Hey again Zeno!
So I'm glad I found a recent post on a topic like this because I wanted to address this very issue with you. I think, perhaps for a game largely based on InuYasha at the moment, one major flaw is clear - You can't do anything without a single shard. We all know the many things that could go wrong (So many things) and cause a player to be stuck in an era against their will, with little hope of returning quickly. It's been happening for years and perhaps the easiest solution to this would be found with Myouga in the Hakashi Intro Area.
I'd suggest that the shard you recieve from Myouga will be required to be embedded in a player before leaving the area. If you were to create a new bodypart, a special one designed just for the purpose of allowing (NEW) players to move between eras, then it also should not force players lethal, or allow players to pry, embed, or gash from this location. For the sake of story, perhaps you can "place this shard in your heart/mind" and Myouga will welcome you to the cause.
If this sounds reasonable then Myouga will also need to require the player (or the mud could automatically do this instead) to embed the shard before leaving the intro area if a player is familiar with how the game is played and declines to take part in the intro area.
Finally I have to point out that this shard would interfere with current skills like sense, ranged sense, and deep sense. You could find a way to have the skills ignore the shard because of it's location, but I think the best solution would be this: Myouga gives you the shard for tutorial purposes, which is later returned to Myouga. Then upon leaving the intro area Myouga emotes that he "places &Y a shikon shard &D in your heart/mind" and welcomes you to the cause. When this happens a qbit is enabled for a player which allows him or her to transcend through the well as soon as they begin playing. Alternatively you could leave the flashy words, drop the qbit, and remove the ifcheck from the well to reach this end. No one has to know, players will still believe they have a shard in their hearts.
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