At any rate, the third volume improved even further on the first two volumes' quality. The Yin Yang Master side character elevated to main character status had plenty of charisma and characterization. The entire plot was well fleshed out, and there was almost nowhere that Seiji could make any suggestions.
After discussing it with Shika, Seiji decided to write the third volume entirely according to her plot.
But before he could do so, he had to finalize the second volume.
He contacted Editor Yoshizawa, and emailed her the draft for the second volume. If the publisher felt that there were no problems, all that was left was to do the insert art.
After everyone had time to consider, none of the knight order members changed their mind about staying behind.
Seiji didn't say anything more on the matter. He contacted Kazuko and talked it over with her, and then announced to everyone that they would all be training in Kazuko's Domain on a daily basis from then on. This was all in order to improve everyone's power and combat experience. Everyone should participate if possible… Basically, he was going to have everyone level grind!
Meanwhile, Soul Society publicized new information about the Realm of Cherry Blossoms, regarding the spiritual creatures within.
Just like the danger levels of the Spirit Worlds, Soul Society formally created four levels of danger in assessing spiritual monsters: "Small demon", "Evil demon", "Vicious demon", and "Demon king".
Each type was more dangerous than the next, and once again there were different types within each category.
The red humanoid spiritual monsters that wielded black weapons were named "Sakura samurai demons", and assessed to be at the small demon level. Although they were relatively weak, they were incredibly numerous. And, a few individuals among them would be at the level of a "small demon commander" or a "small demon king". That would make all the other Sakura samurai demons act together like an organized army, directly elevating their threat level to "small demon army"!
"Army" level demon groups were categorized into danger levels based on how numerous the demons were. There was no upper limit to the demons' potential numbers, so it was actually possible for a "small demon army" to be more dangerous than a "demon king".
Well, this was just how real life worked. After all, the proverb went that a pack of wolves could defeat a vicious tiger, and a sufficient number of ants would be able to bite even an elephant to death. No matter how weak the individual, if they were numerous enough and had adequate tactics, they would be able to beat even the strongest of individuals through a battle of attrition.
That was why "armies" definitely couldn't be underestimated. The power of numbers was a type of power in and of itself.
And as for that amazingly beautiful… Cough, the veiled female demon, Soul Society named her "Sakura female demon". She was assessed at "Witch evil demon" danger level. Her individual combat strength was stronger, and she had the ability to buff the Sakura samurai in a large radius. This made her even more dangerous than the "commanders" and "kings" in the Sakura samurai army. Sakura female demons were listed as a top priority target to kill off.
Apart from these two demons, there were also Sakura tree demons, Sakura mist demons, Sakura snake demons, Sakura martial demons, Sakura treant demons, and other such demons that Seiji and his friends hadn't met before. Out of all these demons, the treant demon was listed as the most dangerous of all—at the demon king level! Not only were these treants gigantic, they had incredible individual combat strength and were capable of majorly buffing the defenses of all other spiritual monsters.
In video game terms, these treant demons possessed incredibly powerful defense buffing auras. As long as one of these treants appeared, all other spiritual monsters would basically have their HP bars triple or more!
Seiji learned that a total of seven such treant monsters had appeared during the first fight in Realm of Cherry Blossom's Inner World #1. Three of them had even appeared together! These treant demons had been incredibly difficult for Soul Society's team to deal with.
Luckily, Soul Society's logistical support managed to send a magical mecha into Inner World #1. This fully outfitted mecha used its explosive attacks against the treants, and was able to destroy two treants in a short period of time. That was the only reason why Soul Society's team hadn't lost.
Soul Society didn't offer any detailed combat reports of what happened. However, it was basically impossible for Soul Society to restrict its members from posting what they wanted on their forums, so there was much attention and talk about that extremely powerful mecha.
Many Soul Society forum users were guessing at the mecha's specific abilities, pilot, materials used to create it, method used to create it, who the creator was, its price, and so on. They were all astonished at its power, and everyone was certain that this was an absolutely top-class magical mecha which was highly likely to be one of Soul Society's ace cards.
