Seiji's body became stiff, as if he had fallen into a strange state.
Shika was nowhere to be seen. A black mist appeared as bright red cluster amaryllis flowers bloomed beautifully from the ground.
* Smack! *
A pair of green arms suddenly emerged from the ground and grabbed his feet! They brought with them a putrid stench.
Seiji recognized these hands. They were the hands of a zombie!
Was it called Yamamoto or something?
The twisted face that appeared next confirmed his guess.
Messy hair, protruding eyes, and covered in green veins … It was the abnormal creature that used to be a human!!
"Roar!" A shrill scream came from the zombie's mouth.
Its claws tightly grabbed Seiji's feet and pulled him down with great force!
"Ugh …" Seiji felt a sharp pain and saw his feet sinking into an ominous, cold, sticky, and pitch-black state.
He tried to move his right hand, wanting to do something, but was suddenly grabbed by a hand from behind!
This hand had a blue and white wide sleeve. It was a human hand, but it was strangely pale.
Seiji first recognized the sleeve as a hunter's clothing, and then he recognized whose hand it was …
Akira Mitarai!!!
He wanted to say something, but he couldn't make a sound.
A bone-chilling chill came from Akira Mitarai's hand and penetrated his arm. It quickly froze his blood and spread throughout his body.
'The return of the dead …?'
Facing such a terrifying situation, not only was Seiji not afraid, he even grinned.
'This plot is too cliché! 'If you want to scare me, at least come up with something new!!'
Realizing that he was in the soul realm, he immediately used his imagination.
With a flash of golden light, Seiji's right hand instantly transformed into a mechanical arm. Lasers shot out from his fingers, and his palm turned 360 degrees, cutting off Akira Mitarai's hand!
Then, the mechanical arm extended downwards, and the palm expanded to grab the zombie's entire face. Fierce flames gushed out from the palm!
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
"I don't want to die … it's all your fault …"
"Ahhh, I killed you! But so what!? "
Seiji burned the ghoul, and then his left hand turned into a sword of light, stabbing something behind him.
"I do feel guilty, but that's not towards you guys!"
"I feel guilty, but it's not towards you guys!"
"If you're dead, then shut up and get lost! Don't think that you can drag me along!! "
Rumble … Golden light erupted, drowning out the shrill cries of hatred and resentment.
"Ding ~"
The ringing of bells sounded again, faintly fading into the distance.
The black fog disappeared, and so did the Red Spider Lilies. He heard the sound of the sea breeze again, and saw Little Shi looking at him with worry.
"… I'm fine." Seiji smiled at her.
Then he looked around … but saw nothing.
"Big brother …"
"I must have fallen into a soul realm just now. Someone might have used a soul curse on me."
"… I didn't see anything." Little Shi furrowed her eyebrows.
"This means that the spell caster was extremely well-hidden, or …" Seiji thought about it, and then patted his adopted younger sister's head. "It's not your fault. Don't mind it."
"I'm Big Brother's Spirit-branded Retainer …"
"Yep, I feel quite reassured with you by my side. I only felt that something was off because you disappeared from my side. If I was by myself, I probably wouldn't have been able to react so quickly. "Seiji smiled.
Little Shi felt a warmth in her heart, but she was unable to accept Seiji's comfort.
As a Spirit-branded Retainer, her adopted older brother had been attacked right next to her, but the spell caster hadn't even noticed … this was humiliating!
The enemy must have been incredibly strong to be able to cast a soul curse so covertly.
How could she prevent the same thing from happening again? Shika Kagura thought of a simple method.
She silently held Seiji's hand.
Seiji immediately understood what his adopted sister meant, and also held her hand.
Holding hands would greatly increase their connection with each other, which would effectively increase their resistance against soul attacks.
Of course, if the enemy's spell was too powerful, they would both die together … But judging from the experience just now, the spell caster wasn't that powerful, or perhaps they didn't want to do it.
If it was really dangerous, there was still the Yomi Dream.
Seiji was able to determine whether or not the female spirit woke up of her own volition. Yomi didn't actively wake up, which meant that the danger level was rather low.
Of course, he couldn't rely on her too much. After all, she wasn't an actual cat-shaped robot from the future.
What happened just now was more like a warning.
Seiji silently considered the situation after explaining the situation to Little Shi.
…
When Seiji saw Saito again, the curly-haired man was leaning against the railing by himself. He had a cigarette in his mouth and was looking up at the sky. Both his posture and expression seemed rather artistic.
"Saito -san …"
"Er … Haruta -san, have you returned from your stroll?" Saito looked at Seiji Mukai as he removed the cigarette from his mouth.
He then noticed that Seiji and Little Shi were holding hands, and instantly chuckled. "They're such a good couple ~"
Seiji looked directly at Seiji's face.
"Saito -san, I'd like to ask you a question. Why did you suggest playing cards?"
Saito's gaze sharpened upon hearing this.
This change in his expression was quite subtle, but Seiji acutely noticed it as he was carefully observing Seiji.
"I just wanted to play cards, because it's boring to just sit around … aren't you the same, Haruta -san?"
"Yes, I was indeed bored. I originally thought that you and everyone else were the same, but something happened just now that made me reconsider." Seiji spoke in a low voice. "There's an eighty percent chance that something is currently happening on this ship, and you're intentionally attracting everyone's attention. It's highly likely that you're the one who started it or participated in it."
Saito was rendered speechless.
"You might think that I know something, but the truth is that I don't know anything at all," Seiji told him directly.
"I believe that Saito -san is a trustworthy person, which is why I'll be honest with you: I'm a member of the Haruta family, but I'm currently exiled. Although I'm a relative of the Haruta family, I've never had any contact with him before. I've never even seen him in person.
I boarded this ship because it's free and convenient. I don't have any special purpose. "
Something flashed in Saito's eyes as he looked at Seiji.
"I'd like to know what's currently happening, or what's already happening. I hope that Saito -san can tell me," Seiji spoke in a sincere tone.
Everyone fell silent.
Saito took a deep puff of his cigarette and slowly exhaled. Finally, he casually flicked the cigarette butt into the sea.
"No matter if what you say is true or not, it doesn't matter if you tell me.
After all, if even someone like me knows about it, then the higher-ups should also … no, they definitely know about it long ago.
'Revenge Alliance' … that's the name we'll use for now. "
"'Revenge Alliance?'" Seiji was surprised to hear this.
This name reminded him of a famous superhero group from his previous world! It seemed that many of their members had died in the end.
"Yep, an alliance formed to take revenge on the higher-ups during the Bloodwine Ritual tournament — the seven major Yin Yang Master families, the three major samurai families, and so on," Saito explained.
"As long as you join, you'll be able to obtain tremendous power in battle and kill those people.
It's said that a mysterious individual who has complete control over the list of participants went to find some tournament participants who held grudges against him and proposed this alliance. He also allowed them to spread information and gather more people to join.
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