The tale of the two brothers and Kai's Karma

There was a fascinating silence in the room.

The man stared into Kai's eyes, his one eye seemed to enlarge, trying to engulf this silence.

"There were once two brothers," the man began solemnly. "One was a year older than the other. They were orphans, and when death came for them, they died together as well. Both resurrected in the Primordial Tower and arrived in the Chaos' Valley. Their Initiation Mission took them to the Naruto World, and what they learned there became the outline for their future; their everything."

Kai listened, the two words "gift" and "curse" nailing him down. He didn't know what was the point of this tale, but he knew what would follow it, and the creepiness was crawling its way up from his heart to his mind.

"It didn't take long for their names to shake the Tower, either," the man continued. "But the reason for their stupendous growth was unknown to many. It turned out that in their Initiation Mission, the brothers had been blessed by a Deep One. The younger brother got the Blessing of Kekkei Genkai, Byakugan, while the older brother got the Kekkei Genkai, Sharingan. Now equipped with their Blessings, no one could stand in front of them, especially when the brothers combined their powers. By the time they reached the 15th floor, only Kings could hope to fight them on the same footing. Such was the legend left behind by the brothers who went by a single name; Conqueror."

Kai even failed to fathom what kind of power they must have possessed. Even Item-M hadn't told him that Sharingan and Byakugan could be gained in the Naruto World.

'You can get them as a Skill,' she had said once. 'But compared to the originals, they would be just that, a cheap copy.' Yet, Kai instinctively knew that the eyes of the brothers weren't fake, but genuine things.

"Alas, things changed once the brothers ascended to the 16th floor," the man said, his voice sharp, emotionless, but still solemn. "Both brothers loved each other deeply, but in between them now stood the very things that have brought them up. Their Blessings. The older brother, the user of Sharingan, thought that now they must look towards the Temples. In the Old Ones, he saw a path that seemed to have closed for him. The younger brother thought otherwise. In the end, it's one's own strength that matters, such were his thoughts. He told his older brother that they should stick together, and one day they would surpass the limits of their Blessings."

After saying those words, the man stood up. But Kai knew the tale had yet to end. He saw the man going to the wardrobe, and taking out a pale candle, a knife, and an iron pot. A terrifying thought crossed his mind, and Kai hoped the tale would never end.

The man placed the candle in the middle of the Yellow Sign and then put the knife and the pot in between the candle and himself. Then he sat down again and looked at Kai.

"This disagreement between the brothers became a conflict, and at last, they parted," he said, slowly. "The older brother joined the Temple, and the younger brother went back to the lower floors, restricting his Stats, and saying 'In restriction lies freedom.' The pain of seeing his younger brother abandoning him tore the older one apart, and in a matter of days, the ensuing feelings of hatred also pushed his Blessing beyond the limits he had found impossible to surpass before. Yet, the younger brother didn't return. With time, Contestants forgot the name, Conqueror. The older brother climbed his way up effortlessly using his newly found powers, while the younger brother married, settling down on the lower floors."

The man took a deep breath as if it was the first time in a long while that he had to breathe such strongly. He reached for the match and lit the candle. A long, weak flame flickered, yellowing the already yellow colors.

"The younger brother trained his descendants in the way of Gentle Fist," the man whispered. "It was all in a hope that if trained from childhood, then they would have high chances to resurrect and have the Naruto World as their Initiation Mission after their natural death. And so it happened. One after the other, the descendants of the younger brother were found to possess the Byakugan Skill. It happened so many times that even the Empire took notice of them, giving them a special status. A time came when the Life Halt of the younger brother reached its end, and he died. The older brother's arrogance and hatred prevented him from even visiting his brother's funeral.

"Yet, the descendants of the younger brother continued their progenitor's teachings. But in the river of time, after thousands of years, they too died, leaving behind an uncommon legend of a great House. At last, only one girl remained of that bloodline. The last descendant."

'No…' Kai's thoughts shrieked. 'No… It can't be.'

The man looked with an icy gaze at Kai. "The younger brother had named his family after his original surname from his previous life," he told Kai, before pausing, and then saying out loud and clear. "Hao."

'From the old Haos, only we have remained. We have become poor, but we still remember the old ways.'

Words rang inside Kai's head like the clang of a million swords.

But the tale was far from being over, and he must listen. He must.

"The older brother, now in an unknown place with unfathomable power, cared less for these descendants," the man said, looking down into the frozen flame. "But with time comes wisdom as well. Thinking of the past, he arranged the girl's wedding to a High Priest from a wealthy and honorable family. Yet, his husband turned out to be a fool, and died, leaving her broken and with a child. And, yes. With enemies too."

Now, the tone changed. Its abruptness and implication terrified Kai so much that he almost ordered Selene to come out and lunge at the white man.

"The older brother, going against the Empire and HIS revelation, helped the girl anonymously. He arranged for her to settle on the 2nd floor so that no Contestant having a grudge against her or her child would be foolish enough to descend and get himself killed under her supreme use of the Gentle Fist," said the man, narrowing his single purple eye. "Then came a Contestant. He somehow made her child tell him about the Temples. The Contestant moved on, leaving behind a terrified mother. Seeing no other choice, and in fear of her son's safety, the mother abandoned the safe house arranged by the older brother and went to the 1st floor, thinking this would bridge the gap between her and any Contestant descending that low in the Primordial Tower.

