Hikari Uchiha in Animeverse

Seeing Bulma and Uchiha Hikaru's responses, "Little Monster" seemed a bit nervous.

[Little Monster: Sorry, did I remember it wrong?]

[Nameless: Nope, you got it spot on.]

At the very least, Bulma wasn't wrong about having a friend named Son Goku. And the Dragon Ball world did have Shenron and a bunch of Z Fighters, with Shenron capable of granting wishes…

[Nameless: By the way, what's your name?]

[Little Monster: Erii. I'm Uesugi Erii.]

"As expected…"

Uesugi Erii, one of the heroines of the Dragon Clan world, a secret weapon raised by the Yamata no Orochi clan since childhood. Due to her excessively pure dragon blood, she was prone to losing control and had been confined since she was young, never interacting with anyone outside her family. As a result, her knowledge of the world was sorely lacking, and her understanding of the outside came almost entirely from the anime and games she watched.

But still…

How did she manage to mash together completely unrelated things like the Zanskar Empire, the Kingdom of Britannia, and the Golden Twelve Palaces? What kind of worldview was going on in her head?

Meanwhile, on the other side…

After hesitating for a moment, Erii cautiously tagged Kikyo.

[Little Monster @ Shrine Maiden Standing Apart: Um… are you called Kikyo? I think I've seen that name before. Do you know a girl from the future who pinned you to a tree with an arrow, and then you were saved by a boy with white hair who's kind of like a dog?]

[Shrine Maiden Standing Apart: ?!]

Compared to her vague recollection of Dragon Ball, Erii's memory of Inuyasha was surprisingly accurate—though she mixed up the relationships between Kikyo, Inuyasha, and Kagome.

In the Inuyasha world, Kikyo cautiously asked:

[Shrine Maiden Standing Apart: May I ask where you heard about this?]

[Erii: I saw you on TV…]

[Iron Head: TV? What's that?]

As the conversation grew more chaotic, Uchiha Hikaru sighed and reluctantly stepped in.

[Shrine Maiden Standing Apart: …So, we're all just characters in an anime, and Miss Erii's world is where these stories were created?]

[Nameless: Not quite. You could think of it like this—our worlds are real, but they're somehow projected into Erii's world. Sensitive people there pick up on them and use them as inspiration to create those stories.]

[Nameless: Also, not every world gets projected. For example, Tanjiro and Miko's worlds don't have anything like that.]

Of course, that last bit was mostly a matter of timing.

A key event in Dragon Clan is the apocalypse in 2012, triggered by the awakening of the Black King. Erii's death happens around 2011. Tanjiro and Yotsuya Miko are anime characters who appeared years after her death, so naturally, she wouldn't know about them.

[Nameless: Miss Erii, may I ask how old you are this year?]

[Erii: …I don't really remember.]

"Uh…"

Not remembering her own age? That's something.

As Uchiha Hikaru pondered how to pin down the timeline of the Dragon Clan world, Erii sent another message—

[Little Monster @ Shrine Maiden Standing Apart: I think I found your story. Is it called Inuyasha?]

[Shrine Maiden Standing Apart: …The dog demon I know does go by that name.]

From there, Erii started binge-watching the show, sharing plot details with the group as she went.

Bulma didn't hold back her disdain for Inuyasha's behavior.

[Bulma: Pfft, what a jerk! Two-timing and stringing people along—total scumbag!]

[Yotsuya Miko: [raising hand.jpg] Um, I'm a bit confused… Aren't Miss Kikyo and Miss Kagome supposed to be the same person? How can they both exist at the same time?]

[Eternal Sidekick: Maybe that Oni-woman, Naraku's minion, used a revival technique that split their souls. In my and Miss Hikaru's world, there are similar ninjutsu, though very few can perform them… It might be somewhat like the Second Hokage's Edo Tensei. The principles could be related. If you get the chance, Miss Hikaru, you might want to look into it.]

[Nameless: Hmm.]

[Nameless @ Little Monster: Is there more?]

[Little Monster: …More what?]

After chatting with Erii for a bit, Uchiha Hikaru finally pieced it together—

The Dragon Clan world's timeline was likely early 2009.

The Inuyasha anime finished airing in 2004, with the Final Act starting production by the end of 2009. In Erii's memory, the Final Act didn't exist, but she had recently watched the Kingdom of Britannia—aka Code Geass's second season, which aired in the latter half of 2008. So, the Dragon Clan world's timeline was somewhere between those two points, leaning closer to the former.

"If we go with early 2009, Erii should be about 17 years old. Lu Mingfei is still in high school at Shilan Academy, and Chu Zihang might already be at Cassell College… There's roughly two years left until the point in the original story where Erii dies."

Plenty of time. No need to rush.

Relieved, Uchiha Hikaru shifted her focus to Kikyo's situation.

After Erii spoiled her "fate," Kikyo went silent.

Bulma tried tagging her a few times but got no response.

[Bulma: Hikaru, what do we do? Miss Kikyo's not saying anything. Did something happen?]

[Nameless: …I think she's probably struggling to process being told about her "fate."]

[Eternal Sidekick: Yeah, that makes sense.]

[Eternal Sidekick: I thought my existence was already pretty wild, but Miss Kikyo's situation… If you need any help, please don't hesitate to ask. Everyone in the group would be happy to lend a hand.]

[ … ]

No response.

After a brief silence, Bulma spoke up.

[Bulma: You know, we should look at it this way! The stuff that happens in those "projections" is just one possible future out of countless possibilities. But the moment we joined this chat group, that old future stopped existing. Now, we get to create a brand-new future with our own hands! Isn't that what makes life exciting—the unknown?]

[Eternal Sidekick: Well said, Miss Bulma.]

[Iron Head, Demon-Haunted: Yeah, totally!]

[Bulma: Hehe, thanks for the compliments!]

[Bulma @ Little Monster: Oh, Erii, can you check who my future boyfriend is?]

[Nameless: …]