Chapter 136: New Persona Slot
Later that evening, in a mountain forest on the outskirts of Kawasaki City.
"Thank you, thank you! Thank you very much! Thank you very much, Princess!"
A sea of kneeling figures filled the clearing. The "Mountain God" at the front and hundreds of yokai behind it were bowed so low their foreheads practically kissed the dirt, their gratitude spilling out in a frantic chorus.
Standing beside Iwanaga Kotoko, Asagiri couldn't help muttering, "This is the Mountain God?"
Kotoko smiled and nodded. "Yes."
"Princess's Boyfriend, I am the Mountain God…"
The Mountain God rose slightly, towering almost three meters tall in a wide, pristine white divine robe. It tried very hard to look solemn and holy.
Asagiri stared at it for two seconds, then spoke carefully.
"You… are a rat spirit?"
It wasn't that he wanted to be rude. It was just that the sight was genuinely hard to take seriously.
The creature's robe looked majestic, but its head and body were unmistakably those of a fat gray rat. A long tail stuck out from beneath the hem and wagged enthusiastically the entire time. Its whiskers twitched with every word, like they were adding their own commentary to the ceremony.
Asagiri's gaze dropped to the heavy blush caked across its cheeks.
"And you're wearing that much rouge, so you're a female rat?"
The Rat Mountain God's tiny eyes widened with reverence. It prostrated itself again as if struck by divine revelation.
"As expected of the Princess's Boyfriend! You saw through my true form at a glance!"
Asagiri paused.
"…It would be strange if I couldn't, right?"
Noticing his expression, Kotoko leaned closer, rose onto her toes, and whispered into his ear.
"Most yokai have very low intelligence. Even this Mountain God is only about as sharp as a four or five year old child. That's why they can't resolve disputes on their own, and why they asked me to become their God of Wisdom."
Her lips curved.
"There are benefits, though. Most yokai are kind hearted and extremely loyal. They will never betray me, their Princess."
Kotoko straightened and turned toward the kneeling crowd. She lifted her staff and pointed it at Asagiri beside her, smiling sweetly.
"From now on, you will treat him with the same respect you show me. He is also your God. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Princess!" came the unified response.
Satisfied, Kotoko walked back to Asagiri and looked up at him, eyes sparkling with mischief.
"Well? How does it feel, being the Princess's Boyfriend of the yokai?"
"That title is way too long," Asagiri said with a faint smile.
Then, mid sentence, he froze.
Something deep inside his chest stirred, like a string had been plucked in the depths of his soul.
"Kotoko, you…"
His eyes turned a bright, unnatural golden yellow.
Kotoko stiffened, startled. For a moment, she thought he had activated a Persona again.
The yokai sensed it too. A pressure they couldn't understand rolled out from Asagiri like a silent tide. The Rat Mountain God and the surrounding yokai, already wary of the Princess's Boyfriend, immediately pressed themselves flatter to the ground, trembling like leaves in a storm. No one dared raise their head.
"This is…"
A tarot card formed in midair, spinning slowly as it drifted down. Asagiri reached out and caught it.
On the card was the image of the upright Magician.
"The Magician?"
The card's glow seeped into his palm and vanished.
Kotoko's eyes widened, surprise mixing with confusion. "You got a new Persona? Where did the Magician come from?"
Asagiri smiled. "You are the Magician."
"What!?"
Kotoko's face went blank for a beat, then crumpled into instant melodrama. Her eyes welled with tears, and her voice choked as if she'd been wronged by the universe itself.
"Wuwuwu… first you treated me like a tool and unleashed your beast like desires on me, and now you want to subdue me into becoming a Persona!" She sniffled. "This isn't a Persona, you're taking me home as a… as a—"
"Stop," Asagiri cut in, tone flat and merciless. "Don't start free styling."
Kotoko froze mid spiral.
"You're not becoming my Persona," Asagiri continued. "But it is because of you, who symbolize the Magician, that I unlocked a new Persona slot."
"A new Persona slot?"
Kotoko's expression sobered. When it mattered, she could switch gears instantly.
She lowered her staff slightly, eyes narrowing as her mind raced.
"It's clearly a talent tied to clearing a Dungeon, but it triggered outside the system's normal rewards. And it happened because of something in the real world… I'm the upright Magician, so…"
She hesitated, then spoke like she couldn't believe her own theory.
