Disclaimer: I don't own anything other than the OCs I create.
Kyoto - Souta's Home
- Souta -
In the living room, sitting at the couch looking towards the coffee table, is Souta with a torn look on his face, the type of face you make when you need to make a decision and can't decide whether it's the right or wrong choice to make.
The thing that's giving him this trouble is there on the coffee table a mystic fruit one that he recently made the Grimoire-Grimoire Fruit, the fruit was made using grapes as the base, but the shape of the grapes have morphed to resemble little books and like all mystic fruits tend to do it has taken on its own distinct swirl pattern on the front of each book shaped grape.
Sighing and sitting back against the couch after what feels like the fiftieth time, my head swirling with thoughts, good and bad, at the idea of eating this fruit, I know I've had plenty of choices to make regarding fruits to eat, but none have really caught my attention so far, unlike this fruit.
[Grimoire-Grimoire Fruit]
The user of the cane can generate grimoires that they have absorbed, allowing them to float around the user within 15 feet at will and to be cast from with the spells of that grimoire. With each new grimoire absorbed, the user can increase the amount they summon and the distance at which they can control them, as well as improve their magical affinity with each type of grimoire. With enough grimoires absorbed and mastered, the user can create their own grimoires. All grimoires can be used by others if the user allows them; the user can't cast from that grimoire while it is loaned.
Fruit Type: SpecialParamecia
Fruit shape: Grapes
Weakness: The user of this fruit requires the collection of grimoires to become stronger as well as mastery of them.
Just going over it again reminds me of how ridiculous this fruit is, it may seem weak to begin with but it's a growth fruit which means the more time you have, and the more grimoires absorbed the stronger the fruit becomes, while yeah you're also required to master each grimoire the fruit gives you an affinity once you absorb it which already gives you an advantage.
All of this is already telling me to eat the fruit, but I'm worried it's not the right choice. Don't get me wrong, ever since being able to cast my first spell, I fell in love with magic, and then getting to go to the Harry Potter world and owning my own wand, I knew I was going down the path of a 'mage' from that point onwards, but eating this, I give up on the idea of eating a zoan or a logia, and with no way to remove it, I would be locked in on my choice.
The fruit I had been planning to get was the Woods-Woods fruit (now that my dad already made the decision on the fruit he ate) since it would synergise well with my race but no amount of wood, trees, plants or anything has had the power to make the fruit I've specifically gone to a lumber yard for the purpose of gathering as much as I could, and still nothing; even with the added extracts of wood from the trees thrown in, it hasn't produced any results.
Logia are just that resource intense or require specific needs to be met in order to create them as annoying as it is I can understand it logia fruits do tend to be some of the most powerful, the clay fruit ate through barrels of soft and wet clay as well as piles of fired hardened clay, the living room was stacked with it all at the time of me making it.
Sighing again I run my hand through my hair; the only reason I got this fruit was because of Yasaka in the first place.
-Flashback-
*Phone ringing*
Checking the caller ID, I answer the phone.
"Hello Yasaka, how can I help you today?"
"Why hello to you too Souta and I'll have you know it's not what you can help me with, but what I can do for you." She says with a small giggle that has me smiling.
"Oh really, may I know what it is you can do for me?"
"Hmm, nope. When you're free, head on over to find out what it is. See you soon," she says, letting out a chittering laugh as she hangs up.
Shaking my head fondly, I stand up from the desk where I was studying the spells from the Harry Potter world and grab my jacket. Remembering about the magical firewhisky, I grab a bottle as a gift before scribbling on a piece of paper to remember to send some to Great Red and to put the rest in the store.
After a short journey I end up in Urakyoto, after being here a few times, I'm slowly getting used to the familiar faces here, waving at a few people I know I carry on towards Yasaka's home.
"Hello dear, "Come to see the queen again, have you?"
Hearing the voice, I turn to see an elderly Rokurokubi partially covering her mouth while smiling as her eyes sparkle in delight and her stretched neck wiggles back and forth.
"I am Grandma Yoshida. How's your neck been treating you? Not as sore, I hope?" I say with a gentle smile.
"Oh you, I said to call me Grandma Fumiko, and it's been great dear your dad really helped me out by pointing me towards that clinic, you've both been a wonderful addition to Urakyoto, we just need you both to move in, then you can spend more time with the queen and the little princess rather than all that travel getting in the way, now hop along dear you can't keep the queen waiting." she says giving me a light shove on the back.
