The thoughts in Gisei's heart couldn't be hidden from Shiro at all.
"Naturally, it's because they aren't selfish enough."
Gisei kept his expression flat. "Are you mocking me?"
"Take it however you want. Either way, you are that kind of person, and I am just like you."
"Is that why you tried so hard to convince me to help Mei?"
Shiro nodded. "Exactly. I want to become a Sage, too. That wish shouldn't be too excessive, right?"
"Before becoming a Sage, you first need your own body. If I don't die, you'll be stuck inside me forever. Are you really okay with that?"
Shiro hesitated for a moment, then finally admitted, "I won't hide it from you. Actually, if I wanted to, I could have my own body right now. I could even separate from you without causing any harm."
Gisei was confused. "That's not what you said before."
"Back then, I was still weak. Now, among the entire Ninja Butterfly clan, apart from Lord Mei, there is no one stronger than me."
"So why are you still squatting inside my body?"
"Are you trying to evict me?"
"Can't I?"
"No! If I leave you now, I lose the possibility of evolution. As time passes, my intelligence will degrade until I die."
Gisei sighed. Through his own research, he had already discovered that the butterflies' dependence on humans was unusually strong.
The Butterfly User Clan's inheritance had lasted for several hundred years. By now, there were at least ten thousand clan members, yet there were only a few hundred Ninja Butterflies in the Habitat Valley.
Almost all the others had simply vanished over time.
Only the butterflies chosen by Mei were kept as "collectibles" to extend their lives, though even their intelligence suffered for it. Otherwise, Mei's collection wouldn't be limited to just a dozen or so.
Gisei was the twenty-eighth head of the clan. Other clans had barely reached their eighteenth generation by now. Thanks to their short lifespans—and other reasons—his clan had churned through almost ten more generations than anyone else.
"Alright, I was just saying. If I really let you leave, my strength would take a hit too."
Gisei twitched his mouth and exited his consciousness space.
Once he was out, he extended a hand to Mei. "Hand it over. Shiro said you can summon a part of your body. Is that true?"
Mei looked delighted. She floated in front of him and unfurled a scroll. "That's right. So you agree?"
"Consider it agreed, but I can't trust you completely yet. Besides, I don't have the ability to do it right now."
Seeing Gisei sign his name, Mei nodded in satisfaction.
"You are different from the other three. Even if they disagreed, they would still promise me just to shut me up. I knew they weren't sincere, but I had no way to deal with them, so I could only pretend not to know."
"Anyway, I trust you now. I will do everything possible to help you increase your strength. Speaking of which, I feel my life force strengthening recently. have you started spreading the butterfly seeds?"
Gisei sighed. "I had no choice. The war is about to start. I was afraid they would become cannon fodder on the battlefield, so I taught them the secret technique."
"War, huh? Humans really are obsessed with fighting. Anyway, I keep my word."
Mei reached out and placed her palm against Gisei's chest. A soft green light began to glow.
Gisei closed his eyes, a wave of extreme comfort washing over him. He could feel that the life force transmission this time was far stronger than before.
After a minute, Mei pulled her hand back. "This is my sincerity. Also, take this."
She pulled a scroll from her chest and handed it to him. "This is the advanced version of the Blood Pact Cursed Seal. It acts directly on the human brain and is extremely secretive. Only the caster can release it. If someone tries to forcibly break it, the victim will turn into an idiot."
Gisei quickly took the scroll. As he read through it, a look of pure joy spread across his face.
Ever since the incident with Akizawa Uchiha, he realized that controlling people with just butterfly seeds wasn't secure enough. Even the Sharingan could spot the anomalies. Would the Byakugan be able to see through it too?
This had been a constant worry for him.
Glancing at the Jinchuriki on the ground, Gisei asked, "Is your old friend still useful?"
"I was just saying that. I'm not friends with it. One day in the past, it suddenly flew onto me and refused to leave. It's a guy no different from a flea. Do whatever you want with it."
"..."
Well, if the Butterfly Habitat Valley really is all Mei's main body, then the Seven-Tails really is just a flea to her.
Gisei shook his head, squatted down, and applied the Blood Pact Cursed Seal on the Jinchuriki.
