[Monet POV]
After flying off, I looked for the biggest building in town, hoping to find the town hall. This wasn't a large community, so the biggest building was likely the most important. Even if it wasn't what I was looking for, I'm sure there'd be someone there who could direct me.
Landing just outside the building, I saw a sign on the building confirming it was the town hall. The sign, fortunately, also indicated that the library, as well as a museum, was located in the building.
Entering, I followed the signs to the library, ignoring the stares everyone was giving me, likely because I look like a yokai.
After asking the librarian where a book about the village's history was located, I headed over to the history section, where I easily found the book I was looking for.
"'Itose: A Brief History by the Masshirona Clan'. How interesting."
I was looking for a few things in the book.
First and most important was the barrier that surrounded this place. Hajime-sama himself said it was strange, which made me even more curious. If it were replicable, we could replicate it for Silent Echo. Hajime-sama said that the wards for our base were average, but given what I know about his abilities, Hajime-sama will need better.
The next thing I was looking for was any notable events, preferably recent ones. When I worked for Doflamingo, I learned a lot about managing people. One of the lessons I'd learned was always to have someone guarding the valuables. That's why I was stationed with Caesar Clown, and why Sugar was always stationed near Doflamingo or Trebol.
With so many guards trying to intercept us earlier, I was curious about what they were guarding.
After all, this town isn't that large, and many normal human towns go just fine without protection. Although they were dealt with easily, the guards' presence suggests that something is being guarded here.
Lastly, I was hoping to gather any general information that could prove useful—political information, magical knowledge, the techniques of artisans, and so on. Like how Blue Planet places more importance on haki and devil fruits, Earth prioritizes the knowledge behind the methods.
(A/N: Blue Planet is what Google says it's called, and I don't really have another way to refer to the world of One Piece. Yes, I know it sounds like a cheap translation for Earth.)
Anyone can learn observation and armament haki, and it's easy to brute force it, whether in fighting or training. However, magic is akin to the Navy's Rokushiki, a special type of knowledge that can create strong fighters.
Although the Navy guards those techniques with their lives, leaks do occur, as seen with Vergo. Additionally, some techniques, such as soru and geppo, aren't difficult for top-tier fighters to understand.
Anyone with decent observation haki would be able to see you kick the ground multiple times a second.
The Rokushiki are only 'secret' because of the difficulty of practicing the techniques and the danger posed by learning them.
Without instruction, most techniques must be learned by copying what you see or by trial and error. The Navy has a standardized plan for the techniques, which makes learning them slightly more efficient.
As for the danger of learning them, the Navy frequently increases the bounty for pirates who know the Rokushiki, making them bigger targets for bounty hunters.
Similar to Rokushiki, magic was extremely powerful, but required knowledge to use it properly.
Opening the book, I was greeted with many interesting things.
The book began with a history of the town, which provided me with most of what I was looking for.
-----
It all started centuries ago, before the town of Itose even existed.
Originally, there was just a shrine, located here. It was run by the Masshirona clan, the same people who wrote the book.
They were a small clan, but were dedicated priests and mikos to the Goddess Amaterasu.
The land itself protected the shrine where they worshipped. Lying on the 'vein' of a leyline created a small fold in space that wasn't quite a pocket dimension. It functioned like the hidden room of a house, not necessarily its own space, but not something public; like the room behind a mysterious door that nobody knows how to open.
For the Masshirona clan, life was good.
It was around 650 years ago when they claimed they had received a message from their goddess, warning them of a dangerous yokai rampaging in the area.
Though it wasn't known whether she wanted them to fight it or not, the clan took up arms and prepared to drive the beast out.
Unfortunately, it was an advanced ultimate-class, stronger than even the clan head.
Most of the clan was killed, and their blood became fuel for the yokai's ascension to supreme-class, though it hadn't stabilized.
Enraged by the yokai's actions, the clan, in a desperate bid to avenge their clan and avoid disappointing their goddess, ended up using the blood their foe had consumed and used it to imprison them.
Attaching a curse to those with their blood, the beast collapsed from the effects, and using the opportunity, the clan sealed it away in their shrine before retracting themselves from the world.
Over the next few centuries, they received occasional visitors until a wandering ronin visited and learned their story. The ronin, moved to tears by their dedication, pledged fealty to the clan before going out and spreading good deeds in their name.
During these outings, he would occasionally bring back people with nothing left, giving them a new purpose.
The ronin, now samurai, had unintentionally gathered hundreds of people, and using some of the Masshirona clan's knowledge, educated a few talented civilians in magic, eventually forming the culture that persists to the current day.
