Disclaimer: I don't own anything other than the OCs I create.
Japan - Hidden Dimension
Sitting upon a throne in the centre of the room was a young woman dressed in a loose black yukata; she had a pale white complexion, long black hair that went to the back of her knees, eyes of inky black and 3 ash-grey fox tails lazily floating behind her. She pulled her blood-coated arm out of the chest of a naked young woman before pushing the now corpse away from her as she started to consume the heart she had just taken.
The body hit the floor as blood started pouring from the hole in the chest and into carved-out crevices within the stone floor; the carving surrounded the throne and covered the entirety of the room in the form of some sort of array that glowed red slightly from where the blood had leaked into.
The young woman wasn't the only body in the room; surrounding the throne were countless corpses, all missing their hearts and fuelling the array with their blood. Each corpse was that of a young woman; some had already become shrivelled husks as the glowing array seemed to pulse, pulling every last drop of blood from the corpses.
Multiple footsteps echoed throughout the room; the group that entered were all carrying unconscious women apart from the 2 leading the group.
"Ah, Kidomaru, Kyokotsu, I see you've brought me more magically potent virgin women for the array; it won't be long now. Once I've consumed 99 hearts and powered the array with the blood of their owners, I'll be able to regain some of my lost power, and then we can begin to unseal the others and reclaim Kyoto, and there I shall give birth to my dear Nue, where he will begin his rule." Hagoromo said with a manic glint in her eyes as fresh blood drips from her lips.
"It is as you command, my lady; we have already begun preparations to unseal the ones guarded by Nurarihyon's group. Jizo has made use of Danuki's youngest child to create a distraction for us when the time is right." Kidomaru said as both he and Kyokotsu bowed to her.
Kidomaru was a tall, elderly-looking man with long grey hair and a short beard; he wore a dark kimono and obi. He also wore shoulder and arm plating for protection, and on his hips were 2 katanas.
Hagoromo's 3 tails lashed out in anger after hearing Nurarihyon's name being mentioned.
"Good, when the time is right, I will personally end that insufferable man's bloodline myself. How goes everything on your end, Kyokotsu?"
"Hiahiahia, it's going according to plan, my lady. We've already infiltrated Kyoto and have set up a dimension hidden away from the other yokai; we are just waiting for your arrival to start syphoning from the leyline."
Kyokotsu had the appearance of a young girl and wore a robe that was predominantly black which had colourful square patterns on it; she had messy long black hair and bright yellow eyes with black rings surrounding the pupil. She held a skull that she stroked lovingly, and from the eyes and mouth of the skull multiple snakes slithered about; the largest one rested upon the girl's shoulders.
"Well done, the birth of my child will require energy, and the leylines will provide me with what I need. The granddaughter of that mongrel may be connected to it, but she does not control where all that power goes; it is too wild for her to truly control other than a battery for herself." Hagoromo said while sneering when she mentioned the mongrel.
"What of the object I asked you to retrieve?"
"Ibaraki-Doji has gone personally with a squadron to the demonic pits, my lady. He has reported that it wasn't where you said it was and that it may have been taken to the deeper layers where it is being held by one of the lords there." Kidomaru responded.
Hearing the news, she scowled as her tails lashed out in anger but being careful not to damage the array on the floor.
"Tell him when he finds it to negotiate for it; if that fails, then take it by force and return quickly with it. I don't care if he is seen leaving the pits during his escape as long as he brings it back to me. The devils can deal with the aftermath; the object is of utmost importance to my child's birth. I sacrificed too much in my last incarnation to lose it now," she all but growled out, her tails still flailing wildly behind her.
"It shall be done, my lady." Kidomaru said, bowing.
She turned her gaze to the other yokai in the room who had been prostrating themselves on the ground, not saying a word.
"Remove the husks and lay the women down in front of my throne. Once that is done, you may leave." As soon as she finished speaking, they all responded with "Yes, my lady!" and began doing as they were told.
"Kidomaru, attempt to contact the northern oni faction and see if they are willing to work with us. I have no doubt that there have been whispers of my return, and the factions that once fought against us will do so again; they will be looking for me, and once they do, we will need to keep them back until I have given birth.
We can use the oni to fight for us; they are always looking for a reason for battle, so inform them that this will be their chance to prove themselves against the east and west and that they shall be rewarded for their assistance," she said, smirking as she began ripping the heart out of another woman and biting into the warm, recently beating heart.
