The all-powerful middle schooler

Seeing her childhood friend's disbelieving expression, Hasegawa Izumi felt nothing; she even wanted to laugh.

"Eri, what will you do if one day you find that the world is really not what you imagined?"

He looked up at the sky and asked a meaningful question.

"What's the difference?"

Eriri turned her head and stared at his expression, wanting to know what trick he was playing.

"For example, miracles and magic are real."

He provided a definition.

"Izumi, I'm not a child anymore. I can imitate the transformation moves of magical girls in anime, so this kind of question is meaningless."

Clearly, the girl no longer saw 'light'.

"I mean, what if it actually happens someday?"

"Then I'll..."

The words of reply were lost in the wind.

As the first day of the comic exhibition came to an end, the attendees began to leave one by one.

Cleaning staff began to enter the venue and clean up the area to prepare for the next day's activities.

As dusk approached, the legendary time of encountering the demons arrived.

"Hey, have you guys heard about that rumor?"

"What rumor? You're not thinking of the thing that caused this year's exhibition to be delayed by a week, are you?"

"Hey, what are you guys talking about? Stop being so mysterious."

"Alright, since you want to know, I'll tell you..."

The workers who were cleaning and tidying up stopped to rest and gathered together, and they started chatting about something out of boredom.

"The real reason for the exhibition's delay is... someone died here!"

The older worker said this with an air of seriousness.

Someone's dead!?

The young worker was immediately startled.

"You're not making this up, are you? If someone really died, wouldn't everyone know?"

"Ha, young man, this world is not as simple as you think! Most people die unknown... But that's not important. What's important is that the people who died here are very strange. It is said that there are no signs of homicide, but it doesn't seem like suicide either. In short, it's very strange."

"Heh, uncle, you're just making this up! It wasn't murder, it wasn't suicide, so how did he die?"

How would I know? I just heard it from others.

The two were having a great time chatting.

Suddenly, a young man wearing a black vest, a blue trench coat, and trousers, with a bizarrely colorful hairstyle, appeared in the venue. He also had a cell phone and a duel disk with him.

Did you leave something behind?

A staff member turned to look and asked the other person.

The other person's outfit had a cosplay feel to it, but the staff here were used to it and didn't make a fuss about it.

"Want to have a duel with me?"

Instead of answering, the other person asked a question, then reached out and revealed a stack of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards.

"I don't play this."

The staff member was completely baffled.

"I see. It seems you are all people without a fighting spirit."

The other person glanced at everyone in the room, turned around and left, disappearing from his sight.

"Wait, that person looks like the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game enthusiast who died here before..."

In another corner of the venue, a man who witnessed this scene suddenly showed a look of horror.

38. Next chapter: The Death of Gokou Ruri

That evening, an urban legend spread like wildfire.

People encountered a man near the Tokyo Big Sight who claimed to want to have a Yu-Gi-Oh! card duel. He looked very much like Yugo Sato, who had won the Yu-Gi-Oh! tournament several times and was known as the modern Yu-Gi-Oh!.

If that were all, people would probably just think the other party was doing performance art and laugh it off.

However, at that moment, someone posted a comment on the forum: "Mr. Sato has passed away. Please don't make such a malicious joke."

"How could that be? I'm a regular Yu-Gi-Oh! player, how could I not know the famous Mr. Sato! Could he have a twin brother and be cosplaying him?"

"Mr. Sato didn't have a twin brother, and even if he did, he just passed away; it's impossible for him to impersonate him to do such a thing."

Seeing that the other party was so certain, the poster had no choice but to look up the information himself, and only then did he notice that in a corner that no one had paid attention to, Sato Yugo's family had posted his obituary.

"How could this be? What I encountered back then was..."

The poster, deeply disturbed by the thought, broke out in a cold sweat as he recalled his encounter with Mr. Sato, noting that Mr. Sato seemed lifeless and gave off a sinister feeling.

Afterwards, he posted a new message online, wanting to confirm if there were others who had the same experience as him.

It turned out that, besides him, there were indeed other people who had encountered the same situation.

The next morning, news broke that someone had gone missing at the Tokyo Big Sight, and the missing person happened to be a fan of the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game.

This immediately made people connect these messages together.

"Could someone have accepted the invitation? And then..."