"Don't tell me you unlock a new Persona slot every time you add a new harem member? What kind of talent is that? It sounds like it was transplanted from an eroge."
"How would that even be possible?" Asagiri shook his head. "It just looks similar."
He spoke patiently, simplifying it without dumbing it down.
"Think of it like this. When I form a bond with a fated person, that bond unlocks a new Persona slot. Each person also corresponds to a tarot symbol."
He tapped his palm lightly, as if feeling the lingering warmth of the card.
"You're the upright Magician. As for Yuuki Asuna, she could be the High Priestess, the Empress, the Chariot, or the Lovers. Any of those would fit. For Kato, it should be the Hermit."
Kotoko listened closely, gaze steady.
"Persona is power born from my Sea of Souls. When I meet certain conditions and form bonds, my Sea of Souls becomes richer, so it can hold more Personas. That's the basic idea."
"Ooh."
Kotoko dragged the sound out, thinking hard. Then she lifted her head like she'd reached a conclusion, eyes bright with triumph.
"So even though I'm one step behind Asuna in love, I'm the first bond that gave you a Persona slot?" She grinned, delighted. "Great! Wuhu wuhu! Sorry, Asuna. This time, it's the victory of me, the God of Wisdom!"
Clang.
Asagiri flicked her forehead lightly.
Kotoko immediately clutched the spot, looking wronged. "Hmph… what was that for…"
Asagiri sighed, half amused, half helpless.
"There aren't many people in this world who can match my level of abstract." His mouth curved slightly. "And you're one of them. Truly, among the world's abstract heroes, it's just you and me."
…
That evening, back in Tokyo at Iwanaga Kotoko's home, the four members of the team gathered again.
"The seven day cooldown is over," Yuuki Asuna said, phone in hand. "It's time to queue for the next Dungeon. If we sign up now, the entry time will be Monday. Is that okay, Megumi?"
Kato Megumi nodded, voice gentle as always. "Taking leave from school and making excuses to my family are both fine, but…"
Her calm black eyes shifted.
First, she looked at Asagiri. Then she glanced at Yuuki Asuna and Iwanaga Kotoko. Finally, she tilted her head slightly and said something that made both girls' faces heat up.
"Why do I feel like the atmosphere between the three of you has changed a little? Did something happen that I don't know about?"
Yuuki Asuna and Iwanaga Kotoko went rigid.
That intuition is too sharp.
Did she notice? Did she actually notice everything?
Asagiri had said before that teammates needed absolute trust. Still, this wasn't exactly the kind of topic you could bring up in a normal conversation.
How were they supposed to explain it?
"Both of us like him, and to avoid hurting anyone and breaking up the team, and also because his stamina is outrageous and we would literally die without a shift system, so we decided to open the harem route and live happily ever after as three"?
There was no universe where they could say that out loud.
Just as Yuuki Asuna and Iwanaga Kotoko were both mentally cornered, Kato Megumi spoke again, calm and unhurried.
"Maybe the special training these past two days was just too exhausting and I'm imagining things." She gave a small, polite smile. "Let's get back to business. Leader, can you check the optional Dungeon keywords first? Then we can discuss."
"…Okay."
Asagiri nodded and tapped the eye icon app on his phone.
Just like the previous times he actively queued, the Dungeon keywords appeared on the screen.
[Hotel]
[Mist]
[Village]
"Hotel, mist, and a village…" Kotoko murmured, eyes narrowing in thought. "It's hard to tell from the keywords which one is the anomaly type. But we don't have to enter an anomaly one, right? Among these three, I think the most suitable for us is—"
Before she could finish, a new line of text appeared on Asagiri's screen.
[A super large Dungeon will open this Saturday in the real world, corresponding keyword is "Hunt". If you sign up actively on Thursday and enter the super large Dungeon, regardless of the clear evaluation level you achieve, you will receive additional rewards from the system]
"Super large Dungeon?"
Yuuki Asuna, Kato Megumi, and Iwanaga Kotoko all froze for a beat.
Then Yuuki Asuna looked at Asagiri, hesitation in her voice.
"Why does this system prompt feel…" She swallowed lightly. "Like it's asking for our help?"
.....
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