It is now officially a year since the event of 'The Massacre of the Black Angel' occurred.
The Hokori village that was once standing, no longer exists.
Subsequently at the night of their evacuation, Isshiki convinced the villagers to come with him for a new home towards the empty Kurotsuchi Mountain Village using his title and status as their savior.
Jigen, being the only and last person in the empty Kurotsuchi ghost town, hesitated at first on letting them settle here fearing for the imminent danger the nearby bandit base posed. But with a little bit of Isshiki's showcase of ability, he reluctantly agreed.
It has now been approximately 1 year and 3 months since the villagers have settled in the previously empty Kurotsuchi Village.
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"Isshiki-sama, please wake up, Jigen-sama calls for you"
A servant called for Isshiki as he lays on his grand bed within his special room in the temple.
The bedhead and the structural beams were all bedazzled with different gems and were gilded and laced with golden designs. And at the center of the bed lies a pale-skinned humanoid alien named Ōtsutsuki Isshiki.
After hearing the servant's words, Isshiki quickly arose and observed his beautiful room.
"Go tell him that I am coming"
Isshiki politely ordered the human servant.
"I will gladly do so, Isshiki-Sama, I will now call for the dressing servants"
The servant spoke and left, closing the fancy sliding door.
Isshiki then reached for the warm ground with his feet and began walking towards the vanity mirror wearing a tired expression.
The moment he arrived at the vanity, so do the dressing male servants as they carry his carefully prepared set of clothing for the day.
The servants gracefully approached Isshiki and began dressing him.
His prepared outfit for the day was a black and white haori robe laced with greyish designs of floral patterns. As for his Hakama, they were of simple flowy black-colored silk. While his Tabi were the traditional white-colored ones.
Isshiki analyzed his current outfit which he politely smiled to, hinting to the servants that they have satisfied him.
"Isshiki-sama"
His assigned head servant called, standing beside the sliding door.
Isshiki headed towards the door, accompanied by his dressing servants, and outside his room stood all of his other servants, waiting to accompany him towards the dining hall.
(*Sighs* I could never get used to this, but whatever this feels kind of good...I guess)
He inwardly sighed.
He then started walking to head towards the dining hall while his servants all gracefully and followed from behind in an organized manner.
As he treaded the wooden floor with his white Tabi socks, he went pass by the central traditional Japanese garden with its cerulean pond. And inside the garden was the Shine for the God that was previously worshipped in this temple.
(Hmm.... since Jigen no longer has any belief towards that, then maybe I should start changing it for the God that brought me here....yeah I will do that later)
Isshiki contemplated as he glances at the stone shrine with its fountain right beside the coy pond.
After walking further, they were already far enough from the central garden, they were now closer to the lobby where the stairs that will take them upstairs where the dining hall is.
But while walking, Isshiki asked his servants.
"Where is Mina?"
He asked the servant without glancing at the back.
"Lady Mina has also been called for by Jigen-Sama, she should be preparing for her arrival as of now"
The head servant replied.
"Hmm"
Isshiki responded with a nonchalant filler.
The lobby was extremely busy, with many servants walking all around the previously empty halls of this newly transformed temple that now acts like a palace.
Isshiki saw all of this activity and could only smile from his pride of being able to employ all of this in just a little over six months.
He then walked up the grand stairs along with his servants. As they go up, they finally reached the dining hall where Jigen sat with a whole table of food.
"Jigen! Good morning"
Isshiki greeted Jigen casually.
"Oh Isshiki, you're here"
"Good morning to you too"
Jigen politely countered.
After the greetings Isshiki sat on the chair right beside Jigen.
"And so why have you called for me and Mina? And so early in the morning at that"
Isshiki went straight to the point.
Jigen did not respond for a while, which made Isshiki nervous of what he might say.
"The bandits"
Jigen slowly muttered.
Isshiki was a little perplexed at his topic, which made him process his words before speaking.
"What about them?... Didn't I already warn them for if they try anything funny? Are they starting to act up again?"
He was very confused as to why jigen was bringing this matter up again, because he knew that he and Jigen has already settled this six months ago.
Jigen did not say anything, which made Isshiki say more.
"Jigen, if they are bugging some of our villagers again, then please do not stop me any longer from wiping them out. I thought we already tamed them----"
Isshiki's words were cut short by Jigen's.
"I sent some of our own trained people there to start a negotiation"
Jigen finally spoke.
"OK...you did tell me about that.."
