Brandon White looked at Firewing, who was staring at him in confusion, and let out a small, helpless laugh.
"Just take it as me rambling nonsense," he said lightly. "You don't need to dwell on it."
"Oh… alright then."
Firewing nodded, though she still seemed uncertain. She set down the prepared bottles of elixirs on his desk, along with several portions of carefully processed mutant beast meat. With a flash of enthusiasm, she added:
"These elixirs are the same as before, no need to look at them. But this meat—this is different. It's from a mutant sea serpent we stumbled upon. That thing was insanely strong. If Skyler Quinn hadn't stepped in, none of us could've taken it down."
Her eyes shone as she recounted it.
"If we hadn't caught it, it might've evolved into a flood dragon one day."
"The meat is far better than normal mutant beasts—delicious, tender, and incredibly fresh."
At the mention of it, a trace of regret crossed her face.
"Even though it was mutated, its body was huge, but there were too many people who needed shares. In the end, I barely got a small piece—less than a third the size of what you have here."
Though she sounded disgruntled, in truth Firewing didn't really mind. Much of the exotic beast meat she had eaten before had been given to her by Brandon anyway.
So what if she got less this time? There would be other opportunities—mutant carp, mutant crabs, even mutant scallops—each one was mouth-wateringly good.
Just as Brandon was about to reply, two high-pitched voices suddenly rang out.
"Pikachu?"
"Pika–piii~!"
Firewing's eyes widened as two yellow creatures, striped with brown across their backs, with tails shaped like jagged bolts of lightning—somewhere between a mouse and a chinchilla—hopped onto the desk. They curiously sniffed at the elixirs and beast meat.
They sniffed the pills first, only to turn away with visible distaste, and then turned to the serpent meat.
"Pikachu!" (≧▽≦)
Their eyes lit up, brimming with delight.
Pikachu's design was originally based on a squirrel (though Brandon had always thought of them as mice). And squirrels are omnivores—they may occasionally eat meat, though mostly they eat nuts.
Pikachu were similar. Other than ketchup, they loved sweet-and-sour things. Sometimes, they even fought for a bite or two of sweet-and-sour pork ribs.
That dish, too, was made from the flesh of mutant wild boars, which gave it an extraordinary flavor.
Normally, though, their main diet consisted of energy cubes Brandon had bought from Meowth.
Clearly, the sea serpent meat matched their tastes perfectly.
"Wait… what are these?"
Firewing's eyes sparkled as she struggled to resist the urge to scoop up the two adorable creatures and squeeze them. Instead, she turned to Brandon curiously.
"They're Pikachu—creatures from another world."
After sniffing the meat, one Pikachu hopped into Brandon's arms while the other perched on his shoulder, nuzzling his cheek. Brandon gently stroked them, smiling, as he gave Firewing the explanation.
"Another… world?"
Firewing frowned slightly, giving him a strange look. "Are you serious?"
She knew his powers were terrifying—downright monstrous—but beings from another world? That sounded like a joke.
"Doesn't their… style strike you as odd?" Brandon asked.
Pikachu came from the Pokémon world—a two-dimensional world. Its art style was inherently different from this three-dimensional reality.
Normally, dimensional discrepancies should have been corrected by the chat group.
But when Meowth had delivered these two Pikachu, their 2D style had remained. Brandon had even asked the group why.
The reply had been simple: 'Three-dimensional Pikachu aren't nearly as cute as two-dimensional ones.'
If he wanted, the group could help convert them.
Naturally, Brandon had refused. Two-dimensional Pikachu were perfect. Why change them? He wasn't hiding their existence anyway.
"Well… when you put it that way, it does feel odd," Firewing admitted, tilting her head as she studied them. "They look like something straight out of an anime."
"Don't tell me… your powers actually work on manga and anime too? Was that Susanoo last time not a fake?!"
Her eyes widened in shock. She remembered casually joking about it before, but now… could it have been real? Brandon's ability could even make something like that manifest?
Too outrageous!
That was absolutely absurd!
Could powers really do that? Impossible—wasn't it?
"Pikachu are real. And Susanoo was real as well," Brandon replied evenly.
"But neither came from my ability. They're creations of another great existence. By chance, I gained a way to communicate with people from other worlds. The Mangekyō Sharingan was an unexpected gift. Pikachu… I bought from him."
Brandon didn't hide the truth. He didn't even bother to conceal the existence of the chat group.
Once, he would never have done such a thing. No matter how powerful he became, no matter how confident, he would never have exposed the group—not in any form.
But now, with his shifting mindset, he found lies beneath him.
In humanity's fleeting lives, all sorts of contradictions defined them: honesty and deceit, trust and betrayal, justice and evil.
Even good and evil, utterly opposed, somehow coexisted within the same person.
Brandon had once been the same. But as his power grew and his mind changed, he began to despise lies—whether born of kindness or malice.
So what if Firewing told the state about the chat group?
What would it matter?
Nothing would change. At most, their attitude toward him would become more respectful.
Firewing herself might not fully understand his transformation, but those in power surely would.
They would see it: Brandon's mind was evolving beyond the human level—shifting toward the domain of gods.
And such a being could never be bound or controlled by ordinary ideology or doctrine.
Not that the government had ever tried.
"Then… the world of Naruto really exists? And One Piece? What about Armor Hero?"
Firewing's voice trembled with excitement.
Brandon answered with calm ease:
"The Naruto world? I've spoken with Uchiha Madara and Minato Namikaze.
The One Piece world? With Whitebeard, one of the Four Emperors.
As for Armor Hero… not yet. But in the future, perhaps."
His gaze grew distant.
If possible, he truly hoped the next to join would be the Underworld King from Armor Hero. To converse with such a mind, to explore such a philosophy—at this stage of his uncertainty, it could bring him immense clarity.
(End of Chapter)
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