Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

  Ninjas were definitely a famous and unique job.

  They would often appear in manga and anime in various shapes and forms. The most classic type would be black-clad masked assassins, while the modern type acted as warriors wearing special ops uniforms. Ninjas in more shonen stories were boys and girls who wore ninja village emblems, while ninjas in mature anime were beautiful women that wore very revealing clothing… cough, at any rate, ninjas were a unique existence that countless people imagined about.

  However, imagination was simply imagination. What would ninjas in real life look like?

  Seiji looked at the pudgy middle-aged Matsutani and expressed his curiosity with his expression.

  "Harano-kun, you're a Spirit-branded Retainer, aren't you?" Matsutani didn't seem to intend on explaining more about himself and asked more about Seiji instead.

  "Yes, I am." Seiji nodded and admitted it. This was technically true, as he was currently both a Yin-Yang Master and Natsuya's Spirit-branded Retainer.

  "Could it be that the adopted younger sister you mentioned is your Contractor?"

  "She isn't."

  "Did your Contractor know about you coming here to this award ceremony?"

  "I mentioned receiving an award and going to attend an award ceremony, but she doesn't know the specific address."

  "Then, how long do you think it will take for your Contractor to notice that something has happened to you and for her to come save you?" Matsutani was quite serious as he asked this question.

  "Probably a bit after 9:00 p.m.," Seiji told him.

  He knew that if he still hadn't returned home by that time, Shika would call his cell phone to contact him.

  And since she wouldn't be able to contact his cell phone, she would come here to the hotel's banquet hall to check on him as she knew where the award ceremony was. Then, she would find out that he had gotten caught up in an incident. And if she came to the conclusion that she was unable to save him on her own, she would contact Natsuya for assistance.

  "9:00 p.m., eh… that's not too bad," Matsutani muttered. "If our actions don't work out here, let's just wait for your Contractor to save us."

  "Matsutani, what about anyone on your side?"

  "For a fat otaku like me who lives by himself and makes a living by writing his fantasies, do you really think anyone will care about my life or death?"

  Seiji didn't know what to say to this for several seconds.

  "I feel that your readers will care," Seiji responded in a complex tone after he was done being rendered speechless.

  "I'm very thankful to my readers that support my story. But even without me and my story, there are plenty of replacements out there for them." Matsutani shrugged. "At any rate, don't count on anyone coming to save me. I'm just a piece of trash middle-aged man that nobody cares about."

  "Don't say that, Matsutani-senpai."

  "It's simply the truth… by the way, what do you think the current situation is out in reality? Were we the only two dragged into this place?"

  "I'm not sure."

  "These skeletons started out with the appearance of those in attendance at the award ceremony. But, apart from Shoutarou Rinura himself, there were a few other people that were missing… I think that you probably noticed as well." Something flashed in Matsutani's eyes.

  "Indeed. The other award-winning authors sitting near to Rinura." Seiji nodded.

  Koushi Nomura, Miyabi Ishihara, Shousei Maishi, Yuuko Hashimoto, and Imai Yoshida. None of these five authors, nor Shoutarou Rinura himself, had appeared in the banquet hall before everyone transformed into skeletons. Their seats were all empty.

  Also, apart from the two Spiritual Ability users who were coincidentally present at the award ceremony, what exactly happened to everyone else? And what about the fates of the five authors sitting closest to Rinura at the time?

  Neither Seiji nor Matsutani knew the answers to these questions.

  The worst-case scenario would be that the five award-winning authors… or even everyone at the entire award ceremony had been sucked into Rinura's soul realm and trapped within.

  Well, only thinking wouldn't solve anything, so the two of them began taking action.

  They prepared themselves and exited the banquet hall.

  Seiji saw that there were lots of cluster amaryllis flowers blooming on the hotel stairs leading upwards. He thus led Matsutani up the stairs.

  The flowers continued to increase as they went up the stairs. However, Matsutani wanted to check the situation on the next hotel floor, so Seiji agreed to check it out together with him.

