A crossover anime/manga story, set in everyday Tokyo, but within a loop of a game.

14

Chapter 14 Asagiri's righteous declaration of her harem life.

"Oh, that's how it is."

Asagiri nodded noncommittally at first, then smiled and said.

"Tracking down a serial killer hiding in the city and bringing him to justice sounds like the work of a mysterious hero."

Kotoko Iwanaga smiled and said.

"Hmm? Do you have a hidden chuunibyou soul? You find doing this kind of thing fun and are getting all fired up?"

"Not interesting at all."

Asagiri waved his hand and replied casually.

"Why would I find something interesting that involves going to another city to kill someone without gaining any benefit, without any reasoning or challenge?"

Kotoko Iwanaga couldn't help but ask curiously upon hearing this.

"Then why did you..."

"Oh, no, it's not like we won't gain any benefits at all."

Before Iwanaga Kotoko could finish speaking, Asagiri gently interrupted, looking at Iwanaga Kotoko's cute face, which showed a hint of surprise, and said with a smile.

"Being able to help you is enough reason for me."

"Morning mist..."

Under this sudden, direct attack, Kotoko Iwanaga, who is usually eloquent and often makes surprising remarks, was too shy to say anything for a moment. A blush rose on her lovely, fair cheeks, and her dark purple eyes, which were not covered by her light golden hair, were covered with a layer of mist.

The next second, she immediately hugged Asagiri's arm and said with a smile.

"As expected, you still love me more than Asuna..."

"No, that's wrong."

Asagiri interrupted Kotoko Iwanaga once again.

"There's no further explanation. I like you, Asuna, and Megumi equally, without any difference in their status."

"Eh?"

Upon hearing Asagiri's words, Kotoko Iwanaga did not show any confusion like Asuna Yuuki, who had heard the same words before. Instead, she immediately grasped the key point.

"Could it be... you want to build a harem!?"

Asagiri, with a clear conscience, issued a blatant declaration of her harem status.

"That's right, I'm going to build a harem!"

The moment he spoke these words, which he didn't deliberately lower his voice, the carriage, where some passengers had been chatting, instantly fell silent.

At first, the female passengers unconsciously showed disgust in their eyes when they heard this, but when their gaze shifted and they saw Asagiri who had just spoken, their disgust disappeared without a trace, replaced by admiration and amazement.

That boy...

He's really handsome.

The male passengers, whether they were office workers in suits or high school and junior high school students in school uniforms, all seemed to have reached a subtle tacit understanding, and their eyes revealed admiration and respect when they looked at Asagiri.

Courage!

To openly declare one's intention to build a harem in front of such adorable girls—that's courage! Truly a role model for us all! A man among men, the epitome of masculinity, practically a god of harems!

only……

The passengers in the carriage felt that they had already anticipated what was going to happen next.

Faced with such a blatant declaration of harem status, the cute girl in the long dress would probably be so angry that she would leave immediately, or even worse, she would slap the handsome guy and denounce him as a scumbag, right?

After all, matters of the harem are ultimately too...

"Hmm...okay then."

The passengers in the carriage were all dumbfounded when they heard Kotoko Iwanaga say this.

ha?

"Think about it?" What does that mean? Does it mean this very cute girl actually agrees to her boyfriend having a harem?

Are there hidden cameras around? Which film crew came here to shoot a TV series? Is this kind of plot even possible?

Kotoko Iwanaga's thoughts were actually not that complicated.

Although they often bicker, she actually cherishes her friends and teammates, Yuuki Asuna and Kato Megumi, with friends coming first and teammates second.

As for Asagiri... no further explanation is needed.

From the moment they first met in the hotel instance, Kotoko Iwanaga had fallen head over heels in love with Asagiri and was hopelessly infatuated.

Since she doesn't want to lose her two friends, Yuuki Asuna and Kato Megumi, and also wants to become lovers with Asagiri and do some lewd things, isn't that simple?

Let's start a harem.

"Let me check... We should have arrived in Kanagawa around 4 PM..."

Kotoko Iwanaga took out her phone and glanced at the time, then leaned close to Asagiri's ear and whispered something.

"Before we go take care of business tonight, how about we grab something to eat? I heard there's a restaurant in Kanagawa that makes really delicious eel rice bowls~"

Asagiri asked curiously, "Why did you suddenly want to eat eel rice?"

Kotoko Iwanaga rested her cheek on her hand, her face flushed with girlish shyness, but what she said made the jaws of all the passengers in the carriage drop to the floor in astonishment.

"Aren't we spending the night together tonight? It's our first time, and I want to create a wonderful memory, so of course I need to eat something to nourish myself~"

"Eels are a symbol of children and safe childbirth because their shape is very similar to a certain male organ, and they are also considered a symbol of harmonious marital relations."

At this point, Kotoko Iwanaga turned her head shyly, blushing as she spoke softly.

"It looks very nourishing!"

Immediately afterwards, Kotoko Iwanaga turned her head and looked directly at Asagiri's face with an unprecedented seriousness and righteous indignation.

"We must give it our all tonight!"

The passengers in the carriage: "..."

This adorable girl, dressed like a sheltered young lady, what kind of outrageous things are coming out of her mouth?!

