Tokyo Big Sight—the annual sumr Comic Market had arrived as scheduled.
The entire convention lasts for three days, and today was the second day.
"Natsu da! Umi da!" Asakura shouted toward the surging crowd before him.
"You've got the wrong lines," Ruri dryly retorted. "Though those are things people say in the sumr."
"To be precise, it's usually the episode six swimsuit fanservice episode," Asakura played along. "I'm just making up for the regret of having a swimsuit episode and going to the beach without actually shouting that line. It's like how one must seize every opportunity to say, 'Daga Kotowaru!' I love saying 'No' to people who think they have the upper hand!"
The dialogue between the two was subtle... or rather, quite 'denpa' (on a weird wavelength). In a normal setting, they would likely draw quite a bit of attention.
But at Sumr Comiket, it was a different story; almost no one around them spared them a second glance.
After all, if you widened your perspective, you could see all sorts of "monsters and gods" around them—cosplayers for almost every popular new ani and ga character could be found here.
In comparison, Ruri's eye-catching Gothic Lolita black dress actually fell into the category of 'casual everyday wear.'
"I originally planned to go all three days straight, but I guess starting from the second day is all we can do..." Ruri sighed.
"Well, so things happened on the way. More importantly, Ruri-chan, is your ammunition reserve sufficient?"
"Forget it, the booths on the first day seed to be mainly female-oriented anyway, and I don't have much interest in those," the girl said, pulling out a bulging small wallet. "Who do you think I am? Of course I'm prepared... Thanks to that extra salary from Rabbit House, I have a few more targets to scout this ti."
"Speaking of which, where are Kiririn and the others?"
Asakura asked curiously, "We agreed on this ti, so why haven't we seen them yet?"
"As for Big Head, it seems she ran off to join Sumr Comiket yesterday, saying she plans to play the full three days without missing a single one; she should be nearby. As for Kiririn and the Cosplay Girl..."
Ruri gave a cold laugh. "I can only say that those who underestimate the Holy War will ultimately face divine punishnt."
'Big Head' seed to refer to Saori, while 'Cosplay Girl' was Kitagawa Marin... then again, wearing what she was wearing, did this girl have the right to call soone else 'Cosplay Girl'?
"I don't know about divine punishnt, but if we keep waiting, the line later might take over an hour."
Asakura sighed.
"When that ti cos, I shall use my [Beast] to forge a new path!" the girl said with a straight face.
"No, no, no, don't use magic spells in a place like this!" Asakura shouted his retort.
"Since Senior Takuma says so, then I shall slightly restrain my surging magical power that is itching to move." The girl nodded, keeping a cold face to act cool.
If one didn't know her background, they would absolutely think this child was just a typical case of Chunibyo.
"Sorry, did you wait long?"
At that mont, a black-haired girl with short hair wearing a "moe-fied" maid outfit hurried to their side, speaking while letting out slightly breathless, suggestive gasps.
Asakura and Ruri simultaneously wore a blank "Who are you?" expression.
"Eh, you can't recognize ? It's ."
The girl struck a bright and cheerful peace sign pose.
"...Shizuku Kuroe?" Ruri's expression shifted slightly as she guessed.
Even more question marks appeared over Asakura's head.
Who is that?
"Oh! Kuroneko-chan really does recognize !" the short-haired maid girl said happily.
"But there was a subtle sense of incongruity in that pose just now," Ruri pointed out the flaw rcilessly. "When Shizuku Kuroe makes a peace sign in the Slippery Girls 2 CG, she's rolling her eyes in an ahegao face."
"That's a no-go. After all, we're in a public place; basic public order and morals must be observed."
The short-haired girl wagged her finger.
So it's okay to do an ahegao face in private? Asakura thought to himself.
However, at this point, he finally saw so clues.
"...Kitagawa?"
