Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
"Of course," Mayuzumi replied. "I feel that Ice and Fire Sensei has great potential to draw manga in the future. I'm looking forward to seeing what you'll draw."
"I'm truly grateful! I'll work my hardest." Yukari's eyes lit up.
"No need to be so formal with me. It's fine to be more casual."
"Okay, Amami-sensei."
Seiji couldn't help but imagine what would happen if the ero artist Yukari started learning from Peach-sensei. What type of manga would she end up drawing?
…Would she end up drawing something like Eromangsensei, or Shokugeki no Souma?
This seemed pretty good!
Seiji started looking forward to this as he imagined what Yukari might draw.
Cough, he needed to get back on topic.
Seiji then introduced Kaede to Mayuzumi. After that, he stood up and faced everyone present.
"Please allow me to say a few words now that everyone is here." Seiji paused for a moment. "I've already said all the important things that needed to be said when I invited everyone here. Right here, right now, I'd like to once again express my sincere gratitude to everyone for being willing to join my team! From now on, we'll all become teammates. I hope that you're all able to get along. Although I'm still only a newcomer Yin Yang Master, I'll do the very best that I can. Please lend me your support."
Applause sounded after he finished speaking.
Although Seiji gave a serious speech, he felt quite awkward after seeing everyone clap for him. Seiji wondered if his speech was too…
Perhaps he should have intentionally acted more immature?
No, no, that would be even more humiliating.
"This humble one has the suggestion of naming our team the 'True Knight Order!'"
Hisashi immediately jumped out for him and gave a chuunibyou suggestion. "Kagursan is the Knight #0, and Peach-goddess… Amami-sensei will be the 'Divine Knight!' The others shall all use their names from the Knights of the Round Table, how about it?"
Everyone was rendered speechless.
"Considering that it might not be convenient in certain situations to use our real names, code names are indeed necessary," Seiji commented. "But, it's not necessary to use these particular code names. We can think of new ones."
"This humble one believes that these code names are perfect!" Hisashi strongly voiced his opinion.
"We have one vote for the name 'True Knight Order.' Anyone else that approves of this name, feel free to raise your hands and vote." Seiji looked at everyone.
Shika and Hoshi were the first to raise their hands. Yukari and Mika also raised their hands in agreement as well.
Five votes, this was more than enough for a majority approval.
Mayuzumi raised her hand as well. "I have no objections to being called a 'knight,' but I don't wish to be addressed as the 'Divine Knight.'" She could only smile wryly.
"How about the Ninth Knight, then?"
"That's fine with me."
"Let's go with that, then. Our team's name will be the 'True Knight Order,' while Shikchan is Knight #0, Hisashi is the First Knight, Yukari is the Second Knight, Hoshi is the Fourth Knight, Mika is the Sixth Knight, Juumonji-sensei is the Seventh Knight, and Peach-sensei is the Ninth Knight."
Their numbers weren't actually in succession, due to certain members of the Knights of the Round Table not being members of the True Knight Order. Still, that didn't matter, as these were only code names.
Although this sounded somewhat immature, Seiji felt it was quite nice to imagine his entire team reporting all their code names in some scenario that called for it!
Seiji had imagined such a scenario before in the past. Now, it gradually seemed as if his imagined scenario was coming real.
Kaede raised her hand.
"I have an objection. Seiji calls Brother Hisashi and everyone else directly by their names, but I'm still being addressed as 'Juumonji-sensei.' I'm highly dissatisfied with this." Kaede intentionally pouted and put on an unhappy expression.
"That's because you're a teacher at our school…"
"That's unimportant. I'm one of your close companions now. Please call me by name!" Kaede acted quite forcefully.
Seiji didn't know what to say.
"I would like Harutkun to call me by name as well," Mayuzumi spoke up softly with something flashing in her eyes.
Everyone except for Shika Kagura was astonished to hear the mangaka saying this!
"Sensei…" Seiji was somewhat stunned as he looked at her.
