Chapter 395: Admin-sama Is a Legend!!
Sure enough, when Ryū opened the door, there stood Anko, still wearing that same white down jacket from before — reasonable enough, given the weather hadn't fully warmed up yet.
Looking at the short, thirteen-year-old girl in front of him, Ryū's expression settled into something faintly resigned. His Observation Haki had already picked up exactly what was running through her head.
Anko, visibly tense, froze the moment she actually saw him standing there, whole and unharmed — and then let out a heavy breath of relief, some private worry finally lifting off her shoulders.
And she genuinely had been worried. When Minato had led the villagers and shinobi back into Konoha, she'd been just as baffled as everyone else about the village turning up completely unscathed — but what had actually preoccupied her was Ryū's own unexplained absence over the past several days. She'd wanted to check on him directly.
Except, right around then, Minato had called up a large group of Jōnin and Chūnin for a batch of urgent special missions. As a Chūnin herself, Anko had no way around it — she'd been swept up with the rest, dispatched out on assignment along with everyone else.
That mission had run a full ten-plus days. She'd only just gotten back to Konoha today, and the moment she'd finished handing in her mission report to the Hokage, she'd rushed straight over here without stopping.
Seeing Ryū standing there, completely fine, finally settled whatever had been weighing on her — she let out an unmistakable sigh of relief.
"You scared me half to death, I thought you might've — you might've died in that earthquake— no wait, forget that, I mean, I thought something happened to you!"
Realizing halfway through that bringing up someone's death right at the door probably wasn't the most polite opening line, Anko hastily corrected herself.
She swallowed down her nerves, gave a small cough, and continued after a brief pause. "Well — since you're clearly fine, I guess I can finally relax."
Looking at the visibly shy, somewhat nervous girl in front of him, Ryū shook his head lightly and spoke up first. "I know exactly what's going through your head right now. You're thirteen this year. I'm already eighteen."
Ignoring the subtle shift in Anko's expression, Ryū continued, entirely matter-of-fact, not a trace of guilt in his voice. "I've also got a girlfriend, actually. We're... pretty far along, if you catch my meaning."
"..."
Ten minutes later, watching Anko take her leave, Ryū's mood hadn't shifted one bit. Say what you like, but he was remarkably steady on this particular front.
For her part, he'd genuinely thanked her for coming to check on him, and even offered to let her stay for lunch, seeing as it was already around noon.
Anko declined with a somewhat forced smile, though — probably still processing the impact of Ryū's opening remarks.
Ryū couldn't help reflecting, sometimes, on how differently two black-haired girls handled disappointment. Compared to Anko walking off visibly deflated, a certain other black-haired girl came across as considerably more stubborn — practically a simp, honestly.
And Yukari, weirdly enough, had absolutely no issue with Kaguya on that front whatsoever. Ryū privately suspected the relationship between those two ran deeper than his own with Yukari — though he wasn't entirely sure if that was just his imagination. Probably not, honestly.
He still had a healthy respect for women, all things considered — not like he was some kind of player. Three seemed like a perfectly reasonable number, honestly.
One youkai sage, two dowry maids... yeah, that ought to round things out nicely.
Yes — he was still holding out hope for those two dowry maids, even though every single time he brought it up to Yukari, she shot him down with the same line: "Dowry maid my foot!"
Watching Anko's figure fade out of view, Ryū let out an idle yawn, glancing at the few snowflakes settling onto his shoulder. "Snowing again, huh. Guess I'll have to clear the roof off in a few days."
"Wonder where Guy's wandered off to, though — haven't seen him in almost a month now. Probably out on some long-term mission. Guy's actually pretty solid by Konoha standards these days — otherwise I could've legitimately roped him into doing some chores around here."
Ryū figured there was nothing wrong with a teacher putting his student to a little honest labor now and then. Perfectly normal, really.
Too bad Guy wasn't home. Or maybe he was, and Ryū just kept missing him — off in some other dimension, or camped out in the chat group's Arena at the same time.
He shut the door and headed back inside, shaking off the tangent entirely.
His consciousness slipped into the chat group, still deep in heated discussion over the upcoming group event.
Terrible Tornado: Since this event world doesn't belong to any of us, we're going in blind — could easily end up clashing with the locals without meaning to.
Terrible Tornado: That kind of situation could invite a lot of unnecessary trouble.
Edward Newgate: Gurararara, Admin's read Battle Through the Heavens himself, right? Should give us at least a rough sense of the place.
