"Four of Circles? Pong, Three of Bamboo—"
"Ron! All Simples!"
"Aaaargh, my Pure Triple Sequence and All Simples!! Kyogre, are you doing this on purpose!?"
"What are you talking about? Kyogre doesn't know? Kyogre is just winning~"
"Damn you, fat-headed fish that gets hooked!!"
"Pathetic flightless chicken!!"
"You wanna fight?"
"Bring it on, you think I'm scared?"
"Both of you, shut up! Or I'll give each of you a Dragon Ascent!"
"Oh—" x2
Under Hayashi's blank stare, the flightless one and the hooked one sat back down obediently and began shuffling the tiles. Meanwhile, Arceus, lying docilely beside Hayashi, seemed utterly unfazed. In a voice that could soothe anything, she asked, "Surprised by this sight?"
"How could I not be?" Hayashi rubbed the bridge of his nose. "If the Team Aqua and Team Magma members from Hoenn saw this, they'd probably need emergency heart pills."
The gods of the sea and land you worship are sitting here playing mahjong, and the sea god just ruined the land god's Pure Triple Sequence and All Simples with a measly All Simples. Surprise!
Oh, wait—he also ruined the Life God's Four Concealed Triplets and the Sky God's Thirteen Orphans. That fat-headed fish really dug his own grave.
Hope you don't get ganged up on by Caterpie and the flightless one when Hoopa summons you later. Who knows, even the cameraman might roll up his sleeves and join in—now that'd be hilarious.
If that ever happened, even Hoopa would be confused: "Huh? Aren't you guys the ones I summoned? Why are you beating each other up?"
Arceus, however, took it all in stride. "The image humans impose on gods is just their own rigid stereotype," she said nonchalantly.
Hayashi nodded in understanding. He shifted the backpack from his back to his front and looked at Arceus. "I brought you some specialties from another world. Not sure if they'll be useful, but they might be what you're looking for."
"Oh?"
Arceus turned her gaze away from Ho-Oh, who was sneakily exchanging tiles with Rayquaza while Kyogre and Groudon were busy arguing, and looked at Hayashi. "So, you've collected crystals imbued with otherworldly energy?"
Hayashi: 'So that's how your Thirteen Orphans and Four Concealed Triplets happened, huh?'
"They're not exactly rare," Hayashi scratched his nose and pulled out some materials from his backpack. "This is magic crystal, storing energy called mana. This is a fragment of a Death Knight's armor, carrying its aura. This is a Rock Lizard's shell, infused with earth energy…"
Honestly, if this were in Konosuba's world, Hayashi would've blushed in embarrassment presenting these—they were just common monster drops in the game. Yet here they were, being solemnly handed over to Arceus as "otherworldly specialties"…
Shameful! Get off the battlefield!
Fortunately, Arceus wasn't aware of the "value" of these items... No, it would be more accurate to say that regardless of how cheap these things might be in the Konosuba world, in Arceus's eyes, they were all "breathable items" containing traces of unique laws from another world.
This was probably one of the charms of being a profiteer—useless items in a village of single men could cause a citywide sensation in a village of widows, right?
"Your gifts, I have indeed received them." A hint of amusement appeared in Arceus's eyes as she lowered her head to look at Hayashi. "Hmm, it's only right to give a suitable reward to someone who has completed a task. Hayashi, what reward would you like?"
"You suddenly spring this on me, and I really can't think of an answer..." Hayashi scratched his head in frustration. "Hmm, how about you give me some examples? What kind of rewards are there?"
Arceus nodded cheerfully. "For example, granting you the seed of Aura Power, the Power of the Forest, the Power of the Rift, or psychic abilities. How does that sound?"
"Can I choose all of them?"
"Perhaps if you bring back more of these items, you can choose all of them."
"So for now, I can only pick one, huh?" Hayashi crossed his arms and thought for a moment, muttering, "The Power of the Rift doesn't seem very useful..."
Arceus: "?"
Alright, fine!
The Power of the Forest should be healing abilities, psychic powers are magic-based, and Aura Power is physical-based?
Hayashi quickly categorized them and decisively said, "Then why even ask? Give me some Aura Power, thanks y—cheese!"
Close call! I almost blurted out "thanks, alpaca"! If I had actually said that, Arceus would definitely chase me around spitting... I mean, spitting Judgment stones!
So, the alpaca—I mean, Arceus—is truly a terrifying creature!
Arceus's soul antenna twitched slightly, and she gave Hayashi a suspicious look—was it just my imagination, or is this little brat hinting at something again?
