Chapter 318: Foolish Admin
Eternally Seventeen: Bastard Admin-sama, don't you dare underestimate a youkai sage's resolve. I've still got 2,500 Points sitting in my pocket right now—haven't even spent what I got from the last event yet! [Image] See? 2,500 Points, right there.
Eternally Seventeen: I'm crossing over! I am ACTUALLY crossing over!
Eternally Seventeen: ...Wait, why is literally nobody trying to talk me out of this?!
Eternally Seventeen: UNACCEPTABLE. Fine, don't believe me. Crossing over it is.
Kaguya-sama: Wait, Yukari-nee's not actually going through with this, is she?! Scary...doesn't that mean her and Admin-sama, alone, together?!
Kaguya-sama: Then again, as thick-skinned as Yukari-nee normally is, she's got literally zero real experience with romantic stuff. She'll probably chicken out, right?
Crazy Diamond: Popped in for a second and walked straight into a massive event unfolding. If I hadn't checked in during a study break, I'd have completely missed all this.
Admiral Kizaru: Old me's been holding back this whole time, but I genuinely can't stay quiet any longer.
Senbei Is So Tasty: BORSALINO! Slacking off again today, are you? Keep it up and old me's cutting half your bonus this month!
Senbei Is So Tasty: Since when is two people dating anything worth gawking at? Get back to your paperwork, you still haven't finished yesterday's, and you're already trying to slack off again?!
My True Form Is Cola: Poor Kizaru-ojisan, once you leave the ranks of the idle, there's no going back.
My True Form Is Cola: No idea why, but I'm feeling a weirdly satisfying sense of schadenfreude right now.
Maidang: The adult world's so complicated...this little kid is shaking in her boots.
Sakura Matou: Same here, shaking too. Good thing I don't need to work for a living yet.
Admiral Kizaru: Waaah, Sengoku-san, can't you just let old me rest for a few minutes?
Senbei Is So Tasty: Don't think old me doesn't know—you've already been slacking for half an hour straight!
Admiral Kizaru: Eh? Ahem, ahem! Getting right back to work, right back to work.
Terrible Tornado: Anyone else notice? Admin AND Yukari-senpai both went dark at basically the same time!
Street-Corner Illustrator: There's no way Yukari-senpai actually went over to Admin-sama's place, is there?
Kaguya-sama: Pfft...is it really that serious? Did she genuinely just cave to a dare THAT fast?
My True Form Is Cola: I'm dumping all my Kaguya stock and putting everything on Mama Yukari stock!
Kaguya-sama: Why am I getting dragged into this AGAIN?! (▼皿▼#)
[...]
The Dimensional Chat Group buzzed along exactly as lively as ever—except for the one member who normally kept the chatter going the most, the youkai sage herself, who'd gone conspicuously silent.
Inside a bedroom in a two-story house somewhere in Konoha, a pair of black eyes and a pair of violet eyes locked onto each other, holding for several long seconds. The room settled into an oddly charged silence.
Ryū's face twitched slightly. He genuinely hadn't expected this loudmouthed youkai to actually go through with it—burning 1,000 Points just to cross into the Naruto world.
Completely caught him off guard. This was squarely outside anything he'd have predicted.
And yet, here it was—Yukari really had spent 1,000 Points to cross over. This youkai sage had genuinely taken the bait. Hard to believe.
He was fairly certain the youkai sage standing in front of him was, without question, one hundred percent real.
Not a hallucination. Not a dream. Definitely not some genjutsu someone had slipped over him.
"Yaraya~ why's Admin-sama making that face? Something as trivial as a fireworks show, and you thought that'd make this humble self bashful? Pfft, I've lived far too many years to even remember what 'bashful' means."
Yukari held an elegant folding fan in one hand, a hint of teasing mischief dancing in her bright, clear eyes, her whole tone dripping with playful mockery.
She paused for a moment, glancing around the room, and remarked, mildly surprised, "Here I was expecting a single dog's home to be an absolute disaster zone, but this is actually pretty clean and tidy—wasn't expecting that, honestly. Anyway, Admin-sama, didn't you mention there's a fireworks show coming up?"
Listening to the youkai sage's teasing tone, Ryū shook off the odd tangle of thoughts running through his own head and gave her a once-over, sizing her up.
Then, with an easy, unbothered expression, he shrugged. "You actually showing up was pretty unexpected on my end too. But fireworks shows are basically couples-and-married-folks territory. You sure two single dogs like us won't just end up choking down dog food out there?"
"Is Admin-sama getting cold feet on me now? Heh...typical man, all talk and nothing to back it up."
"Pfft, 'all talk' my ass. Going's fine by me."
"Well then, let's go. Which way?"
"East."
"ojbk!"
[...]
