Story 10: Chapter 6: Life and Death (Patreon)

Drawn to Power

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 6: Life and Death

______________________________________________________________________

- Tatsuya -

I was awakened by the sound of coughing coming from grandma’s room.

She has been getting sick more often these days.

It was something that came with age but it was still painful to watch.

I got up from my bed and went to the kitchen and made some hot tea for her before carrying everything to her room.

“Tatsu-kun?” She looked at me. “Did I wake you up?”

“It’s nothing. It was time for me to wake up as it is.” I replied as I kept the tray beside her. “Here, have some tea.”

“Thank you.” She thanked me as she took the cup and took a sip of the tea.

“You have another doctor’s appointment today, right?” I asked and she nodded.

“Do you want me to go with you? In that case, I will call school and take a leave.” I asked.

“No. You don’t have to do that. Rika-chan is taking me to the hospital.” She refused.

Rika-san was Sae’s mother and a very close family friend. They were practically family and they have been a huge help to us since Grandma’s health started to deteriorate.

She even brought us dinner sometimes to help us out.

“Koji-kun will be coming today so make sure that you don’t miss him.” She reminded me and I nodded.

Yeah, Koji-san will be coming today to collect manuscripts for the next chapter.

Drawing manga was not an easy task. There were several steps involved.

First the person has to draw a rough draft called the ‘name’.

This is then presented to the editor and changes are made. The mangaka then draws a new name and the process is repeated until they agree on the final draft after which he draws the manuscript.

It was different for me.

Due to my System and my own superhuman stats, I was able to draw at a very fast pace. The speed was increased even further due to the fact that none of my manga ever needs me to draw more than one name.

According to Koji-san, they would do just as well if they were put as it is for publishing….which was actually the case as they were world famous manga which had already gone through several rounds of editing by the best of the best.

If I were to draw an original, I am sure it would take many rounds of editing to make the final cut.

But still, due to all these reasons, I was able to dish out chapters like none other.

Koji-san still comes over and checks the manuscripts as a part of his job.

I am actually lucky that my editor is Koji-san. Any other editor would have gone crazy or had a fight with me due to my crazy style of work.

________________________________x_____________________________________

My new school wasn’t that exciting and although I did make friends here….we didn’t have the same connection as I had with the idiots of my previous school.

Sigh.

It was hard to believe but I missed those fools….even that dumbass Kiyotsugu.

We did keep in touch and I had visited them a few times and they had come to my place during vacations too.

At least I had Tobi going to school with me.

At first, I had drowned myself in training.

After Grandma had started teaching me, I was able to learn a bit more about the true power scaling of this world.

Nurarihyon’s explanations had been more or less true.

The bottom of the barrel were the non supernatural creatures.

Above them would be Low Class beings. They could be anything from two or three times stronger than the average human adult to ten or fifteen times stronger than normal humans depending on their powers.

Beyond the Low Class beings were the Middle Class beings. They were far beyond Low Class beings, able to take down dozens of those by themselves. Most of them also possessed some kind of special powers.

From what Grandma told me, Rikuo felt like a Mid Class being but that could be due to his human part being dominant during the day. At night, he could get stronger.

As for High Class beings….they could destroy large hills and small mountains with ease.

That’s where the level of power started becoming crazy. Peak High Class beings could be crazy powerful.

I wonder how many people from the Naruto world could do so?

At least no one below Kage level and even among those people, only a handful if we exclude the Jinchuriki.

Moreover, unlike Kishimoto’s Naruto, the manga given by the System don't have any flaws.

In this matter, the System has a very strict scaling when it comes to powers too. It has a fixed level of power.

Beyond the High Class was the Ultimate Class. This was the last level which Grandma knew about.

According to her, anyone who was famous in myths was at the very least Ultimate Class strong….Yes….at the very least.

This level of power was extremely broad.

Basically anyone who could destroy a small city could be said to be an Ultimate Class but that was not the end….Even prefecture destroyers or basically anything below Country Destroyers were all called Ultimate Class. So there could be a huge gap between two Ultimate Class people although both of them hold the same title.

These people were all walking nukes. For example, a decently strong Ultimate Class could wipe out the entire Honshu without a lot of effort.

The fact was chilling that we lived in a world full of beings who could end such large areas of land on just a mere whim. To compare things, even the strongest of nukes made by humans would just be equal to an attack of an average Ultimate Class being.

Apart from this,all this information just made my work harder as I had no idea which range Hagoromo Gitsune or her subordinates belonged to or even Nurarihyon himself. They were as strong or stronger than most tailed beasts. It would be like facing the real Kyubi….well, Hagoromo Gitsune was also a Kyubi apparently but unlike the one in Naruto, she was skilled and could actually fight rather than rampage like a mindless monster. This was true for all youkai, which is what makes them far more dangerous than any tailed beast. And I will be facing her subordinates.

