On this night without moonlight, it was incomparably dark and silent. Anko once again dreamt of that man.
"Orochimaru-sama."
"Anko, I've decided to leave the village. Will you come with me?"
Her dream-self hesitated. She wanted to speak, to answer, but no sound came out.
After waiting a while, the man turned and left, his silhouette gradually consumed by an infinite halo of light, until it was no longer visible.
"Orochimaru!"
Anko woke up from her bed, shouting the man's name in shock. She could feel cold sweat on her brow.
After a moment of silence, as she caught her breath, she noticed the soft snoring coming from another bed—Shizune's.
Anko realized she had had that dream again.
"Orochimaru-sama."
Now, she couldn't remember anything about her past with Orochimaru. She had only heard from others that Orochimaru had once been her master, along with this recurring dream.
When it came to him, Anko felt both curious and afraid.
Curiosity stemmed from wondering what kind of person her master had been.
To this end, she even got close to Tsunade, hoping to learn more about Orochimaru from her. This person should have been familiar, but was now a stranger.
Fear naturally came from the fact that Orochimaru was an S-class missing-nin of Konoha and the man who had left that terrifying curse mark on her.
Touching the mark on her neck, as usual, she felt a burning pain whenever she dreamt about Orochimaru. She had grown accustomed to this feeling.
But tonight, the pain was especially intense.
Waiting quietly for the pain to fade, Anko smacked her lips, the dryness in her mouth causing a faint friction sound. Maybe she had eaten too many sweets before bed and her brain kept signaling her thirst for water.
The human body is a marvelous machine, with various elements maintaining a delicate balance within it. When a certain element is consumed in excess, the brain sends signals to dilute the surplus of that trace element.
The maid at Ishitaro's house always cooked sweet food, adding sugar to everything, from rice to miso soup.
For someone like Anko, who loved sweets like red bean soup and dango, it was acceptable, but for an ordinary palate, this kind of food was quite odd.
She slipped out of bed and quietly opened the door. Then she headed downstairs to grab some water from the kitchen.
Should I wake Shizune? No, I can handle this myself, she cast one last glance at her sleeping companion.
The sturdy floorboards of the house didn't creak under her feet, allowing her to walk confidently, feeling her way along the walls in the pitch-black night.
This house... it feels different at night.
But as her hand touched a part of the wall, she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her fingers. She quickly pulled her hand back and brought it up to her eyes to inspect, discovering that a wooden splinter had pierced her fingertip.
Fortunately, it hadn't gone in too deep. She could just pull it out and lick the wound clean.
Anko pulled out the splinter in one swift motion. Despite the pain, she forced herself not to make a sound, then put her finger in her mouth, sucking on it.
A warm liquid with metallic sweetness flowed into her mouth.
This taste and texture...
She had never realized how good human blood could taste! It was somewhat like a special red bean soup.
Why does this taste so... good? What's happening to me? She was both disturbed and intrigued by her reaction.
As if awakening to some strange habit, she continued greedily sucking her blood while inspecting the wall that had injured her. It was a small section of the wooden wall, seemingly chopped with an axe, with the splinter sticking out from there.
Anko was puzzled. Why would someone chop their own walls?
After being pricked, she was more cautious, carefully moving step by step without touching the walls. As she came around the corner of the stairs, she noticed that the first-floor hall was softly lit.
Someone's still awake?
She tiptoed down to the hall and saw Ishitaro lying in the armchair where he had been during the day.
His posture was almost the same as earlier, his body wrapped in a blanket, his head resting lifelessly to one side on the chair.
Is he...
Even though Tsunade had diagnosed Ishitaro as healthy, any ordinary person would still see him as a frail, elderly man on the verge of death. It wouldn't be surprising if he silently passed away at any moment.
He hasn't moved all day. Is he... still alive?
Anko stepped forward cautiously, reaching out to check if he was still breathing. But just as her hand got close, Ishitaro suddenly turned his head, glaring at her expressionlessly.
"Ah!"
Startled by the sudden movement, she quickly pulled her hand back.
"I'm sorry, I thought you were..."
"Do you look forward to interstellar travel?" Ishitaro interrupted her before she could finish speaking.
"What?" Anko's brow furrowed in confusion.
"Do you want to take an interstellar journey?"
"If you look forward to a journey through distant space and unknown worlds, they can make your wish come true."
"I need to go back," Anko tried to interject, but he seemed lost in his own world.
Ishitaro continued speaking, ignoring her.
"You can't imagine the level of development they've reached in science. They can let you witness and experience countless new worlds full of the unknown."
"The first destination of this interstellar journey is Yuggoth, a marvelous world occupied by their race."
He'd completely lost his mind, she searched for a way to escape the bizarre situation.
"On that planet, there are majestic cities built by them, with towering stepped pyramids and high towers."
"These structures are made of strange, black megaliths. From this rare mineral, they extract a metallic material. It's the reason they came to your world."
"Because their world is too far from the sun's light, Yuggoth is a realm of eternal darkness, but they don't need light. Their enormous houses and temples don't even require windows. The presence of light would only harm and confuse them."
"They can perceive everything around them through those sensitive organs. In their world, they are omnipotent!"
"Remember, there's no need to fear the darkness of that world."
Someone, anyone, please wake up and stop this, Anko silently pleaded, trapped by Ishitaro's strange monologue.
"To you, their existence might be terrifying, but long ago, in ancient times, they descended upon our world and witnessed things far more frightening than our terror at seeing them!"
"Oh, that green city floating on the water..."
