[Third Person POV]
[Month 6]
The deal with Azazel, thankfully, went off without a hitch.
Azazel would send over a mid-class fallen every month to claim the allocated materials he requested, which would be sold at a 50% discount.
The Grigori would also receive priority for the next 10 years when purchasing all current and future materials or products. Orders had to be placed in advance, and Grigori couldn't buy more materials than Hajime had available.
Azazel would like to think he could know when there was potential, and he sensed a lot of it coming from Silent Echo.
Maybe it was the unique aura their leader gave off, or the fact that they protected his niece, but he felt they were worth keeping an eye on.
Aside from that, Azazel could also request their services at a 75% discount.
Though they weren't primarily a mercenary group, taking contracts to fight, Hajime accepted the deal. He knew how valuable missions could be.
Earthland and the Shinobi World were both prime examples. Missions provide capable fighters with the ability to earn a living by using their talents. Sure, there were some issues, such as having the strongest people constantly doing paperwork, but Hajime wasn't them!
Even in their current world, leaders were burdened with unnecessary paperwork. That was why Hajime resolved to create a small 'department' dedicated to such things. Not everyone liked putting themselves in danger to get paid after all.
Not every mission was necessarily combat-related, but given the world they're in, most supernatural requests would be.
Thinking about that, Hajime also decided to do something similar to devil contracts. There is no reason that devils can be the only ones helping humans for payment. Plus, they made good D-class missions. In canon, the contracts were basically just simple tasks devils did for a price, like the D-rank missions in Naruto.
As for Hajime's side of the deal, after giving Azazel discounts on material and labor costs, he actually asked for three valuable items: the Vritra gears.
He knew where the fourth one was after all, and even if not a Longinus, Hajime was certain that all four combined were on the same level as Gasper's Forbidden Balor View, a sacred gear with Longinus potential.
He even offered Azazel the chance to study a full 'Vritra Gear' if he obtained the last piece, which finally convinced the fallen leader to accept.
After all, the deal was extremely good. 50% off materials meant Azazel could buy twice as many as the budget he was always fighting for allowed. The discount on missions was also a good thing.
From what Azazel could tell, Ivan was probably peak ultimate-class if not slightly lower. Paying ultimate-class fighters to work usually got expensive, so 75% was a good deal.
What Azazel was most curious about was where the final Vritra gear was, something that he felt Ivan knew, or was at least vaguely aware of.
As for giving them away, though valuable, Azazel didn't mind. He was going to abuse the hell out of those discounts after all, and the chance to study the full Vritra gear in the future meant he was hardly losing out. It wasn't like anyone was using those gears anyway.
Hajime, meanwhile, had been working on two things to help him.
The first thing was his progress on Mother Carmel, which had been ticking up by a percentage point every week or two. At 97%, he could almost start assimilating another character, once again, from the One Piece world, though this one was non-canon.
Specifically, it was Binz, from One Piece Film: Z, a card he'd gotten last week, much to his relief. Binz's Devil Fruit allowed him to grow plants on a conceptual level, something Hajime desperately needed to keep up with the ever-growing orders.
While hiring others for menial farm work wasn't out of the question, Hajime was growing the plants using his abilities. So while anyone could expand the farm's capacity to produce more, Hajime was still the one behind the production.
He could always summon Binz now, but given his pirate-hating personality, there was no way Binz wouldn't go out and kill bountied individuals. If anything, he was a liability since he wouldn't care about bounties with 'alive', not that Hajime dealt with those either.
Plus, wasn't Monet technically a pirate? Would he just kill her because of her past associations?
Hajime wasn't going to risk it. Besides, if he had to choose between Monet and Binz, he'd pick Monet. She was his assistant, and summoning Binz not to use his power was a waste of time.
Who knows? Maybe assimilating Binz would somehow synergize with senjutsu.
For others, it was business as usual.
Some members had also grown in strength.
Pam and Kuchiro had finally reached initiate-stage low-class. While that in itself wasn't anything to write home about, it was still a valuable change.
Blake had been taking more missions than usual, finally breaking through to the advanced stage.
Surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, Blake had quite the talent for shadow-related magic despite Remnant's lack of mana. She had already learned a few spells, with her recent missions putting them into practice.
Finally, Tsubaki had reached advanced mid-class by creating a full second mirror using Mirror Alice. Though she was on the lower end in terms of man reserves, having a second mirror basically cut her 'recharge' timer in half.
[Month 7]
Only one thing of note took place this month.
Hajime finally found a rogue with a sacred gear!
He'd been searching ever since he got Mother Carmel from the gacha. Soul manipulation was ideal when paired with a soul weapon like sacred gears. He'd even gotten to 99% with her, and Hajime was confident that this would help break through that last percent.
Unfortunately, those with sacred gears were already quite rare, and most preferred to use them only in emergencies.
On rogues, it was even harder to find one since they would seldom reveal it unless they were to kill their target. After all, why reveal such a useful tool and give those hunting you more information?
Hajime had tried using Anemoi to locate someone, but unfortunately, nobody in Japan fit the description.
On one of his outings a few months ago, Hajime had Anemoi search for 'a criminal with a sacred gear', causing it to point west.
