Umbra Frontier Online – A Casual Playthrough of the Umbra Witch

We followed the Starlight Fashion designer lady to the location of their photo shoot.

Apparently, they're doing it in open public, taking a majority of the space at the open area on the first floor of the mall.

As soon as we arrived, some of the designer lady's team came up to her.

"Ma'am, you're back!" one of them said.

"Yes I am, my dear. And I have found our temporary replacement for that dunce, Araki!" the designer lady pointed to me, as I introduced myself to the group when she did.

"I'm Yoruto. Pleased to be working with you all."

"And I'm his girlfriend who is just tagging along~" Sanae added, holding my arm.

I shook hands with the team as they thanked me for taking my time to aid them with their work. During which, a familiar face came up to us, expressing a shocked look on her face when her eyes locked with mine.

She has a short stature, natural blonde hair from her mother's side, and an adorable face that can be described as both cute and beautiful. Her name is Mion Takahashi, and she was once an underclassman and friend of mine back in high school.

"Yoru...to..." she muttered my name.

"Hello there, Mion. Long time no see." I greeted her.

Mion's shock expression then turned into a teary one. She then shook her head and began walking towards me. Slow, at first... Then a little bit faster. Then even faster. After which, she ran and jumped and put one leg out to my face.

"Die!" she yelled, sending her greetings in the form of a flying jump kick to me.

I grabbed Sanae with my hand and swiftly evaded the attack by stepping to the side. Causing Mion to miss entirely.

"Good to see that you still haven't changed." I remarked happily, seeing my underclassman being as energetic as I remember.

"Shut up, you siscon bastard! To think that we would meet again like this after six years. This time for sure, I will take you down!" Mion shouted and proceeded to punch, which I easily guarded against with one hand.

"Die, die, die, die, die!"

While defending myself from her flurry of jabs, I looked around, noticing the varied reactions of her co-workers as they watched her repeatedly punching me in front of their faces to no avail.

Is this their first time seeing Mion like this? I wondered, for they have a look of puzzlement on each of their faces. Only the designer lady and a few others, however, seemed irritated by Mion's action as if they have seen it many times already.

Then, the said designer lady approached us.

"Oh my~ Do you two know each other perhaps?" she asked.

"Yeah. We're old friends back in high school." I replied.

"Oh. Is that so?"

"The hell we are, Manager!" Mion interjected. "Yoruto is not a friend, but a mortal enemy of mine! Take this!" she threw another punch which I easily blocked.

Also...

"You're her manager?" I asked the designer lady.

"That's right. Designer of Starlight Fashion and Manager of Mion Takahashi. Got a problem with that?"

"Nope. Not at all."

The exchange between me and Mion went on for a few more moments, as the latter got tired after repeatedly attempting to hit me once with her fists. She never did. Too bad...

"So... what's the deal with your relationship with her?" Sanae asked me, watching Mion panting in front of her.

"Like I said before, she's someone I used to beat up."

"But why?"

"She picked a fight with me and so I fought. Look." I then pulled my phone out and went into the gallery app and scrolled all the way down, remembering that I still have a few photos of her in my phone.

"Here. This was how she looked back when we were high schoolers." I showed Sanae the photo.

Mion looked up at me surprised when I said that.

"Oh wow. She was a complete delinquent back then, huh?" Sanae commented on the photo.

"Goodness me. Blonde hair aside, this is so different from our current Mion." Mion's manager made a comment as well after peeking over my shoulder.

Then I swiped right. Showing both of them the next photo.

"And this was how she looked after she picked a fight with me and I beat her."

"Pfft."

"Bwahahahahaha!"

They both started laughing almost immediately.

"You really didn't pull your punches, did you!? Her cheeks looked so bloated! Hahahaha!"

"You've turned her into a pufferfish! Hahahahahaha!"

"Yeah. I simply kept slapping her until she gave up. Her aluminium bat did not stand a chance against these hands."

"Hey, hey, hey! Stop laughing!" Mion yelled at her manager and Sanae. Then she turned to me. "And why do you still have those photos!?" she jumped, trying to grab my phone out of my hand but to no avail due to our height difference.

Eventually, things calmed down as Mion's manager clapped her hands together to garner the team's attention.

"Alright. Enough talk. It's time to get to work now!" she instructed her team, who acknowledged her orders and got to work immediately, setting up the props and tools needed for the shoot.

She then took a set of clothes from one of her workers and approached me and Mion.

"Both of you too, get changed so that we can start." she said, handing us the clothes.

Sanae was right. These look really pricey.

And speaking of Sanae, she pulled on my sleeve to grab my attention.

"I'll be sitting over there with the rest of the staff. Have fun, Yoruto." she informed me and left my side.

As soon as she left, Mion, who has yet to change, came up to me, asking.

