VOLUME 7

Chapter 1: Part 3

She wasn’t coming. Haruna just wasn’t coming.

It was already midnight. I really wanted to go take a bath, but what was I supposed to do?

Maybe I really shouldn’t have entrusted Haruna with this.

Well, I did come straight from school like this, so there shouldn’t be any problem with going to school like this in the morning. Maybe I should just give up.

Just as I was thinking that, I heard knocking at the door.

“Coming~~.” Nene-san began to stand up, but I held her back.

Normal people would never come knocking at this time of night. This was Haruna. Yeah, there was no mistaking it.

“This one’s probably for me.”

I forced my body up to its feet and walked towards the door.

“You’re so late.” I opened the crumbling door and saw a girl standing there.

Well… three girls, to be precise.

I scowled. I hadn’t expected all three of them to come.

“Umm… did you bring clothes?”

I spoke to the shortest girl out of the three, but the one who answered me was the tallest one.

“Yes, enough for all of us.”

As I thought, all three of them were planning to stay over.

The shortest girl, Haruna, looked up at me with proud eyes and pointed a finger at me.

“We came today to kill Ayumu!”

What the h.e.l.l? Seriously, what the h.e.l.l? At no point in my life have I ever thought “what the h.e.l.l?” more strongly than at this moment.

This young girl named Haruna had shoulder-length chestnut hair, and the ahoge poking out from the top of her head was her trademark. She was the masou shoujo who had had her magical energy stolen by Chris.

If Nene-san’s b.r.e.a.s.t.s were a full moon, then Haruna’s would be more like an LCD screen. And yet, she thrust out her little chest proudly and gave me a c.o.c.ky look. Well, her face was pretty cute at least.

If I had to describe her in one word, it would be… ‘annoyacute.’

“I’m not even going to ask… but anyway, I didn’t expect even Yuu to come.”

A silver-haired girl wearing a set of plate armor and gauntlets showed me a memo.

It was a good chance. = “Ehehe~. Yuu also came~! Kyaha~.”

She didn’t show any emotion and just thrust that memo at me. Like Nene-san, this mysterious girl was also from the Underworld, or maybe it’s better to say that she was also a member of the Seventh Abyss. Her name was Eucliwood h.e.l.lscythe. I just called her Yuu.

She had powers that even she couldn’t control, and because of that she couldn’t talk or show any emotion. That’s why she had to use writing to communicate. The line that came after her memo was my own rehas.h.i.+ng of her words in my head.

Yuu was the necromancer who had turned me into a zombie.

If I had to describe her in one word, it would be… ‘deluxacute.’

“We’re comin’ right in, so get ready!”

Haruna’s ahoge bounced from side to side as she kicked off her shoes and rudely intruded into the room.

Please excuse us.

Next, Yuu the armored girl also entered.

“This room seems to be larger than expected. That’s a relief.”

The last girl, sporting a ponytail, entered only after tidying up Haruna’s shoes which had been tossed on the floor.

She gave me a sharp, terrifying look.

This girl’s name was Sera. Her full name, Seraphim, might make you think that she was an angel, but she was actually a demon.

Ah, wait, that’s not it. She wasn’t a demon. She was a vampire ninja. I mean, when you got glared at with such unsheathed hostility like that, you were liable to make mistakes like that.

She could’ve been a model with her hourgla.s.s figure. Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s weren’t as big as Nene-san’s b.r.e.a.s.t.s though… well, you could say that having b.r.e.a.s.t.s that weren’t too big was precisely why her body lines were so exquisite.

If I had to describe her in one word, it would be… ‘s.e.xyscary.’

The three of them entered the room in succession, and sat around the table where I had been working.

“So, what should we do?”

Haruna put her chin in her hands and looked at me with grumpy eyes.

“Are you going to help?”

“Exactly why did you think we came?”

Sera sat in perfect form in the j.a.panese formal style and glared at me.

But seriously, why exactly did you all come?

“I thought you were all here for a sleepover party or something.”

“A party, hmm…?”

Sera’s eyes narrowed, and a crazy amount of hostility filled the air. Why was she so angry? Also, the prim and proper Sera took one look at Nene-san with her disheveled clothes and seemed to get even grumpier.

Nene-san sleepily moved her head from side to side before opening her eyes.

“Hm? When did all these people… ah.”

Long time no see.

Yuu and Nene-san gave each other a long hard look. I saw many complicated emotions go back and forth between both of them.

“Did you cut your hair?”

Not really.