Later, the samurai Usui Itose had the town named after him in honor of the town he helped build.
After finishing reading, I put the book back on the shelf and headed toward the exit.
The book was useful. Though I hadn't gotten everything I was looking for, I also wasn't expecting any deep secrets from a public library. For those, I'd probably have to visit the Masshirona clan.
Exiting the library, I headed down the hall to the museum. Given the nature of museums, there might be something there that the book didn't mention.
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[Hajime POV]
As I entered the artificier's shop, a bell rang above the door. As I looked at the showroom, I saw that most of what they had was furniture, with several pieces that looked broken in some way.
"Are you here to buy anything? If not, then get out!" The shopkeeper yelled.
Ignoring his bad attitude, I continued looking at the furniture. "Why do you show off the broken furniture?" I asked.
"The best stuff is more expensive. Even if the effects of those pieces are worse, they're still useful."
"Effects?"
"You aren't from here, are you? My furniture is enchanted. I have fridges with temperature-controlled zones, letting you choose how much space you use for frozen goods, chairs and sofas with adjustable heights, and even lamps that let you direct where to shine the light."
Hearing that, I was amazed by the man's skill. "What about the broken stuff?"
"Well, take this lamp for instance," he says, picking up a lamp with a crooked body and a bent lampshade. "I got the sensitivity wrong, so it's much more sensitive when picking up noises to turn it on and off. Rather than setting a pattern to de/activate it, it reacts to most noises above a certain threshold."
"Then why is it broken-looking if that's the only issue?"
"That was my idea. I figured since I was going to sell it regardless, I might as well make people understand it isn't my best work by looks."
The two of us kept talking about his furniture, whether it was broken or not. Eventually, I settled on buying a few of his pieces, even taking some broken furniture. Despite knowing magical furniture existed, I hadn't actually seen anything aside from lamps without a clear power source.
Seeing all this furniture, I was surprised stuff like this wasn't more ubiquitous. Not even Yasaka had something like this.
It was something I'd look into after I returned, if only to sate my curiosity.
After storing the furniture away, I left the store and headed for a nearby restaurant, wondering how unique their menu might be.
Midway through the fish sandwich I was eating, the samurai captain and a few of his subordinates opened the door.
"Hey, Saiki, I need 26 orders of chicken noodle soup."
"Coming right up, Azuma!"
(A/N: I've decided to ignore Japanese suffixes like -kun, -san, -chan, etc. It's too confusing for me, and honestly, doing it for every minor character is pointless. Instead, I'll do the thing where they use first names for those they are close to.)
"So, Azuma, you buying lunch for your squad?"
"Yeah, these two strangers created a blizzard that nearly froze them solid. I'm hoping the soup will help stop any colds from appearing. I swear the next time I see those-"
"Captain!" One guard interrupted. "Look!" He said, pointing over in my direction.
When the captain realized who I was, a frown appeared on his face.
"You! Do you have any idea what you and your companion have done?"
"Stopped ourselves from being attacked?"
"What? No!"
"Then you'll have to tell me, since the last time I saw you, you were the one who attacked first, then after sparing your life, your men looked like they were going to kill me."
Hearing my retort, the samurai's face shifted to one filled with shame, knowing that I told the truth.
"I do apologize for that, but the village has been uneasy lately. About two weeks ago, Masshirona Yutaka was kidnapped while he was gathering medicinal herbs. He returned a few days ago and has holed himself up in his home ever since."
"So you've all been on edge, thinking the kidnappers would return?"
"Yes. We don't know why they wanted him, but to be safe, we've been rejecting entry for strangers."
"Until my friend and I trapped you all and walked through the front gate."
"Indeed."
"So, how are your men now?"
"Defrosted, but otherwise unharmed."
I finished my sandwich just as their soup order was done.
"Since you all seem busy, I'll see you later. I need to look for my friend."
Exiting the restaurant, I used my haki to locate Monet before heading over.
-----
[Third Person POV]
When Hajime met up with Monet, the two began discussing what they did and learned.
Hajime, hearing that the shrine seals a powerful creature, has a nearly extinct clan, and one member was kidnapped recently, believed that it was too coincidental, and, being familiar with story tropes, had an idea of what those kidnappers' goals were.
"Monet, do you know where the shrine is?"
Monet nodded. "Yes, I saw a large compound separated from the town, near the foot of the mountain."
"Show me, and be careful, we might be dealing with that yokai as well as some dangerous intruders."
"Right."
Monet flapped her wings before taking off into the sky, flying toward the shrine.
Hajime quickly followed, connecting a string to the sky and pulling himself up after her.
__________
Author's Note:
Thanks for reading; I'll see you next time!