Telos Karma Meta Gacha

[Hajime POV]

As the train sped down the tracks towards Kobe, I stared out the window at the quickly changing scenery. It was refreshing to see something different for once. While I had left Kyoto before, it was only to the immediate area around the city, still within the prefecture. I was finally getting to see the rest of the country, and while it looked nearly identical to what I'd seen before, it was refreshing.

I didn't bring anything besides my phone and the book on the train, so I decided to look at some bounties to pass the time.

This book was fascinating, mainly in how it functioned. Each bounty was like a biography of the individual, for instance, Yasaka's page.

At the top was the obvious stuff: name, race, age, etc.

Below is a description of the person's background and why the bounty was issued, followed by the bounty and who issued it.

On the left side of the page was an image of her. The image could change to past photos of her bounty and outfits worn in previous public events. I was somewhat disturbed that the world made even bounty hunting a perverted thing, but thinking about it made some sense. If she wore any previous outfits, it would be better for the hunter to know what she might be wearing.

However, I do not doubt that people have still used these images for perverted reasons.

Anyway, the more helpful information is on the right of the page: relatives, known associates, known abilities, preferences, frequented locations, and anything that might make it easier to deal with her.

The first two, relatives and known associates, were something I was curious about.

Yasaka's only relative was Kunou. Her known associates consisted of clan leaders. Thankfully, my parents' names weren't there, likely due to their passing.

Though it would likely change in the future, knowing there was no connection to Yasaka that anyone knew about was relieving. If anyone knew of me and my connection to Yasaka, they would treat me as another yokai to be preyed upon. Right now, all anyone might know is I'm human with a form of lightning magic with draconic aspects.

Even if someone knew I was from Kyoto, my being a human makes it unlikely that I might be associated with her.

For now, I am looking at a few bounties in Kobe. While the exact location of a bounty was usually unknown, a simple scrying spell told the general region they were hiding. It might sound like it would be easy to use a scrying spell to find whoever you want. However, strays would be less common if that were the case since they couldn't hide. Several privacy barriers affect scrying.

It was why groups like the Khaos Brigade remained hidden for so long.

The scrying spell for the bounty book was made with the help of several supreme and transcendent-class beings from many factions, so this was the current best unless Great Red started helping out.

Well, almost the best. If you had someone's blood, then you could enhance the spell.

I sat back in my chair and considered my current goal. I was heading toward Kobe to recruit someone for my team. While I had other things I could do there, like start bounty hunting, having a teammate would be beneficial.

More importantly, I plan to create an organization to accomplish my goals. While I could always protect the yokai alone, there's only so much one person can do.

If it were only me helping Yasaka, the situation would barely change. However, what if there were multiple people close to or in transcendent-class? Provoking the yokai would become impossible.

My target lived in Kobe, west of Kyoto. During my week-long preparation, I asked Yasaka if I could look through her information on other groups, and thankfully, she accepted. While I went through a lot of information to find other potential targets, I focused on Kobe first due to its proximity.

It didn't take long to discover that a child had recently been kicked out of their clan because they had a sacred gear. Although there were many clans in Japan, the strongest were the five Principal Clans. 

The Nakiri Clan lived in Kyoto. Though all the clans were independent, the Nakiri Clan was in charge when they worked together. They lived in the human part of the city, while the yokai inhabited the pocket dimension city of Urakyoto. The clan's main job was to grow magical plants to help feed the other clans. The yellow dragon was their clan's patron beast, located in the center of the four beasts like their clan was to the others.

The Doumon clan resided between Lake Biwa and the ocean in the north. The black tortoise was their patron, and their role was to eliminate any sea beasts blocking the island.

To the east was the Kushihashi clan. They were the ones who helped with the construction of the clan compounds and shrines. Their patron was the azure dragon, who used the element of wood.

The south has the familiar Himejima clan, and the one shown most in canon. Their future leader, Suzaku, wields the power of the vermilion bird, whose element is fire. I found nothing when I checked to see if Akeno and her mother had been attacked yet. The clan's primary purpose was making talismans to help ward off evil spirits. They were also the artisans of the clans, making most of the art found in their compounds.

Lastly, I was heading toward the Shinra clan. The white tiger represented them, and their primary element was metal. They are the clans' blacksmiths and make weaponry, armor, bells, and statues.

The person I was looking for was an overlooked character from DxD, Tsubaki Shinra, and Sona Sitri's future queen.

