Two Worlds, Starting with Kaguya of Penglai Mountain

Kazuya Kurokawa: "So, what are your plans next, Hanami? Let me state in advance that I'm prepared to stay in this world for about ten years."

Anna Hanami: "Even if you ask me that, I don't know what to do next."

The blue-haired girl glared at Kurokawa Kazuya and gave a dissatisfied reply to his words.

Humans aren't robots; you can't just change your attitude whenever you want.

Not to mention that before she can actually go back, Banami will never be separated from Kurokawa Kazuya, so it's impossible to force her to reduce her attention to him under these circumstances.

Kazuya Kurokawa: "Shall we leave it at that for now?"

Anna Hanami: "Let's leave it at that for now."

After saying this, the two looked at each other for a while, and then turned around almost at the same time and walked towards Yuyuko, Youmu, and Kaguya who were now gathered together.

As they walked, Kurokawa and Mitsukoshi discussed some recent developments:

"Yoshiki is researching methods to travel from the real world to another world. After you go back, Bana will also have a chance to come from the real world."

Anna Hanami: "Kurokawa, shut up."

The blue-haired girl poked the boy next to her with her finger, her tone full of dissatisfaction.

Anna Hanami: "Don't think you can do whatever you want just because I have feelings for you."

She directly ripped through the veil between them, revealing a surprising aggressiveness.

Perhaps because she was in the wrong, Banami's aggression at this moment was much fiercer than usual.

Is he using this behavior to cover up his guilty conscience?

Honestly, if they went back to the modern world, where they would be completely cut off from Kurokawa Kazuya and unable to contact him anymore, as if they had abandoned each other, Anzu Hachimi, out of consideration for their feelings for each other and her own personality, might choose to stay and accompany him.

At least the communication between the two sides would not be as peaceful as it is now.

But the problem is that the two worlds can connect via the internet, and according to Yoshiki's idea, Banami might even be able to come to this world in other forms.

In that situation, she was completely unable to muster a resolute mindset.

Not only is she certain of choosing to go back, but Kurokawa Kazuya, who is beside her, is the same.

Because it's stuck in a limbo, even feelings of rejection and sadness can't be fully expressed.

Kazuya Kurokawa: "Actually, it's not without its benefits for Hachina to see you go back. This way, I'll have another partner in the modern world whom I can completely trust."

Anna Hanami: "Hey! Don't force me to die with you."

She looked at Kurokawa Kazuya with an unusually fierce gaze.

Kurokawa Kazuya simply smiled at this.

If you were to ask Kurokawa Kazuya how he plans to treat Hachimi in the future, he actually wouldn't know either.

If the other side can't change their mindset in a short time, can Kurokawa and Michiko do it?

Things actually turned out better than he had imagined. At least Anna Hanami was much better than he expected, and she didn't act unreasonably.

Kurokawa Kazuya had thought he would calm down, but that was just his own assumption; in short, his mind was a complete mess.

Chapter 45 Youmu: Am I the Protagonist?

"Did something happen between you two?"

The crisp sound came from the pink-haired girl's mouth.

Saigyouji Yuyuko glanced at Kurokawa Kazuya and Yanami Anna walking side by side in front of her, and bluntly asked her question.

Kazuya Kurokawa: "Absolutely not."

Anna Hanami: "You must have seen it wrong."

The two spoke almost simultaneously.

They were silent for three or four seconds before turning to look at each other at the same time.

Hanami's gaze toward Kurokawa Kazuya was urging, and Kurokawa Kazuya's gaze toward Hanami was equally suggestive.

In short, aside from Kaguya Houraisan, whom there was no way to avoid, neither of them had any intention of exposing their private affairs to others.

So, without any prior discussion, the two parties tacitly changed the subject.

Anna Hanami: "Yuyuko, how's the communication with Youmu going? Are there any particularly flashy moves? Also, is there anything you don't understand about filming the video?"

