After deciding to leave the island, everyone set about purchasing supplies in town.
Most of the players were in high spirits, especially the women involved with Makoto.
With Makoto around, there was no need to worry about their safety.
Even Sonoko Suzuki and Kotonoha Katsura, who had essentially zero combat ability, were bouncing with excitement. After all, they had absolute backing from Makoto himself.
Players like Miyuki Shirogane and Shizuka Hiratsuka, whose relationship with Makoto was more limited, were quick to read the room. They immediately took on the chores aboard the ship, grabbing brooms and mops to scrub everything down, terrified of being "optimized" after Yu Ishigami had casually mentioned, "This ship's a bit small. It can't hold this many people."
Not that it wasn't true.
The Roger Pirates' Oro Jackson was larger than the Straw Hats' Thousand Sunny would be in the future, but the Roger Pirates had always been a small, elite crew.
Now they had to cram in the players, the Kuja Pirates, and the Roger Pirates all at once. Even stuffing the entire Roger crew into the lower hold left things cramped.
In the end, nobody except Makoto got a private cabin.
The male players continued their usual arrangement, crammed into a single room.
The women sorted themselves into rooms freely, but it still worked out to two or three per bedroom.
Makoto's women may have shared a common man, but they had their own little sub-groups within the larger circle.
Utaha Kasumigaoka was naturally closest to Megumi Kato, plus Eriri, who hadn't done that with Makoto, forming the Saekano group.
Yui Yuigahama, Yumiko Miura, and Hina Ebina, the popular girl trio, were a given. They added Chizuru Ichinose from the same "maid faction."
Reze was fairly close with Ran Mouri and Sonoko Suzuki.
Partly because, after returning to the real world, Makoto had asked Ran to look after her.
Also, Reze had gotten to know Yukiko in the Chainsaw Man world, and Yukiko now saw Ran as her own daughter.
With those two connections layered together, Reze naturally gravitated toward the Detective Conan group.
Kotonoha Katsura, despite becoming one of Makoto's wives, hadn't changed much in her socially awkward nature. She got along with everyone well enough but never quite made it into the inner circle of any particular clique.
Kokoro Katsura felt she needed to grow up fast, lest her big sister be left isolated.
So Kotonoha ended up sharing a room with Kokoro, Nayuta, and Erina Nakiri.
Erina, for her part, didn't room with her cousin.
The Nakano quintuplets naturally piled into one room together.
...
"Excuse us for a while."
In another cabin, Saeko Busujima smiled and nodded at the Yukinoshita sisters.
Three women, one room.
The Yukinoshita sisters had a so-so relationship with most of the other female players, but getting a room just for the two of them would've been excessive. They didn't have that kind of seniority.
As a newer player, Saeko wasn't close to them either, but she didn't mind sharing.
Both sisters nodded in acknowledgment.
Haruno couldn't resist giving Saeko a once-over.
Tch. What do these women eat to grow like that?
As the Oro Jackson set sail, the ship began to rock, and everyone busied themselves with their own tasks.
Haruno pulled out a stack of newspapers and started reading.
While restocking supplies at Malad Island, the thing they'd bought most of was newspapers.
Not just recent ones, but older issues too. Haruno used them to better understand this world.
Yukino, meanwhile, chatted with Saeko.
"Saeko-san seems to admire Commander Nishikado quite a bit."
Women's friendships were a strange and wondrous thing.
They'd only just met properly, and they were already on a first-name basis.
At the mention of Makoto's name, a flush instinctively rose to Saeko's beautiful, alluring face.
"That man accepted everything about me, and I've entrusted everything I have to him."
Earlier, while boarding the ship, Makoto had passed by Saeko and told her that if the Marines agreed to the trade, the sword would go to her. At the time, Saeko had wanted nothing more than to pin Makoto to the floor and make him her star slave right then and there!
The main reason being that among Makoto's women, no one else specialized in swordsmanship.
Kotonoha already had her Knife Devil abilities, so any new blade would naturally go to Saeko.
But that didn't change the fact that Makoto had single-handedly maxed out Saeko's affection in one move.
After everything she'd been through in the real world, Makoto had been Saeko's fantasy object for a long time.
