I woke up wrapped in golden light and a sweet aroma… of distilled death. Like someone had decided to scent the room with a "corpse and jasmine" candle.
Disturbing, I thought. I slid my hand under the pillow and searched among the sheets for my phone.
Where the hell is it? I was annoyed. I always leave it there before sleeping.
Then I tried to remember the night before, in case I had moved it.
And I remembered everything. My death, and my new life.
[ THE SYSTEM IS GLAD YOU'VE AWAKENED ]
"Yeah, yeah. Me too, I guess. Happy not to die. Again."
The blue screen appeared in front of me, just like yesterday.
Yeah, I had to get used to this. I got up carefully and looked around the place I was in.
The air smelled like something hard to name: a bit of floral tea, a touch of old library, and that je ne sais quoi that only chloroform and dried blood can provide. Sophisticated. Depraved. Very Orochimaru.
The lighting looked like it came from an Instagram filter called "eternity in a bottle": golden, soft, falsely warm. No dust, nothing out of place. Not even a single hair on the floor. Everything perfectly calculated, like even chaos had to fill out a form to get in.
The shelves were full of jars with handwritten labels, so neat they made you want to applaud. Surgical instruments arranged with such obsessive symmetry that I felt guilty just breathing in that room. This wasn't a lab. It was a church. A cathedral where sermons were given with scalpels and mass ended in dissection.
And in the center of it all, like a cherry on this horror sundae… a tea table.
In front of it, the mastermind behind the decor: Orochimaru.
His smile wasn't human. In fact, I doubted it ever had been. It wasn't mocking, nor pleasant. It was the kind of smile that said, I've been waiting for this for centuries, and today's my Christmas.
[ OROCHIMARU IS INTRIGUED BY YOU ]
I didn't move. I was scared, and felt that if I spoke too loudly, some part of me would fall apart. I sat up slowly, like someone returning to their body after lending it out for a few lives. The wings were gone. Or maybe they'd never been there. Only the pain remained.
I stood after a few seconds, seeing that Orochimaru had sat on a sofa. In front of him, a small round violet table held a teapot with a peculiar design. Back aching, I walked toward my oppressor and sat across from him.
The view was unbelievable.
The room's classical décor was a blend of Victorian and traditional Japanese styles. Truly bizarre. Well, considering it was Orochimaru, his interior design taste was the least strange thing I could expect.
In front of me, a steaming cup. Floral tea. Lovely. Of course, lovely only if you ignore that it's being served by an SSS+ class sociopathic, practically immortal criminal.
To drink or not to drink. That was the question.
"Drink. It's not poisoned," he said, smiling like someone who just crossed "poison" off their shopping list. "It's a special recipe, you'll feel better."
The silence that followed wasn't uncomfortable. But I decided to trust him. After all, according to the system, I had survived Konoha's greatest genocidal maniac and the reward was an alliance.
I looked at him and drank from the cup in front of me. The tea's flavor was unusual, but not unpleasant.
"What am I?"
I asked. I really wanted to know. I knew I was Céline, and that this was Aika's body, but… who was Aika? Was I Aika now… or was I still Céline?
I honestly had no idea who I was.
Orochimaru tilted his head in that very particular way of his, as if my words were a piece of art he hadn't decided whether to destroy or frame.
"A masterpiece… incomplete," he said, letting himself fall back as if gravity obeyed him out of sheer respect. "You died, you know? But you came back. With another soul. Another axis. Your eyes give you away."
[ OROCHIMARU HAS DISCOVERED YOUR TRUE IDENTITY ]
[ -100 USD PENALTY ]
"What?! Hey, that's not fair."
[ DEATH ISN'T FAIR ]
I was about to appeal for my 100 USD, but Orochimaru's stare disturbed me to the core. My body started to tremble. When he approached me, his face was so close I could feel his breath. His fingers—long and pale—traced my jaw delicately… and his nail barely grazed my skin.
I felt like I was going to die. Again. But I had no death quota left.
"Your eyes," he repeated, with something like twisted fondness. "They aren't the eyes of the girl who was Aika."
"Aika." Ugh. That name felt stapled onto me. I didn't want it. It wasn't mine.
I looked at him again. No trembling this time.
"I'm not Aika."
His smile stretched. Not out of joy. It was the butcher's smile when he finds a cow with two hearts.
"Fascinating…" he murmured. Then he leaned in just enough to invade my personal space with flair. "So it's true? The reincarnation myth? You're not just Aika. You're something more."
I didn't know whether to feel flattered or disgusted. Maybe both. An emotional combo without a name.
"My soul… mixed with what was left of hers. I'm not her. But I'm not me either. I'm both. And neither."
And yes. I was.
I still remembered the long nights in my old world's lab. Anxiety in the shape of stale coffee. The hum of the lamp. Notebooks full of obsessions. All of it was still inside me, trapped like an endless echo.
Orochimaru nodded. And I didn't like how much he liked this.
"Tell me about your past."
[ WARNING: 100 USD PENALTY IF YOU REVEAL RELEVANT INFORMATION FROM THE OTHER WORLD ]
And how the hell am I supposed to know what's relevant and what's not? Fuck.
Orochimaru looked at me again with that signature dark intensity. I thought fast. Clung to ambiguity like a life raft.
"It's not that different. Although, in my world, snakes didn't talk."
He laughed. But it wasn't a laugh. It was a hiss with echo issues.
[ CONGRATULATIONS, YOU MADE OROCHIMARU LAUGH ]
[ REWARD: TRUTH POTION ]
[ USES: 3 ]
[ EFFECT: Induces uncontrollable laughter in the target until they speak the truth. The more they lie, the harder they laugh. Warning: use in moderation. Excessive use may cause death. ]
Wow, that's actually useful.
"You outdid yourself with that potion, huh?"
[ THE SYSTEM IS PROUD YOU'RE ACKNOWLEDGING ITS EFFORTS ]
I think I'm starting to get how this works. Apparently, everything I do leads to a consequence. Actions that please the system give bonuses. The ones that don't, or break the rules, lead to penalties.
"Tell me… were you like me? A mind without limits?"
Orochimaru asked again. He grabbed my chin and pressed slightly when he saw I wasn't fully present in the conversation. I could feel the terrifying pressure intensify in my chest.
[ WARNING: OROCHIMARU IS USING KILLING INTENT ]
"Let's say yes."
I replied calmly, resisting the stinging in my chest. I saw the satisfaction in his eyes.
His gaze gleamed. Like an alchemist seeing pure gold in the filth.
"Then you'll understand what I'm about to offer you."
He backed away, slithering with style, and spoke as if he were saving me:
"I'm not offering chains. I'm offering a crown. You'll be my apprentice. My equal. Knowledge without restrictions. One condition: you must be devoted to me."
Ah. The classic. "Come, destroy morality with me—but make it fashion."
[ REWARD: ALLIANCE WITH THE ENEMY IS BEING PROCESSED ]
[ ACCEPT REWARD?]
[YES - NO ]
He said it as if he were saving me. As if being useful was a redemption.
I stared back without blinking. I felt the weight of the decision crystallizing in my ribs.
Orochimaru didn't threaten. He didn't need to. If he couldn't have me, he'd eliminate me. I knew it. Because that's how he was. Always had been—in every version of him, even in the pages of a story.
But I also knew this game could be played by two minds.
So I smiled. A precise, calculated smile. And I said:
"I accept. On my terms."
Orochimaru smiled.
[ YOU HAVE ACCEPTED THE REWARD ]
[ PROCESSING ]