"It shall be done, my lady; I will leave immediately." Kidomaru said with reverence before bowing and leaving to complete the task given to him.
"Kyokotsu, start moving our people to the Kyoto dimension apart from the ones following Oni Hitokuchi and Satori, who are gathering the women for me. Get them to start setting up facilities for our people and most importantly the birthing chamber; I want it built immediately."
"Understood, my lady; I will get to it straight away." Kyokotsu replied with a creepy giggle before bowing and leaving the room.
"Soon, my child, soon." Hagoromo all but whispered as she rubbed her currently flat stomach.
[Split]
Urakyoto – Meeting Room
- Yasaka -
"Why is there a branch member in Elder Rokuma's seat?" 'Elder Domaki said, huffing, and his long wispy beard shook.'
"Elder Rokuma has been removed and imprisoned along with a majority of the main clan members; they were selling information to our enemies and planning a coup. Torukuma is now the head of the clan, and his branch will be taking over as the new main branch." I said, conveying the seriousness of the situation across the room.
Shocked gasps rang out across the room as each elder started shouting out in outrage, calling for Rokuma's head.
"Enough, it has been dealt with. Now first I would like you all to welcome Torukuma and to congratulate him on taking the role of Elder for his clan."
After hearing that Rokuma had been dealt with appropriately, the atmosphere in the room got lighter as they all began welcoming a new elder and congratulating him for gaining the position.
"Thank you all truly; I am sorry for what Rokuma has done and swear to you that such a thing shall not happen again from within our clan." 'Torukuma', said smiling gently as he bowed to everyone in the room.
Torukuma was a large man, almost 7 foot, which was standard for a clan of bear yokai; each member was tall and built like a wall. He had short fuzzy brown hair and bear ears on his head and had a deceivingly gentle appearance for a yokai that was as physically powerful as he was.
He was one of the yokai truly loyal to me, so him replacing Rokuma was an easy choice for me.
"Now, as shocking as Rokuma's betrayal is, that is not why I called today's meeting."
"It has been brought to my attention by Nurarihyon himself that there have been whispers of Hagoromo Gitsune being alive again." I said the words, which felt like acid as I said them aloud.
Many gasped at the revelation, while some of the older ones from my grandmother's time paled and their mouths opened in horror; they had been there for Hagoromo's previous incarnation and had fought and survived. They knew what was likely coming if we didn't deal with her as soon as possible.
"Quiet, I know this is not the news you all wish to hear, but it is happening and we need to start preparing. She will want Kyoto, as it is the place of power she was removed from previously, but we will not just let her walk in and take it from us. Begin gearing up and training your clan members. Hopefully we find her before she grows in strength and can finish her quickly, but should the worst come, we must be prepared."
"I am in contact with Magari, and we have joined forces with each other in searching for her location. As soon as we find it, we will be launching an all-out assault to put an end to the problem before it can begin."
As much as they hated dealing with the east faction due to how rowdy they were, they knew a powerful Hagoromo was worse.
"If even the smallest piece of information regarding Hagoromo reaches you or your clan members, I want to know immediately. Is that understood?" I said, getting a grim nod from everyone.
"Good, I have faith that the west will overcome this trial we now face as we once did before. Now go and prepare yourselves."
"Yes, Lady Yasaka," they all said, already leaving to prepare their clans for the issues to come; hopefully it wouldn't have to come to that.
Slumping forward onto the table, a sigh escapes me. Why couldn't the bitch stay dead? Pushing myself away from the table, I get up and start making my own way towards my own clan to inform both mother and grandmother about the development.
I'll have to bring Souta in the future when I get the chance so he can get some extracts from the clan.
[Split]
Kyoto – Dreamleaf Trader
- Souta -
And done, the first fruits have just been added to the catalogue; for now I decided to put just the typia mystic fruits up for sale as limited stock. I planned on selling the typia fruits for at least 10 to 20 million pounds depending on the typing, as I had truly limited amounts of certain types.
(A/N I'm going to be switching to pounds from yen even though he lives in Japan; too much conversion, and it's an easier system for me to use. If you want to convert what it would be to yen, just google it. I hope you understand.)
The ones I only had 1 mystic fruit for I would keep for myself along with 1 of each of the other typings.
