All It Takes to Attract the Strongest Sorcerer Is One Firework

[New story: Are You Scared Today? Please add it to your wishlist! Blurb below~]

After losing her cursed energy, Akiyama Rin always thought she was an ordinary person.

She carefully chose Kanagawa as her home and took over her grandmother's fireworks shop.

But she never expected this auspicious place to start getting weird.

Cursed spirits, adolescent syndrome, a white-haired boy who claims to be the strongest but is actually childish beyond belief, a bespectacled boy who gets caught up in accidents wherever he goes...

She thought she was one of the few normal people in this unscientific world, but later Akiyama Rin realized that she was the least normal of all.

Holding hands with Gojo Satoru, who by then was her boyfriend, she grins and says, “Hehe, I'm done being human!”

*

One day, WTW randomly comes across a video and suddenly asks Akiyama Rin to watch fireworks with him.

Akiyama Rin sits behind the counter and points casually. “What kind do you want to see?”

“Those are too ordinary. Of course I want to see something special.”

The white-haired boy bites into a Kikufuku, his eyes narrowing with pleasure at the sweet. “They need to have a design. Ideally, one as handsome as me.”

“Tch, what are you thinking?” Akiyama Rin leans back in her chair and spreads her hands. “We don't sell fireworks like that.”

Much later,

“Is it pretty?”

The fireworks flicker high and low. WTW gazes at the girl's profile, his heart pounding.

#Tentatively a slice-of-life story. There are some personal headcanons, so the characters may be a little out of character. Please bear with me.

[New story: Are You Scared Today?]

Sakai Natsuki is a famous actress in horror games, a beautiful yet terrifying NPC and a model employee by all accounts.

After doing her job diligently for over a decade, she's finally tired of getting recorded by players while listening to them scream.

System: Want to get your body back? Go collect everyone's fear points in a dating game. Fill the meter to clear the game and claim your reward.

A dating game?

Scaring people to death should be easy.

Full of confidence, Sakai Natsuki enters one brand-new game scenario after another.

But while at first she could clear a scenario just by tearing off an arm or a leg, eventually players are laughing and chatting over her corpse. After failing countless times, Sakai Natsuki seriously wonders what has gone wrong with the outside world.

Why aren't people scared when they see a dead body in a dating game?! She even ripped her own head off!!

Listening to the players describe all the ways she's died, Sakai Natsuki quietly pieces her head back together after reloading and trembles in a corner. “Can I quit?”

But in the final game, things go out of control. No matter how much Sakai Natsuki calls for the System, it doesn't respond, and the save button it gave her seems completely useless.

Unable to control the game's progress, she gets a bad feeling. She works hard to collect fear points, hoping to escape the game.

Sakai Natsuki stares at the players, who are more dangerous than her fellow NPCs, and forces a smile. “Are you scared today?”

#

A certain strongest is passionately chatting with online friends.

“Have you played [Natsuki's Ghost Stories]?”

“Yeah.”

“I heard from the developers that there's a hidden happy ending in this game. Has anyone gotten it?”

The handsome blond man with dark skin rubs the bridge of his nose. “No. I just finished the shooting route.”

“Then we're different. I got the hanging route.” The white-haired, purple-eyed young man touches the mark near his eye.

The white-haired boy in sunglasses turns to his friend. “What about you, Geto?”

“Ah.” Sitting in his room with a headset on, the black-haired young man with a bun casually pauses the game and smiles. “My Natsuki hasn't died yet.”

“No way. Are you going to clear it?”

The others' astonished voices echo in the headphones, but the next moment, they hear the background music for the bad ending.

“Heh.” The white-haired strongest licks his lips, his competitive spirit shining in his eyes.

“Then let's see who gets the happy ending first.”

Premise: Treasure the friendships and love you find as you grow.