Chapter 264 264: Falling for 2D (Part 1)

A few hours later, the three finished lunch at a hamburger shop.

The three of them chatted happily. Mikoto could feel that Shido had a good impression of Nia. After all, the girl was cheerful, lively, and talkative. Although she liked teasing him a little, overall, she was the type who was very hard to feel pressured around.

[This feels pretty good. It's been a long time since we had such a smooth date.ư

In the earpiece, even Kotori spoke in a rare relaxed tone.

"Is it really… like that?"

Mikoto felt somewhat uneasy.

From Shido's side, everything was going very well. But from Nia's side…

First, the girl had not carefully dressed herself up for the date. Second, the feelings she invested in Shido were far below the manga books she wanted to buy. And lastly, even when Mikoto and Shido acted intimate, she did not mind at all.

(Somehow, that feels very far from "liking someone" or "a date.")

Mikoto thought in her heart. Somehow, she felt that the feelings Nia had toward Shido were, at most, those of an ordinary friend.

[Wh-what do you mean?]

Hearing Mikoto's words, Kotori was no longer that confident. The girl was not the type to speak without reason. If Mikoto said that, then in all likelihood, she had noticed something.

"Commander! This… this is…"

The next instant, a crew member's panicked voice came from Mikoto's earpiece.

"What happened?"

Immediately after, Kotori's voice followed.

"Please… please look at this value. Nia's affection level today hasn't changed at all compared to when they first met. Forget sealing her, it's completely stuck at the level of a good friend!"

The uneasy feeling had become reality. Nia's affection level had not changed at all.

"What?"

Hearing that, Shido frowned. Although they had also encountered a locked affection level while capturing Mikoto, that was because Mikoto had originally been a boy, so Shido, not knowing that, instinctively did not hold feelings above friendship toward her.

But in Nia's case… somehow, it did not seem very likely to be the same as Mikoto's situation.

"What's wrong? Ah… it's probably that, right? The affection level or whatever."

Noticing Shido and Mikoto's expressions, Nia scratched her hair in confusion, then seemed to think of something and said that.

"Did… did I do something to make you unhappy?"

Shido asked.

"No, it has nothing to do with the boy or Miko-chan. The problem is entirely with me."

Nia waved her hands repeatedly. Then, after struggling for a while to organize her words, she spoke.

"To be honest, I don't want to keep living this nerve wracking life either. If possible, I hope the boy can seal my spiritual power. But… making me fall in love with the boy…"

For Nia, if she continued maintaining her manga serialization like this, DEM would find her sooner or later. As a Spirit, maintaining her identity in human society meant that it was impossible to slip away from under DEM's eyes.

If Nia had to choose between her identity as a manga artist and her identity as a Spirit, the girl would undoubtedly choose the former.

However…

"I can only fall in love with '2D.'"

Looking at the two of them, Nia said that.

"You're kidding, right? There's actually something like this?"

Five minutes later, in a corner of the fast food restaurant away from Nia, Shido and Mikoto were holding an emergency meeting with Kotori and the others.

"What should we do in this situation?"

Shido could not think of any effective method at all.

She could only fall in love with 2D?

What were they supposed to do about that?

[Even for me, this is the first time encountering a situation like this.]

Not only Shido, but even Kotori, who was usually full of ideas, had begun to panic.

"Recently, many young people have fallen in love with anime and manga characters. After all, characters are created to please readers or viewers. In a certain sense, they are the most ideal images, and they are all handsome boys and beautiful girls. If those characters are used as the standard, then perhaps real people will feel lacking by comparison."

Nakatsugawa, as a 2D fanatic, said that.

"I see. A gap, huh? Considering Nia's Angel, that isn't impossible."

Mikoto nodded.

Nia's Angel was an omniscient Angel. In other words, as long as Nia wanted, all kinds of dark sides of humans in reality would be laid bare in front of the girl without reservation.

In contrast, 2D characters were only created to satisfy the needs of readers and viewers. They were born to be perfect and pure. Even Rasiel could not expose any shadow in them.

"But even so, it's not like any 2D character will do, right?"

Kotori quickly understood what Mikoto meant.

Nia's Angel was very likely the reason for the girl's personality. Even so, considering that they should cater to her preferences, it was also very important to understand what kind of character Nia liked.

"As for characters Nia likes, how about Tokiya from Space-Time Kitan? This character has a cool personality and is pretty popular with girls."

Nakatsugawa answered. Earlier, Nia seemed to have said something like "Tokiya is my waifu."

"I see. In other words, Nia might fall in love with that character?"

The voice from the earpiece made it feel like Kotori's black-hearted smile was right in front of them.

"Wait, Kotori. You want Shido to cosplay as that Tokiya or whatever, right?"

Mikoto asked uneasily.

"Of course. Is there a problem?"

Kotori asked.

"I object. Even if Shido cosplays as Tokiya, what Nia likes would only be the character Shido is cosplaying as, not Shido himself, right?"

Mikoto shook her head.

Earlier, the two had been messed around with by Nia through cosplay once, so Mikoto understood somewhat. Nia was quite strict about this kind of thing. Not only did the outfit have to be accurate, but the expression, tone, and bearing also needed to reflect the traits of the original character.

"I don't think Shido can perfectly cosplay a character he doesn't understand at all. Also, if Nia notices this, she'll probably be furious." (TL:Phew~ safe~)

Most importantly, once Nia noticed their goal—

Mikoto imagined herself in Nia's shoes. If anyone dared to pretend to be Shido and trick her into falling in love with him, she would not let that person off easily.

[Even if you say that, we don't have any other method right now, do we?]

Kotori asked.

"Ugh…"

Mikoto hesitated.

That was right. Nia liked 2D. If they could not make Nia fall in love with Shido no matter what, then turning into a 2D character Nia liked seemed like the only path.

[In short, let's try it first.]

Kotori's sigh came from the earpiece. It seemed she also understood the risks of this plan.

While Shido finished changing into his cosplay and walked toward Nia, Mikoto stood in the distance and took out her phone.

The girl tapped open a website with her fingertip.

There, perhaps, was the information she wanted.

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