Capítulo 25: Meteor

Walking to his old and simple house, Ryo stops in front of it, gazing at the house for a few seconds before taking a deep breath and walking towards the door, giving it two knocks to announce his presence.

It takes a few moments until he hears sounds coming from inside, and soon an elderly lady opens the door. Upon seeing Ryo, she breaks into a wide smile and embraces the young boy tightly. "Ryo! My dear grandson, when I heard you were in the hospital, I was so worried. How good it is that you're already cured."

Ryo returns a calm smile, saying, "Yes, grandma, I was really lucky." They then enter the house, and Sora starts preparing some cookies with milk for Ryo, knowing it's something he enjoys. Placing them on the table, she looks at him eagerly. "So, tell me, how are things? How's the academy and everything?" Her eyes shine with curiosity, wanting to know about her grandson's life.

"The academy went well, grandma. I ranked first this year, and also the Hokage advanced me a few years so that I can graduate from the academy this year." Ryo replies as he takes a bite of a cookie, enjoying its crisp sweetness.

"Ryo, don't tell me you can actually use it," Sora remarks, as a golden droplet appears between them, then disappearing into Ryo's clothing. Tears well up in Sora's eyes as she listens.

"Grandma... I need you to tell me, tell me what this coin is, and why it's with our family," Ryo says earnestly. Sora wipes her face, then rises with a serious tone. "Follow me, Ryo." And once again, they head to the basement of the house where the altar with the golden coins sits. The first time, Ryo hadn't paid much attention. But now, he can see there are still six coins on the table.

Closing the trapdoor, Sora walks over, placing her hands on Ryo's shoulders as she sighs. "Our family was much stronger in the past. With these coins, a family member who had awakened the Jiton could manipulate this rare and strange metal.

Ancient records say the golden metal came from a meteor that fell on earth many centuries ago, and the founder managed to extract and control the metal because of the Jiton. But many records have been lost over the years, and the family developed techniques and ninjutsu to control the coins.

However, it was nothing compared to the intrinsic metal manipulation of someone who had Jiton. And over time, after countless years without a Metal Release user being born, we were reduced to mere merchants, while the other part of the family, which was the secondary one, prospered, surpassing us and taking everything we had."

Listening to all this, Ryo puts his hand to his mouth as he ponders the story, focusing more on the meteor part than the family's history. Thinking, Ryo looks at the coins. "This came from space?! No, something like this can't be. Things from space are dangerous; out there in the universe, there are the Otsu..."

As he thinks about this, the coin he possesses vibrates forcefully, as if it were afraid or angry. He feels a tightening in his heart. This liquid metal came from space, it was strong, and had unknown properties.

"Hey, grandma... How many coins was the maximum that someone managed to control? Do you know?" Sora thinks for a moment and then retrieves an old scroll. On it, there is a drawing of a man who appears to be flying while three glowing orbs surround him. "We have records of one of the ancient patriarchs managing to control three coins, Ryo."

Realizing that possibly no one had managed to control all seven coins, Ryo becomes nervous. Even though it's an incredible power, it could also be incredibly deadly. Ryo has an idea of what could happen if he were to control all seven coins, but these are still just theories in his mind.

"Hiruzen asked me to control three coins by the end of the year," Ryo says, with Sora looking worried. "I think I can do that, actually. Maybe even control all of them, but I don't know what the cost of doing such a thing will be."

She then left after some time, now alone in the basement, Ryo looks at the coins, raising his hand towards them and saying, "Let's do this." He channels chakra into his hand, wanting to bring one of the coins to his hand, controlling it. But nothing happens.

Looking puzzled, Ryo doesn't understand why the manipulation didn't work. He hadn't tried to mold the coin or anything; he just wanted it to come to him. But nothing works even after several attempts.

"Why doesn't it work? Is it so difficult to control more coins?" With dissatisfaction, Ryo walks over to the table where the other six coins are. Five coins are stacked together in a small golden pile, while one of them is separate. Ryo picks up the separate coin.

Instantly, he feels a pain in his hand, the same pain he felt when he picked up the first coin. But now, he's looking at the coin in his hand attentively. Blood oozes from his hand, drawn into the second coin again, but something he hadn't noticed is that a golden part also flows into Ryo's body.

"Do I also absorb some of the metal into my body? Is that why my body became more resistant?!" As he thinks this, a pain shoots through Ryo's spine. He feels every bone in his body creaking and screaming in pain. He clenches the coin tightly in his hand, falling to the ground, unable to scream due to the pain.

Then, Ryo faints.

He wakes up, looking around him. He's in an open field, with many unfamiliar trees and other things, as if he's no longer on Earth. "Where am I?" As he speaks, he notices there's no sound. His body starts moving on its own as he approaches a person.

He can see the person has pale skin and three eyes on their face. It's a young woman with long purple hair and a calm smile. Despite the differences, the physiognomy isn't so different, and Ryo knows the person he's seeing is an Otsutsuki, but Ryo's arm reaches out and grabs the woman's hand. His own arm has a different color, not that of an Otsutsuki.

The vision is calm, he can feel the wind on his face. But then, it abruptly changes to a dark night with three moons in the sky, and a giant tree that seems like it's about to consume the world, with explosions happening. Two beings are fighting in the sky while Ryo is lying on the ground, his hand raised as he watches the battle.

He crawls towards a strange machine, with a glass containing a golden liquid. As he reaches the liquid, Ryo hits a device resembling a large needle with his hand, which starts sucking the blood from Ryo's body, mixing it with the golden liquid, and Ryo's vision darkens.

He woke up on the basement floor, drenched in sweat, unable to fully comprehend what that vision was all about. He breathed heavily as he felt the pain in his bones had subsided, yet he had more questions than answers once again.

"Were the Otsutsuki fighting against each other? Was that woman trying to protect the world? Don't they usually seek to destroy the world?" Remembering the scene, he realized she had fallen in love with one of the inhabitants of that planet. "Love can be as destructive as it is beautiful... But still, the coins aren't Otsutsuki, are they? I don't know if I'm happy about that or not."

He looked at his hand, which now held two coins beginning to levitate at his command. For a few seconds, Ryo thought he could grab one more coin and achieve his goal. But something inside him warned him not to do it; it wasn't a spoken warning, but rather a sensation. If Ryo touched one more coin, he might die. Swallowing hard, he left the basement.

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