Chapter 85: Date with Kaori (I)

The rest of the day was spent just lazing around and playing with my little sisters. Honestly, there was not much I could do, but it was okay. Perhaps a little peace would be better now.

I don't know, but because of the new rewards that I have gotten...no. More like the new powers that I had gained from that fusion.

I almost died after waking up yesterday due to the reward. As it turns out, the system doesn't operate from nothing. 99.9999999% of its energy consumption usually comes from God, and the additional 0.0000001% came from me.

Usually, it's so negligible that I don't notice it at all, not to mention my unknown lineage makes me stronger than most people in the first place.

But apparently, I must have fused some world-ending item yesterday that would have killed me if I had decided to wield it. It was only because the system chose to reduce its consumption of my energy to 0.0000000001% that I even managed to survive. If I had taken in 100 times that amount, I would have died from excessive energy consumption.

Holopsicon.

It's an item that rarely gets any recognition from weebs from my previous life, but when compared to the EA sword, the EA sword is nothing before holopsicon.

Spear of Longinus? Trash.

Principle Destroying Sword <Venuzdonoa>? Nah~.

But what makes Holopsicon so unique and powerful? Simple. Because it deals with fate and destiny. It's now nerfed (unfortunately) because I'm considered an "anime character" now that I'm in an anime world, and because Holopsicon is something that deals extra damage to characters from the anime world, I wouldn't be able to withstand its might.

Apart from being drained in the morning, I also got a massive headache. From the influx of information entering my brain, I received a ton of new knowledge that I shouldn't be receiving.

Various timelines, parallel universes, alternate universes, creating one's own totality and exhaustively plan and manipulate every event deterministically, and more. This was a giant leap in faith, and while I certainly hoped to get something good from the fusion, I didn't expect to get something this good.

It was only one night, but I suddenly became nigh-omnipotent and nigh-omniscient, achieving all this without any cost apart from being drained of energy, starving, and almost dehydrating. Of course, the corresponding price to use those omnipotent abilities is equally harsh, and while I might not die, I will suffer quite a bit. So, I decided not to use this unless it's an emergency, like my mother's pregnancy with Raiha.

Though I am happy that I got this, I don't understand why I would ever need this. I'm not sure, but I haven't spotted any supernatural stuff happening. This was basically the epitome of what someone would call an "ordinary world". And knowing the future of everyone sort of spoils it for me, so I probably would never use this.

Whether I like having no supernatural in this world was not the concern. At the very least, I'm happy to know my family and my girlfriends.

But enough of Holopsicon. Today is Sunday, which also meant that it was the last day of our summer vacation. And now, Shouko was currently bidding me goodbye as I prepared to go on a date with Kaori.

No matter how many times we have done this, it never stopped feeling weird that Shouko was basically sending her boyfriend (me) to have a date with someone else. This world has no common sense (from my previous world), but hey! It is what it is.

And you don't hear me complaining about it as well.

Kaori and I had planned to meet in the square of a mall some bus stops away. So like any other date, I went ahead and arrived some fifteen minutes early than the designated time.

And to no one's surprise, Kaori was already there. Though, beside her was her father with a stern expression.

"Uesugi, you have the nerve to arrive after my daughter did, huh? Did you expect a girl to wait for her date?"

"Dad!" Kaori immediately protested after her father spoke, "We were the ones who came earlier! Plus, why are you even here? It's my date, is it not?"

This was a completely unreasonable accusation. I clearly arrived before the designated time, so why was I getting scolded by my future father-in-law, who also dared to come along his daughter's date?

"Yes, yes, my dear daughter. Now that your date is finally here," Kaori's father spoke, emphasizing heavily on the word "finally", "I will leave it to you two. Enjoy yourself, alright?"

"And you," After being sugary sweet to his daughter, he turned to me, and his expression did a 180 turn, "Take care of my baby daughter. Anything that has been done to her, I will do to you."

That sounds absolutely terrifying. I don't want to go out holding hands with a grown man. Hopefully, he didn't mean it in that way.

After bidding the troublesome father goodbye, we fell into a temporary silence due to the awkwardness Kaori's father left behind.

"Sorry for my dad..." Kaori spoke first.

"It's fine~. Yoshiyuki-san just dotes on you a lot." I smiled as I grabbed her hand, "Plus, we all know that he likes me as his son-in-law. He's just a tsundere."

Hearing me call her father a tsundere only incited some laughter from her. She didn't reject my hand and even took the initiative to close the distance between us.

"Let us start our long-awaited date!"

Today, Kaori was wearing a long-sleeved white shirt with a pink dress with white hems that reached her knees. It was her iconic dress when Kaori first met the main character in the anime, though it was clearly a lot bigger since she was smaller now.

Kaori was the complete opposite of Shouko. They were both cute and pretty, but Kaori was a lot more outgoing than Shouko.

So while I led the date with Shouko, Kaori dragged me around to have fun. First, we went window shopping. I'm starting to think that shopping is a staple item on dates that must be included.

