Warning: some graphical descriptions in this chapter.

“What you mean sis doesn’t have much longer to live!!” shouted Bee as she gripped the hem of Kazuki’s kimono and looked at those impassive lilac eyes as tears started to well up on her own eyes, then she shouted, “No! You’re lying!”

Bee and the others look as Kazuki’s third eye kept its attention on Firefly without blinking, then Kazuki said, “I can see many micro fractures that have healed improperly and are being aggravated by radiation poisoning, her internal organs are on the verge shutting down, her brain activity is erratic because she spent too much time with a higher body temperature than normal thanks to her fever and that’s not mentioning that you should have amputated her left arm and right leg.”

Each one of them paled as Kazuki list the problem that their friend was facing, but each one of those was like a stab in the heart for Bee, to now that her sister was dying and she couldn’t do anything about it was a heavy blow.

“Can you save her?” asked Bee almost whispering but despite the volume, the despair was evident in her voice.

“Yes,” said Kazuki plainly.

Bee’s eyes along with most occupants in the room widen in surprise with renewed hope, except for the sirens and Sunset, the sirens were not even surprised by the fact that their former teacher could save their friend, however, the four of them knew that Kazuki wouldn’t do so for free.

“Please, save her,” begged Bee.

“Why should I?” asked Kazuki as he turned his attention back to the disassembled blaster, while he already memorized the shape and function of the pieces now he was analyzing the metal that the weapon was made of. Bee released the kimono in shock and that wasn’t even acknowledged by the alien.

“Please I will do anything!” shouted Bee as she got on her knees beside Kazuki and he didn’t even look at her. The kneeling girl’s mind was going into overdrive trying to think of something, so she asked with a trembling voice, “We can give you that gun, how about it?”

“I already memorized all its pieces, their functions and their composition,” said Kazuki as he resembled the blaster and placed in front of Bee, then he added, “I could just build my own version.”

“We have caps,” said Bee.

“Useless,” said Kazuki as he just rested against the wall.

“We have rations and water,” said Bee.

“I already have those,” said Kazuki.

“We other weapons and ammo,” said Bee.

“Primitive weapons,” said Kazuki.

“You… you can have me as a slave,” said Bee with a defeated tone.

“Bee! That’s enough!” shouted Haven as she knelt down beside the girl and glared at Kazuki.

The others finally found came out of their shock when and they immediately went to Bee’s side to comfort the distraught girl. Alexis, Hild and Michael were ready to attack at the mere thought of him accepting such an offer.

“I refuse,” said Kazuki with distaste evident in his voice and noble features.

“Why? Raiders like young girls an-” started Bee but whatever she was about to say was cut off by the immense feeling of dread that washed over the occupants of the room. Bloodlust flooded the place and suddenly it was as if they forgot how to breath, it was especially worst for the siren and Sunset since the prey instincts of their original forms broke through every layer of their minds and reached the surface while screaming so loudly that their bodies were on the verge of shutting down out of fear.

“Don’t ever compare me with that filth, otherwise, I might as well take what I came for with extreme prejudice and leave. Am I clear mortal?” said Kazuki calmly but his voice sounded inhuman and unrecognizable to their ears. When Kazuki didn’t receive an answer he asked calmly but with a voice more inhuman than before, “Ā̺̗̻̥̫̣̲̖ͪ͞m̸̨̰̭̖͛͋̋̊́̄̂̅ ̶̣̠̺͎̹̆̈İ̞̿ͣ͆ͬ͛ ̵̺͈̳͔̓ͭ́ͅͅc̵̯͈͈̖̼̗̹͆ͯ̏̐̀̾ͅL̨̥̳̭̼̻̘̳̉͌͋ͮ͊e̛ͧ̇̿҉̭̬̹̫ͅͅA̜̜͚͍̙͎̘ͩͮ͡͡r̴͈͈ͮ́?̷̛͚̣̣̗̦̍͋̃̔͒ͤͫ”

Every single conceivable instinct forced the young girl to nodded to placate the wrathful god that was directing his fury at her. As human beings, the inhabitants of the Narutoverse deserve far more credit than people give them, even if they were somewhat desensitized to the truth that was a Harvester of Worlds from the Ōtsutsuki clan.

