The Embodiment Of Perfection

"Raye was forced to reveal his identity to someone during the bus hijacking a few days ago. Since this was a covert investigation, the first rule of being an agent is to keep our identities secret—even from me; he tried to hide that fact," said Naomi Misora.

Listening to the woman in front of me, I removed the mask from my face to drink my coffee.

"A female model… Misa Amane. It's midday now, and I'm quite certain it will only take a few hours to find her since the woman you're looking for is fairly famous," I muttered.

"Before his death, Raye Penber investigated several important individuals, including police recruits and their families. What's the purpose of finding an unknown woman?" Naomi responded.

"Kira has an accomplice. I'll join you in finding her," I said.

Naomi Misora looked at the young man in front of her, who had the face of a teenager, and said, "Has the CIA recruitment standard fallen? I didn't expect them to hire an 18-year-old kid. Also, I don't even know your name yet."

"You can call me Hachina Naoki," I replied.

***

It only took two hours to find where Misa Amane worked as a model.

"Naomi-chan, do you see that building under construction?" I said, pointing with my index finger. I directed her to the tallest point of the building under construction.

Seeing that she had climbed the stairs and was about to reach the indicated spot, I coated my legs with cursed energy and jumped.

'Naomi Misora only had irrational experiences when investigating Beyond Birthday, who had Shinigami Eyes. I need to show her more things like this to help her adjust.'

***

Naomi Misora watched as Hachina Naoki, the 18-year-old boy, leapt and landed directly in front of her.

"Are you even human?" Naomi asked in disbelief.

"You'll get used to it," I replied, setting down the mask and the staff I'd bought earlier from a cosplay store.

***

'I'll sacrifice the potential of this body to gain a Domain Expansion. As an equivalent exchange, by losing the ability to learn Domain Expansion, this body will automatically produce positive cursed energy (+) that I can use freely.' After thinking this, I felt something missing from my soul.

"I didn't expect the Binding Vow to succeed."

Coating my teeth with cursed energy, I bit my finger until it bled.

'If Choso can do it...'

I imbued my blood with cursed energy, manipulating it to form an arrow.

"Failure is not an option," I said. The blood arrow shot through the sky for several seconds and struck Misa Amane right in the head.

Seeing Misa Amane dead, I healed my hand, picked up my mask and staff, handed them to Naomi Misora, and immediately embraced her to escape the area.

***

"Let me go, you bastard… and you just killed someone!"

Hearing Naomi's angry voice, I realized we were now near a railway track.

'How long have I been running?'

As I walked to the side and set Naomi Misora down, still furious, my consciousness faded.

***

"How absurd, dying simply from being in the presence of a god," said a mysterious voice [???].

Hearing the voice, I looked up but couldn't see anything in the darkness.

"*****... Damn it, I can't even say my real name," said the voice [???].

"Click, click." The sound of fingers snapping echoed, and the place was instantly illuminated.

I could see again, and at my feet were countless human corpses, so numerous that they formed a mountain. All the corpses had the same face—mine.

"What is this place? And why do all these corpses have the same face? Have I already died millions of times?" I asked, looking up at another version of myself perched at the mountain's peak.

"This place? I don't know what it is, so I call it the Graveyard of Corpses. As for the bodies you're asking about, they're all us. Right now, you're living in a world created from a crossover or merging of different worlds," my other self explained, snapping his fingers. The mountain of corpses vanished, leaving only hundreds behind.

"You've already died 138 times in that world. The other corpses are alternate versions of us from parallel universes," he said [???].

"If you want me to be perfect, give them back! All of the 'ME' and 'My-Selves'!"

"No one has ever ridden a rainbow," I said with a smile to my other self.

"Watching those who strive for perfection made me believe that I, too, had to be perfect… to the point of obsession," I continued.

"However, no one in this world is perfect. That's why people like Ayano strive so hard to attain perfection, doing everything they can to get as close as possible. They gain a special kind of strength precisely because they aren't perfect. Perfection is nothing more than a castle in the air."

"Just as no one has ever ridden a rainbow, no one will ever be perfect either. Accept that as a fact."

"That's exactly why humans can never achieve it," I concluded.

My other self, who was floating above my head, burst out laughing and approached me. 'Everything he's saying is straight out of Kiruma Souichi's words,' [???] thought.

"You'll have to claim it for yourself. Before you ask, I'll explain who I am," [???] said.

"I am the accumulation of all our selves from alternate universes. I have all the memories and powers of the corpses you saw earlier," [???] explained.

Hearing this, I asked eagerly, "Does that mean I can access all those powers?"

"You already have access to them, but I cannot grant you more. If I did, your body wouldn't be able to handle it—you would die," [???] replied.

...

I remembered what my other self said when we first met.

