[Third Person POV]
Bringing out Monet's card, it was enveloped in light before vanishing.
Moments later, a tall, green-haired girl with bird wings for arms stood in front of Hajime.
When the light settled, she looked around before her eyes landed on him.
"Where am I?"
Monet looked confused.
She was looking all around.
"Would you mind telling me what the last thing you remember is?"
Though she seemed hesitant to say anything, Hajime gave her a reason to answer.
"If you answer my question, I might be able to tell you what happened to Doflamingo."
!
Her face lit up hearing about her captain.
"Tell me!"
"First, I need to know what happened with you; otherwise, my information might be wrong."
She nodded.
"Right, I was with Caesar Clown on Punk Hazard when the Straw Hat Pirates, Heart Pirates, and Marines arrived..."
She described the entire situation on Punk Hazard almost exactly as Hajime could remember it, all the way up to her death.
The only mistakes she made were minor and likely due to a lack of information.
"Now tell me about the young master."
"After Punk Hazard, the Straw Hat and Heart Pirates went to Dressrosa..."
Explaining the Dressrosa arc to her, Hajime said that most of her crew, including her sister, were arrested by the Marines, while Vergo died destroying the lab.
Once he finished his explanation, Hajime changed topics.
"I have some good and bad news about Doflamingo after that, though. I'll let you decide if you want to hear it."
"Please!"
"When I brought you here, I also had a similar option with your captain. Rather than summon him, I assimilated him, making me, for all intents and purposes, Doflamingo."
As Hajime said that, he transformed himself into Doflamingo and shot strings from his fingers at Monet.
Monet stood there for a second, looking at the child in front of her. She thought she would see her boss, but instead, she saw the child become him.
"How does that work?"
"Think of it like I ate a Doflamingo devil fruit. Just as your Yuki Yuki no Mi turns you into snow, I can turn into Doflamingo. The only difference between us is that Doflamingo's thoughts aren't mine, but my thoughts are his."
Turning back into himself, Hajime asked the all-important question.
"Right now, I can give you three options. Your first choice is that you can leave here and go wherever you want, do whatever you want. However, if you do that, you are forbidden from mentioning me in any way.
If you don't want to do that, you can work for me, similar to how you worked for Doflamingo. In exchange, I can help you grow stronger and reunite you with your sister."
"What about option three?"
"Death," Hajime stated bluntly.
"My powers brought you back to life. Just imagine if Gol D. Roger or Whitebeard were brought back to life, the world government would do anything it could to kill them and whoever brought them back. I won't keep you here if you don't want to stay, but I will not allow anyone in this world to find out about my abilities until I can deal with the consequences.
Anyway, I'll give you some time to think about it while I talk to the others."
Going to the four individuals he summoned earlier, Hajime gave them a similar proposal.
Pam agreed the quickest, asking for him to help send her back to her family, which he tentatively agreed to, mostly depending on her future thoughts and his future abilities.
Jenny was the next one to agree, seeing it as just another adventure to go on, though when she heard about possible machines for her magic, she was thrilled about the decision.
Welf and Blake were the last ones to agree.
Welf agreed on the condition that he didn't have to make magic swords. Hajime accepted, but warned that there was more to magic swords than what he knew.
Blake was disappointed to learn racism still existed here, but hearing how it was more based on magic than looks, made her choose to accept it. At the very least, she wanted to know what a world without hatred towards faunus was like.
Withdrawing some money from his inventory, he gave each of his new subordinates $1,000 to go and buy some clothes.
They couldn't wear the same outfits multiple times, unlike characters in cartoons, even if some of them were just that.
The shows they came from existed in this world, and that meant there was a chance of recognition, no matter how small.
Even if people in this world had people do the same, they at least had multiple sets of clothes or cleaned them every day.
The bigger issue, though, was their names. Sharing the same name as fictional characters, wearing 'cosplay' all the time, eventually, someone would notice. Besides that, they at least needed a second pair of clothes in case their current clothes get dirty or damaged, which is very likely considering they'll be involved in the supernatural world.
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Minutes later, Monet walked up to Hajime and surprised him by kneeling before him. "I am willing to serve you, young master; I just hope I can eventually see my sister again."
Taking a few seconds to process what she said, Hajime was completely stunned by what he was seeing.
Of everything he was expecting, replacing Doflamingo's place in Monet's heart was at the bottom of the list.
Hajime figured Monet was more likely to think he killed Doflamingo, since he could've chosen to summon Doflamingo instead of assimilating him.
"I can accept both your pledge and request, though would you mind telling me why? I thought for sure you'd reject me on the basis that I wasn't Doflamingo."
"As you should already know, I gave my life for Master Doflamingo. From what you said, he already died, and if you do summon my sister, that means she'll also have died.
I care about him, but I only started serving him because he allowed me to care for Sugar. I kept loyally serving him for all those years because she was well off. Her importance to his plans allowed her to live a good life, even though I was dying, I knew she'd still be able to live a good life after my death.