Isshiki responded with an 'already knew that' face, he was a little offended that he was interrupted. But he just brushed it off as he finally picked up his chop sticks to eat something from the table.
"But then when they came back last night, they told me that the base was....ruined, every single bandit there was dead..."
Jigen spoke more with a now shivering tone and expression.
After hearing his words, Isshiki dropped his food in shock and did not speak. He could only feel bad for Jigen's own naivety for sympathizing with those scoundrels.
He knew that Jigen wanted to teach the bandits some lessons about life, in all honesty, he was very shocked to have found out last year that Jigen did not want to do any killing. He did not find those spies he had and trained with them for him to start a killing skirmish with the bandits. He only wanted to talk some sense into them. At least he was not naive enough to just talk to them, he wanted to make them realize their wrongs with his sword and fist.
Last year, Jigen became very angry at Isshiki for attempting to wipe out the bandits' camp with his powers, which led to Jigen nearly taking Mina away from him. This made Isshiki raging mad when he found out that Jigen took Mina away from him, his fury almost went to his head to the point of involving even the villagers. Luckily, Jigen quickly found out the real reason as to why Isshiki really wanted to kill those bandits from Mina herself, which made him go back with her to the renewed village to quell Isshiki's fury away from he villagers, and to also plead for Isshiki's mercy.
And fortunately, once again, the latter accepted the former's apology and explanation, Jigen explained that he became extremely disappointed and untrustful of not only Isshiki's powers, but also his control over his emotions that will lead to his control over his powers. And so he dreadfully and naively decided to take one of Isshiki's most precious people away from him, he hoped that Isshiki would ponder his mistakes and decide to come to the light. But after finding out the real reason, he became entangled between his selfless morality and his friendship sympathy. He decisively chose the latter which made him go back to the village.
Isshiki was very shocked and touched that Jigen finally understood him, that someone in this world finally understood him enough. This gave him the courage to reveal his second most deepest and darkest secret to Jigen, his Ōtsutsuki identity. After explaining his origins to Jigen, the latter was shocked and unbelieving at first, but after witnessing Isshiki's inhumane abilities, he decided to rethink his world views once again. As for the planetary massacre, Jigen was already so sure that Isshiki had already come to regret that fact, and so he further trusted that Isshiki will never do that to this planet. And so with this little quarrel and its subsequent consequences, the bond between the two of the three co-rulers of the village of Kurotsuchi became stronger than ever, and their trust with each other deeper.
However, Isshiki still knew that Jigen should never know about his reincarnation, since that might reveal too much to the world. He trusted Jigen already. But he does not know if he can trust himself about openly revealing his reincarnation, since he does not really know if someone or something powerful might be listening in on them, especially something like those ancient pre-Kaguya monsters, those like Satori.
Isshiki then patted Jigen's shoulder gently, showing his signal that he deeply understands him and his dilemma.
Jigen was aware of this and so he smiled at Isshiki and thanked him.
"Thank you my friend, but now we need to think of a possible reason for this. There might just be another powerful force or a monster like the Black Angel last year, and it might just be around our village's vicinity"
Jigen immediately became serious and told Isshiki about his hypothesis.
"That might be a possibility, wait"
Isshiki told Jigen and then flared up his chakra towards all the cardinal and subcardinal directions. He is currently using the [Chakra Pulse Technique].
Jigen was already aware of Isshiki's abilities, and especially this ability of his to sense everything in his surroundings, so he was no longer shocked from any of this.
"Hmm, there are just animals all around us for about 10-30 kilometers, and then that bandit base, but nothing too unusual...or even gnarly"
Isshiki spoke with a focused tone with his eyes closed.
He has now maximized the potential of this technique, he could now basically use it like the echolocation of cetaceans and bats. Being able to determine the texture, size, and shape just based off of the chakra bouncing off of the objects it crosses.
He could also choose to use his Byakugan, but that is only for focused depth perception, it is not really used for wide-ranged sensing, even despite its 360° degrees vision capability.
After a while of scanning the entire perimeter, he found nothing and decided to deactivate the technique.
"Hmm, Isshiki could you head out later with me? To directly investigate the bandit base?"
Jigen requested politely.
But before Isshiki could respond, Mina finally arrived with her servants.
She was also dressed up today, but with a simple but beautiful outfit. She was adorned with a beautiful red kimono with several colorful floral patterns as she holds a seductive wooden golden-laced fan.
