264. Kaito and Aika Return; Manaka Become the Leader of Hero Faction.
After learning about the Five Great Families and their control over this country from the Yakuza, Kaito and Aika decide to return and talk with everyone about this. Of course, Kaito also let those Yakuza go, and also gave the leader (mohawk guy) a special phone that can be used for Kaito to contact them all the time.
However, when Kaito and Aika returned to the house, the inside had become so much different. The narrow living room turned into a luxurious guest hallway that was 10 square meters wide, full of luxurious decoration, far from the proportion of the size of the house seen from the outside.
Sakuya is definitely the one who did this (expanded the space), as she has already done the same with many members of the house chat group. Not to mention she's a hundred years experienced construction worker with very high efficiency to build a whole city in 2 days, so it's normal for Sakuya to have done reconstructing Kaito's house in a single noon.
"Wow... this house has become several times larger inside." Kaito exclaimed in amazement, "Sakuya is really going all out, huh?"
"Indeed." Aika nodded in agreement, "Sakuya, are you there?"
...!!
Almost immediately, Sakuya appeared in front of them and bowed like usual, "Yes, Miss Aika?"
"Ah... Are you the original or a clone?"
"Of course, I am the original, master." Sakuya replied politely, "May I help you? How's the business outside?"
"It's quite complicated, and we need to talk about it with everyone." Aika explained, "Where's everyone?"
"Only me, Est, and Akitsu are staying in the house... and those two are currently watching a cartoon on TV." Sakuya answered, "The rest, Ravel and Miya-san, go to the shopping mall for groceries, while I am not sure where Lala and Manaka-san go."
"Oh well, then we can only wait for them to comeback on dinner."
Hearing most of the girls went outside, Kaito shrugged and then asked Sakuya curiously, "Can you guide us in this new house? Since you have modified this house, I am afraid I would get lost in my own house."
"Make sense. After all, Kaito, you also got lost back then in the wooden mansion." Aika teased.
"Yeah." Kaito nods with a wry smile.
"Sure, master." Sakuya also smiled and explained, "Dont worry, I only expanded the space based on what we need, not to the extent in the wooden mansion, like I created an extra 6 rooms so everyone can have a room on their own in this house."
"That's good. I really don't want to get lost in my own house." Kaito joked, "Especially the place where I have been living for a long time."
After that, Aika and Kaito follow Sakuya to explore their new house together while waiting for the rest of the girls to come back for dinner.
>>>>>
While Kaito and others wait in the house, Manaka Saijyou wastes time to fulfill her first goal in this world. Obviously, her first goal was to 'pay respect' to the Hero Faction that dared to bother Kaito in the past. With the clue from the original story, system points and claivoryance EX borrowed from the Root, Manaka easily discovers the location of Hero Faction's main base operation... which is pretty close since it is still within Tokyo area.
To be exact, it was in a different space of Shibamata Taishakuten Temple, the main base of operations of the current Hero Faction, and also the site for examinations for numerous Sacred Gear joining the Hero Faction under Cao-Cao.
On there, she naturally met Cao Cao and many other 'heroes' faction members, a dozen sacred gear users under their factions who directly confronted her. Even with their numerical advantage, all of them were beaten equally under Manaka's ruthless 'revenge,' as she's somewhat one-man army by herself.
...
"Arrogant boy, I applaud you for your ability to keep standing in front of me. I, the hero king, Gilgamesh, admit you qualify to be the descendant of a hero."
"To survive against the onslaught of countless noble phantasms of mine, stand proud, boy!" Gilgamesh proudly declared.
"Gil-san, is that a meme from a show that Manaka-san has watched?" Enkidu asked.
"Indeed, my friend. Some show from another world is pretty amusing, and I couldn't help but use it." Gilgamesh explained, "Anyway, you Cao Cao should stand proud because you are strong!"
"Thank you... Hero King... *cough* *cough*"
...
Cao Cao, the handsome black-haired boy wearing a gakuran, is the leader of the Hero faction. He responded to Gilgamesh's sentence with an optimistic smile, even though his current situation is not very optimistic. Currently, he is seriously injured, barely able to stand, and is supported by the spear of Longinus.
As for the rest of the Hero Faction members, all of them either lay down suffering from injuries or were unconscious after getting beaten.
Since Cao Cao was the main offender of Kaito's attack, Manaka naturally assigned one of the heaviest heroic spirits to deal with him, a literal full body Gilgamesh (not servant) to deal with him... which is overkilling to say the least.
...
Seeing his opponent's tragic state, Gilgamesh snorted and then called out Manaka, "Root woman, there's no way I can beat him further unless you want me to kill this boy. And honestly, I don't want to kill this boy since his look has pleased me."
"Alright then. I don't want to kill him either." Manaka nodded and then walked toward Cao Cao leisurely with a smile, "Then, Cao Cao-kun, I ask you again, give me the leadership of Hero Faction."
"*cough* *cough* It seems we really provoked an unprecedented disaster... *cough* to fight against a real hero from ancient times... heroic spirit, what a fascinating ability!"
Manaka ignored what he said, continued asking, "That's because you dared to beat my lover. Once again, what is your answer? My patience is running thin, you know."
"..."