“I see I see. Well, Eucliwood, you sure haven’t changed.”

Neither have you. You are just like you were back then.

Yuu remained emotionless, while Nene-san gave her a smile. These two were old friends here, so that’s all they really needed.

“So, do you all want to help out?”

Nene-san seemed pretty happy as she handed me the ma.n.u.script.

“With this many people we can get things done pretty quickly. Could you start by erasing lines here?”

Nene-san continued to smile, but Haruna did not seem happy at all.

“Shut up! Don’t order me around! You d.a.m.n melon farmer!”

“Why in the world do you have to act so grumpy when meeting her for the first time? Ugh…”

I held my head in my hands. When Sera turned toward Nene-san, her commanding eyes filled with determination.

“I suppose we should clear the air sooner rather than later, so I will ask. This here dirty rag – ah, I mean Aikawa Ayumu… did you do anything shameless with him?”

Wait, who was a dirty rag? Also, what kind of question was that?! I don’t think I was the only one who was shocked either.

“Wha-?! Leaf woman! What are you-”

Haruna seemed to be fl.u.s.tered for some reason. Her ahoge was waving back and forth like a metronome.

“Shameless, hmm? That’s… hmm… ah.”

Nene-san clapped her hands and then… fell asleep.

The room fell back into silence.

“That settles it. There must’ve been. Must’ve been something she cannot talk about.”

Sera glared at me again.

“There was nothing, I swear. I learned my lesson back at the s.e.xual hara.s.sment trial.”

“Hmph. As if anything that ever comes out of a man’s mouth is ever worth anything.”

Yeah, she’s got me there… but at this rate I’d have to go through another s.e.xual hara.s.sment trial.

“Nene-san! Please wake up! Things are getting bad out here!”

It was no use. She wasn’t waking up at all. At times like these…

“Stop sleeping!” I shook her strongly by the shoulders, which seemed to be the method that was proven to be the quickest way to wake her.

Nene-san finally opened her eyes and waved her hands back and forth.

“I wasn’t sleeping. Really really. Okay, so in regards to Dream Notes and Death Notes…”

“Okay, that is something I might want to hear, but first you really need to help me out here. Please tell these people that I didn’t do anything sketchy to you.”

“Hm, let’s see… well, I don’t remember you doing anything sketchy I guess.”

Bang. Haruna slammed her fists on the table.

“Stop playing dumb! I-I saw it too!”

“Saw what?”

“You two… you were naked… and…”

Haruna’s energy seemed to wilt away, and her voice dropped to a whisper.

“Ah. You mean that thing before?”

As I thought, Haruna had been the one who had knocked earlier.

“So there was something. Something sketchy.”

“There wasn’t! It was more like a lucky coincidence! (1) A complete accident!”

So, did something like that happen?

There was a fierce light residing in Yuu’s eyes.

“Nah. Nothing sketchy.”

Nene-san waved her hands back and forth and denied that anything had happened. Thank G.o.d.

“Well, even if something did happen, he’s a guy after all. Can’t really help it.”

“Wha-?! Can’t really… what does that mean?!”

Haruna seemed to be undergoing extreme culture shock at Nene-san’s words.

“Yeah! Unlike you guys, Nene-san here doesn’t immediately resort to violence. You should take a page out of her book.”

“Hnggg…” Haruna’s ahoge jumped from side to side as she crossed her arms and groaned. Yuu pa.s.sed her a memo.

As I thought.

“It’s a lie! I saw it! I swear!”

What the h.e.l.l was she going on and on about? I ignored Haruna’s screams and turned to Sera.

“What is she talking about?”

“Earlier, Haruna came home in tears, crying about how Ayumu had become the ‘Evil Overlord of all Perverts.'”

“I-I wasn’t crying! Stop lying about me!”

Haruna’s face lit up bright red as she continued to shout. She was getting pretty annoying, so I whacked her head a few times as if I was pacifying a small animal.

“Yeah yeah, okay. Anyway, Sera, please continue.”

“But h.e.l.lscythe-dono believed it was a misunderstanding and trusted Ayumu. So, we came to find out the truth.”

“That’s why you’re all here? So, what did Sera think?”

Sera gave me a scornful chuckle.

“I believed that you didn’t do anything.”

“I wouldn’t have expected that.”

“I did not think you had the courage to try and do something shameless with a girl you had just met. However, you are still a piece of s.h.i.+t who would start doing those things the minute a girl becomes a bit more familiar.”

“How admirable of you to say that. Anyway, exactly what were you planning to do if Haruna was right?”

