Later that night, in the dating sim creation team's group chat, the members had fun chatting about the day's experiences and what they'd bought and learned.
Afterwards, they began chatting about arrangements for the next day.
Seiji explained that he had arranged to go together with two other friends of his, saying that since his two friends had special ident.i.ties, they didn't intend to add other people to their group.
Chiaki indicated that she was going to rest on the next day.
Hos.h.i.+ needed to go to work at the confectionery store.
Rion, Kotomi, and Kaede all mentioned that they were going to rest as well.
Yukari wanted to go by herself, and Hisas.h.i.+ would also go by himself.
Mika and Kaho would team up and continue touring the doujins.h.i.+ convention.
And so, those were the arrangements for the doujins.h.i.+ convention's second day.
While paying attention to the chat group, Seiji also looked to see if Hana came online, but there was no sign of her whatsoever.
"What are you currently thinking about? Sister." He wanted to send this message to her, but didn't send anything in the end.
The next day, the weather was excellent, with clear skies and bright sunlight. It was warmer than yesterday.
Seiji met Kanna and Izawa in front of the doujins.h.i.+ convention.
"Too slow, Second Lieutenant Harano!" Kanna placed her hands on her hips and pretended to be a strict army officer as she watched him walk over. "You have to arrive thirty minutes early to the battlefield. That's common sense!"
"It is thirty minutes before we arranged to meet here." Seiji even checked the time to be sure. It was exactly thirty minutes before their arranged time.
"What I meant was, you should arrive here thirty minutes earlier than your superior!"
"Oh… First Lieutenant Fujihara, how long ago did you arrive here?"
"I… actually just arrived as well." Kanna paused for a moment and averted her gaze.
"Because she was really looking forward to meeting Harano-kun again, my master arrived here approximately one hour ago." Izawa calmly revealed the truth.
"What are you saying! I… was somewhat looking forward to it, but not that much…"
"By the way, she arrived ninety minutes early at the appointed place to meet Yoruhansan yesterday."
"Ryuuno!" Kanna's face was turning red.
Seiji felt that she was quite cute like this.
"Sorry for making you wait, Commander!" He saluted. "Let us begin the battle."
"Hmph, very good."
Then, the three of them walked to the doujins.h.i.+ convention together.
Due to the increase in temperature, it was a lot more comfortable to be outside compared to yesterday. However, waiting in line was still rather boring.
Seiji felt that with Kanna and Izawa's powers, secretly slipping in without waiting in line would probably be quite easy for them. Why were they still waiting in line?
He asked them this question.
"If we used spells, it would be simple to enter, but I think that this would be disrespectful to all the warriors out there," Kanna said. "Everyone thinks that waiting in line is a boring task, but they still follow the rules. If I break the rules… it doesn't feel like it's a good thing. What do you think, Harano-kun? Do you want to use a spell to sneak inside?" Kanna looked towards Seiji.
"No, I think that waiting in line like this is fine." Seiji blinked. "Using magic powers to easily enter feels wrong, just like cheating."
Kanna smiled when she heard him say that.
"Did you wait in line like this yesterday with Natsuya as well?"
"Yea, and she didn't ask why we didn't use a spell… Since she mentioned that this was her first time partic.i.p.ating, I was thinking that if she thought waiting in line was too boring, we could use a spell to skip the line, but she didn't even bring it up." Kanna's words were filled with a joyous tone.
It was easy to tell that she liked Natsuya Yoruhana even more because of this.
The line slowly edged forward.
After Seiji chatted with Kanna and Izawa for a while, there was a moment of silence.
"It's time, Ryuuno! Take 'that' out," Kanna commanded Izawa, bringing out her aura of being a young lady scion.
Izawa instantly unzipped his backpack and took out two handheld gaming devices differing in color.
"Let's have a duel, Harano-kun!" Kanna handed a red gaming device to Seiji. "Let's duel in the same video game we played yesterday to pa.s.s the time. Let's also have a little bet, how about it?"
"What shall we bet?" Seiji accepted the handheld gaming device.
"Cosplay!" Something flashed in Kanna's eyes. "If I defeat you, you have to cosplay the character that I want you to and perform together with Ryuuno in the cosplay area!"
Seiji was rendered speechless.
If he had to cosplay as the character she chose and perform together with Izawa in front of everyone in the cosplay area… He felt a chill just from imagining this scene!
"Can we bet something else instead?" This seemed like it might become a piece of dark history that he would regret forever. There was far too much risk involved.
"That's all I want, I don't want to bet anything else." Kanna's mouth arced upwards. "And if you win, I'll give you Yoruhansan's cosplay photos from yesterday."
What!?
Seiji was astonished to hear this.
"Natsuya… cosplayed yesterday?"
"Yep, we cosplayed together in the internet café before you and Izawa arrived." Kanna's mouth arced upwards even more than earlier. "At first, she didn't want to, and it took quite some convincing from me to persuade her. After that, I took some amazing and precious photos! Those photos are so awesome that even I was moved despite the fact that I'm a girl as well~ Don't you want them?"
'I do!' Seiji shouted in his mind.
The student council president's cosplay photographs would definitely be a treasure precious enough to be at the extent of an SSR card's level.
He really wanted to see and possess them… No, wait, he needed to calm down. While Natsuya's cosplay photographs were precious as such, the appreciation value could still have a large fluctuation depending on what character she was cosplaying as.
"I'd like to ask first—who was she cosplaying as?"
"Good question. I had her cosplay as Freya from Honey Candy Girl!"
The charming witch, Freya!
She was a new character from the latest chapters of the Honey Candy Girl manga. She was neither on the main characters' side nor on the antagonists' side—a neutral character. She gained high popularity due to her excellent character design and outstanding performance during her first appearance.
Freya was a character who wore an extravagant pitch-black dress with a large amount of lace. There was a heart-shaped piece of fabric missing on her cleavage which revealed an alluring white tenderness. The lower half of her dress was translucent, which faintly revealed the garter stockings and even panties beneath, giving her a wondrous ero feeling.
Seiji tried imagining Natsuya who already had such an excellent figure wearing a dress like that, which instantly caused something to heat up within him, making him want to shout out loudly.
'I really want to see!!!'
"Yoruhansan's cosplay of Freya was so beautiful that it's difficult to describe in words! If I put her pictures on the internet, she'd definitely become a huge hit!" Kanna continued. "I promised her that I wouldn't publicize these photos, but I didn't say anything about not giving them to individuals… If I give them to you, you should be able to accept. If you want to obtain these photographs, you have to agree to our little gamble and defeat me in this video game!"
"Heh…" Seiji chuckled lightly.
Was refusal even an option?
Of course not.
He really wanted to see and obtain Natsuya Yoruhana's cosplay photographs!
He could only accept this challenge.
"I accept this bet! Come, let us begin our duel!" Seiji prepared his red handheld gaming device and made a pose like a duelist from Yu-Gi-Oh.
"Excellent, as expected of Harano-kun!" Kanna took a blue handheld gaming device Izawa was holding and copied his pose.
Both of them exchanged smiles, then turned on the game and began a duel against each other.
A green-hat-wearing hero with a s.h.i.+eld and a sword faced off against a mustached and slightly chubby middle-aged man wearing a plumber uniform as they materialized in a flash of light in a fantastical dueling field.
The hero Seiji lifted his sword, while the middle-aged plumber Kanna cackled.
Three… two… one... fight!
The sword and s.h.i.+eld hero rushed forth, wielding his sword, while the plumber jumped and ran everywhere, marking the start of this fierce battle!!