I Sealed Sukuna’s Finger#354+355: I Missed You, Another Childhood Friend

After spending the entire afternoon thoroughly satisfying Nagisa and Yukina, then taking a shower at home, it was barely 5:30 PM when Bokue Keikain appeared outside Asagi Aiba's apartment building.

He'd entered the bathroom with Nagisa and Yukina at five o'clock. Normally, given a certain True Ancestor girl's current personality, a three-person bath should've taken at least an hour.

But starting at five sharp, a certain blonde gamer girl had begun carpet-bombing his phone with calls.

First call came right as he entered the bathroom—when she learned he wanted to shower before coming over, she complained about him being too formal and that he should just shower at her place. Then she gave him five minutes. Less than two minutes after hanging up, she called again asking if he was done.

After that, she maintained a constant two-minute call interval to monitor his shower progress.

This forced Nagisa and Yukina to once again practice their special skill of "making absolutely no sound even when the youth center's gates are being violently rammed."

Even so, they only managed one round each before hastily ending bath time.

Ring—

Standing below the luxury apartment building, Bokue looked up at the towering structure bathed in orange sunset light, pressing his ringing phone to his ear.

The call connected in less than a second, Asagi's voice coming through.

"Hello? What now? Didn't you say you already showered?"

"Nothing, just letting you know I'm downstairs at your building."

"HAH??"

As expected, the blonde girl's volume instantly shot up several levels.

"Then hurry up and get here! What are you doing standing downstairs? Can't you just appear with a whoosh like usual..."

"But you said that was scary."

Bokue mentally facepalmed.

"So I'm calling first to give you a heads-up."

"Oh come on, I don't need any heads-up now! God, just get up here already..."

"Coming."

Before the words finished, Bokue vanished from his spot.

When he reappeared, he stood in a familiar girl's bedroom.

Looking up, a certain blonde girl—dressed in cute loose bear pajamas like a shut-in sister—lay sprawled on her bed. One hand propped under her chin, the other holding her phone to her ear.

"..."

Sensing the youth's presence, Asagi immediately swallowed whatever she was about to say. Without even hanging up, she tossed her phone into a corner, then nimbly flipped off the bed. She stood up and stared silently at him.

Hmm?

Bokue raised an eyebrow, wondering what this was about.

The next second, the blonde girl suddenly threw her arms around him and pressed her lips to his.

But even that wasn't enough for Asagi. Maintaining the kiss, she pulled Bokue to the bed. Like two pieces of mochi stuck together, they fell straight down, with her ending up on top.

It was an impressively long kiss.

After about a full minute, when they finally separated, Asagi was flushed and panting lightly. Her golden hair fell from either side of her face like curtains, enclosing their heads.

"Idiot, taking so long to come over..."

She looked down at him from above, pouting with a soft complaint.

Bokue habitually wrapped his arms around the girl's slender waist.

"What, did you eat breakfast late again, skip lunch, and now you're hungry?"

"...I'm not hungry!"

Asagi was completely exasperated by that comment.

How should she put it—she had him lying in bed with his arms around her waist, kissed him the moment they met, complained about him being late, and his response was to ask if she wanted dinner?

Are you kidding me??

Converting anger into momentum, Asagi couldn't hold back anymore and dove down for another forceful kiss with rocket-headbutt intensity.

"..."

"..."

"..."

This one lasted a full three minutes.

"Cough... cough! Hah..."

When she finally lifted her head, Asagi's entire face was crimson as she gasped for air.

"There... now do you get it?"

"Got it."

Bokue tightened his arms around the girl's waist.

He'd have to be an idiot not to understand at this point. Given Asagi's attitude, plus her tone during the morning phone call, it wasn't hard to guess what the girl was thinking.

"So..."

Asagi lowered her voice, eyes downcast as she pouted.

"Nothing happened on that island these two days, right?"

"It was fine."

Bokue thought back.

