Hinata POV
Huff.
Finally, time to rest. All day chasing quests had worn me down, but I kept going because it was fun. Even if my legs felt like jelly, I still liked this life.
At least tonight I could sleep properly. The inn was pricey, but it was worth it. Good facilities, decent food, a clean room, and a private bath. Small luxuries, but they added up.
[Points: 30]
Time for Gacha. May every higher-dimensional being smile on me tonight.
Let's see what drops.
Hiroshi Nohara smelly socks (Shinchan)
Red Potions x5 (Overlord)
Maggie Simpson pacifier (Simpsons)
Black Pearl (Pirates of the Caribbean)
Joey Sandwich (Friends)
Cassandra Cain (DC)
Murakumogiri (One Piece)
Recruitment Card x9
Ben Tennyson T-shirt (Ben 10)
Anime/Manga Setting Travel Ticket (1 Month / Low Tier)
Finally, a character card. Cassandra Cain, huh. I could assimilate her and she'd shore up my fighting fundamentals more than Talia. But I don't plan to since someone like Cassandra, who's peak in her world, is probably better summoned. She might have the potential to be Enlightened, at least.
I still don't know how summons will react or how their relationship with me is established. Will they keep their free will or be nothing more than puppets? Can they refuse my orders? I'll find out once I summon someone.
Then there are the recruitment cards. They're similar to summoning cards, but different. A summoning card lets me call someone from a character card. A recruitment card lets me make a person my summon, provided they agree. Definitely useful.
The travel ticket should let me visit another world as its name suggests, but what does low tier mean? How is a world defined as low tier, by the powers present there, or by how much destruction its people are capable of? I'll check later.
Of the rest, the only immediately useful items are the potions.
Huff. Huff. Wait, why do I suddenly feel so sleepy? I know I'm tired, but not like this.
I'm poisoned. But by who? I don't have any obvious enemies; I mostly keep to myself. Who would want to harm me? Sell me? Or...
Thud.
Creeeeak.
.....
Hinata POV
My eyes opened slowly. Vision fuzzy, but my mana perception gave me a quick layout of the room. Not professionals. The only precautions they'd taken were chaining my hands. Sloppy, but typical for lowlife traffickers.
"Oh, you're awake."
A voice. I turned my head and saw him swagger in. I'd already sensed him with mana perception, but the act of playing the helpless girl would be more useful for information. Act dumb, bait the confession. Classic.
"Who are you?" I croaked, keeping my tone fragile. "Why did you take me?"
That grin. Gross. A slow, leering curl that said everything I needed to know. He chuckled, like some bad villain from an old action flick. "Hahaha, how cute."
I have decided he is going to be castrated.
"Of course to sell you," he said, licking his lips as if naming a dessert. "Someone young and healthy fetches a good price. My buddies want first pick, but some clients don't like used goods."
So it's for money. Predictable scum. Did someone at the inn sell me out? Possible. I need to confirm.
"You took me from the inn?" I asked, keeping up my helpless act while scanning him for every tiny detail, breathing pattern, stance, weapons, weak points.
"Look how smart you are," he chuckled, sounding far too pleased with himself.
Yep. Definitely unstable. Or maybe he just thinks I'm too vulnerable to do anything. Idiot.
I coaxed him into talking more, and he did. Too much, really.
"Shut up," he snapped suddenly, as if he finally realised he had been over-sharing.
Too late. I already had everything I needed.
I activated Body Double.
A clone materialised right in front of me. His eyes went wide, pupils shaking. "S–Skill...?"
Before he could even think about drawing the rusty sword at his waist, I moved. While he focused on the clone, my real body slipped out of the chain bindings and appeared at his side.
No hesitation.
No mercy.
Taking a sword out of spatial storage, I betrayed the bro code and severed his "future generation line" in one clean, elegant slice.
He collapsed instantly, hands between his legs, a raw scream ripping out of him. "AAAAAHHHH—!!"
Well technically, I'm a girl now, so it's not a betrayal. Loopholes are important.
Bang!
