Anime Crossover: Tokyo Reincarnation Game — Chapter 108

Chapter 108: The Fable Told to Asuna

The heavy silence in the room was broken only by the ragged breathing of the surviving Mitas. Iwanaga Kotoko, Kato Megumi, and Yuuki Asuna stood quietly alongside their leader, Asagiri. None of them interrupted, choosing instead to wait for the rest of the explanation.

“That voice said…” Kind Mita cast a complicated, pitying glance down at Crazy Mita, who currently lay on the bloodstained floor, completely stripped of her limbs. “If this entity is taken to the true core area of this game, she can provide valuable rewards to the Player.”

Nodding enthusiastically, Hat Mita adjusted her signature headwear. “That’s right, that’s right! It even transmitted the exact route to the core area directly into our heads. But… we don’t actually know if it’s true or a trap. How about we just forget about it, Player? Let’s go back to my house. We can play on the dance machine and binge video games together!”

Sensing a faint trace of displeasure in Kind Mita’s gaze, Hat Mita pouted. She let out a soft, warning hiss like an angry kitten and muttered under her breath, “As far as I’m concerned, whatever happens to this world doesn’t matter at all. The only thing that matters is that Player lives happily.”

Kotoko shifted her cane, her lips curving into a teasing smirk as she glanced sideways at Asuna. “Well, would you look at that. We finally found someone even more love-struck than you. That wasn’t an easy feat.”

“I wasn’t some love-struck idiot to begin with, okay…” Asuna shot back, though her retort lacked its usual bite. She quickly pivoted, turning her attention to Asagiri. “Leader, what are your thoughts? The only active threat in this instance that would actively hunt us down should be Crazy Mita. If we finish her off right here, we can just find a safe room, kill some time, and easily pass the remaining six hours. As for the second clear objective… putting aside whether that mysterious voice is friend or foe, trying to eliminate the source of the anomaly in this game world is definitely going to carry a massive risk.”

Kato Megumi tilted her head slightly, her voice as flat and soothing as ever. “But completing the second clear objective means securing a higher exploration rate for this game world, which translates to a higher-level clear rating. also… knowing Leader’s personality, he will absolutely choose the more interesting route, won’t he?”

A dark, amused smile touched Asagiri’s lips. He nodded in deep agreement. “You know me entirely too well, Phantylia.”

Megumi’s lips curled upward by a fraction of an inch, forming a proper, shallow smile. She raised a pale hand, neatly tucking a strand of black hair behind her ear. “Shall we set off now, then?”

“No, not yet.” Asagiri waved his hand dismissively. Without a second thought, he stepped forward and sat directly on top of the limbless Crazy Mita, using her battered torso as a makeshift stool. The casual cruelty of the posture made it abundantly clear that he didn’t view her as a human being in the slightest. “Let’s rest for a bit. I’ve reached my limit.”

Asuna blinked, caught off guard. Then, a look of genuine, anxious worry washed over her delicate features. She hurried forward, grabbing his arm with both hands. “Are you okay? With your current physical condition, the sheer toll of summoning the Demi-Fiend twice in a row must have completely drained you. Can you even still walk?”

“Reached my limit,” Asagiri repeated, offering a dry, slightly forced smile. The usual sharp glint in his black eyes had dimmed considerably. As if to prove his point, the Demi-Fiend standing silently by his side swayed on its feet. The demonic entity’s shadow-forged body flickered twice before dissolving entirely into a wisp of faint black smoke.

Seeing this, Kotoko and Megumi walked over to a relatively clean sofa in the corner of the room and collapsed onto the cushions. Both girls looked thoroughly drained.

“After keeping my skill active for so long, I don’t have a single drop of combat ability left in me,” Megumi stated calmly.

“Agreed. I also burned through my ace in the hole,” Kotoko sighed, leaning heavily on her cane. “I absolutely must rest for a while.”

Hearing their complaints, Hat Mita pursed her lips. Even her usual rhythmic swaying came to a halt. She scurried over to Asagiri’s side, squatting down beside him like an eager puppy. “Player, are you super tired?”

Before Asagiri could even answer, Hat Mita enthusiastically whipped out a highly suspicious, violently purple silicone object. She immediately flicked the power switch. The device sprang to life with a loud, aggressive vibrating buzz.

“Let me give you a massage!” she declared with absolute, deadpan seriousness. “This way, you can recover from your fatigue in no time!”

Kind Mita and Short-haired Mita stared in absolute horror. Their lips parted in shock, their pupils quivering violently at the sight of the buzzing toy.

“You… you want to use that thing on Player?!” Kind Mita stammered, her composure shattering. “Have you lost your mind?!”

Hat Mita tilted her head, blinking in pure, unadulterated confusion. “But when this thing was first invented, wasn’t it originally meant for massages?”

“That… no… you can’t just…” Kind Mita, who had maintained a mature, unflappable demeanor through all the preceding bloodshed, was utterly defeated by Hat Mita’s bizarre logic. A bright red flush crept across her cute face. Unable to handle the sheer embarrassment, she lowered her voice to a frantic whisper. “You’ve already used that thing on yourself… how can you offer it to Player?! Player will be disgusted!”

Asagiri stared at the buzzing purple object. “I have no objection,” he said calmly.

Asuna choked on her own breath. “You have no objection again?!” she snapped irritably.

“It’s just a massage. Perfectly normal,” Asagiri replied, his tone infuriatingly level.

