Author's Notes: Sorry if I took so long to upload this chapter. I had my hands full with college paperwork and tests during the past weeks. I'm lucky enough that I finally managed to upload this after a lot of college work. The next chapter of "Sentient Familiar of Zero" is coming up in the next days. Anyways, here's chapter 21, enjoy reading!
========== Chapter 21: Preparations ==========
It is Sunday today meaning no classes…
Keima yawned as he woke up from his sleep. As he opened his eyes, he saw his room the way it was last night. As he gets his thoughts up, he realized that he had slept on his desk unintentionally.
When he looked at the table, he saw the piece of paper where he wrote various calculations and routes on how to "capture" Mikuru. What was written on the paper resembled more like doodles than any legible writing though. Beside the paper is his pen and it appeared to have been used a lot in writing.
Keima wasted no time and went downstairs.
The first thing he did is he went to the kitchen to eat breakfast the moment he got on the first floor. As usual, Mari is cooking food for breakfast.
Keima sat down on the chair and started eating with his mother.
"Hey Keima! Slow down on eating. You're going to choke yourself!", Mari yelled at Keima who just swallows every piece of food that he puts in his mouth.
As usual, Keima just ignored all of his mother's ranting.
As soon as Keima finished up eating, he began to prepare himself up for today.
It was already 10 AM in the morning when Keima finished prepping himself. Not much to do in the morning but just let the time pass. Currently, all the games that he bought during the week are already finished.
Deciding to buy new games, Keima got up and went for Narusawa city.
Before going out, Keima told his mother that he's going out for a while.
Once he went out of the house, he started walking down the street.
"I wonder what games will I be able to buy today", Keima said as he walk through the streets.
Meanwhile, at an office in Narusawa city…
"Man, I'm beat", Sakaki said as he reclined on a chair.
"Hey, I heard you took a sudden leave just to find out the owner of the Fallen God's site. Did you found anything?", Senzo asked.
"Nah, the site's too secured. I can't break in", Sakaki replied, "Whoever's the owner of that site must be too damn good with computers or a professional hacker."
"You're probably stretching too much", Senzo answered back, "All sites are hackable. Even government sites aren't safe from hacking."
Sakaki frowned at the statement.
"If you saw what sort of site that guy has, you're going to get your words back", Sakaki replied.
"Now, you're making me think that this Fallen God guy must be a genius", Senzo immediately said.
"That's how it appears. Anyways, he updated his site a lot. Over 30 games were added in the latest update", Sakaki replied.
Senzo gulped at the statement.
"W-Wh-What?!", he exclaimed.
"I got that expression as well. I wonder if he's even human", Sakaki said.
Before the two could talk more, Taro entered the room and told Sakaki and Senzo about something.
"Alright guys, the president's going back from abroad tomorrow evening", Taro said.
The two paused for a moment before reacting.
"Wow, so he's finally going to return", Sakaki said.
"Now about you Sakaki, did you uncovered anything about this Fallen God?", Taro asked.
"Nothing, I can't find anything about him", Sakaki said.
"Hmm… I don't know what kind of guy this Fallen God is but something feels different on matters regarding him", Taro said.
"What do you mean boss?", Senzo asked.
"Aside from the president saying he's going back tomorrow, he also told me not to interfere with this Fallen God guy. He also said that this guy is working for him", Taro explained.
"Working?", Sakaki frowned at the word, "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Oh! I get it!", Senzo exclaimed, "This Fallen God guy must be one of the president's gimmicks!"
"Huh?", Sakaki and Taro exclaimed.
"Look, most of the games that this Fallen God guy is posting on his site are games that we created", Senzo explained, "And they are all finished in less than a day."
"Okay, I get it but how about the games from the other companies? We aren't the only ones in this business remember", Taro replied.
"And how will that benefit us?", Sakaki asked.
"That's true but if you compare the information about our games from those of the other companies, you will probably notice that it's more well detailed compared to others", Senzo replied, "And as for how it will benefit us, it kinda acts as some sort of advertisement to me. Oh yeah, from what I saw in that site, more games will be added weekly."
Taro thought for a moment and pondered on Senzo's explanation. The more he thought about it, the more it becomes plausible. In the past few days, Atlis' games were sold rather too fast and at a much higher price. Honestly, he refused the recommendation of one of the company's consultants to raise the prices of the games to take advantage of the Fallen God's popularity. In the end, however, he had no choice but to agree. The only reason why he disagreed with the price up is because he feared that it wouldn't sell because of the aforementioned cost.
Taro then wrapped up his thoughts and looked at Senzo who is also looking at him waiting for his reply.
"Well, Senzo, your explanation has a lot of circumstantial evidence to it. I just hope it will work in our favor", Taro said.
"Of course it is", Senzo replied optimistically.
Suddenly, Junichiro came into the room and looked at Taro.
"Boss, the developers have already finished creating the new games. They only need your approval to start mass producing it", Junichiro said.
Taro turned around and looked at Junichiro.
"Alright, I'll be there later to check on it", Taro said.
Junichiro nodded and left after he heard Taro's reply.
With Junichiro gone, Taro turned back his attention on the two.
"Start working now, we are already in working hours", Taro said, "Break's always at 12 noon."
With that said, Taro left.
As soon as the two men are sure that Taro is already gone, Sakaki asked Senzo.
"How did you came up with that?", Sakaki asked.
"Which one? That explanation earlier?", Senzo asked.
"Yes", Sakaki replied.
"It's just a lucky guess", Senzo replied in kind.
