[Third Person POV]
A few hours later, Hajime finally woke up, bruised and sore, but generally okay.
Checking his assimilations, he was happy that they had progressed. While Mother Carmel only grew by 1%, which was expected since he didn't use her abilities, Jiraiya was now complete.
Ultimately, his plan against Yasaka was minorly dangerous, but needed.
After triggering her by touching the sensitive part of her tails, he figured she might instinctively lash out to defend herself.
The thing about yokai is that the base of the tail/s is very sensitive, both in a physical manner like the solar plexus, but also in a sexual manner.
By grabbing Yasaka there and running some lightning magic into her, her body moved automatically to defend the weak point, which caused his injuries.
As he had planned, he figured it would be a Jiraiya-like act, without being perverted. Despite the tail being slightly sexual, everyone targeted the tail during fights because it was what helped make the yokai so strong.
For example, the difference between Yasaka and Kunou, two nine-tailed foxes, was completely different. Their tails were like batteries, and cutting them off or otherwise permanently damaging them would cripple their future abilities.
It was why Yasaka reacted the way she did when he touched them—an instinctual move to protect the most important part of her body.
Luckily, that was the plan.
Getting beaten up by a physically strong, large-breasted blonde for his actions was something Jiraiya was known for. Combined with the fact that said blonde made sure he was fine afterwards, as well as her instinctual attack somewhat mimicking Jiraiya's death being slammed into the ground by Pain's paths.
Though he wasn't sure such a large jump made sense, he wasn't going to complain. Besides, the more he thought about it, the more similar to Naruto everything was.
Kyoto was basically like Konoa 2.0. Connection to a nine-tailed being of great power? Check. Getting ganged up on by other powers? Check. A leader who's one of the strongest in the world, yet unable to scratch those at the top, and is even weaker in the face of extraterrestrial threats? Check.
Honestly, the only thing that reassured him at this point was the gacha, since he could easily gain enough power to protect those he cared about.
Checking through everything, he slotted Doflamingo's card into place, with the assimilation reaching 5%.
Not too surprising, given how strong he was, but Hajime placed some hopes in Monet's card, believing that when he summoned her later, it might naturally speed up the process.
Looking through the rest of the characters he had, Hajime easily split them into three groups.
Assimilations, Summons, and Pets.
Though pets were also summoned, it was an important distinction to make in terms of roles, since while Blue was a summon, she'd likely never take on a role beyond being his familiar.
Grouping them up, the list was practically split in half.
[ Assimilations: Red Tornado, Warden Wrath, Danny Phantom, Bai Tza, The Deep, Adam (Hazbin Hotel) ]
[ Summons: Pamela Beesley, Welf, Gang Orca, Blake Belladonna, Heather (Total Drama), Jenny Realight, Monet (One Piece) ]
[ Pets: Xerneas, Bunnicula ]
Despite the split, a clear divide existed between them, with the most powerful characters all being future assimilations designed to grow his power.
Hajime was slightly conflicted on whether to assimilate or summon Monet; ultimately, he chose the latter.
Her snow logia, while useful, had the obvious weakness to fire and heat, something almost any mage would be able to exploit.
Also, given her previous relationship with Doflamingo, it would be a great way to test if such a thing could affect assimilation speed.
There was one thing, though, that practically guaranteed her summoning.
The rules of the world.
While it's a highly vague concept that he didn't completely understand, Hajime had confirmed a few things during his travels.
The main thing he learned was that the power system of the world tilted heavily in favor of women.
During his time at Sekigahara, he noticed how whenever women fought, especially those with large breasts, their clothes almost always got torn in a risque way, while guys, even facing much stronger opponents, would at most have their clothes slightly burnt or cut.
Despite their wardrobe issues, the women would usually win the fight whenever such a thing occurred.
A great example is Asia Argento. With her personality and combat ability, she should've died long ago, whether to the sacred gear extractor or when Diodora threw her into the Dimensional Gap.
Her survival was pure luck, and part of that was because she's a beautiful woman.
Sure, Rias and her peerage did have some effect on it, but ultimately, she still could have died if not for the world's rejection of such a thing.
Monet, as a beautiful woman/monster girl, would absolutely be favored by a perverted world such as DxD. Summoning her would be like drinking a Felix Felicis, but it would increase his luck permanently.
That was also partially why he would summon Blake and Jenny, even if assimilating them would benefit him.
Jenny's Machina Soul magic was something that he could probably learn thanks to the Soru Soru no Mi.
Meanwhile, Blake's cloning ability was not as effective as Jiraiya's or Doflamingo's. Plus, by summoning her, he could have her unlock everyone's aura, adding a new power system to the world that would easily benefit him.
Aside from them, the others that Hajime wouldn't assimilate were either regular humans or barely considered superhuman. Sure, he could still gain something from assimilating them, but he needed another guy here.
He wasn't complaining about being around attractive women, but it wouldn't hurt to have guy friends to talk to.
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[Hajime POV]
I was currently alone in Yasaka's private training grounds a few days after our spar.
For the last few days, I'd been working on reaching a basic understanding of Doflamingo's powers. Thanks to Jiraiya's knowledge, it was actually kind of easy.
The string fruit had minor overlap with the shinobi lifestyle, namely with ninja wire and puppet techniques, allowing me to practice somewhat easily with that knowledge as a base.
I also learned that when I removed the devil fruit's weakness to water with the soul fruit, it also subsequently affected the string fruit. It also didn't affect me with the one Devil Fruit limit, although since I never ate the fruits, it might not have registered. I do have a devil fruit in my inventory, but it wasn't one I was interested in eating.
