Telos Karma Meta Gacha

[Hajime POV]

Though I was excited about having a Longinus, I also knew the importance of keeping it a secret. In canon, every major faction constantly involved had one.

The church had the wielders of Zenith Tempest and Incinerate Anthem.

The Grigori had Canis Lykaon, Alphecca Tyrant, Divine Dividing, and Absolute Demise.

The Devils had Boosted Gear, Regulus Nemea, Sephiroth Graal, Aeon Balor, and Nereid Kyrie.

The Khaos Brigade had True Longinus, Dimension Lost, and Annihilation Maker.

The only unaffiliated Longinus in the canon were Innovate Clear, Telos Karma, Star Buster Star Blaster, and Unknown Dictator; and all of them showed they leaned towards the Abrahamic factions during the Azazel Cup arc.

While it sounds ridiculous how all the Longinus gravitate towards the only four groups, it also makes some sense. Ignoring any sort of plot armor, God's creations ended up staying closer together, even though there was no control over where they went. Those factions are also the ones with the widest reach, stretching to every continent, which is more than any other faction.

Even the Hindus, the strongest of all factions, are still only present on one part of one continent. So a faction that is present on all continents would have an easier time finding a Longinus.

Being the likely only Longinus user who was truly unaffiliated with any faction would make him a target for all.

The Khaos Brigade, or more specifically the Hero Faction would try to recruit him. While he's only half human, his yokai half is practically non-existent, and even Yasaka said she only knew he was a yokai because she knew his mother.

The Biblical groups on the other hand would likely do whatever it takes to get him on their side, with the devils being the worst offenders. They would possibly even kill him just to take him as a servant, and it's not surprising why given their natures. Diodora targeted 16 different holy maidens and nuns just to satisfy his fetish and was only caught because he needed Asia.

That's right. He managed to corrupt 15 different holy maidens and turn them into his peerage but was only caught because he wasn't able to get Asia from Rias. His devil nature, whether it was fueled by pride, greed, or lust, was the only reason he got caught.

There was also the incident with Koneko shortly after her sister became a stray. Simply by being associated with a stray, the devils' higher-ups were willing to kill her.

Safe to say I'm going to stay away from them for now. In this world and the one shown in my memories, the only way to have leverage is to be strong. Though the story was extremely inaccurate in how politics was conducted, likely because the plot needed it to be simple.

The biggest inaccuracy I could see was simply that politics was too soft. During my studies, I've read about several treaties and the meetings surrounding them, and the talks were much more vicious.

For example, the treaty that ended the Great War took decades to figure out. Each faction was trying to get as much land as they could, while also trying to weaken the other two.

While the war may have ended, there were still many skirmishes that took place during the peace talks, one of which even involved Kokabiel killing the head of the Halphas pillar before their clan's extinction in the civil war.

Another thing I found ridiculous was the ninth volume of the light novel, where they visited Kyoto. It was completely unrealistic in every possible way, especially politically.

Unlike the light novel, the yokai's relationship with devils, as well as many other factions is extremely strained, and that's putting it lightly.

The main problem revolves around the yokai's biggest export, spiritual fruits. They are grown on trees using a special technique that imbues energy from the leylines into the fruits. This energy, when digested, gives a slight boost in energy reserves to all magical beings. It's the same reason why Asia's sacred gear was so valuable, it worked regardless of race.

While different spirit fruits will provide a varying amount of energy depending on multiple factors, if you were to eat the best possible fruit once a day, you would be guaranteed to go from low-class to mid-class strength in at most 10 years.

It might not sound like a lot, but that's only considering someone who doesn't train, use their magic, or get any other buffs. If they were to put in more effort, that time could easily be shortened to a year. The biggest benefit is for those who are stronger.

Lots of people will reach a bottleneck when going from high-class to ultimate-class. This is mostly because of the large energy requirements needed, and spiritual fruits can cut down the time by decades. This is especially helpful for a group such as devils, who are known for their lack of training.

Now what is the problem you might ask? Well, the yokai are at best a medium-sized faction, already weaker than most other groups; and the only person we have to defend us is Yasaka, who is essentially trapped in Kyoto since her connection to the leylines is what allows her to protect the yokai under her command.

The thing is, other factions all have people just as strong as her, but they can move wherever they want. So centuries ago, Yasaka made a deal with the other factions, where yokai would provide spirit fruits at a discount, in exchange for being left alone. The deal was a good one at the time, allowing yokai across Japan to thrive.

Over time, however, other factions realized that they could pressure Yasaka if they worked together. As strong as she might have been, she couldn't protect yokai across the entire country. This slowly caused yokai to shift towards Kyoto and Tokyo for their protection and inadvertently made pressuring Yasaka easier.

While Nurarihyon may live in Tokyo with his Night Parade, due to their smaller numbers and more aggressive actions, they are generally left alone. For Yasaka, who only wanted peace, pressuring her was easy since the lives of over 70% of all yokai depended on her. While yokai aren't weak by any means, the amount of yokai who are ultimate class strength is less than 100. Other factions simply have so much more strength, that the only options are to either be enslaved or to lower their heads.

Youjutsu, while a powerful form of magic, hasn't had many changes over the last few centuries, which is partially caused by a magical brain drain. Other factions, which were much more prosperous than the yokai, were able to tempt many of the more capable yokai over the years with their larger wealth and strength. While those individuals may have developed new youjutsu over the years, that knowledge hasn't reached other yokai, leaving the art to stagnate.

There is always the option of going to the Shinto pantheon, but that's more of a joke than anything else.

Despite the origins of yokai tracing back to the Shinto gods, the yokai are treated worse by them than humans are.

Ironically enough, Yasaka's dedication over the centuries allowed her to become Amaterasu's priestess, which is the only reason other than her leyline connection yokai haven't been enslaved already.

Despite her loyalty to the sun goddess, Yasaka's pleas for help often remain unanswered by her.

The more that I thought about how yokai, and especially Yasaka were treated the more frustrated I became. Even though Yasaka was powerful, her efforts of protecting the yokai have barely done anything, and to no fault of her own.

At this point even if the yokai just stopped working they would still be punished. It would likely end up with other factions all charging into Kyoto to capture whichever yokai they could for slaves and indoctrinate their children to help find alternatives for spirit fruits.

If I were to do anything with my Longinus I would need to only avoid being noticed by other factions. On top of that, I need to find a way to gain more power that Yasaka won't know about. If she was in any way connected to me then she might be pressured even further by false claims of me provoking war.

As I was considering my options, I realized how Carl's memories had already been helping me. I am certain that if this was yesterday I would not be thinking so hard about this. I would've likely shown off to Yasaka my Longinus, which would put more pressure on her having to hide me from the other factions.

I couldn't get her help. If I was to make an organization of my own it had to be by myself. I also couldn't go to any other factions for help. They've been taking advantage of yokai for too long, and call it pride or some other dumb reason, but if I were to help yokai, I couldn't get help from the source of the problem.

This doesn't leave many options for me, but with my knowledge of the future, I could certainly do something. First things first, I need to get personal strength, so it's time to try out my Longinus.

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Author's Note:

This one was tough to write. It's a pretty big info dump, but one I felt necessary to help explain Hajime's future decisions. I didn't want to split it between chapters since all the problems feed into each other. Chapter 4 will show the gacha off, so as a dead lion once said, be prepared.

Thanks for the support on the last chapter! I'll see you all next time!