Sera gave me an ear-to-ear smile. With that smile, she could’ve been the cute poster girl for an idol group. She seriously was cute.

“Perverts deserve to die.”

Everyone, please be careful when you see an unnaturally cute smile.

That smile might mean that someone’s desire to slice you to ribbons had just crossed the line.

Anyway, it seemed that we had resolved the misunderstanding somehow, so Nene-san began to a.s.sign us our work roles.

She began to hand everyone a piece of the ma.n.u.script.

“Okay, Eucliwood, please pen in all these places I’ve marked with an ‘X’.”

Understood. = “Leave it to me! Yuu’s gonna try her best!”

Yuu was always carrying around a ballpoint pen and a memo pad, so it seemed right to leave the beta painting to her.

“Aikawa-kun, please continue with your shading.”

“Got it.”

I was finally starting to get used to this doujins.h.i.+ making process, so I would continue with shading.

“For you… could you build a biiiiiiiiig castle here and here, and also here and here? You can base it off these materials here.”

“Only if you call me ‘Haruna-sama’!”

Haruna, who had shown some terrifying talent for this kind of stuff, was tasked with the background.

“And then-” But before Nene-san could give Sera anything, I held up a hand and stopped her.

“You should do the cleaning.”

I tried to keep my eyes off Sera’s face as I said that.

“I do not mind, but that disgusting expression on your face is a bit annoying. Do you really want to have your chest gouged out that badly?”

It’s precisely because I thought she’d say something like that that I didn’t look at her face. But the psychological damage was still immense…

Sera could pull off almost everything flawlessly, but her skills in art and cooking were pretty much none existent.

When they say you should find the right person for each job, I took that to also mean that you should make sure the right person isn’t do something strange in the wrong job. The right person needed to be always doing the right job. I really had to somehow convince her to do the cleaning…

“You said this place is pretty big, but there’s nowhere for people to sleep. You tend to be the most efficient at cleaning out of all of us, so please, just do it this time.”

“There is still something highly irritating about your request, but fine. I will clean.”

Sera still seemed unsatisfied, but she stood up and opened the closet door. There weas a huge number of pillows in there. Dozens, maybe hundreds of pillows were forcibly stuffed in there.

It was a huge nest of pillows, and I couldn’t help but letting out a small “uwaah” in amazement.

“Ahh, I always ruin pillows so quickly.”

“How can it be that easy to ruin a pillow…?”

“Maybe soft things just don’t mesh well with me. I buy them when they’re fluffy fluffy, but just a bit later the cotton gets all hard and the pillow gets all lumpy…”

Sera picked out a few of the pillows and tested them out in her hands.

“Hm. What if you try buying hard pillows? When I was young, I liked soft pillows the best, but I was always able to sleep better with hard pillows.”

“Hmmmmm. I’ve only ever used cotton pillows, so maybe I’ll give those a shot next time. Thanks a bunch~.”

Nene-san gave Sera a smile. She was seriously cute.

Now then… a bit after we had begun to work, Yuu’s pen stopped moving.

Yuu’s writing speed was lightning fast.

She could write any sentence down in the blink of an eye, like she was typing it on the computer. She just needed to put her pen down on the ma.n.u.script for a brief moment, and all the designated areas would be filled out. She would get a page of the ma.n.u.script from her right, paint it in completely, and then send it to the left. It was like some kind of factory a.s.sembly line. To her, this kind of work must have been fairly simple.

“What’s wrong, Yuu?”

This story. I recognize it. Yuu stopped her beta painting and showed that memo to Nene-san.

I could swear I saw a bit of surprise in Yuu’s expression. It was still hard to tell though.

“Yup, you got it. This manga is Eucliwood’s story.”

Nene-san smiled. “Yuu’s…?” Even hearing that, it was hard to believe. The protagonist in this story was a bright, cheerful girl, which was the complete opposite of Yuu.

It was set in a fantasy world you might find in an RPG, and it was a story about the young protagonist and her six friends living strong lives towards the future.

“Don’t tell me… these main characters are the Seventh Abyss?”

“Bingo. If the King of the Night hadn’t done what he did back then and if Eucliwood got her voice back, I’m sure things would’ve work out like this.”

Why did you write this story?

Nene-san sat cross-legged on the chair and scratched her forehead with the back of her pen.

“… I just really wanted to put a happy ending to this story.”

Nene-san gave us a shy chuckle. I saw Yuu’s eyes moisten up a bit.

It’s not your fault.