The previous seal used blood as a medium. This improved version sealed chakra directly into the brain.
It sounded simple, but in practice, it was a nightmare. The human brain wasn't like other places; a slight slip-up could kill the person instantly. Fortunately, his chakra control was top-tier.
Because it was his first time, it took nearly half an hour to finish.
After releasing the Jinchuriki's seal and healing his injuries, the man slowly opened his eyes.
As soon as he saw Gisei, Tsukasa immediately flipped up and went straight into Tailed Beast Mode.
"Secret Technique: Scale Powder..." (Hiden: Rinpun...)
Gisei shook his head helplessly, formed a single hand seal in front of his chest, and activated the formula.
Tsukasa, who was just about to unleash his technique, suddenly froze as a splitting headache hit him. A moment later, he stood there, eyes dull and vacant.
Gisei tried to mentally command him to take two steps, but got no response.
"Although the improved Cursed Seal is secretive, it only gives you the power of life and death. It cannot control another person's body," Mei explained. "If you want to control the body, you can use both Cursed Seals together."
"..."
The old seal wasn't secretive, and the new one couldn't control bodies. Using both together wasn't nearly as convenient as the butterfly seed. However, the butterfly seed only served as surveillance; to control a body, one had to seal away the consciousness entirely.
Each method had its flaws. Fortunately, there was now a third option. In the future, he would use the butterfly seed plus the improved Cursed Seal. They complemented each other perfectly.
After thinking it over, Gisei decided to tell Mei about the butterfly seeds being detected by dojutsu, just to see if she had a solution.
Mei pondered for a moment before an idea struck her. "I can make some special butterfly seeds engraved with space barrier jutsu. That way, even special eyes won't be able to detect them."
"You really are skilled in space-time ninjutsu..."
"Being sealed by space sealing jutsu for hundreds of years... even a pig would figure something out, not to mention I am extremely skilled at energy manipulation."
Gisei thought that made sense. "You said you didn't have consciousness before you were sealed. Then why did you become like this after being sealed?"
Mei sighed. "Isn't it because of your clan's greed? Honestly, even now I don't know what species I am."
"Originally, after being sealed, I would have died in about two hundred years. But I didn't expect someone from your clan to use the Summoning Jutsu without signing a contract."
"That was the first human to come here. I was very weak at the time and was forced to sign a contract with him."
"Later, after he died, I was passed down as your clan's unique summoning beast. That was also when you lot started researching secret techniques."
"About a hundred years ago, the clan head at the time had a daughter. She looked exactly like I do now."
"She became obsessed with researching secret techniques and actually treated me as a test subject. Then she developed the Twin Jutsu."
Mei pointed at herself. "She used the Twin Jutsu on me, and the result is what you see now. Her consciousness occupied my body."
"What she didn't expect was that although I didn't have a consciousness at the time, I was still a long-lived species with a massive memory bank. Having no consciousness doesn't mean having no memory."
"Her few decades of memory were nothing compared to mine. Anyway, after a very weird memory fusion, it became like this."
Gisei was dumbfounded. What kind of ghost operation was this?
He hadn't researched the Twin Jutsu deeply; he had always just considered it the clan's most fundamental technique. But thinking about it now... maybe it had other possibilities.
Humans and bugs can be twins, so can they be twins with other things?
"Your current thoughts are very dangerous," Shiro suddenly piped up. "Twin Jutsu is inherently a forbidden technique. It's basically a violation of your human ethics. Rashly researching it might create some other monstrosity."
Gisei rolled his eyes. "...Is there anything weirder than you guys?"
Shiro shook his head. "We are still considered normal. At least we won't harm you. If you become twins with something else, no one can predict what weird things will happen."
That's exactly why it has research value!
Shiro was speechless. "You... In short, if you want to do experiments, find some reliable creatures. Don't create something that looks human but isn't."
Gisei chuckled and ignored him. He had just thought of another problem.
Mei was the product of twins with a human. Now Mei's "main body" was the valley floor under his feet. Was the Mei in front of him really a consciousness body, or was she that human who performed the Twin Jutsu?
No matter how weird the technique was, it was impossible for two different creatures to merge completely.
