized she hadn’t used any aura. The moment she thought of creating the screen, it simply materialized out of nowhere.

“So we’re watching that woman’s past… I hope we don’t waste too much time on this…” Kai remarked in a calm voice, continuing to follow the man who was now carrying the girl to a cabin, as she had fallen asleep.

To Kai’s surprise, the moment the man laid the girl down on a mat of leaves, the surroundings became blurry. Soon, everything shifted, and Kai found himself once again on the outskirts of the camp. There, he saw the girl running once more from the same children, who seemed intent on beating her. But unlike the first time, one of the boys threw a stick at her, hitting her in the head.

Hurt and frightened, the girl began running toward the forest, with the other children chasing after her. Kai quickly tried to extend his Haki, but nothing happened, so he attempted to use En—but again, there was no response. Slightly disappointed, Kai commented as he began walking after the girl, not wanting to lose sight of her.

“Looks like we can only follow her.”

“If this is a memory, we might get pulled along with it.” Sage said thoughtfully from Kai’s shoulder. The blue-eyed boy nodded but kept walking as he replied.

“Could be. But we’d better follow her—there’s nothing interesting to see here anyway.”

As they entered the forest behind the girl, Kai saw the children begin to panic upon realizing they were lost, with some of them breaking into tears. The crying soon attracted what looked like a tiger, which mercilessly attacked one of the children, killing him instantly and terrifying the others.

Completely terrified, the girl began running as fast as she could deeper into the forest, but soon she came face-to-face with what seemed to be a snake resting in a tree. The snake quickly lunged at her and wrapped itself around her body, intending to suffocate her—but in that instant, both the snake and the girl froze in place.

At the same time, the surroundings became blurry once more, and Kai found himself back in the dark space, where the girl and the snake now were. The girl, utterly terrified, fell to the ground and began crawling backward, while the snake moved rapidly toward her, unconcerned by anything else.

Just as the snake was about to reach her, the girl covered her face with her hands—but the expected pain never came. This made her raise her head. In front of her stood a tiger, very similar to the one that had killed one of the boys earlier. It began to fight the snake and soon managed to kill it, even as it was being suffocated.

The moment the snake died, the black space rippled, and Kai saw the girl in the same position he was—watching what appeared to be the snake’s memories. But perhaps because it was an animal, the memories didn’t last long. Soon, everything became blurry again, and Kai found himself back in the jungle, in front of the snake and the girl. The snake collapsed dead on the ground, and the girl, confused, took off running with all her strength.

But as she ran, her speed began to increase—nearly doubling—while her pupils turned vertical and her skin became slightly scaly. As she dashed through the trees, Kai spoke in a voice filled with surprise but also discomfort and disgust.

“Is that her quirk? Stealing the memories and abilities of those she kills in the black space? Is that why she talked about taking everything from me? After this… am I going to become a monster like her?”

“Let’s hope not, Master…”

Sage spoke in a complex tone. Although she would never stop loving her master, no matter what he looked like, she also knew that appearing that way would be a heavy blow—for him and for the family. So she genuinely hoped it wouldn’t come to that. But as she analyzed possible outcomes, her wings glowing in various colors, an idea quickly came to her. She added in a serious tone.

“Master, remember that Haki has the ability to interfere with the powers of others. It’s possible we can interrupt this ability and prevent the transformation.”

“Let’s hope it works…” Kai replied in a dark voice, genuinely disgusted by the girl who was now moving through the forest at great speed, trying to find her way back to the tribe.

Night soon fell, and the girl was forced to spend it in a tree, loosely following the memories of the snake. The next day, she once again searched for a way back but encountered a lioness who tried to attack her. However, the girl, moving with incredible agility and showing a flexibility worthy of a snake, dodged the attack and, almost by instinct, bit the lioness on the neck—revealing two long fangs.

Finding herself once again in the dark space, the girl thought of the tiger and the snake from earlier. They appeared and quickly killed the lioness. After viewing the lioness’s memories, the girl gained the ability to extend her nails like claws, and her fangs became much thicker and stronger. In addition, a pair of lion ears appeared atop her head. Using her claws and fangs, the starving girl tore into the lioness’s flesh and ate it raw.

...

As the girl wandered through the forest, completely lost, she continued killing animals to survive—each time using the black space and becoming more monstrous. But something Kai noticed was that the girl’s quirk seemed to have a limit: after her tenth prey, the scaly skin on her body disappeared.

Time went on, and the girl eventually fell into a hole by accident, falling for about five seconds. But using her superhuman abilities and the experiences of her prey—among them a monkey—she managed to slow her descent and landed safely on the ground. However, what interested Kai far more was the place they had arrived at: the ancient city.

Curious, the girl moved through the city, which was completely silent, with no sign of the spiders Kai had encountered there. After wandering for a while, she entered one of the smaller pyramids and found inside a high-tech biological laboratory—worn down and rusted, as if it had been abandoned for decades.

Filled with curiosity, Kai looked at the eggs inside the medical capsules filled with greenish liquid. But before he could examine them more closely, he saw the girl—now acting more beast than human—break one of the capsules and bite into the egg. In the black space, what appeared was a strange spider about a meter in size, which, the moment it materialized, died instantly without putting up any fight.

Wearing an expression of confusion very similar to that of the monstrous girl, Kai stared at the dead spider, then looked toward the darkness, which flickered briefly before vanishing without showing anything further. Back in the lab, the girl began to move uncomfortably, and seconds later, four arachnid legs sprouted from her back, along with two extra eyes on her face.

