Stand Name: "Kaguya-hime" Stand Ability: Tidal Moon — absorbs the power of the moon and converts it for the user's benefit. Stand Stats: Destructive Power: E | Speed: E | Range: E | Persistence: E | Precision: D | Growth Potential: ?
The moment Miyuki's fingers made contact with that tiny figure, this block of information slammed into his brain all at once.
A... a Stand?
He sucked in a sharp breath. His whole body started trembling.
A "Stand" was a powerful psychic manifestation generated from a person's life energy. Because the image always appeared standing near its user, it earned the name "Stand." Straight out of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
Put simply, a Stand was the physical expression of someone's inner life force. That's why every Stand looked different, had different powers, and almost always reflected something about its user's personality, history, or nature.
Summoning one was easy enough in theory. You just called its name. And apparently, when Miyuki had mumbled "Ootsutsuki Kaguya" in his sleep, that had been close enough to trigger the activation. Off by one word, but it still counted.
Miyuki knew all about Stands. He was a nerd. Of course he did. What he absolutely did not expect was to have one in a world where Stands had no business existing.
"And of all things... mine had to be this? A fun-sized version of the final boss?"
Now that he understood what the tiny Kaguya actually was, Miyuki wiped the cold sweat off his forehead and studied his Stand more carefully.
Appearance-wise, "Kaguya-hime" was basically Ootsutsuki Kaguya shrunk down to toddler proportions. Every signature feature was perfectly preserved, just miniaturized. You'd recognize her instantly.
She doesn't seem to be the intelligent type... A fully controlled Stand, then?
After observing her for a bit, Miyuki gathered his courage and patted her on the head. She blinked up at him with those pale white eyes, curious, but did nothing else. No reaction. No resistance. Just a cute little figure hovering in place.
Most Stands operated strictly on their user's commands. They were tools, extensions of the self. Only a rare few ever developed true intelligence or self-awareness. And "Kaguya-hime," at least for now, clearly wasn't one of those.
Miyuki exhaled with relief.
She was his Stand, sure, but she looked exactly like the woman who'd nearly destroyed the entire shinobi world. The intimidation factor was real. Knowing she wasn't about to open her mouth and say something like "Look at these humans, scurrying like insects" or "You have a power level of five and you think you can give me orders?" made things considerably less stressful.
Because if she had, Miyuki was not confident he could've maintained the dignified composure expected of a Stand user.
Stands are supposed to reflect their user's life energy. But mine came out looking like Ootsutsuki Kaguya. So at the end of the day, blood is blood, huh? Doesn't matter how many generations removed I am. The alien DNA runs deep.
"Still, having a Stand at all is pretty great. But these stats are..."
Once he'd wrapped his head around what "Kaguya-hime" was, Miyuki shifted his attention to what she could actually do. Because if they were going to fight together someday, he needed to know what he was working with.
Stand abilities were measured across six categories: Destructive Power, Speed, Range, Persistence, Precision, and Growth Potential. Each stat was graded on a scale from S at the top, through A, B, C, D, and down to E at the bottom.
Destructive Power covered raw attack strength and damage output. Speed measured agility and reaction time. Range determined how far the Stand could operate from its user, or how wide its attacks could reach. Persistence rated how long its ability could stay active. Precision measured how fine and controlled its movements were. And Growth Potential indicated how much room the Stand had left to evolve.
Kaguya-hime's stats read: Destructive Power E, Speed E, Range E, Persistence E, Precision D, Growth Potential ?
In other words, she was pathetically weak across the board. Not a single stat even reached C-rank, which was supposed to be average. It was almost impressive how bad these numbers were.
The one silver lining was that Growth Potential column. That big fat question mark meant "Kaguya-hime" had room to grow. Possibly a lot of room.
Of course, a Stand's true strength wasn't always about raw stats. Special abilities were what really mattered. But "Kaguya-hime's" special ability, "Tidal Moon," didn't exactly inspire confidence either.
"Absorb the power of the moon and convert it for my own use... That's pretty vague."
Miyuki chewed on it for a while, but couldn't pin down how useful "Tidal Moon" would actually be. The description was too abstract. What did "absorb" even mean in practice? What happened to Kaguya-hime after she absorbed it? Without testing it, everything was just speculation. The description might as well have said "does stuff, maybe."
Alright. I'll test it tonight once I'm out of here. He filed that thought away.
While he'd been poking and prodding at his Stand, the three hours had slipped by without him noticing. The shrine door groaned open from the outside.
"Did you gain any insights from our ancestor's statue?"
Hiashi asked the question casually as the two of them walked together from the shrine back toward the main compound. Up ahead, the central hall was already set up for a banquet celebrating the completion of the young heir's ceremony. Tradition dictated that both the Main House and Branch House could cut loose and enjoy themselves tonight. For the Hyuuga, this was a rare occasion.
"Not really... Did you get anything out of it back in your day, Father?"
Miyuki tossed the question back at him. Because seriously, there was nothing in that shrine but a jade statue. What was anyone supposed to learn from staring at it?
"Hmph. Of course I..." Hiashi paused for exactly one second. "...did not. Three hours of kneeling for nothing."
His voice stayed flat, but there was the faintest crack in the composure. The tiniest ripple.
Called it. This whole ceremony is a scam. And you, Mr. Straight-Laced Clan Head, definitely sat there on your knees the entire time like a sucker, didn't you.
Their eyes met. Miyuki turned away and tried to hide his grin. Even Hiashi, the man whose face might as well have been carved from the same jade as that statue, let the corner of his mouth twitch upward. Just barely.
For that one moment, they actually looked like father and son.
Then the celebration kicked off.
The great hall was packed. Rows and rows of food and drink lined every table. Tonight, rank didn't matter. Main House, Branch House, elders, servants, everyone drank together. The noise was deafening. Practically every adult was deep into the sake by the second hour.
Miyuki drank juice.
The party raged well into the night. By the time they finally let him go, Miyuki was so exhausted he could barely keep his eyes open. An attendant guided him to his room and tucked his tiny body into a warm futon.
"Hey, has anything big happened lately?"
He'd planned to test "Kaguya-hime" tonight, but he was too wiped out to bother. Still, he figured he might as well gather some intel before passing out.
"Big news? Oh, right. Apparently the envoys from Kumogakure arrived in the village today. They're here to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with our leadership."
"Kumogakure? Ceasefire?"
The words hit him like ice water.
The Kumo delegation visiting Konoha to sign a peace treaty wasn't exactly a world-shaking event on its own. But there was an incident tied to it. One that involved the Hyuuga clan directly.
The "Heiress Kidnapping Incident."
Kumo's real objective had never been peace. They'd come to steal the Byakugan. Under the cover of diplomacy, one of their operatives had snuck into the Hyuuga compound and abducted the clan's eldest daughter. Hiashi killed the kidnapper, but then Kumo had the audacity to demand compensation for their dead shinobi, and Hizashi, Neji's father, had volunteered to die in his brother's place...
Wait. Hang on. Miyuki's hand drifted to his head as the full picture assembled itself.
He'd taken Hinata's spot. He was the firstborn now. If nothing else changed, the real Hinata would be born about two years from now and slot into what would have been Hanabi's position.
Which meant the Hyuuga clan didn't have an eldest daughter anymore.
They had an eldest son.
And that was him.