Next Target, 200PS!!
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"What exactly is 'WEIRD' about it?"
Tilting her head, Marin looked at Megumi with genuine curiosity.
She honestly seemed to have no idea what Megumi was talking about.
"I mean..." Megumi glanced at Marin, then shifted her gaze toward Kai.
'Since things have progressed to this point, does Marin seriously not feel the slightest bit of jealousy?'
Even Megumi felt that if she were to officially cross that line, she would at least want to exert some level of territorial dominance, even if she knew full well that a scumbag like Kai would never actually settle down for just one girl.
You still needed to show some attitude.
But Marin didn't seem to care in the slightest. She was even actively helping Kai cover his tracks and keeping Yukino and the others in the dark.
Noticing Megumi's questioning gaze, Kai appeared entirely unfazed. On the contrary, he was curious to hear exactly what was going through Marin's head as well.
"Hehe! You're talking about that, right?"
"Don't you think this setup is thrilling??"
Her response was so unexpected that even Megumi's perpetually half-lidded eyes widened in shock.
"Thrilling?"
Exactly what part of this messed-up dynamic is supposed to be 'thrilling'?
"Yeah!"
Marin genuinely didn't see the problem.
In fact, her tone grew dreamy and enthusiastic.
"It's the same plotline as 'Saint Slippery's Academy for Girls - The Young Ladies of the Humiliation Club: Debauched Miracle Life 2!' Kai is acting exactly like the protagonist, using his overwhelming abilities to make the heroine..."
A massive string of highly explicit adjectives followed.
Megumi felt like her ears were going to start bleeding if she listened to another second of it.
What kind of depraved nonsense is she spouting??
Meanwhile, Marin was still rambling on, her face glowing with joy.
"It's incredible! I honestly thought descriptions like that only existed in eroge! I never imagined Kai would actually be that amazing! You have to try it out, Megumi-chan! Otherwise, you have no idea what you're missing out on!"
"..."
I'm fairly certain trying it out is not a necessity for a healthy life.
Good lord.
Kai finally realized it. Deep down in her bones, Marin undeniably harbored a significant "M" (masochistic) streak.
No wonder...
She had been an untouched amateur, yet she eagerly participated exactly as if she were a seasoned veteran.
"Saintly Slippery?" That massive, incomprehensible string of words in the game's title had short-circuited Megumi's brain.
"It's just the title of an eroge," Kai casually clarified from the side.
After all.
When he had visited Marin's house the last time, he had indeed played a bit of that exact game with her.
However, they became slightly distracted partway through and focused more on "practical application" rather than completing the playthrough. There were still many explicit scenarios they hadn't tested yet.
"It's not just some ordinary game! Megumi-chan, whenever you have some free time, you have to come over to my house so we can all play it together!"
"Just the two of us?"
Megumi looked at Kai, then looked back at the enthusiastic Marin standing in front of her.
Her gaze was filled with intense suspicion.
She had a strong gut feeling that Marin harbored some impure ulterior motives.
"Hehe! Of course, Kai-kun has to be there too! Otherwise, how are we supposed to practice the co-op routes??"
"..."
It wasn't that she disliked Kai, but participating in "co-op routes" was still entirely too extreme for the current Megumi to even comprehend, let alone agree to.
Noticing Marin's readiness to persistently promote this lifestyle to Megumi—
Kai stepped in.
"Alright, that's enough. Do you honestly think everyone operates on the same chaotic wavelength as you? Give Megumi-chan some time to actually mentally prepare herself."
So you're considering doing it.
Megumi shot Kai a resentful glare but wisely chose to remain silent.
"Fine, I guess!"
Though visibly disappointed, Marin obediently backed down.
She didn't try to force the issue any further.
This brought Megumi a wave of relief. If Marin had kept pushing, she honestly wouldn't have known how to gracefully reject someone so aggressively enthusiastic.
"Then Kai-kun, do you want to come over tonight so we can try out the scenarios we missed last time?"
Even if she couldn't drag Megumi into it just yet, having Kai all to herself was still fantastic.
"Your body hasn't recovered yet." Kai wasn't quite that reckless and devoid of restraint.
"Hehe! I'm basically back to 100%! We can just try one or two of the lighter scenarios!"
"Forget it. I'm busy tonight anyway. We'll do it once you're completely recovered."
"Is that so? Alright then!" Marin nodded, a look of disappointment crossing her face.
"Don't worry. We have all the time in the world."
Seeing her looking so down, Kai smiled, leaned in close to her ear, and whispered:
"Besides, if I remember correctly, that wasn't the only 'special' game you had stashed away in your collection. Once you're fully healed, we can systematically test out every one of them, one by one."
"Really??"
