In an instant, violet-gold light flared. The bagua sigil at the card's center flew out, sank into Kageyama Kokugetsu's brow, and the coordinates of Ōtsutsuki Isshiki's location flooded his mind.
"So Isshiki is active in the Land of Water right now. Troublesome."
Kageyama's brows knit, then smoothed. A heartbeat later, he vaulted away.
Reaching the Land of Fire's border, he slipped into a small town under cover of night.
At a clothier's he palmed a finely made outfit—leaving a generous sum behind.
Changed, he ate his fill at a restaurant, then left that same night by a remote route between the Land of Fire and the Land of Whirlpools.
To be safe, he created a shadow clone to run point.
At dawn's first gray light the next day, Kageyama arrived at the busiest pier in the Land of Whirlpools.
Since Uzumaki Village's fall, the country had sunk into chaos; riffraff everywhere, decent folk barely scraping by.
Fortunately Kageyama was no ordinary man but a war-tested shinobi. He looked young, but the killing aura rolling off him warned others away.
Greased by heavy coin and a different face, he cut into the line boarding a merchantman under the Land of Water's daimyō.
With that name to lean on, Kirigakure's inspection was perfunctory—go through the motions and wave them on.
After half a day at sea, Kageyama slipped off near White Wave Island, and with the ocean fairly calm, swam swiftly to shore one-armed.
He had barely reached the beach when a figure appeared in the air above the sand without warning.
White haori. Hair gathered at the crown with a long braid trailing behind. A Roman numeral IV under his left eye. A Kāma mark at his chin. Red neck guard and red wrist-guards. Black lacquered nails. A black crystal set in his abdomen. A red belt at his waist. Red earrings at his ears.
Ordinarily Kageyama's sensory skill could never have caught Isshiki's descent, but the cheat changed the rules.
Feeling their positions overlap in his inner space, Kageyama forced down the surge of excitement and nerves.
Here he was. Success or ruin would be decided now.
"Samurai, where did you get that in your hand?"
Isshiki—wearing Jigen's face—appeared on the sand before Kageyama, expressionless, voice flat.
"Who are you? How did you just appear?"
Kageyama feigned a start, then set his jaw, right hand closing on his hilt as he lowered his stance to strike.
"Don't mistake me, samurai. I mean no harm. I'm interested in the antique jar in your hand. I'd like to buy it." Isshiki smiled faintly, his tone unchanged.
Kageyama exhaled, let his tense body ease, released the hilt, and allowed a thin smile to show.
"This?"
"The passenger ship I was on had an accident. I fell into the sea and stumbled on it among some rocks."
"Good thing I'm a chakra-using samurai, or I'd have drowned."
"If you want to buy it, sure—if the price is right."
Isshiki dipped his chin. "Name a price."
Kageyama scratched the back of his head and smiled sheepishly. "I don't know antiques. It was a free find anyway—pay what you think it's worth."
Pleased by Kageyama's attitude, Isshiki pondered, then named a high price.
"How about five million?"
Kageyama's eyes lit. "Done."
Isshiki turned over his palm and a wad of bills materialized, which he tossed across.
Kageyama caught the money, tucked it away, then walked over with both hands cradling the jar. His face didn't change; his heartbeat stayed steady.
After wars fought on the edge of death, his mindset had hardened. Freshly after crossing over, he could never have moved without a seam showing.
"Here you are."
Isshiki reached out his right hand without changing expression, though inwardly he was excited.
This unremarkable jar was their Ōtsutsuki treasured tool, Plow. Feed it enough chakra and it could cross time and space.
Its limitations were many, but even so, it was of great use to him.
Even aside from its utility, anything of the Ōtsutsuki had to be reclaimed.
What mortal was fit to hold a god-clan's treasure?
Seeing his chance, Kageyama gritted his teeth and stopped easing it down. He abruptly sped up and slapped the jar's base into Isshiki's palm.
The Plunder Card only worked with real, physical contact. It could not act at a distance.
