AN: For those who aren't aware. This story is a sequel to another story named 'A Flawless Legacy' where the SI arrives in the Naruto world as baby with access to Waifu Catalog.
Just in case any of you guys haven't read it and get confused by the abrupt beginning of this story. That's all.
Enjoy!
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Ren Uchiha POV
One moment, he was standing in front of the alien Waifu Catalog manager. The next moment, he was in a place that could be best described as a High tech prison.
A single use of Observe informed him that this place was indeed a prison. And not just any prison, but one built specifically to hold powered individuals, or, to be more specific, parahumans.
It was evident in the name— 'Baumann Parahuman Containment Center'. He had no idea what 'Baumann' meant, but he was sure that the term 'parahuman' referred to the powered individuals in this world.
'Have I arrived in the Arkham Asylum of this world?' he mused to himself as he gazed at the various prisoners in the Central Hall, who were staring back at his sudden arrival with expressions ranging from curiosity, suspicion, and confusion to dark amusement and sadistic glee.
He channeled chakra through his brain, accelerating his thoughts until the world around him slowed to a crawl.
In that bullet time, his eyes darted to everyone in the room, using Observe to quickly gain basic information on the group of about thirty people and… wow. Most of these guys were the worst dregs of society. The kind of people who would kick a puppy to death and then laugh at its corpse. Not all were like that, but enough were.
He decided then and there that he was going to kill these people. He was usually not the kind of person who liked to pass judgments like this, especially considering his own profession as a shinobi. But he was sure he would be doing this world a great favour by removing this trash from the gene pool.
Having gleaned all the information he sought, he ceased supplying his brain with chakra, allowing time to resume its usual pace. He then ideally watched as the prisoners rose from their seats and began to converge around him.
"Well, well, well… who the fuck are you, clown? The whore didn't mention sending anyone our way," their leader inquired, a cape known as Acidbath, a psychopathic monster.
He contemplated initiating the massacre with this guy. However, his resistance to acid was not particularly high. Mei had assisted him somewhat in that regard, but she had never shown much interest in enhancing that aspect of her power. This guy would help him increase that resistance.
So instead of killing him, he slapped Acidbath, his hand moving so fast it was invisible to the naked eye. Acidbath's jaw practically liquefied under the force of the slap, his tongue, jaw bones, muscles, and teeth becoming a bloody mess as they splattered onto the parahumans standing nearby. One was killed when a tooth entered his forehead and exited through the back of his skull.
Acidbath was sent flying, and he grimaced. That slap was a bit too powerful. Either he was too strong, or an average person without access to chakra was too weak. He hadn't intended to kill the guy and hoped that Acidbath survived long enough to transform into his acid form and hopefully heal the damage.
Meanwhile, he gazed at the other parahumans surrounding him, stunned by his sudden assault, and grinned.
Then, the slaughter commenced.
He allowed everyone in the hall to use their power on him at least once before determining whether to kill them.
A Middle Eastern man named Shredderfeind transformed his hands into tentacles composed of sharp razors and attempted to decapitate him. However, the razors didn't even scratch his skin. He swiftly ripped off the man's arms before utilising them like a whip to sever Shredderfeind's own head.
Another guy of Mexican heritage named Toxico exhaled poison in his face, unconcerned about harming the other parahumans nearby in the collateral damage. To his great surprise, the poison did end up harming him, triggering a long list of notifications detailing his loss of HP and gain in Poison Resistance.
He allowed that guy to live a little longer and proceeded to the others, systematically slaughtering anyone incapable of harming him until only three remained in the hall, which was now filled with blaring alarms and flashing red lights.
And then, a wave of acid rushed toward him, consuming the other survivors and instantly melting them, while also lowering his HP
If he hadn't already possessed resistance to pain, he might have cried out as the highly corrosive acid covered his entire form, instantly melting his clothes before doing the same to his skin, hair, and eyes.
He smiled and used Hiraishin to teleport out of the acid pool. His body healed rapidly due to his immense regeneration. Within three seconds, he was completely healed, though his eyes didn't return, replaced instead by two black holes, and a new status effect: 'Blind'.
That didn't worry him. By this point, he had enough senses thanks to the Gamer System that he was able to perceive the world around him in great detail even without his eyes. Plus, he had a plethora of Rinnegan and Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan eyes in his Inventory that he could use at any moment to regain his sight.
