All the Heroines are my Ex-girlfriends

Chapter 116: Kasumigaoka's Extraordinary Skill

Early morning.

A sharp scream pulled Yukima Azuma, who was getting ready to go out for a run, back into the house.

Without changing into his indoor slippers, he kicked off his shoes at the door and rushed upstairs.

Climbing quickly to the second floor, Yukima Azuma forcefully pushed open the door to Kasumigaoka Utaha's room.

"Senpai, what happened?"

Yukima Azuma's gaze immediately searched for Kasumigaoka Utaha.

Seeing that his senpai was unharmed, he let out a sigh of relief.

Then, his eyes swept across the room.

His attention stopped at a strange change in the room.

His expression became indescribable.

On Kasumigaoka Utaha's desk was a fiery red "fluffy ball," lying flat on its stomach.

Beside it, a laptop was tilted to one side.

It seemed that she had been working on her manuscript when something unexpected occurred.

"Senpai! You stayed up all night again!"

Yukima Azuma scolded, displeased.

Kasumigaoka Utaha pouted.

At a time like this, he was chastising her about staying up late.

Yukima Azuma approached the desk.

As he got closer, he saw more clearly.

It was a fiery red cat, seemingly a long-haired breed, with a big fluffy tail resembling a feather duster.

At that moment, the little cat was lying on the desk, its shiny black eyes curiously scanning the room.

Yukima Azuma waved at it.

The fiery red fluff immediately leaped towards him.

Under Kasumigaoka Utaha's astonished gaze,

The red cat jumped into Yukima Azuma's arms, rubbing its head against his chest.

Holding the new furry companion, Yukima Azuma turned to look at Kasumigaoka Utaha.

"Senpai, is this... Hogyokumaru?"

Kasumigaoka Utaha seemed to have something to say but hesitated.

She walked closer and tentatively reached out to stroke the fiery red fur.

The soft texture under her palm made her squint slightly.

"It seems... it is."

Kasumigaoka Utaha concluded.

Hogyokumaru.

That was the cat from The Metronome in Love, Kasumigaoka Utaha's light novel.

The cat that the protagonist and the heroine, Sayaka, adopted together.

Previously, readers had criticized the cat for its unrealistic fur color.

But how could a creature from the pages of a book leap into reality?

Holding Hogyokumaru in his arms, Yukima Azuma pondered as he looked at Kasumigaoka Utaha.

Yukima Azuma gazed at his senpai, seemingly deep in thought.

"Senpai, can you tell me what you've been doing recently?"

Kasumigaoka Utaha immediately began recounting.

In recent days, after being influenced by Saekano,

Kasumigaoka Utaha had been entirely focused on writing her manuscript.

The fifth volume of The Metronome in Love, the final volume.

It was nearly finished initially.

But Kasumigaoka Utaha kept revising it.

As a light novel author, Kasumigaoka Utaha realized there was a certain gap between her novel and Saekano.

Kasumigaoka Utaha didn't hope for the final volume of The Metronome in Love to reverse her declining momentum.

But she wanted, before starting her new book, to perfect herself completely.

Striving to surpass her limits.

Every time she came downstairs to eat,

When she saw the new nameplate hanging on the door of the first-floor room,

Kasumigaoka Utaha always felt a flame of discontent igniting within her.

Kasumigaoka Utaha's pride would never allow her to be a loser!

So, after much deliberation, reflection, and revision of her manuscript, even going so far as to read the "love letter" the boy wrote to another, to grasp the essence within it.

The genius light novel author,

Kasumi Utako-sensei.

Finally, last night, after burning up all her dissatisfaction as fuel to drive her determination,

She achieved an incredible breakthrough.

After a moment of astonishment,

Kasumigaoka Utaha, looking at her manuscript, only saw flaws everywhere.

As she revised, she felt as if she was in her element, her fingers flying across the keyboard without stopping.

As a result, after an all-nighter, the next morning.

Kasumigaoka Utaha had completed the final volume of The Metronome in Love.

Pouring all her emotions into every word.

Suddenly, a fiery red "fluffy ball" appeared out of nowhere and jumped onto her desk.

Startling Kasumigaoka Utaha.

After hearing Kasumigaoka Utaha's story,

Yukima Azuma understood the cause of the situation.

It was clear that, after undergoing intense research and practice, driven by anger and competitiveness,

Utaha-senpai's literary skill had evolved from level 6, the proficiency level, to level 7, the extraordinary level.

(note: since this story is now starting to have supernatural things involved, I'll change the way the skills are called to make it sound better)

And when a skill reaches this level,

A supernatural influence manifests accordingly.

So, this is what the supernatural ability accompanying literary skills looks like.

Yukima Azuma casually picked up a sheet of paper and a pen from Kasumigaoka Utaha's desk.

The moment he put pen to paper,

Yukima Azuma immediately felt that he could bring the life within Saekano onto the page and materialize it into reality.

This was a sensation he had never experienced before.

Perhaps it was due to some kind of empathy.

Only when a work or its characters are widely known and recognized,

Could they be materialized into reality through literary skills.

Yukima Azuma put down the pen without writing anything,

Then turned to look at Kasumigaoka Utaha.

'So, does this mean that besides me, others who reach level 7 in their skills can also gain supernatural abilities?'

But... something didn't feel right.

"Senpai, if you write Sayaka's name on paper now, could you bring her into this world?"

Yukima Azuma asked.

