manga artist Kirito

Page 115

【NO.259 Summer CM Day 1 (Fri)】

It's approaching noon.

The rest area outside the venue.

Having no intention of joining the club, Kirito, along with Akane Kosaka and Mashiro Shiina, waited for lunch and for Asuna and the others who had not yet arrived.

Akane Kosaka took off her mask and wiped the sweat from her forehead with a wet wipe, while Kiritani-kun was flipping through a small notebook signed by most of the creators.

"I just saw Po Island."

"what?"

"Iori Hashima, you could say she's a new member of our club."

"Who?"

"...You may not have noticed, but Strawberry did introduce her to me. Apparently, she's quite good at handling certain matters."

Kiritani threw the tissue he had used to wipe Shiina Mashiro's sweat into the trash can, then scratched his head. "When you went to the restroom, I saw a girl who looked a bit like him. Her drawing skills might be a little worse, but I read through all of her doujinshi. One page in particular really got a strong feeling... Hmm, she probably doesn't specialize in R-18. I can have Ichigo contact her later."

After stroking her chin and pondering for a moment, Akane Kosaka still couldn't remember who Kiritani-kun was talking about.

"Hmm, you've taken a liking to her?"

"While my chest may be comparable to yours, I'm really not interested."

Kiritani took out a doujinshi from his backpack, opened it to a page that impressed him, and placed it in front of Akane Kousaka. "The illustrations on this page are of very high quality, and the artistic conception is also very strong. His potential is definitely beyond question. As for his age... well, it seems to be around the same as mine. I think he is worth nurturing."

"It's really good."

Akane Kosaka, who had been watching intently, snapped out of her reverie and offered her assessment, "However, she's still a bit inferior to you. As for nurturing her... we could try to win her over, but I don't think the chances are high, especially considering that her brother is still in our club."

Those who know how terrifying this club is are naturally the insiders. Kosaka Akiko doesn't believe that some kind of Hashima Iori would let his sister join this club.

"Don't compare every artist to me, okay? -- Well, I just think they're pretty good, there's no need to take them too seriously, after all, your club has no shortage of promising artists right now."

"Just give the list to Lingyin afterward, and I'll arrange for her to take care of it."

"...You should just stay quietly at the club's booth this afternoon."

Kiritani-kun understood this woman's thoughts very well. She simply felt that the exhibition had given her the illusion that she could be discharged from the hospital and continue working.

We'll be going back around three or four o'clock.

Kiritani-kun's main point is that, no matter what, Asuna and I should be together in the afternoon. It would be too much to split us up again!

"Ugh, I get it, you're so annoying!"

Despite saying that, Akane Kosaka didn't dislike being cared for at all, especially when it came to Kiritani-kun.

"He and I are hungry."

Looking at the empty bag of Baumkuchen in her hand, Shiina Mashiro looked up at him expectantly, her meaning crystal clear.

"The ramen will be served soon. I ordered a six-person serving, so it should be ready by the time Asuna and the others arrive."

Reaching out to ruffle Shiina Mashiro's hair, Kiritani smiled and asked, "Are you still shopping this afternoon? You must be tired."

"No, I'm too tired."

It remains as concise as ever, like a brief introduction.

Given Kiritani's stamina, after walking around all morning, he was completely exhausted and didn't want to walk anymore, let alone Shiina Mashiro—strictly speaking, Kiritani's stamina was not much different from Shiina Mashiro's.

"Can you stay with this watermelon this afternoon?"

"……Um."

Shiina Mashiro glanced at Kousaka Akane for a while before nodding, showing no reluctance. After all, Kiritani-kun had said that when asking someone for a favor, it's okay to be expressionless, but you absolutely cannot show disdain.

"please!"

"As long as I don't wander around, I'm fine."

Perhaps Akane Kosaka can be a little tsundere sometimes.

"Oh, Asuna and the others are here."

Kiritani peeked behind Shiina Mashiro and saw three beautiful girls holding hands walking towards them, chatting and laughing, looking like they had a very good relationship.

Akane Kosaka switched to a deadpan expression and resisted the urge to kick him. Just then, a waiter came over with a large bowl of ramen. Despite the pain, she had no choice but to push the ramen to the front of each seat.

"Whew! It's so hot!"

"I feel like I'm going to die if this continues."

"I don't know if I'll die, but I feel like I can't feel my legs."

...How should I put it? Kasumigaoka Utaha and Eriri are the kind of people who will definitely bicker when they meet—most of the time Eriri is the one who gets teased, after all, she's a tsundere—but it seems that when Asuna is with them, she easily becomes the linchpin, or rather, the buffer zone.

Throughout the journey, Kasumigaoka Utaha did not mock Eriri's words in any way, and vice versa.

Asuna is amazing!

"Ah, tonkotsu ramen?"

"You're overthinking it, it's just regular ramen."

"I think cold noodles would be better in this kind of weather."

"Then I'll have to find it for you. I'll eat yours."

"Of course, something is better than nothing."

Kasumigaoka Utaha removed the packaging from the disposable chopsticks and began to deal with the ramen.

"Well... although it's only morning, I think I'm almost done here—meaning I should head back this afternoon."

Honestly... Machida, that old woman, actually contacted me at a time like this. Does she really not know how to keep track of time?

"Oh, then you can go back."

Kiritani-kun made no attempt to persuade him to stay, and his tone was very indifferent.

"Tsk!" Kasumigaoka Utaha felt inexplicably dissatisfied with her trembling legs.

"I can't join you guys this afternoon either, the stalls seem a bit too busy."

As she said this, Eriri's lips curled up high, and her eyes were full of provocation as she looked at Kirito-kun—See? This is the popularity of the Kirito Chronicles that I created. Get ready to lose to me!

"Yes, very good!"

