Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

  Seiji gradually sank into emptiness.

  A tremendous dark-red monstrous shape appeared before him. Countless human faces and puppet masks could be seen attached to it, with all sorts of frightening expressions. It was incredibly scary.

  The monstrous shape slowly approached him.

  Seiji felt that it was about to do something and wanted to react. However, he was unable to move or even make a sound.

  At this moment, a translucent silver-haired little girl appeared before him and blocked the monstrous shape's path.

  The monstrous shape stopped in its tracks.

  The girl looked at the monstrous shape and spoke up in a soft voice.

  The monstrous shape started screeching. It sounded like countless people cursing together.

  The girl fell silent for a moment before turning to look at Seiji.

  'Shinobu-chan…' Seiji wanted to call out to her. Yet, he was still unable to make a sound.

  The girl looked at him and smiled faintly. Her smile was pure and beautiful.

  Seiji sensed that she was intending to do something, and did his best to speak up and stop her.

  Yet, before he was able to speak, Shinobu turned around and faced the monstrous shape again, speaking softly.

  Then, the monstrous shape approached and slowly enveloped Shinobu.

  'No… don't… please stop…'

  Seiji did his best to break free from whatever was restraining him.

  "Stop already!!!" he suddenly roared, causing his words to echo loudly throughout the room he was in. Natsuya who was sitting by his bedside was rather startled.

  "Seiji… You're awake."

  "…Eh?"

  Seiji looked all around him and saw that he was currently in a luxurious hospital room, lying on a bed.

  "What's going on…" Seiji had a look of confusion.

  "You were spitting blood and fainted. Did you forget?" Natsuya looked at him. "You collapsed after you helped to release that demon from its grudges."

  "I… collapsed?"

  Seiji had no recollection of this whatsoever.

  He was also concerned about how the student council president currently appeared.

  "Your hand…"

  "I'm fine, these are just some external injuries. I didn't receive any internal injuries." Natsuya, who was currently wearing hospital clothes, smiled as she lightly waved her bandaged hands. "I'll be fine before you know it."

  "How did you get injured?"

  "Akasuzume Koogi was present in that realm as well and ambushed us while you were casting the spell to pacify the demon."

  "What about Shuho-san and Kirin-san?"

  "Hitaka and Rana were more seriously injured than I was. They're both fine now after receiving medical treatment. They should be able to make full recoveries after some rest in the hospital."

  "I see… That's good, then." Seiji heaved a sigh of relief.

  "How do you currently feel?" Natsuya was concerned about him.

  "I… I'm fine. My chest just hurts a little."

  "It's best if you stay here to rest for a few days."

  "Yeah…" Seiji furrowed his eyebrows.

  "What's the matter?"

  "I can't sense Shinobu-chan anymore… can you sense her?"

  "Shinobu-chan…" Natsuya immediately cast Astral Vision and looked over Seiji closely.

  A minute later, she ended the Astral Vision and shook her head.

  "I can't sense her."

  Seiji didn't know what to say to this.

  "Seiji, what happened?"

  "…Let me rest for a little while first."

  Natsuya looked at him for a while and nodded after hearing this.

  "Go ahead and rest, then."

  She then left his hospital room.

  Seiji covered his face with his hands after Natsuya left.

  Shinobu had left him! It seemed that she went over to the afterlife together with that demon.

  Seiji found this difficult to accept. He wanted to load… but would it be possible to exorcise that demon without having Shinobu leave?

  If the demon wasn't exorcised, then they would all die!

  So if he wanted to protect Shinobu, he would have to load a save file farther back and figure out how to prevent the human puppet from going berserk and demonizing in the first place…


  Just as he was thinking such things, Yomi spoke up in his mind.

  "Honestly, that child is so reckless, doing as she pleases."

  The moment she finished speaking, Seiji suddenly sensed Shinobu's presence within himself again!

  "Shinobu-chan! Is she alright!?"

  "She's fine, but she almost wasn't alright, since she came into contact with that demon," Yomi explained to him. "It's nice and all that she helped you to release that demon from its grudges, but she was really pushing it. If it wasn't for the fact that I intervened in time, she really would have vanished."

  "Yomi…"

  "I worked hard at saving this girl. How about a little praise?"

  "Excellent job," Seiji said sincerely. "You're the best spirit I could ask for!"

