After saying that, Takiya symbolically bought that game, then disappeared into the crowd together with Fafnir.
"...Still not enough?"
Tomoya stared blankly at the flow of people ahead, then shifted his gaze toward the extremely lively Dies Irae venue in front of him. Behind his glasses, his eyes gradually filled with bitterness.
A disastrous start and a failed attempt—no matter how stubborn he was, he still had to accept it.
Seeing the dejected, heavily shaken look on her childhood friend's face, Eriri really wanted to go over and throw out a few tsundere remarks to disrupt his current mindset.
But just as she moved, she was pressed on the shoulder by the expressionless Utaha. Utaha shot an unhappy look toward Eriri, yet without engaging in any verbal sparring, she simply stared at Tomoya's despondent back and spoke coldly:
"Let him deal with it on his own. The lesson from his first failure will become valuable experience."
If possible, Utaha would rather have Aki give up, so that her own feelings might finally receive a response.
Although she personally wanted to go over and deliver a few sharp-tongued remarks at Tomoya, this failure was something he should swallow by himself.
Hearing this, Michiru and Megumi exchanged a glance and remained silent. Eriri glared angrily at Utaha and Tomoya, but in the end she still did not go over to comfort him. After snorting coldly, she continued with her work selling doujinshi.
"Excuse me, how much are these two manga volumes and that penguin figurine? I'll take them."
Suddenly, Utaha—who had been impatiently tapping her foot—and Eriri—who was selling doujinshi—seemed to hear a familiar voice.
Instinctively turning their heads in interest, the two immediately widened their eyes in shock.
Not far from their booth stood someone they were all too familiar with—Raize. Beside him was a silver-haired girl wearing a pure white dress symbolizing innocence and purity, with a large white sunhat on her head. Her features were exquisitely beautiful to the point of suffocating.
Many people, upon seeing Eu's natural, makeup-free yet breathtakingly beautiful appearance, regardless of gender, felt an urge to step forward and ask for photos or a group shot.
However, upon seeing the imposing, powerful man standing beside her, they all very sensibly stopped in their tracks. Didn't they see that this silver-haired girl was holding hands intimately with that stern-faced big guy?
If they went up to disturb them, weren't they afraid the "Saiyan" next to the silver-haired girl might get violent?
Why didn't anyone dare disturb Raize?
Because Raize's appearance had been slightly styled to match the atmosphere of the convention. His jet-black hair stood straight up toward the sky except for a single bang, forming a very eye-catching Saiyan hairstyle. Although it looked somewhat like a delinquent visual-kei style, on Raize, it didn't give that impression at all.
Yes—this was the hairstyle of a strong man.
He was wearing the Metamoran-style ethnic outfit seen after fusion in Dragon Ball, like Gotenks or Gogeta. On top was a refreshing, uniquely styled sleeveless short jacket, and on the bottom were slightly loose pure white pants.
Light blue leg wraps were tied around his ankles and calves, and his waist was secured with a blue cloth belt.
That eye-catching jacket could not hide Raize's handsome, upright figure. His dense, powerful muscles—corded and well-defined—made anyone who looked over instinctively swallow in fear.
He wasn't the bulky muscle-bound type; every muscle on his body was perfectly proportioned, without any sense of bloated mass.
Yet the oppressive presence was not diminished in the slightest. It was only natural that no one dared to approach.
Quite a few women, cameras in hand, swallowed hard at Raize's handsome face and perfect physique, but precisely because of the beautiful Eu at his side—and that overwhelming pressure—they did not dare step forward.
The Dragon Ball manga hadn't even reached the Z era yet, and he had already dressed like this. Fortunately, it didn't give people the feeling of "a Saiyan standing right in front of me."
Raize also wore black wrist guards on both wrists. With his other hand, his fingers interlocked with the small, beautiful hand of the petite girl beside him, just like a couple.
Under the male vendor's unconscious gulping, and his fearful, nervous gaze, Raize pointed to the items Eu had taken a liking to.
"T-That'll be 3,728 yen total. Y-You can just round it—3,700 yen is fine."
Damn it—was this some underworld boss out on a date with his girl!?
The stammering male vendor was internally on the verge of tears. At first, seeing such a beautiful and moving girl appear at his booth had been a pleasant, heart-fluttering sight.
But once this big guy stood next to her, forget heart-fluttering—his heart was about to jump out of his chest. He just hoped this boss would hurry up, buy the items, and leave.
After paying and taking what Eu wanted, Raize handed her the penguin figurine and carried the rest for her.
"Anything else you want?"
Raize asked calmly, his expression unchanged, seeing Eu still looking around the booth.
Eu's power was still within him. The reason he could speak now was thanks to a device he had invented—a voice generator attached to his throat to substitute for speech.
So even when he spoke, his expression remained impassive.
"That one."
Eu pointed toward a DVD not far away. It was a comedy film she could only watch on a specific TV channel. Now that she saw the DVD, she wanted to buy it so she could watch it anytime.
Raize nodded. Before he could speak, the vendor directly picked up the DVD and quoted the price. Raize bought it without hesitation.
After that, Raize and Eu left, under Eriri and Utaha's silent, astonished gazes.
Tomoya himself had also seen the man who had once terrified him to the point of psychological trauma. Although the silver-haired girl beside him—like someone who had stepped out of a manga—was shockingly beautiful, even more so than Megumi on the Sakura Slope back then,
that sense of amazement was immediately drowned out by the fear Raize inspired. In an extremely cowardly manner, under the girls' strange, silent, and disappointed gazes, he hid himself away. Only after Raize left did he dare come out, finally breathing a sigh of relief.
The "strange" reaction came from his cousin, Michiru, who didn't know what kind of history Tomoya had with that tall, oppressive man.
As for Megumi and the others, they knew better. Seeing Tomoya's terrified, shrinking behavior just now left them somewhat disappointed.
Regarding the matter between Raize and Tomoya, aside from Utaha and Eriri—who still couldn't fully let it go—Megumi was relatively rational.
You could try to recruit these people, but you even had inexplicable confidence in inviting a national-treasure-level artist like Mashiro. She truly didn't know what to say about Tomoya.
Still, seeing that Raize—the top student who was so close to Mashiro at school—had appeared here, and in such a flashy outfit no less, was genuinely surprising to those who thought they knew him well.