Her make up was not particularly heavy, as per Isshiki's orders, because without his orders, that traditional heavy Japanese women make up would be a thing in this village.
And that is why despite this village becoming relatively prosperous for the past year due to the continuous trading using the wide river situated at least fifty kilometers south of it, the villagers do not use their newfound wealth to eat rigorously and to dress gallantly. The men mostly dresses like how they have dressed before in their poor Hokori village, while the women do not wear heavy make up, signifying the culture of this village placing an importance regarding 'Natural Beauty'.
"Good morning, Master Isshiki and Master Jigen"
Mina 'spoke'.
"Oh my, the 'Miracle Mute' of our village, Lady Mina! Good morning"
Jigen greeted with a slight fervor.
"Thank you Master Jigen"
Mina thanked with a bow.
Mina then turned to Isshiki, hinting that she is waiting for his greetings.
Isshiki saw this and quickly turned to look directly at Mina.
"Mina, Good morning, here take a seat"
Isshiki greeted and stood up to offer the seat beside his to Mina.
Mina then went for the seat beside Isshiki with but a happy smile.
The servant saw this and they began snickering quietly amongst themselves.
It would seem that the servants already had a shipping culture despite the backwardness of their clothing.
Isshiki heard the snickering with his enhanced hearing and turned to look at both his and Mina's head servants, the latter took the signal and immediately scolded and hushed their juniors.
Isshiki then smiled seeing this, because he has been picking up a certain amount of jealousy from Jigen. Though the latter did not look at him directly, with Isshiki's enhanced perception, picking up minute muscle movements from Jigen was but a passing of a breath for him.
He knew this, he knew that Jigen had a certain amount of feelings towards Mina. He has been sensing this since the time both Jigen and Mina came back after they temporarily ran away from the village. He was aware of this, but he could not tell Mina, because he also knew that Mina held the same amount of feelings towards himself.
Telling Mina about Jigen's feelings abruptly and without careful planning could break their currently fragile trio relationship. And if he did so, the former will not take his words lightly and might even be led to think that he is wooing the both of them because he did not want Mina. And so far, Mina has not had the thought of Jigen having the same feelings towards her, her mind has always just been filled with Isshiki, which leads us to the next point. In Jigen's side, the man would not take the fact that Mina would become extremely sad because of him too happily, and so the possibility of him forming a deeper sense of jealousy towards Isshiki must be taken seriously.
And because of those facts, he was also concerned of their well-being as co-rulers. The three of them had the responsibilities as rulers to make sure of the stability within the village, but also the first thing that they needed to have was stability amongst the three of them, this is needed to achieve and ensure stability within the entire village. And if the three of them could not meet the first criteria, the village might just collapse under their feet at any moment, even without them knowing.
And so he has been carefully planning to woo the two without exposing himself as the matchmaker for months on end, but to no avail, nothing has worked so far. He had even thought of giving up and just telling the two to stop having this 'Love Triangle Dilemma' with him, but he could not choose that option.
(I love these two, but they are just too troublesome, the both of them are barely twenty but their already having these love dilemmas a thirty year old middle-aged person like me should have. But alas, I might not have been a virgin in my past life, but love was still too far out of reach for me even in my mid-thirties)
Isshiki complained inwardly.
"*Sighs*"
Isshiki sighed in mental exhaustion because of these two.
"Isshiki-Sama? are you all right?"
Mina heard his sigh and was worried.
Isshiki panicked when he heard this.
"U-uh n-no no, I am very ok, its just that I had to wake up too early today"
Isshiki made up a complaint.
"Oh? then it must be Jigen-sama's fault for calling us this early"
Mina shot a glare at Jigen, which made the later shiver in fear.
(OH GOD)
Isshiki panicked inwardly.
"N-no no no, it's not Jigen's fault it is just that I underslept....due to me pulling an all-nighter last night.... hehe"
He further reasoned to quell both of his bestfriend's emotions.
The two seemed to have sensed his exhaustion because of the both of them, and so the two chose to not give Isshiki more awareness about how they felt.
It would seem that they were not that selfish and unaware, despite their complicated feelings of love, the both of them still loved Isshiki dearly as their family. In fact, unbeknownst to Isshiki, the both of them already had an inkling as to what Isshiki was worrying about, but not to the point of them knowing about each other's feelings.
After the small event, the three of them decided to eat quietly as the food was getting cold.
"Ahh so Mina, how is my seal? is it a little uncomfortable? or is it too unstable or?"
Isshiki asked Mina regarding her pseudo-voice seal.