They had chakra, which made them “closer to the gods” even if just a little bit and they dealt with the Bijuu, which were themselves monstrous existences even if they operate it with a somewhat human logic. However, they also dealt with the Juubi, which was in on itself a alien force of nature without human logic and thus far more monstrous, later they fought against its Jinchuuriki and considering that such an existence could give mind to what they consider to be a mindless mass of power it became an approximation of what a Ōtsutsuki would be.

Then they saw Kaguya, anyone with any measure of sensing ability could tell that she was utterly terrifying, however, throughout the war the shinobi have acclimated themselves to the point where they could stand in the presence of such monstrosity. Naruto and Sasuke didn't count because at that point they were practically demigods, more like a quarter god than half god but that was just a technicality.

The most inhuman part of all this was that Kazuki was not even upset that he was compared to the scum that rapes and pillages, he had long since stared at the ugliness and evil that mortals were capable of and the sad part was that gods were not much better. It was like constantly staring at the black mud of Angra Mainyu( 𐬀𐬢𐬭𐬀 𐬨𐬀𐬌𐬥𐬌𐬌𐬎‎) —in Avestan— or Ahriman(اهریمن) —in Persian— you either go mad or stop caring at all, in the second you become desensitised to the atrocities committed by mankind and most mortal races in general, the fact that a Shinju only grew in a “blood-stained soil” didn’t help either.

However one of the few things that Kazuki despised to this day was the “denial of reason”, in his eyes everyone was entitled to the fruits of their own labor, even slaves and he doesn’t have a problem with slavery itself so long the “relationship” was balanced, if others were to think about it his views of slaves were similar to pets and so long there was a “give and take” it was fine.

What angered Kazuki the most was the fact that Raiders didn’t even bothered to try bettering themselves and stole from others, worst still, they believe that they were entitled to that which they did not earn and their slaves were just properties to them, and to not recognize the capacity for thought was the greatest sin to Kazuki, thus the reason he disliked the Ōtsutsuki clan and the only reason he didn’t outright hate them was because of their difference in magnitude when compared to mortals.

Unfortunately, in a world without chakra, a Ōtsutsuki might as well be an eldritch abomination and because of that it was not much of a surprise that all humans present felt a paralyzing sense of fear, however, that same fear also made the hearts of the sirens and Sunset to stop.

Kazuki just looked at the four of them with indifference before stretching out his hand and send threads of chakra from his fingertips. Each string managed to reach each one of them, then once contact was made with their bodies the energy phased through their flesh and bone to grasp their heart. After that was done it was a simple matter of sending a very minute charge of electricity through the string to restart their hearts and they didn't even notice that they almost went into a cardiac arrest.

Seen that Kazuki already bothered to save them he decided that he might as well help them with their current predicament and he was willing to do that now only because it would help him later on when it would be the time to bring back Sunset Shimmer. With his chakra, he reached into their spirits and as its threads managed to weave themselves and spread, much like the web of a spider, until they manage to find and grasp the spell that was constricting their magic and denying them their true forms.

Kazuki pulled his hand back and like paper wrapping around an object it was ripped apart and removed. That caused the four Equestrians to suddenly feel pain as their bodies started to distort, the magic that was bound for years was now free and the first thing it did was to “fix” their bodies.

The four of them fell on their knees as they fell their bones cracked and their muscles stretched to their limit, every single fiber of their being was being rearranged to their original forms. At this point on the outside it only looked like they grew a few inches in size, however, everyone's attention was captured with a very loud crack was heard and it was coming from Sunset and the sirens, more specifically from their legs.