Meanwhile back at Keima…
He is already aboard a train headed for Narusawa station, a train station situated in Narusawa city as its name says. As the train moves, Keima looked at the many buildings and houses that the train passes by. He silently remained silent as the train advanced forward to his intended location. There's not much people around in the train since its Sunday. Sunday means no work and that means that people supposed to be working are at their houses resting as they won't be able to rest for the day tomorrow.
20 minutes later, the train reached Narusawa station. Like in the train, not much people are on the train station. Half of the people currently in the station are station personnel who both keep the station clean and safe.
Keima went down the stairs of the train station and made his way for the first game store he sees in Narusawa city. Unknown to him, the mysterious girl is in his trails.
"Secondary target is moving at an unknown location, commencing observation", the mysterious girl replied.
"Understood, you are free to intervene if he ever falls into danger", the mysterious female voice said.
The mysterious girl flew above maintaining a steady eye on Keima.
Back at Keima, he is in the 2nd floor of a mall and wasn't sure of what game store to go in first. Suddenly, he remembered about something.
"Oh right", Keima exclaimed, "I need to get some money in my account."
Luckily for Keima, there are several ATM booths in the mall he went in. He went for the third floor and he found an ATM booth with no one using it. Keima immediately went up to the machine and inserted his bank card into the ATM card slot. He then typed his ATM name and password. The first thing he did is to check the balance in his account. Much to his surprise, he found that his bank account got an increase of US$20000 and can be converted to yen on his discretion through the ATM's installed money conversion system.
"That guy isn't really lying", Keima said as he pressed a button that says withdrawing money from his bank account.
As soon as choices for withdrawing money are on screen, Keima selected the amount of money he wished to withdraw.
A few moments later, cash began to eject from the ATM machine which Keima grabbed. He then retrieved his ATM card and walked away.
"35000 yen, this should be enough for a shopping spree", Keima said as he counted the money he got from the ATM booth.
Keima went down to the second floor where the game stores are located. Since this is a mall, several stores selling the same kind of stuff located next to each other is quite common. Keima immediately went inside one of the game stores he saw earlier and started searching the game shelves.
"Hmm… these games are newly released huh?", Keima muttered as he grabbed a newly released game from the game shelf.
He stared at the game's box for a moment trying to discern the game's potential.
After a few moments of pondering, he simply decided to take it.
"Oh well, I could add this game on my website", Keima murmured to himself.
Keima went to the other shelves to look for games he could add to his shopping list.
As luck would have it, Keima found several games that piqued his interest. As an added bonus, he also found games that he used to play during his childhood days which were unfortunately destroyed along with his first game chair during an earthquake ten years ago. The gaming chair that he has is the third one. The second gaming chair was peacefully decommissioned during his middle-school years because it could no longer accommodate his growing gaming habits at that time.
As soon as Keima considered that he got all of the games he wanted, he immediately went to the cashier.
"That will be 18000 yen", the cashier said.
Keima handed over the money to the cashier.
"I should thank that unknown sender for the money", Keima thought to himself.
As soon as he left the game store, he immediately went inside the next one which is located next to the game store he went in first.
Once Keima got inside the next game store, he didn't find anything different compared to the first one except the games in here are more of American origins like Duty Calls: Absolute Warfare 3, SpeedOut, Spectre Espionage: Advanced Warfare, Slaughter Floor and more. There are still some galges in the store but Keima ignored them considering that he already bought a bag full of them and the second store probably has the same games as the first one. Keima then started searching the second game store for whatever games that can get his attention. He still have a sizeable sum of money left for shopping so he can still buy something else.
Meanwhile, at an unknown place…
Mikuru is resting on her chair and in front of her is a desk. On top of her desk is a picture of Keima without glasses, some sandwiches, a bottle of softdrinks, a pen, a pad of paper and a Mai-High Knighthood Files catalog.
"Is he a phantom?", Mikuru murmured.
Right now, she is having doubts about herself regarding the guy that she is searching.
The main reason why she is going after him is to meet him personally just like with the other guys she added in the Files. However… something now feels odd in her. She doesn't know how to explain it. When she saw the guy she is looking for, she… she experienced a deep and warm feeling that she can't suppress and understand. Is this really love? Impossible. That's what her logical brain says. She can't simply develop feelings for a guy she haven't even talked to personally. This must be some sort of infatuation or something else. However, her consciousness and, so to speak, her heart is saying the other way around. It's not the reason that dictates whether one person really loves another person or not. It's one's feelings that say so.
Mikuru pondered her forehead as conflicting thoughts drift in her mind.
"Just what is happening to me?", Mikuru asked herself.
Mikuru then grabbed the picture of Keima taken by Haruna. She then fixed a gaze on it and she looked at it without blinking.
"Whoever you are…", Mikuru said, "I really want to meet you."
Back at Keima…
He is already boarding a train headed for Maijima city. Night time has already set in just in time for Keima to go home. Shopping really takes time and the same applies to Keima as well. Like in the morning, not much people are inside the train which made the train cabins spacious. Keima sat at one of the comfy benches and waited for the train to reach Maijima.
"One last push tomorrow", Keima muttered to himself as he gaze the night scenery from the train's wide glass windows, "And the heroine will be finally conquered."
PS:
The American games mentioned in this chapter are parodies of real life games as follows:
Duty Calls: Absolute Warfare 3 - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
SpeedOut - WipeOut
Spectre Espionage: Advance Warfare 2 - Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2
Slaughter Floor - Killing Floor
Also, the next chapter will be the finale of Mikuru Nishino's conquest arc. Stay tuned to see how the Capturing God will conquer his 'target' next chapter.