The door slammed open. His comrades rushed in, confusion plastered across their faces, and then horror, as their brains struggled to process what they were seeing.
Two identical girls standing over their writhing leader.
One real. One clone.
Both staring straight at them.
"Run!" one of the men barked, and the rest didn't need a second invitation. Smart, they finally realised things had slipped beyond their control. Pity I'm not Naruto; I've always preferred Sasuke's style.
I moved first. Fireball formed in the hollow of my palm, a tight orb of heat and light, and I hurled it at the group trying to flee. The blast struck true. One cluster was swallowed by flame, screams spiking as they staggered and fell.
My clone snapped into motion and chased the others. They split up, a common trick to improve the odds. Predictable.
That gamble failed.
Thought Acceleration kept my mind three steps ahead. I tracked their routes with calm precision. My blade moved like it had a memory of a thousand drills, quick, efficient, and final. Men went down, their weapons clattering against rock, the sound of bodies hitting the floor echoing, thud, thud, thud.
No theatrics, no wasted movements. When the last one tried to scramble away, the clone caught him, and I finished it with a single, clinical strike.
I returned the clone to where my real body stood and reabsorbed it. No point wasting good magicules when I can recover what I spent.
"How does it feel?" I asked the man still writhing on the ground, both hands clamped between his legs in a futile attempt to stop the bleeding. At my voice, he looked up. His eyes were redder than a Sharingan in rage, fitting, considering the situation.
I didn't bother worrying about him striking back. With Thought Acceleration and Body Double active, I was basically piloting two bodies at once. It's ridiculously draining, though. Keep it up too long and I might start laughing like the Joker.
Slash.
Thud.
Mercy kill. Quick, clean. I released him from his pain.
I turned away and walked deeper into the lair, the metallic scent of blood still thick in the air. There was only one thing here that caught my attention, a large sack in the corner, pulsing faintly with life energy.
I slashed the rope holding it shut, and as the cloth fell away, I froze.
What lay inside wasn't a person anymore. It was a mound of rotting flesh, twitching, breathing, struggling to become something else.
A Majin.
More specifically, someone in the middle of Majinization.
The process where a non–magicule-based lifeform, usually a human, begins transforming into a monster after being flooded with too many magicules. Sometimes it's caused by curses, rituals, or even exposure to powerful beings. The time it takes varies; some transform instantly, others over months.
The one in front of me, I had no idea how long it had been going on. But the body was barely holding together, like a candle melting from the inside out.
The bandit mentioned earlier that they also sold the "possessed" or "cursed" to the Church. Most people, especially those with low status or poor education, never realise what's really happening. They just call it demonic corruption. In truth, it's simply a change in lifeform.
Humans hate magical beings. Always have. Whether it's monsters, majins, or demi-humans, anyone who steps beyond the definition of "human" becomes a target.
Of course, I'm not naïve enough to think all nations are the same. Some kingdoms use majins in secret, either as soldiers, slaves, or weapons.
And the churches, self proclaimed protectors of humanity. They hunted monsters relentlessly, and they even bought captured ones.
Churches, plural. Who would have guessed there was more than one organised religion here? I always assumed Luminism was the main faith. Then again, nothing in an anime ever shows you the full map. For example, there are apparently thirteen Demon Lords now. Though I think it was mentioned that there were many demon lords in the past. I am getting sidetracked.
I looked down at the trembling heap before me. They would probably call this mercy too.
What should I do? I could not save him. At least, not with anything I knew for certain. Or maybe there was a way. Maybe not.
I withdrew a peculiar sword from my spatial storage. Black runes crawled along the blade. The hilt was heavily ornamented with a four sided guard, the grip spiralled like a twisted helix, and a dark sphere sat on the pommel.
Demon Dweller Sword. The name still felt ridiculous, but the thing itself was real. I had assumed it would not absorb magicules. I was wrong. It could. Perhaps its nature matched the mana concepts from other series I knew. I would figure that out later.
For now, this was an experiment. I was more interested in that than saving a stranger.
I set the tip of the blade against the writhing mass and pressed.
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