After having dinner at Chihaya Anon's house, Asakura took Asagumo Chihaya and left.
Although the pink-haired girl said she could chat a bit longer, Asakura considered that she had experienced a lot of ups and downs today. Although she seemed quite energetic now, in reality, her spirit was probably already quite exhausted, and staying there longer would only hinder her rest.
"But Mrs. Chihaya's fried chicken is really delicious."
In the hazy moonlight, Asakura rested one hand on his cheek and the other on the steering wheel, his expression as if savoring the dinner as he spoke.
"I asked Mrs. Chihaya how to make that fried chicken. It feels quite similar to tatsutaage. I'll make it for Takuma-kun to try sometime."
Perhaps because only the two of them were left in the car, Asagumo Chihaya seemed to be in a very good mood.
"Oh, I wanted to ask earlier, why did you, Asagumo, specifically ask Mrs. Chihaya to teach you how to make fried chicken?"
Asakura asked curiously.
"I have no answer for someone who calls me 'Asagumo'."
The girl puffed out her cheeks as if pretending to be angry, looking out the window.
"Alright, Miss Chihaya~"
Asakura couldn't help but shake his head with a smile: "You know I only call you that to prevent confusion when addressing people at the Chihaya household."
"'Understanding' and 'happily accepting' are two different things."
Asagumo Chihaya said seriously: "I'm also a girl, and it's only human nature to want the person I like to coax me, isn't it?"
Asakura was silent for a moment.
"It's okay if you don't respond so quickly. Although I don't know the reason, I can vaguely feel that no one has entered Takuma-kun's heart yet, so Takuma-kun doesn't need to worry too much about my feelings. After all, it's just my unrequited love… Ah, but if you could care a little, I'd be very happy."
The girl said softly, then she showed a smile that was gentle to the core: "Oh, and about the answer from earlier. Of course, I learned how to make fried chicken from Mrs. Chihaya because I saw how much Takuma-kun liked it at the dinner table."
Asakura sighed.
"Although it's not a date, I happen to have something to show you, Chihaya."
He said: "Is it okay if you go home a little later?"
"My parents trust me, so there's no curfew."
The girl asked curiously, "So what does Takuma-kun want to show me?"
"It certainly won't be bananas or goldfish or anything like that."
"If it were Takuma-kun, I wouldn't mind so much, you know?"
"…"
Even with a thick skin like Asakura's, he couldn't help but feel a bit helpless and a flutter in his heart because of the girl's directness.
The old Ford car made a turn in mid-air and headed in another direction.
After a brief recognition, the girl asked, "Are we going to the school… the Clubroom?"
"No, calm down, you'll know soon."
Asakura showed a mysterious smile.
A moment later, the old Ford car landed at the edge of a shopping district, then slowly drove into the not-so-spacious road of the shopping district.
Unlike the bustling and lively atmosphere during lunch breaks and after school, after dark, only a few shops were still open in this relatively traditional old-fashioned shopping district. Only places like izakayas hadn't closed yet, and signs of business could be seen from the lights beneath their curtains.
There were even fewer people on the streets, as the main consumers, the students, had already gone home, making it pointless to keep shops open.
After arriving at the destination, Asakura turned into an even more secluded alley, then got out of the car with Asagumo Chihaya.
Chihaya looked back and saw the old Ford car slowly sinking into the ground. Only its hood, inexplicably sticking up, like a raised thumb, still proclaimed the old broken car's indomitable spirit…
"Oh, this shop…"
Upon reaching the street, the girl looked at the shop next to the alley and couldn't help but be stunned.
As a Soubu High School student, although she didn't frequent the shopping district much, she had some impression of this street.
But in the girl's memory, there didn't seem to be this shop here.
"It's normal for you to find it strange, after all, this shop's confusion effect only works on Muggles."
Asakura said: "For ordinary people, this shop is one that 'has existed for a long time but for some reason has never been open'."
Saying that, he pulled something out of his pocket.
The girl unfolded it and discovered it was a real estate deed for 12 Toyama Shopping District Plaza.
"According to the setting, this shop originally belonged to a consortium called Togawa, but later that consortium needed to sell some real estate to recover funds for various reasons, and this shop was one of them—" Asakura said loudly, "And its current owner is me."
It was clear that although Asakura had gained some profit in the stock market with the help of the insider girl, barely accumulating decent savings, it was impossible to buy a shop in such a location with just that amount of money.
Therefore, the source of this deed was actually very simple: it was his mission reward.
That's right, although the item in Chihaya Anon's home wasn't a magic Mirror in the true sense, as long as the system recognized it, then it was a magic Mirror.
It was precisely because of this that Asakura received a new mission reward.
According to the mission reward description, this shop had been hidden in the past, similar to the situation with the Black Manor.
But after Asakura took over, it could manifest, and because it inherently came with a confusion spell, unless it was someone with inherent anti-magic like Asakura or Asagumo Chihaya, ordinary people wouldn't notice anything unusual about it even if they saw it.
If it were just that, it would simply mean the Chiba Magic Society had a new base, but if combined with Asakura's new mission, it was another matter entirely.
"Mission: Open a shop and operate it normally to gain a certain amount of profit."
Regarding this new mission, honestly, Asakura didn't have any immediate ideas; he still needed to plan long-term, and bringing Asagumo Chihaya was also to hear her opinion.
After all, among the people he knew, it seemed there weren't many more reliable than Asagumo Chihaya; rather, it would be good if the other guys just didn't cause trouble.
However, before that, there was one more thing Asakura had to do.
After all, even if he wanted the girl's help, he didn't want to deceive her or use her good feelings for him to make her give her true feelings in vain.
"Chihaya—" Asakura took a deep breath, "Actually, there's something I want to confess to you…"