[Third Person POV]
After creating chaos that spread worldwide, Hajime returned to Tsushima to free the prisoners from Crawforde's lab. Kage Tower, thankfully, had an abundance of rooms for ANBU to sleep, so they didn't have to worry about leaving someone without a bed.
It wasn't ideal; the amount of light that entered the room was minimal to keep the rooms as hidden as possible, but there were lamps, nightstands, and desks, which helped make the place feel less prison-like.
Hajime had also managed to convince the few people who wanted to rush home of the dangers.
Even with Sirzechs's crackdown, that wouldn't completely stop the criminal activity; they'd focus on hiding it better. He warned that, on the off chance they visit their families, if they were being monitored and one of their test subjects returned, they'd capture everyone, extort information about him, and nobody would be better off.
Instead, Hajime proposed that they join his organization, Silent Echo. It was on an isolated island with minimal supernatural activity. He could even bring their families if they wanted, since they might be in danger anyway. Nobody took that offer since they were probably safe for now, but they did say they'd consider it.
Upon his return, Hajime was, unfortunately, greeted by more work.
It was mostly about some smaller Japanese families wanting to buy from them, so he got to work. Thankfully, his clones had been hard at work, using senjutsu to maintain their form and allow the plants to continue growing, even in his absence. Everyone else had spent the time training or working.
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Speaking of senjutsu-using clones, across the infinite void, in another world, was another Hajime. This was the clone he left on Kinkow before his travel ticket expired.
Using the evolved form of senjutsu he got with Power Upgrade Cards, Hajime created the clone to manage the island for him while he was gone, which had been in charge for the months he was gone.
The clone was just like every other clone, unable to take damage, or it would dispel, so the first thing the original clone did was hide itself somewhere safe, even making sure to keep Barrier active. From there, Clone Hajime restored his energy using senjutsu, then created clones to do the work for him, while he ensured they didn't all disappear.
OCH (Original Clone Hajime) functioned as a sort of data storage center for the extra clones whenever they dispelled. The original Hajime was going to get a headache whenever he returned, possibly going into a coma if his brain's mental abilities weren't strong enough by then. Still, as clones, they all understood he knew the risk.
After all, he couldn't exactly leave his kingdom without a king.
Ignoring diplomatic reasons, if he left for long enough, who knew if someone would try bringing back the triplets in a sort of coup. After all, if he wasn't there, he might as well be considered dead.
Anyway, ruling Kinkow has been easy thanks to the clones.
Splitting his work between them meant each clone had loads of free time. As for the work he was doing, most of it was self-inflicted.
There was the guard training, which he had used clones for. The guards had all made remarkable improvements.
The Muscle Corps, as Hajime had come to call them, had progressed in their training. They were the guards with little-to-no magic talent, like Mason. While he was sure Mason's lack of talent was from his literal sasquatch ancestors, the others were too weak talent-wise. Mikayla had some talent, and it still took her a while to learn how to use a fire spell barely, and that was with his help. Instead, he focused on something more practical, teaching not only physical development, but martial arts.
For a magical island, you'd think there would be more unique fighting styles. The most unique one was, disgustingly, Pitricia's armpit hair control, wielding it like whips, and that wasn't exactly something Hajime wanted to spread.
Though Hajime wouldn't allow such a thing to exist within his ranks, that didn't mean they couldn't develop some unique fighting styles. For example, using one of the many poisons on the island to coat a sword meant that, even if you lose a fight, as long as you hit your opponent, they are temporarily taken out of action.
The other two corps he created, the Magic and Stealth Corps, were doing just fine.
The Magic Corps had finally had someone finish mastering their tenth spell, which, while not too impressive since they were only low-class spells, boosted their power by a lot in such a low-tier world. Combined with the Muscle Corps's enhanced strength, this created a dangerous pairing that made his army the strongest in the archipelago.
Lastly, the Stealth Corps, which had been trained in his shinobi techniques to surveil the island. Since chakra didn't exist here in the same way, Hajime got creative. During a boot camp that took up most of their time, he trained them in all shinobi skills: movement/stealth, tracking, disguise, information coding/decoding, medicine, and more. The training took several months, and most of that time was painful as, at times, they were forced to stay in one place, unable to move and starved, waiting for the exercise to end when their target appeared.
Still, they made tremendous progress, reaching the level of second-year students in only a few months.
The rest of Kinkow was doing fine. Hajime's many projects were carried out; some were done, while others were in the middle of construction.
His biggest project was to increase the number of hot air balloons on the islands. Interisland transport was a joke with several monstrous beings living somewhere in the ocean's depths.
It was like a Pacific Bermuda Triangle, where nothing got out. With so many sea monsters, using boats was practically suicidal. Just look at the few times boats get brought up in the show to understand. Back when the triplets were babies, which caused Boz to be lost overboard, during the episode with Sununu's queens and their boat breaks midway through the trip, where they only survive because of plot, and an episode in season three where a boat party is a cover for a giant hungry frog to eat people.