"You cocksucking son of a fleabitten whore! Think you can come into my place and kill my people!" Acidbath shouted, his body half forming on top of the acid pool before quickly retreating back into it, and the giant mass of acid rushed toward him once again.
He allowed it to cover him, enduring massive damage and acquiring a substantial amount of Acid Resistance before teleporting once again after seven seconds.
Once he recovered, he permitted Acidbath to engulf his form once more, remaining inside the acid for increasingly longer durations. After half an hour of repeating this process, he managed to endure nearly a full minute within it, suffering no loss of HP. His Acid Resistance had become high enough that Acidbath could no longer harm him.
"Why won't you die!!!" Acidbath screamed into his ears, attempting to invade his body through his nose, mouth, and ears. But by this point, there was a hint of fear in Acidbath's screams that couldn't be mistaken for anything else.
He didn't blame the guy. He would be afraid too if he faced an opponent who gradually became completely immune to all his attacks.
But just because he could sympathise with the guy didn't mean he would let him live.
"Ice Release: Eternal Winter," he intoned.
In an instant, the entire cell block transformed into a caricature of a frozen tundra. All the water in the atmosphere condensed into long and sharp crystals around the floor, walls, and ceiling.
As for Acidbath, the guy surprisingly survived the sudden drop in temperature, if only just.
His acid transitioned from liquid to a semi-solid frozen state, and Acidbath slowly extricated himself from around him, attempting to flee.
He dispatched a wind blade, slicing the giant mass of semi-solid acid in half. One portion transformed back into Acidbath, while the other became inert acid that he swiftly inventoried. Then, he continued to slice Acidbath into halves, repeatedly, until, ultimately, only a bucketful of Acidbath remained.
"Scorch Release: Fireball," he declared, conjuring a small fireball that he thrust inside Acidbath, instantly vaporizing the serial killer.
His Gamer Screen lit up with notifications. Massacring the entire cellblock full of inmates had given him enough Exp to level up, once.
He used Water Jutsu to cleanse himself before donning another set of clothes from his Inventory. And just as he was about to proceed to the next cell block to determine whether its occupants preferred death or divulging information about this world, he heard one of the intercoms crackle to life.
"Bzztt… stop… bzztt… are…" The intercom crackled and buzzed, its electronics damaged by his Ice Release Jutsu.
He strained to listen to whoever was attempting to speak from the other side, but the intercom abruptly ceased functioning. With a shrug, he moved on.
Exiting the cell block, he entered a long corridor now teeming with curious inmates, their bodies shivering from the cold emanating from the central hall.
Using Observe to scrutinise them, he singled out a woman who used to rape, torture and then murder preteen boys for her amusement before she got captured and sent to this prison.
He immediately arrived in front of the woman and caught her by her throat.
'Why not just give them a death sentence?' He wondered to himself as he used his Human Path ability on the flailing woman, and then frowned in confusion when his power failed to extract her soul from her body.
Tilting his head, he and used his Human Path ability to study her body and discovered that she didn't have a soul. Well, she did, but it was intertwined with her physical body. It was… strange. He hesitated to even label it as a soul. It was just so vastly different from the souls he encountered in the Naruto world.
'Different world, different rules.' He though to himself. It shocked him that people could have different kind of souls in different worlds. Until now, the notion that such a phenomenon could occur hadn't crossed his mind. However, upon reflection, it seemed logical.
He created a Shadow Clone and then tossed the flailing woman towards it. "Use the Yamanaka mind techniques to study her memories and then send the information to me." He instructed before continuing on his way.
The other inmates stared at him in fear and backed off as he strode through the corridor, at least until he reached another one of the intercoms, which suddenly blared to life.
"Intruder, stop right were you are!" A female voice came from it. He turned to gaze at the nearest camera on the wall, assuming that the person addressing him was in charge of the prison and could guide him out.
"Yo." He grinned. "I'm Ren Uchiha. Who are you?"
The voice paused, perhaps surprised by his cordiality and willingness to talk. After a moment, the intercom blared to life once again. "I am Dragon. Mr. Ren, may I ask you not to kill any other inmate in the Birdcage?"
"You can, Miss Dragon. But I would probably not listen. It's not often that I meet people who make me feel a moral obligation to kill them," he replied, even as he took out his Waifu Catalog Device to check if there was a waifu named Dragon on the list.
