Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
"How are you feeling, Seiji?"
"I'm fine, I'm just a little tired…"
Seiji dragged his exhausted self to the student council president's residence after he finally managed to split up from Miyuki. Natsuya and the other girls were waiting for him there, so he explained what happened to them.
"…Similar incidents might occur in the future as well. We need to be on guard. After Soul Society is finished formally establishing itself, it will begin dealing with all Spirit-World-related issues. The system for how this will work is still unknown. Also, Soul Society will publicize some more information on Inner Worlds in the future. But if you want more details, you'll have to join Soul Society… that's what she told me."
Seiji passed along this message Miyuki told him before she left.
"She's a member of Soul Society, or a candidate to join, is that correct?" Natsuya inquired.
Seiji nodded. This could be assumed from everything that Miyuki told him.
"Although I'm thankful to her for dealing with that Inner World, her arrival's timing was far too coincidentally convenient for her… I suspect that this entire incident might be connected to her." Natsuya folded her arms. "Or, perhaps she has her sights set on you."
"I feel the same way," Seiji said.
It was actually far more than a feeling for him. Seiji knew for certain that Miyuki had her sight set on him! He just didn't know to what extent.
It was his honor to have the national idol paying so much attention to him… just kidding.
Miyuki Sakuraku was no ordinary person at all. Having her sights on him might be beneficial, or it could be a drawback. The only thing that could be confirmed right now was that she had no hostile intentions towards him. For the time being, she counted as an ally.
"Is she really beautiful?" Natsuya suddenly asked such a question while looking directly at Seiji's face.
"Er… she is." Miyuki Sakuraku was a national idol beauty, after all. By the standards of his previous world, she had an appearance that was one out of a million.
"Do you want to add her to your harem?" Natsuya narrowed her eyes slightly.
Seiji hurriedly shook his head. "Not at all! I simply think objectively that she's beautiful."
"That's all? You don't like her even one bit?"
"…Maybe I like her just a little."
This was only the type of like in that he enjoyed watching her as an idol. However, he had promised to keep Miyuki's identity a secret, so he couldn't tell that to Natsuya!
Natsuya's gaze became even icier. Shika and Hitaka's gazes also became icier as they observed this conversation. Seiji felt like their gazes were stabbing him through his heart.
"Although I already know that you have such a personality… I still want to remind you that you shouldn't let yourself be taken advantage of by others so easily." Natsuya sighed after staring at her boyfriend for quite a while.
"I shall be careful." Seiji could only respond in such a way.
[Self-realized technique: Doujigiri.]
[Mystical sword technique. Can only be used when your [White Calamity] humanoid spiritual figure is overlaid upon yourself while you are wielding a sword-type weapon. You will be able to attack once with a supreme demon-slaying sword attack. This ability will cost you Mana, mental spirit, and physical energy to use. The attack's power depends on how much Mana, mental spirit, and physical energy you spend. Limited to one time usage per day. "Use a human's sword to obtain the Demon King's head!"]
This "self-realized technique" was added on to his [Shika Kagura character reward card]. The new [Doujigiri] technique was added onto the first ability, [White Calamity].
Did this count as his character reward card leveling up? Seiji wondered that to himself.
It would seem that the character reward cards weren't absolutely unchanging. New abilities could be added due to his own realizations. Other factors might influence the card's abilities as well.
In other words, his character reward cards had the potential to level up. But they would also have the risk of leveling down… wouldn't they?
"All my character reward cards have eternal, everlasting effects. I cannot use the character reward cards or lose them in any way. However, these character reward cards are capable of evolving." Seiji rubbed his chin in contemplation. "If they level down—if some strange or even negative abilities appear, it will be the same as me obtaining a permanent debuff that I'm unable to get rid of."
His powerful soulbound equipment had the potential to become cursed equipment. 'Man, you really pulled a good one on me by hiding such a trap, system of mine.'
Seiji imagined his system as a fairy with a retort: "Just don't let your character reward cards level down, then. I have confidence in you!"
Seiji was rendered speechless by himself.
Still, all of this was only a possibility. As long as he didn't act in some idiotic manner to lose everyone's friendship, his character reward cards were highly unlikely to evolve in strange manners.
And, there were many benefits to the fact that his character reward cards could level up. Although this new [Doujigiri] technique was limited in its usage, it had incredibly high attack power. [Doujigiri] was also extremely effective when used against demon-type enemies.
