21 A misunderstanding?

—

{Warning. Unauthorized System Chain of Fate replacement role detected, System penalized. Chain of Fate Removed. [Unauthorized Entity] existence detected, commencing termination in 3, 2, ERROR.}

{Failure detected, terminating Unauthorized Entity in 3, 2, ... É̶͎̂̿R̴̡̧̡̦̥̮̗͕̺͓̭̉̾̃͑̒̍́͜Ŗ̶̨̛̫̼͙̱͈̠̲͇̰̦̳͙̟̻̭̗̀̇͂̔̏̒́̂̄͑̈́̈́͆̈́̽͑͐̉̆̔̆̅̕͝͝Ǫ̸̢͍̩̭͔̹̼̩̻̫̱͕͇̠̳̞̰̫̝̮̯̣̝͙̾̇̅̔̒̒̈́̈̑͂͛̊͊̄̂̋̑͒̈́̕͜͝͝ͅṞ̸̻̞̺̈́̄͛͆͂̆̆͊̊͗̊͜}

{Consecutive failures detected, impossible termination of Target. Penalty generating}

{Penality generated, body and soul deterioration and collapse inbound. Estimated remaining time:? years}

—

Dantes was woken up in the middle of the night. He was currently sleeping just outside Amegakure and continuing his spying mission when suddenly a chain of notifications rang in his head and purple text appeared in his field of view instead of the red one.

At first, he was panicking when he saw 'terminate' but then sighed in relief at the new system's failure. When it came to the Chain of Fate being removed, he felt his whole being torn apart, as if someone had taken his soul and put it in a shredder.

He knelt on his knees, screaming and clutching his head, blood flowing out of his every orifice. In the blood he was vomiting, a white slimy substance was moving on its own, slowly trying to cover his face like a creepy horrific movie. He quickly grabbed the slowly solidifying white mask on his face and broke it apart. And then the usually red text reappeared before him;

{Warning, inner soul not supported by Chain of Fate, Inner Hollow will go berserk.}

{Penalty effect detected: -8% of every stat. The effect will rise with time, with unknown results upon reaching -100%. Prediction of results: Life force too low to support existence. Death...}

{Solution, summon Soul King. Prediction: no time to collect coins, result, Death...}

{Searching for an alternate solution...}

{Possible Solution found. Creation of a soul stabilizer environment; Soul Society [0.3% of success], searching for another answer...}

{Hueco Mundo. With the use of enough evil chakra, the system will be used as a catalyst to create a place adequate for Hueco Mundo.}

{Please search for an abundant place with evil chakra to save u̶̺͎͕̚s̷͚̎̓̓.}

Even with all these notification alarming pings, Dantes had almost stopped listening, his painful and broken voice making inaudible.

His screams had alerted almost no one in the vicinity, almost. The sound of clothes flapping in the air was what broke the silent agonizing groans from the little kid.

"What happened to you young child?" A soft and melodious voice rang in Dantes' ears, startling him. He was currently at the weakest point of his new life and didn't want to truffle with anyone.

"Huff…Garh…P-please… Just leave me alone…" His voice was trembling, his body shaking and his heart burning.

"I can't do that, Amegakure is now under the Akatsuki's jurisdiction. Your safety is ours to take care of. Now tell me why-"

"Just piss off!"

The boy before her cut her off, he hadn't been able to look at her a single time, his whole body curled into a ball. When the boy demanded, the purple-haired woman stopped on her track, paper flowers slowly blooming into the air. She of course recognized the kid before her now, there were a lot of small people with white hair in this world but only one could replicate this technique. Her months of observation had allowed her to see this technique a lot, mostly because Hanzo abused him and had him fight all the time…

"So this is your true face, Flower Demon. I didn't expect the rumors to be true, maybe it was just a small person but it seems that I was wrong." Her frown had softened a lot when she realized the truth, his true face.

"W-wait! Don't come clo-" Before he could finish his sentence, the woman approached the flower barrier. And then as if having minds of their own, the white flowers exploded into long vicious lances, impaling the figure before him. He weakly grabbed the ground in frustration, he didn't want to use his Shikai but the hollow in him was like an unstoppable vice grip on his mind.

And as he was about to lament the poor civilian's unfortunate fate, he heard the sound of paper being folded. Without being able to react, he felt himself surrounded by paper and then a warm sensation. He felt pulled into a soft embrace, a human warmth he hadn't felt in years except for the blood of his enemies.

Then, as if an heavy weight had been lifted from his shoulders, he succumbed to sleep's call. His hours of agony having come to an end.

The woman just held him like that, even if he was just a kid, she still felt her subconsciousness scream danger at her. The ruthless man called Flower Demon, the one whose name was forbidden to be pronounced in Iwagakure, was in fact just a kid in need behind his mask.

As Konan stood in the pouring rain, holding him close to her chest, a wave of empathy washed over her. It was as if she could see a reflection of her former self in him - an innocent person, used as a mere tool by others around him, and then ultimately betrayed by those he thought he could trust. Despite the heavy downpour, she held him tightly in her arms, silently offering him the comfort and solace he may have desperately craved.

…