"U-uh no, it is actually very much helpful and extremely comfortable! In fact, I am very thankful to finally be able to somewhat speak after a long time of being mute, and it is all thanks to Isshiki-sama's powers and skills!"
Mina reprimanded Isshiki of the negative thoughts regarding his skills.
The [Pseudo-Voice Seal] was created by Isshiki a month ago specifically made for Mina. The way this worked is Mina's vocal cords and muscles, with the assistance of Isshiki's chakra, was given the ability to manipulate the air that she breathes in and out, mimmicking that of how a normal person's vocal functions worked. And that gave her the ability to speak despite her brain's malfunction of muteness. In fact, she was mute neither because her tongue got cut off nor her vocal cords got broken, it was more of a psychological problem that stemmed from her torturous experience with the bandits who raped and abused her. In a way, this seal was also made to cure her psychologically-induced trauma.
An additional feature of this seal is that she could also increase the volume of her voice according to how she sees fit, meaning, she could become as loud as she wants to be when she is either speaking, shouting, yelling, and such. But there was still a catch, and that is increasing the volume of her voice would require more amounts of chakra that would be drained from her seal. This is because not only does the chakra needed increases as more air is manipulated for the volume, but the chakra is also consumed to heal her damaged vocal muscles and cords whenever the volume would reach an intensity that was more than what her voicebox could endure. Adding to that fact is the more increased the usage of this seal, the higher the probability of her seal completely disintegrating and breaking. And so in a way, this was her superpower that she could also use to defend herself in case someone or something wants to harm her, but also with many disadvantages.
The seal calligraphy was then placed on her neck and would also act as the chakra battery. In the end, the seal still needed Isshiki's chakra, because as of now, Chakra was not everywhere yet, that fact is yet to be true for another whopping 2 thousand years. And so he still needed to recharge the seal once in a while for it to work.
"Oh, then that is good on both of our ends then"
Isshiki was thankful.
The both of them decided to continue to eat after both of their reassurances.
"..."
Jigen was observing these two with a keen eye.
"Ehem! And so Mina, I am currently inviting Isshiki to the bandit's base to investigate about their deaths"
Jigen finally spoke.
After hearing this, Mina was very shocked and also concerned.
"They died? How?!"
Mina shouted in distress.
Both Isshiki and Jigen was shocked by Mina's reactions as they were expecting Mina to not even care for them, an maybe even rejoice in their demise.
But the both of them answered their own questions and knew that Mina was not such a person, and that was why they were a family.
"Calm down Mina, you don't have to care about them too much, they were bad people, but they still did not deserve this untimely death, and so the both of us are going there secretly for an investigation"
Isshiki reassured Mina.
"That is right, they might have been bad people but their mysterious deaths also concerns the safety of our village, and so we will be going there"
Jigen followed with the reassurance.
"And you will be staying here to tell the servants to not disclose the fact that we are gone, we do not know how long, but I will assume that there is something deeper and sinister about this situation. And so you will control the village for now, understand?"
Isshiki asked Mina seriously.
Mina was very surprised that they are finally no longer pampering her and is actually trusting to her the village itself. And so she was very glad and determined.
"Yes! I will protect the village while you two are gone"
Mina declared with an outstanding resolve.
After witnessing her determination, both Isshiki and Jigen smiled.
"That is just what we need"
Isshiki said with a smile.
After their little pep talk the three continued with their morning breakfast, talking about different political topics such as the trade on the Yukibara River that is mostly governed by Mina. Other topics such as the guarding of the Box of Ultimate Bliss that is situated in a cave in the middle of the Kurotsuchi Mountain Range and more of the current village affairs.
In just a little over a year, many things have changed with Isshiki's and all of the people surrounding him. The villagers that he once walked along with in the dirt roads of the Hokori Village, now walked behind him in the stone roads of the Kurotsuchi Village. While the two closest friends of his, along with him, became the three co-rulers of this newly revived village, as per the wishes of their subjects.
However, despite his current hectic schedules, he did not forget to make time for his training to finally open his [Daikokuten]. But now, he had a different plan, and it was to also take the whole entire village with him to go inside his pocket dimension. He further planned to hone and create new techniques and abilities that will be added and further enhance his current arsenals of powers, he wanted to use these powers to make the villagers' lives easier in his dimension. But these will also help him protect himself, his family, and the villagers, incase the 'Daikokuten Plan' fails and Kaguya appears in front of him out of nowhere.