Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

  [You have traveled through the Soul World for the first time. The [Soul World] option is now available.]

  [You have experienced the life of Gray-clothed Garr. You have now learned [Soul World - Howling Gale Slash.]]

  A new option!

  Seiji raised his eyebrows in surprise.

  The option's name was [Soul World]. There was no explanation given, which was quite different from how it was when other options opened up.

  What did this mean? Did even his dating system not know exactly how to classify the "Soul World"?

  He immediately opened up his system and checked it out.

  When he chose [Soul World], what he saw was [Howling Gale Slash] as well as… [Soul Energy]!

  According to Seiji's system, he had 100 [Soul Energy] points. The system provided no explanation for this number or what it was.

  When he looked at [Howling Gale Slash], the system's description stated that [Howling Gale Slash is Gray-clothed Garr's legendary sword technique. It can only be used with a sword-type Spiritual Weapon. This technique will cost energy, concentration level, as well as 100 Soul Energy points.]

  'This is a truly simplistic explanation. System, you're slacking off these days,' Seiji commented in his mind.

  It would cost [Soul Energy] points to use this technique… then could he infer that [Soul Energy] was actually a type of technique points that needed to be used in order to cast [Soul World] techniques?

  Errrr… Well, setting that aside for the time being, would his [Soul Energy] points automatically recover if he used them? If not, how would he need to recover them? Would he need to visit the Soul World in order to replenish his [Soul Energy]?

  Not only that, he still didn't understand how to visit the Soul World to begin with.

  All he currently knew was that the Soul World seemed to be some type of mystical domain where he could experience or learn from other people's lives in another world, and that there was a mysterious young man wearing a white fox mask and black robe that called himself the Guide.

  Experiencing someone else's life felt like an incredibly realistic dream, but after waking up, most memories of that experience would become faint. However, some would still remain clearly, such as the extraordinary sword technique that Seiji just learned.

  Looking at this from a practical angle, this was just like obtaining a new power after simply sleeping for a night. This was similar to becoming an Awakened!

  "Awakened… Could it be that Yukari and Hoshi actually entered the Soul World rather than their own soul realms?" Seiji wondered about this possibility.

  It seemed likely to him.

  That would explain why he was able to hear Yukari's voice calling out to him for help and how he was able to arrive at her side.

  The white fox masked man had told him that he possessed the ability to traverse the Soul World.

  He didn't know how he'd gained this ability, but he supposed that he counted as a "Soul World traveler." When he heard Yukari calling out to him as she had gotten into a predicament in the Soul World, her voice naturally guided him to her location.

  This theory sounded reasonable to him, but still had its flaws. For example, the "mystical connections" that Yomi mentioned, Yukari and Hoshi's specific experiences, and the powers they awakened…


  After some more consideration, Seiji felt that perhaps he visited a different place than Yukari and Hoshi last night. Maybe these places were different forms of the Soul World, or maybe they were something else entirely.

  Did this mysterious "Soul World" have any connection to the mysterious faction also named "Soul World"?

  Seiji had a daring inference about this. He thought that perhaps this faction's members might actually be "Soul World travelers" or "Awakened"!

  These people might have obtained power from the Soul World long ago, then joined up together and created an organization.

  The evidence for this inference of his was based on what the white fox masked man told him. According to the Guide, numerous others had been to the Soul World before, probably at least a minimum of three.

  Even if there were only three others, if all three obtained powerful abilities from the Soul World, three was more than enough to create a faction. Seiji didn't know how many people were in the Soul World faction, but he figured that there weren't many.

  What was the goal of the Soul World faction?

  The Midnight Spell, the night of one hundred demons, the Awakened, the Spirit Worlds… currently, it was still unknown what the Soul World faction wanted. However, it was easy to infer that if all these phenomena continued, there would be a great upheaval in the mystical society and perhaps even the regular society.

  "Perhaps… the entire world will be changed." Seiji sighed to himself.

  Then, he decided to stop thinking about it and checked the progress on his [Spiritual Power] stat's improvement.

  A 19 point increase! He felt that this was excellent.

  Judging from the progress bar on his requirements for learning the Yin-Yang Seal to become a Yin-Yang Master, if his remaining silver fruits all gave him roughly the same amount of Spiritual Power, then it would definitely be easy enough to fulfill the requirement before the silver fruits ran out.