"By the way, Yoruto, was that your girlfriend? She's really hot."

"Yes. Her name is Sanae, Mion."

"I see. And is she in some... NTR~?"

"Don't even think about it, you little skank."

"Oh come on. It's just a question." Mion gave me a joking grin. "Anyways, Imma go and get changed now. You'd best do that too. My manager can get real pissy if we keep talking. And she already was when our male model failed to show."

"Speaking of which, who's the jerk who was supposed to be here?"

"His name is Araki. A real dickward. Not that it matters since I doubt you know him."

Araki... Araki... Don't tell me...

"Is his first name Shouhei perhaps?"

The moment I asked Mion that, her eyes widened in shock.

"How did you know that?" she asked. "Have you read our company's magazines before?"

"No, I have not. Shouhei Araki was one of my upperclassmen back in high school."

"I see. Wait... He attended the same high school as us!?" Mion accidentally exclaimed loudly and quickly covered her mouth.

"Yes." I replied. "He graduated before you enrolled as a freshman, so I'm not surprised you didn't know him."

"Annnd...?"

"And like you, he's also someone I used to beat up. I can have a word with him about his behaviour at work if you want me to." I gave Mion a look, as if saying 'What do you say?' to her.

But Mion gave me a dazed reaction instead with her jaw hanging slightly opened.

"Yoruto, is there anyone from our high school whom you did not beat up?" she asked.

"Yes. Those who did not stupidly challenge me to a fight like you and Araki did." I answered calmly.

Our conversation then ended there, as we still needed to carry out the photo shoot for the fashion company and went on changing into various sets of clothing for the shoot in our respective changing rooms.

A few hours passed and it was finally over. Mion's manager handed me a bag of the clothes I had worn for the shoot and some cash, before thanking me for the help as Sanae and I waved her and her team goodbye.

"Well that was fun."

"Really? You had fun watching me from the sideline?"

"Of course. After all, watching your uncomfortable expressions while you faced the camera was surprisingly entertaining to me."

"Ah, I see."

"So, shall we head home now? We didn't get to do much for our date, but it's getting late now."

"No, not yet. There's actually one more stop I need to make before we head home."

"And that is...?"

"The supermarket. I need to restock my ingredients and spices for dinner tonight."

"Ah right. You did mention yesterday that they were out, as I recall."

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Evening, somewhere on the road...

Mion and her manager are riding on the passenger seats of a car, back to their company base.

Mion is listening to some music while on her phone, whereas her manager is on a tablet looking at the photos they have taken at the mall.

"Wonderful... Just wonderful." she commented under her breath.

"Mion, your high school upperclassman is just too wonderful to look at. Way much better than our Araki. I wonder if we can hire him to be one of our models for real."

"Yeah... I doubt you'll have a chance, manager. Yoruto ain't the type to be interested in such things. He's more concerned with spending time for his sister over any other things."

"Oh? So he has a sister too, huh?"

"Yes. She's all he's ever concerned about back in high school. There was also a rumour I'd heard revolving around him back then. Some group of delinquents who wanted to mess with him, used his sister to threaten him and stuff. The result ended with him demolishing that entire group, sending a majority of them to the hospital."

"Hahaha! That sounds completely absurd."

"It is. But it's most likely true. As they say, the truth is stranger than fiction. And Yoruto gain fame and infamy in school as a result."

"I see. And he didn't get in trouble for it?"

"Technically, no. But also, yes. He got arrested for his actions from what I heard. However, he was apparently released not long after that by someone who came to bail him out."

"Well, that just makes him sound like an even more interesting guy. Who was that mysterious someone?"

"No idea. I never asked, so only Yoruto would know." Mion changed the subject after that, as she didn't want to talk about her 'mortal enemy' any longer. "More importantly, Manager, there won't be anything else going on today, right?"

"Of course, my dear. Once we head back, the rest of today and tomorrow will be free to you like we agreed on."

"Good. I can't wait to return home and log into UFO already."

"Oh? Is there something going on inside of that game of yours?"

"Hell yeah! It's the game's first event today! No way I'm gonna miss out on that. I'm gonna rekt all of those noobs with my Zanny live on my stream and T-bag on their corpses whenever I can! Gahahahaha!"

"How did this little motherfucker become our company's angel again?" Mion's manager sighed. "Anyways, good luck I guess."

"Thank you. And maybe in that event, I might finally meet Yoru. Hehehehe~"

"Yoru? Ah right, the Dark Elf Mommy player you kept telling me about but have never met." Mion's manager recalls. "Try not to be disappointed in the event that you do meet this Yoru person though." she said.

"Huh? Why? What makes you think I'll become disappointed?"

"It's just a feeling that you might. Don't think too much about it."

"Eh whatever. And how long until we reach back to the office!? I want to go home and play UFO already!"