Narrator's POV
It didn't take long for Mahito to steal Okarun's ball, stored in the police station that Rin had pointed out.
'I don't know why, but my instinct tells me to keep this thing,' thought Mahito while examining the golden sphere between his paws.
He quickly assumed it was due to the nature of the spirits in this world, who desire to absorb spiritual energy to become more powerful.
He'd like to absorb some too, but...
'Fuck no!'
For Mahito, there was no way he was going to swallow or absorb Okarun's ball.
Although he was currently a genderless entity, Mahito considered himself a man, and he wasn't going to change his principles so easily just to get more power.
'It'll soon be time to wake up Kouki,' he thought. Despite his reflections, he used his powers to stimulate the sleep hormone to allow Kouki to benefit from optimal rest, despite his three hours of sleep per night.
Mahito had considered imitating Biscuit's Hatsu to facilitate future training for Kouki and Rin, but he was still hesitating.
You have to understand that Mahito's power consists of altering a person's soul to cause changes in their physical form.
It might seem simplistic, but it's not really the case.
There's a reason why the former Mahito had so many questions about the soul.
Indeed, the power of his biokinesis or molecular manipulation heavily depends on his understanding of the soul itself.
'I was lucky to keep my Domain Expansion, but...'
Mahito no longer had access to his true form.
He assumed it was related to his reincarnation, but he couldn't say for sure. The memories of the former Mahito indicated it wasn't that simple.
"Hmm ~ I still want to sleep..." mumbled Kouki, half asleep.
*bam* After a well-placed hit from Mahito in his cat form, Kouki finally woke up.
"You need to understand that your natural potential isn't really great. You need to train more, and this time, I won't come with you."
Mahito needed to understand his own connection with his soul to fully exploit his power. He couldn't stay with Kouki tonight.
At this rate, he'd just end up limiting himself.
'I need to try like the original Mahito, I need to experiment with the black flash in combat.' This conclusion is the only logical answer Mahito came to.
Kouki looked surprised before suddenly grabbing him.
"Please don't leave me alone with these scary musical spirits!!"
Despite his pleas, Mahito made his heart as solid as steel.
....
Mahito's POV
"I already have decent subordinates and my cursed technique is perfect for strengthening subordinates." The only problem remains my personal power.
I'm probably very strong right now, but can I beat a yokai like Reiko? Or the alien leader named Kur?
The answer is... I don't know.
One was able to defeat an alien fleet capable of annihilating entire civilizations, and the other showed abilities like manipulating space to become untouchable, kind of like a certain "strongest."
In both cases, I'd need to use my domain to win, and if I mess up my shot, then... it's over.
I'm not sure I can beat Kur's race without my domain.
Their technology is simply too problematic. I'd need to rely on my invulnerability against physical attacks.
And even then, my victory isn't guaranteed.
The situation is similar with Reiko. If she traps me in her mirror, I'm screwed, not to mention her physical abilities or her annoying curse.
Hence the importance of recovering or obtaining my true form, but also of strengthening myself.
I have an idea to achieve this goal without depending on the black flash, but I need to experiment first in this hospital.
*sing* While I was wandering the hospital corridors looking for terminally ill patients to experiment on, I heard the soft and soothing sound of a flute.
"Who are you?" I turned towards the direction of the music, and that's when I saw it in the hallway.
A creature wearing a red mask with a raven on its shoulder. Next to it were many children, frozen like zombies.
[Image]
While I was analyzing the situation, it started playing its flute louder. A slight dizziness came over me, and I hurried to modify my body to make it more suitable for the situation.
The creature seemed surprised by my reaction, I had literally lost my ears.
"I don't know what kind of yokai you are, but I hate creatures that attack children." The creature looked dismayed but hastened to create distance.
The raven on its shoulder launched several feathers at me to cover its master, but I acted quickly.
I created several eyes on my skin and dodged all the feathers shot at me before rushing towards the unknown entity.
The creature was trying to escape with the children!!!
I hurried to modify my lower back to look like Lyse's tentacles from Tokyo Ghoul and pierced it before it could get away.
Unfortunately, the raven escaped while I was dealing with its master.
"I'll make good use of your power." I immediately started devouring its essence.
Despite its struggles, it was devoured by me.
"What's happening?!" The children started regaining their senses.
They were all confused by the situation and started looking around.
"You were under control..." I had barely started explaining when their bodies began to glow.
I see... they're all souls belonging to people who died here, but they couldn't reach the afterlife because of this creature and its raven.
"Thank you, Mr. Frankenstein!" while my brain was processing the situation a bit, a little girl from the group of souls in front of me approached before bowing to thank me.
I see, They must have recovered their memories before going to the afterlife.
I just smiled at the children and hoped they could live happily there.
...
After this incident with the flute creature, I continued wandering around the hospital.
I ended up healing lots of people as planned, but there were some small incidents when I wanted to test certain things with the cursed technique.
The reason for most incidents comes from my desire to create a special weapon. I wanted to see if I could create a weapon with consciousness.
Unfortunately, it was a failure.
I don't think it's impossible in itself, but using an ordinary person's soul makes things too complicated.
They just have too little aura. So when I roughly manipulate their soul to make massive changes, they suffer serious damage.
It would probably need a soul like Momo's or Kouki's to push this experiment much further.
In the end, the only thing I could create in the hospital with this experiment was a scythe created from my own soul.
It's thanks to this that my theory became reality. So, the creation of an ego weapon is real.
Yes, I decided to call it an Ego Weapon.
For now, product zero is the scythe. It consumed enormous amounts of aura to be independent from me.
This has advantages, but also disadvantages. The advantage is that this scythe has no connection to my soul.
So if someone like Nobara or Yuji hits it, then I won't suffer anything. The disadvantage with this scythe is that it has its own free will.
The only thing I could alter during its creation was its memory, personality, and powers, which are derived from my aura.
"Mahito, when can I sleep!!!" I had already left the hospital with a little imp on my shoulder.
[Image]
We were now in a park.
"I just want to test some theories." My scythe is unable to alter creatures unlike me. After all, I created it from a clone.
It can just modify and manipulate its own soul.
This gave me hope that recovering my true form won't need several Black Flashes.
"Now listen carefully, you need to understand the theory of 'soul wavelength' and 'soul resonance.'"
This is how an unknown power from this reality came to life in a hospital and developed in a park.