[Third Person POV]
As Hajime's clone finished reading the Great Book, he reflected on all that it contained.
Most of the knowledge on the creatures of Kinkow was practically useless, only containing a basic description of most island species.
A few, such as the waka waka bug, had more detailed pages, but ultimately, most were just descriptions and known behaviors. They rarely even had pictures for most creatures.
Those that were frequent problems, such as waka waka bugs and muka rats, had pictures. Some rarer beasts, like the Kinkowian Bogsloth or Razor Hawk, also had pictures, but other than that, most weren't physically shown.
The turkey-mantis hybrid that he'd recently learned was called the Fowl Mantis was one such example. It even had other variants that resembled a chicken, pheasant, or goose, but the lack of an image meant he could only guess what these variants looked like.
While few would ever explore the dark side, that didn't mean that there should be so little information about it.
One thing he needed to do was create a 'general' list of creatures from the Great Book.
Like how there were books for birdwatchers about the types of birds you could find in a given area, there should also be a book of Kinkowian species that you could run into. Though there is the chance it might encourage people to search for these dangerous species, at the very least, the information could help someone deal with them in an emergency.
It's strange how the island, one with centuries of history intertwined with its unique magic, has so little integration between the two.
Hajime knew that he needed to change that.
The most significant factor that would change everything was DxD's human magic. Humans, although they possessed some supernatural potential, were incredibly weak compared to those of the Kinkowian tribes, each of which had some supernatural abilities, some more pronounced than others.
Tarantula people were naturals when it came to dark magic.
Flagi were skilled with stealth magic. Unfortunately, they rarely produce mages, and the few they do usually focus on stealth like their predecessors.
Dirt Fairies had mastered enchantment and transformation magic, though they only stabilize it thanks to a special residue that coalesces on their bodies, which is also how their tribe got their name.
Squonks, despite their human-like nature, were all highly skilled diggers and fighters, capable of taking on the bear-sized muka rats by themselves, something even the royal guards had trouble with.
Yetis were highly resistant to the cold and possessed tremendous strength, but they also had lower intelligence, which led to the tribe's general isolation in the mountains.
The Nanju were somewhat unusual in that their only 'supernatural' ability was that they were essentially Amazons. Each of their children is female and grows into a powerful warrior. Their tribe's location does give them an advantage, though, allowing them to use their flight belts for absolute dominance in the area, and enabling them to live on the dark side of the island despite the risks.
Humans, while they had no inherent advantage, did have some.
Firstly, when Europeans first discovered the island almost two centuries ago, they tried to colonize it, but failed due to the magical inhabitants of the island.
They didn't quit, though, and eventually started working with the human kingdom on the island. Since they had more numbers than the other tribes, they had already ruled over them in a tribute system, similar to what China used to do.
Nowadays, the tribes are almost completely independent. They do listen to the king of Kinkow, though it was rare for orders to happen.
That's why, when Mikayla finally cast the most basic fireball spell, Hajime was ecstatic. Though the spell barely worked, looking more like a candle flame than a ball, that was all that was needed. After all, magic grows over time and through experimentation, a process that requires multiple people over several years.
Humans were the most magically inclined of tribes, but it was rare for them to be able to use that magic themselves. That's why they usually relied on artifacts and rituals to utilize what they had. The only ones who had unlocked their magic were the few magic clans that served the royal family.
Unfortunately, these clan members often lacked both talent and ambition, leading to decades at a time with little to no magical growth, and with how frequently it happened, left the state of magic similar to that of the island centuries ago, if not slightly worse.
The most recent contributions were all made by the late King Kunu, thanks to the royal bloodline's higher magic affinity.
Seeing Mikayla's success, Hajime began to have some basic magic books printed. Though he had lots of advanced magic, he also knew it was better for them to start with the basics and create their own family magic from there.
That was also why he sent representatives to each of the tribes, excluding the tarantulas. He knew people's opinions of them, not to mention that he wouldn't have much of an explanation for how he 'tamed' them. For now, he sent Drakul with one of the basic magic books to the tribe, along with the message of what to do with it.
Of the five remaining tribes, though the representatives did say there were no guaranteed results, all of them were grateful for the book. To them, a new king overthrowing the twin kings was initially cause for concern, but the chaos they'd heard about from the twins made them cautiously optimistic. So when the new king sent over someone with a book that might allow them to use more magic, needless to say, none of them had problems with this new king.
Expectedly, this caused unrest among the magic families, who were upset that they might lose their dominance over magic, but Hajime had planned something else for them. More specifically, he gave them an advanced magic book in addition to the basic one.
While he wanted everyone to expand their knowledge of human magic however they wanted, he didn't mind 'restricting' these families to a predetermined path with these books. They'd likely not use them anyway, and even if they did, they might refuse to innovate, preferring to use Kinkowian magic for tradition's sake.
At that point, they'd still have dominance, but those who refused to get on board would eventually be left behind. By then, their decline would be due to their refusal to progress.
They'd still likely be important, though, since they were the ones who specialized in magic for the rituals that the island required.
Hajime didn't think about it too much, though. Even if they tried rebellion, he could use the tarantula people to deal with them.
Hajime, checking how long he had left, found that he had only five days to go, causing him to speed up his preparations.