"Cao Cao... let's surrender... we can't beat her..." Jeanne, the least injured among the Hero Faction, suggested weakly, although she's also too exhausted to even stand up.
"Indeed... though getting beaten by my ancestor is shocking, it's undeniably she's stronger than us." Heracles, the second most injured person after Cao Cao, also suggested the same. The proud man couldn't even muster a smile in the dire situation.
"Cao Cao... this lady is just too strong. I don't think we can escape from many heroes either." Georg, the sub-leader who usually respected Cao Cao's decision, also suggested the same, realizing their life truly under her mercy.
...
Like Cao Cao, who was forced to fight against Gilgamesh, thanks to her bad taste, Manaka also summoned many heroic spirits to fight each of them, some of them even direct counterparts from the Fate world.
For example, Jeanne was forced to fight Jeanne D'Arc, Heracles was forced to fight Berserker (Heracles Oof), Arthur Pendragon was forced to fight against Arturia, and Siegfried against Heroic Spirit Siegfried.
The result naturally disastrous defeat for the Hero Faction, some of them even ended up doubting themselves as the hero descendant. Some male hero faction members even suffered from grave injury, like Arthur, who was shocked to be beaten by a female ancestor, and Siegfried, who found his ancestor was much stronger than he, despite having a similar origin (artificial human).
However, many heroic spirits in fact like their descendant counterpart in this world and intended to train them to become a real hero like themselves.
...
"Don't worry, the princess's purpose wasn't to kill any of you, so you'd better surrender." Heroic Jeanne d'Arc kindly persuade.
"Um. Most of them were still kid, we can still change them and train them." Iskandar also suggested.
Arturia also nods and added, "Besides my counterpart descendant, I am very interested in Excalibur in this world, which got fragmented. I really want to know what's going on in this world."
...
Hearing a suggestion from his subordinate and heroic spirit around them, Cao Cao finally gave in and then asked Manaka, "*Cough* Let me ask you something, Manaka Saijyou."
Manaka replied, "Sure. Make it quick, otherwise you would bleed to death."
"Aside from revenge... *Cough* What are you going to do when you become the leader of Hero Faction?"
"Naturally, I will train you all up to standard... become real heroes instead of becoming terrorists." Manaka looked at the hero faction member with disdain, "And then let you guys become subordinates under me to do work for my lover and me in this world."
...
Manaka actually didn't care whether Hero Faction was a terrorist group or not, but since she planned to make them work under her (like what Crocodile did with Night Raid), she couldn't let them become an evil group and make everyone in the chat group hate her.
Especially Kaito, although he's able to tolerate evil, Manaka knows very well he is deep down a good person; otherwise, why would he bother to ask everyone to rescue cursed children in the Black Bullet?
...
"Become a helper of your lover?" Hearing Manaka answer, many still conscious Hero Faction members were stunned, and Cao Cao couldn't help but comment, "I am not denying that Kaito's potential, *Cough* but is he... really worth it?"
"Kaito has gotten much stronger since you last met him last time." Manaka quipped and retorted, "None of you would last for 10 seconds in front of him."
"Ohh?" A flicker of interest flashes in Cao Cao's eyes, "How did he... *Cough* get so much stronger?"
In Cao Cao's memories, it's only been a few days since Kaito and them met, yet Manaka claimed he has become much stronger than any of them combined.
"Our secret. If you have a stupid idea about my boyfriend, forget about my offer; I will kill you right now." Manaka looked at him with cold eyes.
For Manaka, anyone who wants to give her lover a problem would be killed, as she won't allow that to happen.
Cao Cao shook his head, quickly giving in, realizing Manaka yandere can't be reasoned with, " *Cough* Don't worry, we actually admired that guy. Otherwise, we wouldn't try to recruit him."
"So you agree?"
*Thud*
"...Yeah."
"Y-You are the winner." Cao Cao slid down on the ground, lay down, but a bright smile persisted on his face despite the blood and pain, "Besides, I think... *Cough* learning under a real hero of humanity is a good deal for Hero Faction."
"Wise choice." Manaka smiled satisfiedly, "Don't worry, I will ensure all of you are trained to be real heroes."
...
After Manaka was acknowledged by Cao Cao and others as their leader, she naturally helped all of her members by healing all of them at the same time, which incites awe from them. Manaka then issues a new direct order to the Hero Faction to halt their inefficient and costly "Sacred Gear development program." In exchange, Manaka promises to train all Hero Faction members directly with the help of the Heroic Spirits she summons, promising heroic-level training that excites the Hero Faction members.
On top of that, Manaka also directly stated that Hero Faction will no longer be needed to communicate with Indra, which shocked Cao Cao because he was sure none of the Hero Faction member aware of his relationship with that god. Cao Cao tries to persuade that one-sidedly cutting the connection with their backer isn't a good move, but Manaka ignores him and says she will also be the one who is responsible for the fund.
With Kaito's creation and the chat group system, there's no way Manaka will lack money in this world. Not to mention that Aika planned to have their own legit business as a source of money.
Even if Indra got angry, Manaka wasn't afraid in the slightest toward any GOD in this world. As Root Princess with a bad history of creating 'BEAST', she wouldn't mind cultivating a beast way worse than Beast 666 if it was needed.