Telos Karma Meta Gacha

[Yasaka POV]

As the light from my teleportation circle faded, I appeared in Hajime's living room. Quickly expanding my senses I searched for wherever the culprit was.

Throughout the house, I could only sense Hajime. He seems to be lying down right now.

Focusing on the living room, I smelt sulfur coming from the couch. Moving towards it, I noticed a small stream of smoke and a large burn mark on the back.

Using a spell to fix the damage, I quickly moved towards Hajime's room. My senses told me his mana reserve was larger than when I last visited, but I wasn't sure how.

He denied learning human magic, he can't use youjutsu, and senjutsu isn't something he's asked about. His mana signature was also similar to the residual mana left on the couch.

Did he somehow learn magic? How?

I'm glad for him since I know he was always upset that he couldn't learn youjutsu, but I'm concerned about how he might have gained this magic. He better not have done something stupid to get it.

As I entered his room I noticed that he was asleep on his bed. Probably magical exhaustion. It was his first time using magic, so his body likely wasn't used to it.

Going up to him I performed a scanning spell to check for injuries.

*Sigh* Thank Kami. It's just like I suspected. He's just tired.

This brat. I should teach him a lesson for scaring people like that.

Nudging his shoulder, I see him twitch before slowly coming to. He owes me an explanation for this.

-----

[Hajime POV]

What's happening? I feel myself being shaken around.

Last I remember, I was testing out Laxus' lightning dragon slayer magic. After exhausting my magic, I went to bed.

Ugh. This shaking is annoying.

I start opening my eyes to be greeted with an upset kitsune shaking me awake.

"Hajime what happened? The wards on your house said that someone was using magic in here. Were you attacked?"

Oh right. I forgot those were installed. The only people with magic who ever come here are Yasaka and Kunou, the only two who don't set off the alarm.

Now, how do I explain it to her? While I plan to tell her some things, I know I can't tell her everything.

Not because she's untrustworthy. If I couldn't trust her I would have just run away. The problem is her status as leader of the yokai. Too much information would undoubtedly affect her decision-making, which others would likely notice.

That said, since she is the leader of the yokai, I can use her connections to get me anything I might need in the future. Given I have the money for it, I wouldn't want to take advantage of her after all she's done for me.

"Hajime!"

Oop.

"I'm fine Aunt Yasaka. Can I properly wake up first?" I said as I rubbed my eyes.

I understand why she would be concerned, but I still just woke up. How long was I out?

As I push myself off the bed I stand up, only to almost fall forward. Yasaka catches me before my face hits the floor.

"Thanks."

"It's nothing, but what happened?"

"I'm just tired."

Slowly making my way to the living room with Yasaka's help, I sat down in one of the chairs, while she took the couch.

"So Hajime, would you tell me why I sensed magic used here? You weren't attacked were you?"

"Well, I awakened a kind of magic recently. Lightning magic specifically." I said, leaving the more dangerous part about it out. Knowing I could kill dragons would make me a valuable asset for any organization. Not that Yasaka would likely leak it, but better safe than sorry.

"I see. That explains the burn mark I found on the couch. Did you do something to get this magic?"

Now the hard part. How much to say? "Sort of. I don't want to go into detail, but I got it myself. I think it's related to a sacred gear." I can tell her that much, she'd probably guess that anyway.

"Are you sure it's a sacred gear? I remember checking you for it years ago and found no trace of one."

"I believe the nature of the sacred gear was why you couldn't find it," I say, somewhat hesitantly.

"Hmm." She nods and thankfully doesn't ask further. "Are you feeling okay? You seem to have magical exhaustion from using it too much."

"I am. I just need to train to get used to it."

"If you need to, you can always use the training grounds at my house. Kunou only uses them when her tutors are home, and I haven't had the time to use them recently."

Hearing her offer I thought about it, and it was a no-brainer. A training area that few would be able to watch would allow me to use the gacha without worrying about being caught.

"Thank you, Aunt Yasaka."

"Fufufu. It's not a big deal Hajime. I'm happy for you more than anything. Your previous actions made me think you would be a human living in the supernatural."

