A drop of blood landed on Kaede's face.
Since they were currently flying at a high speed, all the blood flying off of his body seemed like bright-red flower petals.
Kaede and Hisashi realized that they had overlooked something very important upon seeing this scene.
What they'd overlooked was just how large of a price Seiji would have to pay in order to help them!
He only mentioned that he would be able to help, but never said anything about what price he had to pay.
Nor did either of them think of asking.
Why had they overlooked such a thing? Being able to help for only "a maximum of one minute" obviously meant there was more to it than seemed on the surface. They should have thought of it, and they should have asked more…
Kaede felt a pain in her heart.
Hisashi blamed himself for not realizing.
They could only widen their eyes and watch as more and more blood began seeping out from Seiji's body, continually dripping downward.
Seiji's body gradually began to turn entirely crimson.
He felt tremendous pain all over his body as if something incredibly heavy was forcefully squeezing him. He felt like he was dissolving.
His consciousness became hazy as well.
His strength was reaching its limit.
'This still isn't enough yet, I want just a little more… just a little more time…'
This was the only chance he had to help the Juumonji siblings. He had to do his very best! He wanted to work his hardest to stretch his strength to the utmost limit!!
"Wragh!!!!!"
Seiji began roaring in a low voice.
After proceeding onward for a while longer, his body was no longer able to withstand the pressure. Cracks appeared all over his body that blood sprayed from in fountains.
What Kaede and Hisashi witnessed was that the entirely blood-red Seiji slowly began shattering to pieces.
"Seiji!!!" they shouted loudly.
Seiji slowly turned to look at them with a faint smile on his bloody face.
"I'll be… waiting for… you in reality…"
His body shattered entirely before his words even finished echoing.
"Cough cough… cough cough cough… cough cough cough cough… wow…"
Back in the real world, Seiji was kneeling on the ground as his body trembled violently. He suffered from a vicious coughing fit that had him spitting up blood.
"You went overboard." Yomi sighed.
Seiji was unable to speak for quite a while due to his continuing coughing fit. Only after he spat up some more blood did his body slowly stop trembling. He finally weakly breathed a sigh of relief.
"That was so unpleasant…"
"I already warned you, but you didn't listen. How foolish."
"I didn't think that it would feel so unpleasant… I definitely wouldn't have forced myself so much if I knew." Seiji wiped off the blood on his mouth.
Yomi didn't know what to say at this.
She was highly suspicious of the veracity of his words just now, feeling like he would have done the exact same thing even if he'd known that. She wanted to comment somehow but didn't know what to say, so she decided to simply remain silent.
"I already did the best I could… I hope that they can succeed."
Seiji slowly stood up and looked at Kaede and Hisashi.
The siblings were still quietly lying there on the ground.
Seiji already did what he could. There was nothing more he could do apart from wait.
Earlier, during his coughing fit, there had been the sound of a system notification. Seiji thus decided to open up his system and check things out.
[You have been rewarded with 44 points and the item "Hell's Curse" as a reward for traveling through hell and returning for the first time.]
[Mental suppression card -"Hell's Curse."]
[This card contains the evil curse of the pitch-black abyss. You may use this card on any one person. That person's mental spirit will have a probability of instantly being destroyed.]
Seiji was rendered speechless.
Although the explanation itself was quite simple, it was easy to tell that this was a highly dangerous card.
Just what would a person whose mental spirit had been destroyed be like…? He didn't want to imagine.
The effect was highly dangerous. However, its actual usefulness seemed rather subtle since it didn't appear to be a 100% effect. The system's explanation merely said "a probability."
What exactly was that probability anyways? Was it a fixed probability? Or did it depend on the target's mental condition or power level? And if he used this card in tandem with the [Mental suppression card - Desire to Retort] that he received from his sister Hana, would that increase the [Hell's Curse] card's success rate?
Seiji thought about it but decided not to think too much into it right now.
After he closed his system, he cast [Healing] upon himself.