"Oh, it's too horrifying!"
The nonsensical words coming from Ishitaro's mouth left Anko utterly confused.
Interstellar travel? Yuggoth? What the hell is going on?
His cryptic words stirred up countless questions in her mind, but he continued without stopping, describing the interstellar journey as he saw it.
"The second stop of the interstellar journey is Yaksh, where the Toad God Tsathoggua once resided. Tsathoggua mated with Shathak to produce Zvilpogghua."
"However, after some time, the great Tsathoggua grew tired and moved to Cykranosh, where he encountered Atlach-Nacha."
"These two great beings briefly stayed in Cykranosh, then descended together into your world. After a continent was destroyed by a cold flame, Tsathoggua took permanent residence in a world known as N'kai."
"N'kai is a dark, underground world, and it's best never to attempt to seek out Tsathoggua's presence. The invisible spawn that serve him are not to be trifled with, much like the blue-litten K'n-yan and the red-litten Yoth."
"In your world, Tsathoggua and Yig, the Father of Serpents, fight over the faith of the serpent people. Yig cursed the serpent people who believed in Tsathoggua, turning them into mindless, serpentine savages."
"To this day, the war between the serpent and the toad continues."
"Yes, it hasn't ended."
"Buzz."
"Buzz."
Ishitaro's voice suddenly stopped as if his vocal cords were tangled. Though his lips moved, the only sound that came out was a high-pitched buzzing, not of human origin.
Anko tensed, ready to spring into action. Is he having some kind of attack?
But after a few moments of buzzing, it seemed as if the gears in Ishitaro's body realigned and began turning again.
"Beyond the worlds closer to your own, interstellar travel can take you to explore far wider realms."
"In the vast universe, you can travel to more than thirty-seven worlds, and the extreme environments of these worlds won't harm your body. You will witness greater beings in these boundless heavens."
"At Lake Hali, near Aldebaran, you can safely offer your prayers and listen as the great being within the lake spreads its gospel to you from up close."
"In the flames of Fomalhaut, you can personally feel the scorching heat of the world's creation."
"By joining the interstellar journey, you'll learn the secrets behind the stars and nebulae, and even the Hounds of Tindalos will reveal themselves to you."
"And all you need to do is something very simple. Just a small price—barely even a cost—and you'll receive this honor."
"Yes!"
"Look over there!"
"Someone has already decided to join the interstellar journey!"
Suddenly, Ishitaro raised his withered hand and pointed out the window.
Anko followed the direction of Ishitaro's finger and immediately saw three dark figures walking off in the distance on the neatly kept lawn of the Abe family's estate.
Even with the faint starlight illuminating the scene, she couldn't make out the identities of the three figures. She could only tell that the two figures on either side were holding the one in the middle tightly as they quickly walked away.
Within just a moment, the three dark figures disappeared into the darkness.
"Who are they?" Anko turned to ask Ishitaro, but his head had slumped to the side, his lifeless eyes staring into the air, and he said nothing more.
Damn it!
She didn't have time to dwell on this nonsense anymore. The urgent task at hand was to catch up with those three people before they got too far.
Since she hadn't changed out of her clothes when she went to sleep, she only needed to slip on her shoes at the door and immediately rushed off in the direction the trio had disappeared.
The mountain air at night was incredibly cold, especially when running at high speed.
Thanks to the faint starlight, she could make out the mountain path beneath her feet and sprinted in the style of a ninja.
Ahead of her, the three blurry black shadows moved toward Mt. Bikyū.
Even though Anko could just barely make out their forms ahead, she still couldn't close the distance. For safety reasons, she didn't run at her top speed, but this pace was still far beyond what ordinary people could achieve.
Yet despite that, the three shadows ahead continued to maintain a significant distance from her, always staying just out of reach.
Damn, how fast are they moving? Could it be Tsunade-sama and Shizune?
It wasn't speed that ordinary people could reach, but ninjas could, so Anko suspected that the shadows might be the other two ninjas.
But Shizune had been lying in bed when Anko awoke in a panic, so that left only Tsunade-sama, right?
What was Tsunade-sama doing running around so late at night?
And who were the other two people?
Where was Tsunade-sama going?
While trying to figure out the motives of the figures ahead, Anko couldn't help but think back to Ishitaro's earlier words.
Damn it! I have to catch up and find out!
During the long chase, she unknowingly followed the shadows deeper into the mountains of Mt. Bikyū.
With the thick tree canopy overhead blocking the light, the moonless night made it nearly impossible to continue tracking just by the faint starlight.
Eventually, Anko lost sight of the three shadows.
Listen for movement.
In the stillness of the night, faint sounds of small animals moving occasionally broke the silence, but the eerie atmosphere didn't scare Anko. Unwilling to give up, she continued wandering in the dark forest.
Am I chasing ghosts? No, I saw them!
She didn't know how long she had been searching for them when she finally spotted a huge black stone.
The rock was rough and uneven, like someone had hacked at it. Parts of it were smooth as glass, with weird markings carved into them.
The stone had a pitch-black, irregular surface that looked like it had been cut by human hands, and some of its mirror-smooth surfaces were etched with strange symbols.
Anko realized this must be the same black stone from the photos taken earlier, the one the lumberjacks thought was a warning from the gods.
Following the black stone deeper into the mountains, she found a cave hidden behind a thicket that had been obviously disturbed.
Someone's been here recently.
The cave's interior was pitch-black, and its entrance was narrow, but the stone walls surrounding it had clear marks of human excavation.
This isn't natural. Someone dug this out... but why?
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