That said, I wasn't too focused on Doflamingo's abilities yet.
Currently, I am divided between multiple clones, each focused on different projects.
Several clones were currently reverse-engineering the four pieces of technology I had saved up to this point, each of which was exponentially more advanced than the last.
While the Lamborghini wasn't overly complex, it also wasn't a high priority, as it was at best a few years ahead of the current version. I still wasn't sure what kind of Lamborghini this was, but it wasn't futuristic or anything like that.
The jetpack wasn't too bad, but it was still significantly more advanced than the Lamborghini, given its compact size, which was comparable to a backpack.
The Colossus caused some problems due to its size and the all-important question of whether I stole it from the government. Thankfully, Yasaka believed me when I said I got it from my sacred gear before she added some more privacy wards to ensure nobody would see it.
Alongside the Milano, the Colossus would take weeks, months, or maybe even years to fully understand the technology before I attempted to recreate it.
While the Colossus was only an issue because of its size, the Milano's main issue was its complexity.
It was space-faring technology from Marvel, so there was little doubt that I'd understand much for now. Luckily, the entire thing was filled with various space technologies, as well as a few maintenance books to help me understand some of the concepts.
When studying the two machines, I made sure Kunou was never around. While I know Kunou would love to see it, she'd also want to drive around in it, and I don't have the power, capability, or frankly, the patience, to deal with the issues that'd arise from using black technology.
(A/N: Black technology is technology so advanced it becomes incomprehensible to us. I honestly couldn't think of a better way of putting a giant mech or a spaceship like the Milano, despite the translation vibe the phrase gives off. Sacred gears had been black technology for centuries until Azazel made his own, even if they were weaker.)
Maybe in the future, but right now? It isn't possible.
While most of my clones were dissecting the technology, I still had a few working on my sealing projects.
Although it was exhausting using so many clones, it was easier than it otherwise would have been, thanks to my other assimilations.
I'd been creating and testing fuinjutsu to see how well it works in DxD. Thanks to the tests I conducted over the last few days, with the help of Yasaka and Tsubaki, I learned that magic can serve as a substitute for chakra when used, but its creation still requires the use of chakra.
That meant that while anyone could use seals, likely only yokai would be able to make them.
It was very similar to how ofudas were made, but ofudas were designed to work in conjunction with the worship of specific deities.
In that way, fuinjutsu was far more versatile and unrestricted.
The process involved writing with chakra and imbuing your intentions into the seal.
Currently, since the tests have already been performed, the remaining clones were divided into three tasks.
One group was busy designing new seals, specifically those that would be useful in day-to-day life.
The second group was preparing a large group of seals that I planned to sell at an auction in a few months.
Each seal costs less than a dollar to make, but its usefulness would significantly increase the price, potentially hundreds or thousands of dollars for a single seal.
Most major factions would buy them and try to decipher them, but unless you were a yokai, you wouldn't be able to make them.
Even factions that had yokai in them would struggle to recreate them, since a single mistake could cause the seal to explode. There was a reason fuinjutsu was so rarely used outside of Uzumaki, and it's because most people wouldn't survive the practice.
Their large energy reserves, healing abilities, and innate sealing techniques, such as the adamantine sealing chains, made them masters of the craft that few could match.
If I had to guess, others would likely attempt to recreate seals only to fail, learn that only yokai could get any results after one attempt explodes, where others just sat inert, but fail to make any headway, not understanding the fundamentals of fuinjutsu.
Even if they did, making a new seal would be almost impossible, as it would mean risking your life several times to go in the right direction. Such a dangerous job would be taken by practically nobody, aside from a few Uzumaki-like crazies.
In the end, most factions would probably try to get a deal with me to buy them in bulk at a discount, rather than risk the lives of their subordinates for minimal gain.
Anyway, the last group of clones was working on some instruction manuals to be distributed by Yasaka to other yokai.
While it was incredibly dangerous, DxD senjutsu had healing properties which would certainly put yokai above other factions in terms of fuinjutsu potential.
I could easily create a clone to teach classes on fuinjutsu if Yasaka asks.
The manuals aren't much. Just a few basic warnings of the dangers of sealing, basic information on fuinjutsu, and information on some of the basic seals.
The equivalent of a skydiving pamphlet, but for sealing. Everything written inside was either unimportant or something that could easily be figured out.
It wasn't a particularly important task, but it was somewhat necessary in terms of gaining credibility. Having such information compiled in such a way, and likely handed out by Yasaka, would easily legitimize the art of fuinjutsu to other yokai, even if they've never done something like it before.
Sensing Kunou was arriving, likely finished with her schooling for the day, I put the Colossus and Milano away.
"Hajime! Hajime!" Kunou said while running up to me.
"Yes, Kunou?"
"Can you finally teach me to be a ninja now?" She asked.
"Right," I nodded, having almost forgotten my promise months ago. With all the clones constantly dispersing, it takes up most of my focus and brainpower.
"Let me call your mom first, there's at least one thing I can teach that she'd love to get her hands on."
Several minutes later, Yasaka arrived.
"Hajime, you better not have been lying about that technique."
"I do have it, Aunt Yasaka, but it's more of a matter of whether you can use the technique like the seals you helped with."
She nodded in understanding before waving her hand impatiently. "Go on, then. Start the lesson."
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Author's Note:
Thanks for reading; I'll see you next time!