The blue-haired girl stepped forward and grabbed Saigyouji Yuyuko.

Meanwhile, Kurokawa Kazuya took out his phone and opened a chat app.

He approached Youmu Konpaku: "True samurai moves don't seem to have much of a performance element. Youmu, you can try reading more manga. The power doesn't matter; the important thing is to make some flashy moves."

He presented the pictures that Yanami had recently collected and sent to him to Youmu Konpaku.

In reality, knife skills are killing techniques, aiming to kill with a single blow and minimizing unnecessary movements.

Do not add entities unless absolutely necessary.

The sword techniques in comics are meant to be shown to the readers; basically, they're drawn to look as cool and as awesome as possible.

Didn't you notice that the main characters in the comics usually stand in all sorts of strange and unique postures, highlighting their individual characteristics and styles?

Now that we're planning to showcase it online, we naturally need to research some cool poses.

To be honest, this kind of thing wouldn't be that difficult for Youmu, who is definitely a master of swordsmanship in the modern world.

Youmu Konpaku: "Something's just weird about it."

The meticulous samurai carefully observed Kurokawa Kazuya beside him.

From her perspective, Kurokawa's request was quite strange.

It's somewhat like her mindset when she was seven or eight years old. Back then, when she was learning to fight, she would also think about making her movements look cooler.

Unfortunately, her idea was ruthlessly thwarted by her grandfather, the spirit demon.

The girl's childish and immature thoughts were gradually hidden away.

However, in the end, Youmu Konpaku is not like Youki Konpaku, who has experienced countless life-and-death battles.

Youmu's current combat skills are still at the "technique" level, in other words, she is still building a foundation.

According to the original plan of the Soul Family, she will enter the stage of actual combat and life-and-death battles after her body is fully developed and matured at the age of 18 next year.

After experiencing life and death, she will probably fully understand the principle that swordsmanship is a killing technique, as her grandfather said, and gradually discard useless movements based on her own fighting style.

Unfortunately, this process was interrupted halfway through.

Her grandfather's spirit, Youki, seemed to be planning for the Saigyouji family and Kurokawa Kazuya to cooperate completely, and he hadn't mentioned his own future plans since the group met.

Youmu Konpaku, this girl who already possessed a certain heroic spirit, may well harbor the same desire for coolness as a young man.

If it were a different era, Youmu would probably be the kind of female card player, model kit enthusiast, or arms collector, whose interests tend to lean towards those of men.

That’s why…

Youmu Konpaku: "What kind of action does Master Kurokawa need?"

The usually rigid samurai, with a hint of excitement that she herself didn't even realize, asked a question.

Kazuya Kurokawa: "Ideally, it should be the kind of moves that can be gradually upgraded. You can start with simple basic moves, and then the moves can have more functionality and look more powerful."

He was naturally happy to see Youmu's interest; making games was something he could do as a job.

But truly good games are often made by creators who are genuinely interested in them.

He began to describe his needs using gestures, and then demonstrated a few actions in front of the other person.

Kazuya Kurokawa: "Because it's a side-scrolling action game, it's best if the various actions can be seen from the side. In addition, it's not just about the actions themselves, but also the scenes that allow the actions to be performed. I also need information from you, Youmu. You don't have to participate in the entire process, but you need to provide the basic ideas so that I can design the subsequent maps."

Youmu's swordsmanship demonstration wasn't just for filming videos for Hanami and Yuyuko; it's also related to the new game that Kazuya Kurokawa is preparing to create.

In the game he designed, the protagonist should have a decent skill tree.

The skill tree contains different skill points, which can be unlocked through different completion ratings.

Ideally, players can choose different skills to allocate points to at the beginning according to their own preferences, and each level can also have different solutions depending on the skills the player has.

Youmu Konpaku: "This isn't difficult; the Konpaku family has plenty of teaching materials on this subject."

The white-haired samurai nodded thoughtfully.