To his surprise, there was indeed a waifu in the catalog by that name, and she was a Tier 7 waifu at that. Though he realised he probably shouldn't be too surprised by this. After all, it made sense to have a formidable warden to manage a prison housing inmates with powers of their own.
Even more surprising was the fact that one of her tags indicated she was an AI. This marked the first encounter he'd had with an AI in his entire life. Not entirely unexpected, given that his first world was just a normal modern-day Earth, and his second was a pseudo-medieval world.
Maybe he could finally have an AI waifu? Though judging by their first interaction, where she witnessed him slaughtering an entire cell block of people, he had a feeling that seducing her would be an uphill task. If she could even be seduced, that is.
He had no idea how an AI's mind functions, after all. She could be an unfeeling machine, for all he knew.
"Be that as it may, Mr. Ren. These people have been imprisoned here for life. They've already been punished by the law for their crimes. Please, do not take the law into your own hands."
"Confined here for life, until they escape," he pointed out. "I would rather kill them here and now rather than risk them escaping into the outside world and harming innocent people."
He didn't want this 'Birdcage' to become another Arkham Asylum, where prisoners could escape weekly. The idea of sending mass murderers to an asylum instead of giving them a death sentence never sat well with him.
If he had been in DC, he would have killed every irredeemable criminal in Arkham Asylum. But since he was here, he would pass judgement here instead.
"In that case, you'll be pleased to know that no prisoner has ever escaped from the Birdcage. Not even once since it was built fifteen years ago in 1996."
1996, and that was fifteen years ago. Meaning that the year was 2011. Hmm…
"Not even once?" he asked, skepticism evident in his expression and voice. "You expect me to believe that a prison filled with inmates, all possessing unique powers, has never had an escape, for fifteen whole years? Do you take me for a fool, Miss Dragon?"
A part of him wondered if an AI could even lie, or if whoever created her programmed restrictions to always tell the truth to humans. Because that's exactly what he would do if he created an AI. However, he'd seen too many 'AI gone rogue' movies to ever consider creating one.
"I assure you, Mr. Ren, that I'm telling you the truth. No Parahuman who was sent to the Birdcage has ever escaped from it," Dragon said.
"How?" He asked. "Is this prison built in space? Or perhaps in another dimension? One in some place that's hostile to human life."
"I'm afraid that's a state secret, Mr. Ren. On that note, I would like to ask who you are, where you came from, and how you arrived here. Are you perhaps from another dimension?"
So, other dimensions were a thing here. That's good to know.
"Something like that. Although I didn't expect to appear in the middle of a prison when I arrived in this world," he said, pondering why he ended up here in the first place.
Of all the places he could've appeared in this world, he found himself in a prison filled with the worst criminals of society. Why was that? An idea suddenly came to his mind.
He checked his Catalog Device once again and frowned as he realised that his guess was true.
He appeared in this prison due to a Mission called 'Project: Flight to Freedom'. The Main Objective was:
Survive and escape the Birdcage.
There were three Bonus Objectives as well:
1. Escaping the prison within a week.
2. Capture five waifus from this prison before he made his escape.
3. Capture Glaistig Uaine before he made his escape.
He narrowed his eyes, pondering who this Glaistig Uaine woman was to be given a special note in the mission.
A quick search through the Catalog informed him that Glaistig Uaine was a Tier 8 waifu (impressive), with one of her tags being 'Power Manipulation'. That might explain why she's a Tier 8, considering she's in a world filled with powered individuals.
"Does that mean you're capable of interdimensional travel, Mr. Ren?" Dragon asked, a note of concern in her voice. Did these people have an issue with beings from other dimensions?
He wouldn't be surprised if that were the case, considering how often the DC and Marvel universes faced invasions from beings of other dimensions.
"Yes," he said. "Now, can you point me in the direction of the Parahuman known as Glaistig Uaine? I would like to meet her before I leave this prison."
"I… would strongly advise against that, Mr. Ren. Glaistig Uaine is a very powerful parahuman, and she has a reputation for not getting along well with others," Dragon said. "As for a way out of this prison, I'm afraid there is none, unless you use your interdimensional ability to escape Earth Bet altogether."
Earth Bet? Was that the name of this world? Does that mean these people were in contact with other Earths which have designations of their own. How interesting.
"Mah, mah. Trying to get rid of me already, what a rude host you are, Miss Dragon. No, I think I'll stay here. And as for not being able to escape this prison, I will be the judge of that. Now, please be a good AI and lead me to Glaistig Uaine," he said. "Or I'll have to ask one of these inmates 'nicely' until I get that information myself."
