Upon hearing this, Hitori Gotoh immediately shook her little head like a rattle drum.
A bad guy?
How could Fumiya-san be a bad guy?
In her eyes, Fumiya Jin was like an angel descended from heaven.
To say he was a bad guy here to bully her was as absurd as saying 'a divinely beautiful, pure, and kind human saintess violated a group of filthy, ugly goblins.' It was completely backward.
Except in some bizarre doujinshi, something like that could never happen.
"Fu... Fumiya-sama is definitely... definitely not a bad guy!" Hitori Gotoh managed to force out her first complete sentence.
In fact, she was already incredibly grateful that he was willing to talk to her.
She even felt a little unworthy.
"You don't have to be so formal," Fumiya Jin said with a wave. "We've exchanged phone numbers, so I guess we can be considered friends. You can just call me Fumiya, or Fumiya-san."
"Friends..."
Hitori Gotoh's heart fluttered with joy at those two words.
"I... I understand, Fumiya-sama... oh, no... Fumiya-san..."
Seeing her timid and frail appearance, Fumiya Jin found it a bit incredible—how could such a genuine beauty develop such a self-deprecating personality?
But now wasn't the time to delve into such things.
"I was just passing by and saw you sitting here all alone, with a guitar on your back... Do you play guitar?" Fumiya Jin asked.
Hearing this, Hitori Gotoh felt a surge of excitement. "I... I can play a little."
Fumiya Jin carefully studied her expression and quickly discerned that she was likely being unconsciously modest.
After all, for a girl lacking in self-confidence like her, if she could truly only play 'a little,' she would probably say she couldn't play, or not very well.
But her first reaction was "I can," which meant she had at least a tiny bit of confidence in her guitar playing.
Therefore, it must be more than just 'a little'!
"Then can I ask you for a favor?" Fumiya Jin said. "I have some friends who formed a band, and their performance is about to start, but their guitarist suddenly disappeared. So they need someone to fill in. The songs aren't hard, I'm sure you can do it. So, could you please help me out in this emergency?"
"Eh???"
When Hitori Gotoh heard him say he needed her help with something, a sliver of anticipation had sparkled in her eyes.
But the moment she heard it involved performing on stage, her mind went blank.
"Perform? On stage? Me???"
"Can you do it?" Fumiya Jin looked seriously into the girl's eyes. "Please."
"Uhh—"
Hitori Gotoh's mind was already shaking its head like a rattle drum.
No, no, no, no, of course not!
Getting on stage? How could someone as weak and pathetic as her possibly do that? It would surely end in tragedy!
However...
Though she had refused a thousand times in her heart.
The moment Hitori Gotoh saw Fumiya Jin's gentle, handsome face and felt his earnest, sincere gaze...
Refuse?
How do you even write that word again?
It was as if that option no longer existed before her!
The girl froze, not knowing what to do.
"Great, thank you so much! I'll treat you to something delicious after the show!" Fumiya Jin beamed, reaching out and grabbing the girl's soft, pale hand. "Let's go, Hitori-chan! Time is short, we need to hurry over and practice!"
"Eheheheheheheh?"
And as he led the girl away, Fumiya Jin secretly squeezed her fingers...
The pads of her fingers had distinct calluses... and not fresh ones, but ones that had already settled in... She was definitely no rookie.
Fumiya Jin's heart was set at ease!
["Rubick's Ring of Knowledge" can be triggered. Activate? Activation will replace the skill stored in the ring.]
As he walked along the street, leading the girl, the prompt suddenly sounded.
Fumiya Jin snapped back to reality and subconsciously wanted to cancel the activation.
After all, what was stored in the ring right now was Master-level swordsmanship.
And stealing from this girl would most likely just get him some guitar skills.
He wasn't going to join a band; guitar skills were obviously far inferior to swordsmanship.
So replacing it would be a pure loss.
But just as he was about to cancel...
He suddenly remembered something.
He had a bold idea.
And it seemed he had the margin for error to try this idea out.
And so...
"Activate!" Fumiya Jin said in his mind.
["Rubick's Ring of Knowledge" activated successfully. Stolen—Guitar Arts (Professional Level).]
A rather complex and dense stream of information flooded his mind.
But having experienced it before, Fumiya Jin was much more used to it this time.
While walking and absorbing the influx of information, just a few seconds later... he reopened his eyes, the knowledge already settled in his mind.
The instrument known as a guitar was no longer unfamiliar to him; it even felt like a friend who had been with him for many years.
However, Fumiya Jin didn't immediately try out his new skill. Instead, he looked back and sensed his swordsmanship skills...
Those tachi techniques.
That combat experience.
That understanding of the way of the sword.
All of it...
Was still there!
Although Fumiya Jin had clearly felt a sense of replacement while receiving the guitar knowledge, as if new data was being written into old memory and the old data was naturally overwritten, the feeling was very distinct.
But now, when he tried to recall it, he found that the information still existed in his mind, as if... a copy had been made.
Fumiya Jin was pleasantly surprised by this, but not entirely shocked.
In fact, the reason he had attempted this experiment was precisely because he had considered this possibility.
Because he had "Memory Master"!
Although this superpower was only rated as a Blue tier among the vast array of cards, its power in terms of memory was undeniable.
When Fumiya Jin had tested this ability before, he discovered he could remember almost anything he saw with perfect recall, storing it firmly in his mind, as stable and readily accessible as books in a library.
And now, the result of this test proved once again that "Memory Master" could not only memorize what he saw directly but also the information stolen by the ring, which, although stored in the ring, was temporarily shared with his mind.
In other words, for him, Rubick's Ring of Knowledge was effectively a permanent theft device. Every skill stolen was another skill gained.
What kind of Purple item was this?
This was clearly a Gold item!
...
About half an hour later...
In the Shimokitazawa district, on the street where the Starry live house was located.
Nijika was staring intently into the distance, her eyes nearly worn out from waiting, when she finally saw the expected figure appear at the end of her line of sight...
She immediately stood up straight and waved in that direction.
Soon, Fumiya Jin walked over, leading Hitori Gotoh by the hand.
When Nijika saw the guitar on the back of the girl in the pink tracksuit, she was instantly delighted.
But in the next second, when she noticed their hands tightly clasped together, her heart soured just a little...
You big liar.
You said you didn't know anyone who could play guitar...
You two look pretty familiar, don't you?
______
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