Eternally Seventeen: Admin-sama's only actually read it, though — what if we land in some timeline he's never even seen before?
Crazy Diamond: That's a real possibility, honestly. We'd all be walking in blind at that point.
RawrSoFierce: Not a big deal either way. We're going there to enjoy ourselves, not to go looking for trouble.
RawrSoFierce: If someone actually decides to pick a fight with us, we don't need to hold back — just fight back, or run if it's too much. And world-hopping there works differently from group quests anyway — we can just think ourselves straight back to our own worlds anytime.
My True Form Is Cola: Admin-sama's a legend!!
Crazy Diamond: Admin-sama's a legend!!
RawrSoFierce: ...I just stated a perfectly ordinary opinion, and that's somehow worth hyping up? That's a little unsettling.
Crazy Diamond: Doesn't matter, Admin-sama's a legend either way!
Kaguya-sama: Qin Shi Huang: "Josuke-oniichan, why don't you ever hype me up?" Wahhh...
Ying Zheng The Sovereign: ???
My True Form Is Cola: Pfft, and there's the great Qin Shi Huang himself, showing up right as Kaguya-senpai's dragging him — he's already on his way here, sword in hand!
Street-Corner Illustrator: Actually, come to think of it, there's a genuinely serious question here — could Qin Shi Huang-senpai even beat Kaguya-senpai in a fight?
Street-Corner Illustrator: I've genuinely never once seen Qin Shi Huang-senpai actually fight, but apparently he's an old-timer here just like Wolffy — his strength has to be pretty solid, right?
RawrSoFierce: I'd guess Qin Shi Huang probably loses that one, honestly. Kaguya's been on way more group quests than he has.
Ying Zheng The Sovereign: This sovereign probably would lose, yes. Though the only way to know for sure would be to actually fight.
Ying Zheng The Sovereign: This sovereign's currently busy delegating the empire's affairs to trusted subordinates for the next ten days — will be back once the event wraps up.
My True Form Is Cola: Eh? Qin Shi Huang-senpai trusts his subordinates that much? Isn't he worried about a coup? That kind of thing always happens on TV!
Eternally Seventeen: Umaru-chan, are you sure you haven't had a few too many colas today? Ying Zheng's strength might not be planet-busting, but he's still comfortably in the group's Tier 3 bracket!
Eternally Seventeen: Tier 3 in this group is basically walking nuclear-warhead territory. Under those circumstances, who exactly is going to successfully overthrow him? The cast of Qin's Moon?
My True Form Is Cola: Emmm... okay, that actually makes a lot of sense when you put it that way!
Eternally Seventeen: That's the whole point of raw strength, right there — Ying Zheng's power in his own world is simply unmatched. Honestly, he'd probably love it if someone actually tried a coup — that's the fastest way to find out who's secretly disloyal.
Ying Zheng The Sovereign: Precisely. This sovereign would genuinely welcome the attempt.
My True Form Is Cola: Confused... how does Yukari-senpai know all this so well, exactly?
Edward Newgate: Gurararara, little Umaru, you'll understand once you've led something yourself someday.
Senbei Is So Tasty: Mm, that's the kind of thing you just recognize on sight, honestly.
My True Form Is Cola: ...Meow meow meow? Am I actually drunk on soda right now, or something?
Crazy Diamond: No idea either, honestly. Rough day for both of us.
Wandering Little Planet: This must be one of those "senior members only" conversations. Can't follow a single word of it!
Little Sakura of the Tohsaka: I actually get it pretty well, honestly — Yukari-nee already taught me all this before.
RawrSoFierce: ...What exactly have you been teaching Sakura, Yukari?
Eternally Seventeen: The art of statecraft and political maneuvering, obviously!
RawrSoFierce: Pfft... is that really appropriate material for a five- or six-year-old?
Eternally Seventeen: Oh? I figured it was perfectly normal, honestly.
"..."
Well, since Sakura herself didn't seem to have any objections, Ryū figured there wasn't much point pushing back further.
Still — teaching a six-year-old this kind of thing felt a little premature, didn't it?
Sakura was, what, six this year? Learning political scheming that young — was she going to end up turning into some little Yukari-in-training down the line?
Genuinely possible. No — scratch that, not just possible. Practically guaranteed at this point.
Like mother, like daughter, as the saying went. Seemed to fit here perfectly.
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