I know Nurarihyon had told me of the level beyond that and that if I wanted to have a decent chance of beating them all by myself, I needed to be at that level.

The Leader Class.

Such power….

It was the thing of myths….the level beyond several weaker Gods. The goal was frightening. No, it was terrifying to even think about it.

But I didn’t let this information break me. If anything, I increased my training even more. I threw every waking moment of my time into training.

Even grandma was worried for a while and she sent me to Shuri-san’s place to take a break….and it was a good idea too.

That place was quiet and peaceful and helped me relax a lot. Although not everything was peaceful. I still had a hard time forgetting what I had seen one night when I had gotten up to drink water.

One can never guess a book by its cover.

No wonder dad went for mom. Then again, she did say they had different preferences….it was only that day that I understood what she meant. I shivered at the thought.

Worst case was that I was seen by Akeno that night. Thankfully, I was able to bring her away with me and prevent her from seeing something that would have haunted her dreams.

Koji-san came an hour later after I returned home.

I opened the room to find the man very happy. “You look awfully happy, Koji-san. Did something good happen?” I asked.

“Yes. Yes, something great happened, Tatsu-kun.” He laughed.

I raised an eyebrow as I looked at the man.

He held my shoulders happily. “We got an offer for an anime adaptation for Demon Slayer, Tatsu. Your manga is going to become an anime!”

“What?!” I was taken aback at the information.

“The Chief was contacted by one of the biggest production houses with an offer to animate Demon Slayer. They contacted me since you….well no one knew who you are.”

He went on to explain the entire deal.

The contract was to be signed by grandma. She was representing me as a guardian because I wasn’t a legal adult yet.

Mangaka didn’t make much money from animation but then again, money was not an issue for me as I never had any problems with it. What I was interested in was that anime would bring people to read more of my manga and buy more volumes and this will translate to more sales for my Naruto manga too.

Demon Slayer was very popular, seeing the lack of good manga in this world. I kinda understood why I got this Mangaka System. It wanted me to spread some decent entertainment in this world so that people don’t have to suffer those cringy magical girl shit anymore.

It was a surprise that it took so long to get an offer for an anime.

I was wondering how to increase the sales and views of my manga and this fell into my lap. I can finally get the points for several things I was hoping to buy.

I agreed and I was given several details. He asked me about my preferences and requests for the anime if I had any and I requested a few things, mainly like keeping the anime as close to the plot of the manga and all that to avoid problems.

The manga which the System gave me were usually the perfected versions of the whole with even the movie and extras seamlessly added and plot holes more or less removed. It was almost as if the System was detailing the actual events rather than drawing the story.

The production house which had given us the offer was quite good.

They had mainly done gag anime before this but they were quite interested in the Demon Slayer series to try something new.

I was all for it.

Koji-san had shown me some of their works and the animation quality was quite good although the stories themselves….left a lot to be desired.

We waited for grandma to return and then she signed the documents for the deal and it was finally decided that I was getting my first manga animated.

__________________________________x___________________________________

Anime takes a long time to make.

A single episode could take anything from two to six months to make including all the work which is put in.

So any result we get will be obtained much later.

But there is one thing that we can get earlier.

The announcement.

It was announced that the Demon Slayer manga is getting an anime and I saw almost a two times increase in the number of views and sales almost immediately.

This increase is expected to reach its peak when the anime is finally released.

Three months had passed since the day and apart from this my life hadn’t changed much.

I was still following a similar routine but now there was a difference….I took as much time as I could to spend with grandma.

Her condition has been getting worse.

It wasn’t any disease per say as it was her old age, catching up to her. She was mostly on bedrest nowadays.

Her son and daughter-in-law took leave from work and came regularly to keep her company. He was actually about to quit his job but grandma completely refused so they had to do this.

She wasn’t bothered by it though. If anything, she looked peaceful. Almost too peaceful.

“How can you be so calm?” I couldn’t resist and asked her.

She just smiled.

“I already got everything I wanted in my life. I got a loving husband, a caring son and daughter-in-law, such adorable grandchildren. What else would I want?”

I clenched my hands, feeling powerless all over again.

Sure there were methods to give her a long life by Demonification or some other method but grandma was not the kind of person who would ever accept something like that.

If anything, it would be an insult to even suggest such a thing for her.

There was something else that I had in mind and even if it was a desperate wish, I hoped it would work.

I put a hand in my pocket and pulled out a vial.