A while later, he suddenly sensed something and turned to look at the Juumonji siblings again.
The siblings were glowing with a golden light!
"It succeeded…" Seiji was quite delighted with this outcome.
Kaede and Hisashi had accomplished it! They returned!!
Seiji stopped healing himself and sent his Mana into the spell formations instead.
All the spell formations started glowing in unison and illuminated the three siblings.
The black spell formations on Kaede and Hisashi's bodies along with the black abnormalities on Zankita's body all transformed into a mist that rapidly disappeared.
When the last of the black mist completely vanished, Seiji canceled the spell, causing all the spell formations to vanish.
Kaede was the first one to open her eyes.
She immediately sat up and looked towards Seiji.
"Welcome back." Seiji smiled at her.
Kaede crawled up and instantly jumped at him! She hugged him as tightly as she could.
"What's the matter?" Seiji was somewhat mystified by her actions. "Are you alright?"
Kaede didn't say anything and only hugged him tightly.
Then, Hisashi woke up as well.
He also looked for Seiji the moment he opened his eyes. Hisashi sighed a breath of relief upon seeing that Seiji was still alright.
However, Hisashi's expression froze upon seeing the blood Seiji had spat out earlier on the ground.
"Seiji, how are you doing!?" he shouted as he got up.
"I… I'm fine."
"Are you really fine?" Hisashi pointed at the blood on the ground.
"I was slightly injured, but it's not a big deal." Seiji smiled.
'It's still not a big deal even though there's so much blood on the ground?'
Hisashi felt that Seiji was truly being ridiculous. However, he found it difficult to retort when faced with Seiji's current expression.
"More than me, you should be more concerned about yourselves… how are you currently feeling? Does anything feel off?" Seiji asked in concern.
Hisashi fell silent for a moment.
"It feels like I had an incredibly long nightmare… my memories are incredibly hazy, and I can only remember some scattered scenes… apart from that, there's nothing."
"That's good, then."
This was an effect of the spell to help shield people from the influence of having visited hell itself. If it wasn't for this mental suppression of their own memories, then the Juumonji siblings would definitely mentally collapse due to the tremendous pain they'd suffered while in hell.
However, even with a spell helping to maintain their minds, something still might have been left behind. After all, that was the scariest abyss of all, and its evil curse was impossible to completely block out.
"If you ever feel that something's wrong with your body in the future due to this, let me know," Seiji told him.
Hisashi nodded.
Then, he looked towards Zankita.
"Although we successfully dragged this idiot back with us, but… with the shape his body is currently in, can he still recover?"
Seiji mentally asked this question to Yomi and received a response from her.
"He should be able to wake up after resting for a long while. However, it's highly likely that he won't recover completely. There might be aftereffects."
"I see…" Hisashi adjusted his eyeglasses. "…I suppose he's lucky that he's even alive still."
"He's not lucky at all. You're the ones who helped him to survive," Seiji told him sincerely. "You and Kaede successfully saved him from the pits of hell. That's truly amazing."
Saving a family member from the depths of hell seemed like a legendary feat to him.
"You're the one who's amazing. If it hadn't been for you, we wouldn't even have had the chance to save him." Hisashi smiled as he looked towards Seiji again. "I'm truly grateful to you."
"I only acted as the support this time. The success depended largely on both your efforts." Seiji smiled in response as well. "At this time, should I say something like 'the bonds of family have defeated hell?'"
Hisashi was rendered speechless.
Things indeed sounded like how Seiji described it. However, Hisashi reflexively wanted to deny it as complex emotions welled up within him.
"I don't like that line you came up with."
"How about I change it to 'the ties of blood surpass even hell?'"
"That doesn't sound good, either. Stop making lines up."
"The two of you just accomplished something legendary. Don't you want something cool to express it by?"
"We merely dragged our idiot older brother who did something incredibly foolish out of a terrible place. There's nothing else to say about it." Hisashi looked towards Zankita.
It was simply saving an idiot that he absolutely had to save. That was all.