"You said I died because of the presence of a god. Who are you referring to? The Watcher, perhaps? Or cosmic beings like the Beyonder or the Creator God [T.O.O.A]?" I asked.

"You died because you were near [Being X] while conversing with Tanya. Your soul contains a shard of a god, which allows you to interact with other gods. I didn't expect Being X to immediately use 'Existence Erasure' upon sensing you," [???] explained.

"You mentioned I've died 138 times in this crossover world, and the mountain of corpses I saw earlier represents my other selves. Does that mean I can escape this world and travel to another?" I asked.

'Damn it. I've died 138 times. I might as well escape to a solid world without all these fictional merges,' I thought.

"You can enter the consciousness of your self in an alternate universe," [???] replied.

Hearing this, a smile spread across my face.

"Send my consciousness to the [Jujutsu Kaisen] universe during the era when Tengen was spreading Jujutsu teachings.

That way, I can meet Kenjaku and negotiate for a Cursed Technique to transfer my brain into a random body. That way, I can preserve my original body and commit crimes using other identities," I said.

My other self [???], hearing this, responded: "If you go to the Heian era, you'll encounter yourself."

"What do you mean, 'encounter myself'? Wait… are you referring to 'The Forgotten One'?" I asked in shock.

"Yes, [The Forgotten One], also known as Arima Kousei, exists in the Heian era. If you go to the 'Bleach' universe, you'll meet another self who took over Tokinada Tsunayashiro's body.

And if you go to the 'One Punch Man' world, you'll encounter the protagonist of your deleted fanfic 'King God Killer.' Don't ever go there. You know how overpowered you made KING in that fanfic," [???] warned.

I remembered the fanfic I deleted.

[King God Killer] was the first fanfic I wrote for fun and later deleted. Its protagonist, "4Eyes," died and met ROB (Random Omnipotent Being) with three wishes.

•-•

4Eyes had the power to copy the abilities of the dead and read their memories. Because I tagged the fanfic as [villain], 4Eyes took KING's body, killed Psykos, and began traveling to other worlds using reincarnation tickets. I deleted all the chapters after that.

I muttered, "System," but nothing happened.

In [The Forgotten One] fanfics, the protagonist only received one wish from ROB.

Their power allowed them to take over another body upon death.

"Have I ever fought against my other selves?" I asked curiously.

My other self [???] snapped his fingers, and the 138 corpses disappeared, replaced by thousands more.

"These thousands of corpses are you, killed in battles against Tokinada Tsunayashiro," [???] said with a snap, causing even more corpses to appear.

"Enough… I'm not interested in [Forgotten One] or [God Killer]. I just have one question. Right now, I'm using Kiruma Souichi's body from the [Usogui] universe. If I travel to an alternate universe, will I keep using this body?" I asked.

"Are you stupid? Look at the corpses at your feet. They all have the same face—that's your answer," [???] replied.

I finally noticed the additional pupils in my other self's eyes.

'Does that mean Sukuna is always a part of me, or is it because Sukuna resides in my soul and will always follow me?'

"I have a suggestion. Your self in the [Shuumatsu no Valkyrie] universe managed to kill all the gods there using a Völundr created from the souls of Valkyrie Brunhilde and her partner Siegfried. Do you know why you could kill all the gods in that universe?" [???] asked.

"Obviously, because of the weapon forged from Brunhilde and Siegfried's souls," I replied.

"The weapon is just a tool to kill gods. Your self in that universe succeeded because of a mentor who taught you," [???] said as my consciousness began to fade.

Before fading completely, I wanted to ask who that mentor was.

Knowing my thoughts, my other self said:

"Jinsuke Hayashizaki, the founder of the Iaido sword technique, taught you his ultimate move: [Domain God Slash]."

As the Graveyard of Corpses fell silent, [???] recalled 4Eyes' soul.

"I forgot to give you the Ten Shadows Technique," [???] said, as a corpse with black hair and a stab wound in its throat appeared.

"Hahaha… Damn it, I know this guy. Arima Kousei/The Forgotten One in the Heian era had heavenly restrictions and killed Taira no Masakado after defeating the Zen'in clan leader.

Arima Kousei was eventually killed by [Purple], created by the Gojo clan's genius and the first Six Eyes user, Sugawara no Michizane. I didn't expect you to have his corpse," I said.

The corpse of the Zen'in clan leader fused with my body, granting me knowledge of its use.

'To summon Mahoraga, I'll need to defeat it. I'll let Sukuna handle that.'

As thoughts swirled in my mind, a book appeared and merged into my chest.

"You can now synthesize souls into weapons. You lied about forging divine souls when speaking to Toji. Prove that your words weren't empty," [???] said.

Hearing this, I closed my eyes.

"Thank you. Until we meet again," I said.