"Asakura-kun finally recognized ~"
The girl showed a bright smile. "That's right, it's , Kitagawa Marin-dayo~"
As she spoke, she pulled out her phone and lit up the screen to show Asakura the character illustration. "How is it? The cosplay looks just like it, right?"
"Rather than saying it's cosplay, it feels more like you've beco a different person..."
Asakura couldn't help but marvel at the makeup techniques of this world. Although there were so differences between 2D and 3D, from the current scene, it truly felt like "a 2D beautiful girl from a phone has co into reality."
"Hehe, I put a lot of effort into properly expressing the character's charm!"
Kitagawa Marin put her hands on her hips proudly.
While they were talking, so passing otaku had already started asking if they could take photos. Although Asakura didn't know it, that so-called Slippery Girls 2 seed to be quite famous in certain groups.
The girl generously agreed and sent them a wholesale supply of her excellent, super-sunny smiles—so much so that Asakura watched those otaku walk away looking a bit light-headed, with expressions like "She smiled so sweetly at , she must like , what should we na our child?"
The sight made Asakura shake his head: Poor, pure-hearted otaku, being easily toyed with in the palm of a normie gyaru's hand.
"Sorry, there were too many people on the train. I had to wait for several trains before there was one I could actually fit onto."
A little while later, the brown-haired girl with the screen na Kirino finally rushed to the agreed eting spot.
"Too slow! Are you a Princess and the Pea who can't make it to the station if there isn't a seat?" Ruri criticized her rcilessly.
"I just can't! My house is super far from here!" Kirino retorted righteously first, but after a half-second hesitation, she pointed at Kitagawa Marin and asked Asakura and the others: "Who?"
"It's Kitagawa," Asakura said. "A cosplayer. Amazing, right?"
Kirino froze for a mont, re-examining Kitagawa Marin's appearance. The latter cooperated by striking the character's signature pose (the non-ahegao version).
Instantly, Kirino's eyes lit up: "Shizuku Kuroe from Slippery Girls 2?"
Asakura couldn't help but retort.
Speaking of which, even for an eroge lover, anyone seeing a title like The Shaless Miraculous Life of the Young Ladies from the Saint □ Slimy Slimy Girls' Academy in a Disgraceful Club II—which is longer than recent light novel titles—would usually be deterred, right? Has this thing really beco famous to this extent? I feel like the industry is dood...
"Don't worry about it; actually, I don't like that ga very much either," Kirino comforted him. "Because there isn't a route to romance the little sister."
"Thanks."
Asakura curled his lip, not feeling comforted at all.
"Wait a minute, hasn't Saori arrived yet?" Kirino looked around the group and realized one person was missing. "She's clearly the most active one jumping around in the community to organize this, so what's the deal with her being late?"
"It seems Saori arrived yesterday; maybe she just hasn't found us yet." Asakura offered an explanation for her—though they hadn't known each other long, he had a good impression of Saori. After all, despite her otaku-like behavior, she could be serious when she needed to be and was quite reliable at handling things. "Let's wait a little longer..."
"True, although Saori is reliable, she can be a bit of an airhead sotis," Kitagawa Marin nodded in response. "Or should we go line up first? Otherwise, even if Saori arrives, we'll have to start from the very back."
Asakura thought about it and felt that made sense.
In fact, there were already many people in line; starting from the back now would an waiting over an hour just to get in.
"At a ti like this, I must use my—mph?!"
Before Ruri could finish, Asakura grabbed her cheeks with both hands and pulled slightly outward, causing the girl to let out a small cry of distress.
"You can't keep making jokes like that," Asakura warned her seriously. "Those who think they can toy with magic spells all end up with the sa fate."
"I—I get it already..." Ruri sighed, clutching her cheeks.
Just as everyone was about to head off to line up early, Saori finally made her belated appearance.
"Everyone is quite on ti~"
The girl wearing a flannel shirt and thick glasses greeted everyone happily.
"Too slow!"
Kirino and Ruri shouted in unison, and the two proceeded to grumble a whole list of complaints.