As for his other new technique, [Shadow Cut] was the same as [Doujigiri], except that [Shadow Cut] was super-effective against spiritual creature-type enemies. These techniques had high costs to them, but could be improved in level once he was sufficiently well-practiced with them.
Seiji believed that these two techniques were likely lower-level versions of the real [Doujigiri] technique from history! If he leveled this skill to the maximum, perhaps he would no longer need to use [White Calamity] together with it. He might also no longer have the limit of only being able to use it once per day.
'Thank you for your teachings, Light-chan.' Once again, Seiji expressed his gratitude in his heart to the heroic spirit.
He was rather physically and mentally tired after this incident. However, he had also received a great harvest.
The weekend was coming up. Seiji intended to have a good rest.
Sunday morning. The weather was wonderful with the sun being bright and sunny. It was a wonderful day to be outside and enjoy the air.
"Have fun~ It's fine even if you don't come back tonight~" Chiaki said goodbye to Seiji and Mika with a tone as if she was an older sister looking out for them.
"We will definitely be coming back tonight."
Seiji and Mika headed out for a date together at the aquarium.
Last night, Mika told him that she wanted to go visit the aquarium. This made Seiji recall the water-based Inner World that Mika had been trapped in, causing him to reveal a rather subtle expression.
The twintailed girl knew exactly what he was thinking. She said that it was exactly because she got trapped in such an abnormal dimension that she wanted to go take a look at an ordinary aquarium.
Seiji and Mika walked to a nearby monorail station and took the monorail to the aquarium.
There were many people on the monorail at this time of day. It was incredibly crowded.
Seiji and Mika had to stand extremely close to each other in a corner.
Today, the beautiful twintailed girl was wearing a camisole top, a miniskirt, and white socks. She was movingly beautiful—not in a flashy manner, but rather in a way that boys would want to take second looks at her. She had excellent charisma that attracted many male gazes.
Seiji also noticed how cute she appeared today. He imperceptibly edged a bit closer to Mika.
Mika's face reddened as she leaned herself against his body.
Seiji felt something soft and warm press up against him. Numerous hentai plots about trains started entering his mind. However, he hurriedly stopped his dangerous line of thinking before he could act on his impulses!
With such a beautiful girlfriend by his side, Seiji was having a lot of fun even if the monorail was rather crowded today.
They arrived at the aquarium station, and entered the Pacific Island Aquarium.
This was a relatively well-known location with many visitors. Compared to the Empire World Amusement Park, the Pacific Island Aquarium had more couples out on dates and fewer families.
Seiji and Mika purchased tickets to enter and followed the suggested route as they enjoyed watching and learning about all the aquatic animals on display at the aquarium.
After experiencing mystical abnormalities, the normal now seemed a lot more attractive… Without even mentioning anything else, simply enjoying the view without having to worry about the aquatic animals suddenly attacking them was quite relaxing.
There were extravagant lionfish, mighty-appearing lobsters, cute little eels, and glowing jellyfish…
Seiji and Mika gradually got absorbed in admiring all the beautiful aquatic creatures. They took pictures as memories, laughed and chatted, and enjoyed fun times together.
Seiji and Mika then visited the number one attraction at the aquarium, the "Phantom Blue Sea"!
This fish tank… more accurately, the display windows alone were three stories high. Its length exceeded twenty meters. Large amounts of varied aquatic creatures swam freely in this tank, including whale sharks that were almost ten meters long!
This was the largest fish tank in all of Sakura Island. Every single visitor to the Phantom Blue Sea display all reviewed it as the attraction that gave them the deepest impression at the aquarium.
Objectively speaking, the Phantom Blue Sea display was indeed impressive. However, it wasn't all that impactful to Seiji and Mika after having visited a water-based Inner World and seeing so many aquatic monsters.
It was very difficult to be awed by ordinary sharks after having fought against a vicious and giant half-crocodile, half-squid monster which was more than ten meters long.
Still, Seiji and Mika still felt that the aquarium's display was beautiful.
There were many different creatures in the Phantom Blue Sea fish tank. However, things inside didn't appear chaotic at all. All the various shapes and colors complemented each other well. When a large whale shark elegantly swam next to the window display, many tourists exclaimed while some children screamed. A lot of people took many pictures of the whale shark with their cell phones.
"So beautiful…" Mika also praised the sight.