Volume 11 of Sasaki to Piichan (佐々木とピーちゃん) continues from where the story left off, after various countries asked Sasaki to leave temporarily. This was done to silence the rumors circulating about the existence of Type-12 and Sasaki's involvement with them following the footage that was leaked online.
In order to survive, the group decides to relocate their base to the spaceship owned by Type-12 until the situation calms down. Of course, it is nearly New Year's on Earth, so Type-12 plans to use this opportunity to celebrate the holiday like humans do with her mock family.
Yeah, in this picture Neighbor is absolutely the best looking.There are many traditional scenes here, with Sasaki and the others watching fireworks from space, wearing traditional outfits (all the girls were stunning in it), and even visiting Mars together with Type-12 to see her factories. It is a bit of a shame that everyone in the group has such disastrous family situations that they could not do the typical "going home for the holidays" routine.
It also seems like Inukai is a new recurring character in this mock family. She was originally just an official sent by the government to spy on Type-12, but after she was discovered, Type-12 forced her to stay on board. She reasoned that it would be easier to control Inukai than to deal with someone new. Inukai just wanted to go home and wanted to be cleared of this role, but I guess that simply cannot happen.
Pii-chan also revealed Sasaki's taste in women. According to his observation, Sasaki seems to like mature women with blonde hair and glamorous bodies, even though Sasaki claimed it was merely "admiration". Naturally, this sparked interest in Neighbor, who plans to ensure no adult woman gets near him until she grows up, and Elsa, who is blonde and still has time to grow.
On the Isekai side, Sasaki continues his effort to build a tunnel to connect multiple countries, discovering an ancient ruined city in the process. His goal is to improve the economy and trade between nations. This plan was nearly thwarted when a higher-ranking noble tried to steal the credit and take control of the tunnel away from Sasaki.
Sasaki initially relinquishes it, but the noble gives up almost immediately because a "monstrous entity" takes control of the tunnel. Sasaki and Peeps go to investigate and find a powerful Lich with magical knowledge rivaling even Peeps. After an intense battle, they manage to subdue it and speak with him.
It turns out he was the original King of the ruined city, named Muremure, and he was simply protecting his homeland. He does not seem very cooperative at first, stating that only those of his blood have rights over the land. However, Sasaki manages to find a loophole thanks to Elsa. It turns out she looks like a perfect copy of the King's daughter and is likely a very distant descendant.
This transforms the Lich into "grandpa mode" toward her; he becomes extra doting and willing to help. Thanks to this claim on the land ownership, along with a bit of threatening from the Lich toward the noble, Sasaki manages to wrestle back control of the tunnel so his project can continue developing.
The next volume seems to focus on Type-12's plans to use propaganda to prepare humanity for the revelation of aliens. They also seem to be investigating the Fairy Drops, which means we are likely to see more of the whole Magical Girl angle that really interested me in the last few volumes.
Elsa's smile is absolutely precious. Can't believe she's actually a bit S...Honestly the series continues to surprise me adding new and new elements without ever feeling overwhelming or confusing. I guess the limited cast size (which is typical of novels from this writer) helps a lot as I've really grown attached to all the characters and they're not seen as "one-off" that are forgotten in the next volume.
I have taken a small sneak peek at the illustrations, and it seems like Sasaki will become... a lot cuter in the next volume, but that is a story for another time.
