171 Preparations (1/2)
”This Yin Yang Master-sama trusts in you and would like to assign the most important task to you. That’s a good thing. I believe in her sincerity, and if you accept her request and live up to her expectations, she’ll definitely repay the favor.”
‘That still requires me to live up to her expectations,’ Seiji thought to himself. 'A newbie training right before the battle is about to become the ace of the duel? This is ridiculous! It's just like making a video game noob the ace in a PK clan!’
”Although I’m not familiar with the situation, since this Yin Yang Master-sama has already requested it of you, it means she believes that you can do it. That why you shouldn’t lack so much self-confidence and believe in yourself! I shall also support you with all my might.”
‘Eh, you can hear me even in my mind? And you can understand my thoughts?’
”As long as you think it, I can mostly understand the meaning you’re trying to express.”
‘I see… by the way, I think you misunderstood. She believes in you, not me.’
”I am your strength! Believing in me and believing in yourself are identical!”
Seiji was left speechless upon hearing this.
”Haruta-kun… as expected, am I asking too much?” Seeing Seiji’s silence, Natsuya could only smile wryly. ”I suppose so. Even if you have excellent spirit, making you into an ace immediately… I shouldn’t be so unreasonable. My apologies, I was too impulsive—you can forget…”
Seiji interrupted her with a sigh. ”President, you said you would prepare it as a new battle plan, right? This means that it’s not one hundred percent certain that this new plan will be used, right?”
”…Indeed.” Natsuya nodded. ”It’s just in case.”
”What’s the probability that it’ll actually get used?”
”Very low, and I hope that I won’t have to use it… but seeing your new strength, I want to make appropriate preparations.”
”To be fully prepared for every situation, is that it?”
”Exactly.” Natsuya looked into Seiji's eyes. ”Even if it’s a low probability, there’s still a chance, which is why I’d like to ask your opinion.”
Seiji fell silent once more for several moments.
”Okay, I accept,” he said, sighing deeply. ”I don’t feel like it’ll end up happening, nor can I promise to perform well if I truly do end up being sent into battle, but I guess you can never be cautious enough.”
”Thank you, Haruta-kun,” Natsuya said, smiling brightly.
”Oh, oh, this Yin Yang Master-sama’s smile is so beautiful! It's definitely worth fighting for such a moving beauty!”
Light-chan shouted some hot-blooded passionate words in Seiji’s mind.
This guy was just someone who liked to suck up to beautiful women, wasn’t he?
”Chasing after beautiful young women is something every man dreams of!”
Ok, fine, Seiji had now confirmed that this guy was that type of bastard.
Seiji couldn't bear it any longer and shouted at his newly bonded spirit. 'Stop!' he yelled in his mind. 'Don’t peek at my innermost thoughts! Don't you understand that people need privacy!!?'
At any rate, thanks to this seemingly strong yet also unreliable heroic spirit’s incitement, Seiji agreed to the president’s request.
Afterwards, Natsuya told him her thoughts regarding his heroic spirit’s true identity and advised him to practice together with Hitaka in order to get accustomed to the power and battle methods of a Spirit-branded Retainer.
In the final hours of their preparation time, Natsuya also wanted to use the ‘mitigation’ method to ward off Shika’s [Reaper’s Curse] to limit as many uncertain outside factors as possible.
Seiji already had the power transference ability to cancel it out, so it was all actually an unnecessary process. Although he wanted to refuse at first, he decided to go along with it so that Natsuya and Hitaka could rest at ease.
And so, he had a very 'special' experience…
Time passed just like this.
…
Nighttime, at Genhana High School.
Seiji and Natsuya stood together on top of a fence surrounding the roof of a school building and were looking below them… it almost felt as if he were trying to act cool on purpose.