"Kiririn and Kuroneko-chan's relationship is as good as ever." Saori didn't get angry; instead, she spoke with a beaming smile.
"The only ti they have such chemistry is when they're attacking soone else."
Asakura retorted, "Anyway, since everyone is here, let's line up to enter."
"About that," Saori's mouth curled into a cat-like shape as she gave a sly smile. "Actually, I've already made arrangents~"
"Arranged what?" Kitagawa Marin asked curiously. "Did you bribe the Sumr Comiket staff so we can go straight in?"
"Even I don't have enough money to bribe the staff," Saori waved her hands quickly. "I just pulled a few strings and got these~"
As she spoke, she pulled a stack of badges out of her small satchel like they were precious treasures.
"These are?" Asakura took a badge and looked at it, finding the words The Hero Whose Holy Sword Turned Into ○○ is Being NTR'd written on it.
"Staff passes for so booths."
The girl distributed the passes and hung the remaining one around her neck. "With these, you can enter as booth mbers through the staff entrance. No need to wait in the visitor line."
"There's actually such a good deal!" Kitagawa Marin's eyes sparkled as she looked at Saori. "Aweso! You're amazing, Saori!"
"Hehe, it's not that big of a deal~"
Saori said blissfully, her face clearly wearing an 'original-praise--more' expression.
"Seems like you're occasionally useful after all." Even Kirino, who usually never had a kind word to say, gave Saori a rare complint.
"Booth staff passes, huh..."
Ruri, however, held her pass thoughtfully.
"What's wrong?" Asakura asked the girl curiously.
"In the past when I ca to Comic Market, I thought things like, 'Next ti I'll co as a circle leader to sell my own works.'"
Ruri said softly, "I didn't expect that today I would get a booth staff pass in this manner first..."
Asakura recalled the girl's drawing skills from the uniform discussion eting and felt that, for now, her ability was indeed a little far from being able to set up a booth at the venue.
"Don't worry about it. I rember so people sell light novels inside too; you can work toward that instead."
Asakura said it in a way he considered to be socially intelligent.
The girl sighed and spoke in a slightly tsundere tone: "I have no expectations for the aesthetic standards of light novel readers of this era."
No, exactly what kind of expectations do you have for readers?
"Did sothing happen?" Asakura asked suddenly, looking at the girl.
"That one over there," Ruri gestured with her chin toward Kirino. "Wrote a mobile phone novel."
"Mobile phone novel?"
"It's a type of web novel you can write on a phone. That's not the point." Ruri took a breath, seemingly trying to make her voice sound less emotional. "The point is, that piece-of-trash novel of hers—which had no outline, no rigorous setting, and was almost entirely a collage of whatever plot she thought of as she went—actually gained a considerable amount of popularity!"
Asakura didn't respond.
He didn't have much research on the light novel industry in Japan. Previously, he had no money or ti to read them. Now that he had achieved a degree of financial freedom, at most he would occasionally follow the trend and buy a popular light novel at a bookstore. If it suited his taste, he'd buy the remaining volus; otherwise, he'd shelve it (which is how a lot of the junk in the society hut ca to be).
In his view, whether a novel becos a hit depends on a bit of luck, aside from the actual gap in author skill and work quality.
Sotis, works with terrible plots can grab attention and attract curious readers simply by creating gimmicks or even intentionally disgusting readers to gain discussion and buzz.
Besides that, there are so novels that, while not particularly logical in plot, attract readers simply by being 'interesting.'
In short, this area really depends a lot on luck.
"This generation is finished, so I have already abandoned the philosophy of manifesting the depths of my mind into reality to civilize humanity," Ruri said. "From now on, I will only continue to refine my magic spells, preparing to challenge all the evil in the world..."
"To put it simply, the 'Black' version of you has admitted defeat and given up on writing novels, right?" Kirino leaned in, speaking triumphantly.
Ruri: "Can I turn her into a cat?"
Asakura: "No."
"...(Grinding teeth)"
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