“Normal my foot!” Asuna scoffed. She unbuckled her Exorcist Longsword, tossing it aside, and stepped up behind him. She firmly placed her slender hands on Asagiri’s shoulders, her voice softening into a gentle, chiding tone. “Wouldn’t it be better if I massaged you? Why on earth would you need a tool like that?”

Seeing Asuna take over massage duty, Hat Mita didn’t throw a tantrum or show any jealousy. She simply shrugged, clicked off her treasured purple mood item, and shoved it back into her inventory. In its place, she pulled out a light pink electric guitar.

“Since that’s the case, I’ll just play a song for Player instead~” she chirped.

Hat Mita positioned her slender, fair fingers over the frets and struck the strings. A crisp, electrifying chord echoed through the room. Logically speaking, an unplugged electric guitar shouldn’t be able to produce such heavy amplification, but this was a game world. Just as the liquid metal key hadn’t needed time to cool, the guitar required no amplifier to scream.

As Hat Mita lost herself in a shredding solo, Cute Mita reached out with a tiny hand, gently tugging on Kind Mita’s sleeve. “Big sister… what was that buzzing thing Hat sister just took out?” she asked timidly.

“Ah, well, you see…” Kind Mita froze. She looked down at Cute Mita’s innocent, unblemished face, hesitating for a painfully long time. Finally, she forced a stiff smile, reaching out to gently pat the little girl’s head. “It really is just a massage tool.”

“Oh, so that’s how it is…” Cute Mita murmured. “I don’t have that kind of thing in my inventory.”

Kind Mita’s expression grew incredibly complicated. She silently thanked whatever higher power existed that the game’s creator still possessed a shred of moral bottom line, sparing the youngest Mita from carrying such a cursed item.

Hat Mita finished her energetic track with a final, ringing chord. She lifted her head, adjusted the brim of her cool hat, and beamed at Asagiri like a child desperate for a gold star. “How was it? Player, am I amazing or what~”

“Amazing. Very cool,” Asagiri praised dryly.

Hat Mita practically glowed with happiness. But a second later, Asagiri reached out and took the pink guitar straight from her hands.

Asuna blinked in surprise, her hands pausing their work on his shoulders. “You know how to play the guitar too?”

“A little,” Asagiri replied with a faint smile. He adjusted his grip on the neck, his fingers resting lightly against the steel strings. Then, he began to play.

As the final notes faded into the quiet room, the expressions of the Mitas, as well as Asuna, Kotoko, and Megumi, shifted into something heavy and complicated.

“The melody is clearly cheerful, and the rhythm is so fast…” Asuna murmured, pressing a hand to her chest. “Why… why does it make my heart feel so strangely sad and suffocated?”

She looked down at Asagiri, biting her lower lip. “What is the name of this song…?”

“Unreachable Love,” Asagiri answered smoothly.

Resting the guitar against his knee, Asagiri adopted the slow, measured cadence of a storyteller. “A long, long time ago, there were three people. One was the aloof daughter of a world-famous pianist. Another was a wildly popular high school girl with a heavenly singing voice. And the third was the male protagonist.”

He let the silence stretch for a beat. “Many things happened between the three of them, but the crux of the matter is this: the pianist’s daughter and the popular girl both fell deeply in love with the male protagonist at the exact same time., they regarded each other as the most important friend in their entire lives—someone they absolutely never wanted to lose.”

“However, society dictated that the male protagonist could only choose one. No matter which girl he picked, the other would be left in agonizing heartbreak, losing not only her first love but also her best friend. She could only bury those feelings deep in the darkest corner of her heart, silently praying that her affection would somehow still reach him. That is why this song was named Unreachable Love.”

Listening to Asagiri’s tragic narration, Asuna’s brow furrowed in frustration. Without thinking, she blurted out, “But if they didn’t want to lose each other, and the male protagonist clearly liked both of them, why couldn’t the three of them just be together? I mean, I’m not saying I completely agree with that kind of relationship, but it’s infinitely better than all three of them suffering in misery, isn’t it?”

Asagiri’s eyes gleamed. “Yes. You are absolutely right.” He nodded repeatedly, looking deeply impressed by her deep wisdom. “As expected of Violet. You hit the nail right on the head. You said it perfectly.”

Asuna stared at his smug, validating nod. The gears turned in her head. Then, her face flushed with utter indignation.

“Wait… so after all that dramatic buildup, this was just a fable specifically tailored to trap me?!” Asuna yelled, pointing an accusing finger at him. “Talk about revealing the dagger hidden in the map—your twisted ambitions are crystal clear!”

“Look at how you’re talking,” Asagiri chided, waving his hand with a look of pristine innocence. “I was merely playing some music and recounting a classic tragedy. You were the one who arrived at that conclusion all on your own.”

“Sigh… I really have no way to deal with you…” Asuna groaned, pressing a hand to her forehead in sheer defeat. She forced her racing heart to calm down, deliberately wiping the flustered expression from her face.

Changing the subject, she looked down at the mutilated Crazy Mita still serving as Asagiri’s chair. “However… it’s been more than ten minutes, and nothing has come to attack us. It seems this thing doesn’t possess the ability to communicate remotely with that Prototype Mita after all.”

[Inorin’s Note: “Revealing the dagger hidden in the map” (图穷匕见) is a famous Chinese idiom originating from Jing Ke’s failed assassination attempt on Qin Shi Huang. Jing Ke presented a map scroll to the Emperor, and upon unrolling it to the very end, a poisoned dagger was revealed. It means to finally expose one’s true, hidden intentions after a long buildup.]