Maybe if we had joined someone else, we could've lived normal lives, but either way, I was only loyal to him because my sister was safe with him."
"I see."
Hearing that, Hajime was a little shocked. Of all the crews in the One Piece World, the Donquixote Pirates were one of the most loyal crews, up there with the Straw Hat Pirates and Whitebeard Pirates, so her words were unexpected.
The more he thought about it, the more Hajime realized it made some sense.
Although there was limited information about Monet and Sugar's past, it was clear that Doflamingo had saved them when they were younger, fostering a strong loyalty to him and his goals. Monet was even willing to die to help him achieve his plans.
Despite that, Monet still cared about Sugar, which might've even taken priority over her captain. Since Monet died for his failed plans, while her sister ended up arrested and might die, her loyalty doesn't matter anymore.
Though Hajime didn't realize it, the fact that he, someone who was practically Doflamingo in almost all ways, resurrected her made her see him similarly to the child who saved her and Sugar all those years ago.
"So what's my first job, young master?"
"First, my name is Hajime, not young master. If you must, then call me Hajime-sama.
Secondly, your current job is to take time and get acquainted with this new world."
Hajime summoned five shadow clones and henged them into random people before addressing everyone.
"Since all of you will be working for me, I'll have a clone stationed with you for protection and assistance until you can continue on your own. Should you need more help afterwards, ask. I can make multiple clones. I can easily spare a clone or two if it's needed.
While I don't expect any of you to become combatants if you don't want to, I do expect you to train so you can protect yourself if you're ever alone. Any questions?"
Blake raised her hand before speaking. "What exactly do you plan on teaching us?"
"Many things, but mainly magic."
"Magic isn't real," Pam spoke, her voice shaky but intelligible.
"Not in your world, maybe, but in this world it does. It also exists in Welf, Blake, and Jenny's worlds in different forms.
For Welf, some gods walk among mortals, blessing them with power so that they can find entertainment.
In Blake's world, magic is all but gone after humans rebelled against the gods. Now, only a few traces of magic exist scattered around Remnant.
In Jenny's world, magic is much more common. Anyone with enough reserves can train in magic and become a mage. It's also inhabited by gods, dragons, and devils, each of which can teach others a powerful form of magic called slayer magic."
"There was magic in my world?" Blake asked.
"Yes. Stories like the girl in the tower and the four maidens were based on Ozpin's past lives millennia ago. The girl in the tower was his wife, Salem, who became the Queen of Grimm, while the maidens were his daughters, blessed by his magic. Even now, their magic lives on in four hosts. One of them was Cinder, and another was Yang's birth mother.
Ruby also had magic. Her eyes produce a special light magic capable of turning Grimm to stone.
Aside from that, there were four relics made by the Brother Gods, one of which currently keeps Atlas floating in the sky."
Leaving Blake somewhat broken after having her entire worldview shattered in seconds, Hajime turned to Jenny, who was raising her hand.
"What type of magic will you be teaching us?"
"A few different ones that anyone can use, but for now, you'll start with calculation magic. Centuries ago, the mage Merlin created it based on the imagination magic that this world's devils have. It's currently the most popular type of magic since it's universally applicable. While your world has lots of magic, like make magic, requip magic, or takeover magic, humans in this world don't have that kind of ability.
Only magical races, such as gods, dragons, devils, or various hybrids, possess innate magic that they can use without practice. Calculation magic allows humans the ability to use magic more easily than before. Though other races don't need to learn it, it serves as a good beginner subject when learning magic, so almost everyone can perform at least the most basic spells with it."
After a few more questions were asked, everyone dispersed. The girls all headed out according to Hajime's directions, planning on going shopping for some new clothes.
Hajime wasn't surprised by what they wanted to do.
Welf went to the nearest blacksmith after asking for directions. He planned on seeing if there were any differences between the smithing of this world and his own.
Once everyone but Bunnicula had left, Hajime brought out several cards he'd kept in storage.
Hajime planned on making homies again. He'd already made Drakul back on Kinkow as a test; now he planned on making several more.
One concern Hajime had was that making too many homies would risk permanently injuring his soul. Luckily, it seemed that wasn't a concern like he thought it would be.
In the weeks since he made his first homie, the damage to his soul had steadily recovered. The healing was slow, but Hajime finally finished recovering last week.
Now that he had recovered, he planned to make a few homies out of his soul once again. Something he learned after his first attempt was that the strength of a homie was proportional to how much of his soul he used in its creation.
Using a few bits of his soul might make a homie that could mimic something like Twice Critical, but if he used over half his soul, he could get something as strong as the Boosted Gear, and that was with the current strength of his soul. Give it a few more years, and a Boosted Gear level homie might be the bare minimum.
Activating the cards, Hajime grabbed the closest item to him and started working.
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Author's Note:
Thanks for reading; I'll see you next time!