Chapter 370: The Person Who Rejects a Love Triangle
Hearing Asagiri's words, Yamauchi Sakura could not help showing a moved expression.
Just as she was about to say something, Asagiri's phone suddenly rang.
"Oh, it's Kaguya."
Asagiri glanced at the incoming call number displayed on the phone, pressed the answer button, and put the phone to his ear with a smile.
"What's wrong, Shinomiya?"
Kaguya Shinomiya's calm voice came from the other side of the phone.
"Nothing. I just wanted to confirm that you didn't die in the Dungeon."
"Oh?"
Asagiri felt a little surprised and teased her with a smile.
"How come you admitted it directly? According to your personality, shouldn't you be finding all sorts of excuses at a time like this? For example, saying you have serious business to discuss with me, or that Ashikaga-sensei asked you to pass on a message, or that Fujiwara-san was blocked by me, so you were forced by her to call me?"
Before Kaguya Shinomiya could answer, Fujiwara Chika's dissatisfied and aggrieved voice came through the phone.
"Utsunomiya-san! Why did you block me again!? I clearly haven't done anything wrong recently, right!?"
"Those who understand, understand. Those who don't understand don't need to be told."
"What exactly do I need to understand? If you don't say it, how would I know?"
"Just go learn."
Fujiwara Chika was on the verge of losing it.
A distressed look appeared on her cute face as she clutched her head in frustration.
"Wuwuwu, what on earth is it... I don't understand! I really don't understand!"
Seeing Fujiwara Chika's brain go into shutdown mode because of Asagiri's riddler personality, Kaguya Shinomiya looked at the phone on the table, which had been placed on speaker mode.
A slight curve appeared at the corner of her lips, and a thoughtful look flickered in her beautiful red eyes.
She could not be sure why Utsunomiya-san had blocked Chika, but if Kaguya Shinomiya had to guess, based on her understanding of Asagiri, it definitely was not just to tease Fujiwara Chika.
Perhaps...
It was to make Fujiwara Chika come to her, so that the two of them could check on his safety together.
As for the reason?
Kaguya Shinomiya felt that with Asagiri's emotional intelligence, he must have noticed the rift that had formed between her and Fujiwara Chika some time ago due to certain events.
That was why he had deliberately blocked Fujiwara Chika before the Dungeon started today, ensuring that if she wanted to know the Dungeon clearance result immediately, she would have no choice but to come to Kaguya.
It might have been to bridge the gap.
But it was also possible...
That he simply wanted to avoid the Human Asura Mode level dilemma of whether to reply to Fujiwara Chika or Kaguya Shinomiya first.
Thinking of this, Kaguya Shinomiya could not help sighing softly.
No matter what the reason was, Utsunomiya Asagiri truly possessed a meticulous mind that far surpassed ordinary people in this regard.
"You... what grade did you get for clearing the Dungeon this time?"
"A. Kotoko got A+."
"Huh?"
Hearing that Asagiri had only achieved an A grade clearance evaluation, both Kaguya Shinomiya and Fujiwara Chika were very surprised.
Fujiwara Chika immediately leaned toward the phone and asked in confusion,
"Utsunomiya-san, how did you only get an A grade? That's too ridiculous, right? Was the Dungeon difficulty too high?"
"Because this Dungeon tested aspects that our team isn't good at."
Asagiri did not try to hide anything just because Yamauchi Sakura was nearby, and explained directly.
"As a control type caster, Kotoko's movement speed and stamina aren't outstanding. At this stage, Yamauchi can't even run. The main difficulty of this Dungeon lay in continuous high intensity combat and moving across large areas from one zone to another."
"Yamauchi was responsible for solving the stamina issue, but our team's mobility held us back. If we could have cleared those Cursed zones faster, we would have had more time to search for the Uncontrollables."
"Moreover, the timing of deducing the relationship between the Uncontrollables and the Hearts was a little late. We only cleared two Uncontrollables that had fused with Hearts."
"Also, we gave all the items and equipment that determine the clearance score to Yamauchi. Simply put, rather than all five of us getting mediocre scores, it was better to pour all the resources into Yamauchi."
Kaguya responded noncommittally.
"I see..."
After saying that, Kaguya Shinomiya immediately added,
"When are you coming back?"
"We'll hang out in Kyoto for another two days."
"You're still staying in Kyoto... But..."
Kaguya Shinomiya stopped there.
Because she suddenly realized she did not seem to have any reason to ask Asagiri to return to Tokyo early.
The development of the Player factions was being handled by Miwa Ashikaga.
NERvGear had already begun being put into use.
Shuchiin Academy was on summer break.
And there had not been any Cursed phenomena in Tokyo recently.
"Eh? Kyoto? Kyo-to!?"
Just as Kaguya Shinomiya was wondering what to do, Fujiwara Chika excitedly said,
"You're all planning to play in Kyoto for a while? Great! I heard the Fireworks Festival in Kyoto is beautiful. Since everyone has cleared the Dungeon, why don't we all explore Kyoto together? Let's call it the Shuchiin Academy Student Council summer trip!"
Kato Megumi spoke in a flat tone.
"I'm not from Shuchiin Academy."
Yamauchi Sakura chimed in.
"Me neither. We're both from Toyosaki."
