299 Could Her True Wish Actually Be... (1/2)

”Yep, this incident arose from the Story of One Hundred Demons game, which is based on the Night of One Hundred Demons, so maybe it's not an appropriate suggestion. Despite this, I think transforming into Blue Lantern Ghost is a way for you to confront your fears directly.” Seiji rubbed his chin. ”Sensei, you know about Blue Lantern Ghost, right?”

”I do,” Mayuzumi replied. ”It's the lantern that's used in ancient times when playing the Story of One Hundred Demons game, right?”

”That's right. Lanterns with blue covers can transform into this type of demon. Some say that they're tiny demons who carry lanterns. Others believe they're young women who like to listen to ghost stories, or female demons who collect ghost stories; in short, there are many different views about this. At any rate, it's a demon with no set appearance.”

Seiji's eyes flashed with a strange light. ”I personally believe that Blue Lantern Ghost is a beautiful female demon and one of the strongest among all demons! That's because she was born from gathering a hundred ghost stories. If you think about it, isn't that equal to the Night of One Hundred Demons? Just this one demon is equal to one hundred demons, so of course she's incredibly strong!”

”Sensei is a beautiful manga author, which could be reworded as 'a beautiful woman who continually tells stories!' Although you don't tell ghost stories, modern-day fantasy manga and anime probably seem similar to ghost stories for ancient people, so it could sort of count as tales of the abnormal.”

”A beautiful woman who tells tales of the abnormal receives powerful strength from the Story of One Hundred Demons ritual. If you view it like this, isn't this almost exactly like Blue Lantern Ghost!? You could definitely transform into a powerful beautiful demon!!”

Mayuzumi was rendered speechless by all this.

”Cough cough, excuse me for getting somewhat carried away.” Seiji did his best to retract his excitement. ”Please don't mind me and treat that as a joke. My thought process suddenly exploded on me, so I apologize.”

The manga author chuckled. ”Blue Lantern Ghost… a powerful female demon… Honestly, Haruta-kun?”

Technically, telling her to transform into a demon was rather rude, but she didn't dislike it.

'A beautiful and powerful female demon… If I can really transform into something like this, perhaps I'll be able to truly conquer my fear.' Mayuzumi thought of it like this.

The third day in Reo's soul.

After Reo went to school, Seiji took Mayuzumi outside to go meet with the angel-winged ”Seiji” and the others.

And then everyone had fun chatting and playing cards together… whoops, Mayuzumi did as Seiji suggested and tried to influence them using her imagination.

After a while, the angel-winged ”Seiji” said, ”I'm your companion; I'll fight for your sake!”

Then, the angel-winged ”Seiji” really took action and smashed the target dummy to pieces with a single punch!

After a few more tests, they confirmed that this indeed worked.

Seiji and Mayuzumi were both in high spirits from this.

By the end of this day, Mayuzumi successfully converted ”Seiji,” ”Saki,” ”Mai,” and ”Hoshi,” to her cause. She now had a total of four characters willing to fight for her, and she even succeeded in increasing their combat strength.

The situation was developing even better than they expected.

The fourth day.

”Chiaki,” ”Mika,” ”Kaho,” and ”Mayuzumi” were also converted successfully.

As planned, Mayuzumi divided them into two small teams of four.

Seiji acted as their opponent for a practice battle.

And he was almost defeated!

Together, these two small teams had excellent combat strength, and he was unprepared for their combination attacks. He had to get serious in order to gain the upper hand.

Seiji gave Mayuzumi a big thumbs-up after the practice fight. ”This is great. Let's continue adding companions and creating combat teams.”

The manga author revealed a delighted smile.

The fifth and sixth day passed… time marched on just like this.

Mayuzumi converted more and more NPCs every day and continued to increase the strength of her army.

On the other side, Reo grew closer and closer to Seiji and grew to like him more and more.

Every day they would do homework and play games together. Every weekend they would go out to have fun. Together they toured the streets, visited the amusement park, went camping, and explored the aquarium…

Seiji was happy to see the little girl having fun.

Disregarding the nature of their situation, it was actually pretty fun living together with Mayuzumi and Reo.

It was also an experience that gave him... some benefits.

After all, since they were living together, he saw the beautiful manga author in so many different ways. He got to see her while she was cooking, immediately after she finished showering, and when she woke up. On a few occasions, he saw her making silly mistakes, and once he even saw her when she was in the middle of changing her clothes… cough cough, at any rate, he would occasionally get lucky.