"The beasts from the Temple of Amon-Gorloth responded soon enough, kidnapping her child before the news of all this could even reach the older brother. The City of Assignments has no mercy for children or their mothers. She fought, killing hundreds. But numbers and Items overpowered her at last. They tortured her as her son watched. When they learned her ancestry, and that it was in the boy's blood to resurrect and bring back Skills from Naruto World, they killed him. In front of her eyes."

The man lifted the knife, ran it over his wrist lightly, and let the blood fall into the pot. His blood had the color of a pale purple, with sprinkles of gold in it, like some divine mead. The wound didn't heal, so the man tore his robe and wrapped it around the wrist.

"The boy didn't return," the man said. "The beasts couldn't keep the broken mother for long, fearing a breakout and another slaughter. So they burned her and did that poorly. By the time the older brother found her, life was all but gone from her eyes."

Only now the man lifted his face and looked into Kai's eyes.

"This is your Karma, Blood Demon," he told Kai. "And here the tale ends. Now hear the rest. We give you the life, body, and soul of Seline Hao and 10 Million Mission Credits as a gift, and under the rules set by the System, We will curse you in return."

Kai roared. Thoughts exploded in his mind, and using his bond with her, Kai passed his intention to Selene, ordering her to come out and kill this man. The silver mist, resting in his heart, churned and exploded out. But the moment it touched Kai's skin, it bounced back as if whatever it was outside the boundary of Kai's skin had repelled her. Once more, and then again. Selene kept trying to seep out from one hole or another, but by now, Kai had already given up on her. Now he shouted his minor-epithets, hoping that it would let him resist the confinement of this Limbo. No reaction.

'Only one path left,' Kai told himself, steeling his resolve. 'Come out, Petyr.'

He didn't need to speak. Like his Items, he only needed to will for his presence and Petyr would come out of him, materializing into a soulless but solid being.

Yet, like his inaccessible Inventory, even this failed.

Now he had nothing left. His instinct told him that if he wouldn't accept it, then a fate unimaginably worse than this waited for him.

"I… accept."

"Admirable!" the man praised. "You have the Will, mind, and attitude to become an Emperor. Here are your gifts, then."

The man flicked his hand, and a tank appeared in the room, filled with light green fluid. And curled inside this fluid was a mass of blackened flesh. Only when Kai concentrated enough did he make out hands and legs.

Then came the notification.

[

Contestant ?!?###?!! is requesting to deposit a payment of 10,000,000 Mission Credits.

Do you accept the transfer?

]

Kai had yet to take his eyes off the tank, so he just willed it. The hazels of his eyes were vacant. Yet, hidden deep in those eyes was profound ridicule. A silent scream of victory.

Then came the ugly business.

The man again took a deep breath, and Kai noticed he couldn't fill his lungs properly. The System's restrictions were killing him just sitting there.

He lifted the Elder Wand, and then swished it in the air, drawing something unseen on the canvas of space itself. Yet, with every passing moment, Kai felt he was losing the tip of the wand, and he couldn't trace its path. When the wand stopped, there hovered a pale sign in the air in between the man and Kai.

The Yellow Sign.

"It is the origin of all languages, written or spoken, in all Universes, and it is much more than that as well," the man proclaimed. "Even We have failed to master it, so deep are its mysteries. But today, We will use what We have learned from it to curse you so that not even a Deep One could undo it."

'Fuck you!' Kai cursed, looking back at the man in sheer defiance.

Then the man muttered under his breath, his speech incomprehensible. The flame over the candle brightened, swelled, and then engulfed the blood-filled pot. Some words appeared over the flame that Kai couldn't see, but when they disappeared, he found the white-skinned man looking at him oddly.

"So," he muttered, "you have the most affinity for the Harry Potter World."

'This…' Kai had just processed what the man told him when once again his voice boomed with a combination of a common and alien speech.

"I, ?#???!!!#?, curse Contestant Blood Demon that until he resolves his Karma with Seline Hao, no true wand, existing in the Harry Potter Worlds, will ever choose him as its master. And as HIS scalloped tatters hide Yhtill forever, let HIS Sign hides this curse from foreign eyes forever as well. I curse him. Curse! Curse! Curse! Thrice, I curse, in the name of Hastur; HE who is the Dweller in the Depths, the Bringer of Madness and Doom, the King in Yellow."

When the man was done, Kai, now like a statue carved into a boulder, saw him pointing the Elder Wand towards Kai's forehead. The Yellow Sign hovering in the midair rushed in the same direction. The wand touched the point in between his brows, and the Sign entered him.

Kai saw a profusion of yellow color taking over his thoughts, his skin prickling where the wand had touched him.

And then, a snap resounded around him, within him, and in some distant ethereal place like tensed threads.

A tiny image of Yellow Sign flashed on Kai's forehead thrice before disappearing, leaving no trace whatsoever.

The man nodded to himself as he saw that, a blue light shimmering around him.

"When the day comes that you have resolved your Karma," the man said, now smiling again, "then you can come and seek Us out. As We said, our meeting had nothing to do with Priestess Margrethe, so you must handle the Effect of that Cause by yourself. She is your responsibility now."

As he said the last words, the man vanished. The gray and bleak colors vanished along with him, along with the room. The objects vanished, the carved Signs and the yellow-painted walls all disappeared one by one.

Now, in a completely foreign room, only two were left as a hint of those strange events' proof.

Seline Hao's charred body.

And Kai, with a demonic grin planted on his face, his mind already tracing the boundary of a black book in his Inventory.

'Let's see what you can do,' he thought, lifting his bloodshot eyes. 'D-Mail!'

*********

AN: Wait for the next two chapters.