Those who have had this experience turn as pale as a sheet of paper, and feel a wave of fear wash over them.

……

The second day of the comic convention.

As agreed, after exiting the station, Izumi Hasegawa and Eriri first met up with the other three otaku girls outside.

Apart from Kirino Kousaka, who had clearly changed into a beautiful new outfit, the others' attire remained largely unchanged.

In such hot summer weather, especially after yesterday's high-intensity exercise, it's like going to a sauna while still wearing clothes, so the clothes are bound to get dirty.

This is clearly not because the girls are unclean, but because they all have the same clothes prepared as spares.

He could understand why Miss Black Cat wore the same clothes to maintain her style.

As for Eriri and that Miss Saori, they're still wearing those outdated otaku outfits. They're really going to great lengths to hide their identities. Could this Miss Saori also be a young lady from some wealthy family?

Because they had agreed to meet together, when they arrived at the venue, they found that a long line had already formed in the crowd.

"It's so hot, so humid, and so stuffy! I thought there would be fewer people today, but it's no different from yesterday!"

Kirino Kousaka, recalling the torment of yesterday, immediately felt deflated, her head drooping, her hands perpendicular to the ground.

"Can you be quiet for a moment? My annoyance level has increased because of you."

Ruri Gokou crossed her arms and said irritably.

"There's nothing we can do about it. After all, it's a major event that only happens twice a year. It would be abnormal if it weren't popular."

Saori Makishima said from the side.

"The summer doujinshi convention has started. Please do not push or shove, and line up to enter at one time."

The staff member supervising the event used a megaphone to remind everyone.

"At this rate, it'll probably take us an hour or two to get to the front of the line. In this sweltering heat, are you sure you can handle it, Eriri?"

Hasegawa Izumi looked up at the bright red sun and said something meaningful.

Eriri pouted, looked at the huge crowd, and quickly made a decision.

"Everyone, follow me."

She suddenly spoke, drawing everyone's attention.

"Sawamura?"

"I can't believe it," Makishima Saori asked.

"What are you doing? If you don't line up now, it will be even later if you do."

Kirino Kousaka frowned.

"You're not trying to say you have some secret plan, are you?"

Ruri Gokou scrutinized her.

"Stop talking nonsense and come with me."

Eriri held her fair neck high.

Hasegawa Izumi remained silent and walked alongside him.

The remaining three looked at each other, but still chose to follow.

They followed them to the outside of the queuing area.

"Come here quickly!"

After the two people not far away seemed to have been talking to the staff, Eriri turned around and waved to them.

They then proceeded smoothly through the side path to the venue.

"Mr. Sawamura, could it be that you're also participating in the exhibition?"

Saori Makishima quickly figured out the key point.

"Well, it is."

Eriri remained noncommittal.

Without saying a word, he made the three of them look at him in a new light.

Curiosity followed.

"Don't ask anymore, I won't tell you."

Eriri anticipated everyone's remarks and directly blocked their way.

Although they were curious, they were too embarrassed to ask any further questions since they were using the other person's privilege.

Enter the venue.

"I'll buy Eri Kashiwagi's new work first. I checked the fans' reviews online this morning and found that they are generally positive."

Saori Makishima pointed to the queue that was about to turn into a long line in the distance.

"Really? Then I'll buy one."

"I'll buy a copy for Sawamura's sake, even though I've never been interested in doujinshi."

Kirino Kousaka and Ruri Gokou were also curious.

Ten minutes later, they got their hands on the notebooks.

However, the girls will have to wait until they get home to tell Eriri, their 'fan,' about it online.

Next, the group spent another hour exploring the individual exhibition areas in this area.

"No good, the quality is much worse than the first day, and there aren't any doujinshi I like."

"After all, the competition on the first day is the most intense. To dare to compete with famous teachers for popularity, one must be confident in the quality of their work."

"It felt quite novel yesterday, but it's getting a bit stale today. Luckily, I received a really nice Meruru doujinshi."

They went to an open space to talk.

"We've finished looking around here. Shall we go to the company exhibition area in Hall 34 (West)?"

Eriri still looked like she hadn't had enough.

"Of course I'll go! I have something to do at the Alice+ booth!"

Kirino Kousaka clenched her fists in front of her chest, looking extremely excited.