Upon opening his eyes, El found himself in a spacious bedroom, his last place before returning to the Reincarnation Room. The room was very dark, but it didn't prevent El from seeing the surroundings, let alone the scents.
Turning his gaze to the window, El saw that it was already night outside. When he looked at the clock on the wall, it was 21:00.
"System, how long have I been away from my Home World?" he said in a low voice.
Ding!
[According to the system's calculations, it has been 10 years and 5 months since Beyonder with serial number 120,000 left the Home World]
"10 years?" El confirmed the information the system provided, "This time it's really long, isn't it?" he said with a heavy sigh.
After that, El began to sniff the scent in his room. "From this scent, it seems that there is someone who frequents this room. "Such a sweet scent... I seem to recognize this parfume."
"This scent must belong to Kirai. But, why do I also smell iron mixed with something that feels familiar? It's coming from outside the room." he said, full of wonder.
While looking around, El noticed a nearby table filled with stacks of papers. "Hmm? Is this the latest report on my family?" he asked, taking the papers and sitting on the bed to read them for a while.
However, El felt uncomfortable with the strong smell of iron. "This iron smell is really bothering my sense of smell!" he muttered, a little annoyed.
El put down the report paper carelessly and decided to leave the room and follow the trail of the scent, to find the source of the iron scent.
His steps led him to the stairs, which he descended warily, until he finally reached the location where the scent was coming from. Upon seeing what was in front of his, El was startled, his eyes widening as he did not expect what he saw.
El was shocked to see Kirai sitting on the living room chair with her right arm bandaged and cast, and a bandage wrapped around her forehead. The pungent antiseptic scent indicated that the wound was fresh.
Kirai, who was equally surprised by El's presence, immediately got up and walked backwards, looking awkward.
"What happened to you?" asked El, his voice full of worry, while stepping closer.
Kirai averted her eyes, trying to hide her nervousness. "It's... just a minor accident while sightseeing," she replied softly.
El looked at Kirai sharply, not easily believing. "A minor accident? These bandages and casts don't look small at all," he said, then sighed. "Tell me, what exactly happened to you?"
Suddenly, El sniffed a strange scent from Kirai's person. Seeing Kirai's shocked reaction, El suspected there was something to hide. "Kirai, what happened? Are you hiding something?" asked El seriously.
Kirai was silent, her face covered in cold sweat. The scent of fear grew stronger, making El certain something was wrong.
"Are you scared? What happened to you? Please tell me," El emphasized, her voice firm and caring.
Kirai sighed, trying to calm herself down. The scent of fear continued to waft, as if revealing her anxiety.
However, Kirai ventured closer to El, took out a lock of long black hair from her pocket and handed it to El without a word.
El looked at Kirai in confusion. "What is this?" he asked, taking the lock of hair carefully.
Kirai did not explain anything, just stared at El with a worried expression, hoping she did not realize what was really going on.
The scent enveloping Kirai continued to disturb El's sense of smell, deepening her suspicion. Growing curious, El picked up the lock of hair and brought it closer to his nose. A very familiar shampoo scent wafted up.
"Ilya's shampoo?" he whispered, but a moment later there was a faint, piercing smell of iron. "Iron scent again? No... it's not just iron, it's blood..." El muttered in an increasingly anxious tone. "What the hell is going on?"
With a sharp gaze, El glanced at Kirai. His irises turned purple with ripples like water droplets in a still pond, adorned by six slowly rotating tomoe, a sign that his eyes' ability to respond to something dark from within his, absorbed all his emotions.
"Kirai," El's voice sounded calm yet emphasized, "tell me, did something happen to Ilya?"
Kirai paused for a moment, her face showing the fear she could no longer hide before El's extremely frightening Rinnegan eyes.
"I'm sorry," Kirai said with a trembling voice. "I-Ilya... that girl... I was too late to save her life." Her voice grew weaker, and fear was evident in her eyes as she slowly retreated.
Hearing that confession, El moved quickly, appearing before Kirai in an instant. His gaze was sharp, filled with piercing intensity, while her hands gripped Kirai's shoulders firmly.
"P-pain!" Kirai whimpered, his shoulder feeling as if it would crumble under El's grip. "P-please let go! I beg you!" Her cry was muffled by the pain that increasingly made her shoulder almost crack.
After a while, El released her grip. Kirai's body was suddenly knocked down by an invisible force.
In fact, the surrounding chairs, tables, television and electronic furniture were not spared either, hitting the wall hard, while turning the surrounding atmosphere cold.
Kirai's body was hit quite hard, causing him to faint instantly and spit out a mouthful of blood.
Her injuries were severe, several of her vertebrae were broken, and there was a high probability that she would be paralyzed for life.
After all that had happened, El stood as still as a statue, her expression cold, empty of any emotion. "Ilya... dead? But why can't I cry? She's my family, right?" he muttered in a voice full of frightening dilemma.
"I should be sad, but why isn't there any feeling?" he continued, his voice filled with confusion. "Is it because of Rinnegan?" El stared blankly ahead, feeling a dark certainty about her own power.
"This power... is taking away the emotions in me!" El's voice contained a tone of anger that held back frustration.
Unknowingly, the air of death began to bubble up from within El's body with its intensity growing thicker and more uncontrollable.
Slowly, the dark aura changed color to a deep purple, then began to take physical form. Horrifying manifestations in the form of large rib skeletons appeared one after another, looming around El, moments later forming the bones of the right arm.
Without realizing it, the dark emotions bubbling up inside El resonated strongly with the Rinnegan, making its power increase dramatically to the point of being able to awaken the Six Path and the basic Susano'o stage.
Susano'o's skeleton surrounding El began to move; his giant right hand swung, shattering the walls and pillars of the mansion like sweeping a pile of fragile blocks.
{N/A: The author of this fanfic, once said that special abilities consume the stamina of the owner, instead of energy like Chakra. Instead of revising, it's better to make this plot unexpected. After all, the MC never practiced to increase Rinnegan's power, right?"}
Instantly, the luxurious building shook violently, like it had been shaken by a powerful earthquake. The walls and roof fell, hitting the floor hard.
Some debris fell on Kirai's unconscious body, slowly burying her alive under the rubble.
Suddenly, the Demon Slayer Mark on El's body activated itself, emitting energy that amplified the terrifying aura around his.
The mark intensified Susano'o's manifestation, making the giant skeleton evolve towards the early stages with a more solid humanoid form, offering better defensive power than before.
Inside the Susano'o skeleton that protected him, El knelt down while tightly embracing a lock of Ilya's hair, the sister he missed so much. "I'm sorry... I shouldn't have been so casual..." he murmured softly, in a voice almost devoid of emotion, as if his feelings had been lost, sucked away by the dark power that enveloped him.