Chapter 469: Maki’s Feelings, The Joyful Kasumigaoka Senpai

Chapter 469: Chapter 469: Maki’s Feelings, The Joyful Kasumigaoka Senpai

Chapter 469: Maki’s Feelings, The Joyful Kasumigaoka Senpai

The next morning, Sunday.

Inside the conference room at the Tokyo headquarters of the Ashikaga Budo Association.

"Good morning, everyone."

The door opened.

Asagiri walked in without his mask or black trench coat, dressed instead in an ordinary black casual jacket.

Seeing him enter so naturally, Katahara Metsudo, the head of Dai Sakura Bank, frowned slightly and turned toward Miwa Ashikaga, who sat at the head of the table.

"Ashikaga, this young man is...?"

Before Miwa could answer, Asagiri vanished from the doorway.

In the next instant, he appeared beside her and casually took a seat.

"Haven’t we met plenty of times before, Katahara?"

"You..."

Katahara Metsudo was unfamiliar with Asagiri’s face and natural speaking voice.

But that relaxed tone...

Combined with the young man’s black hair and eyes...

Realization immediately dawned on him.

"Shadow?"

Even someone as experienced as Katahara Metsudo couldn’t completely hide his disbelief.

Shadow.

The strongest Player.

The man who had stood at the center of the final battle against Nyx and ultimately saved the future of countless worlds...

Was actually this young?

Still, Katahara Metsudo quickly regained his composure.

"Ahem."

He cleared his throat.

"Ashikaga, the Game is already over."

"Did you gather everyone here today because there’s something important left to discuss?"

Miwa Ashikaga said nothing.

She merely shifted her gaze toward Asagiri.

Asagiri smiled casually.

"The Game may be over, but Players still possess supernatural abilities."

"That makes them unstable factors that need to be managed."

"Indeed."

Katahara Metsudo immediately agreed.

Shinomiya Unyo, Shijo Maki, and Maki’s mother also nodded.

The Death Game had ended.

But the powers obtained by the Players had not disappeared.

Hundreds of thousands of Players had survived the final battle in this world.

That meant hundreds of thousands of people now possessed abilities far beyond anything ordinary society had been designed to handle.

If even a small percentage of them chose to misuse those powers...

The consequences could be disastrous.

Miwa Ashikaga finally spoke.

"Our proposal is to integrate willing Players into the existing official security structure."

"They’ll become members of a specialized action organization responsible for maintaining social stability and responding to serious criminal incidents involving supernatural abilities."

She paused.

"They’ll receive generous compensation."

"The Ashikaga Budo Association will bear the financial cost."

The atmosphere in the room became slightly more serious.

Katahara Metsudo and the others were certainly not naive enough to misunderstand what that meant.

On the surface, the plan solved the most dangerous problem left behind by the Death Game.

Most surviving Players would be registered, organized, compensated, and placed under a structured chain of command rather than left scattered throughout society.

But there was another implication.

If the Ashikaga Budo Association funded them...

Then those Players would effectively become part of the Ashikaga Budo Association.

They would answer to Miwa Ashikaga.

Or more accurately...

To Shadow.

"The Shinomiya Family has no objections."

Shinomiya Unyo agreed almost immediately.

Katahara Metsudo exchanged a glance with Shijo Maki’s mother.

Maki also nodded.

Soon, they gave their approval as well.

After all...

Asagiri and the others had already proven themselves.

They had destroyed Nyx.

They had saved this world.

And if the Ashikaga Budo Association could prevent Players from abusing their powers while also using those abilities to stop severe crimes, then this arrangement was already close to the best possible outcome.

"Alright."

Miwa Ashikaga nodded.

"Then it’s settled."

...

The meeting ended shortly afterward.

One by one, the participants left the conference room.

But before Asagiri could leave, Shijo Maki approached him.

Her cheeks were faintly red.

"Utsunomiya-san..."

"Do you have some time afterward?"

"Depends."

Maki tilted her head.

"Depends?"

Asagiri shrugged.

"If you’re the one asking, then yes."

"If it were that old geezer Katahara asking me to stay..."

"I’d suddenly become very busy."

"Old geezer..."

Maki covered her mouth.

"Pfft..."

She couldn’t help laughing.

Then, remembering why she had approached him, her expression became nervous again.

"Um..."

"There’s something I wanted to ask you about."

"It’s about... romance."

She hesitated.

"I heard your Student Council recently started offering love consultations."

Of course, Shijo Maki knew the truth.

The so called love consultation service was basically Fujiwara Chika’s personal hobby.

Kaguya Shinomiya wasn’t sitting around giving romantic advice.

Neither was Asagiri.

But Maki needed an excuse.

Unlike Yuuki Asuna and the others, she had never been one of Asagiri’s core teammates during the Death Game.

Unlike Eriri, she wasn’t involved in producing the games he cared about.

Ever since the Game ended, she had struggled to find any natural reason to spend time alone with him.

Now that she finally had the opportunity...

Even with her shy personality, she had to do something.

"Love consultation?"

Asagiri looked amused.

Then he said something that immediately froze her thoughts.

"Wouldn’t you normally ask an outsider about something like that?"

He tilted his head.

"Who asks the person they like for advice about how to pursue them?"

"Or gives romantic advice to someone they like?"

"Eh...?"

Shijo Maki stopped functioning.

Her mind went blank.

He knew?

Asagiri knew she liked him?