Stepping outside, Ryū still felt a lingering sense of disbelief—Yukari showing up like this genuinely blindsided him. Not that he had any real objection to her being here; he was, after all, the one who'd opened up her crossing permissions in the first place.
He just hadn't expected the youkai sage to be quite this decisive about it. Not at all what he'd have predicted from her.
Did she take the wrong medicine today or something?
Did the sun rise in the west today?
The two of them walked side by side through Konoha's bustling main street, now well into the evening—22:25, with the fireworks show only five minutes out.
Even this late, Konoha showed no sign of quieting down. If anything, the streets felt livelier now than they had back at seven or eight in the evening.
Makes sense, given the fireworks show only came around once a year.
No telling how many people in the village had been counting down to tonight.
"Admin-sama, so this is your world, huh? You've never once mentioned it back in the chat group—looks a bit different from an ordinary everyday world. Seems like there's plenty of people running around with pretty unusual abilities."
With Yukari's own perception and sensory range, distinguishing shinobi from ordinary civilians was effortless for her.
Ryū didn't bother hiding anything, answering plainly, "Nobody ever asked, so I never bothered bringing it up."
"By the way, you jerk Admin-sama—walking several hundred meters shoulder-to-shoulder with a vibrant, youthful beauty like this, and here you are, eternally single for years, not even the tiniest bit flustered? Aren't books always saying people with zero relationship experience get all shy around girls?"
"Says the pot to the kettle—you're just as single as I am, no room to mock anyone here."
Ryū rolled his eyes, then suddenly paused mid-step, tilting his chin forward. "There, that's the fireworks venue up ahead. Way too crowded over there, though—this spot's plenty good for watching too. Time-wise, we've got about thirty seconds left before it starts."
The spot he'd chosen sat along the bank of a river—really more of a wide stream, only three or four meters across.
The fireworks display itself was happening on the opposite bank, but that side was absolutely packed.
At a glance, it was nothing but a dense sea of heads stretching in every direction.
Almost entirely paired off, man and woman together.
Either couples.
Or married pairs.
Elbows resting on the wooden railing along the stream, chin propped in one hand, Ryū continued, "Guess this actually counts as my first time watching a fireworks show too. Ten-second countdown starting...wait, why'd you go quiet all of a sudden?"
The moment the ten-second countdown hit zero, a soft whoosh cut through the air.
A single firework streaked skyward, trailing a long tail of light, and burst open dramatically once it reached the top of its arc—a massive, dazzling explosion of color.
The thunderous boom didn't startle anyone; if anything, it only cranked the festival atmosphere up to its absolute peak.
Firework after firework shot skyward in rapid succession, the booming explosions rolling one after another, unbroken.
Half of Konoha seemed to glow, lit up by the brilliant, sprawling light overhead.
No telling exactly how many fireworks the village had used to pull off a display like this—they kept detonating in the sky like money was no object at all. A show like this couldn't have come cheap.
Ryū finally pulled his eyes away from the sky and turned to glance at Yukari beside him.
She, too, was leaning against the wooden railing, her bright, clear eyes fixed on the fireworks overhead, wearing a faintly distant, lost-in-thought expression—no telling what exactly was running through her mind.
Ryū didn't interrupt whatever she was thinking about. He had to admit—this youkai sage really was strikingly good-looking.
Sure, he'd always known Yukari was beautiful, objectively speaking.
But he'd rarely had the chance to actually study her this closely, this up close.
Her delicate profile, lit by the glow of the fireworks overhead, looked genuinely, strikingly captivating in that moment.
And, more importantly—it actually made his heart skip the tiniest little beat!
Guess puberty's finally catching up with me, huh?
Well...makes sense, I suppose. I am "18" now, after all.
Honestly, if he was being fully truthful with himself, pretty much any attractive anime-style girl gave him at least a small flutter of interest. Guess that's just how guys were wired.
Right as Ryū's thoughts started wandering off in a slightly inappropriate direction, Yukari's soft, honeyed voice suddenly reached his ears.
"Say...Admin-sama, this humble self's been mulling over something. Spending 1,000 Points purely out of stubbornness, just to watch a single fireworks show—isn't that kind of a waste?"
Ryū glanced sideways at her, letting out a helpless little grumble. "Oh, so you DO realize it's a waste? 1,000 Points goes a long way—that's like fifty revives in the Arena, easy."
"Which is exactly why this humble self thinks she ought to make sure those 1,000 Points end up feeling well worth it."
Well worth it? The Points are already spent—how exactly does she plan to make that "worth it" retroactively?
"Yaraya~ this humble self never quite understood this particular feeling before, but after mulling it over quite a bit just now, standing here...I think I might finally get it."
Yukari let out a soft, sudden laugh: "You foolish Admin-sama, this humble self is fond of you."
The moment those words left her lips, her figure vanished in an instant, back to Gensokyo.
Confess and run.
Thrilling.
...
☆☆☆
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