[Hajime POV]
We were on a train, heading directly for Tokyo.
Now, why would we be going to Tokyo? Training.
As the world's largest city, Tokyo was also a hub of magical activity.
First, there's Takamagahara, which connects to most of Japan. Most gods usually bounce between a few places every week, mainly Kyoto, Japan's spiritual capital, and Tokyo, their political capital.
Then, there were the more combat-loving yokai of Nurarihyon's Night Parade.
The church has its Japanese headquarters in Tokyo. The fallen and devils also have their embassies of sorts there.
Many Asian gods will also visit Tokyo due to its cultural scene and the fact that they read anime and manga.
As with most long-lived races, gods get bored incredibly easily, so once they learned about Japan's entertainment sector, it was a literal match made in heaven.
On top of that, countless magicians would go there to learn more about the Japanese ofuda system and how it works, trade resources with yokai (or buy spirit fruits), or try visiting the shrines to receive a blessing from the gods if they were lucky.
Needless to say, Tokyo was a thriving magical city.
And as with most worlds, combat becomes a sport.
Their main arena, the Sekigahara, was one of the largest arenas in the supernatural world, with thousands of Japanese deities watching or participating, and that didn't include those from other factions who would join them. Other factions had similarly-sized arenas, but the Shinto gods' love of entertainment gave it more freedom to do what it wanted.
The arena, named after one of the largest battles in Japanese history, was reminiscent of the Great Spirit Arena in the Douluo Dalu series.
In the Sekigahara, contestants would go in with teams of up to 20 people and fight until someone was declared the winner. Each win would get your team closer to 'leveling up, ' and with each level up came benefits.
There were four levels, each based on the most common classes: low, mid, high, and ultimate. The levels also determined the general strength of those fighting, with all participants having to limit their strength to their levels. While it might not sound fair forcing participants to restrain themselves, watching a high-class and mid-class fight is much less fun.
Higher ranks would mean you could use more strength during a fight, though that also meant if you managed to get to the high level with mid-class strength, you might fight a high-class at full strength.
All this was to keep all the matches interesting, but it wasn't all they did. There were also special game modes like battle royales and 'raid bosses.'
Based on the rating game system devils used, there were multiple different match styles, arenas, and restrictions that could be added to keep things interesting.
That was also why I wanted to go there for training.
My team's biggest weakness was our lack of combat experience, and while hunting rogues would help, it would slow us down.
The arena would allow us to fight multiple times per week, or even multiple times a day if we proved entertaining, giving us enough variety to refine our fighting styles further.
The variety in game modes and arenas would help us develop different strategies depending on the situation; the various restrictions and levels would somewhat simulate experiences we might be weakened.
Aside from that, I was excited to see more of the supernatural world.
Most of what I'd seen so far was surface-level stuff, similar to Issei. Unfortunately, like most series, DxD doesn't go too far in-depth regarding world-building.
Even when it came to devil society, only a brief glimpse of high society was shown. While it's completely understandable, considering the ecchi focus of the anime, it always seemed like a missed opportunity.
But now, I was getting my first real taste of the supernatural world and planning on enjoying it to the utmost.
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[Third Person POV]
As the train pulled into the station, three nine-year-olds deboarded before going to a nearby hotel they had researched earlier.
Thanks to their leader's storage capabilities, they could take their time and look around, not needing to carry anything more than a single suitcase.
While walking down the street, they took in all the sights a tourist would expect to see in any city.
Street vendors were lining the sidewalk just outside the many different stores.
Like regular vendors, they were selling their custom merchandise.
Hats, pictures, jewelry, if you could name it, they were selling it.
Unlike regular human street vendors, most of these vendors were magicians with lower talents trying to sell their magical trinkets to try and afford more research materials.
The actual stores inside the buildings were selling higher quality stuff, but with such a quality also came a price increase, which allowed these vendors to exist in such a busy market. While some quality products were among them, taking the time to find such treasures was not worth it.
The trio stopped at one of the food vendors, ordering a special dango coated in several different sauces.
Each dango had a different sauce, each a different magical ingredient. While it was slightly expensive and the food was meant for tourists, the three agreed that the seller charging a lot was worth it for how good the food was.
They all spent the day looking at various street vendors and going into actual stores to see the difference.
Though they didn't want to spend too much, the trio agreed that since they would participate in the arena, they could afford to splurge today since this was the first time they had visited such a large magic city.