“I know, it’s not anybody’s fault. It’s not like I think that it’s my fault because I didn’t stop the King of the Night and that tragedy happened. I don’t think that at all. And it’s not like it’s Eucliwood’s fault either for turning him into a zombie.”

“Are you talking about the time when one of the Seventh Abyss was killed?”

Yuu gave me a small nod.

I want to see it.

“Hm?”

This happy end.

“Yeah, let’s all make sure we finish it.”

Yuu gave us a strong nod. When Yuu got like this, I felt like I could pull a million all-nighters for her sake.

“Agreed. No matter what, I definitely want to write this story.”

I saw a strong sense of determination in Nene-san’s eyes as she smiled at us.

I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, and we all continued our work.

Yuu didn’t seem to be sleepy at all. She just continued to repeat the same motions over and over again, with the same expression.

Haruna didn’t seem to be able to work while sitting or something, so she was sprawled out in the corner. Her ahoge occasionally waved sleepily from side to side, but she was also swinging her legs back and forth, almost as if she wanted to convince us that she was still awake.

Nene-san was… well she was completely asleep. As usual, she was using her chair as both bed and pillow. I didn’t really feel right trying to force her awake right now.

Hm? Where was Sera? Did she go off somewhere?

Well, as long as she wasn’t doing anything weird, it was-… wait. This situation smelled kind of familiar to me. The sleep deprivation was making it hard for me to think, but this was definitely… it was…!

I stood up and took a very very timid peek at the kitchen.

I saw a girl wearing an ap.r.o.n in there. Am I the only one who thinks that wearing an ap.r.o.n over jeans was even more s.e.xy than wearing an ap.r.o.n over nothing?

Wait, no, now’s not the time to be thinking about that.

“Yuu.” But even though I called out to her, I got no response.

“Yuu?” I tried again, and Yuu slowly lifted her head to look at me.

I was asleep. = “Fueh~? Sorry, oniichan. Yuu was just so sleepy… yawwwnnn.”

So she was sleeping. I didn’t notice at all. Yuu was pretty cute when she was blinking like that… ah, no, once again now’s not the time.

I pointed my thumb at the kitchen, silently asking Yuu to take a look.

Seeing Sera there, Yuu stayed emotionless but handed me a memo. This can only lead to a bad end, the memo lamented.

“What do you want? Stop looking at me. That’s disgusting. If I had to describe you with an idiom, it would be ‘trash falling from the sky.'”

“Nah, I just wasn’t expecting you to be cooking something this late.”

I had to stop her… had to stop her right now… I began to panic as I searched for the right words to say.

“Ayumu, did you hear that we mobilized a hundred vampire ninjas in order to defeat our enemy?”

“Yeah, I did. I also heard you still couldn’t do it.”

“Yes. And do you remember what my own mission was?”

“To protect Yuu, and… ah! Right, you were supposed to defeat Chris.”

In the past, Sera had broken the laws of the vampire ninjas, and in order to obtain forgiveness, she had to defeat Chris as a trial. However, to defeat Chris by herself…

I glanced at Nene-san. Could Nene-san actually beat Chris? Was there anybody on this planet who could defeat Chris? She was just so powerful that I had to doubt that.

“Because of that, I… I would like to support you.”

She was standing over a pot. The pot was on a gas burner and I could hear a bubbling sound coming from it. Sera was stirring the pot with a ladle.

Yes, something was starting to boil alright… and it was my temper. My temper was starting to really boil over. I couldn’t take this anymore. I had to say something. Something like ‘My G.o.d you just suck way too much at cooking!’

But…

“Eh? Support me?”

“I firmly believe that you will be able to do something about this. So I will support you. Then, even though it may be indirect, I will be able to fulfill my mission. And so… I would not be averse to placing myself at your service.”

When she put it like that…

“Ah, the food is almost done. Please wait for just a moment longer.”

“Cool. I was getting a bit hungry too.”

I couldn’t bring myself to say it. When Sera cooked and perhaps only when she was cooking, she became a very cute, normal girl.

What are you making? = “What kinda food is it? Sera-oneechan!”

Yuu seemed to want to hear what the dish was before pa.s.sing final judgment.

For now, I pushed the ma.n.u.script and pens on the table out of the way.

“It’s ghostly cream stew.”

“Why is it ghostly?!”

“Because I felt possessed when making it.”

Sera gave us a shy chuckle. Seriously, these were the only times I would be able to see her like this. Ugh, she’s so cute…

As for the ingredients of this “ghostly” stew… did she throw in a demon? Maybe a spirit that had been haunting this area?

