"G-good morning."
Renko said without thinking. Renko knew it was night. She was tired of thinking of other answers. Then she turned away from him, embarrassed that he had noticed her staring at him in silence. Ichiro noticed her expression and asked her.
"... Are you okay?"
"Y-yes."
Her answer came too quickly. Her mind was too tired and she couldn't explain herself properly.
A faint smile appeared on Ichiro's lips as soon as she said it. He spoke again a moment later.
"Looks like you've been up too long. Your circles are bigger than mine."
Ichiro pointed at himself with his thumb as he spoke.
"Take a rest. You're always working hard, aren't you? You look exhausted..."
The words were spoken sincerely and Renko felt it. Ichiro's aura glowed brighter and warmer. And yet, he seemed to be worried about her. She smiled at him and answered.
"Haha! I'm fine, really. Don't worry about me. I just finished drawing and got some fresh air and..."
Renko waved his hands frantically, trying to convince Ichiro. She got a lot of work done after drawing for two days in a row. Then she asked a question.
"Would you like to see the illustrations I drew? It took me so much effort to draw them!"
"Yeah, sure."
Ichiro said immediately after hearing what Renko said. He looked at the night city. As he listened to Renko, he seemed to be having fun.
Renko took out his phone, opened the CURVE app, took pictures of the sketches of the main characters and sent them to Ichiro. He flipped through each one carefully, examining the details of each illustration. He stopped when he reached the last image and saw a detailed drawing of the main character holding a black sword and facing a dark shadow. There was also a group of people, and they were a group of main characters. It was a main illustration of the light novel.
It was a main illustration of the light novel.
Ichiro thought it looked familiar... but why?
“Wow. Aren’t they full of detail? Is it the first time you drew this characters?”
“Yes… These are the first illustrations of the main character. I wanted as many details as possible, so I spent a lot of time on them. This character is the main character in my aunt’s upcoming light novel series, so I’m hoping everything goes well!”
“Wow, amazing! What’s the title of the book?”
“The name is...”
Renko paused for a moment. She did not know what to say. She didn’t want to make a mistake because of her lack of experience. After a brief thought, she replied with honesty.
“My aunt hasn’t given it a title yet... However, two novels by my aunt have already been published. One is titled ‘The Emperor’s Daughters Captive Survival Strategy,’ and the other is titled ‘A Goddess’s Miracle Child.’ This is the third book she is writing. It’ll probably sound similar...”
“Really? Your aunt is pretty talented, huh? So, what exactly is the light novel about?”
“It’s a fantasy story about young Arthur Phoenixcrest, who would grow up to be a Chosen One and battle a demon king to save the world.”
Renko’s explanation had Ichiro tilting his head to the side, deep in thought. He thought the name sounded strangely familiar...
“... So, you’re telling me there’s a young boy named Arthur who becomes a Chosen One? That’s... not bad. There’s nothing too unique about it, though...”
“Yeah, I think that’s true... My aunt, on the other hand, believes otherwise!”
“Hmm. Well, it sounds intriguing enough.”
“Thank you, Ichiro-kun! I appreciate the compliment!”
“No problem! You did an amazing job on these drawings! They’re great!”
Ichiro smiled contentedly as he nodded. He returned his gaze to the city. Stormy black clouds hung over the downtown area. Silent lighting struck the skies far away. The lightning illuminated the clouds for a split second before disappearing back into the night sky. A distant thunderclap rumbled in silence.
“Hmm. Looks like it’s gonna rain tonight.”
“Yep. It looks like it’ll start pouring soon. Yawn~... I should probably go to bed... See you tomorrow.”
With that, Renko closed her phone and placed it inside her pocket. She yawned and stretched her arms out. She rubbed her eyes and made her way to her room.
“Sleep well, Renko-chan!”
“Good night, Ichiro-kun!”
After saying her goodbyes, Renko walked back to her room, leaving Ichiro alone. Thinking about the illustrations he had just seen, he stood there and observed the city. After a minute, he shakes his head, thinking it was nothing, and checks his phone for notifications.
“Damn...”
There was a message from a certain acquaintance. Ichiro tapped the notification, which launched the Discorp app. It loaded almost instantly and switched to the [KUSOGE OFFICE GAMERS] channel. It was a channel set up by a former coworker. There was a message in the #announcements chatroom.
Master Gamer Kouji, 3 hours ago: @everyone our shitty boss Haberitsu had died right now🎉🎉🎉.
There were many emojis beneath the message, all of which appeared to be happy. Ichiro read through the messages from other people that followed.
※That bastard who cut my pay had died. LOL!
※Whoa! He’s dead?!
※wwwwwww
※What?! He’s really dead!? Who will harass the ever changing secretary anymore?
The chatroom was filled with messages of happiness. Ichiro felt something was strange, but he dismissed the thought. He wanted to message Kouji to know what happened, but he was on ‘do not disturb’ mode on Discorp. He was playing a video game Ichiro knew the most.
Ichiro and Kouji used to work in cooperation when they both worked at that company. They had occasionally played games together back when he worked there. Given his position as a system administrator, Kouji had more free time than the others. It was therefore not surprising that he delivered the news of their boss’s departure at such an hour because he frequently stayed up late playing online games in the office if there was no work for him.
There were no details about his former boss’s death, so Ichiro couldn’t tell if it was a suicide or murder, but it seemed like a ‘terrible’ loss to the company in either case. He was curious about what had happened, so he went back to his bedroom and turned on his expensive notebook. He checked the other notifications while it was turning on. Except for one, the others were uninteresting.
CURVE [Chief-Manager-sama |No deliveries tomorrow...|]
Ichiro was a little delighted. He finally has a day off! It was his first full day off since being promoted. With no orders to deliver, he could do whatever he wanted. After writing a short OK message to the Chief Manager-sama, he returned his focus back to his notebook.