The red coloured vial was the same as the one I had taken before, the Uzumaki Clan’s bloodline. Uzumaki Clan were known for their great chakra reserves and vitality and long lifespans so much so that Uzushiogakure was known as the ‘Land of Longevity’.

I hoped that this would bring even slight improvements in her vitality and increase her age by a few years.

She looked at the vial in my hand oddly and then at me with a questioning look.

“What is this, Tatsu-kun?” She asked.

“I….” I paused for a bit and then continued. “This….it will cure you.”

She looked at the vial and smiled. “Did you go somewhere and get some medicine? Silly child, I am not sick. I am afraid age doesn’t have a cure.” She smiled as she brushed my hair.

“This….it will cure you.” I insisted.

“Oh!” She looked at me and then took the vial in her hand and checked it. Her eyes widened as she opened the cork of the vial. “Tatsu-kun….just what in the world is this?”

“It’s not something bad, I promise….and it will cure you.”

She however insisted. “I am not doubting that it will be anything bad. The aura it’s giving off is extremely pure so it would hardly be anything bad. But what is this and where did you get this?”

I had a story prepared for this already. “....it’s….the blood of a sage.”

“What!”

“It’s the blood of a sage. By drinking, you will gain the bloodline of the sage. That’s all I can say. I am sorry. But please….it can help you.”

She looked at me and then at the vial, her hands shaking lightly. “How?” She finally uttered after a long time.

“I….cannot say….but I didn’t do anything bad for this. I didn’t hurt anyone, I promise. It’s just….I really cannot say anything more. I am sorry.”

She stared at the vial and then at me and then closed the cork and kept it on the side and hugged me. “I know my grandson will never hurt anyone for such things. You are too kind for something like that. But this….it would be wasted on me. I barely have any long to live. I cannot accept this. You should use it on yourself.” She said, trying to return the vial back to me.

“I have already used it.” I quickly said. Seeing that she was suspicious, I repeated again. “I did. Promise.”

“Sigh….then give it to Tobi. He will need it more.”

“I can get more for him later.” I insisted.

“You don’t have to, Tatsu-kun.”

“But why….”

“I have lived my life Tatsu-kun. Now I just want to go to where your grandpa is. He must be lonely all by himself.” She said softly.

I felt a lump in my throat at her words.

She pulled me into a hug and I hugged her back.

“Life and death are two sides of the same coin, Tatsu-kun. What lives, must also die. This is the rule of the world and the sooner we can accept it, the sooner we can understand the true meaning of life. We all have to make the best of our time and be grateful for the life we are given.” She whispered to me.

That day, I didn’t train.

We talked about several things.

She asked me to protect Tobi as he would have a difficult life ahead.

I didn’t understand what she meant by that and when I asked her she just smiled and patted my head.

I did promise her to keep him safe. We also decided to give him the vial with the Uzumaki Bloodline.

I spent the next whole month just like this, training only when she was asleep and spending as much time as I could with her.

Even Tobio understood the change in the behaviour of everyone and accompanied us for some private family time.

She told me that I had learned all the basics and I could experiment and learn more by myself or ask Shuri-san. Sometimes however, she instructed me on how to meditate using Buddhist methods to keep my mind calm.

Then one morning, I went to wake her up and….she was gone.

She passed away in her sleep with a peaceful smile on her face.

Even in her last moments, she looked content.

________________________________x_____________________________________

I stood beside the sobbing Tobio while we watched the fires of grandma’s funeral consume her body.

Tobio’s parents were standing with him while Shuri-san and Akeno stood with me. The latter herself was sobbing at grandma’s passing.

I did feel sad but I have had a long time to get used to the inevitable and with Grandma’s words, I could get adjusted to it much better than Tobi.

The funeral was a quiet affair.

My friends from Ukiyo E came to attend as well.

Tobio’s parents had returned on that very day and decided to stay for a month.

Shuri-san offered to let us stay with her but changing schools mid-year was a hassle. In the end, Sae’s parents offered to take care of us.

I was thankful as I didn’t want Tobi to witness what I had that night.

Shuri-san was a good person but as she said….we were different people, not to mention, moving away would separate Tobi and Sae too.

We all returned back home and everything was quiet that day.

Somehow the house seemed to be empty all of a sudden even with all the people inside.

Shuri-san and Akeno stayed with us for a few days to help cheer Tobi and me up.

Things remained down for the next two days when Shuri-san decided to break the dull atmosphere which had spread over the whole place.

“Let’s go out somewhere for a week or so. The more these two stay here, the sadder they will become and the harder it will be for them to let go. A change of scenery will do good for their minds.” She suggested Tobi’s parents.

They were cousins after all.

Both of them looked in thought and after some time, agreed.

“Yes. This place will just keep reminding them of Kaa-san. A change of scenery might just be what we need, but where though?”