After transferring to America, she'd lost count of how many times she'd pleasured herself to his poster.
Their current situation was essentially a fangirl officially meeting her idol. Would anything happen? Was there even a question?
Then again, no wonder so many celebrities sleep with their fans.
The man was just fulfilling a little fan's wish. What was wrong with that?
Of course, those who took it further were pure creeps.
Even Makoto, badass as he was, hadn't laid a finger on the younger girls.
A moment later, Saeko swallowed hard several times in succession, her thighs pressing together and rubbing involuntarily, soft little gasps escaping her lips.
The Yukinoshita sisters stared.
Sister, I'm sitting right here.
Haruno didn't know what to think.
The facts were right in front of her. Even willful blindness couldn't deny that Makoto genuinely had no shortage of women. Even when he wasn't pursuing them, they threw themselves at him one after another.
Barely pulling herself out of her fantasy, Saeko realized she'd lost her composure. She cleared her throat and changed the subject. "Ahem, s-so, Haruno-san, about the baby formula."
With that, Saeko glanced at the tin of formula sitting on Haruno Yukinoshita's nightstand.
"Oh, that? That's Hayama-kun's urn."
Haruno Yukinoshita explained. "We were in such a rush in town, I couldn't find a proper urn anywhere. I'm using this as a substitute."
After all, the Hayama family had always served the Yukinoshita family. In more old-fashioned terms, they were retainers.
Now that the man was dead, Haruno felt the least she could do was bring his ashes back to his mother.
"Sister, when a player dies in the other world, their body in the real world doesn't disappear."
Yukino reminded her. Kudo Yusaku, Tobe, and others had already proven this: if you died in the Reincarnation Game, your real-world body would suffer cardiac arrest, but the corpse would remain intact.
They could always cremate it back in the real world.
"Oh, sorry, I forgot." Haruno blinked in realization. "Then should I just throw it out?"
She walked over to the window and seemed ready to actually toss the thing into the ocean.
Yukino said exasperatedly, "Is that really necessary?"
Haruno blinked in genuine confusion. "You said the real-world body would be preserved, right? So keeping this is pointless, isn't it?"
Yukino rolled her eyes hard and shoved the formula tin under the bed. "Whatever. The guy simped for over a decade. Do you have to be that ruthless?"
Yukino Yukinoshita decided that once they reached the next island, she was burying the damn thing.
Haruno's emotional intelligence might be low, but she wasn't a bad person. You really couldn't say that about these sisters.
"Dinner time, dinner time!"
At that moment, Alice's voice crackled through the broadcast speaker installed in every room.
Everyone got up and headed for the dining hall.
Night was falling.
On the way back to the cabins, halfway down the corridor, Saeko suddenly turned to the Yukinoshita sisters. "Ladies, if you'll excuse me. If you get sleepy, don't wait up."
During dinner, Saeko had noticed something.
Most of Makoto's wives were exhausted from the day's fighting and nursing injuries. None of them were in any mood for that kind of activity tonight.
Damn, is heaven itself giving me an opening?
Recalling the expression Saeko had worn earlier when Makoto came up in conversation, the Yukinoshita sisters would have to be idiots not to guess where she was headed.
Yukino Yukinoshita rolled her eyes so hard they nearly got stuck.
The incidents with Tritoma and Yotsuba had already bruised her pride, and she understood that Makoto truly didn't lack for bed partners.
But the speed at which women were throwing themselves at him, one after another, was almost comical.
"Can I come along?"
Haruno asked.
Yukino stared at her sister in disbelief. "Are you serious?"
Saeko was stunned too.
Truthfully? No, she was absolutely not bringing Haruno Yukinoshita along.
Not that Saeko minded how many women Makoto had. If anything, she felt a man as powerful as him ought to have more women lined up for him.
But this was her first time. She wanted it to be just the two of them.
After a moment, Saeko said, "How about I finish first, and then you can take over?"
Saeko had a realistic assessment of her own combat endurance.
She believed that as his partner, she had to be able to satisfy him.
When she couldn't keep up anymore, Haruno could tag in.
But for her very first time with Makoto, Saeko wanted it to be a private affair.
"Thank you, Saeko-san."
Haruno Yukinoshita said, practically vibrating with excitement.