[Third Person POV]
Several weeks had passed since Hajime's team had met Nurarihyon.
Hajime had completely changed his schedule and was back to bounty hunting again. Almost every night, he would go out searching for new targets, and in a city as big as Tokyo, there were dozens.
He would occasionally bring Tsubaki and/or Akeno with him, but most of the time he was by himself. With templates from Laxus, Deathstroke, Jiraiya, and The Hound, sleep was becoming less and less necessary for him.
He'd been targeting high-class targets, starting from initiate-stage and working his way up, though he hunted lower-class targets when with the others.
By now, he had fought and killed several high-class, boosting his confidence in his powers and increasing his current templates to 40% and 8% respectively.
While his Laxus and Jiraiya templates had both fought ultimate-class opponents, that didn't mean much in DxD.
Jiraiya's toughest fights were against Pain and Hanzo, and he lost to both of them. His versatility and skill are some of the best, but power-wise, he falls short. However, he couldn't use Jiraiya's full abilities anyway, so he could probably do better if he fought stronger opponents.
Laxus is different. He's been an S-class mage for years and has fought several S-class opponents, including Wall Eehto of the Spriggan 12. From his fights, it can be said that he's firmly ultimate-class in strength.
He could have been stronger, but as one of the strongest people in the guild for years, he never fully utilized his talents. When he was trapped during the timeskip, he lost seven years to everyone else.
While Hajime could take on ultimate-class opponents strength-wise, that didn't mean he would win, mostly because his strength isn't fully his. Despite finishing the assimilations of several characters, he had yet to practice with their abilities fully. Laxus' full strength? He'd never used it. He couldn't. At full strength, Laxus could destroy a city.
He'd basically be broadcasting that he's an ultimate-class with dragon powers.
While he could fight with lots of the strongest people, against those that mattered? He'd be killed in minutes at best.
Plus, he wasn't sure how connected his powers were to Telos Karma and the sacred gear system. There was a small chance that he could lose everything if someone disrupted the connection.
Tsubaki and Akeno's schedules hadn't changed much compared to his, but there was a noticeable increase in their training time and an occasional second match in the arena.
His and Tsubaki's familiars had also been doing well, though little had changed for now. Familiars take years to fully take advantage of the bond between them and their masters.
Blue had been more cooperative over the last week, though that only meant listening to a few more commands than usual.
Kimiko, on the other hand, was far more in tune with Tsubaki, though her current strength limited how much help she could provide.
For either of them to grow stronger, Hajime realized he'd need to give them something to assimilate. In Blue's case, that would probably help her be even more cooperative.
Aside from the minor growth from training, Hajime was closing in on the 1000 points needed to advance to mid-class, with Tsubaki and Akeno not far behind.
The most exciting thing for Hajime, though, was the items he got over the last weeks.
Aside from some miscellaneous items, two power upgrade cards, and a healing potion, he got three interesting things.
First was a Masterball from Pokémon.
{ The masterball is capable of containing any sentient creature that isn't human. The creature captured will be unable to destroy the masterball. }
Though he was unsure if the masterball had this capability normally or if his sacred gear had altered it, he was happy to have such an item.
Next came a character whose powers he was highly interested in.
{ Jenny Realight }
A mage from the world of Fairy Tail, from the Blue Pegasus guild, she specialized in Machina Soul Takeover magic.
As for why he was highly interested in her?
He still hadn't used several items: the Colossus, the Milano, a jetpack, and a Lamborghini.
Machina Soul wasn't shown in the anime, not to mention Laxus wasn't interested in anything about mages below S-class.
All Hajime knew was that she had some kind of battle armor, but not how the magic worked, which was a big problem since he was completely unwilling to destroy useful items if it worked like the other takeover magics.
The last item, however, he had already planned to use.
{ Random World Travel Ticket : Time 2 Weeks }
{ Will randomly choose a world to send the user to. Can be activated any time after the world is selected. Should the user desire, they can return home at any point before the designated time. While visiting this world, time will not pass in your own. }
Activating it, the ticket dissolved into light, appearing to him like a slot machine, cycling through hundreds of names.
Of the few worlds he could read, there were several he recognized, but most of these worlds were something he'd never heard of before.
As it slowed down, he had more time to read each world's name before eventually slowing and stopping on a name.
{ Pair of Kings }
It wasn't something he had personally seen, but his past life had.
Pair of Kings was your typical live-action sitcom by Disney.
It was one of their strangest ones due to the show's slightly mystical nature. Taking place on the semi-magical island of Kinkow, the two brothers, Brady and Boomer, became kings, but they eventually replaced Brady with a third brother due to controversy with the actor.
The magical nature of this isolated island allowed for strange stories, as writers could add whatever nonsense, claiming it was magic or an island tradition.
