manynovel Chapter 578 573: Something to be Proud Of
Chapter 578 573: Something to be Proud Of
Everything returned to the moment Asakura reached out and plucked the young sprout from Kasumigaoka's head.
"This way, there's no problem," he said, breathing a sigh of relief.
He really hadn't expected that simply changing someone who had undergone a massive personality shift back to their original state would somehow end up involving the destruction of the world; the development was far too magnificent, making him feel a bit weary.
As for Utaha, after her eyes remained hollow and vacant for an instant, they immediately regained their clarity.
She looked at Asakura in front of her, seemingly wanting to say something, but then immediately realized where she was—though it was outside the Comic Market venue, the number of tourists coming and going around them was still quite large.
After being confused for just a few seconds, the girl immediately realized what had happened.
"Is this... some kind of exhibition?"
"It's Summer CM, but rather than the venue, I suggest you first check what you are wearing," Asakura offered kindly.
Hearing this, Utaha subconsciously looked down.
Well, at first glance, she couldn't see her toes.
However, she soon realized that she seemed to be wearing something quite improper, so she pulled out her phone from her pocket and turned on the selfie mode to confirm her attire.
In the next instant, her face first turned flush with embarrassment because of that maid outfit modified from a school swimsuit, and even the tips of her ears turned a scorching color. But that shame was quickly and forcibly suppressed by her, replaced by a cold sneer and an annoyance that nearly crushed her silver teeth.
"It's that Sawamura girl, isn't it?"
"She did it for your own good," Asakura said earnestly, not minding the drama: "In her words, this seemed to be a type of shock therapy."
So Utaha, with a skin-deep smile and an expression of 'Shock therapy? I'll make her go into shock first!', said: "Then I really have to thank her."
"You should thank her. Given that child's tsu-tsu-tsu-tsu-tsundere personality, if there really wasn't any other way, she probably wouldn't have asked others for help," Asakura shrugged. "Which is to say, before she commissioned me to treat you a week ago, she must have already tried every method she could think of on you."
"...It seems I have no choice but to thank her," Asakura felt a certain aura rising from Utaha.
It was probably something like killing intent.
Oh Eriri, pray for your own luck. Asakura prayed for the golden-haired twin-tails in his heart.
Originally, Asakura thought she would charge straight to where Eriri was and begin torturing her in the name of "thanks," but to Asakura's surprise, Utaha looked at him first.
"More importantly, Mr. Asakura... that form of address feels a bit troublesome. Can I call you Taku-kun?"
Where exactly is "Mr. Asakura" troublesome...
Although Asakura couldn't help but complain in his heart, he wasn't like typical islanders who placed great importance on honorifics, so he simply nodded: "It feels a bit strange, but it's fine. Call me whatever you like."
"That's good, Taku-kun."
"What is it?"
"I just want to get a bit used to this way of calling you, Taku-kun."
"..." Asakura felt his back go itchy for some reason when she called him that in a tone that was somewhere between acting spoiled and some other strange meaning.
"By the way, you can also just call me Utaha," Utaha said, then, perhaps to appear more normal, she added somewhat redundantly: "That's what you call a reciprocal exchange."
"Alright, Kasumi Utako-sensei. No problem, Kasumi Utako-sensei."
"Forget the pen name 'Kasumi Utako.' Being called that only reminds me of the desperate reality that a deadline is right before my eyes while I haven't written a single word. Damn it, the world should just end quickly!"
"Please don't, I worked very hard to save the world."
"Though before saving the world, you saved me first."
"Speaking of which, remember to come to my place for a physical check-up every month from now on," Asakura instructed the girl: "After all, I have to keep a close eye on the growth of the 'Fruit' at all times."
"Yes, I know. But the next time, your movements should be a bit gentler. This time, I thought I was going to suffocate."
Although they heard people around them saying things like 'How lewd,' 'Keeping a close eye on the growth of the fruit or whatever,' 'Saying such bold words in public,' 'Is there even suffocation play?' and 'Death to the normies who play with women,' Asakura didn't pay any attention.
