Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
The rain continued for the entire night.
The skies cleared up the next morning, with the air being incredibly fresh.
"The Soul World faction showed themselves."
Seiji received a phone call from Natsuya early in the morning and learned much information.
Last night, the Soul World faction showed themselves for formal negotiations with the major mystical society factions. They used Spirit Worlds as a negotiation chip to demand the annulment of any liability for the Midnight Incident. Not only that, they also requested all the factions to give freedom to all the Awakened under their control, ally together, and join a brand-new organization known as "Soul Society"!
Soul Society would be led by the Soul World faction. The Awakened and other factions' members could join as well. The goal of this organization would be to develop Spirit Worlds, along with protecting and raising Awakened.
More than half of the strongest factions all agreed to these requests! This meant that Soul World would be cleared of all responsibility for the Midnight Incident and that Spirit Garden would be successfully established.
Soul Society… this name caused Seiji to recall a famous manga named Bleach from his past life. Would there also be a military organization like the Gotei 13 appearing?
He was quite curious about the negotiations that occurred. It would be impossible to obtain the strongest factions' recognition simply through negotiation. The Soul World faction must have displayed incredible strength as well.
Protecting and raising Awakened… he could only hope that this part was real. Seiji was more concerned about this part compared to developing the Spirit Worlds.
No matter what, a new attention-grabbing organization had now appeared.
Would it have a short lifespan, or become a powerful new faction? Only time could tell.
During lunch break.
Seiji, Mika, Chiaki, and Kaho ate lunch together.
Seiji told Mika and Chiaki about what happened last night with Karen. Of course, he wisely didn't mention anything about the chest massage.
"Seigo, I can help you as well to fight against the demon," Mika remarked after learning the situation.
"Of course. I shall ask for your assistance if I need to," Seiji promised her.
"Mika is a Spiritual Ability user as well?" Kaho was quite surprised to learn this.
"Yeah… Although I'm not very strong, I want to help out however I can." Mika smiled.
"Thank you." Kaho was quite moved.
"No need to be so polite. We're friends."
"Such a blinding sight. I want a chance to say such cool lines as well." Chiaki sighed. "Unfortunately, I'm not a Spiritual Ability user… why haven't I Awakened to any powers? Mika already knows how to transform herself, so shouldn't I be learning some new abilities? Otherwise, I'm going to start appearing a lot less in this novel."
"You appear plenty in this novel already. There's no need for you to worry at all."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because I'm the author of this novel!" Seiji posed with a mock-serious expression. "Someone as amusing as you will make the readers laugh every time you appear. That's why you definitely don't need to worry about having less scenes."
"I'm actually only a comedy character!?" Chiaki had an expression of astonishment.
"Did you only realize this just now!?" Seiji also had an expression of astonishment.
"I think that both of you are comedy characters," Mika retorted at them. "What do you think, Kaho?"
"I… think that both Chiaki and Seigo are really charismatic." That was all that Kaho could come up with.
"Why don't you just say that both of them are really weird?"
"Objection! I'm no comedy character! I should be an important female side character, or one of the female main characters!" Chiaki retorted in a mock-serious tone.
"You were one to begin with, but your comedy traits were too overwhelming and covered all other traits, so now you're stuck as a comedy character." Seiji sighed.
"Noo!! Please work harder on my character setting, Author-sama!"
"Give up now. Actually, this is pretty good as well. You have quite solid job prospects as you can appear in all daily life scenes as the comedy character. You can rest reassured that you'll be in this job until the end of this novel."
"I don't want to age and die just like this! I want to act cool in non-daily life scenes as well, especially scenes where I take center stage! Please, I'm begging you, Author-sama!!"
"That's quite a difficult task. Let me just tell you the honest truth, you already steal the stage too much already. If you Awaken to some Spiritual Ability, you'll take up even more scenes, which is no good."
"How could this be!!" Chiaki received a huge impact.
"Wakabsan, you're truly outstanding already. Yet, if you're too outstanding… I sincerely apologize." Seiji had a gentle expression as he spoke in a sad tone, "Please understand, as the author, I'm pained by this as well."
"Author-sama…"
The two of them exchanged deep glances that seemed to surpass the boundaries of the fourth wall 1 .
Meanwhile, Mika and Kaho ate their lunch and speechlessly watched this entire spectacle.
Today's lunch break passed by enjoyably as well.
Later that night, Seiji and Natsuya had tea together and chatted.
"Are you free tomorrow?" After finishing his tea, Seiji casually brought up a question.
Natsuya became a little nervous as she sensed something behind this question.
"I'm free… what is it?"
"Would you like to go out and have some fun together?"
Seiji did his best not to display any hints of his own nervousness as he invited her on a date.
Although they'd already hugged and kissed each other, this was the first time that he was formally inviting her on a date!
The student council president's face flushed red as her expectations came true.
"Sure," she lightly agreed.
Seiji clenched his fist in a victory pose as he smiled happily. "Is there somewhere that you want to go?"
Something flashed in Natsuya's eyes. "I want to go to an amusement park."
An amusement park… Seiji was slightly surprised by this, but he didn't ask why she wanted to go. It was more than fine with him.
And so, they made a date agreement to go visit a famous local amusement park named Empire World tomorrow.
After leaving Natsuya's study, Seiji was greatly looking forward to and imagining tomorrow's fun times when a purple-haired girl's figure suddenly flashed through his mind.
Yukari Asamiya… she was the first girl who had asked him "Are you free tomorrow?" and formally confessed to him as well as invited him on a date.
If he hadn't been interrupted during her confession, what would things be like today?
The moment that this thought entered his mind, Seiji shook his head and cleared his mind of all unnecessary thoughts.
He then saw Shika standing in front of him.
"Shikchan, I'm going out on a date tomorrow with Natsuya," he unhesitatingly told her about his plans.
Shika's expression didn't change at all, as if she already expected to hear this.
"What time and what place?" she asked lightly.
Seiji told her honestly.
Shika nodded in acceptance and didn't say anything else as she walked off.
Although this was quite similar to the last time, Seiji felt that things wouldn't turn out like last time. Seiji was quite confident as he watched her walk off… no, he trusted in her.
His trust in Shika was correct.
Shika didn't intend to do anything to interfere with his date this time. The only reason she asked the time and place was simply because she wanted to know.
She was delighted with her adopted older brother's trust in her. As she walked off, a smile gradually appeared on her face.
Yet, her smile only lasted for three seconds.
Although Shika was quite happy that Brother Seiji trusted in her, she still felt somewhat displeased about him going out on a date with Natsuya Yoruhana.
She could only accept it, but she was unable to smile while accepting it.
She didn't intend to interfere with their date, because she knew that she shouldn't do so. Yet… just because she shouldn't do so, did that mean she couldn't do anything?
A sharp glint appeared in the black-haired girl's eyes for a moment before disappearing.
She wouldn't interfere with his dates anymore.
However, she was unable to bring herself to do nothing at all.
Which was why… she would watch him on his date.
Just like what she told Natsuya Yoruhana, she would always be watching.
Empire World amusement park… that would surely be a bustling and lively place. If she followed them there, she would surely bring misfortune upon other people due to her Reaper's Curse.
But, Shika still wanted to do this—even if it was meaningless, even if it negatively affected other people.
Without a doubt, she knew that she was being selfish. But, she still wanted to do so… she was unable to overcome the desire in her heart.
The name of her desire was Seiji Haruta.
He was the only love and warmth she possessed in the world.