That evening, Hachiman and Asuna were relaxing together at Hachiman's house. The quiet atmosphere was interrupted when Asuna's phone buzzed with an unexpected call from Agil.
"Oh?"
"What's up?" Hachiman asked.
"It's a direct call from Agil-san. That's rare."
"Directly to you, huh? Maybe he has something he doesn't want me to overhear." Hachiman stood up, reading the room. "I'll go hop in the bath for a bit while you take that."
"Thanks, sorry about that," Asuna said with a small smile.
As soon as he left, Asuna answered. Agil wasted no time relaying what he had learned about Yuna's final moments in the game.
"So," Agil concluded, "I figured it was safe to bring Yuna up, and that's the intel I got from the guys who were there."
"I see…" Asuna murmured, her expression clouding.
"Sorry the info is so vague," Agil added over the line. "I suspect the only person who knows what really happened after that is this 'Nautilus' kid."
"Nautilus-kun… he couldn't stop her. I want to believe she's safe, but if I tell Hachiman about this, he's going to be furious."
"Ah, yeah. I figured that'd be a concern."
Asuna sighed, looking back on those days. "Deep down, Hachiman really cherished Yuna as his apprentice."
"Well, if Hachiman wants the full breakdown, tell him to call me. I'll explain it to him myself. But honestly, unless you find Nautilus, I don't think anyone can give him more than what I just told you."
"Right. I'll handle things on this end."
"Oh, one more thing. Tell Hachiman to watch his back at school tomorrow."
"Wait, what? Why?"
"Don't worry, it's nothing dangerous. Just… a heads-up."
"Okay? If that's all I should say, I'll tell him."
"That's plenty. Talk to you later."
After hanging up, Asuna debated waiting but decided it was better to be direct. As soon as Hachiman emerged from the bathroom, she sat him down and told him everything.
"What? Yuna did what?" Hachiman's face tightened. He cursed under his breath, a look of profound regret crossing his features. "Dammit. Nautilus couldn't hold her back? I should have been harder on them. I should have made them understand."
"There was nothing you could do, Hachiman," Asuna said softly. "We were all pushed to our limits back then."
Hachiman slumped his shoulders and let out a heavy sigh, his tone turning resigned. "It's in the past now. If even Kikuoka doesn't know where she is, there's nothing we can do from our side."
"I suppose so…"
"Still, she was my apprentice. One way or another, a girl with her talent will find her way back into the spotlight eventually."
Asuna smiled sadly. "There's no such thing as a 'Singing' skill in the real world, but for Yuna-chan, I'm sure you're right."
Hachiman tilted his head, giving Asuna a strange look.
"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked.
"Right… I forgot you only knew Yuna when her only skill was Singing. I don't think I ever actually explained the rest to you."
Asuna blinked. "The rest? What are you talking about?"
"By the end, Yuna actually held several rare skills. A lot of them had 'Singing' as a prerequisite. It was so obscure that I'm convinced Kayaba Akihiko only put them in the game as a joke—he probably assumed no one would ever actually trigger them."
"Wait, really? Like what?"
"Well," Hachiman began, counting them off on his fingers. "I wanted to improve her diction, so I made her recite tongue twisters during combat. That triggered the 'Chanting' skill."
"That is… a very surreal mental image," Asuna said, looking slightly exasperated.
"Then, while we were rhythmically clashing daggers in training, she unlocked the 'Instrumental Performance' skill."
"Daggers are not instruments!"
"I kept telling her to 'float like a butterfly and sting like a bee' during fights, and she ended up with the 'Dance' skill."
Asuna deadpanned. "If I had the Singing skill, I probably would have unlocked that too, then…"
"Probably. And to help her build her nerve, I made her sing on the first floor and do 'handshake events' with fans. That's how she got the 'Charisma' skill."
"I mean… I guess that one makes sense."
"Mechanically, it just increased the variety of stat buffs she could provide to allies," Hachiman explained.
Asuna found herself nodding. It was actually a surprisingly well-thought-out build.
"Then, because I made her maintain a smile regardless of the situation, she got the 'Healing Aura' skill."
"...Wait, what?"
"And when I made her practice talking like a tsundere, she unlocked the 'Little Devil' skill."
"Hachiman, give me back the respect I just felt for your training methods!" Asuna cried.
"Hey, don't knock it! They were vital. 'Healing Aura' gave a passive health-regen effect, and 'Little Devil' provided status-ailment resistance."
"Okay, that is actually amazing…"
"I'll admit, I started feeling like I was playing an idol-sim game. I was mostly messing around. I reflect on it with great regret now."
-------------------------
If you enjoy this story, you can read 70+ advanced chapters on Patreon!
Webnovel will keep getting 1 new chapter every day but Patreon readers can stay far ahead.
Maybe it's not a big deal now… maybe it will be later.
[email protected]/Greyhounds
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"