In truth, Marin had long harbored that fantasy, but she never found a willing partner to explore it with.
Now that Kai was openly agreeing to cooperate, Marin saw him as the most flawless boyfriend in human history.
"Let's go. We should head back to the classroom first!"
"Mhm! Mhm!"
"..."
Walking silently beside the two of them.
Megumi honestly felt like she needed to wash her ears out after that conversation.
'What kind of wild conversation did I just hear?'
'Or... is that game actually that fun?' Even though she maintained a blank expression on the surface, deep down, Megumi quietly filed the game's title away in her memory.
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Soon enough.
The afternoon classes concluded.
Remembering what Sakiko Togawa had told him that morning, Kai didn't dawdle after school—he went straight back to his apartment.
However, because she had taken the day off from her grueling part-time job, Sakiko was already back long before he was.
When Kai walked through the door, he immediately saw Sakiko sitting motionless on the couch, staring blankly at a single envelope clutched in her hands.
"What's wrong?"
Seeing her in such a dazed state, Kai didn't rush her. Instead, he calmly approached, sat beside her, and spoke softly to offer comfort.
"My father... he left!"
She gazed up at him, her whole presence emanating a deep, heartbreaking vulnerability and sense of brokenness.
Regardless of everything he had done, he was still her father.
"Left?"
He definitely wasn't dead yet.
Even though his remaining lifespan had been drastically shortened, he could easily survive for at least another year. If he took good care of himself, stretching it to two or three years wasn't impossible.
Therefore, "left" had to literally mean he had packed up and abandoned the area.
Filled with curiosity.
Kai gently took the envelope from Sakiko's trembling hands.
After a quick scan of the contents, he understood the situation.
When a human was subjected to the mind-altering illusions of a Cursed Spirit, they didn't experience permanent amnesia. Instead, they merely lost voluntary control over their actions. After the Cursed Spirit was successfully exorcised, they regained their normal consciousness.
Kiyotsugu Togawa's rationality had rapidly returned. He perfectly remembered every single twisted, pathetic thing that had transpired during his hallucination.
This naturally included the humiliating moment when Kai and Sakiko had burst into the mansion and discovered him.
Crushed by a suffocating sense of guilt and shame, Kiyotsugu experienced something akin to a spiritual epiphany.
Realizing he was now in the twilight of his life, he decided to abandon everything and spend whatever time he had left quietly traveling the world.
He explicitly ordered Sakiko not to come looking for him.
The letter was filled with pages of agonizing apologies for being such an irredeemable failure of a father.
And at the very end of the letter, Kiyotsugu expressed his deepest, final wish: he wanted Sakiko to return to the elite Togawa family and reclaim her rightful place as their cherished Ojou-sama.
After all, the foundational reason Sakiko had severed ties with the Togawa family in the first place was to support and protect Kiyotsugu. Now that he had permanently removed himself from the equation, she had no logical reason to continue suffering alone in poverty.
"..."
'I suppose the saying 'A dying man's final words are always kind' holds some truth after all.'
Furthermore, since he knew perfectly well he was on death's door, rather than stubbornly sitting in a trashed apartment waiting to expire, quietly wandering the world for his final days was undeniably a much better choice.
"Saki."
However, the critical factor was exactly how Sakiko was processing all of this.
Before Kai could offer any further comfort.
Sakiko gently leaned into his embrace.
"I know... I know my dad was under a massive amount of pressure."
She finally dropped the cold, detached "Father" and reverted to calling him "Dad."
Having married into the highly influential and traditional Togawa family, Kiyotsugu's position was always fragile and under intense scrutiny. The sudden death of Sakiko's mother further heightened the pressure on him.
Desperate to hastily prove his worth and secure his standing, he had made reckless, disastrous business decisions, resulting in financial ruin.
That was precisely the reason Sakiko had fiercely chosen to side with her father and abandon her luxurious life in the first place.
"I'm not going to go looking for him. I'll just let him peacefully see the world during his final days."
Furthermore, even if she did somehow manage to track him down, what could she possibly do?
She was entirely powerless to change his fate.
"Kai-kun!"
Pressing herself tightly against Kai's side, Sakiko's tone was filled with profound attachment.
"Are you... Are you going to leave me one day too?"
Her mother was gone, and now her father was gone too.
Sakiko had never experienced such loneliness before, feeling as though she was the last person remaining in the world.
She gripped Kai's sleeve with a frantic death hold, terrified that in the very next second, he would vanish into thin air just like everyone else.
Smack!
Kai didn't answer her with words.
Instead, he raised a hand and flicked her lightly on the forehead.
"What kind of nonsense is going through that head of yours?"
"Don't forget, I am a Jujutsu Sorcerer."
