[Third Person POV]
Hajime, Akeno, and Pam were all on a train headed for Hokkaido. A few hours ago, Pam had mentioned wanting to visit the snow-covered island, and Hajime had agreed to go with her, with Akeno wanting to tag along. Hajime had looked in the bounty book and seen that a few people were nearby where they'd be staying. One of them interested him a lot: a mid-tier Sacred Gear he planned to extract.
Pam looked out the window as the train drove across the northern landscape, headed for their destination: Sapporo. They had been on the train for 6 hours already, and she felt she'd gotten enough inspiration for a few more paintings when they arrived,
Sapporo was the largest city in Hokkaido and home to a minor supernatural sanctuary for ice-type yokai, such as Yuki-onna. Though Hokkaido was technically in eastern Japan, Sapporo fell under the West Yokai's protection because of the Yuki-onna clan's history with Yasaka.
Years ago, she stepped in to protect a Yuki-onna from one of the Principal Clan's members, and later became the leader of their clan.
Hajime wasn't planning on meeting them, though. He was just here to protect Pam while she came to relax. Hajime didn't often relax, and though that was his own choice, that didn't stop him from taking an opportunity when it arose.
It had been a month since his visit to Hell, and though that was technically a vacation, the whole point of the trip had been to rescue the nekoshou sisters, leaving a slight tension underlying the whole vacation for him.
With his clones constantly working, he could never truly be on vacation.
If he wanted to, he could take a break. He was a kid and a very minor player in the supernatural world. By all accounts, Hajime was one of the few people who shouldn't have so much work, but until Silent Echo could run without him, he could only grit his teeth and summon more clones.
Hajime didn't hate the work. He chose it, and it gave him a sense of purpose. Azazel was similar to his research on sacred gear. It was work, but it was enjoyable. In Hajime's case, he liked using his powers, and this was one of the more productive ways to do so. At the same time, it let him prepare for the future so he could protect those he cared about.
Even though he could easily tell Yasaka about the danger and have her prepare, he couldn't just sit around doing nothing, especially when his powers were so useful. Since he could literally bring alternate versions of many gods or Lucifer himself with his sacred gear, to Hajime, doing this himself was the best option.
Besides, Yasaka was already plenty busy, and he trusted no one else to get things done.
The Abrahamic factions were completely untrustworthy, with too many rebels for him to believe help was possible; most foreign gods wouldn't care about his words, while the Shinto gods of his homeland didn't care about mortals or their affairs; and obviously, he wouldn't trust anyone from the Khaos Brigade.
Even if he could convince Cao Cao that the threat existed, the one likeliest to act to protect humanity, his hatred for supernatural beings would turn whatever strength the Hero Faction gained onto Yasaka and her people, something proven in canon that he refused to let happen.
Akeno sat across from Hajime, reading a cookbook she had brought along. She had recently gotten into cooking and was looking for some new recipes to test out while they stayed at the hotel Hajime booked for the week.
Hajime was looking through the dozens of cards he hadn't used yet. One of the more recent ones had caught his eye.
{ Kurozumi Kanjuro }
It was honestly the perfect card for Pam, but he'd held off because the man was a psychopath.
His cards wouldn't brainwash her or something. He knew that after using them several times. It was more about how long it might take to assimilate. Acting like the character would speed up assimilation. For comparison, his growth with Mother Carmel was at a snail's pace, going up about 1% a week when he did nothing, and she was a relatively weak character.
Kanjuro was not only stronger, which would slow it down further, but also the complete opposite of Pam in personality. Pam only had one assimilation slot, so Hajime didn't want to take it up with someone she would have to spend months working on.
Still, the benefits were obvious. High-class strength like Monet, improved drawing skills, a powerful drawing 'magic', and haki.
After a few more minutes of deliberation, Hajime decided to ask.
"Hey, Pam, I've got a card you could assimilate. Want it?"
"Oh, um. That's nice, Hajime, but no thanks. I'm good."
'Huh.' Hajime definitely wasn't expecting such a quick denial. He'd have thought she'd at least be a little curious.
"Are you positive? It's someone good at drawing and fighting. You'd be able to protect yourself better and might not even need an escort next time. Plus, his powers are pretty useful."
"No, I'm fine."
"Mind telling me why then?"
Pam had a strained look on her face, like a child hiding that she had broken a window.
"I just... I don't want to change too much. I know you said I might not get back home, but as long as there's a chance, I don't want to become someone unrecognizable to everyone," Pam vented her frustrations. It was a stupid argument. She knew that, whether she liked it or not, who she was was already unrecognizable. Still, she held on to whatever she could, hoping it would help.
"Pam, I won't force you to take it. I can get why you wouldn't want to; however, the world you're in right now is dangerous, and without the strength to protect yourself, even if you miraculously stayed the same, it wouldn't matter if you died.
