Chapter 59: A Team Can Only Have One Leader
"Chika is a Player?"
Asuna froze.
It took her several seconds to breathe again. She drew in a few slow breaths, forced her expression back under control, then asked carefully, "Why would you think that? Did you notice something suspicious?"
Asagiri shook his head, tone casual.
"Chika herself hasn't shown any obvious flaws."
Then he pivoted without warning.
"The reason I suspect her is because of the suspicious points around Kaguya."
"Kaguya…" Asuna repeated under her breath, digging through her memories. After a moment, she looked up, genuinely confused. "In my impression, Kaguya doesn't seem suspicious at all."
"It makes sense you'd think that." Asagiri's voice stayed even. "You weren't at Shuchiin in middle school, and you don't know Kaguya that well."
Asuna swallowed a retort that tried very hard to escape. You weren't at Shuchiin in middle school either. And it's been, what, a week?
Before she could fully commit to the thought, Asagiri continued, and the details he laid out made her pause.
"Kaguya isn't just number one academically. She's talented in almost everything. Kendo, tea ceremony, flower arrangement, guzheng, dance…"
He paused a beat.
"And her strongest skill, kyudo. She won the national individual championship in middle school."
Asuna blinked. "That's… incredible."
"But after entering high school," Asagiri said quietly, "she didn't join the kyudo club."
"She didn't join any club at all."
Asuna hesitated. "Maybe she wanted to focus on her studies?"
"Possible." Asagiri nodded. "I beat her in the entrance exam, and she took second. With her personality, it wouldn't be strange if she quit everything to study harder and surpass me."
He looked straight at Asuna.
"But if she truly gave up kyudo, the one thing she's best at, just to beat me, would she really spend the first weekend of school playing at Fujiwara Chika's house instead of studying?"
Asuna's lips parted, but no sound came out.
Kotoko, sitting beside them with her tea, chimed in smoothly, as if explaining the weather.
"After my family secured the board seat, we checked campus surveillance from last Friday. Kaguya didn't take her usual car. She got into a car with Chika."
Kotoko's smile remained soft. "Whether she stayed the night at Chika's place isn't clear."
Then she continued, tone unhurried but sharp.
"But if she's a Player, she likely chose Saturday to enter a Dungeon, just like us. As for why she entered it from Chika's house, it's probably because her own residence is monitored."
"Without knowing the exact moment she'd be pulled into a Dungeon, or how long it would take her to clear it, Kaguya couldn't risk entering from home."
Kotoko tapped her cane lightly against the floor, as if punctuating her reasoning.
"Chika's family is also prominent. Even if Kaguya is being watched, the people watching her wouldn't dare keep tailing her at Chika's residence. If they were discovered, it could spark a conflict."
She tilted her head.
"And if Kaguya suddenly vanished while visiting, Chika would panic. The eldest daughter of the Shinomiya family going missing at her house would be a disaster."
"Chika isn't naive. She understands that."
Kotoko's eyes curved slightly. "So Kaguya must have told her about the Dungeon in advance."
"From that alone, even if Chika isn't a Player, she's at least an informed person assisting Kaguya."
Asuna sat there, stunned.
After a long silence, she finally exhaled, expression complicated.
"Thank goodness you two are my teammates."
"If you were my opponents…" She shivered slightly. "Just imagining it is terrifying."
It had only been a week since the game began. Two Dungeons, including the novice one.
And they had already dug this far.
More importantly, Asuna realized something else. Kotoko and Asagiri shared more than intelligence.
Neither of them let "morality" tie their hands when it mattered.
"So…" Asuna asked, voice cautious now. "What do we do?"
Asagiri looked amused at her expression.
"Why do you look like you're attending a funeral?"
"Even if Kaguya and Chika are Players, they aren't our enemies. Not right now."
"Huh?"
Asuna hesitated, then admitted in a small voice, "I thought you'd want to kill them, take their phones, and… extract their items and equipment…"
"Please." Asagiri sighed like she'd insulted his dignity. "I'm not some chaotic evil demon."
He took another sip of iced Coca Cola and continued with a faint smile.
"Also, do you think the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is useless? If we kill people in the real world, even with supernatural powers, it's hard not to leave traces."
"And those two are from prominent families. They have people following them, protecting them."
"To take that kind of risk, expose ourselves, just to randomly extract an item whose effect we don't even know, is pure stupidity. Completely unnecessary."
He leaned back, tone turning practical.
"Our priority right now is simple. We aim for the highest clear rating in every Dungeon."
"Use high level rewards to keep getting high level clears."
"A snowball. We keep rolling it until it crushes everything in our way."
He paused, then added, "Assuming what Megumi said is true, based on the Dungeons we've seen so far, the game hasn't introduced any Dungeons where the objective is fighting or killing other Players."
"No PVP themed Dungeons."
Asuna nodded slowly, then tested the idea aloud.
"Then… should we invite Kaguya and Chika to team up with us?"
"I'm not familiar with Kaguya, but Chika and I are close. She's not like the boring Shuchiin students, and she's easy to get along with."
Asagiri didn't answer directly.
He asked instead, "If we're in a Dungeon and your judgment and mine split, even lead to opposite conclusions, but I insist on my plan, what would you do?"
Asuna and Kotoko answered at the same time.
"We'll follow you. You're the Leader."
Asagiri shrugged.
"Then you already have your answer."
"A team can only have one Leader. One person has to make the final call."
"Kaguya is excellent, but if her judgment clashes with mine, she won't follow me the way you two do. With her personality and pride, it's impossible."
"So I'm not inviting her, for now."
He added, "And Chika is her closest friend. So I'm not inviting Chika either, for now."
Asuna nodded, accepting it. "That makes sense."
"And with Megumi, we already have four people."
"Finally, the serious stuff is done."
Kotoko brightened instantly and leaned in, already sliding toward Asagiri's arm.
Asuna reacted on instinct, reaching out to stop her.
"Hey, hey, hey. What are you doing?"
Kotoko looked up with innocent sincerity. "Cuddling my cute boyfriend."
Then she spoke as if announcing a very important policy.
"Don't forget, the excuse I gave my family for donating to Shuchiin was that I wanted to be with Asagiri all the time."
"If that's the story we're selling, we have to commit. At school, I need to act like we're madly in love. Hugging him, kissing him from time to time…"
She smiled sweetly.
"That's how it looks real."
Asuna rubbed her forehead again, half exhausted.
"I get the logic, but it really feels like you're just taking advantage of him…"
Asagiri looked down at Kotoko clinging to him like a satisfied cat and spoke without mercy.
"You should put away your love brain and think about your prosthetic leg."
"Once it breaks, you hop around on one leg like Spoink from Pokémon. If it gets damaged inside a Dungeon, that'll be a real problem."
Kotoko's eyes sparkled. "Leader can carry me. You've got great stamina."
"You're dreaming," Asagiri replied instantly. "At most, I'll launch you like a human cannon."
Then he added, as if suddenly inspired.
"If it really becomes an issue, we'll wait until we hit a cyberpunk type Dungeon."
"I'll get you a mechanical prosthetic leg that won't snap every time you flip."
"And a prosthetic eye that shoots lasers."
He lifted his drink slightly, as if toasting the idea.
"Forget being the God of Wisdom. From now on, it's 'flesh is weak, machine is ascendant.' Half spiritual power, half high tech hardware."
"You'll turn into a spiritual power version of Astro Boy."
"And what are you doing with curses then? When a Banshee shows up, you activate laser eyes and it's over."
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