On contact, the card took hold.
Violet-gold chains burst from nothing and bound Isshiki tight, while a great suction roared from the card's black-hole motif, stripping Isshiki's power away…
Isshiki's face changed. Instinctively he tried to absorb with Kāma—no effect.
Kāma failed. He felt a flicker of panic but kept his head and moved to invoke the shinjutsu Sukunahikona.
But in the instant before he could, a blue-glinting senbon shot straight for his right eye.
Isshiki reflexively shifted the technique's target; the senbon shrank—down to dust motes.
The next moment Kageyama dropped low and swept out with a full-power leg sweep.
Ordinarily, even at full strength, he couldn't have budged Isshiki's base in the slightest.
But now Isshiki's power was throttled by the Plunder Card—and the sweep landed clean.
Kageyama didn't hesitate. As if he'd drilled it a thousand times, he dove onto the fallen Isshiki, a senbon slid from his sleeve into a reverse grip, and he drove it for Isshiki's right eye.
The stakes were too high. He couldn't be sure shinjutsu wouldn't shake off the card. Insurance demanded restraint.
"Ah… you wretch!"
Isshiki raged, forced to keep shrinking the senbon with Sukunahikona—but even so he took a punch square to the brow.
The blow did little damage—but the insult was stinging.
"Ah… you low creature, I'll kill you!"
Isshiki erupted, guard shattered. The black rhombus at his chin stretched, his body about to tip into Kāma form…
Kageyama shifted his fist, turned knuckles to claws, hooked his forefinger, and jammed it straight into Isshiki's right eye. Blood sprayed. The eye came free.
"Ah…"
The sudden, jagged pain tore a scream from Isshiki and snapped the transformation.
Kageyama's left hand gouged the left eye in turn. He hammered another heavy blow and pressed the attack on Isshiki's mind.
"Ōtsutsuki Isshiki, stop struggling."
"Your plan is doomed. Since that's so, offer up your power to me."
"I'll make your power blaze brighter."
As he spoke, Kageyama clutched both eyes and rained bloody-fisted punches on Isshiki's face.
The damage was almost nil—but the humiliation was absolute.
Isshiki's attention peeled off the fists and snapped to Kageyama's words. His heart jolted; his voice went thin and sharp.
"Who are you?"
"I am Ōtsutsuki Shibai's avatar, come to punish a failure like you," Kageyama smiled strangely, then let coldness fill his face.
To divert Isshiki and make the plan work, he'd schemed and strained every nerve.
If he failed even so, then there would be no regrets—he had truly done all he could.
"Shibai's avatar?" Isshiki's mind stalled; his tone wavered.
"Impossible. You're lying. If you were Lord Shibai's avatar, why bother with all this?"
"Hahaha… fool, isn't it obvious?" Kageyama laughed.
"I'm only one of Lord Shibai's avatars. You, Isshiki, are one of the clan's standouts among the young. Otherwise why would planting a God Tree on this fat star have fallen to you?"
"Even if I'm confident I can kill you, if you resist with everything it's a pain—never mind that Kaguya ambushed you."
"I hate trouble, so I borrowed a page from Kaguya. Saves the effort, doesn't it?"
Feeling the last of his power gutter, Isshiki clenched his eyes shut. Blood tears ran. His heart went to ash.
Whether the man's words were true or not, he had been ambushed again. That could not be denied.
To fall in the same place twice—what a failure.
Seeing Isshiki's body blur toward translucence, Kageyama hesitated, then forced Isshiki's eyelids open and shoved both eyes back in, rough as you please.
One breath later, Isshiki vanished.
Kageyama took up the card and looked closely. The black-hole motif was gone. In its place was a full-body portrait of Ōtsutsuki Isshiki, as he truly was.
He stared at it for a long moment, then his mouth curled. He laughed.
"Ha… hahaha… hahahahaha…"
The laughter rose from low to high, harsher and wilder, until it rang across the whole beach.