"Glad to hear it. I'll let Dad know you're feeling better. See you later. I'll say hi to Yasaka for you, Grandma Fumiko." I say, waving goodbye after she stops pushing me along.
The elderly yokai around here have been getting used to us being around due to our frequent visits, and one thing I found out is that they all love to gossip; they also like hinting to my father to get remarried while he's young while also saying they have daughters who are single.
Urakyoto is a great place to be. While I know she was partially joking about moving in, I wouldn't be against it; it has a tight-knit community, and everyone cares and helps out each other when they need it.
Also, from all the people I've spoken with here, they absolutely love Yasaka and Kunou, to the point that if anything happened to either of them, everyone would go to war for them. Kunou brings them joy by simply being herself, and Yasaka has improved everyone's lives since becoming queen of the faction. I haven't heard anything negative about her at all since coming here.
On the other hand, the elders that Yasaka needs to confide in to push any changes she wants forward are rather disliked except a select few, since most of them are very focused on clan first, the people second; most are clan elders left in power since Yasaka's mother stepped down, who was also focused on her own clan, not to say she was a bad leader, but since handing over the reins, Yasaka has just done that much better for the people, hence the support behind her.
Stepping up to the entrance, I'm met with 2 of the tengu guards stationed here. I nod towards them, and both return the gesture as they let me pass through, already expecting my arrival.
Continuing through the mansion I head towards the central garden first since it's where Yasaka spends most of her time apart from her office, along the way I see the maids busy doing their work and once they spot me, they give a short bow in greeting one that I return.
Arriving at the garden I spot Yasaka under a particularly large cherry blossom tree sitting on the bench facing the koi pond, most likely knowing I'm already here since entering Urakyoto she turns around to get up and greet me.
"Yo, heard you had something amazing to show yours truly, also this is for you firewhisky." I say getting a laugh out of her while also handing over the firewhisky.
"It's a special blend of strong magical alcohol the name is quite on the nose."
"Thank you, I look forward to trying it." she says while accepting the bottle.
"On the day that you joined us I promised you unique materials since then I have been butting heads with stubborn old fools to get you partial access to the treasure vault, while they have reluctantly allowed you access they have specified only allowing you to take 3 objects, they are all wondering what it is you have done in order to earn entrance to the vault but as promised I kept their noses out of it for now, but expect some of their clansman to try fish for information." she says with a wry smile.
"Thank you really, I know you said unique materials, but I wasn't expecting an actual treasure vault to choose from."
Shaking her head she looks me in the eyes.
"Souta, you need to understand compared to the fruits you've already provided, taking 3 items from the vault is the least I could do. If I didn't understand your worry about others finding out, the elders would have accepted a lot more being taken, and from your father's display, the power the fruits provide, just 1 is already a leap in power for any faction."
All I can do is nod at her words, I can see where she is coming from, I suppose just being able to make them whenever I wanted has clouded my vision of the fruits power a little bit to her 1 was already a great increase in strength for her faction let alone the others I gave her.
I'll have to be careful deciding who gets one in the future and making sure none get stolen the last thing I need is someone going against me getting a mystic fruit.
"Souta, I can see it in the way you're scrunching your face up that you're worrying about something. It's only been a month since you realised the supernatural was real; you're not expected to know the ins and outs of every faction straight away; that will come with time and experience. Now come along; we won't have to travel far with the vault being under us."
She's right I'm still learning and getting used to everything, I've not stopped to think about the other factions, I'll use this week to stabilise and ground myself before the next world hop.
After a couple of minutes walking, greeting more guards and passing through the magically locked passageway, we enter the vault. Once we were inside, my first thought was how huge this place was.
"How has this place not collapsed the sheer size of it and there are barely any support beams in place?" I say turning towards Yasaka who has been smiling at my reactions this whole time.
Letting out a laugh, she says, "How else, magic? We had our best earth mages compact the earth as tight as possible; all the walls you see are seamless. It's a giant compacted piece of earth, and on top of that, we have barriers acting as support throughout the room. When it gets too full, we expand the room, but it's a long and tedious process."