Even Hajime, who had lived in Kyoto, had never actually visited Urakyoto, which made him feel a pang of regret for not seeing it earlier. After this small experience, he soon resolved to see Urakyoto and his favorite foxes.
Looking at all the people walking around, it was noticeable that many were magical tourists from other factions. Tokyo, an important city in Japan, was considered a neutral zone. Many cities, from London and New York to Istanbul and Moscow, were all considered neutral zones.
These lands were trade zones, trading resources, knowledge, and culture among the hundreds of factions, organizations, schools, and clans worldwide.
While Hajime never learned magic from Yasaka, he took supernatural history and politics classes. He didn't like the math aspect of magic, so he didn't learn it until now, but the history was like a storybook.
For example, a storybook on Greek mythology is almost completely accurate in how everything happened.
Seeing all these people was inspiring in a way. Until a few months ago, he hadn't even left Kyoto, not that he could. Even Kunou hadn't left Kyoto.
With Yasaka bound to the leylines and unable to leave, she didn't trust anyone to keep either of them safe. It wasn't due to lack of trust, but she wasn't willing to risk anything happening to them without being there herself.
Now, he wanted to explore the world once he had his organization. He could use the journey to find other people to recruit and discover new or rare magics. While his sacred gear allows for theoretically limitless growth, that didn't mean it wasn't interesting to learn more about the magic of his world.
As the trio turned onto a side street, they came across a boy around Kunou's age with slightly green-tinted skin, small patches of scales, and a small depression in his head.
From what Hajime could tell, he was a kappa hybrid.
The boy was going from person to person, challenging them to a fight, though everyone ignored him.
Eventually, the boy ran up to their group before challenging them.
They looked at each other before Tsubaki stepped up, accepting the fight.
Though she had her naginata, she handed it to Hajime, knowing it wasn't necessary for this fight.
The boy immediately jumped at her, unleashing his claws.
Tsubaki blocked the attack with defensive magic and immediately countered with a senbot shot, launching several small needles at the boy's clothes. They hit the loose parts of his clothes and, like pushpins, stuck him into the wall.
"It seems you've lost," Tsubaki said.
The boy squirmed briefly, trying to escape, but Tsubaki canceled the spell, causing the senbons to disappear.
After catching his breath, he ran up to Tsubaki, awe on his face.
"That was awesome!" The boy suddenly kneeled, confusing all of them. "Please, take me as your student, sensei!"
Not expecting that, Tsubaki mentally bluescreened, while Hajime and Akeno giggled from behind her.
She was brought back after hearing the laughter coming from her friends.
Turning to face them, she tried glaring to make them stop, but the blush on her face made them laugh harder.
Trying to get her composure, she took a few deep breaths before turning to the young half-yokai.
"Why do you want me as your teacher? I'm barely older than you," she stated.
The boy lifted his head before explaining as if he were a cultivator.
"This young one has been challenging people for weeks, and few have accepted. You have beaten me quickly and efficiently. I wish to learn your wisdom and become stronger."
However strange his way of speaking was, Tsubaki understood why he asked her. He was challenging people to find a teacher.
While she didn't know much about yokai, she knew that Tokyo was home to Nurarihyon's night parade, and unlike those in Kyoto, the yokai here were more combatitive.
Turning to her companions for their input, they were less than helpful.
Hajime just shrugged his shoulders like 'what can you do' while Akeno made a closed-eye smile.
After gathering her thoughts, she got an idea before turning to the boy in front of her.
"What's your name?"
"This young one's name is Teruya Soya."
"Alright, then. Teruya-san, your training will be limited to exercise due to your age. If you can complete the given sets every day for a week, you can go on to the next training step. Okay?"
"Yes, sensei! Thank you, sensei!"
Although embarrassed, Tsubaki also felt good since he wanted a teacher. However, she was annoyed at her friends giggling, which had started up again.
To end the interaction and get as far ahead of them as possible, Tsubaki told him the exercises he needed to finish before he ran off to complete them.
Wanting to lock herself in the hotel room, Tsubaki quickly ran away, with her friends chasing her.
Although the trio was walking together when they arrived at the hotel, Tsubaki refused to speak.
After checking in, they went to their rooms, where Hajime handed the two girls their things before settling in, preparing to check out the arena later.
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Author's Note:
Thanks for reading; I'll see you next time!