Kasumigaoka Utaha looked troubled upon hearing this.

But perhaps because she trusted Yukima Azuma,

She stepped forward, picked up the pen, and wrote a passage about Sayaka on the paper.

However, even after a long time, nothing happened.

"It's not possible."

She set the pen down and extended her hand.

After understanding Kasumigaoka Utaha's situation,

Yukima Azuma also realized the difference between himself and others.

As someone with a system, him, Yukima Azuma,

When his skills reach level 7, the extraordinary level, he would undoubtedly gain the corresponding supernatural ability.

And upon obtaining it, the mastery of the supernatural ability would instantly be maxed out.

For others outside of Yukima Azuma,

When their skills reach level 7,

They would have the potential to awaken a corresponding supernatural ability.

This probability seemed to depend on their emotional state.

The stronger their emotions, the higher the chance of awakening a supernatural ability.

However, even if they did awaken it,

Their mastery of the supernatural ability would be almost non-existent.

It could only be used in some special circumstances.

As for whether mastery could improve through training,

That was something yet to be tested.

After sorting through all these thoughts,

Under Kasumigaoka Utaha's burning gaze,

Yukima Azuma began to explain:

"Senpai, here's the situation..."

Without revealing the system, Yukima Azuma gave a brief explanation about skills transforming into supernatural abilities.

Kasumigaoka Utaha listened carefully to Yukima Azuma's explanation.

She didn't look at him with contempt, as if he were suffering from chuunibyou.

Instead, she gently scratched Hogyokumaru's chin with her fingers,

Carefully examining the special creature she had brought into this world.

"So that's it. No wonder there's occasionally a strange aura about you."

Kasumigaoka Utaha quickly understood.

She had sensed something was unusual before.

The aura Yukima Azuma sometimes emitted genuinely had a suppressive effect on human physiological responses.

To simply call it "aura" might explain it, but upon deeper reflection, it didn't quite seem reasonable.

After understanding the nature of supernatural abilities,

Kasumigaoka Utaha raised a new question.

"But, it's strange. People capable of surpassing ordinary limits should be extremely rare."

"However, in this modern era with such a massive population, even if geniuses are one in a 10.000, there would still be about seven hundred thousand of them."

"If the difficulty of awakening is estimated to be higher, say only one in ten geniuses can awaken, there would still be seventy thousand people."

"In this age of the Internet, it's impossible that stories about seventy thousand people possessing superhuman skills wouldn't spark at least a few urban legends."

Hearing Kasumigaoka's point, Yukima Azuma nodded in agreement.

It truly was unusual.

With such a random awakening process, keeping all information completely under wraps seemed unrealistic.

Thinking about the approaching comet Charlotte,

"Unless the awakenings only started happening recently."

The two of them reached the same conclusion.

After a brief pause,

Kasumigaoka Utaha asked, "Does anyone else know about this? Or has anyone else encountered supernatural abilities?"

Yukima Azuma shook his head.

At present, among the people he knew, very few had truly reached level seven in any skill.

Bocchi's guitar-playing skills might have reached level seven during the school festival.

However, she hadn't awakened a corresponding supernatural ability yet.

If she had, Bocchi would certainly have mentioned it to Yukima Azuma.

Aside from Bocchi, Eromanga-sensei's drawing skills might have reached level seven.

But since Yukima Azuma hadn't even mastered basic drawing at level one, he couldn't accurately judge.

Moreover, his relationship with her was still at a superficial level.

After some thought, Yukima Azuma shook his head again.

"At present, among the people I know, only Utaha-senpai has encountered supernatural ability."

Hearing this, the corners of Kasumigaoka Utaha's lips clearly curved upward.

Oh, so it was only her.

In the end, it was just the two of them who were alike.

Hmph, that sneaky cat could never make it to the main stage after all!

Taking Hogyokumaru from Yukima Azuma, Kasumigaoka felt the "deep crimson jewel" in her arms resonate faintly with her mind.

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't suppress the smile on her lips.

Meanwhile, Yukima Azuma was thinking about Yotsuya Miko and Kato Megumi.

These two girls.

One possessed an almost unparalleled gift for seeing and utilizing spiritual abilities.

Without any training, one random day, she suddenly gained the ability to see all kinds of spirits and ghosts.

The other—when you think about it—was her faint presence really normal?

Could someone alive and standing right in front of others be completely overlooked?

Even Yukima Azuma had initially relied on his memories from his previous life to gradually recognize the existence of this delicate girl, Kato Megumi, as subtle as tuberose.

Gradually, he had stabilized his ability to sense Kato Megumi's presence beside him.

Especially after acquiring his first supernatural abilities.

So, what exactly was the story behind these two girls?

While lost in thought, Yukima Azuma looked out the window of Kasumigaoka's room.

By chance, he noticed, across the street, an apartment on the outer edge of a residential block.

Movers were coming and going, carrying boxes and furniture inside.

Yotsuya Miko had already moved in.

How she managed to convince her mother remained a mystery.

Even though it was a street away, the apartment was still within the range of Yukima Azuma's Shogi skill.

"Senpai, this July, let's go to Hokkaido to watch the comet,"

Yukima Azuma suddenly extended a seemingly random invitation.

Kasumigaoka Utaha gently nodded, not asking any further questions, simply agreeing.

The comet named Charlotte.

Yukima Azuma recalled some related information about it.

He had to see it for himself.