The Juumonji residence was destroyed, with a thick smell of blood permeating through the air. Numerous monsters and demons were devouring the Juumonji Mafia Group members.
A humongous monster with a b.l.o.o.d.y mist swirling around it kept continuously eating humans while spitting out bones and skulls.
Zankita wanted to angrily roar and fight when faced with this h.e.l.lish scene. However, he was filled with a tremendous sense of fear, and his body felt weak as he s.h.i.+vered. He was unable to even crawl up from the ground.
The humongous monster devoured a familiar figure as it chewed and then spat something out.
The item it spat out landed near Zankita, rolling around several times before stopping.
This item was Hisas.h.i.+"s head.
"Wahhh!!!" Zankita shouted loudly and woke up from his nightmare.
"d.a.m.n it… I actually had such a dream…"
He rubbed his head that felt dizzy as he got up in a haze, intending to drink some water to clear his mind.
That"s when he suddenly noticed that he was in an unfamiliar room.
A man in black Sakura Island clothing that he didn"t recognize was sitting across from him.
This man had short gray-black hair and an unnaturally white face. His nose was high, and his eyes were small. He was smiling and sitting with incredibly proper posture.
"Welcome. Pleased to meet you," the man greeted Zankita by lowering his head. "My name is Shous.h.i.+ f.u.kuyama. I happen to be a merchant of sorts."
Zankita furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at this person.
"A merchant… What is this place?"
"This is my store. Please forgive it for being rather simple." The man lifted his head. "The current product that I"m selling is "How to become stronger." Would you happen to be interested?"
Zankita"s eyebrows twitched upon hearing this.
"It would seem that you are indeed interested. How about negotiating about the price?" Shous.h.i.+ indicated for Zankita to sit down with a hand gesture.
"…Who exactly are you?"
"As I already mentioned, I"m simply a merchant. I sell products and make trades. Apart from that, I"m nothing at all, and don"t know anything else apart from how to make trades."
Zankita stared at Shous.h.i.+.
Shous.h.i.+ maintained his smile.
Several seconds later, Zankita walked over and sat down across from Shous.h.i.+ in a cross-legged position.
"I"ll kill you if you dare to trick me!"
"Heh heh, there"s no need to worry about such a thing. I would never disrespect my customers like that." Shous.h.i.+ chuckled. "As for "How to become strong," I can first tell you some keywords: "Spirit World.""
"Spirit World?" Zankita furrowed his eyebrows.
"The Awakened… that is, people like you who have received special powers, can become stronger in Spirit Worlds," Shous.h.i.+ informed him. "As for how to find a Spirit World, which Spirit World to go to, and how to speedily become stronger… you will need to make certain payments for this information."
"…What do you want?"
"I want twenty percent of what you obtain in the Spirit World."
Zankita fell silent.
"Perhaps you don"t know what this entails, but it"s not important. As long as you visit a Spirit World once, you"ll understand that my asking price is reasonable." Shous.h.i.+ chuckled. "If you still think it"s an unreasonable price at that time, speak to me again."
Something flashed in Zankita"s eyes.
"If you don"t agree, you shall forget about our conversation and never see me again. If you agree, I shall sign a fair contract with you, and you"ll be able to meet me again whenever you wish."
Shous.h.i.+ continued to smile as he narrowed his eyes slightly and observed Zankita.
"It"s our fate to have met here. Fate should be treasured. Please take advantage of this opportunity."
Zankita fell silent for a long time.
This place seemed wrong to Zankita. Something was off about this man in front of him, and Zankita really hated Shous.h.i.+"s smile. However…
The eldest son of the Juumonji mafia family slowly clenched his fist as he recalled his earlier nightmare.
One week pa.s.sed.
Television programs and people on the internet were still discussing the topic of "what happened during midnight on New Year"s." However, everything was quite calm in real life, or at least appeared so on the surface.
