137. Long Discussion with Aika and Preparation to do Difficult Personal Task.
When Aika returned to the Kage office and met Kaito, she found him busy making various equipment using the energy borrowed from Yuu.
Noticing a few gungnir, holy grail, gae bolg prototypes on the ground and various weapons she didn't know yet scattered on the floor, Aika couldn't help but wonder if Kaito wanted to go to war after this.
"Good afternoon, Kaito."
"Ah, Aika. You are back."
Noticing his secretary coming back from meeting with the kage, Kaito quickly greeted her with enthusiasm, "The meeting is done?"
"Yeah. Everything worked well." Aika answered and then commented while looking at his room, "I thought you wanted to take a rest today, but it seems, our leader is a workaholic."
"Uh... There's reason for this..."
Aika teased him with a curious look, "You complained when I worked with you a lot, and now you are working on your own."
"That's..."
"Is this an example of Stockholm syndrome I just witnessed?"
Since she brought Yuu with her to the meeting, naturally Aika knew that Kaito had borrowed her magic power again. Yuu told Aika about it during their kage meeting, considering Kaito rents her energy means Yuu becomes weaker considerably in a fight.
Fortunately, nothing bad happened during the meeting so Yuu didn't need to fight there.
...
"Uh... You know I am serious right now. Can you not mock your leader at least for a day?"
"Pfft..."
Knowing her bad taste, Kaito ignored her chuckle while sighing, "Anyway... How was the kage meeting? Is everything going well?"
"It went pretty well. All the Kage from the great ninja village agreed to follow our rules, including Konoha and Iwa."
"Konoha didn't refuse? I thought with their arrogance, they would be the strongest obstacle to our plan."
"I thought the same at first but your little action in Konoha helped us a lot."
"What do you mean?"
Aika nodded and then explained, "Naruto and Sakura found out that Sasuke joining this village now, and then during the kage meeting, they managed to persuade Tsunade to join the alliance because they didn't want to fight the village that saved their best friend."
"...That's an interesting development."
"Yeah."
Aika nodded and then chuckled a little bit, "What makes me surprised is that Naruto and Sakura requested me to stay in this village as a member of the Konoha embassy."
"Eh?"
Surprised by Aika's answer, Kaito asked back, "How the fuck does that happen? Should they stay in their village."
Kaito was curious about the decision Naruto had made. He was not surprised that Naruto, as the protagonist, could persuade Tsunade to change her decision, considering their history.
What he wondered was why Naruto wanted Konoha to join them.
And in fact, Kaito's guess was right about that.
Kaito's conversation and praise for Naruto's goal at that time in Ichiraku Ramen left quite an impression on his heart. Then, there also is the action of saving Sasuke (his best friend) from Orochimaru and his desire to make a law to prevent war between ninja villages.
No matter how you see it, Kaito acts like a good guy who also helps his best friend, so naturally, Naruto has a very good impression of Kaito and sees him as his friend.
Regarding what his best friend did to kill Danzo openly in the village, Naruto knows the reason behind it from Jiraiya's explanation.
Although he disagrees with Sasuke's act of revenge, Naruto can understand the reason behind it and wouldn't blame Kaito's whole village for his best friend's action.
...
"We don't need to think about that."
Aika shrugged and then sat down on his bed, "Whatever it is, the protagonist joining us is a good thing. Besides, the original memories plot can no longer be used as a reference."
"That's undoubtedly true. We have caused way too many changes in this world and I doubt even world plot correction could fix that."
...
Akatsuki has been destroyed, Obito has been under their command, Zetsu now has become obedient and the final boss herself is now part of Kaito's peerage. As for Madara, without people who wanted to revive him, there's no way he could come back to this world so he's also out of the question.
Kabuto certainly posed a threat if they left him alone considering his knowledge of Impure world Reincarnation jutsu, but honestly, Orochimaru just needed to persuade his assistant in person and Kaito believed Kabuto would like to join them.
Only Otsutsuki would potentially ruin their plan in this world, but looking at the timeline, Kaito doesn't feel concerned about that.
Based on the plot in the original, Otsutsuki will come to this planet dozens of years later when Naruto has a kid, or at least until a few years later when he is about to marry Hinata. With their current growth rate, Kaito believes they don't need that long, maybe in 2-5 years, all chat group members will grow strong enough to face those aliens without any problems.
Even if they come now, some of their members can face Otsusuki without any problems. (mainly for members with 6* strength evaluation).
Saitama in his own universe solo the lord of the universe, Boros after all. Although Otsutsuki looks strong, they shouldn't be as strong as Boros.
...
"Anyway, you haven't answered my question yet, Kaito."
"What do you want to ask?"
Picking one of Gungnir on the floor with interest, Aika asked with a curious tone, "Why do you create a lot of this dangerous weapon? Do you want to deal with the rest of Otsutsuki immediately?"
"Ah." Kaito shook his head, "It's for preparation."
"Preparation for what?"
"Remember the system has issued a personal task for me to solve my main issue to use my creation?"
Aika nodded as she quickly remembered he told her about it before, "That personal task... the task to solve your energy issue, right?"
"Yeah. Before back to my original world, I wanted to do that task and complete it." Kaito then said with a determined tone while looking outside scenery, "I need to get stronger as fast as possible, to protect everyone in the future and keep my authority as the leader."
Aika who understands him the best among the chat group members, has the idea of what Kaito thinking, "I see. It does make sense you want to get stronger, considering your position."
"Yeah. As expected of Aika, you understand me, huh?"