Following the homie, Hajime was extremely disappointed when he reached the ocean, only to find it still went west.
Though undeterred from his attempt, Hajime figured it was better to wait for someone fitting the description to enter Japan, rather than trying to find the closest one wherever he might currently be hiding.
From there, Hajime left Anemoi in Kage Tower and instructed it to tell anyone when the closest target changed.
There were several false alarms, but eventually, one finally appeared in Japan.
Hajime was out at the time, leaving Pam to receive the alert. By 'alert,' Anemoi was literally floating around, looking for someone while saying 'alert.'
Afterwards, Pam called Hajime, who created several clones to finish his mission before heading back to base in person.
Grabbing Anemoi, the two quickly made their way across Japan, eventually arriving at Kochi on the south side of Shikoku.
Normally, looking for anyone specific in any city was practically impossible. Even with magic, sensing a person you've never met out of a group of strangers is almost impossible. Thankfully, with Anemoi, Hajime took less than 5 minutes to find the sacred gear wielder.
Weaving his way through the streets, pulling himself forward using strings, Hajime soon found himself on the roof of the warehouse where they were hiding.
It honestly baffled Hajime how so many chose to hide in warehouses. Sure, some are abandoned, but surely there are better places to hide, right? Like, hypnotise a school janitor and hide in a room nobody checks.
Why go to the most obvious building where someone suspicious would hide?
Bad criminal life choices aside, the sacred gear wielder wasn't anything special; just a simple Twice Critical user. A user of poison magic, he would double the poison's attributes to turn a dangerous but survivable poison into a highly lethal toxin.
The only reason he became a criminal was that he killed his now ex-girlfriend and her 'lover' for 'cheating' on him, only for the investigation to reveal that her 'lover' was her brother, comforting her over the recent death of their parents.
Yeah. Psycho.
Not that it was Hajime's problem.
Bursting through the ceiling, Hajime released a large pulse of light to blind the man before shooting thin laser beams at his joints.
Without realizing what happened, Hajime incapacitated the man before he could even move.
Hajime slapped a couple of seals onto him to prevent the movement of muscles or energy, hoisted the man onto his shoulder, and grabbed Anemoi before heading home.
Several hours later, Hajime was back at Kage Tower, with a new resident in tow, though only temporarily.
Placing the man down on a medical bed, Hajime began his experiments.
This was the first time he had touched a sacred gear attached to the soul. He'd seen sacred gears before, both with Mirror Alice and the Vritra gears, but he'd never touched Mirror Alice, and touching the Vritra gears did nothing.
Despite his desire to remove sacred gears, Hajime worked slowly and methodically.
Hajime knew sacred gears could be removed. If that were all he cared about, things would be simpler.
But no. He wanted more.
Specifically, the ability to remove them without killing the wielder.
It wasn't because of morality. While Hajime preferred to keep his morals, assimilating Doflamingo meant he could discard them if necessary. The man did kill his lover and her brother, after all.
The main reason was for stealth.
If he were to go around killing people and taking their sacred gears, someone would investigate, and if a mage were the one checking it out? They'd realize his goals.
However, if he just took something from someone who wasn't even aware they had anything in the first place, would anyone notice?
At worst, they might show more magical potential than others, but that's all. Maybe someone like Issei might have the scent of a dragon, but that's
It would also be useful since he could then 'transplant' sacred gears, adding or removing them as needed. He'd pose a similar threat as Rizevim's Sacred Gear Canceller, but worse, since he could remove it entirely.
[Month 8]
Hajime had spent over a month on his experiments, but to no avail. Whenever he'd gotten close to killing his subject, he'd fix everything and use a few drops of healing potion to ensure their survival.
Though he was getting closer with each attempt, frustration was mounting.
Still, Hajime knew to count his blessings. The fact that he could get upset about it was already a good thing, since such knowledge was otherwise unheard of.
Instead of fixating on it, Hajime decided to spend some time relaxing, something he hadn't done in months.
Thus, Hajime spent the next week doing nothing.
Ironically, that week finally taught Hajime what Yasaka felt before she had shadow clones.
Despite taking the week off, Hajime still had a few clones working in the gardens, growing plants with senjutsu.
Once his break was over, Hajime took up his experiment with renewed vigor.
Before, Hajime had limited himself to using the soul fruit; the break helped him realize that was a limiting thought.
Souls were life force, and senjutsu was the manipulation of one's own life force.
He only planned on using the soul fruit's powers to finish Mother Carmel's assimilation, but it probably didn't matter how much he used during the process, so long as it worked.
Taking another shot at removing the Twice Critical, Hajime once again grabbed onto the sacred gear with the soul fruit's powers; however, unlike before, where Hajime planned on 'stitching up' the soul with it, Hajime instead used senjutsu as a 'spiritual coagulant.'
With senjutsu applied to the part of the soul attached to the sacred gear, Hajime slowly separated the two, senjutsu quickly covering any tears that appeared during the 'surgery.'
Finally, after nearly three hours of work, Hajime had with him an almost dead criminal, another Twice Critical, and an open assimilation slot.
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Author's Note:
Thanks for reading; I'll see you next time!