Chapter 604: High-Precision Components and Kaguya’s Consciousness

Chapter 604: Chapter 604: High-Precision Components and Kaguya’s Consciousness

Chapter 604: High-Precision Components and Kaguya’s Consciousness

"Even though I was somewhat prepared, seeing more than a hundred individual parts still surprised me."

Amado stared at the components scattered across the table.

"How exactly were all of these pieces integrated into a single component?"

He immediately leaned closer and began carefully examining them.

Kenichi nodded.

He was wondering the same thing.

There were more than a hundred tiny parts, yet when assembled, they formed an extremely small component.

It was honestly absurd.

"So many miniature pieces merging into a single component reminds me of a certain kind of technology."

Kenichi looked thoughtfully at the parts.

"But that technology..."

He had already known how many pieces were inside when he analyzed the component with his Rinnegan.

Still, actually seeing all of them separated in front of him was something else entirely.

Kenichi hesitated.

Then a specific technology from his previous life came to mind.

High-precision manufacturing.

Strictly speaking, calling it a single technology was not entirely accurate.

It was closer to a manufacturing standard used in machining, component production, and industrial assembly.

The key lay in tolerance.

The difference between two matching parts had to be reduced to an unbelievably tiny degree, sometimes far smaller than the thickness of a human hair.

Kenichi remembered seeing videos in his previous life where someone would pick up one metal component and slide it into another.

The moment the two pieces joined, they seemed to fuse into a single solid object.

The seam became almost impossible to see.

That was the result of extremely high manufacturing precision.

Of course, achieving that level of precision required an advanced industrial base.

One could even say it represented the standard that increasingly sophisticated industrial systems would eventually need to reach.

But with the current manufacturing level of the Shinobi World...

Kenichi stopped himself.

"No."

"If we consider the technological level of the Otsutsuki Clan, then this actually makes sense."

"They can build time machines."

"Manufacturing high-precision components shouldn’t be anything unusual for them."

The Shinobi World clearly lacked the industrial capacity needed to manufacture such components.

But the Otsutsuki were different.

If they could already create a functional time machine, then producing parts with extreme precision should not be particularly difficult.

Whatever doubts Kenichi had, the pieces lying in front of him were already the best evidence.

"High-precision components?"

Amado looked at him curiously.

"What are those?"

It was the first time he had heard the term.

Kenichi casually tried to explain it.

But after a few sentences, he realized how troublesome that would be.

After all, Amado had never personally encountered such manufacturing standards.

Trying to convey the concept using words alone was unnecessarily complicated.

A practical demonstration would be much easier.

Fortunately, Amado was exactly the sort of person who could understand immediately once shown an example.

Kenichi picked up several pieces from the table.

After inspecting them, he found two that clearly fit together.

He carefully inserted the smaller piece into the larger one.

The tiny component seemed to disappear instantly.

The larger part now looked completely intact.

There was almost no visible indication that another piece had been inserted into it.

"This is roughly what I mean."

Kenichi held it up.

"When components are manufactured precisely enough that their boundaries become nearly invisible after assembly, you can think of them as high-precision parts."

The explanation was admittedly crude.

But it was enough.

Trying to explain the exact engineering principles with the Shinobi World’s current technological foundation would only make things more confusing.

"What advantage does this kind of high-precision manufacturing..."

Amado stared at the component.

Then his eyes changed.

"Ah."

"I think I understand."

Kenichi smiled.

He had expected Amado to grasp it quickly.

High-precision components had specialized applications.

They could replace rougher or less accurate components in systems where extremely tight tolerances mattered.

But the production cost was also significantly higher.

That meant there was usually no reason to use them everywhere.

In Kenichi’s previous life, industries with extremely strict technical requirements used this sort of manufacturing most frequently.

Military equipment was one example.

Aerospace was an even more demanding one.

The aerospace industry often required some of the highest standards of precision manufacturing available.

But if someone was merely producing something ordinary, like a household alarm clock, there would be no point using expensive ultra-precise components.

Interestingly, within this entire time machine, Kenichi had only discovered one component constructed this way.

Everything else used comparatively ordinary manufacturing methods.

That made him wonder.

Could this component contain one of the true technological secrets of the Otsutsuki Clan?

Then he looked at the more than one hundred pieces scattered across the table.

His head immediately started hurting again.

Finding the correct assembly order for so many tiny components would be extremely difficult.

And even if they successfully reconstructed it, they would still need to test whether it functioned normally.

There was another problem.

Kenichi had not used his reconstruction ability in quite some time, and in this case he could not simply rely on it to restore the component automatically.

"So what do we do now?"

Amado asked.

Now that the component had been completely dismantled, they needed some way forward.

Kenichi glanced at him.

For the moment, the only practical approach was trial and error.

They had to determine how the parts fitted together, restore the component to working condition, and record the entire process.

If they succeeded, they would at least understand how the strange component was assembled.

But even then, another problem remained.

How would they manufacture replacement parts?

If they could not reproduce the individual components, learning the assembly method alone would have limited value.

Kenichi stared silently at the pieces.

Then another thought occurred to him.

Perhaps he had been looking at this incorrectly.

This component was made from more than a hundred high-precision parts.

But that did not necessarily mean the component itself was responsible for traveling through time and space.

Most likely, it performed some supporting function.

Still, Kenichi could not simply declare it irrelevant.

He had already tested the time machine without this component.