That meant Mei should possess two bodies: a human body and a butterfly body.
Her main body was too massive to merge into a human body. It could only be the human body merging into the butterfly body.
So, if he found Mei's human body, would he have found her fatal weakness?
If the human body were destroyed, her Twin Jutsu should be released. Then would it still be possible for her to maintain a consciousness?
Would she revert to her original, mindless state?
"Hey, you... can you stop it?" Shiro's voice sounded again, angry and ashamed. "Why do you always think about killing Lord Mei? Don't you think she's pitiful?"
The word "pitiful" doesn't exactly fit her, does it?
Gisei chuckled. "Do you think my theory is correct?"
Shiro hesitated. "Even if you are right, you can't do it. Here, Lord Mei can prevent any factors unfavorable to her."
"Not here, sure. But what if I summon her out?"
"...What exactly did Lord Mei do to you? It's true that what she did before was wrong, but I have already persuaded her to change her attitude."
Gisei sneered. "If apologies were useful, what would we need police for? Speaking of which, Mei didn't tell me these things before. Why the sudden confession now?"
Shiro sighed. "I told her to treat you with sincerity, otherwise your prejudice against her would only get worse. Just like how you used to be with Anna Takemoto. If she hadn't resolved your prejudice in time, and waited until now to confess, I bet you absolutely wouldn't have accepted it."
Gisei raised an eyebrow. "Then I really have to thank you properly?"
"That's not what I mean," Shiro said earnestly. "Lord Mei originally planned to keep coercing you. Although that method works, I am certain that as soon as you found an opening, you would try everything to kill her."
"I just want there to be a little less prejudice and misunderstanding between you two. Is a little more sincerity really so bad?"
"It's not just you who has prejudice against Lord Mei. She has been deceived by your clan all along, treated as a test subject. She has prejudice against you."
"You should understand what I mean. Think about how you felt when you were caught between the ninja clans and the village. I feel the same way caught between you and Lord Mei."
"You and Lord Mei cannot understand each other, but you and I... we should be able to."
After listening to Shiro's long speech, Gisei felt annoyed for a while before gradually calming down.
Mei seemed to know he was communicating with Shiro and had stayed silent the whole time.
When Gisei finally came back to his senses, he looked at her and frowned. "You... I want to know... Forget it. Whatever happens happens."
He wanted to confirm his guess, but when the words came to his mouth, he couldn't say them.
Some things are better left unspoken. If he said it out loud, they might immediately turn against each other.
Mei seemed to realize something. "You... don't tell me you are..."
Gisei looked at her quietly. Mei ultimately didn't say the words, but her expression was incredibly complex.
The misunderstanding between them was planted by Mei herself. It wasn't realistic to resolve it just by talking now; it needed time.
Mei knew that Gisei must have guessed something. If he asked now, it would undoubtedly spark the conflict again.
Thinking of what Shiro said to her, Mei finally chose to play dumb. Anyway, this wasn't the first time she'd done it.
The previous three clan heads were even worse than Gisei, taking benefits without doing any work. She had tolerated even that, so she could tolerate some baseless speculation.
Besides, even if Gisei really wanted to harm her, it was impossible to do it here unless she broke free from the seal.
Mei made up her mind. Once she broke free, she would immediately perform a self-seal. Only then could she protect herself fully. Otherwise, if this guy really saw an opening, there was no guarantee he wouldn't stab her in the back.
That guy Shiro had the same virtue as Gisei. As the creator of the butterfly seeds, Mei was very clear about the changes that occurred after a seed merged with a human.
She couldn't forcibly control Shiro now, either. That meant she had lost her only leash on Gisei.
This was the first time in hundreds of years that she sensed a fatal crisis.
She couldn't help regretting it. She shouldn't have listened to Shiro's bewitching words. If she hadn't, how could she have fallen into such a passive situation?
Seeing the shift in her expression, Gisei laughed dryly. Anyway, as long as I don't say it out loud, you won't know what I'm thinking.
Shiro had already promised him that without permission, he would absolutely not reveal his thoughts.
The balance of power had reversed. Thanks to Shiro's "good support," he was able to detect Mei's fatal weakness.
This feeling was quite wonderful.