Tapping into my own yoki I push it into the ground to get a feel for what she is talking about, and this place could act as a bomb shelter with how tough the earth feels not to mention the barriers, they're like a bonfire of power to my senses.
I pull back my yoki to stop myself from overloading on the feedback I'm getting from the rest of the room; it's not just the barriers, but a lot of the objects in this room are potent with power, releasing it in waves. A couple, though, are a blank spot in the room surrounded by magic, walking over to one in particular that's knee-high in the shape of a small mountain.
"What's this? I can't feel anything from it, same for some of the other objects in the room."
"That is a mountain seal; this one in particular was used to seal an inugami one that was particularly violent from its death and grew quite powerful from its consumption of both human and yokai during its time free. Being unable to kill it, they instead chose to seal it, as you will notice proper seals won't give off a presence; this is to keep them hidden from people who would try to unseal them."
An inugami, if I remember correctly, was a dog yokai with a floating head due to its death.
"So, the blank spots in the room are sealed yokai?"
"Yes, and not all yokai that get sealed are malevolent yokai; some choose to be sealed due to coming to the end of their lives wishing to be unsealed at a time they are needed, such as during a crisis to the faction. Those seals in particular are seals of benevolence; they provide peace to those sealed within.
The other one across the room on the right holds a kyorinrin, a dragon-like spirit who was born from disused priceless treasures that had him coming alive to protect them; instead, he was the previous guardian of the vault and used to live in here." she says, pointing across the room.
Looking to where she pointed, I see 3 white shrines embedded into a stone that's surrounded by braided rope.
"That's incredible, but I thought yokai lived for a long time?" I ask confused.
"Most do, but for him in particular he lost a lot of his lifespan during his formation, he was almost exercised at the time until my grandmother found him while wondering the area, killing the exorcist and allowing the kyorinrin to form properly but the damage had already been done and from then on he followed my grandmother everywhere looking to repay her and when she created the faction we are now he swore to guard the vault for her with his life."
"He sounds like he truly cared for your grandmother, and you said she created the faction. What does she do now?" I ask out of curiosity, as I hadn't seen her grandmother or mother, for that matter, around the compound.
"Trying to find a way to flirt with my grandmama now, is one 9-tailed kitsune not enough to entertain you, I see how it is." she says letting out a small hmph while turning away from me.
"N-no, wait, that's not what I meant. I was just asking –"
Before I finished speaking, she broke down into laughter, making me realise she was just joking with me.
"Really? And I was worried I offended you, but grandmama, does she still spoon-feed you on her knee?" I say smirking and nudging her should with my own.
"S-shut up; that just came out. She likes to be called 'grandmama', okay." She says, stuttering and blushing slightly.
With a cough into her fist, she continues, "Anyway, my mother and grandmama both stay at the clan compound, and like grandmama, my mother found leading to be a hassle in the end and retired, which left me in charge of the faction. Now they sit around in leisure and gossip away; they do pop around sometimes to say hello, or they take Kunou to the clan compound to spoil her rotten."
Nodding in understanding, I begin to look around the room again; I can only take 3 items, and already I was shown 2 great objects.
"You said 3 items right and I'm assuming sealed ones are a definite no on that list?"
"That's right 3 and I'm sorry but the elders would not allow anyone to take anything sealed from the vault ever." she says with an apologetic smile.
The only other option would be to extract, I mean I trust Yasaka enough at this point for her to know, it's almost been a month since we've known each other and she tries her best to keep me updated and involved in the faction as well as look out for me and my dad.
Decision already made up in my mind I turn to her.
"Yasaka what I'm going to show you is another part of my power that helps with making mystic fruits, sorry for not trusting you with it enough before now but it's the best time to show you."
Walking over to the sealed inugami, I touch the stone and activate extract, which has me choosing the spirit of the inugami, which pops into existence on my other hand. Turning around, I see Yasaka's shocked face, which makes me burst out laughing because all I could imagine was the 'surprised Pikachu' face.
1x Inugami Spirit
"W-what was that? What is that? And why are you laughing?" she says with light stomps of her foot before pouting, honestly, she's so expressive when she's on the other end of the teasing.
"Well, I call it extract." giving a short explanation on how it works I hand her the inugami spirit, which she looks at in wonder.
"So, this is a blank spirit of the inugami sealed in there, and you can use this instead of the actual inugami for the fruit. That's amazing. Can you try it on me?"