For example, the island has a bug that, if it stings you, one of the symptoms is that your head will turn into a pumpkin.
Now, though, all of that was real.
Holding the ticket in his hand, Hajime thought about the dangers of the world, more specifically, how much it would affect him.
The show used whatever nonsense it wanted, meaning that visiting would make all that nonsense and more real. For example, if he brought that bug home with him, would its properties still work, and would they work on gods? In theory, it shouldn't work due to the strength of gods, but the bug is from a show where logic takes a backseat.
Luckily, he would only spend two weeks there.
After making sure he had everything he might need on his person, Hajime activated the ticket and vanished.
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[Hajime POV]
After activating the world travel ticket, I felt a strange pull before vanishing from the room I was staying in.
Seconds later, I appeared in a jungle.
Expanding my senses, I could sense things that felt completely alien to me. This was Kinkow.
The only problem I had now was finding out where I was on the island.
There were two sides: the light side and the dark side. The dark side was kept at bay by a sacred ruby in a giant tiki statue outside the palace.
While the light side was relatively safe from dark magic, the dark side thrived in it. Many beings lived on the dark side, but the most well-known was the tarantula people, a tribe that could turn into tarantulas. The mummy, originally known as Kaita the bat rider, was their leader and the one whose existence fueled the dark side.
Climbing up one of the nearby trees to see where I was, I found myself highly unenthused seeing how close I was to Mount Spew, the volcano.
The current distance only seemed to be a few miles, but that was enough to tell me that I was on the dark side of the island.
Ironically, my biggest concern right now is making sure I don't destroy this part of the island. This world used gross-out humor a lot, which meant getting covered in stuff I didn't plan on getting covered in.
Getting down from the tree, I headed toward the light side.
As I walked, I tried to remember anything useful from the show, though only four items stood out.
First was the Great Book, something I planned to get my hands on. Though I wouldn't steal it, I did want to look through it and maybe copy it. It contained centuries of collective knowledge about Kinkow, which, while I don't think everything would be useful, was better than nothing.
While I wouldn't steal the book, I was confident I could steal the bat medallion. The bat medallion was capable of reviving Kaita the bat rider and bringing darkness across the island, so I don't think anyone would have a problem if I took it.
As for why I'd take it? Two reasons: the tarantula people and the bat monster.
The medallion controlled both of them, and those who were still on Kinkow were evil beyond belief. While there were some good people from the tribe, they split off and left the island because of the barbaric behavior of the others in the tribe.
Though that meant enslaving them, they were enemies of the island and would often attack others on the light side, not to mention their constant attempts to revive Kaita, which would doom the island. Mercy was not something these people deserved.
There were only two other items I could remember that I found truly interesting.
First was a duplicating plant, which would create copies of whoever it bites, but those copies will always betray you.
I did not need it, but like the cursed gem I had, using it on my enemies would be highly effective. After all, there would be many army leaders willing to clone foot soldiers, but those clones would cause chaos in any army.
The other item was something I couldn't even use, the do-over watch. While it was capable of resetting the day, it would only work on the king of Kinkow. A strangely powerful artifact for what could be considered a low-tier world.
Despite my inability to use it, it was still incredibly useful, and I had a way to make it usable: become the king.
I might not be the king, but I know who is, and I know they are irresponsible.
While I could take over with force, I wasn't sure if that would count. Instead, it'd be better to have them give it up willingly.
There are three current heirs to the throne: Brady, Boomer, and Boz.
Boz was currently king of another island, so unless he was made aware of his claim, it wouldn't matter what he did.
Brady and Boomer, on the other hand, were here on Kinkow.
The best way to have them give up the throne would be to have a wager with them. I could offer one of my magic weapons in the duel, and they would almost certainly accept the bet for the chance to get something so cool. Though I'm not sure of everything yet, the plan is foolproof, mostly because I have powers and they don't.
As I kept walking, I heard some noises coming from the nearby area.
Now alert, I focused on the noises, realizing that there seemed to be several people surrounding me.
Seconds later, tarantula people burst out from behind the trees and bushes.
Before they could do anything, though, I used waterbending to control their blood, freezing them in place. Surprisingly, the island allowed me to bloodbend despite the normal restrictions.
Now, what to do with these guys?
__________
Author's Note:
So, a few weeks ago, I had planned an entire arc where the team would be hired to fight a horde of monsters alongside other bounty hunters, but I wasn't completely sold on the idea. Then I remembered that the gacha could let him travel the multiverse, which could make for a much better arc.
I chose Pair of Kings for a few reasons. 1: Slightly magical, but easy for him to dominate. 2: Enough useful things that it would be a good idea to visit. 3: Vague lore that lets me do and make whatever the hell I want. 4: Saturday morning TV logic, so there's a lot of strange stuff I can have fun with.
Thanks for reading; I'll see you next time!