The machine became completely unusable the moment it was removed.

So the part was clearly essential.

But if it was not the source of the time-travel effect itself...

Then did everything ultimately come back to the strange energy inside the machine?

Kenichi rubbed his temples.

Researching time really was troublesome.

If time could be understood this easily, then countless scientists in his previous life would not have struggled so desperately with the problem.

Some had even proposed hypothetical constructs that had never been observed in reality simply to explain certain questions involving prediction, causality, and time.

Kenichi increasingly suspected that this time machine would become the longest research project he had ever undertaken.

"And this Otsutsuki time machine has, to some extent, solved the problem of going into the past and future..."

Kenichi paused.

Then he frowned.

"No."

"Has it really?"

He rubbed his chin.

"After all, I’m currently standing in an entirely different timeline."

In the scientific framework Kenichi remembered from his previous life, most researchers generally considered predicting or reaching the future far more plausible than returning to the past.

There was a simple reason.

The future, at least theoretically, could be predicted to some degree.

Returning to the past was completely different.

To truly reverse time would mean restoring everything that had already changed.

Matter that had transformed would have to return to its previous state.

Energy that had already been released or absorbed would need to reverse perfectly.

Particles that had scattered would need to return to exactly where they had been.

Every physical interaction would have to be undone with absolute precision.

The difficulty was absurd.

That was one of the main reasons many people believed genuine travel into the past did not exist.

Predicting the future, however, had at least a theoretical foundation.

If someone could somehow know the position, movement, and direction of every particle in the universe at a particular instant, then perhaps they could calculate what happened afterward.

Kenichi looked toward the dismantled machine.

Perhaps this device was not truly sending someone backward or forward through the same timeline.

Instead...

It might be jumping between different timelines.

The apparent distinction between "past" and "future" could simply come from selecting a timeline whose point of development was earlier or later relative to the traveler.

From the traveler’s perspective, it would appear as though they had gone into the past or future.

But fundamentally, they had only entered another timeline.

That would also explain something important.

One could influence the future of the timeline they entered.

But they could not actually rewrite the past of the world they originally came from.

Thinking about it, Kenichi sighed.

Then suddenly...

A massive fragment of information appeared inside his mind.

The amount was enormous.

And strange.

The sudden influx made Kenichi dizzy.

He narrowed his eyes and remained still for several moments, allowing his mind to process the information.

Only after some time did the dizziness gradually fade.

Then Kenichi realized what had appeared in his mind.

Theoretical concepts.

Ideas concerning time.

And something else mixed among them.

"What was that?"

Kenichi frowned and rubbed his temples.

There was no obvious explanation.

He looked around the laboratory.

No one else was nearby except Amado.

Amado was still obsessively trying to reconstruct the high-precision component.

He had already assembled the parts incorrectly, taken them apart, and started over four or five times.

Watching him made Kenichi’s heart ache slightly.

"Be careful with those."

Kenichi reminded him.

"When you test different combinations, use a softer surface."

"Better yet, use a protective metal fluid underneath them."

"These components are extremely precise."

"Even an error of 0.1 millimeters could be enough to ruin their accuracy."

Amado obviously had not caused the strange information to appear in Kenichi’s head.

So if it was not him...

Who could have done it?

Within the current Shinobi World, aside from Isshiki, the only person Kenichi could think of who might somehow influence him so quietly was Hagoromo.

But Hagoromo had no reason to do something like this.

That left Kenichi confused.

Then thinking about Hagoromo caused another thought to surface.

Kaguya.

More specifically...

The fragment of Kaguya’s consciousness that Kenichi had left imprisoned in another laboratory.

His expression changed.

Kenichi immediately left.

He hurried into the other laboratory and pushed open the door.

The moment he looked inside, his eyes narrowed.

The container holding Kaguya’s consciousness had been damaged.

Kenichi was genuinely surprised.

That container had been specially designed for isolation and containment.

Yet a mere fragment of Kaguya’s consciousness had actually managed to damage it.

That was absurd.

At the moment, however, the consciousness fragment seemed to have stopped resisting.

It only trembled faintly from time to time.

"Kaguya’s resistance is really this strong?"

Kenichi stared at the container.

"But it looks like she’s finally given up struggling."

"In that case, maybe I can check whether the conditioning is complete..."

He immediately rejected the thought.

"No."

"Better not."

"This is Kaguya Otsutsuki."

"There’s no telling what kind of unexpected problem might appear."

"It would be safer to reinforce the conditioning with another experience first."

Kenichi decided not to take unnecessary risks.

He left the laboratory and located the same adult woman who had served as the previous consciousness donor.

Once again, he placed her under genjutsu.

This time, Kenichi made the emotional scenario even more elaborate.

He changed the sequence of events, added new romantic situations, and designed the false identity so the woman took a more active role in the relationship.

Once the emotional experience had been fully recorded, Kenichi stored the resulting memories and responses.

Then he returned to the laboratory.

He transferred the new experience into Kaguya’s consciousness fragment.

At the same time, Kenichi replaced the damaged container with a completely new one.

Throughout the transfer, he remained extremely cautious.

He did not give Kaguya’s consciousness even the slightest opportunity to exploit the process or escape.

Once everything was safely sealed again, Kenichi stepped back.

The consciousness fragment began trembling once more.

Kenichi watched it for a moment.

Then he nodded with satisfaction.

"The effect seems pretty good."

....

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