“I have just the place in mind.” Shuri-san said

And just like that, all of us, even Sae’s family, packed our luggage and were in our cars.

This was due to the fact that Gin was too big to travel with us on the train.

Poor guy had been just as sad as Tobi and me on Grandma’s passing.

“Where are we going?” I finally asked as we were on the road.

Tobi’s dad, Shiro-san was driving and I was sitting in the back seat with Shuri-san, Akeno and Gin while Tobi’s mom, Tanya-san was in the front seat. The guy himself was with Sae in their car.

“The Seto Inland Sea. We are going to the beach.” Shuri-san answered.

Ah….the beach.

Gin’s ears perked up at the information but he deflated a second later, probably remembering the reason for his sadness.

“How is your work going on, Tatsu-kun? This vacation won’t be a problem for you, right?” Tanya-san asked.

“It’s fine. I had already given Koji-san the chapters for the next two months after the funeral as I wanted some quiet time. He understood. He has already reviewed the chapters and can use them.”

“That’s good.”

“Still, it’s really surprising no matter how many times I hear about this. Tatsu-kun is such a big mangaka.” Shiro-san said with a smile. I knew he was trying to make small talk to divert my attention from sad thoughts and I appreciated it, especially knowing how much pain the guy must be in himself.

“By the way, Shiro-san, you work in the stock market, right?”

“Oh yes. Are you interested?” He asked, grabbing the chance I offered.

“A bit. I was saving up a lot of money and I was going to get some from the serialisation of ‘Kimetsu no Yaiba’ too, so I was wondering how to invest them.”

I did research and have a few companies in mind from my previous world and those companies existed here too. Although I wasn’t sure how much they would be worth in this world with all the Supernatural being real and all.

“That's a very good decision.” He replied enthusiastically and the topic was successfully diverted.

The rest of the journey was peaceful like that and we reached our destination by the end of the day.

The Seto Inland Sea area is beautiful. The islands and the view of the sea is breathtaking and the greenery in the area gives it a peaceful feeling.

I saw Gin's eyes light up as he saw the beach in front of him.

Shuri-san led us towards a nearby house and was greeted by an old woman there.

“Himari-san. It's been so long.” She hugged the woman.

“Ara Shuri-chan, you have become so pretty. Are these your guests?”

“This is Shiro-san, Ageha Obaa-san’s son and his family.”

“I heard about Ageha. You have my condolences. I am sorry I couldn't make it there due to my poor health.”

“No no. We don't mind.”

She finally turned her attention towards me. “And this is?”

“This is Tatsuya-kun. Hiro-kun’s son.”

“Hiroshi’s….oh my. Yes, he does look a lot like him. Sigh….he was so young.” The woman called Himari-san sighed and led us in. “Come in. All of you must be tired from your journey. Take some rest and have something to eat.”

_________________________________x____________________________________

I looked in the distance to see Tobi and Sae playing with Akeno in the sea. Gin was lazing around in the sand.

Everyone had taken to resting their minds on the beach this past two weeks and the results were evident.

Tobi was smiling again. Although a large part of that was attributed to Sae’s efforts to cheer him up.

Even Shiro-san was happier now.

The place we were staying in was one of the sparsely populated islands in the area. It was a lush piece of green with a large house in between.

Most of the area in the island was owned by Himari-san and her family and thus there were not many people around on our side of the island to disturb our private time.

We had to take a twenty minute ride by ferry to come to this place.

Normally Himari-san stayed on the main island as it was closer to the market and all but she used to rent this place for tourists. We had reserved it for half a month.

Today was the last day we were staying here so I decided to take a walk around the island, to my favourite place.

With that in mind, I got up and started walking.

“It looks like it might rain. Be careful on your way back, Tatsu-kun.”

“Yes.”

With that I ran towards the forest.

The place I was going to was a cliff facing the ocean. The wind there was great and it was the best place on this island if someone wanted to be alone for some time.

I often visited this place this month. I had even memorised the place to recreate it inside my Training Room.

Fifteen minutes or so later, I was already near the cliff and walked towards it when I heard a voice.

‘Help.’

My Observation spread almost instinctively and it took me just a moment to find the source of the voice.

It was coming from the cliff. It took me a moment to understand what was going on and the next moment I dashed towards the cliff and looked down.

There was someone hanging from a branch almost halfway down on the side of the cliff.

Under the cliff were sharp rocks and a small stretch of land so falling down would have been fatal.

“Wait there. Just hold on for a minute. I’ll get something to pull you up.” I called out and she nodded.

I looked around but there was nothing there which I could use. Normally I could easily jump there and save her but that would also reveal my powers to someone not connected with the Supernatural so I quickly thought of a plan.