His words were met with a long silence from the AI until she finally spoke up. "I'm afraid there's been a misunderstanding, Mr. Ren. I'm not an AI. Just a Tinker who has Agoraphobia."
He blinked. Was her status as an AI supposed to be a secret? If so, then he saw no reason not to play along. No reason to antagonise her when he wanted to seduce her in the future.
"Of course, my bad, Miss Dragon. Now, the way to Glaistig Uaine's Cell Block, please."
"Would you reconsider meeting Glaistig Uaine, Mr. Ren?" Dragon asked once more. "She is an incredibly powerful parahuman and is known for killing people for minor offences."
"I'm afraid not," he replied.
Dragon let out a sigh. "May I at least ask why you want to meet her?"
"To seduce her, of course," he said cheerfully.
Dragon was silent for another long moment before she spoke up. "I think I should inform you that Glaistig Uaine is physically the same age as a preteen child."
"Physically? So she's actually older than that?" He asked, not having any interest in seducing preteen girls. They were all just so... immature. Except Itachi. She had a mature mindset even when she was just a child.
"Yes. As of this moment, Glaistig Uaine is chronologically twenty six years old." Dragon said, her voice seemingly reluctant to offer him this piece of information.
"A legal loli. Fantastic! I've never had one in my harem before. Now I'm even more interested in meeting her." He said, grinning ear to ear.
Dragon seemed dumbfounded at his reply and remained silent for another long moment before she finally let out a long suffering sigh. "If… I lead you to the cell block of Glaistig Uaine. Can I at least get a promise out of you to not kill another inmate?"
"No can do." He said with a shrug. "If I see another pedophile, mass murderer, or serial rapist, I'm killing them."
"Can I not do anything to change your mind, Mr. Ren?"
He paused at her words and then grinned. "You can, in fact, do something to change my mind."
"And what would that be?" Dragon asked cautiously.
"Once I'm out of this place, go out on a date with me," he said. "I've never had an AI in my harem either. Oh wait, I meant an agoraphobic Tinker."
Dragon was silent for another long moment before she spoke up once again. "I'll consider it."
"No, no, no, no, no. I need a promise. Not a vague insinuation that you might or might not do something," he said. "Now, do we have a deal or not, Miss Dragon?"
There was another long silence from Dragon's side. Then, the silence continued to stretch until he got the feeling that she's not there anymore.
"Miss Dragon? Hello?" he asked but got no reply from her. "I suppose I'll take that as a no," he said with some disappointment before he decided to move on.
At that moment, his Shadow Clone arrived beside him, having extracted the basic information about this world from the mind of that child-killing woman. The Shadow Clone dispelled itself, sending him the memories about this world. And… wow.
This world might be even more fucked up than the Elemental Nations. And that's saying something, considering that the Elemental Nations saw a continent-spanning war every other decade.
Parahumans themselves were problematic. Their powers ranged from that of an Academy Student to that of a Super Kage (Tier 7). Or even beyond in the case of people like Glaistig Uaine (Tier 8). And many of them were fucked up in the mind.
But what was even worse were the Endbringers. Monstrous and alien creatures that targeted important locations in the world every few months and caused casualties ranging from tens of thousands to millions. The damage costs ranged from billions to trillions.
He checked the Catalog device and found that one of the Endbringers named Simurgh (who looked like an angel) was on the list and could be Captured with a Stamp.
That is… if he could get close enough and touch her for three seconds. Considering that she was a Tier 9 being and known for being extremely deadly with her abilities, he wasn't sure if he would succeed anytime soon.
After absorbing the memories and learning the basic information about this new world, he decided to continue on his path to the Cell Block of Glaistig Uaine, now knowing the directions.
After killing a dozen more irredeemable capes along the way, he finally arrived at his destination.
"Halt! This is the cell block of Glaistig Uaine. You cannot-" A simple chop to the back of her neck knocked out the female guard before he entered the cell block.
The women lounging around in the cell block froze at his sudden arrival in their safe sanctuary. And they froze just long enough for him to reach the cell where he could feel four strange life signatures.
Judging by what he knew of Glaistig Uaine's power now, that cell must belong to her. And as he came face to face with a giant ethereal shadow that could have belonged to anyone but her, he supposed he'd finally reached the right place.