It was to be expected, after all, out of all different anatomical aspects between Equestrians and humans the most different was the structure and shape of their legs. At the same time that the bones of their toes were fusing together to become hooves and bones of their feet elongating to compensate for the differences their coat of a fur started to grow from their skin and the lower half of their face started to protrude forward, if a reference was needed it was like those movies where the human is turned into a werewolf.

“It seems you three have acclimated yourselves to this world a little bit too much,” set Kazuki casually not even bothered by their transformation. Right as the transformation finished he added, “And that's not good, after all, you three were able to handle being in my presence whenever I released my bloodlust.”

The four Equestrians, however, didn't acknowledge his words since they are still recovering their breath from the massive discharge of adrenaline, which was a product both from the transformation as well as their fear. Once they were no longer gasping for air they looked at their hands and for the first time in many years they saw their fur coat and in Sunset’s case, her hands immediately went to her forehead where she felt her horn.

“How?” asked Adagio as her hands traced her face, more specifically her muzzle.

“I just ripped the spell that was keeping you in human form,” said Kazuki flatly. Then he added, “By the way, I also prevented you from having a cardiac arrest, so you're welcome.”

Despite her startled look Sunset immediately remembered what happened previously, so she asked Kazuki, “If I asked for you to heal Firefly, would you do it?”

“What reason could you give me to heal this mortal? never mind the fact that she's a stranger to me,” said Kazuki without changing his expression.

“Even if we promise to cooperate with you and don't complain when you take us back?” asked Aria both wanting to save Firefly and return to Equestria.

“By ‘we’ are you referring to just you three or are you including Sunset Shimmer as well?” asked Kazuki.

“They are including me as well,” said Sunset without hesitation.

“Very well, I will save this human,” said Kazuki as he got up and tied his hair into a braid. Then as he knelt down beside his new patient he said, “Unless you want to be a witness to a surgery you better leave this room, besides that, I think all of you had something to talk about, however, you are free to check at any time if you want.”

After hearing Kazuki’s warning Sunset and the sirens look at their human companions and reluctantly motioned for them to go outside the room, especially the children who were already very shaken by this experience. Despite their young age, they lived in a harsh world where it was not uncommon for them to see blood and death, however, they were not prepared to see their friend, in this case of Bee her big sister, be cut open by an alien that wore a human face.

Even as some of the humans remaining by the door looking inside Kazuki activated his Nen and an invisible steam-like energy surrounded his body, but he focused most of the aura on his braid. The Equestrians and humans at the door witness it as it started to lengthen, however, instead of hair it was slowly turning into metal and eventually irregular rings started to appear around the bundle of cables.

It was only when Kazuki's braid became twice the original length it dawned on them that the form it was taking was that on my spinal cord and from it, the upper half of a skeleton was being formed. The rib cage was very human-like, however, from its shoulders, two pairs of arms started to form that were inhumanly long while smaller more human-like arms started to grow on the sides and front of the rib cage. Once the eight arms were done growing hands formed at their ends with a surgical tool merged with each finger as was the inhumanly long head with its back reaching half way down its spine it the monstrosity was to look up.

On its face, six eyes in a circular formation were formed with a bigger eye in the center of the circle surrounded by the six smaller ones and lastly, tendrils of an unknown substance started to grow from its joints and connecting themselves halfway through the bones creating a biomechanical crude muscular system.

“Dr. Frankenstein(創案破壊変形, ドクターフランケンシュタイン, Creator and Destroyer of Monstrosities),” said Kazuki announcing the name of his Hatsu (発, Release/Act), a product of his Specialization-type Nen with Materialization and Manipulation attributes. This particular Hatsu was made by him based on Neferpitou’s own Hatsu, Doctor Blythe (玩具修理者, ドクターブライス, Toy Repair) and it allowed Kazuki to repair/heal, modify and destroy living tissue at will.

