Anime Crossover: The Losing Heroines Have Become Witches

Chapter 573 568: Questions and Answers

Regardless, in the current situation, Asakura clearly held the dominant position.

So, even though she would still fire off a few unrelenting barbs, Utaha herself answered Asakura's questions quite honestly.

"I can no longer remember exactly how long ago it happened..."

"Even prisoners in jail know to mark time on the wall by writing the character '正'." Asakura complained while sitting on the ground.

"Regrettably, although this world has day and night, time itself is chaotic. Sometimes daylight only lasts for a few minutes, while other times it's like a polar day that can persist for two or three days. Using a normal concept of time, there's simply no way to record an exact date." Utaha said with a roll of her eyes.

"Tsk..." Asakura couldn't help but click his tongue.

Although he had already guessed there was an issue with the time in this Demon Realm after connecting it to the scenes seen through Future Sight, he hadn't expected the time inside to be quite so unstable.

"It's a miracle you've managed to survive in a world like this." Asakura said, looking at the girl.

Utaha furrowed her brows, and after a few seconds of silence, she said: "This space has its own 'rules'... As long as you follow the rules, you won't die so easily."

"Oh?" Asakura raised an eyebrow with interest.

"Now it's my turn to start asking questions." Utaha said.

"I never told you we were doing a one-for-one exchange." Asakura said leisurely, looking at the girl wrapped in countless snakes.

"Then please go ahead and explore the rules of this world on your own."

Utaha closed her eyes, appearing determined not to speak another word until Asakura agreed to exchange information.

Facing the girl's display of non-violent non-cooperation, Asakura pondered for a moment and then nodded: "Alright, although it's not like I don't have other means to force you to speak, I feel there are other things worth doing rather than wasting time scheming against you here."

"So?" Utaha opened her eyes, her wine-red pupils reflecting the mischievous smile on Asakura's face.

"You may ask your questions." Asakura said: "Let's have a friendly question-and-answer session."

"Is this your idea of a 'friendly' display?"

The girl looked mockingly at the mass of snakes that had wrapped her into a ball.

"Of course not," Asakura snapped his fingers, and those snakes instantly turned into leaves, branches, weeds, shrubs, and the like. The girl suddenly fell from mid-air, but fortunately, there were leaves and soft humus soil to act as a cushion. She wasn't injured, and it didn't even count as painful; she just looked a bit disheveled. Only then did Asakura nod with satisfaction: "Alright, now it's my turn to ask."

"Does that count as a question just now?"

"It counts. Now you owe me two answers."

Utaha gritted her teeth in anger while crawling out of the pile of dead leaves, but looking at Asakura's composed manner, she knew the situation was against her. Knowing that continuing to argue would only result in her own disadvantage, the girl didn't say anything more: "Go ahead and ask."

"How did you come to know the rules in this Demon Realm?" Asakura asked.

"By looking with my eyes." Utaha paused and then added: "And experiencing it for myself."

"Too brief."

"You will understand when you see it."

"I see. So it can be understood as some kind of extraordinary characteristic that allows one to gain specific knowledge the instant they see it."

"Yes. The two answers I owed are now paid in full."

"..."

Asakura looked at Utaha speechlessly; this girl truly refused to get the short end of the stick.

"My question," Utaha stared at Asakura: "How did you enter this world?"

"I was sucked in after trying to pull out the sprout on your head." Asakura answered honestly.

Utaha was dumbstruck.

"You mean," she asked in disbelief: "my body is still outside this world, and because so much time has passed, weeds have grown and sprouted?"

"Something like that."

Asakura nodded.

Kasumigaoka felt as if all the strength had been instantly drained from her body. Her knees buckled, and she knelt heavily on the ground.

At this moment, even her breathing seemed to slow down. Her shoulders trembled slightly, and the light in her eyes faded, leaving only a look of helplessness slowly spreading across her face: "How could this happen..."

Seeing this, Asakura immediately realized she had misunderstood.

Thus, he comforted her quite considerately.

"Don't be so quick to despair yet; you owe me two more answers."

"..."