He moved his cursor to ‘Ultimate Fantasy Online,’ a MMORPG made by mysterious company ‘Team Shizuoka Zeta’. It was a revolutionary game in Japan when it first came out, but its popularity has since declined. But even after ten years, it maintained a sizable player base. Ichiro played it when it was still popular, but now he rarely logged in. He wasn’t good at it anyway, so he stopped playing it once he realized how much time and effort he needed to put into levelling up.
The game itself was quite simple, but there were a lot of complicated things to consider, including the different races and classes, skills and spells, and many other mechanics. There were also countless players that enjoyed the challenge. And it had a fair share of secrets, so it kept people coming back again and again.
The game loaded a minute later. When Ichiro pressed the login button, the screen displayed a simple window over a 2D background of a fantasy city.
Login: The_Wanderer
Password: ***********
Ichiro was embarrassed at his login name choice. He chose it when he was younger because he thought it was cool. But now he regretted using it because it sounded lame.
Ichiro logged into his account and chose his first maxed out character. A level 99 warrior, a cat-like beastman race. He had maxed out equipment, and the skill list showed that he already had almost mastered all of them. But he didn’t bother to admire it. He joined the game just to message an ex-colleague. His character spawned in the 3D version of the city that was on the login screen, and he was met with old-school graphics.
“Ahh... Ultimate Fantasy Online, it’s been a while.”
Ichiro looked around. Nothing changed from when he last saw it. The streets were filled with NPCs walking around, chatting. There were some players wandering around, too. It was an ordinary town, nothing special.
He opened his DMs and sent a message to Kouji.
“Oi, Kouji. What’s up?”
Kouji replied immediately.
“You’re here?! I’m glad you logged in. We should meet up somewhere and chat! I have news to share!”
Ichiro nodded. He thought they could go somewhere and do some boss raid. It would be fun to play with Kouji again.
They exchanged information and arranged a place to meet. Few minutes later, they both appeared in a plaza near the entrance to the dungeon. Kouji sent a party request, and Ichiro accepted it. Ichiro entered a voice chat, and Kouji did too.
“It’s been a long time, Kouji. How have you been?...”
Ichiro and Kouji hadn’t talked in ages, so they started talking casually. Their conversation continued as they walked through the town together towards the dungeon. Soon enough, they discussed recent news that Kouji shared using Discorp.
“So, Haberitsu died, right?”
Ichiro asked, and Kouji confirmed it.
“Yeah. They said it was a heart attack.”
Ichiro wasn’t surprised by that. Haberitsu looked frail and looked like he had countless diseases. As if he was possessed by a demon, he was always yelling at his staff and even throwing tantrums. That man was crazy. Ichiro remembered how his office life was awful when he was around him.
“Good riddance.”
He felt relieved. Kouji continued talking.
“After that, the police arrived and took his body away. We’re not allowed to go near his office anymore. But I don’t think anyone will care about that.”
Ichiro laughed. He knew what Kouji meant. Nobody cared about Haberitsu anymore. Everyone will remember him as a bastard boss and will forget about him after a few months.
“Well, at least we don’t have to work under him anymore.”
“Indeed!”
The two agreed and laughed.
Ichiro suddenly remembered that his uncle worked for the police. He pondered whether he should question him about it. Ichiro put this thought to the back of his mind and focused on the game.
Eventually, after more chit-chat, they took part in a boss raid together. The battle was long and tedious, but Ichiro and Kouji had all the time in the world.
**********************
Two men stood near the body in the one specific police depot that is directly affiliated with Association. One of them was an Association officer, and the other was a middle-aged man who resembled Ichiro. His name was Hiroki Yamashita, and he was Ichiro’s uncle. He worked for the supernatural police force called ‘Division 13’ as their head detective. He investigated and captured supernatural criminals.
Hiroki approached the dead body and examined it. He observed its appearance carefully, checking for any abnormalities. After doing so, he checked for injuries, but found none. There were no wounds anywhere. Only a faint trace of demonic energy remained on the corpse. This made him puzzled. If you remove the last evidence, it could be 100% ruled as a heart attack.
He then turned to the man standing next to him and asked.
“You sure this is the one?”
The man nodded, confirming it was Haberitsu.
“Yes. It matches the description, and there isn’t anything unusual here.”
“Hmm...”
They both looked at the dead body in silence. If it wasn’t for a sudden burst of demonic energy in his office, they would have easily concluded that it was just a heart attack. Then, they would have forgotten about it within days. Instead, now they are stuck with this dead body that cannot be explained. What do we do with this body? Hiroki could only find one solution.
“Sent it to the autopsy to the Tokyo, to the Association’s research center. I have a hunch that something strange is going on. Let me know once you’ve received the results. Until then, keep an eye out.”
Hiroki was tired of recent events. His ‘dead’ brother suddenly comes back, and says he was in another world, recent case of a giant ghost that resembled Gojiira that almost destroyed Osaka if not for a mechanical angel, and many missing person cases related to ghosts—all these incidents happened in less than a half year. At least his cousin, Ichiro, was safe. Maybe he will visit him sometime and spar with him. That might make him feel better.
Ichiro didn’t have a spiritual sight to see the supernatural world, so he could not become the part of it. Hiroki was worried about his safety. But he knew Ichiro was strong enough to survive whatever trouble came his way. Besides, he couldn’t leave him alone either, considering what Ichiro did five years ago...
Here's extra!
THE Shadow Being, one of the many forms Ichiro had faced against him.
Great chapter with a lot of interesting clues about what will follow. Welcome back
Thanks for the chapter and welcome back!