While I had the fruits catalogued, I didn't have them in the store in person; I would be keeping them in the briefcase, where I would pull them from when the transaction was made.
The wards for the store had also been heavily upgraded by a group Yasaka sent, and the control for them was given to me since word had gotten out about new powers shown by the yokai, and people were going to know soon enough that it was me that provided them, especially now that I started listing them. I would have rather waited a bit to get stronger, but oh well.
With my new ability to create a portal, I wasn't worried about being unable to escape should I need to, and I would keep my briefcase somewhere safe if I needed to return to it.
So yeah, I wasn't worried about revealing the mystic fruits. I also wanted them to be revealed on my own terms instead of people just finding out and secretly attempting something; they still would, but if every faction wants one, they will be inclined to protect the person who can grant them that power, making it safer for me from certain factions.
Plus, Yasaka already mentioned she had one of her personal guards protecting me and that they would remain silent about anything I did, which was a relief.
As for why I went with the Typia fruits first, it was to give the other factions a taste of what mystic fruits could do; by granting them a fruit that could create a sentient, evolving familiar, they would want to see what I could create personally for them, and they would be willing to pay so much more after that.
The number of resources I was looking forward to gaining in the future had me drooling already.
In other news, we had an issue, and that was Hagoromo cropping up; at least that answered my question of whether the east faction was led by Nurarihyon from that one anime I watched in my previous life, though this did affect everything I knew about this world. I was already going to affect everything with the mystic fruits I sold, but this had me wondering if there were any other crossovers happening or if that was the only one.
Shaking my head to keep my thoughts from spiralling, I thought about the threat Hagoromo posed. I didn't remember much other than that she wanted to give birth to her son to let him rule all yokai and that she would use Kyoto for his birthing ground, so the west faction was in danger, and I wasn't strong enough to fight her myself, but I would help where I could, and that was granting powers.
Yasaka wouldn't be pleased with me just giving her more without anything in return, but well, we were in a relationship now, and I wanted to protect her and the people she cared for so she could sulk about all she wanted, and Zoan fruits were the easiest to make, so I would mostly create them for her for the power boost.
I also picked up more training recently with Yasaka's guards. We started training in the first steps towards unlocking Haki, and it was strenuous; every day felt like my body was one big bruise, and I literally had bruises on my head from trying to dodge a goddamn stick from whacking me over the head.
I also managed to pick up 2 new grimoires, Lightning and Arcane. Arcane was interesting; it was raw mana converted into a more pure and stable form that was useable. It consisted of mainly beams, lances and meteor-type magics, though the grimoire probably belonged to someone who focused mainly on offence rather than defence. I would have to look into creating my own defensive magics in that branch or finding another grimoire that had some.
Lightning on the overhand was probably my favourite so far, especially chain lightning. The way I could think of which targets I wanted to hit and it would chain through them and around targets that weren't marked – it worked by the magic creating supercharged markers on the target which the lightning would be attracted to. Obviously, if anyone was too close or touching the target, they would get hit too.
I even did my best Palpatine impression; it was safe to say the others thought I'd gone mad during our training session that day. I was slightly embarrassed I had let the lightning grimoire get to my head.
Sitting down, I opened my phone and decided to send a message to both Le Fay and Lavinia to let them know about my newly added stock and the price range for them; they were my first customers, and I thought it fair they could get first choice in case they wanted one of the types I only had 1 of on sale.
After that I would make a post announcing them on the supernatural forum; a lot would take it as me trying to scam them, but the ones willing to take a risk would see I was telling the truth.
I planned on heading back to the Pokémon world in the future when I was more powerful and going on an extracting spree to stock up on more, but that could wait until later down the line.
(A/N: This will probably be mentioned in a chapter and not be a whole chapter; I'll probably use the Pokémon world as fun omake chapters in the future.)
After sending the messages to them both, I put my phone away and lazily reclined in my chair, waiting for a reply and thinking how busy everything would be in the future.
[Split]
Demon Pit, 7th level
Walking through the miasmic mists of the 7th level of the demon pits were Ibaraki-Doji and his party in search of the object his lady required for Nue's birth.
Leaping from the mists was a small purple goblin-looking creature with black claws, teeth and horns as it went to claw at Ibaraki-Doji's face.