Using some points, I quickly bought some ropes from the System Shop and tied an end to the side of the tree.

The sky was already dark by now and it was thundering.

I took another rope in my hand and slowly climbed down the cliff. “Just hold on, only a bit more. I will get there in just a moment.” I assured her.

I reached her and held her while offering her the rope. “Tie this to your waist. I will pull us up.”

She nodded and quickly began following my orders. Suddenly, a strong gust of wind blew, making us move on the rope.

My grip on her rope tightened while she hugged me with a shriek.

Since her face was in the nape of my neck, I surreptitiously used my feet to stabilise us using some chakra to reduce the shaking although not stick completely to the wall.

“It’s fine.” I reassured her. “I am here.”

She slowly pulled back and looked at me and for the first time I took a clear look at her.

She was a beautiful girl with waist-length tan hair that had square bangs, light brown eyes. Although the same eyes were currently filled with fear and panic.

“I will not let you go….don’t worry. I will save you, I promise.” I slowly reassured her and slowly but surely, she calmed down and finished completely tying the rope to her waist and I let out a sigh of relief.

“Great. Now hold tight. I will pull us up.”

“Hmm.” She hugged me tightly while I started to pull us up.

And that’s when it happened.

I felt something on my face.

“Hmm, rain?”

I sensed the girl's shiver and looked up to see a look of horror on her face.

Was she afraid that we would get blown away again?

I was about to reassure her again but before I could ask anything, rain came down in torrents on us and I sensed something different.

Looking towards our legs, I saw something that almost made me release my grip on the rope.

Is that a fish tail?

My head snapped towards the girl who was looking extremely panicked right now. She even had tears in her eyes.

A mermaid?

“I….please….” She started to speak, the panic in her voice was evident and that’s what broke me from my daze.

I let out a deep breath. “It’s fine. I promised you that I will save you, didn’t I?”

Her eyes opened wide and she tried to speak something but I didn’t give her any chance as I started pulling us up.

A few minutes later, we were on top of the cliff but the problem was that she didn’t have legs and I doubted she could walk with her tail.

“It would be bad if someone found you here like this. Do you have anywhere I can drop you off?” I asked.

She was still in a daze but still pointed towards the sea.

Of fucking course.

Where else would a mermaid live?

I still had her in my arms in a princess carry so I decided to carry her to the sea and slowly placed her in the sea.

By now, the two of us were completely drenched in water.

She looked at me one last time and then back towards the sea as she quickly swam away deep under the water.

Man….this world is seriously full of supernatural beings.

There were even mermaids.

What’s next?

A magical girl?

I looked at myself with a sigh.

Now, how do I explain being drenched?

__________________________________x___________________________________

I wasn’t questioned much when I told them that I lost the way and went to the other side in heavy rain.

The rain lasted for a few more hours and when it stopped, we left the place almost immediately as we were already late in our schedule for our return.

- Sun Seto -

She sat in her room, thinking about the incident that happened last night.

It was still like a surreal dream for her.

She had gone to watch the sunset from her favourite spot and slipped and fell from the edge of the cliff. She had been barely able to get a hold on to a branch to avoid falling.

A direct fall would have no doubt killed her.

And that’s when her saviour had come when she was beginning to lose hope.

White hair, golden eyes.

Sun hadn’t had any contact with any other boys, let alone humans her age but his presence had helped calm her down. He didn’t leave her even when he saw her tail and kept his promise.

It was right out of some fairy tail which other mermaids read all the time….only in her case, things were not that simple.

He had seen her tail.

Sun knew the rule of the Seto mermaids….if a human saw her tail, they either had to kill the human or….marry them. Failing to do so would result in her own death.

It was an age-old tradition of the Seto Mermaids.

When she had reported the incident at home, things had gotten out of control.

Her father had erupted in rage and launched a wide search for the boy.

She had directly denied any interference from her father on this event and didn’t tell them anything about her saviour knowing that they would try to do something stupid behind her back.

The boy had saved her life….she couldn’t let him die for this….even if she had to lose her life. She wouldn’t let him suffer for saving her life. That would be against the honour of all Seto Mermaids.

She clenched her fist, determined to stick to her decision till the end.

When she reached the door of her father’s office, she heard a shout outside which made her stop in her place.

“What do you mean you cannot find anyone with the description on that island!”

“There were no such people of that description on the island, Sir. We searched everywhere. The best we could find was that they were guests who came to visit the island and returned to Tokyo. We tried to find the question of the people who were hosting them but….”

“But what?!”

“The woman who owns the hotel, Himari Kumogawa….she has connections with the Five Principal Clans. Her maiden name was Himari Shinra. We cannot touch her.”

