Saturday, 8:00 AM.
Izumi Kotomi opened her eyes and lazily stretched.
To be honest, she still wasn't fully awake. If she could, she'd sleep until 10 AM. But yesterday, during a call with Megumi Kato, she was reminded that they were meeting at the train station by 3:30 PM to head to Tokyo together.
But yesterday, a new event started in Azur Lane, and if she didn't grind hard enough, her progress in the event would fall behind.
And this time, the event rewards were extremely enticing—just seeing them made her eyes light up. Moreover, Kotomi needed those upgrade materials as rewards.
With those materials, she could finally upgrade both Laffey and Javelin.
Ayanami had already been upgraded, and Kotomi had even pledged to her.
Now it was time to upgrade the other two shipgirls!
The only problem was that the upgrade materials were incredibly difficult to obtain, especially the T3 upgrade blueprints!
So, the final rewards of this event were incredibly tempting for her.
But with her schedule packed for the weekend, Kotomi didn't have much time to grind the event at home…
She couldn't possibly ask her sister to grind for her, right?
That would be too irresponsible as an older sister.
Therefore, Kotomi had no choice but to wake up early every morning to push her event progress as much as possible.
"Ugh… I really want to sleep in. Why, oh why, did they have to release such an enticing event during this weekend?!"
...
Afternoon, 3:00 PM.
Izumi Kotomi finally put down her phone, stretched like a cat, and got out of bed to change her clothes.
"Even though I've been grinding all morning, I'm only 35% through the event. If I want to finish most of the event tasks within the next two days… sigh, it looks like I'll have to stay up late tonight. I'm clearly a good girl who doesn't like staying up late, but life always seems to force me into it."
"Don't want to stay up late? Just quit Azur Lane and you won't have to," came a lazy voice from the chair, where a pair of small, white feet dangled as they flipped through a Fist of the North Star manga.
Recently, whenever Kotomi was alone in her room, Kazumi, her system, would emerge from her body to either read manga or use the computer. Lately, she had become obsessed with Fist of the North Star.
"There's no way I could just quit…"
"Is it really that fun?" Kazumi asked.
"It's not that it's super fun, but I've already spent so much money on it. If I just quit suddenly, I'd feel like I wasted it all. Especially those skins—each one cost real money!"
Whenever she thought about quitting to play other games, the thought of all the money she had spent on those skins would instantly pop into her mind, and the urge to quit would disappear.
In fact, she often found herself wishing Azur Lane would release more skins that matched her specific tastes.
"Oh, I see. So you're just reluctant to give up those skins, right? No problem, let me take a look at the skins in Azur Lane. If you show me, I can project them into reality, and then you'll have a whole wardrobe of cute outfits to wear!"
"No, no, no! I only like seeing the shipgirls wear those skins; I don't want to wear them myself!" Kotomi hastily denied, afraid that if she delayed by even a second, Kazumi might actually follow through on her suggestion.
Honestly, she wouldn't wear those revealing skins even if someone offered her a million yen!
They were way too embarrassing!
Especially her favorite one—Sirius's Azure horizons outfit…
Wearing a slightly oversized, cream-colored shirt and a light-colored pleated skirt, Kotomi stood in front of the mirror, admiring her outfit. Her legs, wrapped in white stockings, looked slender and flawless. Her dainty, delicate feet, with toes that seemed to sparkle, tilted slightly upwards.
"Is this shirt a bit too big? Oh well, this outfit still looks good," Kotomi said, adjusting her shirt, which was indeed a bit oversized.
Her current figure was, without exaggeration, perfect.
At just 16 years old, while other girls her age hadn't even started developing, Kotomi was already well beyond that stage.
When she had first reincarnated as a girl, it had been difficult to accept, but after living like this for a few days, she gradually accepted the reality. Now, she had fully embraced it.
A girl's life wasn't so bad, as long as she didn't date men. She was fine with living as a girl and enjoying it. Even if she were to fall in love, it would definitely be with a cute, sweet girl.
Seeing Kotomi finish changing, Kazumi's eyes lit up. She put down her manga, zipped over, and crouched down to touch Kotomi's soft, firm thighs.
"1000 points!"
"What are you muttering about down there?" Kotomi looked down at Kazumi, feeling a bit speechless. Compared to other novel systems, her system was really strange.
"Just checking if you're healthy, Kotomi. Oh, it's getting late. If you don't leave soon, you might be late."
Kazumi crouched on the floor, looking up at Kotomi.
Mmm~ Today, Kotomi's choice of color was light blue!
"What?! It's already that late? I need to hurry!" Kotomi finally realized she had spent too much time choosing her outfit.
After applying some lip balm, Kotomi pressed her lips together gently, grabbed her fully charged phone, and walked out the door.
Kazumi quickly transformed into a light orb and returned to Kotomi's body.
Hurrying, Kotomi managed to reach the Chiba City train station just before 3:30 PM.
She slowed down, ran her fingers through her hair to tidy it up, and looked around for Megumi Kato.
It didn't take long for her to spot Megumi standing near a phone booth. She was dressed in a pink overcoat, paired with a white blouse and skirt adorned with lace. Her short black hair was topped with a pristine white beret. She stood, slightly bored, gently tapping her feet as if she had been waiting for a while.
Megumi had arrived before her again.
Kotomi felt a bit guilty as she realized this, took a deep breath, and walked over.
She stopped a few steps away and greeted her.
"Kato-san, sorry for making you wait. You got here early again."
"It's fine. I only just got here a few minutes ago. My parents aren't home today, and I was getting bored by myself, so I decided to come early," Megumi replied, her face lighting up at the sound of Kotomi's voice.
"If you were passing by my house, you could have called me. That way, we could have come together," Kotomi said.
"Well, you usually take a nap in the afternoon, right? I didn't want to disturb your rest, so I didn't call. Besides, even if you weren't napping, you'd probably be lying in bed playing games, wouldn't you? You often spend an entire afternoon like that," Megumi teased.
Kotomi blushed, feeling a bit embarrassed.
Everything Megumi said was spot on!
It perfectly described how Kotomi often spent her afternoons during breaks.
Sometimes, after lunch, she would lie down for a short rest and play a little on her phone, intending to get up and start writing afterward. But before she knew it, the entire afternoon would have passed, and it would be six or seven in the evening, leaving her with no choice but to stay up late to write. This was one of the reasons she ended up staying up late almost every day.
"Did you not sleep well last night?" Megumi asked with a gentle smile.
"My new computer finally arrived yesterday, and I spent the night watching movies with Aimi. We stayed up pretty late," Kotomi explained.
"What movie did you watch?"
"Joker."
"Oh~ I really liked that one. I watched it in theaters last year."
As they chatted, Megumi led Kotomi through the train station and past the ticket gates.
"Kato-san, you really like watching movies…"
"Well, I wouldn't say I love movies in general. But I do enjoy going to the theater, eating a big bucket of popcorn, drinking soda, and sitting in the back row to watch B-movies," Megumi said with a smile, gently taking Kotomi's hand.
"Careful, we're getting on the train. Watch out for that gap."
Kotomi hadn't even noticed she was about to trip and quickly thanked Megumi. Tripping at a train station could be dangerous.