Omni-Anime: I Stand at the Forefront of Popularity

Chapter 176: Chapter 177: Artificial Prosthetics — Mechanical Illusion

Danzo had perfectly embodied the principle: I may be off the stage, but the stage is still full of me.

He hadn’t made a single appearance so far, and yet his presence loomed everywhere.

Still—since Danzo hadn’t actually made a move, Hanabi decided not to engage. Not yet.

According to the ”script,” the current-arc Hanabi wasn’t supposed to know anything about Danzo. Using arcane, unknowable methods to smooth things over was a protagonist’s prerogative. Hanabi’s official role in this arc was secondary lead at best—that was just how it was.

If she wanted to have any legitimate reason to approach Danzo, she either needed him to personally appear in front of her, or she needed to manufacture enough ”justification” for the encounter first.

After her main body finished class and came back outside, Hanabi’s Shadow Clone passed her the new geta.

”Mm—”

The moment the Shadow Clone dispersed, a wave of exhaustion crashed over her—a brief but intense vertigo.

”Only Naruto could run that many clones through training all day without it affecting him.”

Maybe Naruto had nothing in his head to begin with, so splitting off hundreds of clones didn’t cause the usual mental feedback?

Hanabi felt like she’d stumbled onto something profound.

”Anyway, first things first—some modifications.”

She opened the Workshop and prepared to make adjustments to Zhuixia.

Specifically: adding the finished ice-blade geta as a component skin for the signature weapon.

Having the Workshop had taught her that signature weapons could be customized—switching out an accessory here, adjusting a layer of the Performance Outfit there, all without issue.

For instance: after the latest modifications, Hanabi could now set Zhuixia to yukata mode.

The furisode kimono was beautiful, but it was long, layered, and thick—and wearing it every single day, even through dungeon runs, started to feel stifling. Switching the style to a yukata changed everything: white silk stockings became bare feet, the layered furisode became a single-layer summer robe. Lighter. More playful.

These modifications required Popularity Points, but not many—a little over a thousand handled it.

”There~done.”

With that finished, Hanabi turned to the other piece of equipment on her workbench.

The Puppet Arms.

She’d prepared three pairs of prosthetic arms, and when deployed around her body, they formed an eight-arm configuration.

And nested within them was one more jutsu—one Hanabi thought worth reconstructing as the Puppet Arms’ signature move.

These Puppet Arms had originated in the TYPE-MOON world. At their core, they were Touko Aozaki’s technical reconstruction and reimagination of the artificial human Kato Danzo.

After Hanabi’s own localization process, they had become hers.

The Temporary Protagonist card’s ”special effects” were genuinely generous—she had to give it that.

And beyond the prosthetics themselves, there was one more jutsu she thought she could reconstruct and install as their signature move: a Noble Phantasm.

Mechanical Illusion: Swallowing Bull.

From where Hanabi stood, this Noble Phantasm felt something like Divine Sandstorm from JoJo—or like a sustained, continuous casting of the Wind Release: Great Breakthrough from the Naruto world.

Simply put: ”Tornado Destroys Parking Lot.”

Using a Noble Phantasm directly wasn’t possible. But if she converted magical energy to chakra and then localized the effect, she could reproduce the outcome.

The destructive potential of this jutsu was something she couldn’t fully predict yet—it would depend on her chakra and the Puppet Arms’ output.

That said, what Hanabi actually wanted was Sorcery Sword: Yūgao.

A technique that could make the head of a distant enemy fall simply by cutting a flower or fruit held in hand. Kato Danzo herself described it as a genjutsu, but visually, it was basically the Nail-Headed Seven Arrows Book, TYPE-MOON edition.

Unfortunately, Touko hadn’t provided a reconstruction of that Noble Phantasm—it had limited practical use for a puppet-type fighter. Hanabi suspected Touko simply couldn’t reconstruct it.

”The Puppet Arms’ output is close enough. Once I get this jutsu ’loaded in,’ I can go ahead and procure the whole package.”

In the Naruto world’s framework, this would be a Wind Release jutsu.

By setting the Puppet Arms spinning like a pair of fans, she could generate a vacuum-blade cutting force, pulling targets in and crushing them at the compression point.

Paired with Wind Release, it was doable.

The reason the original Noble Phantasm was called ”Swallowing Bull” traced back to this same Naruto tendency to reference real things—it was a nod to an ancient legend about an illusion that swallowed an entire ox. The name captured both the visual of the technique and its genjutsu component—something that made objects vanish before the eye and reappear elsewhere.

It was a technique that functioned simultaneously as both genjutsu and a destructive ninjutsu. Hence: Mechanical Illusion.

The problem was that ”localization” turned out to be harder than expected.

The underlying force principles were different. Hanabi could only borrow the concept and reconstruct from scratch. In a real sense, this was asking her to invent an original jutsu.

”The genjutsu layer is simple enough—just use wind and ice to refract light, bend the visual path. That part works.”

”Wait. This drawing-in sensation—doesn’t this feel a bit like Bansho Ten’in?”

She’d initially thought it resembled Divine Sandstorm.

But now that she was actually reconstructing the technique, she realized: the part where you pull enemies toward you felt more like a bootleg Bansho Ten’in.

Because at its core, this was basically a wind blade plus a super vacuum cleaner. Like a tornado.

The problem: the vacuum pulled things toward Hanabi too. Which meant the technique also damaged her.

She didn’t mind taking hits. But an attack that killed a hundred enemies while hurting yourself three thousand was miserable to think about.

Particularly the damage to her image.

This wasn’t the TYPE-MOON world. Chakra was genuinely extreme, but compared to that setting, the Naruto world was still relatively grounded in something resembling physics.

”Hmm?”

And at that moment, Hanabi glanced at the broadcast feed.

Naruto had been on Gamabunta’s back for hours now—and he still hadn’t given up.

”Naruto... oh. Oh, I’ve got it.”

The Rasengan was a single-handed technique in principle. But Naruto couldn’t do it one-handed—he needed Shadow Clones. Combined with his own hands, that amounted to essentially three hands total to pull it off.

But I’ve got three whole pairs of Puppet Arms.

”First pair of arms executes the jutsu—second pair forms a chakra shield from behind, then redirects the thrust backward, which also generates a wind barrier. That works.”

Like a jet engine’s reverse thrust.

(Engine thrust: force going left)

(Reverse thrust: force going right)

(Engine blocked by the reverse-thrust panel)

Reverse thrust didn’t mean mounting the engine backwards. It meant blocking the engine’s exhaust nozzle with a deflector panel, redirecting the airflow out to the sides—converting forward thrust into backward thrust.

This way, the expelled air also formed a protective air shield.

What two hands couldn’t do, four hands could manage just fine.

”Now she just needs a test target.”

A jutsu at this scale naturally required someone to test it against. But Hanabi had no intention of hurting Hikari.

She turned it over. Then she arrived at the obvious choice: one magnificent fall guy.

”Well, Jiraiya-sama—looks like I’ll have to ask a favor of you~”

(Kato Danzo)

(Stage 1 Break)

(Stage 2 Break)

(Full Break)