"Besides getting attacked by a wave of magical constructs at night, and taking down a mad scientist doing human experiments—oh, that was about Kanon Kanase. The mad scientist was her adoptive father, Kensei Kanase."

"...How is that 'fine'?"

Asagi's mouth twitched slightly.

That wasn't actually what she'd meant to ask. Her "nothing happened on the island" obviously referred to between Bokue and Sayaka Kirasaka.

Think about it—a man and woman alone on an isolated island overnight. Saying nothing happened seemed pretty unlikely.

At the very least, something ambiguous or inappropriate probably occurred.

But now it seemed she'd hit that small probability event.

After all, according to Bokue—first rescuing a stranded princess during the day, then fighting magical constructs at night, followed by dealing with a mad scientist.

Cramming all that into one day and night made for action-movie-level pacing.

If he'd still found time for something else... it seemed impossible, way too tight a schedule.

"Oh right, after we're done tonight... Bokue, you should stay here."

Asagi's gaze fell, her tone carrying obvious reluctance.

"Summer vacation's already more than half over. Two more weeks and school starts again. You said you live in Tokyo, right? So when vacation ends, you'll have to go back to Tokyo. Then we won't see each other until the next break..."

"Oh, about that."

As if reminded by her words, Bokue gave a light pat to the rounded area below her waist.

"I'll probably be moving to Itogami Island soon. Not temporarily—permanently settling here."

"Eh? Settling?"

Asagi froze, then showed surprise, followed by a thoughtful expression.

"But if you're settling on Itogami Island, housing's a problem. Honestly, real estate here isn't cheaper than Tokyo. And I remember you said things aren't great with the Keikain family, so if money's tight, you could stay here. Or worst case, I could ask Dad to see if he can get you housing allocation..."

"Don't worry, it's not that complicated."

Bokue said, patting again.

"What I mean is—by then, this entire island will be mine."

<><><><><><><><>

Scene shift—the two had already left the apartment.

There was one thing Bokue hadn't been wrong about—Asagi really had been lying around since waking up this morning. She'd stayed in bed until almost noon, ate a light breakfast, then returned to bed to continue being a happy couch potato.

Six whole hours without eating—even just lying there playing on her phone would've made anyone hungry.

Yet even after reaching the ground floor, Asagi was still pressing about their earlier topic.

"Wait wait wait! What did you mean by 'the whole island will be yours'?"

"It's... exactly what it sounds like."

Bokue spread his hands, indicating he wasn't exaggerating.

Asagi's brain still hadn't quite wrapped around it.

"So you're saying you're going to buy all of Itogami Island? How much would that even cost?"

"...I never said I'd buy it."

Bokue suddenly wasn't sure how to explain this, so he went with the simplest, most direct statement.

"To put it bluntly—if I wanted, all of Itogami Island could be mine right now."

"Direct military conquest??"

Asagi's eyes went wide.

That was the only conclusion she could draw from his words, but it completely defied common sense.

After all, even with the human and Underworld interconnected, the human world was still governed by humans.

Even Kyoto—called the Millennium Demon Capital—was jointly governed by the Nine-Tailed Fox Yasaka and the Keikain family. And even then, those two families barely touched political matters.

At least officially, all power remained firmly in the Japanese government's hands.

Itogami Island was the same. Though designated as a Demon District, it essentially still belonged to the Japanese government.

If Bokue demanded Itogami Island become his private property, the Japanese government would...

No wait, modern civilized society shouldn't even have scenarios involving forceful military conquest anymore, right?

"Of course not."

Bokue looked at her like it was obvious.

"Why would it need to come to military conquest? I'll just ask the Japanese government for it."

"...Would that even work?"

Asagi suddenly felt a disorienting disconnect.

She'd been thinking about how much resistance the Japanese government would mount against military conquest, while Bokue had already decided to simply "ask the Japanese government for it"—as if he'd never doubted they'd agree.

