Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

  Saturday night.

  The fated moment… er, the moment of the duel was upon Seiji and his friends.

  Seiji was currently fully equipped and playing shogi against Hitaka in the living room.

  The red-haired girl wore a dress that was similar to what she wore during the last duel. However, this dress had visible armor pieces, making it more like a piece of light armor.

  Hitaka quietly observed the situation on the shogi board. After some consideration, she picked up the shogi piece named keima with her index and middle fingers and gently moved it.

  Her elegant action and expression of concentration was movingly beautiful.

  Seiji enjoyed the beautiful scene while playing shogi against her.

  Meanwhile, Natsuya was in the same form-fitting attire from the last duel. She was currently sitting on a sofa and gently stroking Rana's head as the latter lay on her lap.

  Rana was currently in her adult cat woman form. She was wearing a black dress with dark-red armor on top. Her cat ears were drooping down softly, with furry tail wagging back and forth. She kept mewling comfortably.

  This was an incredibly alluring scene. However, Seiji felt too awkward to stare, so he could only sneak a few looks in secret.

  Everything seemed incredibly peaceful. They appeared more like people that were preparing for a cosplay event, not a Yin-Yang Master duel.

  Time ticked by in a seemingly slow fashion. However, it also felt like time passed quite swiftly by the time that it was time to duel.

  Seiji stood up and spoke, "Let's finish our shogi match later."

  "Yeah." Hitaka nodded slightly as she stood up as well.

  "Meow~~" Rana got up from Natsuya's lap as well and lazily stretched. Something bright was flashing in her heterochromia eyes.

  Natsuya stood up as well and spoke calmly, "Let's go."

  Everyone saw Mai waiting for them at the door before they left Natsuya's residence.

  "May you be blessed with victory." The maid bowed to them.

  Seiji, Natsuya, and the others smiled in response as they left the student council president's residence and headed for the location of the duel.

  The time had finally arrived.

  Akatsuki Mitarai was currently riding in his car as he looked outside the window. His handsome face had a devilish grin.

  As long as he won this upcoming duel, he would finally be able to obtain what he had wanted for so long, along with many other tangible benefits.

  As for the possibility of losing? Akatsuki didn't even consider such a thing to be possible.

  After all, this duel had the condition of only ending if one side surrendered or was completely incapacitated. There were no ridiculous game rules like going out of bounds meant losing!

  Akatsuki admitted that he had been overconfident during the Winter Snow Festival's game duel. He'd underestimated Seiji Haruta and received a humiliating loss.

  Apart from making sure that Seiji would no longer be able to take advantage of little rules like that one, he also made sure to greatly increase his assessment of Seiji Haruta's true power level. In fact, he even considered it possible that Seiji was actually stronger than Natsuya.

  Even though he felt it was quite unlikely, Akatsuki still prepared for this hypothetically worst scenario. That was why he felt absolutely assured of his victory!

  "Let me see just how much you struggle." Akatsuki smiled with a cold look in his eyes. "Don't surprise me by being boring pushovers."

  It would be quite boring if the prey he'd gone to such painstaking efforts to catch ended up not even giving him meaningful resistance. Only seeing their looks of despair after giving it their utmost was what interested him the most.

  Seiji saw a black luxury car enter the school grounds and stop.

  The car's door opened.

  The first to get off the car was a boy with short purple hair who wore dark-purple form-fitting attire. This was Naruo Yashuu.

  Next to get off the car was a red-haired girl wearing a white and gold dress. This was Akasuzume Koogi.

  Another silver-haired "girl" who wore blood-red Sakura Island attire with a short miniskirt got off from the other side of the car. This was Shinobu Miaki.

  Finally, a handsome boy wearing blue-and-white hunting clothes exited the car. Of course, this was Akatsuki Mitarai.

  The four of them walked up to Seiji and his companions and stood before them.

  The black luxury car turned around and left the school grounds.

  "Good evening, Natsuya, as well as everyone else." Akatsuki smiled in greeting.

  "Good evening, Mitarai-san." Natsuya responded calmly. "Please don't address me by my first name."