It was probably just some unpopular slang used by otaku, the kind found in every subculture circle.
Utaha, on the other hand, showed a look of displeasure at the obviously not-so-quiet whispering around them, but it vanished instantly, replaced by a charming expression like that of a bad woman who enjoys playing with innocent young boys.
She proactively leaned against Asakura's side and hooked his arm, letting Asakura's arm become perfectly embedded in the valley, allowing him to perfectly enjoy the softness on both sides, while saying in a very affected volume clearly intended for others to hear while staring at the direction where the whispers came from: "Hey, are all the people over there virgins?"
[Image Content: An anime screenshot. A pinkish-purple short-haired girl points forward. Caption: I say, are all the people over there virgins?]
Consequently, that group of otaku simultaneously clutched their chests, showing expressions of their psychological defenses being utterly shattered.
Asakura shook his head helplessly.
Anyway, he wasn't one.
"By the way, did the previous 'you' disappear?" Staying here wasn't a long-term plan, so he asked while leading the girl toward the cosplay area.
Utaha let him lead her without the slightest resistance: "That fake? Though I'd like to say I don't know, I feel like she didn't truly disappear, but rather was pulled into the Demon Realm just like I was... that's the name for it, right? In short, she just swapped places with me."
In fact, the place where the girl was before wasn't a Demon Realm, but a nursery forcibly opened in her heart by the power of an Evil God—because of this, Utaha didn't need to consume a large amount of magic power to maintain the existence of a Demon Realm like Yui did.
However, explaining it felt troublesome, so Asakura simply let the assumption stand.
"I see..."
Being pulled into her heart, it felt like what was originally a hollow shell had instead been permanently solidified in this way, becoming one of Utaha's personalities.
However, from the current perspective, Utaha's normal personality was quite dominant; it was likely that cowardly personality would find it hard to appear again.
"Compared to me, what about you yourself, Taku-kun?" Utaha asked with concern.
"What about me?"
"Your eye!"
"Ah, you mean my right eye? It's nothing~" Asakura said in a light, airy tone.
"Is it really nothing?" Seeing Asakura say this, the girl seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, but asked one more time just to be sure.
"Yeah, I'm just blind, that's all."
"That doesn't even fall into the category of 'it's nothing,' does it? Wouldn't you say this is incredibly serious!"
Utaha, who had relaxed for a moment because of Asakura's attitude, couldn't help but complain loudly.
Fortunately, she wasn't the only one being so loud in the vicinity, so it didn't attract much attention.
"I know you're anxious, but don't be anxious just yet."
Asakura himself wasn't all that worried: "Even though my right eye is blind, it's not like it can never be restored. Don't forget, I am a magician; if I want to treat it, there are ways, it just needs some time."
In fact, if it weren't his right eye that had gone blind, Asakura could have simply used the spell [Candle] to burn away the "fact" of being blind to restore his vision.
It would be just like an elderly person with Alzheimer's who, because of forgetfulness, forgets that they have Alzheimer's and thus restores their health.
Unfortunately, this kind of operation is difficult to pull off on things involving the "Mystic," or rather, it is very easy for accidents to happen and backfire.
And Asakura's right eye just happened to house the extremely high-mystery "True Sight," to the point where he actually couldn't use that method for treatment.
As for True Sight itself, there was no problem with it. Although the prerequisite for activating it was vision, its own integrity had no direct connection to visual acuity.
However, this time it was forcibly activated while not yet fully recovered, and it was reading information related to an Evil God of a status like '■El■■ro■s.' Even without truly looking directly at the Evil God, the impact of just that glimpse still affected True Sight.
To explain it in a simpler and more direct way: it was like a repair progress bar that had reached about ninety percent, only to suddenly drop back down to less than thirty percent, requiring it to load and recover all over again.
"But continuing like this is indeed a bit scary. I just happened to see some stalls selling eyepatches; I might as well just go buy one and wear it."