  No matter what would happen in the future, it couldn't possibly be wrong for him to gain more power in order to protect the people important to him.

  "Please find any other Awakened at school and tell them to be cautious about exposing their identities."

  During lunch break at school, Natsuya called Seiji over to the student council office and made such a request of him.

  "With my current position and situation, it's not convenient for me to do such a thing. I can only ask you," she stated softly.

  Seiji nodded in understanding.

  "Understood. Leave it to me."

  If the other Awakened at school weren't warned, perhaps someone would cause an incident, which would be bad for Natsuya as she'd already reported to her family that there were no more Awakened at Genhana High School.

  Due to Natsuya's personal circumstances, it wasn't convenient for her to find the Awakened. In other words, Seiji would be unable to rely on her for anything, including receiving assistance from Hitaka or Rana. He could only rely on himself.

  Seiji's first idea was to use [Astral Vision] to inspect every single student at school.

  However, he felt that this was low in effectiveness. Besides, his [Astral Vision] level was still low, and might not be able to identify the Awakened.

  His next idea was to ask his friends for assistance.

  Mika, Chiaki, Hoshi, Rion and Kotomi, Yukari, and Kaede all readily agreed to help him with this. They promised to tell him immediately if they saw anything seemingly mystical about any other student.

  After school, Seiji received a phone call from Hisashi inviting him to come over to visit the Juumonji Mafia Group.

  A car came over to pick him up. When Seiji arrived at the Juumonji residence, he saw that two people were waiting him in the main hall. Of course, one was Hisashi, while the other was…


  "Heya, long time no see," the red-haired man with bushy eyebrows greeted him.

  Zankita Juumonji, Hisashi and Kaede's older brother.

  Seiji had only met him once before, when he had been invited to visit the Juumonji Group for the first time.

  At that time, this guy had rushed at him and attacked him unprovoked, so Seiji had been forced to defend himself and ended up injuring Zankita to the point of hospitalization.

  "Long time no see. Have you recovered from your injuries?"

  "I recovered long ago. You were quite vicious at that time, but I like it that way!" Zankita gave him a big thumbs-up.

  Seiji looked towards Hisashi for an explanation.

  "He's just an idiot like that. Bear with him." Hisashi poured some tea for Seiji.

  "Hey!" Zankita expressed his dissatisfaction.

  Seiji's cheeks twitched at this.

  The eldest son of the Juumonji Family seemed like a coarse guy, but Seiji found himself surprisingly unable to dislike him.

  "What's the matter, asking me to come all the way here?" Seiji directly asked what was going on.

  "Big Bro Zankita, show him."

  At Hisashi's indication, Zankita raised his hand and caused a blue flame to appear on his palm!

  Seiji was rather astonished to see this.

  This was an ability… that could be seen by everyone with the naked eye!?

  Seiji immediately cast [Astral Vision]. He saw that the blue flame on Zankita's hand now appeared even brighter while Zankita's arm seemed to be glowing with a mystical light, which seemed rather imposing.

  Yukari's spiderweb threads and Hoshi's red birds were only visible when using [Astral Vision]. However, this blue flame was directly visible to the naked eye. Was it because it was more powerful?

  Wait a moment… Red hair and blue flames? Seiji suddenly recalled a famous character from a well-known fighting game from his world!

  That fighting game had given him many fond childhood memories. Not to mention, this particular character was one of the most popular characters from that game and had a really cool ultimate technique. Seiji always felt a thrill from using the ultimate technique successfully and even memorized that character's catch phrase while using it, which was…


  "Zankita had a strange dream about fighting with a Tengu. After he woke up, he possessed this ability," Hisashi told Seiji. "Do you know anything about this?"

  Seiji regained his senses as his daydreaming was interrupted.

  "Yes." He nodded and explained about the Awakened.

  Hisashi fell silent after learning about the Awakened at the current situation for the Awakened as viewed by the mystical society.

  "Big Bro Zankita, you can only use this power of yours at home. Don't use it outside," Hisashi cautioned his older brother.

  "Why's that?"

  "Didn't you hear what Seigo said just now?"

  "I did, but if anyone wants to do something bad to me, all I have to do is kill him," Zankita stated while clenching his fist, which caused the blue flame to envelop his hand entirely and burn even fiercer.