Wait.

That wasn’t even the most important part.

What had he just said?

"Someone they like..."

Was he saying...

He felt something for her too?

"But..."

Maki pressed her lips together.

Her expression became complicated.

For once, she decided not to hide behind another excuse.

"I’m different from Asuna and the others."

Her voice was soft.

"They fought beside you."

"They helped you through the Game."

"And Eriri and Utaha can help with the things you enjoy creating."

She lowered her eyes.

"But I’m just..."

"Shijo Maki."

"A classmate in the same grade as you."

Asagiri stared at her for a moment.

Then he sighed.

"Your understanding of romance is seriously flawed."

"Huh?"

He stepped closer and gently rested one hand on her head.

Maki immediately stiffened.

Asagiri smiled.

"People don’t have to provide some special practical value to each other before they’re allowed to fall in love."

"In my opinion..."

"The feeling of liking someone is already a form of needing them."

"Liking someone..."

Maki repeated quietly.

"Is already a need..."

She slowly raised her eyes toward him.

A blush spread across her cheeks.

Then, as if desperate to recover at least a little dignity, she crossed her arms and forced herself to sound calm.

"Then..."

"If you need me, I suppose there’s nothing I can do about it."

She looked away.

"After all..."

"You did save my life."

"A debt like that has to be repaid somehow."

Asagiri smiled.

Then he deliberately messed up her hair.

"Being too tsundere and dishonest is how you become a losing heroine, you know."

"W-who are you calling a losing heroine!?"

...

Half a month later.

Toyosaki Private Academy.

"Kasumigaoka, someone’s looking for you."

Hearing her classmate’s voice, Kasumigaoka Utaha looked up from the light novel in her hands.

At the back door of the classroom stood Asagiri.

He was waiting for her.

The moment Utaha saw him, unmistakable surprise and delight flashed through her dark red eyes.

But only for an instant.

She quickly suppressed the reaction.

Utaha calmly closed her book, stood, and walked toward him.

With practiced composure, she brushed her long black hair behind her shoulder.

"What’s wrong, Utsunomiya-san?"

Asagiri glanced around.

Several students inside the classroom and out in the hallway were already watching them with open curiosity.

"Let’s talk on the rooftop."

...

After reaching the rooftop, Asagiri closed the door behind them and locked it.

Kasumigaoka Utaha merely raised an eyebrow.

A faint, meaningful smile appeared on her lips.

"Utsunomiya-san..."

"Bringing a girl to an empty rooftop and then locking the door behind you?"

She tilted her head.

"Are you planning some kind of questionable eroge scenario?"

"You could have at least warned me first."

"Tsk."

Asagiri gave her a flat look.

"I think you’re genuinely starved for material."

Utaha’s smile twitched slightly.

Ignoring her reaction, Asagiri walked toward the railing and leaned against it.

"I came to tell you something."

"The eroge we worked on has officially launched."

Kasumigaoka Utaha’s expression became more attentive.

"The first twenty four hours of sales were around five million copies."

"As agreed, I need to give you ten percent of the profit..."

"Wait."

Utaha interrupted him.

Her composed expression disappeared.

"What did you just say?"

Asagiri blinked.

"Ten percent of the profit?"

"Before that!"

Kasumigaoka Utaha stared at him.

"The twenty four hour sales figure."

"Five million copies!?"

"That’s right."

Asagiri nodded casually.

"It broke a record."

Kasumigaoka Utaha immediately pulled out her phone.

She didn’t even bother asking another question.

Her fingers moved rapidly across the screen until she opened the sales page for the game she, Eriri, and Asagiri had created together.

Five million.

The number was real.

Then she began reading the reviews.

Praise for the story.

Praise for the character writing.

Praise for the illustrations.

Praise for the structure and emotional payoff.

Again and again, Players praised the exact elements the three of them had worked so hard to create.

For the first time since Asagiri arrived...

Kasumigaoka Utaha’s calm facade completely shattered.

"This is amazing..."

Her eyes lit up.

"This is really amazing!"

Without thinking, she rushed forward and hugged Asagiri.

Her arms wrapped tightly around him.

For once, Kasumigaoka Utaha looked less like the mature, sharp tongued senpai everyone knew...

And more like an ordinary girl who had just seen a dream come true.

As a creator, she was no different from Eriri in one crucial respect.

She cared deeply about the work she had poured herself into.

The money was secondary.

What mattered most...

Was having her writing acknowledged.

Having strangers read something she had created and genuinely love it.

The game wasn’t merely commercially successful.

It had been praised by its Players.

For Kasumigaoka Utaha, that meant far more than the sales figure itself.

"So heavy..."

Asagiri sighed dramatically.

Naturally, with his physical abilities, her weight meant absolutely nothing to him.

He chuckled.

"Kasumigaoka, I understand that you’re excited."

"But this hug..."

He looked down at her.

"Is a little too overwhelming in every possible sense."

"Eh?"

Only then did Kasumigaoka Utaha realize how enthusiastically she had thrown herself at him.

Her arms were still wrapped around him.

She had practically attached herself to him like a koala.

For several seconds...

Neither moved.

Then a faint blush slowly spread across Kasumigaoka Utaha’s cheeks.

....

https://discord.gg/KvMN2CFsMR

[If you don’t want to wait for the next update, read 50 Chapters ahead on P@treon.]

[[email protected]/FanficLord03].