“I made plentiful use of mackerel and vengeful spirit.”

Sera placed the pot onto the table while happily describing her dish.

Ah, a vengeful spirit. If that was all, then it’s-

Wait, what?! As if I could let that one slide! What the h.e.l.l, vengeful spirit?! And I don’t think anybody ever puts mackerel into a cream stew. Also, she was handing us chopsticks now, not spoons…

“There’s a lot of things I could say right now, but I just want to ask one thing… did you actually fillet the mackerel?”

The minute I poked my chopsticks into the pot, I found it.

An entire mackerel just sitting there. I was definitely expecting that the fish would be sliced so I was taken by surprise.

There was a little “X” scored into the belly of the fish.

But there were also bandages around the “X,” almost as if Sera was trying to hide it from view.

Oh hoh. So she felt pity for the fish or something and tried to hide that…

As if it really needed the pity! Seriously, the mackerel is crying too! All that wet stuff in the pot wasn’t stew, it was the mackerel’s tears!

“Well then, please eat.”

Even if you tell me to do that… this soup thing that Sera made was more like a slime monster that was melting everything in its path. This really wasn’t the time to be eating this and then dying, but if I didn’t eat, she would get pretty p.i.s.sed. Hm, what should I do…?

As I pondered my next move…

“Okay! I’m done!”

Haruna, who had been sprawled out in the corner working, suddenly leapt up.

Oh, and I thought she had been sleeping, but it looks like she was actually diligently working on her task.

Haruna was quite a genius when it came to work like this, so I wasn’t worried.

She was supposed to be drawing castles, right? I wasn’t very good at things like that, but as expected from Haruna. There was quite a magnificent castle right there.

A castle… castle… castle?! What the h.e.l.l was up with that castle?!

“Haruna! What the h.e.l.l are you doing?!”

There was a huge castle towering over the room past Haruna.

“She told me to build a castle.”

Haruna had used a lot of the ma.n.u.script stationary and, like she was making origami cranes, had “built a castle.” Who in the world would have thought that she would build a 3-D castle with that paper…?

Don’t tell me, did she actually use the ma.n.u.script to make that?

“Ugh! You d.a.m.n brat…”

I went over to break down the castle, but my foot kicked something.

It was a bottle of ink that I had taken off the table to make room for the pot.

Glrrb. The ink began to spill.

“Get paper towels, paper towels! What do you think you’re doing?!”

Haruna yelled at me and kicked me from behind.

“There’s some newspaper over there. Get that.”

Hearing that from Sera, I went and got the newspaper. However, the spill was worse than I thought, and I ended up using sheets upon sheets upon sheets of newspaper to clean up the spilled ink and-

Agh!

“Isn’t this the ma.n.u.script?”

I felt the blood draining from my face.

Now I’ve done it. I was so tired that I had mistaken the ma.n.u.script for old newspaper.

That meant… the castle that Haruna had built wasn’t built using the finished ma.n.u.script. I should’ve heard her out and taken a closer look before jumping to conclusions.

This was completely my bad.

Tap tap. Yuu tapped the table twice.

The stew.

Eh? I glanced at the table, and saw the stew beginning to leak from the melted pot.

Right next to it was the ma.n.u.script, which had been moved there out of the way of danger.

“Agh! Sera, do something about that! Please!”

“It seems that it may have been an unwise decision to add sulfuric acid as a secret ingredient.”

What kind of “secret” ingredient is that?! It’s pretty obvious! h.e.l.l, I get the feeling that this acid’s now even more acidic than it used to be!

“Ugh, dammit! Fix this, Bayumu!”

Every once in a while, Haruna mixed a “baka” in with my name.

“Sera, clean up the stew! Fast!”

Sera and I ran around the room in a fl.u.s.ter.

While we were doing all this, the sun began to rise.

The ma.n.u.script was now quite torn up, and the tatami mat under us was melted.

The situation was just horrid, and I felt all my motivation draining away. I could do nothing but just stand stock still there with the ruined ma.n.u.script clutched in my hand.

“Ah! I wasn’t sleeping, wasn’t sleeping. That was close. I seriously almost fell asleep right there.”

Nene-san shook her head back and forth, shaking off her drowsiness.

She had totally fallen asleep though. For around an hour.

I didn’t even try to hide it. I held out the ma.n.u.script that had been torn up by the cream stew, as well as the ma.n.u.script that was now black with the ink I had tried to clean up.