"For the rest of your life, don't even think about escaping from my grasp."
The slight sting of the flick grounded Sakiko's spiraling thoughts, pulling her consciousness back to reality.
Staring at Kai's face so close to hers, the crippling terror in Sakiko's heart vanished, replaced by an endless sense of security and peace.
"Kai-kun!" After resting peacefully in his arms for a long moment, Sakiko spoke in a soft, trembling whisper.
"Take me..."
"Hmm?"
To support Sakiko's delicate emotional condition, Kai was completely ready to suppress his desires and simply hold her tonight.
He didn't expect Sakiko to be the one to start the battle...
"RIGHT NOW, TAKE ME!!"
"Alright!"
Since she had explicitly demanded it, if Kai didn't deliver a response, he would be doing her a massive disservice.
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[Quest Completed]
[Quest Completed]
He had only managed to trigger two quests.
But there was no rush. They had all the time in the world ahead of them—he could simply systematically grind through them one by one.
By the time the sky outside began to darken into twilight—
Sakiko had passed out from sheer exhaustion by his side. The distinct, vibrant red plum blossom staining the pristine white sheets undeniably proved exactly what had just transpired.
Success!
Wrapping an arm securely around the sleeping Sakiko, Kai let out a satisfied sigh and adjusted his breathing.
In the next moment, he claimed his system rewards.
[Congratulations to the Host]
[Reward: Master-level Swordsmanship]
[Congratulations to the Host]
[Reward: Mangekyou Sharingan (Dual Kamui)]
In Japanese terminology, the words for sword and blade were often completely interchangeable, so "Swordsmanship" and "Kenjutsu" were essentially the exact same thing.
This was perfect. He had possessed an Asauchi for a while now, but he had entirely relied on swinging it around with brute force, failing to utilize the blade's actual potential.
With this Master-level Swordsmanship—
Even without activating a single supernatural ability, he could easily slice low-level Cursed Spirits to ribbons using nothing but pure sword skills.
However, what really surprised Kai was the second reward.
The Mangekyou Sharingan??
And it was specifically the Mangekyou Sharingan that possessed the god-tier ability: Dual Kamui!
This was a top-tier, endgame ability from the Naruto universe!
Obito Uchiha had been a world-level threat early in the series, fighting the Fourth Hokage, controlling the Nine-Tails, and causing chaos—all thanks to the Mangekyou Sharingan. It was one of the most overpowered abilities in the whole franchise.
In the late game, when Kakashi Hatake temporarily acquired both eyes and access to Dual Kamui...
He was actually able to briefly fight on equal footing with Kaguya Otsutsuki—a literal goddess—and even gain the upper hand.
And now.
This game-breaking power had fallen directly into Kai's hands.
"Phew!" Even with Kai's mindset, receiving an ability this overpowered caused his composure to slip momentarily.
He took several deep breaths to forcefully steady his racing heart.
Considering Sakiko was sleeping peacefully right next to him, Kai didn't make any sudden movements. Instead, he closed his eyes.
In the next second—
Sharingan! Activate!
When he opened his eyes again, his originally pitch-black irises had morphed into a brilliant, blood-red hue.
First, a single tomoe appeared, quickly followed by a second, and then a third.
Spinning violently, the three tomoe eventually merged, forming an intricate, distinct pattern—the ultimate evolution of the ocular jutsu: the Mangekyou Sharingan.
The incredible perks didn't just stop at Kamui.
The Sharingan inherently granted terrifyingly enhanced dynamic visual perception, the ability to copy physical movements, and potent genjutsu-casting capabilities. In high-speed combat, these were phenomenal supplementary tools.
Next came the highly anticipated test of Kamui.
His gaze swept slowly around the bedroom, ultimately locking onto a simple water glass sitting on the desk.
"Kamui!"
The Mangekyou pattern in his eyes began to spin slowly and deliberately.
Simultaneously—
The physical space directly surrounding the glass began to warp and distort. In a matter of seconds, the entire glass was sucked into the twisted spatial vortex and vanished.
"This ability... as expected of Kamui. It's flawless."
Aside from the ranged ability to warp targets away, Dual Kamui also granted him a massive personal pocket dimension, intangibility, and instantaneous spatial teleportation. This was undeniably the most supreme, unmatched spatial manipulation ability in the entire Naruto universe.
"Phew!"
Kai was satisfied with Kamui's sheer destructive power and utility.
If he hadn't been inside his own bedroom, he would have tested it on a vastly larger target. He even anticipated testing exactly how a high-level Cursed Spirit would react to being twisted apart by Kamui.
However!
"Hiss!"
After concluding his brief test and deactivating the Mangekyou, he inexplicably felt a sharp twinge of pain stabbing through his eyes.
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