A line appeared on the top of Frankenstein’s elongated skull and from its flesh many long and thin mechanical tentacle-like arms came out, the ones near the face held lenses of different tints that were placed in front of the seven roaming eyes that moved independently while the ones further away from the face held dish like devices to pick any imaginable frequency. From the opening on the underside of the rib cage, a multitude of mechanical tentacle-like arms came out and neared Firefly who was breathing heavily, one with an oxygen mask placed itself on her face covering her nose and mouth.

Once Firefly's breathing became stable tentacles with a beak on its end sprayed a brown liquid on her abdomen while others with scissors and scalpels cut her clothes and bandages, completely exposing her wounded body, and the same brown spray was applied on different parts of her body, including the infected wounds that had acquired a yellowish color at this point. Then the scalpels started to cut open the places that the spray was applied, however, almost no blood came out and after tiny hook-like tools pulled the skin and muscles apart her organs and bones were exposed.

Using his Byakugan Kazuki could see that the humans and Equestrians were no longer looking, but they still remained in the hallway probably heading the faint sounds of their friends being cut as well as the mechanical wheezing of Frankenstein’s servos.

“It will be done in a little over two hours,” said Kazuki loud enough for them to hear, now all they could do was wait and hope for the best, not that they needed since Kazuki has unparalleled knowledge in the field of medicine anyway.

Two and half hour later

It was done, Kazuki finished the myriad of surgical procedures that corrected all the damage and ailments that afflicted the blue-haired young woman and as she laid naked on the mattress Kazuki’s eyes took in all the details of her body without a hint of lust as he used his Byakugan to observe her organs and bones. She was lacking some nutrition but considering her living conditions it was to be expected, and the only scars that remained were the ones she had before the surgery. Seeing that everything in Firefly's body was in optimal condition Frankenstein withdraw all the servos and tools before dematerializing, then Kazuki said, “You can come in now.”

From the corner, Sunset peeked and once she saw that Frankenstein was no longer there she entered the room followed by the rest of the group. Kazuki noticed that Sunset, Adagio, Aria and Sonata were without shoes, not surprising since their boots would be very uncomfortable to their original anatomy. Anyway, Sunset, Bee and Windy were the first to arrive and immediately after Sunset used a simple spell to conjure a blanket to cover Firefly.

“I assume you all talked,” said Kazuki and Sunset nodded.

“Yeah, we did,” said Sunset.

“Good, then gather anything you want to bring with you and don't want to left it behind in absolutely any circumstance, it will be a simple matter of opening a portal to Equestria for me and the four of you to go through,” said Kazuki.

“Can… can we make another request?” Sonata asked reluctantly.

“You four are testing my patience but I will humor you, what is your request?” asked Kazuki.

“Can they come with us?” asked Aria pointing at the humans as they surrounded Firefly to make sure she was ok.

“Bringing humans to Equestria can have unforeseen consequences,” said Kazuki.

“Can’t you just turn them into ponies?” asked Adagio.

“Why are you so insistent on remained with that group?” asked Kazuki.

“They have nothing left here, all of their families have either died or abandoned them,” said Aria with disgust in her voice at the mention of being abandoned.

“Besides we have been through so much together and they even accept us as we are now we…” started Adagio but her voice trailed off in the end as if she couldn't bring herself to continue just yet.

“We are family,” said Sonata finishing what Adagio wanted to saw.

“Good answer,” said Kazuki with a proud smile on his face seeing how much they have changed.

“We also want to be your students again,” said Aria.

“If you have us back that is,” said Sonata shyly.

“Very well, but don't expect special treatment,” said Kazuki and the three sirens nodded.

“Why you are in such a hurry to leave?” asked Sunset.

“Let’s just say that my arrival was noticed and I would rather avoid a conflict with the one who noticed my arrival,” said Kazuki and this caused the four Equestrian to look confused, however, that didn’t stop his vision that gazed beyond the physical realm and into the mass of writhing tentacles, blinking eyes and gaping mouths that had its attention and most of its eyes focused on him. Without words he spoke to the entity and communicated his intention to leave soon and that he would be taking this group of humans, luckily for him the entity didn’t care and didn’t have plans for this group of humans so it just let it slide. This whole exchange happening in a section of time so small that it might not exist at all, with the Equestrians completely unaware of what transpired he asked, “Will more humans be joining us?”

