289 Im Hearing About You Again, My Ancestor (1/2)

Mai entered Shouhei Hirai's residence.

Regardless of whether it was her normal eyesight or Astral Vision, she couldn't detect anything unusual in his residence.

Even after a detailed investigation, she couldn't find anything related to Spiritual Ability users.

Shouhei Hirai seemed just like an ordinary white-collar worker. But it was also possible that he owned another residence.

There was an elementary school girl named Reo Tachibana who also lived together with him. Based on the information she already received from her temporary employer, she knew that this girl was his niece.

Mai easily discovered Reo's bookbag and school uniform. It seemed that this girl hadn't gone to school today.

Although Reo was just a little girl, she was still someone that lived together with Shouhei Hirai. Perhaps something could be learned if Mai found her and asked some questions. Besides, this elementary school girl was neither at school nor home; where else could she even go? Mai was somewhat curious about the answer to this question, so she decided to search for Reo.

She collected some of Reo's hair from her room, drew a spell formation in the living room, and cast a spell, using Reo's hair as the catalyst.

The spell was successful. A cyan-colored ball formed in midair. Within it were a few black strands, and they pointed in a direction like a compass. However, they were unsteady and kept trembling.

Mai roughly followed the direction that her spell indicated.

...

While on the monorail back to the city, Seiji took the opportunity to make a phone call at another seat. Mayuzumi and Saki were resting against each other for a small nap.

The call connected.

”President, I'm sorry to bother you yet again, but this is important. I learned some new information about the person at the center of the incident this morning…”

Seiji recounted the story Saki had told him to Natsuya.

Natsuya was silent for a moment as she mulled it over.

”The Story of One Hundred Demons game… this actually originates from an ancient ritual. It's a horrifying ritual which demands the sacrifice of one hundred young children and uses the power of their deaths to open the gates of hell. No records that explain the specifics of the ritual and its origins remain. It's said that it was intentionally stopped by someone. And this specific someone was that famous ancestor of yours.”

'I'm hearing about you again, my ancestor.' Seiji raised his brows.

”The basic legend goes like this: there was an organization by the name of 'Eternity' that performed this ritual and caused great havoc. Seimei Kamijou led his numerous retainers in a fierce battle against them and finally succeeded in closing the gates of hell.

”As it stands today, at least on the surface, the knowledge about this ritual has been lost to time. But the Story of One Hundred Demons game, which imitated this ritual, has been passed down.

”There's a very low probability of this game causing any actual harm. Playing this game a thousand times might not result in even a single incident.

”However, no matter how low the probability, there's still some danger involved, since it's still fundamentally an imitation of the original ritual. And the ritual it imitates is something frightening—frightening enough to give pause to the strongest Yin-Yang Master in history.

”Unfortunately, your two friends involved in this incident met with that improbable occurrence and must have summoned something very real.

”But to find fortune among misfortune, they didn't die from it. As for the person in question to suffer from the same nightmares as before, it's quite likely that some sort of lingering aftereffect was triggered again.

”As for what the aftereffect is, what the trigger could be, and how to cure it… these issues can only be dealt with after a specialized examination.”

”So,” Seiji asked, ”we need to take her to that hospital, right?”

”Yes,” Natsuya replied.

”I'll tell her about it in a bit.”

After thanking Natsuya again, Seiji hung up the call and returned to his seat.

As he looked at the two ladies opposite him sleeping peacefully, he decided to tell them about going to the hospital after they woke up.

At this moment, he noticed Mayuzumi had begun to furrow her brows.

”Nooo…” she mumbled in a tiny voice. Her body began to tremble, and her face was twisted in pain.

'Is she having another nightmare?'

Seiji hurriedly checked her condition with [Astral Vision], but he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.