Anime Crossover: Tokyo Reincarnation Game — Chapter 36

Chapter 36: The Strange Hotel’s Peach Garden OathYou're reading this on the wrong site. This chapter was translated by Elysian Reads and posted for free at elysianreads.com — if you're seeing it anywhere else, it was copied without permission. Read it at the source so the people who actually did the work get the credit.

Asagiri chuckled, nodding with absolute satisfaction. “Ah, my beloved minister. Your words truly bring comfort to my imperial heart.”

Asuna stared at him, utterly speechless. “Weren’t we just doing a Water Margin bit? How did you suddenly promote yourself to emperor?”

“This is the Water Margin IF timeline,” Asagiri replied with righteous solemnity. “The Peach Garden Oath from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Gundam Linked Super Enhanced Edition.”

“What in the world are you talking about? How did we pivot from Water Margin to Three Kingdoms…” Asuna rolled her eyes, deciding it was entirely pointless to argue logic with him. Shifting her attention, she looked over at Kotoko. The petite blonde sat there with perfect posture, exuding the elegant, graceful aura of a high-society young lady. Asuna held out her phone. “Iwanaga-san, since we’ve officially decided to team up, let’s add each other as friends first.”

Kotoko didn’t say much. She simply offered a polite smile, tapped open the system application marked with the eerie eye icon, and handled to the friend-request function. She lightly tapped her screen against Asuna’s.

[You have successfully added “Player” Yuuki Asuna as a friend.]

[You have successfully added “Player” Iwanaga Kotoko as a friend.]

“So that’s your real name…” Kotoko murmured, glancing at the success notification popping up on the dark interface. She then turned her attention to Asagiri, handing her phone toward him with a sweet smile. “Should we add each other as well? Leader?”

[You have successfully added “Player” Iwanaga Kotoko as a friend.]

[You have successfully added “Player” Utsunomiya Asagiri as a friend.]

“So those are your actual names,” Asuna noted, tucking a stray lock of chestnut hair behind her ear. Her tone remained casual but observant. “Does that mean ‘Leader’and’Violet’ were just the codenames you two used during the instance?”

“To avoid exposing our real identities inside the instances, you should probably come up with a codename too,” Asuna suggested.

“A codename, huh… Hmm, that does sound quite interesting.” Kotoko tilted her head, looking as though she were pondering the matter with the utmost seriousness. After a few seconds of silence, she lightly tapped her chin with a fair, slender index finger. A playful, mischievous smile bloomed on her lips. “In that case, my codename will be ‘Leader’s Girlfriend~'”

Asuna froze. It took her brain a full three seconds to process the words, and when it did, a deep frown creased her forehead. “Hey. Come up with a proper codename. Don’t use this as an excuse to sneak your ulterior motives in here.”

“I think it’s a fantastic name.”

Seeing Kotoko’s completely unrepentant expression—looking as though she genuinely intended to register that ridiculous title—Asuna let out a long, exhausted sigh. She massaged her temples and shot a pleading look at Asagiri. “Leader, talk some sense into her. How can she…”

“Yeah, how can she come up with a codename like that?” Asagiri shook his head, his expression grave and thoroughly disappointed. He crossed his arms and spoke with absolute authority. “How about this. I’ll be the ‘Eroge Shooter’. You’re definitely going to end up as a Warlock or something similar in the future, so you can be the ‘Ham Sausage Warlock’. And Violet, you’ll be the ‘Bread Swordsman’!”

Asuna stared at him, her eyes practically rolling into the back of her head. “What kind of ridiculous garbage are those names? Are we supposed to be some kind of cursed Western fantasy sandwich combo? Besides, I am indeed a Swordsman, and she might actually become a Warlock, but what does your profession or talent have to do with being a ‘shooter’?”

“Heh heh. No relation, you say?” Asagiri smirked darkly. “Do you even know what the greatest shooting game of the year was?”

“No. I don’t play video games.”

“That doesn’t matter, because the winner wasn’t actually a game. It was a certain software application known as JM Paradise.”

“Huh? What does a comic app have to do with shooting?”and support the real translator.Read at elysianreads.com This is a stolen translation. You're reading this on the wrong site. This chapter was translated by Elysian Reads and posted for free at elysianreads.com — if you're seeing it anywhere else, it was copied without permission. Read it at the source so the people who actually did the work get the credit.