Shocked I snap my eyes to hers "What, are you sure?"
"Yes, I trust that you wouldn't harm me, plus it'll be an interesting experience." she says smiling happily.
"Interesting experience..." shaking my head I mutter 'Troublesome woman' before using extract on her.
"You have a few options, Female, Fire element, Yoki energy, 9-Tailed Kitsune spirit, and the most interesting is Symbiotic, which I'm assuming is your link to the leyline you told me about." The last one was kind of scary to think about. Would a symbiote fruit make you like Venom, or would it work differently?
"If the last one is the most interesting, then I suggest taking that one. We could always head over to the kitsune compound and grab a 9-tailed extract from my mother and grandmama or even Kunou.
As for symbiotic, it most likely is related to my connection to the leyline; it grants me a boost in power when I tap into it, and in return I am bound to the Kyoto due to the connection."
"Makes sense." extracting symbiotic I hold the cylinder vial up so we can both see it; inside is a bright blue blob that sometimes has tentacle-like appendages shoot out to feel around the space in the vial.
"Souta, it means a lot that you would trust me with this, and I know I don't need to say it but promise me you'll keep this a secret unless it's someone you trust to take to the grave with them, more than the fruits you can make, people knowing you can gain access to what is essentially a blank soul will lead to a lot of trouble down the line." she says with the most serious expression I've seen on her so far.
"I promise."
"For now, extract from items that catch your eye, and in the future, I'll get you full access in the future so we can do a proper sweep of the vault."
"Thank you; I'll definitely pay you back for all the trouble you've gone through."
"Nonsense, me helping you, helps me and the faction, the least I can do is deal with some uppity old men, honestly if they weren't veterans from an older era, I would've replaced them by now but unfortunately I have to wait until they step down and someone else from their clan takes over which means a lot of politicking to sway them over to my side.
Wincing I say, "I don't envy you; I can see why both your mother and grandmother stepped down if it meant dealing with all that."
Scoffing at my reply, she says, "My grandmama, I can understand; she fought with old man Nurarihyon against someone called Hagoromo Gitsune, forming the faction from the ashes of that war. My mother, on the other hand, only wanted to lead since she fancied the title queen of the yokai, honestly; she avoided doing any work when she could."
"So, war and a new faction – it sounds like a story for the future."
"When you meet grandmama, she will tell you all about it if you bring it up; she loves telling the story of how she 'popped the overinflated ego of a fake fox', her words, not mine."
Laughing out loud, I say, "Sounds like one hell of a storyteller."
After a lull in the conversation, we get back to looking around the vault. I pass by a few weapons that I thought would be interesting, but they're just weapons with elemental effects, but it didn't stop me from extracting from them and I made sure I to grab the kyorinrin as well. Some of the better-quality weapons were hung up on a weapon rack at the back end of the room, but the named weapons are most likely behind the areas I don't have access to.
3x Wind Element
4x Fire Element
1x Kyorinrin Spirit
As I head over to the weapon rack, I knock over a pile of books. After placing them back in a pile, I grab one. I don't see a title on the book, but it's quite large, and it's engraved with depictions of water and has blue gems slotted into sections on the cover.
Using extract on it doesn't really get me anything out of it either, just the water element.
"Yasaka, what are these?"
"Oh, those old things, they're grimoires that we've collected over time from our enemies, it's basically a personal book on specialised magic this one being water, throughout their life they would update the book with more and more breakthroughs on their chosen magic, it's still popular now with magicians to create grimoires and pass them down to the next generation of family, grimoires are usually heavily guarded."
"These ones were from rogue magicians trying to make a name for themselves by hunting yokai; if they interest you, then you can take all 3 as 1 item since they won't really be missed," she says, shrugging.
"Yeah, I think I will. They are all saturated in their chosen element, so I think I'll try to make a mystic fruit out of all 3 and see what happens." I say picking up all 3 grimoires on water, earth and fire.
After a few more minutes of searching I picked my final 2 items, a wooden figure which you could imbue with yoki increasing its size and becoming a golem to fight for you and a shrub of replication that when watered with the juices of a fruit it will then grow that fruit for 7 days but the shrub can only grow common fruits, yasaka said both were gifts from a dryad, I also used extract on both.