Safe to say, boats weren't. It was why hot air balloons were frequently used in the show. During the Sununu episode, the twins needed a project for the island to present to the other kingdoms, and they chose something similar after learning how dangerous it was to sail over, so Hajime was using a tested idea and common sense, since one balloon does not make a transport network. What if it gets lost in a storm or destroyed? Better to have multiple in use.
The rest of the island was doing fine, too.
His citizens, more specifically the children, were enjoying the magic class he added to the school curriculum, currently taught by another clone. For now, until magic was more widespread and people could correct mistakes and prevent accidents, only those 14 and up were allowed to sign up for the class. On top of that, Hajime added the restriction that if any student were caught practicing irresponsibly, which he warned them about in their first class, or worse, attempting to teach others, they would be banned from the class for 5 years and monitored.
As the king, he wouldn't risk his people causing accidents to themselves and others because they were being careless. He could understand the excitement that came with being able to use magic, but that didn't mean they could ignore any consequences.
Besides his own people, Hajime had learned about the other tribes' situations. Most were in states of relative peace, though the Dirt Fairies and Flaji were having their usual disputes. To try to convince them to pursue peace, Hajime sent over a clone to mediate.
Their constant beef wasn't anything new. The rivalry stretched back nearly 100 years, when a Dirt Fairy started a rumor that Flaji were cannibals for a reason long since forgotten. Since then, the two tribes had been in near-constant rivalry, breaking into conflict only occasionally, which was mediated by past kings.
Luckily for Hajime, Boomer's Flaji friend, Oogie, liked a Dirt Fairy named Priscilla, which meant the best way to end this magical Romeo-and-Juliet-type feud was with green Romeo and dirty Juliet, like in canon.
Though both sides were hesitant about any peace, especially Priscilla's older brother, they had to listen to Hajime's input since he was the king.
Hajime even explicitly said that he wouldn't force the tribes to interact, but he didn't want them to keep squabbling over a pointless argument whose originators were long since dead. To placate the Flaji, he instructed his guards to go around the island, explaining that the rumor was false and the history behind it. The Dirt Fairies were given a day-long buffet so that both sides got something, with any food they requested delivered (within reason).
Funnily enough, Priscilla had invited Oogie to the buffet, which was scheduled for the next day so the food could be prepared. She even told Oogie to bring a few friends, which he did.
With the other Flagi at the buffet, things were cold until Priscilla stood up and dragged Oogie to the side. Everyone watched as she guided him through the Dirt Fairy mating dance, a ritual similar to many Birds of Paradise dances that signaled to both tribes that, whether they liked it or not, their feud was over.
Besides ending the conflict between the two tribes, Hajime had gathered the leaders of all the tribes, except for the Tarantula tribe, which already had a clone there managing things.
Hajime proposed a knowledge exchange, trading away a few basic magics fitting for the tribes, such as ice magic for the Yeti tribe or earth magic for the Squonks, and getting special information that the tribes passed down orally, like a special healing remedy the Squonks made, which Hajime had no intention of using personally after seeing it. However, he was certain most people on the island wouldn't care.
That was always a confusing thing to him. In the show, the constant gross-out stuff was played for laughs, but now that it was real? It was confusing why so many people would make this tradition. Like, why would the kings need to be spit on for the coronation? Who does that possibly benefit? He understood that their tradition was probably based on superstition, but that was honestly more concerning.
It implied that someone had failed so much that they started doing superstitious actions to succeed, but kept failing until it reached a point of grossness. Of course, he could just be misreading things, but that was the only logical option. How else would spitting in the king's face be necessary for the coronation?
The Tarantula tribe had, thus far, kept to themselves as Hajime ordered. Even though a clone was there, on the off chance the clones couldn't command them, the original had ensured they at least wouldn't cause any issues. Kutamungo, Kaita's bat-dragon mount, had stayed guarding the tribe, flying out daily to hunt for food and scout for enemies.
Somewhat surprisingly, his favorite food seemed to be the fowl mantis, specifically the quail variant. That was why Hajime had the Tarantula tribe create a farm to raise them as livestock.
Hajime had also taken the time to swap magic with them, learning their special dark-side magic in exchange for some darkness-based spells of his own. He was especially curious about their spider transformation. While Hajime wasn't a fan of spiders, he was curious about how their transformation worked, since it seemed to have some stealth magic unconsciously mixed in.
After all, whenever the castle was under attack, they used their transformation to sneak in, somehow bypassing people's notice, despite the guards absolutely knowing they could transform. Then there was Kaita's ability to force them to change at will.
Either Kaita or his ancestors might have been related to the Tarantula tribe, and that force-switch was the magic taken to its extreme, but with Kaita dead, all Hajime could do was practice to see if he could ever replicate it.
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Author's Note:
Thanks for reading; I'll see you next time!