“....the principal clans? Were the guests also from the Principal Clans? If that were so then….”

“No Sir. They were not connected to the Principal Clans, just an ordinary family. We asked some of the other people on the island and were able to find that one of the kids had the last name Toujou.”

“Good. That’s good. Ask Sun about the description of the boy and have a sketch made. Don’t be too obvious or she will know. I will personally go to Tokyo and take care of this matter. No dumb boy will become the cause of my daughter’s death.”

Sun clenched her fists and walked away from the room’s door slowly towards her mother’s room.

There was no way she would let them harm her saviour.

___________________________________x__________________________________

“And you want to save that boy from your father even knowing that you will die if he lives.” Her mother asked her and Sun resolutely nodded her head.

“I would most likely have died if not for him. He gave me a new life. I cannot let him die because of it or it would bring shame to all Seto Mermaids.” She answered resolutely with her hands clenched tight.

Her mother just stared at her and then sighed. “You know things are not that simple. There is no way a parent can see their child die like that and not do anything.”

“Mother!” She shouted, stunned at her reply.

“Be quiet, Sun. First listen to what I am saying.” Her mother scolded and Sun pursed her lips, waiting to listen.

“Do you know about the alternative solution to this matter?” Her mother asked.

She nodded.

“You will have to marry a boy whom you don’t even know. Do you understand how dangerous it can be? What if he is a bad person.”

“He’s not!” Sun retorted quickly, making her mother raise an eyebrow. “He saved my life. Even when he saw I was a mermaid, he was surprised but he didn’t let me go. He still saved my life and returned me back to the sea. Such a person….I know he won’t be a bad person.”

Her mother let out a sigh. “What should I do with this girl? Alright….you have five years. In those five years, you need to find the guy and get him to agree to get engaged to you. If you can do that, there will be no problems. That’s the longest I can hold back the higher ups from finding out. You know better than anyone what will happen when they do. Even the Seto Gang cannot go against the laws established by Ryujin-sama.”

She nodded.

“Masa has informed me that the boy might be in Tokyo. Your father will no doubt go there but there is only so much he can do there as it is the territory of Nurarihyon and the Nura Clan. He will need to take permission to stay there and even then, he cannot remain away from the Seto Inland sea for a long time. I have some friends in the Nura Clan who can arrange for you to stay with them till you find the boy but even you know that it will be a very difficult task. Tokyo is not a small place.”

“I will not give up, Mother.” Sun clenched her fist. “I will not disappoint you.”

- Tatsuya -

Two weeks had passed since we returned from the trip.

There was a saying, time heals all wounds….perhaps there was some truth to it after all?

Everything calmed down in the house.

After some assurances from both Shuri-san and Sae’s mother, both Shiro-san and his wife left for their jobs.

They did hire a maid for us to help out with the housework.

I was back to work so Tobi spent most of the day at Sae’s house.

This gave me plenty of time to focus on my training.

My spar with Nurarihyon was coming and I had no idea how strong he was or how to beat his Fear.

The fight was just one week away.

Name: Tatsuya Ikuse 

System Rank: D

Body: (D-79)

Mind: (D-31)

Spirit: (D-75)

Magic: (E-05)

Points: 18,215,035 

Manga: Kaichou wa Maid-sama, One Piece, Naruto

Features Unlocked: Training Room, Mentor System

Inventory: Nichirin Blade x 1, Gacha Tickets x 2

Shop

My progress in the last two months hasn’t been great as I was taking more time to spend with my new family.

Did I regret it?

No.

Grandma had taken me in when I had nowhere to go and Tobi treated me no less than a real brother. I didn’t regret spending my time with them, especially in her last moments.

Several weapons had been unlocked in the Shop too, like the Kusanagi no Tsurugi but Shanks had suggested that I keep using the Nichirin Blade.

According to him, with enough practice, I could make it into a Black Blade.

When asked about it in detail, he explained that at some point, the Sword gets used to the Armament Haki of the user and gains the ability to absorb Haki of its own. The Blades at the level of his Griffin and Hawkeye’s Yoru were always in Armament Haki mode.

I thought about it and came to a conclusion that it was similar to how the Shinigami of the Bleach used their Spiritual Powers on their Asauchi to mould the blade with their power.

Haki was also spiritual power and continuously channelling Haki through a weapon was quite similar to the process too. In that way, it could awaken a kind of spirit inside the sword and thus give it more power than before.

It was just a theory so I can’t say much about it but Shanks seemed to have liked it and asked me to try to make my Nichirin Blade into a similar Black Blade instead of buying another blade and wasting points.

I agreed with him too.

Last but not the least came the Devil Fruits.

I found out that I could eat multiple devil fruits. There were however restrictions though.