'Amazing…' That was all Seiji could think after reading all the posts. He really wanted to personally see such a mecha.
Of course, he wanted even more to possess a mecha of his own! But right now, that was nothing more than a dream of his.
Rather than obtaining such a top-level magical mecha, he figured it was more practical to figure out how he could obtain a regular metal mecha first.
Seiji also recalled how he witnessed Yui previously descending in front of him in her personal mecha.
Could that magic mecha's pilot actually have been his older sister?
Many people on the forums were guessing at the identity of the mecha's pilot. Some people indeed guessed it was Yui Haruta, the Qilin Girl.
If that was really the case… could his older sister get any cooler?
Meanwhile, Natsuya contacted him, and mentioned that it had been surprisingly easy for her to join Soul Society.
When she asked Soul Society for help with her family so that she could join, it took a mere ten minutes before Soul Society replied, telling her that a higher-up had talked to her father, the master of the Yoruhana Family. She was told that her joining Soul Society would have zero problems whatsoever and that she was welcome to become a member.
The scion was quite shocked to hear this.
After this, she wanted to know which specific higher-up had talked to her father about it, but Soul Society didn't tell her, only saying that she didn't need to pay it any mind.
However, Natsuya really minded! Just who had "convinced" her father in such a short period of time?
Natsuya felt that it might have been Yui Haruta. But, that would have been too fast even for Yui.
Seiji felt that Natsuya being invited to Soul Society had nothing to do with Yui… but even if it was connected to Yui, it wouldn't have anything to do with him. That was because he felt that he barely had any influence over Yui.
If Yui had really been the person who invited Natsuya to Soul Society, that must have been because Natsuya's power was worthy of the invitation. In Seiji's opinion, it absolutely wouldn't have been because Natsuya was her younger brother's girlfriend.
No matter what it was, it was a good thing that Natsuya had been able to join Soul Society easier than thought. With Natsuya's abilities, Seiji was confident that she would be able to excellently perform her duties for Soul Society.
Seiji was quite curious what her specific duties would be, and how Soul Society worked from the inside. However, he also knew that these would be considered secret, so he didn't pry.
Later that afternoon, at Natsuya's mansion.
Apart from Shika and Shinobu, every single member of the knight order had gathered here. They were all prepared to train in Kazuko's Domain.
Hisashi brought along a maid outfit that had been personally tailored to fit Hoshi. It could be seen that the maid outfit was of truly excellent quality.
"Wear this, Knight of Light." With something flashing in his eyeglasses, the blonde-haired mafia otaku handed the maid outfit to the beautiful boy. "After you put this on, you will truly become the light itself!"
"Senpai…" Hoshi turned towards Seiji.
Seiji closed his eyes and pretended that he was meditating, as if he was shutting off the outside world.
Yukari, Mika, Mayuzumi, Kazuko, Kaede, Kaho, and even the real maid Mai standing by the side all had expectant looks on their faces!
Hoshi felt immense pressure from all the female attention on him. And, the only person he could ask help from was currently meditating (pretend). Hoshi felt quite helpless.
"Come, Knight of Light! Accept this glorious outfit!!"
Hoshi was rendered speechless.
Since he felt everyone's expectations, Hoshi finally acceded to the request.
He took the maid outfit and went inside a room to change his clothes.
Mika and everyone else all took out their cell phones. Yukari and Hisashi even brought out high-res digital cameras!
These two exchanged knowing looks after seeing that both of them had brought similar equipment. They recognized each other as masters of appreciating ero, and even started feeling like they had something in common as they started chatting about this subject.
Mayuzumi requested that they send her a copy of their pictures, and both happily agreed.
This was indeed just like the atmosphere at a photography convention party. Seiji opened his eyes slightly to check on the situation, and then quickly returned to pretending to meditate.
After a while, an incredibly cute "maid" walked into the room.