Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

  What Seiji wanted to know was what many other people wanted to know right now.

  For a major city's entire electrical system as well as communications system to stop working was a huge incident!

  Although important places still had working sources of backup power that could be temporarily used, it would be a lot more difficult to recover the communication system.

  And, just to give some basic examples of the consequences from being unable to contact anyone: nobody would be able to call for an ambulance in an emergency, or call the police in an event of a crime, or call the fire department in case of a fire… People could die!

  Why did all this happen? Did their city receive an EMP attack? From where!?

  All the public officials, electric company employees, and communications company employees… various personnel in these fields all worked overtime to deal with this disaster.

  Meanwhile, in another part of society, the Spiritual Ability users were enraged as well.

  Who the hell cast such a large-scale disruption spell!?

  It was affecting the entire city, which was basically at the level of a terrorist attack! Which bastard dared to do such a thing!?

  No matter who or what faction did such a thing, they were dead meat!

  Although the communications system were cut off, the Spiritual Ability users had their own ways of communication. Soon, various faction leaders came to an accord and gave orders for their elites to investigate what happened immediately.

  This person or faction that angered so many Spiritual Ability user factions would be ended on the spot if they were discovered!

  Seiji didn't get a chance to leave the hospital.

  That was because he saw the person he was going to go look for.

  "Harano!"

  Saki was supporting Mayuzumi as they got off a taxi.

  "Editor Yoshizawa! Sensei!"

  Seiji ran towards them.

  "Mayuzumi suddenly got a fever…"

  "It's the same for Reo. Shika-chan and I brought her here, and I was just about to go find Sensei…"

  Seiji princess-carried Mayuzumi as he quickly ran back inside the hospital.

  After the doctor gave her a checkup, the doctor gave Mayuzumi the exact same medicine as Reo and arranged a room for Mayuzumi to receive an IV drip in.

  "I was spending the New Year's together with Mayuzumi, and when it reached twelve o'clock midnight… the power suddenly went out and she got a fever, saying that she felt something strange," Saki explained. "I felt like there was something wrong with this fever, so I brought her here."

  "What you felt was correct."

  "Harano, what's going on here?" The female editor furrowed her eyebrows.

  "I don't know, either. Shika-chan and I felt something at that moment as well, but we don't know what exactly happened." Seiji sighed.

  A moment of silence fell between them.

  "Seiji, can you hear me?" a voice suddenly spoke in his ear.

  It was Natsuya's voice! She was apparently contacting Seiji with a spell.

  "I can hear you," he immediately responded while indicating to Saki with a hand gesture that he needed to do something as he walked by the window side.

  "Are you alright?"

  "I'm fine. However, Reo-chan and Peach-sensei aren't so fine. They both suddenly got fever right after midnight," Seiji explained. "Shika-chan and I brought Reo to the hospital, and then we met Editor Yoshizawa who brought Sensei over here as well… Right now, they're both receiving IV drips at the hospital and are doing better."

  "…I see."

  "Natsuya, do you know what happened?"

  "A powerful Spiritual Ability user or group cast a very large-scale disruption spell… that's my preliminary guess," Natsuya said in a low voice. "This spell has an enormous area of effect and covered the entire city! And, its power is far out of the ordinary. It even passed through all the Spiritual Ability user factions' barriers… at any rate, it's astonishing. What spell is this? Where was it cast from? And, the most important of all, who did it? Right now, nobody knows. Everybody wants to know what happened; all the factions in our city have begun investigating, sending out all of their elites. My Yoruhana Family also convened an emergency meeting just now and requested any relevant information whatsoever to be reported to them. Anyone that knows something but intentionally hides it without reporting it will be treated as an accomplice who will be punished most severely if discovered."

  Seiji furrowed his eyebrows slightly.

  "Reo and Sensei have been affected… do they count as relevant information?"

  "Yes." Natsuya sighed.

  "…What will happen if you report information about them?" Seiji asked in a heavy tone of voice.

  "The worst result would be that they could get Reo Tachibana and Amami-san involved… I'll do my very best to prevent that from happening," Natsuya told him seriously. "There's many ways to fudge my reports. I won't mention anything about the mysterious power, and I'll only say that they were accidental victims from the game of one hundred demons. That shouldn't attract any attention."

  "Hmm…" Seiji rubbed his chin.

  "As for Reo Tachibana and Amami-san's treatment, if there's anything you need help with, let me know… For now, let me teach you the spell to keep in contact."

  Seiji attentively listened to Natsuya's instructions.

  After confirming that he understood how to cast the spell, Natsuya ended their conversation.

  Seiji returned to Saki's side.

  "Just now, Natsuya Yoruhana contacted me using a spell and explained some things to me," he told the female editor. "A mysterious large-scale magic spell caused all of this. We don't know who the caster is, and there's many Spiritual Ability users currently investigating."

  Something flashed in Saki's eyes.

  Seiji glanced over at Mayuzumi who was still on the hospital bed, then told Saki that he was going back over to Reo and left Mayuzumi's hospital room.

  The spell that Natsuya taught him was called [Astral Communication]. It was an easy spell usable between Spirit-branded Retainers and their contracted Yin-Yang Masters.

  After practicing for about an hour, Seiji succeeded in mastering it as he contacted Natsuya.

  "Did you report about what you knew?"

  "Yes, there wasn't any response. It seems like they treated it as unimportant."

  "That's good, then."

  "How are Reo Tachibana and Amami-san?"

  "They've gotten better. At this rate, they'll probably recover from their fever by morning."

  "That's good, then."

  A moment of silence fell between them.

  Then, both of them chuckled.

  "Good night, Seiji."

  "Good night, Natsuya."

  They ended their conversation there.

  Seiji then checked his system due to a system notification saying that he now had a new option, [Beginning-level Astral Communication], available in his [Spiritual Abilities] options.

  The system's version of [Beginning-level Astral Communication] had the ability to communicate with any Spiritual Ability user. He would first have to "mark" a specific person, and the marked person would also have to use a minor amount of Mana to maintain the connection.

  Obviously, this spell wasn't nearly as convenient as a cell phone or talking over the internet. It was only useful in certain special situations.

  Seiji returned to Reo's hospital bed after he closed his system.

  "Shika-chan, go ahead and sleep. I'll take care of her for a while," he told her.

  Shika was about to respond when her expression changed.

  Seiji noticed something as well, so he immediately cast [Astral Vision].

  He saw a light green feathers descending from the air.

  "This is…" Seiji focused on the sight.

  A feather softly landed by Reo's cheeks before disappearing.

  A second, third, fourth… a patch of green feathers appeared and lightly descended.

  Seiji reflexively caught one that was in front of him.

  He was able to catch it, but couldn't feel anything at all. It instantly disappeared, just like a bubble.

  Beautiful green feathers kept falling, just like a dream.

  The quietly sleeping little girl was currently dreaming.

  Dreamlike feathers…