Two days after Kazuki’s departure, Equus

Jewel, Song, Moon and Nameless —she had yet to find a fitting name but she was certain that it would come to her sooner or later— were currently in the underground village, Moon had time to calm down and she was willing to admit that she overreacted, however, when she went back to apologise she was informed by her sister —technically cousin if Moon was considered Luna’s daughter— that he departed to another dimension to bring back a former student of Celestia, Sunset Shimmer. The reason she came to the underground was to spend time with the thestral that descended from her followers and her sisters —blood/magic sister as well as her herd/hoard sister— elected to accompany her as they waited for the original Kazuki to return, besides they used that opportunity to show Nameless around and introduce her to the rest of the clan.

It was quite a sight to see the intimidating alicorn with a fiery mane to be fawning and playing with the little ones, good thing that her mane only burned only what she wanted to burn, it seemed that Nurturing Nature and Sunshine were showing through her personality. Still, it was time well spent in Nameless’ opinion, and they did that before showing the rest of the partially restored castle and underground facilities, and as they did so Moon reflected o her relationship with Celestia and Nameless.

Contrary to popular belief she(Luna) didn’t rebel because her(Luna’s) subjects didn’t appreciate the night sky, at least not completely. She rebelled initially because Celestia’s attitude and sense of entitlement, she still acted as the motherly figured and leader she was today. Back then, however, she did mostly just for show and she was a very controlling pony, especially after their mother died. Luna felt so caged that she and the few ponies that appreciate her more than her sister decided to rebel, she just wanted to give her sister a wake-up call by showing that Luna wouldn't just submit to her sister every whim.

Unfortunately, instead of backing down after Luna blocked the sun to negotiate Celestia used the Elements on Luna who just accessed Moon’s powers and personality, which resulted in their banishment as well as their allied forces, luckily not all thestrals followed Luna and the ones that remained on the surface were mostly extended family from Moon’s followers that received her blessing but opted to not fight for various reasons. That banishment destroyed any chance that Luna and Moon ever becoming one complete being, the initial cooperation that the two achieved was undone by Luna’s regret clashing against Moon’s antipathy toward Celestia.

According to Nameless, it was during Luna and Moon’s banishment that Celestia became aware of Nameless and fearing that she would end up like her sister she shattered and imprisoned Nameless. While looking inward and without the company of another immortal Celestia was forced to reevaluate her attitude and actions, everything about herself really, especially after her mother’s death and Kazuki’s betrayal. Needless to say that she didn’t like what she saw and through the millennia she managed to correct her mentality, mostly.

Currently, the four of them were in a small coffee shop in the underground village drinking some tea, it helped them to relax and they also used that time to just gossip in general. It was particularly freeing for Nameless to just be another pony enjoying a snack with her friends and family instead of a ruler with the crushing weight of responsibility, even the depression that Celestia felt for millennia was slowly diminishing in Nameless as Mourning Star was being assimilated into her personality.

Their time was interrupted by a young thestral stallion with a lab coat landing near the balcony that they were, from the balcony it was possible to see a bit of the underground ecosystem, a bioluminescent forest of mushrooms that served like camouflage for the small animals that lived there, luckily said ecosystem plus the Everfree Forest were more than enough to sustain the clan. Once the stallion landed he bowed and said, “My ladies.”

“Wild Night, right?” said Moon as she looked at one of Kazuki’s assistants.

“It’s an honor that you remembered my name, Lady Moon,” said Night as he stood up and informed the two alicorns and two dragonesses, “Lord Kazuki is back from his expedition.”

“Is he alone or accompanied by a pony with yellow coat and as well as yellow and red mane?” asked Nameless with hope in her voice.