"Just as Juumonji-san said just now, we're already your companions, Harutkun. You should address us in a less formal fashion." Mayuzumi did her best to remain calm. Yet, the light red flush on her face betrayed her true feelings.
Hisashi adjusted his eyeglasses. His lenses flashed quite sharply.
Hoshi, Yukari, and Mika all widened their eyes in surprise and had different expressions.
Kaede was quite astonished but quickly regained her composure.
Seiji felt that this was quite a reasonable request for him to address all his teammates by name.
He couldn't think of anything to counter with… besides, did he even need to counter this?
Since it was reasonable, he might as well go with the flow.
"Alright… Since Juumonji-sensei and Peach-sensei are both making such a request, I'll start addressing both of you directly by name." Seiji paused for a moment before looking at both of them in turn. "Kaede… Mayuzumi."
Although he did his best to remain calm, his heartbeat still couldn't help but quicken slightly.
The mangaka and blonde teacher both smiled.
Everyone ate lunch together and chatted as they ate. They had plenty of fun together.
Finally, Seiji paid for the tab and everyone left the restaurant and returned home.
That was the end to their first team meeting. Although they were a Spiritual Ability user team, it ended up basically no different from an offline meeting.
Still, this was no ordinary offline meeting. It was a beginning.
What they needed to do next was to go to a Spirit World!
Seiji intended to check out the environment in a Spirit World first together with Shika. He would take the others there after they familiarized themselves with the Spirit World's environment.
Before he went, he also needed some time to rest and for his Spiritual Power to be completely recovered. Shika also needed to do some practicing with her newfound power so that she could improve her condition to become even more effective in battle.
Hana provided him with some information that a new phenomenon had recently appeared in the Spirit Worlds—this phenomenon was deemed "Dimensional Eyes."
These Dimensional Eyes would suddenly appear within Spirit Worlds. They were black, oval in shape, and had red circular spell formations within. Since these mysterious spell formations appeared just like someone's eye, that was how they received this name.
Any Spiritual Ability user that had a Dimensional Eye materialize and open next to them would instantly be dragged into another dimension. This dimension was also a Spirit World, but one that wasn't connected to the real world. These secondary Spirit Worlds were thus termed "Inner Worlds."
The spiritual creatures within the Inner Worlds were all highly aggressive monsters that would attack humans on sight. There were also tremendously powerful and dangerous monsters within!
It was only possible to escape from the Inner World by defeating all the powerful monsters contained within it.
Or, if there were two or more Spiritual Ability users dragged into the Inner World, having one person die would allow all the others to leave as well.
These were the only two known methods to leave the Inner World.
If anyone dragged into an Inner World was able to leave by defeating all the powerful monsters within, all the people that were dragged along inside would have their power levels noticeably improved, varying from person to person! The improvement was far faster than even with life-and-death battles to the brink.
It was impossible to predict the appearance of a Dimensional Eye. Any that appeared had a one hundred percent probability of dragging anyone nearby into its Inner World. Those sucked into an Inner World would find it impossible to communicate with people in the outside world. It was also impossible for those outside to go inside an Inner World to carry out a rescue operation.
In conclusion, this was basically like a trial level for cultivation that would only randomly appear. It was also dangerous enough to lose one's life in.
A sandbox game got an expansion pack… This was Seiji's first impression. Yet, there were no treasures to be found in Inner Worlds. He wanted to give a bad review!
Perhaps there would even be treasures in the Inner Worlds in the future?
Spirit Worlds themselves were new phenomena that the mystical society was unfamiliar with until the Midnight Incident. Nobody knew what changes might still happen in the future… no, perhaps there were some few individuals that did know.
Just how much did the members of Soul World know about Spirit Worlds? Were they the ones behind the creation of Spirit Worlds? Were Dimensional Eyes just like a new patch that they added?
"If this is a patch, you should at least put out some patch notes. After all, this is a game that might cost one's life," Seiji commented.