"...This is the first time I've seen the venue so empty." Said Ruri, who had entered the venue through the staff passage.
"Isn't there already a lot of people?" Kirino frowned as she looked at the venue, which already felt somewhat bustling. She fanned her face with her hand. "It's so hot, and there's a smell of sweat. Is the air conditioning not turned on here?"
"It's likely that the ventilation isn't very good, and yesterday's residual heat hasn't dissipated yet," Saori said cheerfully. "It'll be even more crowded when it officially opens. So, it seems Kuroneko-shi has participated in Comic Market before?"
"The phantom dōjin of Maschera—legendary line art that wasn't leaked when the anime was being made... can only be bought here." Ruri's eyes lit up as she spoke in a low voice.
"Wasn't the Maschera anime cancelled midway?" Kirino said casually while fanning herself.
Beside her, Saori's face immediately took on an expression that said, 'Ah, that's a topic you absolutely shouldn't touch.'
"It wasn't cancelled. It was just that for the sake of taking care of younger children, they had to compromise with the social ways of the world and gave up the time slot to Meruru." Ruri said with a dark expression.
"The fact is that it was cancelled, right? I remember the Blu-ray sales couldn't even compare to a fraction of Meruru's; it seems it didn't even reach the Manabi-line." Kirino continued to dance on the powder keg.
"Using sales to measure the quality of an anime is an incredibly foolish act. According to you, then IS is a greater work than CL," Ruri said sharply. "After all, isn't a magical girl anime like Meruru, which borders on soft-fanservice, aimed at preschoolers and perverted adults with impure desires for little girls? Having good sales for that kind of thing isn't exactly something to be proud of, is it?"
"Hah? It's not perverted adults, but people who still hold a heart of love and longing for beautiful things even after growing up! Rather, such people are truly good people, who can be called 'Dai-puku'—people with a pure heart!" Kirino was also provoked, baring her small canine teeth as she stood off against Ruri.
"Heh, a truly typical perverted-style rationalization," Ruri crossed her arms, a mocking curve appearing at the corners of her mouth. "All day long you talk about 'protecting the pure magical girl world,' yet didn't you buy that adult-rated magical girl game recently? You're not going to tell me that was an expression of a 'pure heart' too, are you?"
"Th-that's a different perspective of appreciation, okay! And I only bought that game because it has a sister-route!" Kirino's face turned red, her voice rising half an octave. "True fans naturally have to deeply understand every side of a character! You, who only cares about edgy settings and obscure plots and doesn't understand character charm, are the amateur! You don't understand the emotion that transcends dimensions when Meruru smiled through tears in episode 12!"
"What do you guys think?" After the two barked at each other, they pointed the spearhead at the three onlookers.
"Both of you have a point; whether it's Maschera or Meruru, they are both quite excellent works," Saori said, trying to mediate. "In my humble opinion, it's fine as long as you stick to what you like, nin-nin~"
"What a nutritional-less statement." "I hate this kind of ambiguous answer the most!" In the end, they were both criticized by the pair.
Saori gave a somewhat awkward smile.
"I think Slippery Girls 2 is the best," Kitagawa Marin said.
"Don't bring up things that haven't been animated!" "Speaking of that work, even if it were animated, at most it would be a late-night series or just a straight-up H-anime, right? It has absolutely no value for discussion." As a result, she was suppressed by the two of them working together.
"Damn it, at this point I can only fight for Slippery Girls 2!" Don't randomly open a new battlefield and make the situation even more chaotic, hey!
When the two of them turned their gazes toward him, Asakura showed a bright smile.
"I haven't watched Maschera or Meruru."
"Go watch them!" The two shouted in unison.
I've felt this for a while, but these two actually have a pretty good relationship, don't they? Asakura thought to himself.
After forcibly ending that conversation where no one would end up happy, they began to discuss the route for this convention.
"As expected, it's best to follow the most basic method: start with the dōjinshi, then go through games and models, and finally the corporate booths, right?"