He swiped his arm out in front of the creature as it froze in the air before turning to a meaty paste and scattered throughout the mist.
- Ibaraki-Doji -
"Relentless little bastards." I all but hissed.
The weak ones of our group had already been picked off in the last 6 levels, not that they mattered; only the object the lady assigned me with retrieving did. Nothing would get in my way; I would return it to her where it rightfully belonged.
Finally, after walking through the mist for some long time, we stepped into the domain of the lord of this level, the demon of madness and cruelty; he would use the mists to torment those weak of will and play with their minds as he slowly broke them.
"It is not often I get visitors. What brings you here, little morsels?" The lord of the 7th level said in a silky-smooth voice as mist poured from the large mouth on its stomach as the one on its face smirked.
"We have come seeking the hollow infant heart; we are willing to trade for it." I said, 'Uncaring for this creature's games.'
"Ah yes, the delicate little heart crafted from the flesh of a divine and corrupted by demonic energy. Tell me, why should I trade it to you when I've been letting it increase in power over the years to feast upon it myself?" he boomed a laugh with both mouths.
The creature was 10 feet tall and sat on a throne of skulls. He had black teeth, claws and multiple black horns; his skin was a deep purple, and he had multiple spikes pierced into his body connected to chains. On the end of each chain were collared bodies, some groaning and others already broken. Some of them were from the other levels; some had already died and were just being dragged around by the creature to his amusement. The chains were also draining the bodies of their very essence.
"The hollow heart belongs to my lady; it was left here by her to absorb the ambient energy. We are merely looking to retrieve what was lost to us."
"Funny, I saw no one when I found it, just some paltry protections. I didn't see the lady you serve leave her name anywhere when I picked it up, so what would you wish to trade?"
"May I at least see that you have the item in question before we strike a bargain with one another? I would not like to waste any more time should you be lying to me." I said I was already preparing to take it by force once it was shown to me. I could see in his eyes he wasn't going to trade it away; he was just waiting for the right time to consume it for himself. He was merely toying with us.
The creature cackled out loud before saying, "It is rare that someone questions me. The last time someone did it was that little upstart that fell from grace, demanding me to serve him. I sent him away, but I did hear he took 3 traitors with him, but I shall humour you. I am intrigued if what you're willing to trade will be worth it."
The creature grasped at the air as a delicate small heart appeared in between its fingers; the heart was bright red, and the veins pulsed with a black liquid. It was small, and it was still beating.
As the creature glanced at the heart, distracted and mesmerised by the way it absorbed the ambient energy, I attacked. One powerful strike severed the hand holding the heart and sliced into his chest, and he was blasted back from the force. I leapt towards the falling hand and snatched the heart as the others began attacking the shocked demon.
Confirming it was the thing I was looking for, I immediately bolted from the creature's domain and back into the mists of the 7th level, ready to ascend through the other levels.
I heard the roar of fury as the creature recovered from the surprise attack and made quick work of the ones that followed me. I was already quite the distance away and glanced back as he stepped out of his domain, and his hand had already grown back. The large mouth on his stomach sucked in all the mist in the area as they revealed the countless demonic creatures of this level finally able to see.
"CAPTURE HIM AND YOU SHALL BE REWARDED!!" The creature roared its fury to its kind as they all turned to face me.
I grinned a manic grin as I released the seal on the wooden grave marker attached to my face, covering the part that connected me to the man I saw as my father. As it fell away, I placed it in my storage space along with the heart, as the left side of my face was revealed, showing the same oni-like features of my father. My bloodlust soared as I began cleaving my way through waves of enemies, leaving waves of guts, flesh, blood and bones in my wake.
My lady knew how to give me the best missions; I laughed as I killed my way out of this disgusting place.
New chapter. Hope you liked it.
As always, if there are any issues, let me know and I can correct them.
This marks the start of this arc I hope you enjoy; the MC will be involved in some fights, and he will grow from them, so I hope you look forward to them, and we've finally added mystic fruits to the store, just the typical ones for now. I set the prices to 10 to 20 million; I mean, from what I searched up, the ope ope is the most expensive fruit in One Piece, and that was only 26.5 million if you converted the berries to pounds based on fan estimations, so I feel like I've set them quite expensive, but DxD is a smaller world, and gaining power should be expensive, especially when the other 3 types allow you to train haki.