It could only be one of every type, Zoan, Paramecia and Logia.

In fact, I had also planned which ones I wanted to buy.

The good news was that the curse of the Devil Fruit was not effective in this world. It is supposedly a One Piece world specific thing.

To make the selections, I had talked to Shanks and other mentors of mine and asked them for advice.

Normally, Shanks himself was against eating Devil Fruits but that was partly due to losing the ability to swim and partly due to not wanting to rely on those powers.

For him, Haki was enough or with his power, he could easily have found any Logia fruit and used it to create an arm of that element, kinda like Aokiji did.

That said, even he told me that I shouldn’t let go of this as I was facing completely new dangers in my world and beings surpassing the One Piece world….although he planned to push me beyond my abilities with my Haki training before I could eat any Devil Fruit though. Just because I was getting a Devil Fruit didn’t mean he was going to let me slack off here.

He then went on to explain the abilities and with his help I shortlisted some of the Devil Fruits.

After this, I asked Itachi, Hiruzen and Tobirama for help.

They might not know about Devil Fruits but they had extremely great battle sense and could utilise anything to their advantage in battle.

I gave them all the information about the Devil Fruits and finally chose the three fruits which I wanted to buy.

The first was the Logia Fruit, the Rumble Rumble Fruit.

It covered my speed, the natural logia’s immunity to normal physical attacks and gave me an incredible boost in my Observation Haki. While other Logia Fruits were good, none of them had the sheer versatility of the Rumble Rumble Fruit.

It had temperatures above both the Mago Mago no Mi and Mera Mera no Mi, speeds rivalling the Pika Pika no Mi and destructive power comparable or surpassing any of these and all these was not even mentioning the boost to the users Observation Haki.

Just the fact that someone like Enel was able to become that strong with this Devil Fruit and only something like Luffy’s hack was able to defeat him and to be honest, even that was because Enel was an idiot and chose to fight Luffy in close quarters combat.

The fruit was rightfully called an Invincible power in the One Piece world.

I mean, it was literally manipulating one of the fundamental forces of the world. How could it not be strong?

Choosing the Zoan was harder.

While there was obviously the best option with the Gomu Gomu no Mi or the Hito Hito no Mi Model: Nika, it had one very obvious problem….it was just too easy to be discovered.

One of my greatest requirements for my powers was the fact that they could be hidden from normal people.

The Nika fruit absolutely failed in that.

Anyone could accidentally pull my cheek or even just pinch me hard or tug my arm and my secret could be out.

I dreaded thinking about such a situation and always staying alert was not something I wanted to deal with either.

So, with a great feeling of regret, I decided to give up on the ability.

Instead, I chose the Uo Uo no Mi Model: Seiryu.

To be honest, it was Shanks who suggested this and I had laughed at the sheer irony of the situation.

According to him, the Devil Fruit provided a great initial boost to my base stats, gave me a way to disguise myself using the Dragon form and Half Dragon form which wouldn’t be as fragile as the Transformation Jutsu either.

Apart from that, it had fire breath and lightning attacks too. The fruit was really all around the best Zoan.

In fact, Kaido had never really concentrated on developing his Devil Fruit ability. His Devil fruit wasn’t awakened either. Had he done that, Luffy’s fight would have turned out completely differently.

We did consider other options like Marco’s Phoenix Fruit and even Sengoku’s Buddha Fruit. The former was actually quite good considering it had a great self healing ability and even the power to heal others but I already planned to get the Logia’s attack immunity and such healing abilities could be bought from other places too.

Overall, it wasn’t even close to being compared with Kaido’s Devil Fruit.

Last came the hardest choice, the Paramecia Devil Fruit.

This choice took us weeks….literal weeks to collect and analyse all the information we knew about the Devil Fruits and we were still stuck with more than one option to the end. There were just too many great options.

We had to eliminate them one by one.

First was the Nikyu Nikyu no Mi, Kuma’s Devil Fruit ability which was ridiculously useful. The only problem was that it made paw pads on the palms of the user….which I couldn’t afford, so it was out.

Second was the Ope Ope no Mi and while the ability was obviously awesome, it needed someone with great medical knowledge to use. I don’t think I could utilise it to its full capabilities so we gave it up as well.

Third was the Soul Soul Fruit, an incredibly useful ability but where would I keep the homies? Also, scaring and ripping out life from someone was not exactly my way of doing things.

Fourth was the Mirror Mirror Fruit which while still strong, had too many restrictions. I couldn’t carry mirrors in a battle.

There were also some others like the Moa Moa no Mi and the Gasha Gasha no Mi, all of which had one problem or the other.

We were finally left with two choices, the Zushi Zushi no Mi and the Gura Gura no Mi.

