The Trials: Path Toward Godhood - Chapter 129

(AN: A little info dumpy, but necessary for the future. We’ll, it’s called Question/answer for a reason.)

“What is a Joker?”

“Hum… To make it short, Jokers are game changers. People so powerful they can change the fate of a country.”

Kuroha stopped and looked at her with questioning eyes. Why did this awfully sound like some xianxia story scenario where the mc was told that he was only a frog in a well.

Temari, unaware of the thought going through Kuroha head continued.

“Two criteria are important to become a Joker. The first is of course power. Only people reaching a certain level of power can be called Joker.”

“And the second?”

“… The second is longevity. All jokers are people able to live far longer than the norms.”

Kuroha immediately thought about someone. A little woman older than anyone else but who looked younger than anyone else.

“Now those criteria created a problem. Some people are able to live very long but do not have the power while some people do have the power but they don’t have the longevity.”

Kuroha nodded. There were all sorts of quirk. Such a situation should have been common.

“As such, someone simply decided to create three subclasses. ANCESTOR, RULER, DESTROYER. Three classes represented three states. Those who can only live long are called Ancestors. Destroyers are those who have the power. Finally the most dangerous Rulers are those who have the two.”

“What’s the use of having such a title?”

“This title is way more useful than you could imagine. The more jokers a country has, the more powerful it is. But I will come to it later. Japan for example was the most powerful country since we had 6 jokers. 2 rulers and 3 destroyers and 1 ancestor. You even know one of them. It’s your uncle, All Might. At his peak, he was one of strongest destroyers in the entire world.”

Kuroha was stunned for a while before nodding in acceptance. This was acceptable. He already saw what All Might was able to do despite being so weakened. If someone suddenly told him that there were a bunch of people capable of beating All Might he would begin to ask himself questions about the sanity of the world. Still, he was curious,

“You said we had. What exactly happened?”

Kuroha had a hunch but he wanted to be sure. Temari smiled bitterly,

“Right now Japan is in quite a conundrum. We lost basically all our jokers. All Might is wounded and as such unable to use his power for a long time.”

Kuroha began to think fast, the way she worded things, it seemed like she didn’t know about One for all. After all, it wasn’t just about being wounded, he had already lost his power and all he had left was just some ember.

“Another one of our destroyers was named Re-Destro. But he died. He has a son. But that son is still a little away from the level of destroyer.”

Her smile became even bitter.

“One of the two rulers goes under the nickname All For One. Perhaos you already know but he is the worst enemy of All Might and is the cause of All Might wounds. His whereabouts are currently unknown. But, at least we can guess that he must have lost most of his power and is unfit to keep the role of ruler. At most he should be an ancestor now. If it wasn’t enough. He had the last destroyer, Gigantomachia as well as the sole Ancestor, Daruma Ujiko under his order. The whereabouts of those two are also unknown….Kuroha!? Are you alright?”

“… What? Of course. Sorry, it seems that I spaced out a little.”

Temari looked at him with suspicious eyes as she pointed down with her finger.

Following the direction pointed by it, he lowered his head and saw that his hands were bleeding. He had clenched his fist so hard that his finger dug under his skin.

‘So hearing this name still brings such an intense reaction.’

He looked at his hands as he thought that before slowly unclenching his them. The wounds healed immediately.

“Hum… So your quirk is really a mutant type.”

Temari’s voice brought him back.

“Oh. Just that my quirk isn’t without weakness you know. There’s no absolute quirk in this world after all. At least I share one weakness with your professor. I am unable to erase mutant type quirks.”

Kuroha nodded but was not surprised. As she said, It was impossible for a quirk to be without limitation. Anyone who simply began to complain after hearing the description of a quirk lacked courage and imagination.

He scrunched his brow before releasing a tired sigh,

“I am sorry for the display. Could you ignore it please and continue with your explanation? Who is or was the last joker?”

Temari looked at him with worry in her eyes but in the end didn’t insist.

“The last Joker is one of the reasons I made this long introduction. She is still active and was in no way weakened like All Might or All For One. Her name is Inari Gin, her nickname is the Fox Goddess…And her eldest son was one of the candidates to be Momo’s fiance.”

Kuroha let out a bitter smile. Japan had a population of more than 125 million. But he was somehow related to all of the six most influential and powerful people in the country.

“Should I prepare to be attacked by the Gin…, Wait. Gin ?”

He immediately remembered a name, Ayakahime Gin.

“I guess you made the connection. Yes, the girl who entered UA with you this year is the daughter of Inari.”

‘Hum… Well it doesn’t matter. What matters is that I need to gather more information. Millenia should know more but I don’t know why she never told me about it.’

“OK. Before continuing the discussion about Inari, I have a few question. Would you answer?”

Temari gestured for him to go on,

“OK. Firstly out of the six Joker you named. 4 were villains and one seems to be someone neutral. Does that mean that the criteria of personality and affiliation isn’t taken into account? How are people nominated as Joker? Finally what are the advantages of being a joker and how many of them are there world wide?”

Temari tapped rhythmically her finger as she entered into deep thought finally she began to speak.

“I will begin with your last question. Joker aren’t being that can be meet so easily. I don’t know how many joker there’s is but I know all the ruler. Apart from All for One and Inari for Japan. There’s Queen Elizabeth for England, Fraser Aider for America. Scheherazade and Cleopatra for Egypt, finally Jade emperor and Yama King for China. Those numbers should show you just how hard it’s for someone to become a ruler. Out of all the ruler the youngest one is the ruler of America at 70 years. Despite that he looks like a young a.d.u.l.t.”

He scrunched his brow even further. So much information to take,

“Your first question was about morality. I will be honest with you. The joker system doesn’t really care about the morality of those accepted. After all the one who created that system doesn’t care about justice or evil. That person only care about the stability of the world. The Joker system was created to avoid a new Quirk War. As long as you have the ability you’ll be accepted.”

Kuroha couldn’t accept such an idea. Why would villain be allowed to have such privileges? They should simply be eradicated. If those Joker are supposed to work for peace, why doesn’t they simply eradicate all of the the big time villain?

Temari obviously could understand what was going through Kuroha mind, truthfully, she always had the same question. What was the use of a world-wide organization supposed to protect peace in the world but who in reality was almost useless?

“Now as for how they are nominated. I do not know. I just know that every three years. Some people will receive invitations to a place. The nomination only happens there. That place is basically a sanctuary of neutrality. Even if you meet the murderer of your own father you can’t attack him in that place otherwise everyone else will band together and kill you… I do not know the position, but I know that that place is called… Sin City.”