Saori suggested: "Dōjinshi is the most popular; the 'Wall Circles' (to prevent congestion in the hall, high-popularity circles are usually placed against the walls) sell their limited catalog items very quickly. If you want to ensure you can buy them, you must start with clear goals and move efficiently."
"I want to go see the cosplay!" Kitagawa Marin said, raising her hand.
"There's a dedicated area for cosplay, and there are high-quality cosplayers throughout the day, so there's no need to rush. Rather, before the hall opens isn't actually the time for high-quality cosplayers to appear," Saori explained.
"I see..." Kitagawa Marin looked a bit disappointed.
"If there are no objections, then we'll follow this order... By the way, are there any circles everyone is interested in?" Saori asked. "Kiririn-shi, among that batch of dōjinshi I sent you before, are there any authors you're interested in?"
"Th-that... I don't have any particular favorites... I-if I had to choose, Meruru by Yamanobe Ganma-sensei and the Reika book by QQQ-sensei—oh, and also! That one who draws the illustration collections—Sakura G. Sakura-sensei is the person who manga-fied Meruru, right! Hehehe! That's really so cute~!" The high school girl, who originally seemed quite like a 'normie,' suddenly revealed a smile that was infinitely close to that of a creeper.
However, after sensing Ruri's icy gaze, she immediately returned to normal, coughing once to hide her embarrassment. "I-it's pretty much just okay."
"Actually, those artists are all my friends. I happen to be going over to say hello; would Kiririn-shi like to go together?"
"Is that really okay! That's great!"
"Then Kuroneko-shi, Kitagawa-shi, and Asakura-shi, you guys..." Saori looked at the other three.
"I'll go along too. Anyway, there aren't any dōjinshi I particularly want, and I'm actually quite interested in the booths," Kitagawa Marin also nodded and said.
"I'll pass," Ruri shook her head. "I'm going to help some friends who couldn't come to Comiket proxy-buy some rare Maschera books."
"Then I'll go with Ru... Kuroneko," Asakura said. "After all, I haven't seen the books of those people Kiririn mentioned, so going there wouldn't be very interesting and would be a bit awkward. I think I'll pass."
So, the group agreed to meet at the vending machine near the escalator later and temporarily split into two teams.
"Actually, you don't have to mind me, it's fine," Ruri suddenly said in a low voice after walking side-by-side with Asakura for a while.
"Hmm?" Asakura didn't react for a moment and let out a sound of confusion.
"Because acting as a proxy to buy dōjinshi isn't exactly a fun thing to do; perhaps it would be better if Takuma-senpai moved together with Saori and the others..."
Before Ruri could finish her sentence, Asakura tapped her on the head.
"What kind of strange things are you saying? I didn't rush back in the middle of my nationwide tour just to browse a dōjin fair."
Whether in his past life or this one, Asakura was not an otaku in the true sense, and he didn't have a particularly massive obsession with the "Holy War" that was Summer Comiket in the hearts of geeks.
"I see..."
Ruri rubbed her forehead, a faint smile rippling across her face.
"Though, I originally thought it was just going to be a normal date for two, but I didn't expect it to be a community activity," Asakura continued.
"That wasn't the original plan, but then everyone in the community started talking about going to Comiket together..."
Ruri said with a somewhat unnatural expression.
"It's okay, I'm not complaining."
Asakura waved his hand.
He could indeed understand; just like that club president from the Service Club, Ruri seemed to be someone who didn't have many proper friends offline. In the "Otaku Girls Unite" community, the only ones she played well with offline were Saori, Kirino, and Kitagawa. So even though she was always merciless with her words, she actually valued these friends quite a lot.
So when they said they wanted to attend Comiket, even though Ruri originally wanted to spend time alone with Asakura—though wanting a world for two in a bustling crowd was itself very strange and, in a sense, reflected Ruri's homesickness... no, that's not right, her heart is simple and she isn't that familiar with concepts like dating—in the end, she still decided to participate in the community activity with Asakura.
Asakura didn't have much of an objection to this.
"And although I didn't have much interest initially, now that I'm actually here, it feels quite interesting. I feel like I can see many things I wouldn't normally see," he said. "Rather than worrying about that sort of thing, it's better to just enjoy it... well, though I'm not sure if this situation counts as enjoyment."