These two choices were so good that even after all the debates, we couldn’t decide which one to finally use.

One was one of the fundamental forces of nature, the control over Gravity while the other was the power to rip and tear anything, even air itself, the power which could destroy the world.

In the end, I made a coin toss to decide which one to choose and the result came to….Gura Gura no Mi.

And that’s how I finally decided on all my Devil Fruits.

Next was collecting the points for these.

The Rumble Rumble Fruit cost 50 million points while the Nika Fruit cost 75 millions so my guess was that the other two would be around the same range as the Rumble Rumble Fruit.

At the rate I was going, it was going to take me another year or so to get one. Then again, I had enough time as it would obviously take me around that time, if not a bit more to draw the manga where Whitebeard is introduced and far more for the Seiryu Fruit.

The manga given by the System included the movies and anime only parts as well so the length of the manga was longer than their original versions so I had to work longer.

Currently, a large part of my time goes to drawing Kaichou wa Maid-sama. I hope to complete it soon so that I can get some other manga.

I am still looking for a new publishing company to publish my story under a different pen name but I haven’t found anyone yet and one of the main reasons for that is my age.

Koji-san had agreed to give me a chance but not everyone would know about me or give me a chance.

I will have to concentrate on the problem of points after the spar with Nurarihyon. Until then I can only concentrate on one thing.

My concentration was broken by the ringing of the bell.

Summer holidays had just ended and school had started once more. Life was returning to normal once more.

Letting out a deep sigh, I got up from my seat and left the classroom.

Near the gates of the school, Tobi and Sae were waiting for me.

Tobi had been admitted to the first year of Middle School this year and we were now going to the same school, something he was very happy with.

“I need to stop by the market and get some stuff for a school project.” Tobi said.

“Alright. We can go that way then.” I nodded. “By the way, which club did you join?”

“Ah….it was a close choice. Both the Kendo Club and Dance Club wanted Tobi. Apparently the teacher who oversees the Dance Club was present at the function where Tobi danced last year. She personally came and invited him.” Sae was the one who answered, making me smile and look at the blushing Tobi.

“No need to be so shy. I personally think you would do good at both. There are no rules saying one cannot be a good dancer and swordsman at the same time.”

“Right! I told him that too but he joined the Kendo Club instead.”

“But I just did that Kagura because everyone put my name in without my permission and Nii-san was the one who taught me that. I don’t even know other dance styles. I wouldn’t do that well in the dance club.” Tobi protested and then looked down as he asked. “Did I do wrong?”

“You would do well in whatever you want to work for. Don’t lose hope. Just do what you want. I will always support your decisions.” I patted his head. “So….I guess we have to up your training. You can’t even do the full Hinokami Kagura on your own and you want to become a swordsman? I will not let my brother be made fun of.” I finished making him go pale.

“Ehh….more training? No way!”

“Hmm, what should we set our next goal then? You can already run five kilometres so maybe we should set eight kilometres as the next goal and then slowly climb our way to ten kilometres….” I saw hope returning to his eyes before I finished. “in the next few months.”

“Impossible, that’s absolutely impossible. You are mad, Nii-san.” Tobi shook his head, making me laugh.

“Eh, I am pretty sure you can do it, Tobi.”

“No way!”

We laughed louder.

Although I wasn’t joking at all.

As Grandma had said, I had given him the Uzumaki Bloodline and just to be on the safe side, I was planning to give him a One Piece bloodline too, probably the Monkey D. family or Shanks’ family’s bloodline.

He was more than capable of taking such training quite easily so I planned to slowly increase his training in future.

With that thought, we walked towards the market talking to each other. 

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Author’s Note:

I am back with another chapter of Drawn to Power.

This chapter was a bit heavy but I needed to get it off.

On the plus side, Kimetsu no Yaiba is getting an anime made.

Tatsuya encountered another Supernatural and got into trouble without even realising.

Seriously, the guy can’t even catch a break.

With an entire gang of mermaids coming to Tokyo to look for him, what will happen?

Again, we are near Tatsuya’s first spar with Nurarihyon and we get to see the progress he has made.

PS. I have had some people saying they want to see the reaction of people reading his manga and the Supernatural’s reaction to it too.

Well, I can’t imagine higher ups of Supernatural factions sitting and reading manga.

The younger generations will obviously have some reactions down the line and trust me, it will change some things due to butterflies too but if you are expecting all the leaders of the Supernatural factions suddenly changing into hardcore otakus waiting for weekly release of manga….well, I am sorry.

After the spar with Nurarihyon, I will concentrate on some slice of life and manga aspects of the story.

Enjoy the new chapter.

Good Day, Peace Out.