1x Wood Golem Creation
1x Replication
-Present-
It was a great day out overall; I stayed the afternoon just talking with Yasaka until Kunou came home and after playing some games with the missile of energy I headed back for the night.
If I had to say everything I gained from the vault doesn't compare to the potential of the last object I extracted from, Yasaka hadn't even known what it was until I told her.
1x Scales of Y Ddraig Goch (incomplete)
That's right, scales of the red dragon emperor; I don't blame them for not knowing what they were. I mean, the scales had been broken and blackened, most likely from a previous battle. Someone had probably found them, noticed how tough the material was and thrown them in the vault for a future use. After telling Yasaka, she was shocked and said she'd have them moved deeper in and hopefully find someone to work on the scales.
With the scales saying incomplete I am assuming I need to gather more parts of Ddraig before I can create a mystic fruit such as his bones, blood, etc.
I already know where to find his spirit since he is sealed away in a gauntlet, and without his body, I can only guess that his spirit will say 'incomplete' as well.
Snapping out of my thoughts I set my eyes back on the fruit; to create the grimoire fruit I used all 3 grimoires and a bookcase, picking the fruit up it feels heavy in my hand with the weight of choice.
It's a great power; it'll grow alongside me and with the worlds I could go to I'd have a chance of picking up plenty of grimoires, Fairy Tail in particular would be a great power boost.
Before I could spiral into another self-debate on the pros and cons of eating the fruit, I rip a few grapes off their stems and shove them into my mouth, chewing quickly like they could disappear at any minute.
Heart pounding from just going for it, I calm myself down before licking my lips from the lingering taste. They were the best grapes I've ever eaten. Other than a slight warmth that pulsed once through my body, I didn't really feel any different, but I had an understanding of what I could do, like a new limb I had full control over.
Consume your first Mystic Fruit: quest for [Passive: Zoan Slot] unlock gained.
Achieve the awakening of your first Mystic Fruit to unlock [Passive: Zoan Slot]
Releasing a breath I hadn't known I was holding, I bark out a laugh and don't stop until I'm breathless. All that worrying, I should've known the system would have this as a hidden achievement. It's a tough unlock requirement, but it gives me time to get used to my first power and find a suitable zoan fruit.
I guess that's the issue with a system that provides the bare minimum but it's much better than having someone backseat my life 24/7, it just means taking more chances, who knows what I can gain from it.
Feeling tired from the emotional rollercoaster, I decide to take a nap before heading out to test my new power.
[Split]
Urakyoto – Private Training Ground
- Souta -
"Thanks again for letting me use the training area."
"No worries, I had this place set up when I gave my most trusted personal guards their own Mystic Fruit each."
And wasn't that a surprise meeting each one I was told they all talked between themselves before making their choices.
A stoic tengu named Sumio had eaten the brush fruit; he was 8 feet and had muscles I didn't even know existed. He wielded a custom-made spiked metal kanabo that had a giant brush on the tip, and let me tell you, it was heavy, but he swung it around like some sort of foam toy.
A nekomata, not to be confused with the almost extinct nekoshou called Mio, ate the string fruit; she was 5 feet and had a very playful personality. She was an expert in anything trap-related and has taken to string fruit with scary ease.
And finally, the most surprising was a kappa named Suiko who chose the mole fruit, he was 6 almost 7 feet and while not as ripped as Sumio he still had an impressive amount of muscles from all the training he did, his use of the mole fruit was unique, he would create multiple tunnels and flood them all with water before popping out from either the ground or a flooded tunnel to attack and when he got the opportunity he would drag you into his flooded tunnels.
There are 3 more personal guards, but none took a shine to the milk fruit; Yasaka already said she had someone else in mind anyway.
I am planning to trade the acromantula fruit to her, so that will be another guard crossed off the list, assuming they aren't deathly afraid of freakishly large spiders.
Stepping onto the flat stone training area I stand across from a couple of training dummies which have been made to be to take a beating.
Pulling on the fruit's power, I summon a grimoire, and with barely a thought, it follows my commands perfectly. I have an awareness of the distance the grimoire can get from me before reaching the limit.
Testing to see what happens when it goes too far, I have the grimoire float to the limit and push it past the boundary and immediately it starts to dissolve into a pale white light and my connection is cut, attempting to bring the grimoire back out doesn't work straight away and after a few more tests and having Yasaka destroy the grimoire a few times, I can tell it has a cooldown period of 10 seconds before I can summon a new one.
