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ArabicAnime Crossover: Tokyo Reincarnation Game — Chapter 59
Chapter 59: A Team Can Only Have One Leader
“Chika is a ‘Player’?”
Hearing Asagiri suddenly drop such a startling hypothesis, Yuuki Asuna’s expression completely froze. The air in the room seemed to stall as her mind struggled to process the implications. She took a few slow, deep breaths to stabilize her racing pulse before finally finding her voice.
“Why would you think that? Did she do something suspicious?”
Asagiri took a casual sip of his iced Coca-Cola, shaking his head. “Fujiwara herself hasn’t shown a single flaw.”
He set the condensation-slicked glass down on the table, the ice clinking softly against the rim. “However, the reason I suspect she is a Player stems entirely from the glaring anomalies surrounding Kaguya Shinomiya.”
“Anomalies…” Asuna murmured, her brow furrowing as she sifted through every rumor and passing interaction she knew regarding the vice-president of the student council. She came up empty. “In my impression, Kaguya Shinomiya doesn’t seem to have any suspicious points at all, does she?”
Asagiri offered a noncommittal nod. “It makes sense that you’d think so. After all, you didn’t attend Shuchiin Academy during middle school. You don’t actually know Kaguya Shinomiya very well.”
Asuna pressed her lips together, fighting the sudden urge to retort. ‘You weren’t at Shuchiin Academy in middle school either, were you?’ she grumbled inwardly. And as for knowing her… classes had only been in session for a week. How intimately could he possibly understand the Shinomiya heiress?
But Asagiri’s next words systematically dismantled her doubts, laying bare the cold, hard facts.
“Kaguya Shinomiya isn’t just at the absolute top of her class academically. She possesses a terrifying mastery over multiple disciplines: kendo, tea ceremony, flower arrangement, the koto, and traditional dance. But her most lethal proficiency is kyudo. She won the national individual archery championship back in middle school.”
He paused, letting the weight of that achievement settle over the table. His voice dropped to a softer, more analytical register. “And yet, after entering high school, she didn’t join the kyudo club. In fact, she hasn’t submitted an application for a single club.”
Asuna hesitated, trying to find a logical mundane explanation. “Could it just be… because she wants to focus entirely on her studies?”
“That is a valid theory. I did strip the first-place rank from her in the entrance exams, leaving her stuck in second. Given her obsessive, all-or-nothing approach to academics, it is entirely possible she abandoned her best skill to concentrate on studying just to crush me.” Asagiri leaned forward, his dark eyes locking onto Asuna’s with a flat, piercing gaze. “But if she truly sacrificed her beloved kyudo just to defeat me, would she really waste the very first weekend of the school year playing at her best friend’s house instead of studying?”
Before Asuna could even open her mouth to question the logistics of that statement, Iwanaga Kotoko chimed in from the side, a sweet, utterly predatory smile curving her lips.
“After my family secured a seat on the school’s board of directors, I had them pull the campus surveillance footage from last Friday,” Kotoko explained smoothly. “Kaguya Shinomiya did not get into the private luxury car that usually chauffeurs her. Instead, she slipped into a vehicle with Fujiwara Chika. Whether she actually spent the night at the Fujiwara estate is unconfirmed, but the deviation in her routine is absolute.”
Kotoko tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Assuming she is a Player, she would have had to choose Saturday to enter the dungeon, exactly like we did. As for why she would initiate the transfer from the Fujiwara residence… it is highly likely her own home is crawling with spies and informants. Without knowing exactly when she would be pulled into the dungeon or how long the temporal displacement would last, she couldn’t risk vanishing into thin air inside the Shinomiya compound.”
Asagiri picked up the thread smoothly. “The Fujiwara family wields significant political power. Even if Shinomiya’s handlers had spies tailing her, they wouldn’t dare plant surveillance inside the Fujiwara estate for fear of sparking a severe political conflict. It provided the perfect blind spot.”
He leaned back, intertwining his fingers. “Extending this logic: if Kaguya Shinomiya suddenly vanished into thin air inside that house, Fujiwara would naturally panic. The eldest daughter of the Shinomiya conglomerate going missing under her roof would be a catastrophic scandal. Fujiwara is eccentric, but she isn’t stupid enough to be blind to those consequences. Therefore, Kaguya must have briefed her about the survival game beforehand to prevent a panic. Based on this alone, even if Fujiwara isn’t a Player herself, she is undeniably an informed accomplice providing logistical support.”
Asuna sat in stunned silence. She looked between the calm, deadpan boy and the smiling, one-legged girl, a complex mixture of awe and dread washing over her features.
“You two…” Asuna finally breathed out. “Thank god you are my teammates. If I had to face you as enemies, just the thought of it makes my blood run cold.”
She was genuinely shaken. The survival game had barely begun. Including the tutorial, they had only survived two instances over the span of a single week. Yet Asagiri and Kotoko had already surgically deduced the hidden Player identity of one of the most guarded girls in Tokyo.