  "I would have preferred to be praised as the best woman, but this is fine as well, heehee~" Yomi chuckled. "Now, I'd like to go back to sleep. Do you have any objections?"

  "None! Sleep as much as you'd like. You've worked hard."

  "Now that's what I like to hear. Goodnight~"

  And then, there was no more sound out of Yomi.

  Seiji silently felt the small and weak demon's soul within him and completely relaxed.

  'It's good that you're alright, Shinobu.

  'Thank you for helping and protecting me. However, sacrificing yourself is no good. That would be too sad.

  'I'm going to talk to you properly in the future about all this… for now, just take a good rest.'

  Seiji let out a long sigh as his mouth arced upwards now that he felt reassured. He slowly shut his eyes and went to sleep.

  Natsuya Yoruhana and Akatsuki Mitarai's duel ended with Natsuya's victory and Akatsuki's death.

  This was a result that nobody expected!

  Both the Yoruhana and Mitarai families had expected that Akatsuki would end up winning this duel. Even if he was in poor condition or Natsuya was in top shape, at most they expected a draw.

  However, Natsuya was the victor!

  This result was unbelievable.

  Well, they could still force themselves to accept her victory.

  However, it was difficult for the Mitarai Family to accept Akatsuki's death.

  The Mitarai Family was furious that a young and valued member of their family died just like that! Yet, the judge's videotaped recordings of the duel indicated that nobody on Natsuya Yoruhana's team did anything that would have killed Akatsuki. Instead, Akatsuki's own human puppet Spirit-branded Retainer devoured him, directly causing his death.

  Devoured by one's own human puppet Spirit-branded Retainer… nobody believed such a thing to be possible. However, the recordings were real, with no evidence of falsification!

  The Mitarai Family didn't even know how to go about taking revenge for such a way of dying.

  Why did the human puppet Spirit-branded Retainer devour Akatsuki? They wanted to investigate this, but that would require Natsuya's approval. That was because Akatsuki had agreed to wager the human puppet in question as part of the stakes for the duel. Natsuya had made Shinobu into part of the duel's wager at Seiji's request. Shinobu the human puppet now counted as Natsuya and Seiji's property!

  And if the Mitarai Family wanted to ignore this fact and forcefully investigate? The Himiki judging clan would take responsibility for protecting the safety of the duel's victors.

  If the Mitarai Family dared to do anything, the Himiki Clan would teach them a lesson about why it was that the Himikis were the most renowned judging clan of all.

  And so, the Mitarais could only try negotiating over the phone. They contacted Natsuya who was currently resting in the hospital. But as expected, Natsuya refused to have anything to do with them. She gave quite a simple excuse, saying that she was injured during the duel and currently resting.

  Well, since she had been willing to issue a Yin Yang Master duel challenge just to go against her arranged marriage, it was only normal for her to have such an attitude.

  The Mitarai Family could only try contacting someone else from the Yoruhana Family instead.

  They called Aoran Yoruhana, the younger of Natsuya's two older brothers.

  Second Young Master Yoruhana adamantly refused to take any calls from the Mitarai Family.

  He decided to leave this headache of a situation to his older brother and father. He didn't care about the Mitarais at all.

  Aoran had opposed this marriage from the very start, so he was more than happy to see this outcome of the duel. Still, even he was surprised with Natsuya's victory.

  Aoran knew for certain that nobody in the Yoruhana Family had helped Natsuya. However, even he didn't believe that Natsuya didn't have outside assistance.

  Aoran called a certain person out of curiosity.

  "Do you know that Akatsuki Mitarai had died?" Aoran immediately went to the main topic at hand after saying a basic hello.

  The other person on the phone fell silent.

  "Why would I know about his death?"

  "I felt that you would know already."

  "I didn't know, nor do I have any interest in him."

  "You have a very powerful puppet master as one of your subordinates. I believe that she would have a method of making a human puppet devour its master, wouldn't she?"

  The other person fell silent once again.

  "I don't know what exactly it is that you're trying to say here… If you have anything to say, please tell me more directly, Young Master Aoran Yoruhana." The female voice speaking on the phone sounded quite icy.

  Aoran smiled slightly upon hearing this.

  "Actually, it's nothing. I apologize for distracting you with such a trifle, Yui Haruta-san."