Chapter 229: To Flex, or not to Flex?
Chapter 229: To Flex, or not to Flex?
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Time passed by in a blur after the concert. Memes about John being Best Girl and a rumored church being established around Jenny Smith sprang up, but for the most part it was business as usual.
The members of Prototype streamed, the new members of Prodigy prepared. And as for John…
“Why am I the one who has to stand at the booth and deal with the merch again?”
…He had to prepare for the next phase of Project MirAIs.
December 6th. Early Friday morning. Early enough to where the sun had yet to rise, and the sky was still a murky dark color.
There behind his desk, armed with a cup of coffee and a not so small amount of regret, was John. As for what he was armed to face… Well, it was the logistics and itinerary for the day.
As the CEO of Myth Incorporated and the nominal leader of Project MirAIs since Titor completely bailed on him after saying something about having his own booth reserved, John was the person who had to deal with everything involved in PR.
He would have liked to punt that off to Bai and Qing so that he could go around the convention cosplaying like how his beloved sisters, wife, daughters, and their friends were planning… but it looked like the two managed to get snagged by women troubles since he last saw them and already had plans.
Bastards.
John sighed and picked up the pamphlet in front of him to double check the details.
First of all, the location. This year, the convention was going to be in the Tokyo International Exhibition Center down by the Ariake Minami district of Tokyo Waterfront City.
…John didn’t know exactly where that was, but he did know that it was about a half hour drive from the office. And since Comiket started at 10 AM and ended at 5PM… at least for corporate booths like theirs, he’d probably have to get there by at least 8 AM to set up.
Qing said that Takashi would be there to help him set up since the former officer was on payroll now, but that guy also had plans to go help his daughter with her booth… which she was using to sell doujins or something.
And come to think of it, Betty said something about having her own booth as well… Which John wouldn’t be able to see because he’d be stuck at his own booth the entire day dealing with people.
Great.
John sighed and muttered, “I suppose I shouldn’t complain too much.”
Things had been peaceful, and he’d had the chance to spend quality time with his family. Not only that, but his sisters had sorted things out with Yue and were acting like sisters would in taking care of their pregnant younger sister.
Mostly by taking her out shopping every day and bugging John about not pampering her more.
Still, that was nice. It’d been a bit of a messy start… but now they were finally like a real family.
“…And I’m just procrastinating.” John sighed and then stood up to stretch.
Honestly, it was a bit ridiculous. Here he was, an omnipotent and practically omniscient being if he wanted to be… and he was avoiding some paperwork.
That thought brought an amused smile to his face. And then he shook his head and picked up the pamphlet along with the envelope containing his convention credentials. Tucking both under his left arm, he pulled out his phone and checked the time.
“It’s only three in the morning… but knowing otakus and weebs, there’ll probably be people lined up there already.” John paused at that thought. “…Is it okay to let everyone off to roam Comiket by themselves?”
Everyone from Project MirAIs would be in cosplay, and there would be at least one person who could use powers to resolve the situation around in each group…
Alphy would be going around with Zhaojun, Rin, and Asako, so that should be fine. Zhaojun knew how to handle creeps in a way that wasn’t too overt.
Yue was heading around with Xuannu and Daji. That… should be fine. At least, his wifey was level-headed enough to calm those two down. And those two were more than protective enough of Yue now that they had things settled.
Yuri said that she, Shu, and Suzume would be heading around with her grandpa as chaperone, so they would be fine. John trusted Minato to know how to deal with people like that.
But Meggie… She was going to be heading around with Little Xuan and Little Wu. Supervised by the yakuza trio, of course. But knowing his youngest daughter and her rather explosive temper… especially considering the sort of people around… And when considering Murphy and the higher powers had something out against John, odds were that *something* would happen to make Meggie flip her lid.
So to calm her down…
“…Kai shouldn’t be busy, right?”
John hadn’t talked to his friend for a while… mostly because that guy seemed to be busy between still trying to win Sakura over and spending time with his daughter, Tsuki. But he *did* mention that he was mostly a stay at home dad now… and he also owed John for last time.
“Meggie should be happy if her best friend came along too… And Tsuki got along well with Xuan and Wu last time. Those guys should also be able to talk some sense into him too, so…”
John sent out a few texts to make some arrangements for that… Mostly saying that he wouldn’t mind if Meggie invited Tsuki, arranging some extra tickets for Kai and Tsuki, and then texting Kai himself not so subtly asking him to take Tsuki out to have some fun with Meggie and the other kids.
He didn’t get a reply. But it was still super early, so John didn’t expect one.
“…And I’m stalling again.”
John sighed and slipped his phone away.
There wasn’t a way to escape his duties for the day… Especially since Qing had also plastered his face everywhere on the promotional posters for their booth. Because of that, there was only one thing left for him to do.
John took a step and then warped back to his bedroom in his apartment.
It was dark. But even so, he could still see his lovely wife snuggled up in the bed.
She was fast asleep, probably tuckered out from all the shopping the girls did the other day. And considering she didn’t wake up when he got up to head to the office, she needed the rest.
So, instead of potentially waking her with a kiss, John wrote a small note and left it on the side of the bed with a message that he’d call her later after things were set up.
And then with that done… John warped to the Myth Inc. HQ parking garage.
It was empty. Well, empty in terms of cars he could use. Since Betty took a car, Qing took another, and the last one was reserved for Alphy, there wasn’t a car free for John to take. And while there was a black sportscar sitting in the garage right now, that was the one reserved for Alphy… which meant he was out a means of transportation. Well, for now.
“Mm…” John hummed and then said, “Well. Since we’re going with the whole time travel theme for Project MirAIs, and since the guy in charge of that company is named John too… A DeLorean should be fine, right?”
John snapped his fingers, creating a vintage silver sportscar with gull wing style doors that opened from top to bottom. After checking it for quality assurance… mostly that there wasn’t anything strange about it from the outside, and also after registering some proper license plates for the car, John got inside.
“This is a pretty old reference… but I always did want to drive one of these around. Now to just make sure to not accidentally drive at 88 mph…” He started the car and then opened the garage door. After that, he shifted to drive and started getting ready to leave. But then he had a thought.
“Wait. Since I’m headed to an Anime convention…” John paused and then shifted his car back into park. After that, he stepped outside and gave his new car a thoughtful look.
It was silver. Plain. Untouched and a bit cold. But it was also pretty famous. Not sure how famous in Japan, but he was sure he’d get a few people who would appreciate the reference.
But on the other hand, he *was* there to rep Project MirAIs. And from what he remembered, plastering Anime girls on cars was a pretty big flex for Otakus. So…
“…Might as well have a bit of fun with it, right?”
John checked the time.
…Yep. Still butt early in the morning.
He should show up early at the convention to get things ready… but if he was going to be there anyway… And if he was there to rep Project MirAIs, he might as well go with a full flex since Titor wasn’t around to do it.
So…
“Alright.” John rolled up his sleeves and stared at the car, imagining the sorts of decals to stick on it. “…Aoko on one side in full dragon form with ice, Hana on the other with shooting stars, and then Alfi in the front on the hood… Maybe Jenny on the back… Yeah, let’s start with that.”
John closed the garage door and then got to work.
Because goddammit, if he was going to be in an otaku convention and not able to go do otaku stuff, then he was going to double down and make the biggest otaku flex he could.
…Which reminded him. A power suit would be nice too… Maybe he should get out that old Lamperouge cosplay while he was rolling up to the convention…