But Arceus was, after all, an honest creature, unlike that shiny Fearow who, after spending too much time with Hayashi, even teamed up with Caterpie to cheat at cards and scam the flightless and the gullible.
What a disgrace!
A blue speck of light appeared before Arceus and slowly floated toward Hayashi's forehead.
"What I'm giving you is only the seed of Aura Power. How far you can develop it depends on your imagination."
Hayashi nodded cheerfully. "Don't worry, my imagination is as vast as Old Ken's, and my cunning is as plentiful as Little An's!"
Arceus twitched her lips and said helplessly, "You... careful, or you'll lose ten years' worth of good karma."
"Don't worry." Hayashi waved his hand dismissively. "After pressing '1,' not only will Buddha laugh with you, but he'll also drag God and the Jade Emperor to your house to munch on sunflower seeds while watching the airplane mama give birth over Japan."
"Huh?"
"Look, the airplane lady is giving birth—"
"It's a baby boy!"
"Eight pounds, wow!"
"And he's a chubby one!"
"All the acquaintances in the Kanto region are over the moon!"
Arceus: "..."
"Acquaintances," huh? More like "well-done" people, right?
That joke was so dark, ten years in hell wouldn't be enough.
Oh, even Buddha is laughing, so it's all good.
...
...
The power of Aura is considered one of the great divine forces in the Pokémon world. It combines abilities such as sensing, communication, and enemy detection, making it an exceptionally powerful skill.
"Feels like..." Hayashi rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I haven't experienced it myself, but it kinda reminds me of the Wave Power of the Asura in Dungeon Fighter Online."
When Hayashi closed his eyes, he could sense that everything in this world seemed to possess its own Aura. By attempting to recreate his internal Aura power at different frequencies, he successfully summoned flames, ice, and lightning.
"So, I've basically switched from a male Fighter class to a stainless steel basin?" Hayashi muttered while rubbing his face. "But I still prefer close combat—fists meeting flesh is the true romance of a man!"
To put it simply, if you were transported into the world of Naruto, wouldn't you rather be a close-combat king who could fight Tsunade up close and accidentally punch her in the chest, instead of just standing at a distance throwing fireballs?
"So..."
Hayashi clenched his right fist, and a pale blue Aura coiled around it, emitting a cool aura. With a thought, the Aura on his fist turned orange, and the atmosphere grew scorching hot.
"Did I just master Thunder Punch, Ice Punch, and Fire Punch?"
Damn, it feels like mastering one technique unlocks them all.
Not only that, Hayashi realized he could also "foresee" his opponent's movements to some extent by sensing the Aura of all things—isn't this just Observation Haki from One Piece?
'Damn, this Aura power is seriously amazing—'
Hayashi couldn't help but grin in delight. Beside him, Arceus, noticing his reaction, said approvingly, "It seems you're quite satisfied with the power I've bestowed upon you?"
"Extremely satisfied, couldn't be happier." Hayashi nodded enthusiastically. "The power of Aura is absolutely incredible!"
Arceus nodded with a smile on the surface, but inwardly, it was grinding its teeth—wasn't the power of Transcendence good enough? The power of Transcendence is pretty awesome too, you know?
Grumpily, Arceus lay down on the ground and glanced at the four Pokémon still playing mahjong. Unable to hold back its frustration, it snapped, "All you do is play, play, play, play, play! Rayquaza, have you even protected the ozone layer? Shattered any meteors? Successfully repelled any aliens?"
Rayquaza, just about to win with an all-green hand: "Huh? Huh??"
"What do you mean, 'huh'?" Arceus raised its head sternly. "I recall you getting your ass handed to you by Deoxys, didn't I? Aren't you ashamed, as a Hoenn Legendary? And you still have the nerve to sit here playing mahjong? Don't you feel any remorse?"
"Gahahaha—"
The flightless one burst into laughter like a certain American president, while the one who always bites the hook beside him wheezed with laughter. Little did they know, Arceus was already preparing to turn its wrath on them next.
"Groudon, Kyogre, what are you laughing at!?" Arceus said with a face full of anger. "Has Groudon learned to fly? Has Kyogre mastered Judgment Stone Edge? No? Then how dare you waste time here, squandering your lives!?"
Hayashi covered his mouth, his shoulders shaking uncontrollably—come on, at least Groudon can learn Flamethrower and use its mouth as a jet for high-quality flight, but expecting Kyogre to learn Judgment Stone Edge? That's just bullying at this point—
This was truly like a turtle trying to skip school—utterly impossible to hold back.