It was likely finally time for the doors to open, as one could clearly perceive that the crowd density had significantly increased. Occasionally, staff members could be seen holding megaphones and shouting things like, "Please do not run inside the venue."
Even purchasing dōjinshi went from not needing to queue at all to needing to wait in a short line—and this was only because the popularity of the Maschera that Ruri liked wasn't particularly high.
Popular circles like Meruru, which featured more trending themes recently, had already begun to form long queues, and it was unknown if Kirino and the others would be able to get the dōjinshi they desired.
"Mm..."
Just as Asakura was letting his thoughts wander aimlessly while weaving through the crowd, he suddenly saw Ruri get bumped. The physically slight girl instantly lost her balance and was about to crash into the table of a nearby booth.
Asakura hurried to reach out and steady her.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine..." Ruri frowned slightly, looking at her paper bag that had been crushed by the person just now. She knitted her brows. "What an insolent fellow. To go charging around like that in a place like this, does he not understand even a bit of otaku etiquette?"
"There are all kinds of people in this world," Asakura comforted her. "Getting angry at someone who is just a passing stranger will only make your own mood worse."
"Count him lucky he slipped away quickly, otherwise I would have cursed him to turn into a cat."
"You can't do that sort of thing."
"Then a curse to turn into a mouse?"
"It's not a matter of species."
Asakura sighed. "At least don't do it in front of the public."
"In other words, it's okay as long as it's not in public, right?" The girl showed a pensive expression.
However, Asakura knew she was just joking, so he didn't say much more.
He simply took the girl's paper bag and cast a magic spell, [Scale], on it—making the ragged-looking paper bag sturdier than a safe—and after hooking it over his shoulder, he reached out his hand toward the girl.
"Takuma-senpai?" The girl was stunned for a moment as she looked at his hand.
"There are more and more people now," Asakura explained. "To prevent what just happened from happening again, and also to prevent us from getting separated, it's better to hold hands while we walk."
Ruri blinked. Although the expression on her face didn't change much, a bit more joy appeared in her wine-red eyes.
"Mm, that's true. Holding hands would be better." As she spoke, she placed her hand in Asakura's. "Then I'll have to trouble you, Takuma-senpai."
Asakura gently held the girl's hand.
Compared to Hitori's hand, Ruri's hand was even more petite and softer. Even though it was the peak of summer and the air conditioning in the hall wasn't very strong, making it quite sweltering, her hand felt icy-cool to the touch. She likely had a naturally cold constitution with a lower body temperature in her extremities—the kind with high temperature is apparently called the "Solar Hands"—anyway, it was very comfortable.
"Takuma-senpai's hand is so big."
"Is it? It's more like your hand is too small, Ruri. You need to eat well."
"I believe this isn't a matter of nutrition..."
"But you are indeed quite thin, Ruri. I think a plumper feel would be better."
As Asakura spoke, he pulled the girl along, ignoring the booth owner nearby who was watching them with glowing eyes and muttering, "This is too lovely! Next time I participate, I'm going to draw a sibling-related adult dōjinshi," as he began to weave through the crowd against the flow of people.
At some point, their hand-holding turned into interlaced fingers. They walked side-by-side through the bustling crowd of the anime convention. The noisy broadcasts, the camera flashes, and the shouts of the vendors all seemed to blur into the background in the distance, leaving only the temperature of their palms and each other's breathing as the only real things.
In this moment, it felt as if the entire world was making way for them, leaving only the two of them immersed in the beat of each other's hearts and the warmth of their palms.
With Asakura acting as a human shield-machine with [Scale] active, it was much smoother for them to weave through the crowd to reach the various booths Ruri had researched beforehand. It didn't take long for them to collect all the books the girl wanted.
"Then it's about time to gather by the escalator..."
Just as Asakura was about to head to the meeting spot with Ruri, a subtle but very familiar flash of gold appeared before his eyes.
He blinked and called out with some uncertainty.
"...Eriri?"