  When they arrived at the next hotel floor, rather than seeing a normal hotel floor, they found that this floor was identical to the banquet hall floor! Even the same fake versions of all the award ceremony attendees were reproduced!

  "I think that it's best we not get any closer," Seiji mentioned.

  "I think so as well," Matsutani agreed.

  The two of them turned around to leave. However, they heard a noise from behind them, so they turned around to see that the fake versions of the attendees had all transformed into skeletons that were lunging in their direction!

  Without an unspoken agreement, both Seiji and Matsutani began running.

  They ran back to the hotel stairs and Matsutani hurriedly shut the fire door and cast a sealing spell on the door.

  "Seal!"

  A diamond-shaped spell formation appeared on the fire door.

  Soon, there was the sound of crashing against the door. The diamond-shaped spell formation instantly lit up and solidly prevented the door from breaking.

  "Let's hurry."

  The two of them ran up the hotel stairs.

  After running up the stairs for more than ten floors, they finally saw the cluster amaryllis flowers stop extending upstairs and extend into a hotel floor instead.

  Seiji and Matsutani exchanged glances and carefully entered this hotel floor in question.

  The first thing they saw was half of a large tree.

  As for why it was half of a tree, that was because only the upper half could be seen growing out of a wall. The lower half must have been in the wall… no, there was no lower half at all.

  There were many such trees of various sizes and varieties growing from the walls and ceiling. Many fallen leaves blanketed the ground together with weeds, flowers, mud, and stones…


  As Seiji and Matsutani progressed through this area together, they saw that this space became more and more wide-open. They even saw a river and a field!

  "This place reminds me of countryside scenery," Matsutani mentioned.

  "I think that this is rural scenery as well," Seiji agreed.

  Why did the environment suddenly change like this?

  Seiji recalled that Ishihara-senpai's story took place in the countryside. Could it be that…


  He told Matsutani about his inference. Matsutani rubbed his chin as he contemplated the possibility.

  "If that's really the case, then there's an unfortunate possibility that this Ishihara-san may become our opponent."

  Seiji nodded in agreement.

  "If that's really the case, you deal with her, and I'll provide you with backup support," Matsutani continued.

  "Why isn't it the other way around?"

  "Because you're stronger than I am."

  "I think that Senpai probably has more experience than I do."

  "I don't have any experience dealing with high school girls! This type of thing should be left to a handsome guy like you. I'm fine with simply watching from the side."

  "I don't think this has anything to do with looks… and weren't you going to provide support to me?"

  "Looks are the most important! The creature known as a high school girl will enjoy anything that a handsome boy does to them, while they'll reject any fat otakus from entering within a two-meter radius of them!" Matsutani seemed to be all serious about this.

  "Things aren't that extreme…" Seiji commented.

  As the two of them continue, the scenery they witnessed became more and more complex. Or, perhaps chaotic would be a better description.

  Trees, rivers, grass, houses, cliffs, ponds, fields, bus stations, bridges… various scenery objects were randomly put together as if a young child had haphazardly pieced together a puzzle. It seemed like quite an abnormal scene.

  Seiji recalled the city that was present in Reo's soul realm.

  This situation felt quite similar to that one…'Does this incident really have to do with that same mysterious power again?' Seiji kept wondering about this.

  After some more walking, the two of them arrived at a location completely filled with blooming cluster amaryllis flowers.

  There was an ancient Sakura Island style house located here, with a gigantic cherry tree growing next to it. The tree's branches and leaves covered the entire rooftop.

  White cherry blossoms were falling down from the tree. These white cherry blossoms were illuminated by the cluster amaryllis flowers' red glow, which gave them a devilish beauty.

  Something was inside this house, waiting for them. Seiji and Matsutani were certain of it.

  "Go ahead, Harano-kun."

  "I'll be counting on you to back me up, Matsutani-senpai."

  Seiji walked to the house's front door and opened it up.

  Everything was dark inside.

  "Harano onii-san…" a voice suddenly spoke up from the darkness.