Worse still, Asuna realized the true source of her dread. Beyond their terrifying intellect, Asagiri and Kotoko shared one distinct, chilling similarity. Neither of them was bound by conventional human morality.
“So now…” Asuna asked cautiously, her voice tight. “What do we do about them?”
Seeing Asuna looking as though she were bracing for an execution order, Asagiri let out a dry laugh.
“Relax. Why do you look like you’re attending a funeral? Even if they are Players, they aren’t our enemies right now.”
Asuna blinked, thoroughly caught off guard. “I… I thought you were going to suggest we hunt them down, kill them, take their phones, and extract their equipment…”
“Please. I’m pragmatic, not some chaotic evil demon.”
Asagiri shook his head, a faint smirk playing on his lips. “Besides, do you think the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is just for show? If we start murdering people in the real world, even with supernatural abilities, it is nearly impossible to avoid leaving forensic traces., both of those girls belong to elite families. They have private security and secret details watching them. Risking our exposure and our lives for a random piece of gear with unknown stats? That isn’t just reckless, it’s purely foolish. It’s completely unnecessary.”
He took another slow sip of his soda, letting the cold liquid soothe his throat before continuing.
“Our primary objective at this stage is to guarantee the highest possible clearance rating in every single dungeon. We take the premium rewards from those S-rank clears and use them to snowball our power, continuously expanding our advantage over the rest of the player base. Assuming Kato Megumi’s intel holds true, the system hasn’t introduced any dungeons with a direct Player-versus-Player or assassination theme yet.”
Asuna nodded, the tension bleeding out of her shoulders. She hesitated for a moment before floating an idea. “Then… should we try inviting them to join our team? I don’t know Kaguya Shinomiya well, but Chika and I get along great. She doesn’t have that suffocating elitist mindset most Shuchiin students carry, and she’s incredibly easy to talk to.”
Instead of answering directly, Asagiri posed a question of his own.
“If we are in the middle of a high-stakes dungeon, and your judgment on how to survive directly contradicts mine—if we reach completely opposite conclusions, but I absolutely insist on my plan—what would you do?”
Asuna and Kotoko didn’t even need to look at each other. They answered in unison.
“We’d listen to you. You’re the Leader.”
“Exactly.” Asagiri shrugged, his tone utterly indifferent. “A team can only have one Leader. Only one person can have the final, absolute say. Kaguya Shinomiya is exceptional in every regard, but if our judgments ever diverged in a life-or-death scenario, her inherent arrogance and pride would never allow her to unconditionally submit to my orders the way you two do. Two tigers cannot share one mountain. So, I won’t consider recruiting her. And since Fujiwara is a package deal with her, she’s off the table as well.”
Asuna nodded obediently, seeing the flawless logic in his assessment. “That makes sense. And if we count Kato Megumi, our roster is already at four people anyway.”
“Alright, the boring business talk is finally over!”
Kotoko suddenly cheered, her small body immediately slanting sideways to glue herself against Asagiri’s arm.
Asuna’s eyes widened, and she quickly waved her hands. “Hey, hey, hey! What are you doing?”
“Hmm? Cuddling with my cute boyfriend, obviously.” Kotoko looked up, her expression a mask of absolute solemnity. “Don’t forget, the official excuse I gave my family for donating a fortune to Shuchiin Academy was that I was desperately in love with Asagiri and wanted to be near him. Since we’ve established that narrative, we have to commit to the bit. When we’re at school, I need to act completely obsessed. Hugging him, kissing him randomly—it’s all vital for operational security.”
Asuna let out a long, weary sigh, rubbing her temples. “I understand the logic, but why do I get the distinct feeling you’re just using this as an excuse to take advantage of him…”
Asagiri glanced down at the blonde girl clinging to his bicep, rubbing her cheek against his sleeve like a contented cat. He didn’t push her away, but his voice was completely devoid of romance.
“You should put away the love-struck brain rot and start figuring out what to do about your prosthetic leg. If that thing snaps in the middle of a chase, you’ll be left hopping around on one foot like a Spoink from Pokémon. If your mobility is compromised in a dungeon, you’re dead weight.”
Kotoko smiled playfully, completely unfazed by his harshness. “That’s fine, Leader. You have amazing stamina. You can just carry me.”
“You’re dreaming. If you break down, my only solution is to load you up and launch you at the enemy like a human cannonball.”
Asagiri stated this as a matter of fact, then narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. “Actually, if we ever roll a cyberpunk-themed dungeon, I’ll just rip out a military-grade mechanical limb for you. Something that won’t shatter. Maybe I’ll dig out a synthetic eye that shoots lasers while I’m at it. You can drop this weird God of Wisdom gimmick and fully embrace the doctrine that the flesh is weak and the machine is ascendant. Half of your build will be spiritual occultism, and the other half will be high-tech crystallization. You’ll be a supernatural Astro Boy. Why bother playing with curses? The next time we run into an Evil Spirit, you can just vaporize it with your laser eyes and call it a day.”