[Iron Head downloaded "One Piece Manga"]
[Yotsuya Miko downloaded…]
[Demon Princess downloaded…]
As several group members dove into reading manga, the chat group went quiet for a bit.
The only one with nothing to do, Uchiha Hikari yawned and glanced at Amber, who was tidying up the table on the other side. "Amber, did Lady Kikyo mention where she was headed when she left earlier?"
"…I think she took Rin and the others to the volcano. Said something about saying goodbye to someone," Amber replied honestly.
"The volcano, huh…"
Hikari mulled it over.
Now that she thought about it, Horai Island did have some original inhabitants. It used to be a place where humans and demons lived together in peace, protected by a powerful priestess named Soki. To shield the island from outside threats, Soki used a sacred artifact buried in the volcano, the "Cauldron of Resonance," to create a massive barrier that hid and safeguarded Horai Island. But in the end, the "Four War Gods" slipped through the cracks. The priestess herself was reduced to a mere fragment of a soul, lingering in the volcano.
Over the past few decades, the Four War Gods had nearly wiped out all the humans and demons on the island, leaving only a handful of half-demon survivors.
That half-demon kid named Rin was one of them.
So, Kikyo was probably off saying farewell to Soki's soul.
Hikari didn't really get the whole priestess thing and had no plans to meddle in it.
But still…
She had some ideas about this Horai Island.
"Maybe I could talk to Kikyo about setting up the island's barrier again, turning it into a safe haven in the Inuyasha world…"
Thanks to the efforts of Hikari and her crew, they'd made solid progress collecting the Shikon Jewel shards. It wouldn't be long before they had them all. But since Kikyo was technically dead, she probably couldn't return to Maple Village once everything was done. Setting up a base here as a fallback seemed like a smart move.
Plus, they could bring Shiori and her mom, whom they'd saved earlier, to the island. In the original story, Shiori grew up to create a paradise for half-demons, so starting that a bit early wouldn't hurt.
Oh, and another thing…
When Hikari took down the Four War Gods, she scored some loot. She was thinking of paying Totosai a visit to see if he could upgrade her dragon bone sword.
As Hikari started mapping out her next steps, the chat group finally lit up with new messages.
[Eri: Uh, did something happen in the group? I just woke up, and it feels like a ton of new people showed up…]
[Eri @Nameless: Hikari?]
[Nameless: Yup, we got some newbies. One of them's from the One Piece world. You've probably read that manga, right? Though she hasn't shown up in the current storyline yet, so you'd probably only know her dad, Kaido.]
[Eri: Kaido? I think I've heard that name before…]
[Eri: Flipping through the manga now.]
While Eri had already read One Piece once but didn't remember all the details, Bulma, Tanjiro, and the others were just starting to dig into it. After a few hours of manga reading, they finally came back to their senses and started chatting in the group.
[Bulma: Pirates, navy, the Grand Line… sounds like a pretty cool world! I kinda wanna check it out!]
[Haunted by Demons: Those things called Devil Fruits—can they really give you all kinds of crazy powers just by eating them? They sound a bit like Teigu, but maybe even stronger…]
[Tiger of the West: Teigu? What's that?]
[Haunted by Demons: They're weapons and gear made from the bodies of dangerous or super-dangerous beasts. There are 48 of them, each with incredible abilities that give the user crazy power, but they take a huge toll on the body. My 'Haunted by Demons' is one of them.]
[Bulma: Whoa, really?]
Bulma was curious about Brand's world but was too focused on the One Piece universe to ask much about it for now.
After some back-and-forth about Devil Fruits and pirates, the group's attention finally turned to Yamato.
[Bulma: So, what's the deal with Kaido and Kozuki Oden? Why does Demon Princess, a girl, keep calling herself Kaido's son?]
[Nameless: That's a whole other story…]
As the only one in the know, Hikari took a moment to explain the situation in Wano Country.
While she was talking, Yamato couldn't hold back anymore.
[Demon Princess: How do you know so much about Lord Oden?]
[Demon Princess: …I can't believe my father did such awful things back then, causing a hero like Lord Oden to meet such a terrible end.]
[Bulma: Uh… I don't mean to be rude, but if what Hikari said is true, your dad Kaido was kind of a jerk. That said, don't you think Kozuki Oden was maybe a bit… too naive?]
[Demon Princess: ?]
[Brand: Yeah, exactly. As the leader of a country, with all that power, he didn't fight for peace himself and instead put his hopes in some empty promise from his enemy? That's so naive it's almost laughable! Only the empire's useless nobles would be that foolish.]
[Demon Princess: What did you just say?! Lord Oden wasn't foolish! He was forced into that situation to protect his people…]
[Brand: Protecting his people by groveling to the enemy? To overthrow a powerful foe, bloodshed and sacrifice are unavoidable. That's the only way to achieve real peace. A fake peace gained by begging the enemy is meaningless.]
"Hmm…"
It seemed Brand saw some parallels between Wano's situation and his own world. The empire in Akame ga Kill! wasn't too different from Wano—both plagued by corruption and usurpers. That's why Brand joined the Revolutionary Army, ready to die for the cause.
And it's why he was so pissed at Oden, who, despite having power to rival Kaido, spent five years dancing naked.
The group chat was starting to heat up.
As the "elder" of the group, Minato Namikaze stepped in to cool things down.
[Eternal Sister-Carrier: Since we're all in this chat group, we're friends, right? Let's keep things calm. Mr. Brand, try not to get too worked up. Miss Demon Princess is a girl, after all, and she's had a rough childhood with a father like that. If she had a choice, I doubt she'd want to be born into that situation.]
[Eternal Sister-Carrier @Nameless: Miss Hikari, maybe you could step in and help smooth things over?]
"…"
Hikari snapped out of her "watching the drama unfold" mode and rubbed her temples with a sigh.
[Nameless: I'm not here to judge what Lord Oden did, but… @Demon Princess, Miss Oden, how about hearing the story of the Eternal Sister-Carrier? It's about a leader of a 'nation' who stood up against a powerful enemy.]
(End of Chapter)