Youmu is currently in the theoretical learning stage. In addition to practicing swordsmanship, she spends her days reading books that record various battle scenarios, absorbing experience and understanding how to deal with different battle scenarios.

The requirements made by Kurokawa Kazuya can be perfectly found in those books.

At this point, a strange thought actually surfaced in Youmu's mind.

Because of Kurokawa Kazuya's collaboration with the Saigyouji family, Youmu actually had some information about the game "Tsukihime".

Youmu Konpaku: "Does Master Kurokawa want to put me into the game?"

Kazuya Kurokawa: "It's not that I've put you into the game; it's mainly about the character you control. They'll use your fighting techniques, but the character itself is fictional. The protagonist should be..."

Halfway through his sentence, Kurokawa Kazuya noticed that Youmu Konpaku seemed to have sensed a change in her emotions.

He suddenly realized that the only game that had ever existed in this world was "Tsukihime," a visual novel. Because he only knew "Tsukihime," Youmu naturally applied the concept of video games to the visual novel "Tsukihime."

Kazuya Kurokawa: "Let me explain. My next game is not a romance game with cute girls, and there won't be any scenes that are inappropriate to watch."

As he continued explaining, he realized that his words still felt somewhat hollow.

The spirit youmu in front of him did not calm down because of his words; instead, she seemed a little embarrassed.

After thinking for a while, Kurokawa Kazuya simply searched for a few videos of side-scrolling action games similar to the original Mario series on video websites and showed them to Youmu.

Youmu Konpaku: "Is this it?"

The girl nodded and murmured to herself. She glanced quickly at Kurokawa Kazuya beside her, then tried to straighten her face.

Perhaps because she had recently read a lot of things, her thoughts kept wandering off course.

Just now, some images of myself as the protagonist, splitting up Kurokawa-sama in Seventeen and doing *that* with him flashed through my mind.

Fortunately, her willpower was strong, and Youmu took two deep breaths.

Youmu Konpaku: "I'm so sorry, my thoughts are too filthy."

The meticulous white-haired girl bowed earnestly to Kurokawa Kazuya in front of her, apologizing.

Kazuya Kurokawa: "..."

He found himself struggling to handle a serious girl like Youmu.

You could have kept those words to yourself, right?

Kazuya Kurokawa: "Let's talk about compensation."

Youmu Konpaku: "A reward? Like what Princess Kaguya received?"

Kazuya Kurokawa: "Kaguya is a special case and won't be included. As for Youmu, I'll exchange your reward with faith, magical artifacts, or something else. Asagumo and Yoshiki are planning to design a currency system centered around special points. After the game is completed, I'll allocate points to you based on your earnings, which you can then use to exchange for items you've earned after the game's release."

He explained his thoughts in detail.

Youmu Konpaku nodded, but the hint of disappointment on her face was quite obvious.

Kurokawa Kazuya: "Does the demon want a different reward?"

Youmu Konpaku: "Hmm, I was thinking that if I could get the same treatment as the princess, I could ask Master Kurokawa and Miss Yuyuko to spend the night with me, but it seems that won't work now."

The spirited young woman spoke her mind without any hesitation.

Although she felt very shy while reading some doujinshi, Youmu still thought it would be a great thing to have Kurokawa-sama and her young lady together.

Kazuya Kurokawa: "Let's just let things take their course."

He shook his head, offering no direct response to Youmu's words.

Now that he has confessed to Hanami, Kurokawa Kazuya's thoughts are still wavering.

It's impossible for him not to have some special feelings towards Saigyouji Yuyuko, the girl who declared she wanted to have a child with him.

Rather, it's more accurate to say that he's currently spending time getting to know her, and time will tell. After all, he's the man who got dumped, so—

"Kurokawa, are you going to go with Yuyuko?"

A crisp sound came from behind him. Kurokawa Kazuya turned around and saw Yanami Anna standing behind him.

Kazuya Kurokawa: "..."