“Sorry, Nene-san.”

My hands were shaking. Uncomfortable feelings of regret filled my heart.

We had lost over half of the ma.n.u.script. Forty pages of it.

Nene-san took a good look around the room and seemed to arrive at an understanding of what had happened.

She really could say anything to me right now, and I wouldn’t be able to say anything back.

I was even prepared to be beaten to a pulp by this strongest denizen of the Underworld.

But Nene-san just burst into loud laughter.

“You lot were pretty busy, weren’t you? Don’t worry, don’t worry. Manga can be drawn anytime.”

She was smiling at us, but I caught a hint of sadness in her eyes.

“What happened was-”

“Ah, I think I pretty much know what happened. It’s fine, it’s fine.”

Was she not going to get angry? She was just going to forgive me, to forgive Sera, without even asking us for the specifics of what had happened? This girl was just so…

“Well, it was a rush job to begin with, so there’s not much helping it.”

She said that, but I still felt a slight sense of remorse coming from her.

Also, Saras had said it, right? She wouldn’t forgive Nene-san for missing a Comiket deadline.

So, Nene-san was probably just trying to be considerate towards us.

I just couldn’t bear it anymore.

“I don’t have a spare blank draft either. So maybe this time we should just give-”

I stopped Nene-san from finis.h.i.+ng her thought.

“Definitely not. We can’t do that. We have to finish this ma.n.u.script!”

I almost cringed when hearing what I had just said since I honestly sounded like a disobedient child.

“Aikawa-kun. Even if you say that, we have no time.”

“I’ll go around to the printers to ask for an extension. Nene-san, I know it’s a lot of work for you… but please let us try one more time. Please!”

I put my forehead to the ground.

“I humbly apologize. I am partially responsible for this situation as well. I will do anything within my power to fix things.”

Sera’s ponytail swayed as she also put her forehead to the ground.

Nene-san never dropped her smile as she put a hand on my shoulder.

“Roger~~. Let’s start from scratch then. Everyone together, okaaay? So come on, lift your heads up.”

Nene-san was probably saying that so we would feel better and not completely useless, regardless of whether or not she thought we could make the deadline.

“Anyway, let’s go to the printers.”

“Allow me to come with you.”

Sera and I looked at each other from our positions on the floor.

“Good att.i.tude, the two of you. If you decide to do something, then you better never give up.”

For some reason, Haruna was now looking down at us with crossed arms and a proud look on her face.

In any case, if we couldn’t get an extension on the printing deadline, then there was nothing we could do.

After that, Sera and I went around to the printer that Nene-san used, but no matter how much we explained our situation they wouldn’t give us an extension.

I was expecting something like that. They were already being pretty lenient with us by giving us until the 19th.

We then tried going around to a few other printers, but no matter where we went, we couldn’t find any shop that would listen to our selfish demands.

That was also natural. If they actually agreed to our request, then everybody would start knocking down their doors asking for the same treatment.

As a business, you never wanted to set any weird precedents.

So, we were out of luck.

On our way back to Nene-san’s place, completely empty-handed, Sera spoke up with a quiet look on her face.

“… It seems I have no other choice. Let me try one final thing. If possible, I wanted to avoid trying this, but…”

She sounded quite frustrated, but then held her hand out toward me.

“Could you let me use your cell phone?”

I gave her a suspicious look, but I did as I was told and handed her my cell phone.

Sera didn’t seem to want to be overheard, so she went off a bit to the side and began to talk with someone.

Maybe she had some connections within her vampire ninja group? Saras seemed pretty knowledgeable about stuff like this. Now that I think about it, I also know somebody who was frighteningly strong when it came to things like this.

His name was Orito. He was usually annoying as h.e.l.l, but he also had quite a knack for solving this kind of problem.

As a last resort, it might not be a bad idea to ask him for help.

“Yes. Is it alright if it’s something like a photograph? Okay. Understood.”

I had no idea who Sera was talking to, but she seemed to be negotiating terms.

After just three minutes of negotiations, Sera looked back towards me.

“Here is your cell phone back.”

“How’d it go?”

“It seems we can obtain an extension until the twenty-fourth. I am quite relieved.”

It was just that easy?

After all the trouble we had gone through running around the city with zero results, Sera had gotten us an extension with no trouble at all. It was like somebody was laughing at us, but even as I was a bit suspicious of what had just happened, I stroked down my chest in relief.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES

(1) Ayumu uses the word “lucky pervert,” which refers to guys who randomly find themselves in pervy situations.