I scratched the back of my head. I realize it back then, but I was a brat when I learned why I couldn't learn youjutsu.

"So Auntie, I was wondering..." She raised an eyebrow, wondering what I could say. "Could I become a bounty hunter?"

"No."

She immediately shut me down. Not even a second to think about it.

"Why?"

"You ask why I won't have a child go out to kill criminals when he just learned how to use magic?"

Oh yeah, kinda dumb on my part. But I had an advantage compared to others. Laxus as a Fairy Tail mage took extermination quests more than once and had fought against many dark mages.

Thanks to my gacha, all that experience was now mine, I just had to progress through the assimilation to unlock it all. Besides, it wasn't like I would hunt any high-ranking criminals immediately.

"Please Aunt Yasaka." I started making puppy eyes trying to convince her to let me do it.

"I already said no Hajime." She crossed her arms under her breasts, making them slightly bounce. I hate how right Carl was about this world.

"What if I were to show you I could defend myself?" It's time to try a more practical approach. If I can show that I can protect myself, she might be more willing to let me at least try.

"And how do you plan on doing that?" She smirks.

"I'll fight you," I said confidently.

She started laughing at my declaration. "Hahahaha. That's a good one Hajime." She laughs a bit more before she looks at me, realizing how serious I am. "Alright then, if you believe you can do so, then how about you give me a reason to accept?"

I mulled it over for a bit, before concluding that the best way to convince her to accept, would be to give her a reason to accept.

"I want to be able to help yokai." I started confidently, already seeing a small look of shock on her face. "I'm aware of how we're treated in the supernatural world, and I hate it. They consider us important because of what we can do, yet treat us like garbage despite that. I've only had my sacred gear for less than a day, but I'm confident that I can use it to help all yokai if given the opportunity."

She looked into my eyes, almost like she was staring into my soul. The eye contact lasted for only a few seconds, but she stopped and nodded.

"Alright. Since you believe so highly of yourself it's only right that I give you a chance. When your mother died I promised her I'd keep you safe, but since you want to run headfirst into danger, it seems I have to make sure you're strong enough to survive whatever happens.

By the end of the week, I have a day off. I'll prepare a challenge for you, and if you manage to complete it, then I will support you in becoming a bounty hunter. Should you fail though, then you will stay in Kyoto and train until I say you are strong enough to leave."

I nodded. With my sacred gear and the knowledge from Carl's, or I guess it should be my memory now, I was confident I could change the world in ways no one would see coming.

While I could always just stay here and train until I was the strongest in the world, practical experience of my own was necessary. As was getting a name for myself. I could be stronger than Ophis or Great Red, but if I wanted to make the yokai a more respected faction, I needed to balance force and diplomacy.

Even if I was strong enough to take over other factions, that would just breed rebellion and make the yokai even more of a target. Besides that, Yasaka was an inherently peaceful person. She would likely hate that I was attacking other factions just to help her.

Other yokai would likely appreciate my actions, but then I'd not only be just as bad as they were to us, but I'd also be disappointing Yasaka.

She had raised Kunou and me to be nonviolent. Not pacifistic or confrontation-avoidant, she knew the kinds of people and dangers that existed. She just wanted us to be good people and seek a better option than violence.

Aside from that, I agreed that violence wouldn't amount to anything. There would still be people like the Nebiros clan and Satanael with their inhumane experiments on the innocent. There would still be warmongers like Kokabiel and Loki.

I didn't want to be like them.

To become like that they held nothing dear to them other than their goals. None of them completed their goals. None of them were remembered for anything notable—just fools with illusions of grandeur.

I won't be like them.

__________

Author's Note:

Mini-rant: Is anyone else annoyed by the recent increase in translation stories? It feels like 90% of what this site has nowadays. The few interesting ones lack editing and show numerous typos and grammar errors that take me out of the story. The characters also talk as if they only looked at how English works, and there's excessive plot armor. I feel like it's just me, given their high rankings.

I got a new chair for my desk. My old one was falling apart, and the one I was using while waiting wasn't comfortable.

I've been having a lot of fun writing this story. Also, this story now has over 500 collections! Thank you for all the support! I'll see you all next time.