Although he felt some confusion as to why a convention would sell eyepatches—and not custom ones, but the very common medical type (the sign at the stall read: 'Evil Energy Disease,' 'Magic Eye User,' 'Moe Eyepatch Girl' special featured merchandise)—it was clearly the most useful thing for Asakura right now.
Because his right eye had become completely dim and lifeless—dim in the literal sense, as the pupil had changed from its original color to a grayish-white, giving it a sort of peculiar, sickly aesthetic beauty.
It was fine in a place like a convention, but once he started normal life, the appearance of this eye would look a bit special.
So, it was better to wear an eyepatch.
"How nostalgic."
"What is it?"
Watching Asakura put on the eyepatch with unexpected proficiency, Kasumigaoka asked with some curiosity.
"I wore an eyepatch constantly until about two months ago," Asakura replied.
Back then, it was purely because he couldn't control True Sight, so he had no choice but to wear one. It only got better after he obtained the Magic Eye Killer.
"Thinking about it that way, it feels like I've simply returned to the way things were two months ago; it's not particularly terrible."
He could even continue to use the same excuse with his teachers, saying that his eye condition had flared up again.
"...Taku-kun's life really is colorful," she remarked.
Utaha naturally wouldn't think Asakura was just someone with "Chunibyo," since she had personally witnessed his supernatural powers; they were the real deal. She assumed that needing to wear an eyepatch in the past was also a move made out of necessity.
"I'd honestly prefer if this world were more slice-of-life," Asakura grumbled, feeling a bit weary.
That being said, after Summer CM ended, the Ghost Story Pilgrimage still had to be continued. Heaven knew if a spot was missed, whether another Apocalypse catastrophe would occur—Asakura was actually quite satisfied with his current life and didn't want the slice-of-life genre to fast-forward into a post-apocalyptic one.
"Forget it, we'll talk about that later. Anyway, let's go meet up with the others first."
Saying so, he led Kasumigaoka away from the stalls filled with Chunibyo gear and headed toward the cosplay area once again.
On the way, Asakura took a moment to check his system page.
Besides the newly acquired Authority, even the Quest page had an update.
[Quest 'Obtain the Miraculous Fruit' completed. Obtained the Golden Snitch and corresponding maintenance manual.]
[Golden Snitch]
[Mystic Traits: Flight, Cognitive Blur (Muggles seeing the Golden Snitch will think it is a strange little bird; if they check, they will learn through various channels that this bird is called a Golden Snidget)]
[A golden ball with silver wings, slightly smaller than a baseball. Capable of flying at extreme speeds and turning arbitrarily. Contains an internal storage space (about the size of a suitcase), which can be locked and unlocked via the biological traits of a designated target.]
[Note 1: The manual actually records the method of manufacture. As long as the corresponding materials can be found, new Snitches can be made.]
[Note 2: "The materials are just gold and silver. Compared to other things, they are practically very easy to get. Watch me make a fortune!"]
[Note 3: "What do you mean you have to wear dragonhide gloves when making a Snitch?"]
Asakura's eyebrows rose slightly.
The Golden Snitch didn't seem to have that big of a use.
However, if it truly could be mass-produced, that would actually be quite good.
Immediately following, he switched the page to the new Quest bar.
[Quest: Adopt a peculiar pet]
Adopting a pet wasn't a problem, but what did 'peculiar' in the requirements mean? What kind of pet would count as a peculiar pet?
Would a Fox Aberration work? From its appearance to other aspects, that thing could certainly be considered quite peculiar.
It was just that its current situation didn't seem great; Asakura could feel that even if he tried to summon it now, it wouldn't be able to answer.
Because previously, the Fox Aberration's shikigami had tried to touch the young sprout on Kasumigaoka's head. As a result, not only was it destroyed, but the Fox Aberration, as the master of the shikigami, had also suffered backlash.
Asakura had wondered why the Fox Aberration was so fragile, but thinking about it now, for a mere incomplete body of a local deity to face a non-proactive, non-direct counterattack from the aura of a seed sown by a high-dimensional Evil God and not be instantly killed was already something to be quite proud of.