The giant Shadow stood in the way, blocking his path to the cell and he smiled as he used Observe on it. And gained a better understanding of what the shadow was, along with how Glaistig Uaine's power actually worked.
She had an interesting power. Though he personally felt that Glaistig Uaine's limitation of only being able to use three shadows at full power at any given time lowered her threat by a great deal.
Now, if she had the ability to use all the shadows that she had collected in her entire life at once, then she would've been scary. Like the protagonist from that Shadow Monarch manhwa. Or whatever its name was.
But as things stood, he felt that in a life and death battle, he stood a good chance of coming out victorious. Especially considering that beneath all these powers, Glaistig Uaine was just a baseline human.
A well-placed kunai to the brain would put her down. And he's very good at placing kunai within people's brains.
He would have to remove that weakness if he managed to seduce her into his harem.
As it was, he peeked around the giant shadow and smiled at the tiny slip of a girl who was gazing at him with a blank expression and smiled.
"Yo. I'm Ren. What's up?"
Her eye twitched before narrowing as she took in his form. "You… are not one of the faerie dreams," she said, her voice reverberating as if spoken by a dozen people at once. Nice trick. "Nor are you a living prop… What are you?"
"Ren Uchiha," he said with a smile, using Observe to study her and… oh, wow, she was a mess. And not the sexy kind of mess either (like Tsunade had been) but the kind that required tons of therapy to be a functional human being. "And you are Ciara. Do you mind if I call you that? Or do you prefer to go by Glaistig Uaine?"
Glaistig Uaine was silent for a moment, then the two shadows behind her flickered and changed. He sped up his mind and used Observe to study the new shadows. He learned that both of them had Thinker powers that she was using to gather information on him.
He didn't mind, considering that he was using his own powers to study her. Fair is fair.
He did notice that the giant shadow in front of him (a Brute/Changer) didn't change but continued to stand between him and Glaistig Uaine.
He could sense her emotions. She was wary of him, but not afraid, even though she probably knew (thanks to her Thinker powers) that he'd killed dozens of other parahumans in this prison thus far.
"Discourteous," Glaistig Uaine said, her lips curled in an ugly frown. "You shall call me 'the Faerie Queen,' or your grace… 'Audience'," she said, placing a strange emphasis on that word, as if that was what he was to her.
"Audience? You don't need to give me a new name. Ren Uchiha will do just fine," he quipped.
"Silence!" Glaistig Uaine snapped, her voice loud enough to reverberate through the entire cell block. Her shadows changed again, these new ones being a powerful Blaster and a Shaker with the ability to create forcefields. Was she preparing to fight him? "Your insolence… your arrogance… You are in the presence of royalty, Audience. Know your place!"
He stared at her, his lips curling down in a displeased frown. He didn't like being disrespected. Especially by delusional brats.
But… he didn't want to fight her either. If he killed her, then he would've killed a very high-tier potential harem member. And if she turned the tables and killed him, then that would be annoying as well.
Just because she killed him didn't mean he would die, of course. Izanagi for the win. But his pride would be hurt.
After pondering for a moment, he reached a profound realization. The girl was weird. And not the good kind of weird either, like Luna Lovegood (whom he would definitely love good, if he ever met her) but the bad kind of weird.
The kind of weird that young men his age see and say 'Yeah, I'm staying well away from that shit'.
Perhaps in the future, she might become less delusional and more... tolerable. But for now, he had lost all interest in her.
"I would say it was nice to meet you, but it really wasn't. I'm leaving now-" His words were abruptly cut short as his danger sense flared.
His mind accelerated in preparation for battle, and he swiftly moved his head to the side, narrowly dodging the laser beam aimed at him. A laser beam that pierced through dozens of thick metal walls behind him before finally coming to a halt.
He scowled at the legal loli, unimpressed by the feeble attempt on his life. If that's what it was. He'd reached a level of power where sometimes he questioned if people were genuinely trying to kill him or not. Perhaps she anticipated his evasion and merely sought to issue a warning?
"Ciara. I'll let it slide this time, but if you attack me again, I'll bend you over my knee and give you a spanking until you're begging for mercy," he warned.
Glaistig Uaine's eyes widened with bewildered confusion, then shock, before morphing into blind rage.
"Audience, I've had enough of your insolence! Cease to exist!" She commanded, and her Shadows lunged at him in unison.