575 Should I pretend that I saw nothing? (2/2)

Seiji felt helpless about the situation.

He didn't dislike the way his adopted younger sister was acting. But as for liking it… at any rate, it was a rather subtle way of behaving intimately.

At this moment, footsteps sounded.

Seiji immediately knew that these footsteps belonged to Natsuya! He hurriedly indicated to Shika for her to let go of him. Yet, she refused to let go or stop biting.

”What are the two of you doing?”

Natsuya widened her eyes upon seeing how Shika was currently tightly hugging and biting on to Seiji.

”A practice bout,” Seiji responded awkwardly.

”…What type of technique is this?”

”Er… one that Shika created herself. There's no name for it yet.”

”Ah~ en~” Shika made a moaning sound.

Natsuya and Seiji were both rendered speechless.

This mysterious atmosphere of awkwardness continued for quite a while.

Shika finally stopped biting Seiji as she licked the bite mark on his neck before letting him go. She then glanced at Natsuya before silently walking away.

Natsuya watched her leave before looking at Seiji.

Seiji rubbed the bite mark on his neck and had an expression of extreme awkwardness.

”…Should I pretend that I saw nothing?” Natsuya asked expressionlessly.

Seiji didn't know how to respond. He could only smile wryly.

”Come to the living room, have some tea, and take a rest. There's something I need to tell you.”

Natsuya treated his silence as tacit admittance that she should pretend that nothing happened.

They left the underground practice field and returned to first floor.

”I received a report… there was only one piece of important information that was analyzed from the cursed item that you helped remove from Ooike-san.”

”What is it?”

”That cursed item was probably created using human sacrifices.”

Seiji frowned upon hearing this.

He just had to deal with Akatsuki Mitarai who treated humans as nothing more than body parts for his experimental dolls. And now, something like this was happening again…

”Although it's impossible to be 100% sure, the report is that there's an over 90% chance possibility that the item was made with human sacrifices,” Natsuya continued. ”If it's really as you suspect, and this cursed item is a new product from that 'Messenger' organization, something they're preparing to sell just like 'Bliss'… then it's quite likely that many people will begin dying when they start mass-producing this item. But, suspicions are only suspicions. Right now, we don't know the specifics of this item, or how it's supposed to be used. I feel that it's unlikely that it'll be mass-produced… let's not even consider whether it's possible or not, as using human sacrifices on a large scale to mass-produce this is nothing more than insanity that will only lead to self-destruction.”

No person would willingly choose the path of self-destruction.

Logically speaking, that was.

But, there would always be maniacs and insane people in the world that would utilize any method at their disposal for realizing their own desires! Even if it would lead to their self-destruction.

Akatsuki Mitarai was simply one such example.

Kazufuru Ooike had recalled that the man who gave him the cursed item said that he was indeed crazy.

If this man was someone even crazier than Akatsuki, then…

'No… I should stop thinking about it.' Seiji prevented his thoughts from heading down a dark abyss.

”Right now, what we know for sure is that a self-proclaimed crazy man said that this cursed item was a new product that needed testing,” Seiji stated calmly. ”As for who this man is, what faction he belongs to, and what he intends to do, all of that is a mystery. The only clues we have are the item itself along with Ooike-san.”

”Right now, no Spiritual Ability users have approached Ooike-kun. His life is continuing as normal—that's what the two I arranged to watch over him reported to me,” Natsuya told him.

”That man said that it was a 'test run,' which means that he should return to confirm the effects.” Seiji looked directly at her. ”If the people you arranged didn't make any mistakes, then either he's capable of observing from a distance, or he hasn't come back to check on Ooike-san yet.”

”I believe in those two, they won't make any mistakes.”

”Then let's trouble them to continue watching over Ooike-san. If we catch that self-proclaimed crazy guy, there'll be nothing else for us to think about.”

”What if we can't catch him?”