“And that is exactly why you don’t understand why I am the Eroge Shooter. Don’t worry, I’ll slowly educate you on the finer details later.”

“Okay… Wait, no, what do you mean ‘okay’?!” Asuna suddenly snapped back to reality, realizing the conversation had been completely derailed into the gutter without her noticing. She threw her hands up in defeat. “I am begging both of you. Please, just come up with a normal, proper codename. Is that so hard?”

“A proper codename, huh… Then…” Kotoko hummed softly. Asuna watched her with bated breath, terrified that this extraordinary, unpredictable girl would spit out something even more outrageous. Fortunately, the blonde girl spared her sanity this time. “Necro. How does that sound?”

“Necro…” Asuna muttered the word, tasting the syllables. She frowned slightly, her mind working through the vocabulary. “Is that even a real word…?”

Before Asuna could finish her thought, Asagiri chimed in with a knowing smile. “‘Necro’ is taken from the fictional grimoire in the Cthulhu Mythos, the Necronomicon, isn’t it? The first five letters. It’s a rather fitting title for you, especially considering your talent.”

Kotoko’s single visible eye lit up with genuine interest. “Oh? Leader, you actually know about Cthulhu?”

Asagiri waved a hand dismissively. Though his tone dripped with mock humility, the smugness radiating from him was blinding. “Just a little. Just a little.”

Watching Kotoko and Asagiri banter so easily, a sharp, sudden pang of jealousy flared in Asuna’s chest. She didn’t like being left out of the loop. She cleared her throat, forcibly interrupting the moment. “Well then, your codename is officially set as Necro. But I’m still incredibly curious about something. You and Leader are both people who have awakened exclusive talents. What exactly does that APP base its judgment on to determine a Player’s most suitable ability?”

“I’m not entirely sure about Leader’s specific situation, but as for me…” Kotoko smiled, her voice dropping to a quiet, serene register that sent a strange chill through the room. “…actually, ‘God of Wisdom of the Oddities’ isn’t a talent I awakened after entering the instance.”

“Hmm? What do you mean by that?”

Kotoko delivered the astonishing truth without missing a beat, causing Asuna’s expression to shift drastically. “‘God of Wisdom of the Oddities’ is not just my exclusive system talent. It is my actual identity in the real world.”

Before Asuna could even formulate a question, Kotoko voluntarily unfolded her past.

When she was eleven years old, she had indeed gone missing. However, the culprits weren’t human kidnappers looking for a ransom. She had been spirited away by a group of yokai. That was the real reason the police had never been able to find a single trace of her.

The reason the yokai took her from her home was surprisingly simple: most yokai were not particularly intelligent. They desperately needed a God of Wisdom—a mediator who could guide them, settle their territorial conflicts, resolve supernatural incidents, and maintain the fragile balance between the hidden world of oddities and normal human society.

The price for ascending to the seat of the God of Wisdom was steep. It required the sacrifice of one eye and one leg.

It was crucial to note that the yokai had not forced this upon her. Paying the bloody toll of an eye and a leg to become the God of Wisdom of the Oddities had been Kotoko’s own, deliberate choice.

Ever since that day, she possessed the supernatural ability to “observe” the oddities, serving as their God of Wisdom, the beloved Princess of the yokai, right up until this very moment.

“No, wait a minute…” Asuna stared at her, utterly bewildered. She chose her next words with extreme caution. “Are you seriously telling me… that in our real world, things like yokai actually exist?”

“Yes. But you can rest assured.” Kotoko stood up from her seat. She gracefully smoothed out the wrinkles in her skirt and adjusted her pristine white beret, offering Asuna a warm, comforting smile. “The vast majority of yokai will never harm humans, nor will they ever interfere with the normal, mundane order of society. They simply want to live quiet, peaceful lives in the shadows. Besides, yokai are strictly forbidden from appearing freely in front of ordinary humans, so you really have absolutely nothing to worry about.”

[Inorin’s Note: JM Paradise (JMComic) is a well-known Chinese/Taiwanese adult comic aggregator. Asagiri’s joke relies on internet slang where “shooting” (射击) is used as a euphemism for ejaculation, hence his self-proclaimed title as the “Eroge Shooter”.]You're reading this on the wrong site. This chapter was translated by Elysian Reads and posted for free at elysianreads.com — if you're seeing it anywhere else, it was copied without permission. Read it at the source so the people who actually did the work get the credit.