Truthfully, I can't even say whether or not you and the others could go to an afterlife if that happened. I'll hold onto it for now, but at least think about it. I don't enjoy bringing up old wounds, but you died because you angered someone who was too strong for you.
I know it hurts for you to remember that incident, but this world isn't like your old one. I may be able to find a way for you to get back to your world, but only if you survive long enough to return, and I'm not sure how long that will be."
Hajime wasn't trying to pressure her, but he wanted Pam to understand that her new situation was serious. It seemed that, despite living here for months, she'd been avoiding the supernatural whenever she could, reminding him of all he'd seen in the past.
Pam never trained her magic unless he made her. She avoided talking with anyone about magic or supernatural politics. Whenever she was relaxing, taking a break, or getting lunch, Pam would usually go to one of the nearby towns, even if it took about 30 minutes to get there, rather than eating with everyone else.
Hajime even remembered going to lunch with her once, only for her to point at the menu instead of saying anything. Extending his senses told him she wasn't even using the translation magic he'd shown her, something he'd brushed off at the time.
Now, the pattern made more sense. She was avoiding magic. It wasn't obvious, mostly seeming like she was still adjusting, but once he realized it, Hajime couldn't stop seeing it.
It wasn't hard to guess why. She wanted to stay as normal as possible, so that when she eventually got back home, she could pretend everything that'd happened was a nightmare. Learning more magic or gaining new powers would fundamentally change her, which might affect her after she returns home.
The only reason she went along with it was likely because he had brought her back to life, so even though he looked like a child, he was the closest thing to a god she'd met. That, or she assumed Hajime would leave her to her own devices if she didn't listen, which just meant miserably working away in an office back in America until he figured out a way to help her, which might not even happen if she wasn't there to remind him.
Whatever the reason, Pam had been isolating herself, a common symptom of PTSD, and expected of a normal woman who literally died. Hajime knew he couldn't let this continue, but he also wasn't a therapist, so all he could do for now was try to give her something to connect to.
The rest of the train ride passed mostly in silence, and Akeno and Hajime started chatting as they reached the final leg of the journey.
The two of them and Pam soon hopped off the train, finally arriving. Hajime headed to the hotel to check in, while Pam and Akeno handed him their bags so they could start exploring the city.
It was only around 16:00, leaving plenty of time for them to walk around the city before dinner.
Pam and Akeno stayed with Hajime for a few blocks before he turned onto the street where the hotel sat. The girls, meanwhile, continued toward a shrine Akeno had wanted to see: Hokkaido Jingu, the largest shrine on the island.
For obvious personal reasons, Akeno wasn't too fond of the types of people working the shrines, but she still enjoyed them. The history behind them, the parts of her culture that persisted even into modern times, was engaging in a way that nothing matched.
Pam, though hesitant to go, understood the shrine was inherently magical and acquiesced. Besides her own curiosity, she knew a place like that was the perfect subject of a drawing. Old, important, beautiful- what more could an artist ask for?
Shrines, according to Hajime, were inherently neutral places, so magic was unlikely to be shown unless she did something illegal herself. Though she'd heard about what happened to Akeno's mother, a tragedy she found disgusting to have occurred, Hajime had told her that it was a family conflict and such things rarely happened, least of all in public.
That wasn't completely reassuring; still, Pam went. It wasn't that nothing would start, but that, if anything did, it would be when there were fewer people around, ideally none. Magic users were very particular about the rules that kept their society hidden. To them, an accidental reveal in front of a few people, followed by memory erasure, was a much less egregious violation than openly acting in front of dozens of people on purpose, then erasing the memories.
It only takes a single leak to create a small incident. Though governments tend to step in before anything goes too far, usually by deleting videos themselves, they don't like having to clean up others' messes, going so far as to give 'Alive' bounties on repeat offenders as an incentive to stop them.
As they arrived at the shrine, a woman with pale blue hair greeted them at the entrance. After being welcomed inside, the two walked past, a cold chill hitting the backs of their necks.
Akeno correctly assumed she was a Yuki-onna and warned Pam not to cause trouble, something Pam had no intention of doing anyway. As for a half-fallen like herself, Akeno wasn't worried at all. Their days of attacking random strangers were long gone, and though she was a fallen, she'd be fine as long as she didn't provoke them.
15 minutes passed before Hajime finally caught up to them and gave them both a key to their room. As they explored the shrine, Hajime and Pam listened to Akeno talk about shrines and their customs, even mentioning a few she'd heard from her mother about this shrine.
An hour later, the three of them left for a nearby restaurant; the woman at the entrance was gone, though none of them paid it any mind.
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Author's Note:
Thanks for reading; I'll see you next time!