Chapter 436: Painted Ceiling
"Hoshi... No... Arthur," Jada corrected herself. "Is that what Dr. Kapoor told you before you entered the pod?"
Hoshikaze didn’t even flinch; he simply nodded.
The gesture was small, but the implication was massive. It recontextualized everything, and it explained why Arthur—the supposed tyrant, the butcher of the ninja world—had moved through the shadows like a ghost.
It explained the faked death, the clones, and most importantly, it explained the mercy he showed.
Jada’s mind raced back through the battles she had heard.
John had once decimated Margaret, having had the power to incinerate her where she lay. Yet, Margaret lived. Kaito had crossed paths with Alice, and he could have taken her head. But he didn’t. Hoshikaze had stood over William, having the man dead to rights. Yet William is still breathing to this day.
Then there was their own fight some time ago. Jada had lost; her chakra was near zero, and she was defenseless. Arthur could have ended her. Instead, he spared her at that moment, allowing her to summon help.
If his goal was death, she would have been a corpse cooling in the mud.
"You never wanted to kill us," she whispered.
Explosions continued to boom in the distance, sending tremours through the soles of her feet. The air smelled horrid. Even if she knew that her real body lay elsewhere, this world always felt real. From the mornings that she arose from bed to the heat of the sun—everything was absolute.
If Elysium lied, if this sensation of reality was a trap designed to hold them until their actual bodies withered, then Arthur wasn’t the villain. No. He was the only one playing the game correctly.
That also meant that her rage and hatred for him was false. Worst of all, it meant that she was a pawn defending the prison.