  "Heh heh… You won't get to say that any more after tonight."

  "That's right. I won't have to say it any more after tonight… but right now, I still wish to express that your attitude disgusts me."

  While the two of them were seemingly having a casual conversation, Seiji unsheathed his black longsword and brought out his white shield which had a pentagram spell formation etched upon it.

  Naruo Yashuu, who was standing directly across from Seiji, transformed his hands into purple-red sharp claws as a Hanyuu mask mask covered his face.

  Hitaka pulled out her red longsword as well as a magic gun.

  Akasuzume Koogi, who stood directly across from Hitaka, brought out a pair of golden-red guns. Both guns also had sharp blades attached.

  Rana revealed her sharp cat claws.

  Shinobu Miaki was across from her and brought out a pair of swords, one long and one short.

  Right after this, a firework shot up from near the school and let out some bright-red light.

  This was the message from the judge to begin the duel!

  "Let's go watch fireworks together this summer," Akatsuki spoke softly.

  "I will go watch fireworks, but never with you," Natsuya replied coldly.

  Yashuu was the first to suddenly rush forward, leaving behind only an afterimage of purple and red!

  Seiji instantly transformed into his golden form and blocked him with his shield!

  As the vanguards, Yashuu and Seiji fiercely clashed against each other. Their loud impact created a formless wave that created a huge dust plume!

  Koogi jumped up in midair and started shooting at Seiji!

  Hitaka shot back at Koogi and jumped to block her!

  Shinobu clutched her uneven twin swords and rushed towards Natsuya!

  Rana instantly appeared before Shinobu and attacked with her claws!

  Natsuya extended her palms and activated Genhana High School's gigantic spell formation!

  Akatsuki lifted up his hands and summoned four black pillars!

  *Boom!!*

  Both sides sent numerous spells against each other which exploded into an even more blinding light than the earlier firework!!

  "Oh ho… this is a nice start to the duel."

  Ayami Himiki, the girl judging this duel, praised what she saw.

  Just like always, she observed this duel from a distance together with her husky dog Spirit-branded Retainer.

  The previous duel of the Yoruhana Family daughter against the Yoshiaki Family son gave her an incredibly deep impression. She was more than pleased to take the job to judge this duel as well. In fact, she even gave a small discount on her usual judging fee.

  Although she knew that it would be foolish to expect another legendary battle like Shutendoji vs. Minamoto no Raikou, she felt that she should have some expectations as the judge. After all, perhaps something truly incredible would come out again.

  The start was incredible already, with a chaotic four-against-four team battle!

  Team battles were completely different from solo duels. The tacit cooperation between companions would be incredibly important. Perhaps one excellent coordinated effort would determine the entire victory, while a single terrible mistake might lead to a pathetic defeat.

  Ayami had witnessed countless such duels before, and deeply felt that team battles were far more stimulating than one-on-one duels. Victory was commonly decided in just an instant. Those who didn't react fast enough might not even realize just how they lost.

  Although Ayami was quite young, she was an excellent judge. She still had the ability to clearly see all eight people's actions, and even had the time to focus her concentration mainly on one person.

  The red side (Yoruhana Family daughter)'s jacketed handsome boy!

  This handsome boy who seemed like only a newcomer during the previous duel no longer retained his newbishness at all. He seemed like a perfectly normal temporary Spirit-branded Retainer now… not!

  Ayami was astounded by how much he'd grown in power since last time.

  It had only been a short few months, right!? Wasn't it too ridiculous for his Spiritual Power to have grown by such a level!?

  Did he go and cultivate in a Spirit World? Or did he manage to get his hands on some excellent stat-increasing consumables?

  No matter what, the increase in his power couldn't be measured by the standards of being only a "temporary Spirit-branded Retainer" anymore. He was now on the level of being a trump card! Not to mention that he had the transformation ability from last time that surpised her so much…


  "However, his bonded spirit seems to be someone other than Minamoto no Raikou now. His spells are all golden in color… Who could his spirit be?"

  The girl judge instinctively felt that this handsome boy was highly likely to again become the Yoruhana Family daughter's trump card.