"I think it should be fine."

Bokue picked at his ear.

He left the second half unsaid—the Japanese government would have to dare refuse him first.

If they said no today, tomorrow both the Imperial Palace and Prime Minister's residence would be stuffed into Mount Fuji's volcanic crater together.

He was confident those constantly ninety-degree-bowing geezers would quickly make the right decision once the volcanic sulfur cleared their heads.

"But why do you suddenly have this idea anyway?"

Asagi's curiosity was piqued again.

If it were anyone else, she wouldn't think much of it. But this was Bokue Keikain.

From what she knew of him, Asagi was well aware that Bokue had never shown any interest in power. He'd only become the Keikain family's acting head because his strength was so broken—not just compared to his peers, but unprecedented even looking back through the Keikain family's thousand-year history.

That's why, after becoming Acting Head, Bokue's daily life remained virtually unchanged. He still did whatever he wanted, never meeting with political figures or making public speeches, completely ignoring approval ratings from the family's branch houses.

His attitude was basically: do whatever you want—remove me from office if you can.

Yet this same person who had zero desire for power suddenly wanted to establish his own territory?

"Hmm~ How should I put it... probably just insights from different life stages..."

Bokue walked while seriously rubbing his chin in thought.

"Basically, I just feel it'd be better to have my own territory."

"So the people there can pay you heavy tribute?"

Asagi commented dryly.

"That won't be necessary..."

Bokue shook his head.

This was absolutely true. His current dependence on ordinary humans was already far less than even the Seventy-Two Pillars nobles of the Underworld.

As mentioned before, in the strength-based demon hierarchy, rather than upper demons needing tribute from ordinary demons, it was more like upper demons used accepting tribute as an excuse to provide protection to ordinary demons.

Simply put, upper demons didn't need lower demons' support—lower demons simply needed upper demons' protection. The supply-demand relationship was completely reversed.

And Bokue's current state went even further. He didn't even need ordinary humans to serve him for convenience. With his power, anything he wanted was within easy reach.

As for making Itogami Island his territory—honestly, it was just to make it convenient for Rias and the others to travel between worlds, and to have a place where everyone could live together.

Plus it would improve security.

That way, incidents like the Old Satan Faction remnants couldn't happen again.

"Oh? Territory? Tribute? Are you playing some new management simulation game, Bokue?"

Just as Bokue thought he'd explained things clearly and was about to ask Asagi which restaurant downtown she wanted for dinner, an unfamiliar yet somehow familiar voice came from behind.

Huh?

Hearing someone call his name, Bokue promptly stopped and turned around.

As the sun set, the shops lining both sides of the street had already lit their neon signs. Under the multicolored lights, a boyish-looking girl with brown shoulder-length hair stood behind them. She wore a sporty windbreaker and stretchy jeans, hands in her jacket pockets.

If not for the slight curves at her chest, she could easily be mistaken for a guy.

So speaking of which... who was this?

Bokue fell into momentary confusion.

But beside him, Asagi reacted completely differently, letting out a heavily inflected "ahh," as if witnessing something shocking. She pointed straight at the short-haired girl with wide eyes.

"Y-y-you... why are you on Itogami Island??"

"What, surprised?"

The short-haired girl grinned with a rather sunny smile.

"Long time no see to you too, blonde shut-in~"

"You're the shut-in!"

Asagi shot back without thinking.

Just as the two girls were about to start arguing in the street, the still-confused Bokue raised his hand to stop them.

"Hold up, hold up. What's going on here? You two know each other?"

"Hah?? Bokue, you don't recognize her? She's that flat-chested tomboy who used to come drag you out to play with Shidou Irina when we were kids! Her name was..."

"Tokoyogi Yuuma."

Before Asagi could continue, Tokoyogi Yuuma smiled slightly and turned to the now-enlightened young man.

"Remember me now? Long time no see, Bokue."