"If your soul's connected to the tree, your body's already halfway healed."
Scene 1 - Yggdrasil: The Healing System You Forgot to Activate
Shojiro stretched his fingers.
They still cracked and throbbed.
The pain in his spine hadn't faded.
Even his lungs burned every time he breathed.
He looked up at Karl, annoyed.
Shojiro:
"So what was all that about the Yggdrasil healing system?
My Primordial didn't exactly give me a tutorial."
Karl rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.
Karl:
"You seriously tanked an entire demon army with 99% VYTHRA... and you didn't even know how to self-repair?"
Shojiro blinked.
Karl (deadpan):
"Dude. That's like... lifting a tank with your spine and forgetting legs exist."
He flicked a small projector on a nearby desk. A hologram of Yggdrasil appeared - the golden world-tree, its roots branching through space and souls.
Karl:
"Every Chosen has a soul-thread bonded to this thing."
"As long as your soul is intact, your body is just a meat puppet."
"You don't even need VYTHRA to regenerate small-scale injuries.
You just have to consciously allow the tree to do its job."
He tapped a glowing sigil on Shojiro's chest.
Karl:
"This right here? It's not just a symbol. It's a biolink. All you gotta do is focus on it."
Shojiro (grumbling):
"...Could've used that info yesterday."
Scene 2 - Shojiro Heals Instantly
Shojiro closed his eyes.
Focused on the rune.
He didn't even activate VYTHRA.
He just... breathed.
And suddenly-
his ribs cracked back into place.
The bruises shrank.
His muscles firmed and reset.
Even his old scars faded to a dull memory.
Shojiro (shocked):
"...What the hell?"
"I feel... perfect."
Karl shrugged, leaning against the console.
Karl:
"Yeah. You're welcome."
"Next time, try not to go full suicide-mode before checking your tutorials, huh?"
Scene 3 - So What Are YOU, Exactly?
Shojiro rolled his neck, finally pain-free.
Then he looked at Karl - his glowing arm, nanite armor, cybernetic spine.
Shojiro:
"Alright, your turn.
You saved me.
Who are you, really?"
"How the hell did a dead scientist become... this?"
Karl looked up, thoughtful. Then... exhaled slowly.
Karl:
"Name's Karl Mitsubishi.
And let's just say I died building something I shouldn't've."
Scene 4 - Karl's Backstory - Mech, Nanites, Death
> "I wasn't born like this.
I built myself trying to fix the world."
Karl paced slowly, eyes distant.
Karl:
"I was working on a prototype nanite vehicle - a car that could morph into a mech in response to combat threats.
It used a quantum neural core... synced directly to the driver's brain."
"I didn't want war.
I wanted to create protection. A machine that thinks, shields, moves with you."
Shojiro leaned forward.
Karl:
"But something went wrong during the merge test.
A demon cracked through a rift.
I got pulled into the core mid-merge.
And then... nothing."
"When I woke up, my body was gone."
"Only my mind remained - fused with the nanite swarm and mech systems."
He extended his hand. It morphed fluidly from fingers into a blade, then a gun, then a wrench - then back to human.
Karl:
"I didn't build a weapon.
I became one."
Scene 5 - His Goal: Unlock the Car Form
Shojiro exhaled slowly, taking it all in.
Then chuckled.
Shojiro:
"So... you're basically a Transformer."
Karl:
"Shut up."
Shojiro:
"You even got the glowing arm thing.
Don't tell me you say 'Roll out' before fights."
Karl (grinning):
"Only if it's dramatic."
He turned serious again.
Karl:
"Thing is... I haven't unlocked the full form yet.
I'm stuck in half-state. Can't enter full mech mode.
Something's still incomplete."
Shojiro raised an eyebrow.
Shojiro:
"So you're headed to Last Vegas too?"
Karl nodded.
Karl:
"But before that we'll need to go to my laboratory to get blueprints."
"That broadcast? It wasn't just hope.
I traced the signal's core frequency."
"Whoever sent that message - they've got something connected to my design.
Tech I thought was destroyed."
> "And if it's there...
I'm going."
Scene 6 - The Champion's Truth
"You really were Japan's No.1... and you still got killed. Damn."
Karl leaned back again, still processing what he'd witnessed.
He turned his head toward Shojiro - still shirtless, still massive, still visibly glowing from healed trauma.
His voice was casual, but his eyes were sharp.
Karl:
> "Alright, muscle freak.
Let's rewind a bit."
Shojiro raised an eyebrow.
Karl:
"What's your Class?"
"Who's your Primordial?"
"And more importantly... how the hell did you die?"
Shojiro didn't answer at first.
He just cracked his neck again and stepped forward, arms crossed.
Shojiro:
> "Name's Shojiro Momo."
"Class: Brute.
Primordial: Kaiser, Lord of Strength."
"I died fighting a Berserker Demon - and killed it at the same time."
Karl blinked.
Then tilted his head.
Karl (mocking disbelief):
> "...You're kidding."
Shojiro (dead serious):
"Impaled me through the chest. I tore off its arm and drove it through its skull.
Said: 'If I die, I'm taking you with me.'"
Karl froze.
Then slowly leaned forward, eyebrows rising.
Karl:
"Wait, wait, hold up.
You're that Shojiro?"
Shojiro just stared.
Karl tapped his wrist, opened a faded old news archive on a cracked holo-pad - showing an article from 200 years ago:
"JAPAN'S UNDEFEATED YOUTH WRESTLING CHAMPION - Shojiro Momo Faces Accusations of Steroid Abuse"
Karl (grinning):
"So you are him. The high school monster.
The dude who folded Olympic-level wrestlers like paper.
I remember reading about you when I was a teenager!"
Shojiro shrugged.
Shojiro:
> "People said I cheated.
I didn't."
Karl (soft laugh):
"No kidding.
Turns out you just had god-tier genetics and were literally built different."
He leaned forward again, more serious now.
Karl:
"But still... you died."
"Even with that body, that strength. You still lost."
Shojiro didn't flinch.
Shojiro:
"Yeah."
"And I'll lose again. I'm not invincible.
But I won't stop until the bastard who killed my family is erased from existence.
Karl's Turn - His Class and Death
Karl stood up now. His tone evened out.
Karl:
"Name's Karl Mitsubishi.
Class: Forger.
Primordial: Hephaestus - God of Creation, Blueprints, and Machines."
Shojiro folded his arms.
Karl:
"I died during a test run of a nanite-mech project.
Demon warped through my core reactor, crushed the chamber.
But the fusion had already started. My brain fused with the neural net of the machine I built."
He flexed his fingers - they shifted into alloy claws, then back to human again.
Karl:
"I didn't survive it.
I became it."
Mutual Respect
A long silence followed.
Then Shojiro chuckled.
Shojiro:
"So what, we both died doing the only thing we were good at?"
Karl:
"No.
We both lived doing it."
"Died doing something we couldn't control."
Karl glanced at him again.
Karl (quietly):
"But man... I can't believe I'm actually looking at you right now."
"Shojiro freaking Momo.
A Champion.
I thought you were a myth."
Shojiro gave a half-smirk.
Shojiro:
"Guess the myth just punched its way into your life."