524 What Happened to Trust Between People?

Perhaps this is the special bond among the younger generation of female voice actors in Hanazawa Agency.

Yukino tidied her slightly messy hair and said unhappily, "This person's personality is really awful, isn't it, Inoue -kun?"

She suddenly turned her anger towards Shuya.

Shuya leaned back in his chair and said casually, "That's because you don't know how adorable she is."

Especially in battle.

Watching her beg for mercy was one of Shuya's favorite parts.

"... cute?"

Yukino repeated, puzzled, not understanding the meaning behind Shuya's words.

Shuya had no interest in explaining in front of everyone, and said, "Since everyone's finished eating, let's call it a day. Go do whatever you need to do. Oh, and don't forget to tweet about it later."

Mai asked, "Shall we go to the company now?"

"No need to rush, let's... um, let's go on our date first."

Shuya said casually.

Uesugi and Kyousuke felt their hearts pound, fearing a conflict might erupt.

Fortunately, no one else reacted.

... At least on the surface, there was no reaction.

"A date? That's not out of the question."

Mai wasn't embarrassed at all; she suppressed a laugh and asked, "Where are we going? Are we going to buy clothes?"

"Damn it, I'm absolutely not going to buy clothes."

Shuya's face contorted at the mention of this.

He had a premonition that he would run into the woman who was trying to sell him women's clothing again when he went to buy clothes.

Who the hell is that?! Can't this meme just die down?!

Who would want to see a grown man dressed as a woman?

"Where do you want to go?"

He spread his hands, dressed in Mai.

Shuya thought for a moment, "Should I go to Akihabara to observe the fans who buy my CDs?"

I don't want to go.

Mai thought this was too boring; what was there to observe?

Shuya joked, "Shall we find a coffee shop, sit down, and have a chat?"

"Get out of my way! I'm leaving! Go get released yourself!"

Mai angrily issued a triple refusal, picked up her bag, and prepared to leave.

"No, no, no, it's just a joke! Just kidding!"

Shuya rushed over and grabbed her hand, finally managing to persuade her to come back.

"You bastard, you know some jokes are just not to be made!"

Mai continued to provoke him.

Shuya could only force a smile and apologize.

Mai rolled her eyes at him, took out some stomach medicine from her bag and swallowed it. Her movements were so smooth and practiced that it was heartbreaking.

"How pitiful..."

Yukino and the others looked at each other with pity, feeling even more grateful that they didn't have to suffer like that.

If you can't make it right, you might as well eat the book.

Section 563, page 524: What about trust between people?

Everything that needed to be said was said, so everyone went back to their own lives—those who needed to work went to work, and those who needed to play went to play.

After the group disbanded, Mai and Shuya still went to Akihabara.

Rather than having a heart-to-heart talk with Shuya, she felt it would be better to accompany him to Akihabara.

Shuya wasn't really observing the fans; it was just something he did incidentally.

He mainly went shopping to see what the latest frozen eel merchandise was.

As the 2D Otaku of the group, he would occasionally buy some related merchandise to collect and play with.

Having Mai, a Ming Dynasty, accompany him around Akihabara might seem extravagant to outsiders, but Shuya didn't think so.

Mai had no idol aura in his eyes, and he felt no guilt about bringing her to Akihabara.

She doesn't come to Akihabara often, but after arriving here, she looked around with interest and said, "It's quite lively here."

"That's right, this place has a lot of locals and people from other areas."

Shuya glanced around and saw people from outside the area everywhere, but not all of them were 2D Otaku; some were simply tourists.

As always, there were many maids on the street holding up signs for coffee shops to attract customers.

If you look even closer, you can see suspicious signs in front of inconspicuous buildings nearby.

Shuya's gaze wasn't on the maids, not because Mai was there or not, but mainly because they weren't pretty.

With makeup, they're just passable; imagine what they'd look like without it... well, not that they'd turn into monsters, but they'd just be ordinary people, not worth a second glance.

Shuya led Mai straight to their usual shops, which were nothing more than Gamers, Animate, Sofmap, and the like, so I won't list them all.

He said, "There are definitely fewer people queuing to buy DVDs today than yesterday."

Of course.

Mai replied.

But you can still see queues at stores in Akihabara.

Shuya heard many compliments about his new album.

"The reviews seem pretty good."

He addressed the man in Mai.

"So you're actually here to observe the fans?"

"Just something I did."

Shuya started researching the newly released light novels to see if there were any he liked.

The results weren't very satisfactory; there wasn't anything I wanted to see.

The quality of light novels has been declining recently, with more and more moe (cute/moe) works being produced. Shuya like reading these kinds of monotonous novels either.

"I always feel like there were more masterpieces in the past. Mai- chan, do you usually read light novels?"

"I don't watch it much."

Mai sat beside him, looking at the densely packed novels.

Without exception, the covers are all very attractive, some even quite erotic, clearly not for serious people.

"Then let me recommend some to you?"

"Tell me about it."

"Emmm."

There weren't many light novels that Shuya would recommend, so he quickly led Mai to a bookshelf.

"This set is good."

"Half moon and sky... half moon sky." (Looking Up at the Half-Moon)

Mai read out the book title, "The title is quite artistic."

"The content is also very artistic. This novel has been adapted into an anime, but unfortunately it was short and the adaptation wasn't very good."

Shuya looked regretful. He had recommended this book series to others so many times that he had lost count of how many times he had told people about it.

"Hmm... anything else?"

"Recommending too many things isn't good, so I'll just recommend one more set."

Shuya pointed to another set of books.

"Book Girl?"

"That's right, it's the origin of what I often refer to as the heart-shaped stem."

"I'll buy it and take a look."

"I send you."

Shuya diligently pulled out a large stack of books from the bookshelf, and ran to pay with the joy of successfully recommending them.

Mai followed Shuya in line with her hands behind her back and successfully obtained a bunch of novels.

After buying the novels, they went to look at comics and merchandise, browsing through all the major department stores in Akihabara.

Just as Shuya wanted to walk around some more, he received a notification from Maeda Saori:

"The time is set, live broadcast will begin at nine o'clock."

"Nine o'clock, that's still quite late."

Mai was a little surprised.

"It's alright, I guess."

This will allow for more time for promotion.

Shuya said, "Shall we stroll around a bit longer and then head back to the company?"

"Casual."

After reaching an agreement, the two visited some small shops.

Before going to the company, Shuya asked Mai if she wanted afternoon tea, but this well-intentioned inquiry aroused her suspicion, and she resolutely refused to go into any such store with him.

"This world is becoming increasingly indifferent; where has the trust between people gone?"

Shuya was truly heartbroken.

But there was nothing they could do, so they had to leave Akihabara with Mai.

A few minutes later, the two returned to the company.

"Shu-chan, Mai -chan, you're here."

"Yes, please prepare it."

"It's no trouble at all, you're too kind."

Shuya found Maeda Saori in the room reserved for live broadcasts; she was discussing something with the company's staff.

When she saw Shuya and Mai, she waved for them to come over.

She asked, "Do you think there's anything that needs to be added to the venue setup?"

Shuya glanced around upon hearing this.

The layout here is quite simple.

In the center is a table, behind which are two sofas, and on the wall behind are promotional posters.

The poster, of course, features Xiu Shuya.

In addition, there are standard party decorations such as balloons and ribbons.