Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
Later that night, Seiji was contacted by Hana.
"Those daggers are a spiritual weapon crafted by the Messengers organization. The people you met are from that faction," the cat-eared hat girl reported to him. "The Messengers organization is actually a new faction that split off from Soul World. The Messengers were created by some former members of Soul World that believe in using any means necessary to achieve what they desire."
That was a lot of information to take in at once!
"…Did Sister Yui give you this information?" Seiji inquired.
"That's right, Sister Yui told it to me. She's a member of Soul World," Hana quietly stated something that should have been an incredible secret.
"Since she's let you know about her identity, that probably means it doesn't need to be a secret anymore."
"Yep, since it's no longer considered to be a crime to be a member of Soul World."
"Will she join Soul Society later on as one of their higher-ups?"
"I don't know, but I think it's highly possible."
They both fell silent for a moment.
"So the Messengers are an evil organization that split off from Soul World, and Soul Society is the organization of justice that opposes them…?" Seiji folded his arms.
"I think that a more appropriate analogy would be to call them factions of chaos and order." Hana also folded her arms.
"I suppose you're right… so the next classical development will be the battle between chaos and order?"
"That depends on what the Messengers' goal is."
"Sister Yui doesn't know their overall goal?"
"She didn't say anything about that. She only said that the creator of the Messengers was someone who would stoop to any means."
Stoop to any means? This typically meant that one wouldn't care about any collateral damage or harm caused to others. No matter what this organization wanted to achieve, being willing to "use any means" was already the best evidence that they were relatively dangerous.
It was truly unfortunate that Seiji had created a grudge with such a faction… but perhaps it was something bound to occur.
"What about anything else? Is there anything special about those daggers?"
"They're a weapon that's specially created for the Awakened. These daggers are capable of absorbing and storing the energy from defeated spiritual monsters and transmitting it to the holder. However, it should be noted that the transference mechanism is under remote control. Someone else is capable of controlling the mechanism and adjusting the energy output."
"So, you're saying that this weapon's energy output can be controlled by someone else?"
"That's right. This design allows someone else to control the weapon's holder. Someone else with the control mechanism can self-destruct the weapon with a single press of a button. Or, it's possible to instantly have the weapon start transmitting energy at maximum level, without any regard to the weapon holder's will or well-being."
Seiji recalled the scene from before when he heard this.
Those three individuals who attacked him had all seemed to be rather abnormal. Perhaps they hadn't attacked him out of their own will. Perhaps it was due to that person behind them…
Seiji felt that it was a pity he didn't manage to stop that Spiritual Ability user and the last Awakened there.
Seiji felt pity for the three people under the Messenger organization's control. He now also concretely had a better idea of what the Messengers were really like.
"Is there any more information?"
"That's all about the daggers. Next would be regarding your friend Hoshi Amami's combat uniform." Hana paused for a moment. "The damage to his uniform is highly likely to have been caused by spiritual weapons."
"…Are you talking about all of the damage?" Seiji now had a serious expression.
"Yep, 100%."
They both fell silent yet again.
Hoshi had stayed behind in that realm by himself for more than three hours. All the various types of damage done to his clothing had been from spiritual weapons… Did Hoshi go fight a battle against an army of Spiritual Ability users!?
Just how many people were there? What faction were they from? What was the result? Those were all important questions.
Yet, the main character of the incident in question had lost his memories!
It would have been fine if Hoshi had only been fighting against spiritual creatures. Yet losing his memories after fighting against humans? That was no laughing matter at all.
"We need to think of some method to help Hoshi recover his memories. Otherwise, we won't even know what trouble he's gotten into." Seiji sighed.
"Perhaps he met another group from the Messengers and had a huge fight against them." Hana took a random guess.
"…That's possible, but we'll only know for certain once he remembers."
Well, it would be slightly better if Hoshi had fought against another group of Messengers, since Seiji and his friends had killed three of them already. It wouldn't change much more if they antagonized the Messengers again… the important part was if Hoshi's identity was exposed or not! Did they see his face!?
The Messengers organization was a split-off faction from Soul World that trended towards chaos. Becoming enemies with them would be no laughing matter. If Hoshi's identity was exposed, that would be incredibly dangerous!
'Maybe I should load back in time.' Seiji suddenly had such a thought.
But, he then sighed after recalling what Hoshi had said back then.
'Let's try to have my idiot junior recover his memories first before deciding what to do.'
Hoshi was sitting down under a tree, observing beautiful flowers while watching tiny butterflies dance among the flowers.
A light breeze blew past which slightly shook the flowers. There was a sweet aroma and bright red leaves were falling… This scene and atmosphere were so beautiful as to be addictive.
An ethereal song sounded. When Hoshi looked to find the source, he noticed that the golden-haired girl was already standing next to him since an unknown time.
Hoshi silently looked at her and listened to her song. He felt as if his very soul was being cleansed. He had no idle thoughts whatsoever, and his heart was completely calm.
At this moment, footsteps suddenly sounded.
Hoshi turned around and saw a squadron of people in various types of clothing. They were all holding blood-red weapons or guns.
All of them had black, gray, or red misty auras around them which gave Hoshi an ominous impression. He felt that they didn't belong in such a beautiful location at all.
The golden-haired girl also looked at this squadron and stopped her singing.
These people then did something that caused a dense gray mist to arrive. The air speedily became chilly.
The flowers started losing their color as they wilted in large patches. All the butterflies dropped on the ground and turned into dust.
Even the tall red-leafed tree was speedily losing its life force at a visible rate. Its bark dimmed in color as its leaves kept dropping… it finally became rather ugly and scary with how dried out it appeared.
This squadron of people then left this area.
They destroyed the beauty and calmness of this location and then left just like that.
A feeling of anger arose within Hoshi's heart.
He looked at the golden-haired girl. Although he couldn't see her expression clearly, he could sense her sadness.
Hoshi then witnessed this scene repeating itself countless times.
At first, the golden-haired girl didn't do anything at all. But as her sadness increased, she started hiding her garden's presence.
Yet, those people still kept finding and destroying her garden. Evidently, they had a method of locating her garden.
After that, she was forced to start fighting off those people.
But even if she chased them away, they would soon return with even more and stronger companions!
The golden-haired girl was having a bitter and difficult time fighting against those people.
All she wanted was to maintain her garden. Yet, those people always brought along destruction and turned the entire world to grayness.
Hoshi's anger reached its peak after witnessing all of this.
Just chasing those people away would be insufficient. They needed to be killed!
Only by killing them would they never return.
As if she sensed his anger, the golden-haired girl looked at him and slowly reached out with her tiny hand.
Hoshi stretched out his hand and lightly held her hand in his.
Her hand was cool, soft, and smooth… a subtly wondrous sensation.
But, that wasn't the important part. The important part was that this was the first time that he was finally able to touch her.
Hoshi tightly gripped her hand, transmitting his own will.
'I will help you.
'I will protect your garden, your home! I shall make those people that bring destruction pay a fitting price!!'
The girl sensed his feelings. Her mouth arced upwards slightly as she smiled movingly.
She then spoke one sentence.
Hoshi didn't recognize the language she spoke in. Yet, he was mystically able to understand the meaning...
"Thank you, my dear knight."