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The biggest reason I am going there is her sacred gear, Mirror Alice. Mirror Alice was a sacred gear that created a mirror that absorbed, doubled the power of, and reflected attacks. It was a powerful defensive gear that would be very useful. It also had a balance breaker in later volumes based on the story of Alice in Wonderland, giving it several abilities that had nothing to do with the original mirror.

That meant there could be an unknown amount of abilities that she could use it for, and it was something that I wanted to study in the future.

Her clan rejected her a few months ago for having awakened Mirror Alice. The Principal Clans believed that any power not given by their Shinto deities was blasphemous, and many members were exiled over the years because of it. This behavior accidentally created a terrorist organization, the Utsusemi agency, which wanted to destroy the clans.

While Tsubaki wouldn't join them, that didn't mean that I couldn't take advantage of the situation.

Her sacred gear had an unknown amount of potential, and I wasn't too keen on letting the devils have it when I could. I know Sona wouldn't be abusive, but her strength in canon was likely never greater than high-class.

Sona's goal was to make a Rating Game School so the lower-ranked devils could learn to become stronger and reach the top before even getting a peerage. While the sentiment is nice, the rating games were rigged for centuries, with the top spots taken because of greed from the pillar houses. She never considered the political implications that would come with her helping regular devils before eventually having to take over the Sitri clan when her father contracted the sleeping sickness.

Sona's dreams required skilled individuals, not those with raw strength, so most of her peerage rarely found time to train themselves, as they were usually busy with work.

However, Sona's recruitment criteria could be considered a good thing. If Sona believed she was worth recruiting, then it'd be foolish of me to think otherwise. Sona is one of the smartest characters in canon, with her biggest problem being a lack of experience.

Since the Shinra clan rejected Tsubaki, and Sona didn't seem to have recruited her yet, now was the time to go if I wanted her to join me. She likely performs exorcisms on peoples' homes and survives off whatever she makes from it. Bounty hunting is much faster and more profitable, so if nothing else, I can offer her a way to make money, as much as that sounds like a scam.

Another benefit of recruiting her was her background. While she may have been exiled from the clan, she was still taught about yokai, and part of that was that they weren't to be trusted. Nobody would think I was associated with yokai if she were on my side.

Despite all the benefits, I still considered whether I should risk recruiting her.

-----

Knowing that Sona recognized Tsubaki's potential meant she might already be on the devil's radar. There is a good chance that the devils would start paying attention to me, specifically Serafall. Even if Serafall didn't do anything, her watching me would be noticed by others, who might not be as kind as her sister.

I do want some attention on me so I can make connections with important individuals, but do I want it to be the devils?

More importantly, did I want to risk destroying the world somehow?

The butterfly effect was something I had to consider.

Once I start taking action that affects the plot, there is a chance I might change things in a way that ruins everything. For example, if I recruited Akeno, I would drastically change the survivability of Rias' peerage.

The rating game against Riser would be lost faster, eliminating the chance Rias doesn't marry him. Then she and her peerage are forced to stay in the underworld to be near him, causing Sona to die against Kokabiel, starting a war. Without the Three Factions alliance, Rizevim would have nobody targeting the Khaos Brigade, letting him release Trihexa.

While that was just one of the infinite possibilities, did I want to risk possibly ruining the world? If I did, there would be who knows how many casualties. In a war of that size, who knows what the other factions would do to gain an edge?

There's also the fact that the yokai might be forced into the war because of how close Kuoh is to Kyoto. Countless devils would try to say something about how yokai should've handled Kokabiel to get more out of them, even if he was in the territory devils were controlling.

Of course, that is just one worst-case scenario, but I still need to think about it. Knowing the future means knowing if my actions make things worse for everyone. I may not like the other factions' leaders, but that didn't mean I wanted to cause millions of civilian deaths.

The Hero Faction didn't care about casualties. To them, the only good supernatural being was a dead one. I don't want to help them with their goals inadvertently.

-----

I was jolted out of my thoughts when the train announced that the next stop was Kobe, but by then, I had decided.

What happens because of my actions doesn't matter. My actions would naturally change the world, and wanting to avoid that would guarantee failure in my goals.

If the world changes for the worse, it isn't my problem. It wouldn't matter if I didn't know the future, and I'm not obligated to keep the world 'peaceful', especially at the cost of those I care about.

While I would still try to keep the world from being destroyed, if other factions destroyed themselves from their idiocy, it wasn't my problem.

They were all adults with centuries of experience, and if they felt like destroying themselves because of their arrogance, then I didn't need to care.

Seconds later, the train started to slow, finally reaching the station. I stood up and moved to the door, ready to change everything.

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Author's Note:

Thanks for reading, see you soon!