It was as though dates aren't called dates without shopping.

The wave of cool air blasted at us as we entered the mall. The mall we went to was a different mall from that from Shouko's date. It was in the opposite direction and was slightly smaller. Nonetheless, it was still bustling with people since it was a Sunday.

This shopping mall wasn't extraordinary in any sense. It had the same generic features that any other mall would have, but on a date, the location mostly doesn't matter as long as both parties are enjoying themselves.

Kaori was a simple girl to please. We held hands and wandered around the mall, examining weird stores that sold bizarre stuff, like a dinosaur crepe holder. Or a Hookah-Smoking Caterpillar, the caterpillar from Alice in the wonderland, with a baby head. Or a mannequin with an elongated neck.

It was honestly weird and creepy. The last one wasn't being sold, but seeing it was still scary.

As for the reason behind its existence in this mall, I have no clue.

Kaori seemed to enjoy it a lot, and whenever her face brightens up like an excited child seeing a new toy, a literal sense in this case, it brings me joy as well. It's cringe to say and admit it, but it's true.

I have already experienced, well...not a lot, I'm embarrassed to say in my past life. In the thirteen years of this life, I have already experienced about ten times more than I have in my previous life.

So, rather than the actual experience now, what I look forward to more was the company. And Kaori was someone that I look forward to having more experience with.

The new world wasn't that much different from my old world apart from having less anime and entertainment in general, but there was a lot more drama in real life to make up for it. Maybe because the real world already has enough drama to entertain us, the entertainment industry was instead...redundant.

I suggested watching a movie like a regular date, but Kaori refused.

"I want to make this as memorable as possible, and a movie wouldn't be enough."

"Huh?"

"For one, a movie wastes time when I could be staring at your face instead. Your face is a lot better to be staring at than a screen." Kaori stated without a hint of blush on her face, "And two, a movie is too...ordinary? It would turn out to be like any other date, and I don't like that."

Strangely enough, what she said had logic within them, and I couldn't find a good reason to refuse. It's not like there was any good movie to watch now anyway.

For an idiotic reason, most good movies tend to come out during the middle of the school term or close to exams when we're all busy and have no time to watch. But when we were all free during the summer or winter holidays, there were no good movies to watch.

Anyway, since we decided against watching a movie, we skipped it and continued shopping.

"Yahoo~. The young couple over there!" A promotional scream rang out, but we continued our way. I didn't think they were calling out for us since there were a lot of couples around us, but I was proved wrong as a middle-aged man with a good-natured smile stopped us in our tracks.

"Hello there! We're having an art exhibit there," The man spoke as he pointed to the huge open area where young children around our age were looking around and painting, "And I wanted to invite you guys to take a look since we have a couple discount today."

Seeing the art present, I was debating internally. I didn't really mind it if Kaori didn't mind it, so the final decision would ultimately be decided by her.

"So? You wanna take a look, Kaori-chan?"

"Sure!"

Kaori didn't hesitate and agreed. Somehow, I don't think the art attracted her. Instead, it was the fact that it was a "couple discount" that attracted Kaori since she really wanted to reinforce the idea of a couple within me, from what I can tell throughout the date.

She didn't really need to do that, though. But I guess she was feeling competitive. Whether it is a bad mindset to have on a date or not, I could not tell now. I could only wait for the future to know.

We were dragged towards the art exhibit where it showcased more...unique artworks, unlike the typical canvas painting. There were horribly shaped potteries that looked like failed attempts only to be showcased here as "art", some children's drawing of a stickman, and a model of a poop.

Yes. A model of poop. Yet, it was strangely popular amongst the little boys there. There were all surrounding the poop with their hands rubbing their chins like wise men inspecting something amazing.

I wonder where all those boys mimicked their actions from.

Kaori seemed to find their actions amusing and started giggling. Laughter is contagious as I soon laughed as well, with the boys' parents similarly following our laughter as they took pictures of their children's humorous actions.

"The art exhibit isn't an art exhibit from some famous artist, right?"

"Yep~. That's the beauty of it, I guess. If you guys want some professional paintings, just search online or go to a museum." The promoter/advertiser said with a light smile as he took us to the area where we could sign up, "This art museum is here to display the children's hard work and dedication. Being able to witness a child grow up and become a dedicated person cannot be measured with any amount of money."

"Then let us participate for free."

"Haha..." He laughed awkwardly, "We still need to supply the art stuff, after all. Clay isn't cheap enough for us to give out for free."

My gaze might have hurt his consciousness a bit, but he still made us pay before we could participate. As it turns out, we could use any amount of art supply for the entire day after paying. At least the money that I paid was worth it.

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A/N: This is a three-part "arc" if you wanna call it that. I don't know how it turned out so long, but it also acts as compensation for the lack of attention on Kaori.

No, I didn't forget to post yesterday. I just didn't write at all since I suddenly got addicted to COC.

If you want to support me or/and want chapters in advance, link:

https://www.patréon.com/spirits_everywhere. We are currently 8 chapters ahead~