The girl, whose heart had been filled with loss and sorrow, couldn't help but be dominated by resentment upon hearing Asakura's words, and she shot him a fierce glare.

That being said, Asakura didn't have anything else to ask for the moment, so he simply said, "First, tell me about these so-called 'rules.'"

"Many trees in this world bear fruit; most of them look like apples and are generally divided into red, yellow, green, and white. Among them, only the red fruit is safe; it can be used to quench thirst and satisfy hunger, while the other colors are inedible. However, the yellow fruit glows at night. You must hide in the areas reached by that light, otherwise, you will be attacked by monsters in the night."

"Monsters in the night?"

"This world has no moon or stars—in fact, there is no sun during the day either, and I don't know what kind of thing the sky-light overhead is coming from—at night, everywhere except around the yellow fruit is a darkness so thick it won't dissipate. Once you enter it, it's like having night blindness; you can't see anything, and if you aren't careful, you'll be snatched and dragged away by a monster."

"I see."

Asakura nodded understandingly.

Then, in his mind, he prepared to catch a monster at night and beat it until it confessed everything it knew.

"It's my turn to ask..." Utaha lightly bit her thin lip, her eyes wandering slightly as if hesitating over something. Her eyelashes trembled, and her voice was softer than usual, carrying a hint of unease and a cautious tone as she finally asked in a low voice, "How are my parents doing outside?"

"I don't know."

"Haah?" The girl, who had already mentally prepared herself for bad news or even worse news, suddenly felt as if she had punched a bale of cotton. She looked at Asakura with a dissatisfied gaze.

"What? I've never been to your house; this is already a high-quality answer."

Asakura spoke righteously.

"Then I want to change my question."

"Sure."

"When you came in, what was the time outside? The kind where you answer the year, month, and day in detail."

The girl inquired.

Asakura quickly answered with a year and then added, "Around ten in the morning on August 8th. As for the more specific time, I'm not entirely sure because I didn't check my phone."

"Eh," Utaha was somewhat surprised, "Doesn't that mean it's only been two months since I came to this world?"

"Two months?"

Asakura began to ponder.

Eriri did seem to have said previously that her 'friend's' personality suddenly becoming abnormal was a recent thing. Two months would roughly correspond to that.

However, if that was the case, didn't it mean that for Kasumigaoka, even though the duration of day and night in this Demon Realm was abnormal, the overall flow of time was actually similar to the outside world?

Asakura couldn't quite figure it out for a moment, eventually attributing it to individual differences or the observer effect.

"As bonus information... you haven't actually gone missing outside during these two months."

"Impossible. If I were missing for more than 24 hours, my parents would definitely call the police. Not to mention Machida... a friend of mine at the editorial department wouldn't just sit by and watch either!"

Because they'd be looking for you to hurry up with your manuscript, right?

Asakura, knowing the girl had another identity as a light novel author, complained in his heart.

Also, why wasn't Eriri mentioned? That girl clearly valued you quite a bit...

Could it be that in terms of friendship, the child Eriri is also a "loser dog"?

"They naturally wouldn't call the police, because 'you' are still tangibly living outside," Asakura continued.

"What did... you say?" The girl asked in disbelief.

So Asakura recounted the matter of Eriri commissioning him to investigate her friend's personality disorder, after slightly modifying and beautifying the story.

Utaha felt completely unwell after listening to the whole thing.

"You're saying there's a weak and incompetent fellow wearing my face living my life? And she's so useless that even that Sawamura girl has started to worry?"

"Yeah, the new volume she wrote for you was even rejected by Fujimi Shobo," Asakura nodded. "I heard the deadline for the next manuscript was set to be quite short."

"I suddenly feel that living in this world forever might be quite nice..." Utaha looked at the empty sky with hollow eyes.

"Don't escape, hey!"

After becoming slightly more familiar with each other through the question-and-answer game, the relationship between the two could be considered to have drawn a bit closer.

Thus, Utaha began leading Asakura as they wandered through the nearby woods.

"These are the fruits that can be eaten."

As they passed by a fruit tree, Utaha skillfully plucked several red, apple-like objects from the branches and tossed them to Asakura.

"No thanks, I'm not hungry for the time being."