Actually, many people"s lives changed already. Perhaps there would be many more whose lives would also change in the future due to the midnight spell.
Mika continued learning from her Spiritual Ability teacher, Ruri Kinsa. It seemed that Mika was making progress as a Spirit Controller.
Chiaki got completely accustomed to living as a renter at the Uehara apartments, having plenty of fun. It was now a daily occurrence for Mika to go over to Chiaki"s apartment to drag her out of bed in the morning.
Kaho was rather successful in her weight loss, which drew the attention of some girls in cla.s.s. However, she didn"t intend to expand her circle of friends and kept a low profile as usual.
Hos.h.i.+ and Yukari continued practicing with their own abilities. Both of them mentioned having nightmares about something horrific, which made them feel like something really would happen soon. They were quite anxious.
Reo"s elementary school sent out an important message to all parents and guardians, requesting that they accompany their children to school or ask a trustworthy friend to accompany the children. The school didn"t mention any specific reason, only saying that public safety was becoming an issue.
Due to this message, Seiji began taking and picking up Reo to and from school every day. He considered whether or not he should take additional measures.
Seiji had been unable to visit the Soul World after the first time. He also made no progress in finding any Awakened at Genhana High School. He figured that perhaps there were no more Awakened, or if there were, they were concealing themselves quite well… and if that was the case, there would be no need to warn them to lay low.
Friday night.
According to Seiji"s dating sim system, regarding the [Yin-Yang Seal] option...
[Read a technique manual detailing how to become a Yin-Yang Master or read other equivalent information. Learn and understand it fully - 100% completed.]
[Cultivate your Spiritual Power and improve your level - 100% completed.]
[Cultivate your Mana and improve your level - 100% completed.]
His Spiritual Power and Mana finally met the requirements by the time that Seiji ate all but two of the silver fruits.
After he fulfilled these three requirements, the newly revealed requirements were:
[Learn beginner level [Body-strengthening technique], [Astral Vision], [Telekinesis], [Cleansing], [Barriers], [Sealing], [Summoning], and [Healing]. Current progress of 91.5%.]
[Accept teaching from a beginner-level or above Yin-Yang Master. Learn and understand it fully - current progress of 0%.]
[Perform the Yin-Yang Seal ritual in a location that"s dense in Mana. Current progress of 0%.]
Seiji energetically clenched his fist upon seeing these new requirements!
He really wanted to shout out loudly. That was because there was only one more step!
After learning [Beginner-level Barriers], he had already learned [Beginner-level Cleansing] and [Beginner-level Sealing] as well. He was currently working on cultivating [Beginner-level Summoning].
After he finished learning [Summoning], he would fulfill the requirements for the fourth condition. As for the fifth and sixth conditions, he could use the powerful card that Yui"s gift of the cell phone gave him, the Yin-Yang Seal activation card to skip these two requirements entirely!
Basically, the moment that he finished learning [Summoning], he would be able to instantly become a Yin-Yang Master.
That seemed amazing to him!
Becoming a Yin-Yang Master meant he would finally be taking that critical step, seeing a new world, and entering a new realm… er, did that description sound too immature?
No matter what, it was an important step for him.
If it wasn"t for the powerful Yin-Yang Seal activation card, perhaps the last two requirements would take him a really long time. They seemed quite time-consuming to him. Since he had this card however, all he had to say was one word: "Nice!"
Once again, Seiji expressed his inward grat.i.tude towards Yui.
"Let"s continue practicing [Summoning] immediately. I"m going to go over to Natsuya"s residence"s practice field and do my best to finish mastering [Summoning] by tonight!"
He was all excited as he told s.h.i.+ka and Reo he was going out. He put on his jacket and was about to leave when someone knocked on his door.
The visitor was someone that he absolutely didn"t welcome.
"Good evening, Harutsan." The dark blue haired handsome boy, who was wearing a white windbreaker, smiled in greeting. "Sorry to bother you after two weeks" time."