But even more impressive than all that was the moment the girl, purely by instinct, managed to create a ball of fire in her hand—something both she and Kai observed with curiosity. However, that seemed to be the last clear moment in the girl’s memories, as everything changed drastically afterward.

The surroundings around Kai began to blur and shift erratically, blending scenes or fragments of them into a strange mishmash. But Kai was able to understand that the girl had continued eating the eggs, seeking to gain more strange abilities. After some time, Kai finally saw a clear scene: the girl discovering the giant spider inside a tank of green liquid.

Though her monstrous, arachnid face clearly showed an overwhelming desire to eat the spider, at the same time, there was fear and submission in her expression. As if, along with the abilities from the spider eggs, she had also absorbed an instinctive subservience to the spider.

After several seconds standing before the creature, the girl tried to run away, using one of the many powers she had gained—a skill that allowed her to use electricity to boost her speed.

But to her surprise, that electrical spark ended up activating the place, causing everything to come to life. The laboratory lit up, and one of the three medical capsules—where three humanoid figures were sleeping—opened, spilling the greenish liquid onto the floor and over one of the humanoid figures. Startled, the girl instinctively leapt at the humanoid and bit it.

Back in the dark space, the girl was confronted by a half-human, half-spider figure similar to the one Kai had killed, though this one was pale in color. With almost robotic movements, the humanoid monster attacked the monstrous girl, who quickly defended herself using all the abilities she had, while also summoning all the animals she had consumed up to that point.

After hours of battle—in which the girl lost an arm to a sudden strike from the humanoid monster, who remained slow and mechanical throughout—she finally managed to defeat it, unlocking its memories. But curiously, the memories were fragmented, with only a few clear glimpses.

In those memories, what appeared to be humanoid lizards were using the monster to put the giant spider to sleep, inside a version of the laboratory that was clean and fully operational. But the clarity didn’t last long, and the girl soon began to scream in pain as the surroundings blurred and shifted to reveal another scene.

When the clarity returned, Kai saw the girl waking up on the floor—now transformed into something very similar to the monster that had attacked him. She had grown from a small child of 90 cm to a height of 1.8 meters. Moreover, the lab was once again completely shut down, except for one thing: the giant spider in the tank had started to move slowly.

Upon seeing the spider stir, the girl quickly ran and touched the tank, which caused the spider’s movements to stop. Letting out a sigh of relief, the monstrous woman looked around the area. But before Kai could make sense of anything, everything became blurry again, and another sequence of fragmented memories began.

Among the fragmented memories, Kai could barely make out that the girl had finally managed to return to the tribe—only to find her father now old, just slightly younger than when Kai had seen him. Additionally, it seemed the girl was treated as a goddess despite her appearance, thanks to the “magical” abilities she displayed—controlling fire and lightning.

Using her status as a “goddess,” the girl arranged for her father to be named leader, while she took several people with her—whom she killed in the ancient city and placed into the giant spider’s tank, where they soon vanished, as if dissolved.

As more fragmented images flashed by, Kai began to understand the girl's actions. Somehow, she knew she had to keep the spider asleep, and it appeared that the ability she used to put it to sleep had its limits. The spider needed to be “fed” every so often in order to fall back into a deep slumber.

Among the memories, Kai also witnessed the origin of the ritual he had seen the first time he arrived. From what he understood, the spider seemed to sleep for longer periods when it consumed people with quirks, who had slowly started to be born among the tribe. Because of this, the girl ordered that anyone with abilities be sacrificed to the goddess. She would then use them to feed the spider and keep it asleep.

But one thing that left him shocked was that the spider—despite being asleep—occasionally laid eggs, which the girl initially consumed but later began to store. From those eggs, spiders eventually began to hatch, each with different types of quirks. However, one detail Kai noticed among the fragmented memories left him with a dark expression.

“The spider combines and strengthens the quirks it consumes…” Kai said in a grim voice as he watched the fragmented scenes. Sage added with a similar expression, several holographic screens floating around her.

“According to my analysis, the spider also undergoes subtle changes every time it consumes someone with a quirk... It’s possible that it’s acquiring them itself.”

“That spider is more dangerous than the Quirk Stealer… We have to kill it at all costs.” Kai said in a solemn voice, to which Sage could only nod deeply.

Among the memories, Kai also saw that the monstrous girl began to understand how the spiders worked. She activated the eggs in the other laboratories and even managed to control them using a red orb she created from her own blood.

Additionally, in some fragmented images, the girl was seen giving her blood to her father to drink—perhaps that explained why he had those spider guards. But one thing became clear: the spider was not satisfied by eating other spiders. Instead, it thrashed violently. It seemed that only humans with quirks could truly satisfy it.

At the moment when there was no longer a single person with a quirk left on the island, Kai saw how the spider began to move more and more erratically—almost as if it could awaken at any moment—which only caused great fear in the woman. Growing desperate, the monstrous woman began feeding the spider various animals from the island, which seemed to calm it for a time.

It appeared that the “stranger” the creature's meal was, the longer the spider would stay asleep. But the island’s biodiversity was dwindling, and the monstrous woman was desperately searching for solutions. Around that time, Eva and her son arrived on the island, accompanied by their group—greatly surprising the woman.

Noticing that each of the new “visitors” had quirks, the monstrous woman began feeding them to the spider one by one, trying to prolong its slumber as much as possible. At the same time, she started gathering a group of spiders. Eva’s arrival seemed to inspire her with the idea of exploring the outside world.

***

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