"Oops, my mistake. Then how about..."
Fujiwara Chika quickly changed her wording and smiled sweetly.
"An internal victory celebration for the elite Players of the Ashikaga Budo Association. How about that? We'll head over tomorrow!"
After saying this, Fujiwara Chika looked at Kaguya Shinomiya beside her.
"Kaguya, are you coming?"
"I suppose I have no choice but to go, right?"
Kaguya Shinomiya was obviously very happy in her heart, but due to her tsundere personality, she still had to pretend to be helpless and hold her forehead.
"Even if your parents don't usually interfere with you much, they wouldn't agree to you traveling to Kyoto alone. There's no help for it. I'll just have to go with you."
"Hehe."
Fujiwara Chika immediately saw through Kaguya Shinomiya's tsundere thoughts, but she did not expose her.
Instead, she looked at Hayasaka Ai, who was sitting there playing on her phone and looking completely detached.
"What about Ai? Are you going?"
"Going."
Hayasaka Ai gave a definite answer without hesitation.
She looked up at Kaguya Shinomiya, who was sitting there, then lowered her gaze back to her phone.
Raising a hand to tuck her golden hair behind her ear, she said indifferently,
"If I don't go, someone might do something stupid."
"It's a deal then~"
Fujiwara Chika looked full of anticipation.
Then, as if remembering something, she said to Asagiri on the other side of the phone,
"Hey, hey~ Utsunomiya-san, we tried using NERvGear for virtual training these past few days. Guess who we chose as our opponent in the virtual environment?"
"It's me, right?"
"Eh... how did you guess it right away?"
"Because I am the strongest. Given Kaguya's personality, she would definitely want to simulate a battle against the strongest projection."
"That's true."
Fujiwara Chika responded first, then smiled triumphantly like a little girl wanting praise.
"Utsunomiya-san, we won! Although it was only in the NERvGear simulated battle, the four person team I formed with Kaguya, Ai, and Sakurakawa Rikka successfully beat you once!"
Kaguya Shinomiya said, slightly speechless,
"We only won once after twelve team wipes... It's hard to call that a win, right?"
"You cleared it in only thirteen attempts?"
Hearing Kaguya Shinomiya and Fujiwara Chika's words, Asagiri's tone sounded a little surprised.
"You guys are actually pretty impressive."
Fujiwara Chika lifted her chin, looking proud.
"That's only natural."
Kaguya Shinomiya held her forehead and sighed, muttering in an almost inaudible voice,
"If I'd known, it would have been better not to win. Somehow, it feels even more embarrassing than never winning at all..."
Asagiri, on the other end of the call, did not mind these things and simply asked with a smile,
"How did you win? Tell me the specific combat process."
The NERvGear simulation training was not only for improving the user's strength.
It also allowed Players acting as Projections to discuss and review with the Players who successfully cleared their projection, thereby summarizing their current weaknesses and conducting targeted training to strengthen themselves.
Although it was four against one, and although they were facing a projection that did not possess Asagiri's own mind and whose combat style was not as varied, being able to defeat a projection with combat focused Personas like Human Asura, Walrider, and Mita, capable of entering Human Asura Mode at any time, possessing close combat skill rivaling top fighters like Kuroki Gensai and Kanoh Agito, and even having the full health resurrection Sacrifice plus the one minute time reversal Shadow, was still enough to prove the strength of Kaguya Shinomiya, Fujiwara Chika, Hayasaka Ai, and Sakurakawa Rikka.
"Okay."
Fujiwara Chika obediently responded first, then smiled.
"Let Kaguya explain it. She's better at this than I am."
"It's like this."
Kaguya Shinomiya did not refuse and spoke directly.
"After a few initial attempts at trial and error, we discovered that although you possess flight ability and astonishing speed, both you and your Personas lack powerful mid to long range capabilities."
"Holy Cross isn't very effective against people, and the casting windup for Ice Spear is too obvious. Once the battle enters a stalemate, you usually have two choices."
"The first is to directly enter Human Asura Mode and forcibly break through the obstacles in front of you. The other is to summon Core Mita and counter surround the enemy with numbers."
"Facing the first situation, our initial choice was to try to avoid you, wanting to make you waste stamina. But we found that unless you were in a combat state, you would immediately exit Human Asura Mode and wouldn't waste even a bit of stamina."
"So the response we came up with later was for me to do my best to delay your pace, Ai to set traps in the arena in advance, Chika to provide support from a distance, and Sakurakawa Rikka to ensure I wouldn't be instantly killed by you, thereby slowly draining your stamina."
"Simply put, because Sacrifice can only heal injuries and cannot restore lost mental energy or stamina, forcing a stalemate is the best choice when fighting you. However..."
At this point, Kaguya Shinomiya could not help showing a complicated expression and spoke softly.
"The time we finally won, it was only because Chika had good luck and rolled three sixes in a row, applying triple powerful restraints on your projection. It was pure luck."
"And..."
Kaguya Shinomiya sighed and spoke slowly.
"The Projection doesn't possess the ability to use Supreme Magic Bullet. Otherwise, the moment you fell into a disadvantage, you would have instantly killed us."
"Honestly, the ability Supreme Magic Bullet... really is like cheating."
.....
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