What do you mean by "going all out"? Where exactly are you going to put all your effort into?!

Is this still a train from the Sakura Prefecture? What kind of dirty joke planet have I come from?

"Hmph, you want to challenge me?"

Asagiri crossed her arms over her chest, a slight smile playing on her lips, her voice filled with unparalleled, absolute confidence that belonged only to the strong.

"Alright, I accept your challenge!"

Kotoko Iwanaga clenched her delicate fist and shook it, not wanting to be outdone.

"Hmph, you may be strong, but I am no ordinary person either! Tonight, let's have a thoroughly enjoyable battle!"

The passengers in the carriage: "..."

That handsome boy and the adorable girl dressed like a pampered young lady were more than just good-looking...

Even this kind of astonishing abstraction is truly a match made in heaven...

……

Later that evening, in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, a shop with a standee of an eel rice bowl displayed at its entrance.

"I'm starting~"

Kotoko Iwanaga took apart her chopsticks, gently picked up a piece of brightly colored, fragrant grilled eel, and put it in her mouth. A happy expression immediately spread across her face.

"Mmm~ It's delicious, truly lives up to its reputation~"

Is it really that delicious?

Asagiri casually picked up a piece of eel, put it in her mouth, savored it carefully, and then shook her head.

"It's just average, I feel... not as good as Asuna's cooking."

"whispering sound……"

Kotoko Iwanaga first let out a cat-like hiss of dissatisfaction, then said with a look of resentment.

"Although I hate to admit it, Asuna's cooking is really delicious, comparable to those of hotel chefs... In this respect, I, who can't cook at all, am no match for her..."

After saying this, Kotoko Iwanaga shook her head and, while eating her eel rice, steered the conversation back to tonight's operation.

“If it were just about killing that man named Hosokawa Teru, it wouldn’t be difficult. For you, it would just be a matter of sending an email. There’s no need for the two of us to come all this way. That’s the main reason.”

Kotoko Iwanaga took out a black-covered notebook and handed it to Asagiri. Asagiri took it, opened it, and found that it contained information about the serial murder case that Kotoko Iwanaga had collected through the investigation of the yokai.

"Left arm, right arm, left leg, right leg, torso..."

Asagiri glanced at the records in the notebook and said in a calm tone.

"Every victim's body, abandoned in the mountains, was missing a part. Was that guy playing some kind of jigsaw puzzle?"

"It really is."

Kotoko Iwanaga talked while eating. This topic, which would make most people feel disgusted and uncomfortable, seemed to have no effect on her at all, and she didn't even miss eating.

"He kept the victim's body in his apartment and then stitched it up with needle and thread. As for why he did this... perhaps it was some kind of cult or superstition, or perhaps he was simply insane. The thoughts of a psychopathic killer are indeed incomprehensible. His act of cutting up the victim's body and then piecing it back together, whether intentional or unintentional, has seriously violated the order of this world."

"The wronged souls, filled with intense resentment, were forcibly combined together in this way, giving birth to a thoroughly evil spirit. Moreover, due to the extremely strong resentment and hatred, the evil spirit's power was exceptionally strong, and ordinary monsters dared not approach it at all."

“Last night, he kidnapped a woman and took her to his apartment. He probably planned to kill her during the weekend after work on Friday and finish the final part of the corpse doll, which was to sew the woman’s head back on.”

"At the moment of completion, his own twisted evil thoughts, along with the resentment of the six wronged souls, will make that evil spirit even stronger, endangering the safety of all the monsters in this city. As the god of wisdom for the monsters, I absolutely cannot allow such a thing to happen."

Upon hearing Kotoko Iwanaga's words, Asagiri nodded slightly and smiled.

"You didn't mention this before because you were worried that Asuna and Kato would feel uncomfortable if they heard it?"

"more or less."

Kotoko Iwanaga picked up a piece of eel, put it in her mouth, and said with a smile.

"After all, they are still normal people, unlike the two of us."

15

Chapter 15: The Diplomat's Perfect Rhetoric.

"I think I'm pretty normal."

Upon hearing Asagiri's words, Kotoko Iwanaga smiled and shook her head.

"No normal person could be discussing this kind of thing while still enjoying eating eel rice, right?"

"I'm doing this to prepare for the battle tonight."

Kotoko Iwanaga nodded in agreement.

"Indeed, I can't be sure how powerful that evil spirit is, so I should try to fight it when I'm at my best..."

"Evil spirits? No, no, no."

Asagiri waved her hand and interrupted with a smile.

“I don’t care about mere evil spirits; I’m referring to the battles later on.”

Upon hearing this, Kotoko Iwanaga naturally knew what Asagiri was referring to, and a blush crept onto her face as she turned her head and whispered.

"You're being too blunt..."

Kotoko Iwanaga blushed slightly, but only for a moment.

"However, I really like you just the way you are~"

……

That evening, on the streets of Kawasaki.

Unlike bustling Tokyo, where tall office buildings are everywhere, lights are on, and people are constantly flowing through the streets, Kawasaki is not considered a big city. Although you can occasionally see a few buildings that are dozens of stories high, most of the area consists of two- or three-story shops and detached buildings.