His expression was no longer indifferent; Kiritani nodded with great satisfaction. "Since neither of you has time this afternoon, it's perfect that Asuna and I can spend time together—that feels great!"

Kasumigaoka Utaha glared at her, "Are you a dog?"

Kiritani-kun put down his chopsticks and shook his head at her, "No, you can't say it's ugly."

"……what?"

"Because you look very unique!"

Looking at the bewildered Kasumigaoka, Eriri pursed her lips. "Is it... particularly ugly?"

263

【NO.260 Summer CM Day 1 (Saturday)】

"Just now, when I passed by the cosplay area, I saw a lot of maids!"

"Ah, Asuna, do you like maid outfits?"

"...Hmm, isn't that what I should be asking you?"

"Ask me? No way, I would never wear something like that!"

"What I mean is, if someone likes it, I might try it on for you!"

"So touching!"

Wandering around casually, Kirigaya-kun was now simply browsing through CM with the mindset of having fun. After all, he had almost finished what he needed to do, and even if he hadn't finished, he didn't want to continue—his girlfriend was right beside him, so why bother with work!

Besides, this is the CM convention, and there are so many doujinshi (fan-made comics) that it's almost frightening. Asuna isn't a fujoshi (a female fan of male-male romance), so it's good enough if she can even get interested in some yuri (lesbian) comics. Although she bought a lot of merchandise this morning, she didn't actually buy many doujinshi... Oh, there was one doujinshi called "About Not Being Able to Understand What My Husband Is Saying at All"—the content of which was a bit too normal.

"I've bought pretty much everything I wanted. There are still some things I'm quite interested in, but I don't have that much time to play with them."

Asuna smiled slightly as she affectionately hugged Kirito's arm. She wasn't the type to buy a game and then play it, or buy a manga and then read it. If you don't use it, there's no need to buy it at all.

"Hey, let's go check out the cosplay section."

"Going to see cute girls?"

"If that's all there is to it, then there's no need to go. There's an incredibly cute girl standing right next to me."

Speaking of which, Kiritani-kun felt something was strange earlier. Since noon, many tourists have given him subtle looks when they saw him.

Of course, some people came up to ask if they could take photos—but alas!

I'm not cosplaying! I'm just wearing very ordinary casual clothes, okay?

However, Kirito can understand this kind of thing. After all, the protagonist of Sword Art Online is based on him, so the similarity is even more obvious. But Kirito's long hair softens the lines of his face, making him more pleasing to the eye.

As long as you cut your long hair and put on a special cosplay outfit, you can definitely perfectly recreate the image of Kurogiri Shido.

"This... is that Kurogiri Shido? He looks so much like him... It's a pity he's not wearing a cosplay outfit."

"Wake up, this is the creator of Sword Art Online - Fujiwara Echizen! Haven't you seen the posts Fujiwara-sensei made on Twitter? Long-haired crossdresser, the kind that's really cute and adorable."

"Oh! Is that how it is? Shall we go up and get their autographs?"

"...Stop it, I just saw the pervert from the Bamboo Forest Group."

Kiritani-kun glared at them with an unfriendly expression. He really wanted to say more than just "fuck you." In such a chaotic situation, you could see things so clearly, and you even dared to say these things to their faces? Come here if you dare, I promise I won't lay a hand on you!

By the way, those perverts from the Bamboo Forest Group... didn't see it at all.

Kiritani looked around at the surging crowd and couldn't see anything particularly strange or abnormal about the place.

Honestly, if there were any, I'd really like to ask the perverts in the Bamboo Forest Group to help stop those guys who are holding their phones and trying to take pictures from afar, because it's just too rude.

"Kazuto, what are you looking for?"

"nothing."

Faced with Asuna's question, Kiritani shook his head slightly. He couldn't very well tell Asuna that he was currently looking for those perverts who were always thinking about how to draw my doujinshi, could he?

"Ah, Asuna, come with me."

"Ah? What's wrong?"

With his gaze fixed on a small stall nearby, Kiritani-kun slightly curled the corners of his mouth, took Asuna's hand, and quickly walked over. He then picked up a white cat-ear headband from the stall and held it up to Asuna's face for a couple of seconds.

With a slight glint in his eyes, Kiritani grinned. "Don't move, try this."

"Uh, cat ears... no, it feels weird to wear them."

Asuna looked at the cat ear headband in Kiritani's hand and took a step back, not quite calm. But Kiritani was still holding her hand tightly and pulled her back with a little force.

"That duct tape is so cute!"

"No, it suits you just as well as others, you should wear it."

With a subtle expression, Asuna snatched the cat ear headband from Kirito's hand and quickly untied the ribbon binding his hair, letting his long, smooth, black hair fall down. The moment Kirito looked on with a cute expression, Asuna put the cat ear headband on him.

Nodding in satisfaction, Asuna smiled and said, "Yes, it's very cute."

With a forced expression, Kiritani's face gradually stiffened. "This... isn't that a bit inappropriate? -- How about this, we each take one?"

"No way, there's no need for fairness. After all, as you often say, these days not only are males equal, but females are equal too."

“Unpleasant!”

"Okay, I understand."

With a perfectly timed hesitation, Asuna looked helplessly at Kirigaya-kun, then picked up a black cat-ear headband from the stall and handed it to him, saying, "Here, put this on."

Kiritani pursed his lips, gently brushed aside Asuna's hair, and slowly put the cat ear headband on her head—hmm, so cute and adorable!

As expected, kemonomimi (animal-eared girls) are the epitome of justice!

With a helpless expression, Asuna lifted Kiritani's hands into claw shapes and then placed them in front of her with a fierce look. "Ugh, Kazuto, come on, make a fierce face with me!"

"what?"

"Ha, let's change it to Meow~"

"Meow~?"