Asakura stuffed the fruits into his pocket and continued to stroll through the woods following the girl.

Before long, he spotted another fruit tree laden with green fruits.

"What happens if you eat the green fruits?"

"An abnormality will occur in your body."

"Why didn't I see the 'rule' you mentioned when I discovered the green fruits?"

"Because I only discovered it after I ate one."

"..."

So was this what she meant by "experiencing it for yourself" earlier?

"Wait a second, are you saying that because you ate this thing, your body has already begun to undergo an abnormality?" Asakura suddenly snapped back to his senses and looked at Utaha.

Could it be that the reason a sprout suddenly grew on Kasumigaoka's head on the outside was related to the body abnormality this Utaha underwent after eating the green fruit on the inside?

Thinking of this, Asakura sized up the girl once more, but he didn't see any so-called "abnormality" on her.

"Yeah."

Utaha nodded, but she didn't explain exactly where she had changed.

After walking with Asakura for a while longer, the two of them arrived at a shack made of withered branches and fallen leaves that looked extremely simple and as if it might collapse at any moment.

"This is where I am staying for the time being."

Utaha slightly tilted her chin, the corners of her mouth curling into an imperceptible arc, her eyelashes trembling ever so slightly along with her movements. With her arms crossed and her long black hair sliding naturally onto her shoulders, she said smugly: "Because there are three yellow fruits nearby, it is very safe at night."

"Ah," Asakura chimed in emotionlessly, "That really is too safe."

"Just a disclaimer, I haven't invited you to live here; today is just a temporary measure. In fact, the space here as a safe zone is quite cramped. I suggest you go elsewhere to set up your own temporary base," Utaha said.

"It's fine, I understand. You don't need to make that kind of expression."

"What expression?"

"The kind that tries to act tough and indifferent, but still can't help but reveal a hint of apology and worry." Asakura gave her a thumbs-up: "You're a good kid."

"...No one has said that to me since I was six years old," Utaha said with a fake smile.

"Great, I've pushed that record all the way forward to sixteen!" Asakura raised both hands in a 'Banzai!' gesture, playing dumb with a straight face.

"It's seventeen," Utaha corrected.

"Don't women usually revise their age downwards?"

"That is an 'ostrich-like' behavior—burying one's head in the sand—carried out by aunties over twenty-five who watch themselves gradually approach thirty yet are powerless to stop the passage of time, unable to psychologically accept the fact that they are stepping toward aging."

Utaha spoke with a tone so certain it was as if there were exactly such a person right beside her.

While Asakura was observing the yellow fruits and engaging in mindless conversation with the girl, the sky suddenly turned dark.

There was no omen whatsoever.

It was as if the lights in a room had been snuffed out in an instant, or as if the transition between "dusk" and "evening" had been entirely edited out—that unnatural void made one's scalp tingle.

The light collapsed within the span of a breath, and daylight plunged into a pitch-black night without warning. Asakura even felt as if he could hear the sound of time being brutally snapped.

The girl, who had been talking normally with Asakura a moment ago, abruptly cut off her speech. Her face turned deathly pale, her hands instinctively clutching her own arms, and her body began to tremble slightly.

Clearly, the "night" of this Demon Realm had left a terrible impression on her, to the point where she even had some PTSD.

Asakura glanced at the girl, then stood up and walked toward the darkness.

"Ah..." Utaha gasped, anxiously wanting to call him back, but the darkness before her made her throat tighten, and she couldn't make a sound.

Watching Asakura's silhouette being swallowed by the night, the girl finally couldn't sit still anymore. She struggled to support her weak legs, panting heavily, and summoned the courage to run in the direction where Asakura had disappeared to bring him back.

But her trembling legs completely refused to follow orders, making her movements appear incredibly stiff.

Before the girl could stumble into the darkness herself, Asakura's figure stepped back into the warm-toned light emitted by the yellow fruits, appearing before her once again.

The girl took a long breath: "What on earth are you doing? I already told you—"

The rest of Kasumigaoka's words failed to come out.

Because in Asakura's hand, he was gripping a monster that was struggling desperately but could not break free from his grasp no matter what.