About half an hour later—
Baiye selected the "bug-teleport" task Esdeath had posted on the [Tasks] board and tapped Accept.
The reason for choosing her world as the meetup location was simple.
From the photo Chika had sent, Baiye could tell that Chika's world and Utaha's world were also deep into the night—same as his.
Even if early-21st-century Tokyo had a lively nightlife…
Both girls lived with family. It was clearly not ideal to sneak out at midnight to meet strangers their parents had never heard of.
And if they used a bedroom as the meetup venue?
Too cramped—and they'd have to whisper the whole time to avoid being discovered.
With those worlds ruled out, Yukari had also said—very directly—that part of her reason for proposing the meetup was simple curiosity about other worlds.
So the "venue" fell to Esdeath.
[You have accepted the task — Esdeath's request for help. Detected: you are not in the same world as the target. Begin teleportation immediately?]
[Yes] / [No]
(Tip: If you select No, you may begin teleportation at any time within the next 24 hours. If you do not abandon the task after 24 hours, you will be forcibly teleported.)
Yes.
The instant he confirmed, Baiye vanished without a sound.
…
Another world.
With a brief blur of sensation, Baiye—who'd been in the Matou residence one moment—found himself in a rocky wasteland the next, with little vegetation in sight.
It was also nighttime.
Before a small tent made from some animal hide—barely large enough for one or two people—several figures sat around a campfire, talking.
Baiye's eyes swept over them.
Chika Fujiwara: long pink hair, a face still carrying traces of youthful softness, but with a body already shockingly curvy—so much so that even a loose dress couldn't fully conceal it.
Utaha Kasumigaoka: black hair over her shoulders, exquisite features, now dressed to go out—dark jacket, matching pleated skirt, and long legs wrapped in black tights that drew the eye.
Yukari Yakumo: golden hair, a white long-sleeve dress with layered ruffles below, and a purple robe on top marked with trigrams—an East-meets-West ensemble, paired with a constant faint smile that lent her a uniquely mystic aura.
And then—
"You welcome them like this too?" Baiye asked.
He met Esdeath's ice-blue eyes and felt the unabashed, soaring battle intent in them.
"Chika and Utaha were ordinary people before today's enhancement. There was no need," Esdeath replied. "As for Yukari Yakumo, I already tested her before you arrived. I'm not her match."
"So," Baiye said lightly.
His gaze shifted to Yukari. She smiled and nodded in greeting.
Baiye raised a brow.
Like everyone else, Yukari was clearly curious about him—the newcomer who had joined today.
But compared to Chika and Utaha's straightforward curiosity, and Esdeath's pure fighting spirit…
Yukari's "observation" was something else.
If you wanted to be kind, you'd call it tactful.
If you were honest, you'd call it: perfectly calibrated to make him uncomfortable without crossing the line far enough to provoke open anger.
He walked over, sat by the fire, and introduced himself properly.
After exchanging names, they finally "met" in the true sense.
"The meat's still roasting," Chika said, handing Baiye a cup. "Orange juice or cola?"
The drinks were from Chika and Utaha. Utaha had also brought pepper, chili powder, cumin, and other seasonings after hearing Esdeath planned to hunt a Dangerous Beast for the meetup.
"Orange juice," Baiye said, gesturing to the bottle. Chika filled his cup.
Then the five cups—juice and cola—clinked together, led by Chika's toast:
"To celebrating that we've finally gathered here—truly beyond the limits of dimensions!"
"Cheers~!" ×5
Chika downed her cup in one go, then checked the meat above the fire.
As expected: only the surface was barely cooked.
"Need help?" Yukari asked.
"…How would you even help with that?" Chika blinked.
"Easy." Yukari snapped open her folding fan and waved it toward the meat. "The boundary between raw and cooked~"
"…!"
In an instant, the meat went from barely seared to sizzling and dripping with fat. With a light press from Esdeath's knife, rich juices ran out.
Chika's smile went stiff.
"Yukari, your instant-cooked barbecue has no soul!"
"…Then shall I go to the Netherworld and fish up a few ghosts as seasoning?" Yukari asked sweetly.
Chika: "…"
Wordlessly, Chika sliced the now-perfectly cooked slab and handed portions to everyone.
She took a bite.
Her eyes lit up immediately.
"This texture…! This is better than any barbecue I've ever eaten!"
"Hmph. That winged lion was an extremely rare, top-tier Dangerous Beast," Esdeath said, lifting her chin proudly. "One attack is enough to erase an entire village. It's way beyond what your world's environment could ever support. Of course the meat is better than anything you've had."
She continued, still smug:
"Of course, Utaha's seasonings and Yukari's 'boundary' matter too. I've roasted it myself once before. It didn't taste this good."
"It's mostly the meat," Chika said through another bite. "Mmm~ Compared to this, everything I used to call barbecue doesn't deserve the name… why doesn't our world have creatures like this?"
"I think it's better that our world doesn't," Utaha said, glancing toward the enormous corpse of the winged lion lying not far away—still two to three people tall even in death.
For humans in the 20th or early 21st century, guns and artillery could deal with such a beast.
But in earlier eras?
It would have been a disaster.
"It's a tradeoff," Baiye said, finishing his portion and feeling changes ripple through his body.
"What do you mean?" Utaha asked.
"He means—if your Earth had these beasts or anything like them," Yukari said with a smile, "then Esdeath-chan might have targeted you today."
She laughed softly.
"Didn't you feel warm all over after eating? That tiny piece you just ate is more useful to the body than several kilos of beef. Otherwise, why do you think Esdeath-chan got so strong so young?"
"It does have something to do with that," Esdeath admitted, meeting Chika and Utaha's curious looks.
To raise your physique, you needed food—plenty of it.
And Dangerous Beast meat was especially potent. The stronger the beast, the better the effect.
Esdeath had known this since childhood, raised in the Baruttes tribe—specialists who hunted Dangerous Beasts.
Talent mattered if you wanted to hunt top-tier beasts like the winged lion while still underage…
But the steady diet of Dangerous Beast meat throughout her growth had also played a major role.
"!" ×2
Hearing that from Esdeath herself—and remembering the live stream months ago when Esdeath, newly in the group, had kicked a many-meters-tall boulder to pieces to demonstrate strength—
Chika and Utaha both sped up their eating.
After finishing their portions, they saw the remaining meat was still only lightly seared, so they both looked to Yukari.
"Didn't you say instant barbecue has no soul?" Yukari asked, opening her fan to cover the lower half of her face, smiling at Chika.
"I love soulless cooking!" Chika declared without hesitation. "Meat only needs one thing: to be delicious. I'm not a demon—why would I want a soul?"
"Tsk tsk~" Yukari shook her head, then waved her fan again—
And cast the "boundary between raw and cooked" over all the meat above the fire.
-------
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