-----
Currently, Hajime was standing at the border between the light and dark sides.
A few feet away from him, on the light side and facing the dark side, was the statue of a bald man with bushy eyebrows.
The statue wasn't truly a statue, but was the 'imprisoned' form of Zadoc. Despite this statue being his prison, he could easily escape if someone was dumb or evil enough to push him to the dark side, freeing him. His prison was the existence of the light side, which was what kept him as a statue.
In the now-thrown-out canon, Brady and Boomer put the statue on skateboards to push it away. A surprisingly smart plan for them, but they never removed the statue, and blocked the wheels with a tortoise that eventually left, allowing the statue to roll onto the dark side.
While Zadoc was a problem at the time, with the dark side slowly creeping towards the statue, what the twins did was reckless. They could have had a dozen guards carry the statue or removed the skateboards after they finished.
Instead, they nearly caused the island's destruction once again.
That's why Hajime was here.
Even if he wasn't going to stay here forever, he also didn't want to leave things worse than if he did nothing.
That meant dealing with threats like Zadoc.
Thankfully for Hajime, though the statue was a prison, it was a prison for his soul.
Using the soul fruit, Hajime slowly siphoned Zadoc's soul through the stone. Though he tried to resist, he was completely immobilized, allowing Hajime to continue with only minimal resistance in the soulscape.
By the time Hajime was done, the statue was filled with cracks, looking like a broken coffee mug barely held together with glue and tape.
Putting it in his inventory, the description told him that the statue was now just that, allowing him to take it out and smash it into pieces with his Nth metal mace, ensuring nothing would happen.
Minutes later, a tarantula person arrived before guiding him into the dark side, bringing him to his next targets.
The first of these targets was the mummy, formerly known as Kaita the bat rider. Though able to put up more resistance than Zadoc, his current form was too weak to retaliate.
His last stop was Kaita's temple, which housed his bat, Kutamungo.
Unwilling to kill such a rare species, Hajime made it a guardian of the taratulas with his Geass, though he gave it strict instructions only to defend the tribe.
After that, Hajime went back to the castle for his last tasks.
-----
After looting the castle of the duplicating plant, mostly to prevent someone else from using it, he had his guards prepare the royal vessel for travel.
While he waited, he used a weakness removal card to prevent any issues if he went overboard.
Once the ship was ready, he hopped on and set sail.
Following Jack Sparrow's compass, the ship took over two days to find the most powerful object in the world, the Do Over Watch.
Any king who held it while saying "Do over" would reset the day, allowing them to relive it as many times as they wanted, with only themselves remembering.
While physical training would be useless, it would allow Hajime to study indefinitely and help the kingdom to avoid disaster—a homemade Groundhog Day.
After grabbing the watch, the ship set sail for Sununu.
Sununu, one of the seven other island kingdoms, was an island of geniuses. Their queens, Hesta and Desta, were two of the smartest people on their island and helped make it one of the most prosperous.
One day, they encountered a living statue and insulted it, causing it to curse them and their island with dumbness. Only by answering a riddle could they remove the curse, but with the curse making them dumb, that was impossible.
As the ship sailed past an enormous octopus, Hajime fried it with lightning before they continued.
Arriving at the port of Sununu, the curse had shown its power. Everyone was acting like idiots, though thankfully, nobody had enough intelligence to do something really stupid. Most of their actions were limited to licking random things, hitting themselves and wondering where the pain came from, and failing to complete a full sentence before switching topics.
The queens, now hot, dumb, and blonde, could be best described as bimbos.
After nearly an hour of trying to get the queens to bring him to the statue that had cursed them, but not before bringing him to dozens of other statues first, he eventually saw the one he was looking for.
"I'm here to remove the curse," Hajime confidently said.
"I can do that, you just need to answer the riddle," the condescending statue snidely commented.
"If you ask this question all day long, the answer will always change, but never be wrong. What question did you ask?"
(A/N: Honestly kind of proud it rhymed, mostly unintentionally.)
After thinking it over for a minute, Hajime answered.
"What time is it?"
"That is correct. Fine, have your intelligence back. They've almost knocked me over five times already."
As a light spread out from the room and covered the island, the residents of Sununu slowly regained their mental faculties.
A few minutes later, everyone was back to normal, though the queens were furious.
After explaining his visit to the island, the queens thanked him while escorting him out of the room.
Before leaving, he asked if they wanted him to destroy the statue to prevent such an incident from happening again. Although the statue might have been important, it could have destroyed the island if this situation had continued for much longer.
The queens, concerned about destroying what was technically a national treasure and a magic artifact, asked if he could do anything to it that wouldn't destroy it.
Hajime instead used his soul fruit powers to remove any 'sentience' from the statue, leaving it as just a talking statue. It now functioned more like a search engine, answering whatever questions it was asked to the best of its knowledge, and could have more knowledge added or altered by the queens.
As thanks for his help, they invited him and his crew for a feast, but knowing he would be leaving in a few days, he declined, saying he still had lots of business that the previous kings had neglected.
Bidding them farewell, Hajime hopped back on board before having the crew steer for Kinkow.
__________
Author's Note:
This arc will conclude in the next chapter, after which we'll return to DxD.
Thanks for reading; I'll see you next time!