I'm hoping as I increase in strength the cooldown will get shorter, but it was good to know it had one. A few more tests taught me that I can change the size of the grimoires to as small as a pocketbook or large enough to float on, and while it's not the fastest way to travel, but it does have quite a bit of speed something to test properly in the future.
Casting with the grimoire was a challenge at first, I spent a while trying to cast a simple flame bullet with the grimoire, but nothing was working until eventually I read the page about flame bullet in the grimoire which mentally clicked in my mind, I couldn't just imagine fire spells and fire them off left and right, I had to read and understand it in the grimoire first before being able to cast from it.
After sorting that out I practiced firing at the dummies with flame bullets, fireballs and flame waves, the greatest part was not needing to call out what I wanted to cast with the grimoire it just understood what I wanted, this allowed me to cast wizarding magic in tandem with the grimoire.
Another neat feature was that I could cast whatever the grimoire could cast and it could be done with my wand with no issue, so now I've got to test absorbing the wizarding books when I get back home.
I also couldn't have more than one grimoire out at a time currently, but that would increase in the future. There was no switch time between grimoires, but the previous one would go on cooldown for 10 seconds when switched out.
After some rigorous testing and being absolutely drained of energy, I called it a day. I was exhausted from the continuous casting; it seems with each spell cast, it sapped at my stamina slightly.
I managed to get down some basic spells from each grimoire, so I was quite happy with today's training.
Turning back to Yasaka who had been patiently chipping in with ideas I gave her a thumbs up and quick muscle flex which earned a giggle from her that had me feeling better already.
Making my way over to her, I notice the little menace of my recent nightmares dangling above her, reaching for her necklace.
"DENNIS!" shouting towards the crafty niffler that I had recently named from an old cartoon has it turning towards me with wide eyes at being spotted before attempting to scuttle away but not before Yasaka looks up and grabs it by the scruff of the neck.
"Thank you; he's been nothing but trouble recently."
"No problem. I was shocked when you shouted the name Dennis at me before I realised where you were looking."
Turning Dennis to face her she says, "I've never seen a creature like it before it's got a mix of mole and platypus while not being either, where did you find him?"
"He's a niffler they love shiny treasures and can sense where to find any, once they do they'll do anything to get it then stuff it in the little pocket dimension they have in their pouch and I'm sorry but I can't really say at the moment" Scratching my cheek with a wry smile.
"Interesting little guy, aren't you?" She says tickling its stomach, which has it wiggling about in her grip, making little clicking laughs with its bill-like snout.
"Don't worry It's not an issue it must be an important place I was merely curious." She turns back to me smiling.
"I'll let you know in the future, I promise."
Patting my arm, she says, "Now have you made a familiar contract with him yet?"
"No, I didn't think I could." I say slightly confused
"Of course, you can; he's a magical creature that can understand, and if he's willing, you can form one right here. Just repeat the words I tell you while pushing Yoki into your finger while touching his head."
"What do you say, bud? Want to become a familiar? I'll toss you a few more coins to keep," I say, already knowing he will agree since nothing motivates him more than shiny.
Rapidly nodding his leathery beak, I touch his head and say, "I, Souta, ask that you become my familiar. I offer protection in return for your aid. Do you accept?"
With a squeaking shout that I can only assume was agreement, my fingers began glowing before the light morphed into a pure white magic circle that became 2; 1 shoots towards me and sinks into my head, and the other sinks into his, and once the process is finished, I can feel my connection to him and that I can summon him when I want, which will definitely make keeping him out of trouble easier.
"See, it wasn't so hard. With time, as the connection grows stronger, you'll be able to start communicating with him as you begin understanding each other. For now, though, I recommend heading home; you look like you're about to pass out," she says with a worried glance.
"Sorry, and thank you again really for everything." I say I am grateful for everything she has helped me with so far.
"It was nothing; now go, shoo." she says, turning me around before I could look at her face.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Thank you for reading.
A bit of a long chapter this time, I finally decided on a Mystic Fruit for him once the idea for a grimoire fruit popped into my head, I just couldn't shake it any other fruit I thought of I'd be thinking of it.
Also, more Yasaka, I am enjoying the interactions so far, I hope you are too.