“There's indeed a mare with that description in the group that was following him,” said Night politely as he looked at the fiery alicorn, while she wasn’t that tyrant that imprisoned his ancestors it was going to take a while for the thestral population to accept her.

“Group?” asked two dragonesses at the same time.

“Yes, they are in the decontamination chamber in the lab. Whatever world they came from it must have been dangerous if he felt it was necessary for them to appear there in the first place,” said Night and by the time he finished the four of them got up and motioned for him to lead the way.

It didn’t take long for the group to arrive at the lab with the decontamination chamber, standing before the one-way mirror that allowed the scientists to see inside was Kazuki —the clone he left behind— while few other assistants were monitoring the ones inside. The chamber was wide but didn’t have much depth, on the back of the chamber the wall curved to make a bench for the ones being decontaminated to wait. Inside the chamber was Kazuki naked and sitting in the lotus position while he waited for the chamber to accomplish its function, not far from him was a group of ponies that were uncannily similar to the Elements of Harmony.

Nameless, on the other hand, cried at the sight of Sunset Shimmer, almost everyone was unbothered by their state of undress, not surprising since modesty was one of the first things to be considered useless while surviving. However her happiness was short lived and her eyes widen in surprise and alarm as did Moon’s at the sight of three familiar ponies, or better yet, at the three creatures masquerading as ponies, the sirens.

Author's Note

The eldritch horror that Kazuki saw was Ug-Qualtoth from Fallout 3, which is speculated by the fandom to either be an alternative name or based on Yog-Sothoth from Cthulhu Mythos.

If you are having difficulty imagining Frankenstein, just imagine a xenomorph queen without a mouth and head-crest with an additional pair of arms as well as a smaller more human-like beneath the two pair of inhumanly long ones while the ones on the front remain the same, the eyes are in a six-pointed star formation with one in the center and the whole body is metallic gray.

The Nen as said in the chapter was based on Neferpitou's ability from Hunter x Hunter, the name is made using the same naming convention from the show, at least as I understand it. First, you have the actual name of the technique, which is more often than not an English name but it can be in any languages, then we have a name in kanji that disregards the pronunciation and focus exclusively on the meaning of the kanji themselves, then we have how the Japanese would pronounce that English name in the first place, the famous Engrish if you will, and lastly we have the rough translation of the kanji that made the name of the technique.

Togashi is crazy when it comes to naming the techniques, sorry if the explanation was confusing but if you use both translations it reveals a lot about the character as well as the ability, here are two examples from Hisoka:

1.Bungee Gum(伸縮自在の愛, バンジーガム, Elastic Love) - allows Hisoka aura to acquire the properties of both gum and rubber.

• Bungee Gum - no surprises here since that is the English name.
• 伸縮自在の愛 - "伸" means 'contract' while "縮" means 'expand' and together "伸縮" they can be read as elasticity; "自" means 'I' or 'self' while "在" means 'to be' and together "自在" they can be read as 'universal' or 'freedom'; "の" means 'of' and "愛" means 'love'.
• バンジーガム - how they would have pronounced in Japan, it reads 'Banji gamu'.
• Elastic Love - a very open and rough translation of the kanji.

2.Texture Surprise (薄っぺらな嘘, ドッキリテクスチャ, Flimsy Lies) - allows Hisoka to change any thin surface (such as paper or cloth) and manifests his thoughts onto it as a new appearance.

• Texture Surprise - no surprises here since that is the English name.
• 薄っぺらな嘘 - "薄っぺら" means something like 'superficial', 'shallow' or 'flimsy'; "な" is a particle that doesn't have an exact translation while "嘘" means something like 'lie', 'falsehood' or 'fallacy'.
• ドッキリテクスチャ - how they would have pronounced in Japan, it reads 'Dokkiri Tekusucha' with 'Dokkiri' meaning surprise in Japanese and 'Tekusucha' coming from Texture.
• Flimsy Lies - a very open and rough translation of the kanji