"Are you touched?" Aika teased, and then gave him a sly smile, "Do you want to claim me now? I would accept your proposal if you do."
"Uh... let's talk about that later." Kaito looked away and muttered, "At least until I get strong enough and not concerned about my position."
...
If he solves the problem of his energy limit, Kaito is sure that he will be the 4th person to have a 6* strength evaluation in the chat group, because the abilities he has are very versatile among the chat group.
He can teleport as far as he wants, create any object without worrying about energy, or even unlock Est's potential as a demon king-slaying sword. He also certainly has the confidence to fight against Sirzech when he comes back and fulfills his promise to Kaguya to fight off Otsutsuki members.
He becomes a qualified strong man who can walk sideways safely in most world.
Also, getting enough strength means he keeps his prestige and reputation within the chat group.
Kaito is aware that he's quite lucky that none of the stronger members want his position... And 2 of the 3 strongest members of the chat group are in his peerage. However, that can't be said in the future if newer members of the chat group later don't want to cooperate with him.
Kaito knows that the real solution to holding his leadership position, is to become strong himself, as some people only respect the strong. While he learns the importance of cooperating with the chat group SAO, Kaito still believes in the idea of relying on himself rather than relying on others.
It's not surprising though for him to have such a mindset, considering Kaito grew up for 15 years in the high school dxd world without anyone helping him and survived by himself.
...
"Then, when do you plan to start?" Aika curiously asked and teased, "Or you... Do you want to start tomorrow?"
"Yes."
"Wait, I was joking. Isn't that bit too fast?" Surprised by his blunt answer, Aika raised her eyebrow in confusion, "Is there a reason why you want to do it as soon as possible?"
"It is."Kaito nodded and then revealed the personal task detail interface in front of her face, "Take a look at this task, Aika."
"Let's see... huh?!"
The moment Aika saw the task, her expression immediately changed from bored to surprised, with her mouth hanging open... especially when she saw the reward of the optional task.
=====
Task Detail: Looking for a solution to the [Owner's] energy problem by going to another world that is certain to provide a solution. The travel will only occur if the [Owner] is ready to carry out the mission and this task must be carried out alone.
The Travel will be carried alone, without anyone coming along.
Task Completion: The owner succeeded in finding a solution to his energy problem.
Time Limit: -
Participation Limit: [Owner]
Task Difficulty: Very Hard.
Task Failure: Death.
Reward: Energy Issue Solved.
Failure Punishment: Kick 2 members out of the chat group (Randomly).
----
Special Optional Task (Can be Ignored):
- ---
- ---
- ---
Optional Task Completion Reward: Remove point consumption to travel between worlds for all chat group members and the process of transfer will be extremely shortened.
=====
"As expected of the Owner, the system did her best to help you get stronger."
Aika commented with an envious tone, "Is this what people call a protagonist treatment? When you finish your task, you have to invite more members and unlock a new function."
"Other members don't get that treatment in their task, you know?"
Hearing Aika jealously, Kaito only wryly smiled and said, "I know. Well, more responsibility for me though... and you know it's not easy for me. The punishment is equally fatal for everyone."
"You don't understand, Kaito." Aika shook her head and explained seriously, "Removing point consumption for travel means a lot to us. We can bring anyone to another world for free which is a logistic cost, and we don't have to worry about point-cost travel to go wherever we want!"
"Heck, with the shorter transfer process, it can save members' lives when they are in a dire situation and have no way to go!" Aika added.
"Y-Yeah..."
Listening to her explanation, Kaito realized how big a deal that reward was. For him who has teleportation ability, he can save his life easily but for the rest, it won't be that easy. Even for him, Kaito realized that it actually could act as a last escape method in case his space ability got restricted so there was no doubt he needed to finish this task.
"...Don't worry, just believe in me." He can't help but gulp nervously and promise while nodding repeatedly, "...I never fail a task, don't I? So just believe in me."
"Did you just set a flag Kaito? You know your luck very well." Aika snorted and teased, "Not to mention that task can only be done by yourself."
"...Fuck."
"Pfft... considering the prize of this task, your task must be really difficult, you know?"
"Stop scaring me because I already know about it. It was marked as very hard, after all."
Kaito sighed in a frustrated tone, "Why do you think I spent so much time crafting props that were scattered in my room?"
At the moment, Kaito has burned more than 40.000 points to rent Yuu's magic power(20.000 points per 5-7 minutes depending on consumption) to create all the props, and he plans to consume more points afterward.
However, in his opinion, such costs are necessary considering the task that he's going to do. Although the system doesn't reveal where he's going to go, it doesn't stop him from being cautious simply because the penalty and the failure mean his 'death'.
Even SAO back then was only at hard difficulty, and now he will finish a very hard task alone without anyone's help. To say he's nervous and afraid of failure is an understatement, but the reward of the task is really important for him and the chat group.
...
"Then, I wish you luck and won't bother you for the rest of the day." Aika quickly stood up and walked to the door, "While you are on it, I will explain to others what you are doing and make sure our plan for this world keeps running without trouble."
"Thanks, Aika."
Hearing that their plan for this world was going smoothly, Kaito was relieved. Aika also promised to continue to be responsible for controlling the members who roamed this world, so Kaito could focus on facing the very hard personal task that he would face the next day.
After that, Kaito continued his activities making various types of props for various situations until his points were almost gone. Kaito also tested the abilities of all the props one by one, to make sure he could get solutions in any kind of situation... knowing the bad luck flag he had set earlier.