This even seemed like the only possibility, so it was likely the answer.
Would it be possible to obtain information about the failed spell from those remnant souls?
No, before any of that, the spirits' town… Were Koutarou and the others connected to these remnant souls?
Could these remnant souls be the true ident.i.ties of the "people" in that spirit town!?
When Seiji figured this out, he immediately asked Yomi about it.
"This could be possible," she replied.
Seiji immediately became excited.
He thought that he would be unable to save those people. But now, there was hope again… perhaps?
"Is it possible to communicate with these remnant souls?"
"Yes, but typically it's impossible to communicate as they're only soul shards."
Yomi taught Seiji a spell to communicate with the remnant souls. It was quite easy. Seiji learned it instantly.
Seiji cast the spell to communicate with the soul shard closest to him. However, all he heard were clamorous noise that resembled roaring and screaming. It was impossible for Seiji to hear anything actually useful, or to communicate with this soul.
Seiji tried communicating with each and every soul, but it was useless even after he communicated with many souls.
He almost wanted to give up, but immediately rejected this. He was determined to try communicating with every last soul here.
Finally, he was able to hear clear human speech from a red soul!
"…Who are you?" a female voice spoke in a gentle and incredibly weak tone.
"I am Harano. May I ask who you are?"
"I… can't remember…"
"What can you remember? Please, tell me anything that you can."
"I… remember light… someone was shouting… a lot of noise… something very scary…"
"What was scary?"
"Tree… cherry blossoms… dragon…"
A dragon? Seiji blinked in surprise at this new information.
"What type of dragon? Where did it come from?"
"…"
It seemed that the female soul had run out of energy as she no longer said anything.
Seiji had obtained some apparently critical information, but still not enough.
If he wanted to obtain more information, he would have to finish trying to talk to every soul here. However, he could only stop as it seemed likely that Yui had arrived by now.
Seiji left his Spirit House, and returned to the real world.
Yui had indeed arrived.
She quietly sat there, emanating a powerful aura that suppressed everyone.
"This is Seiji's older sister…"
"She's so beautiful… she looks like she's really powerful…"
"Such an amazing aura…"
"Seiji established us as a team in order to defeat her…"
"I really want to draw her…"
"She looks so powerful… wouldn't it be bad if we had to fight against her…"
This was the first time for all the knight order members to meet Seiji's older sister. They were all astonished by her beauty and powerful aura. This was the same even for Mika and Chiaki, who had seen Yui before.
Seiji had previously told everyone that the goal behind establis.h.i.+ng the knight order was to defeat Yui Haruta. Now, she was simply sitting in front of everyone, but only this alone was enough to suppress everyone to the point where n.o.body dared to speak.
After personally seeing Seiji's older sister, everyone felt like they could understand why Seiji wanted to defeat her. With such a beautiful and powerful older sister, it would feel quite difficult to resist against her. But, that was precisely why resistance would be necessary. Otherwise, Seiji might spend his entire life living in her shadow.
Yui had a calm expression as she felt everyone's gazes upon her.
Right now, she was looking at "s.h.i.+gure Tendo".
Kungo in s.h.i.+gure's body also had a calm expression, but only on the surface.
This woman who'd just arrived gave him a feeling of incredible danger. She was more dangerous than Harano… and far more dangerous than anyone else in this room!
Although this was only his instinct, he believed in his own instincts. Kungo secretly placed himself highly on guard.
All of this was what Seiji saw when he returned.
"Yui Nee-san, you've arrived."
"Yeah."
Yui glanced at Seiji before glancing at Kungo again.
"This is a bit troublesome, but it can be dealt with."
Her statement made Kungo highly tense. He even began considering if he should immediately commit suicide here to kill the host's body.
Yui then glanced over at the broken sword on the table.
"Could I take a closer look at that?"
"Of course."
Only upon receiving Seiji's agreement did she walk over and pick up the broken sword. She carefully inspected the sword while a golden-red glow appeared in her eyes.
Seiji and the others quietly waited.
"This is something that's very important. I'm going to take it back to Soul Society," Yui said after her inspection.
"That's fine, but I want payment for what it's worth," Seiji told her.
"You'll receive the payment later when I return." Yui waved her hand, causing the broken sword to vanish with a white flash.
"Could you tell me why it's so important?" Seiji inquired.
"Yes, although you can probably guess already." Yui paused for a moment. "It's highly likely that this sword was the spiritual artifact used as a catalyst to connect the Tendo Family and the Realm of Cherry Blossoms in some manner. Basically, this sword is the concrete evidence of the Tendo Family's scheme."
Now that there was evidence, there would be a reason for Soul Society to attack the Tendo Family.
Although Soul Society could also attack the Tendo Family without evidence—in fact, Soul Society had already done so—it would still be far more convenient to attack after having obtained evidence.
"Excellently done, Seiji." Yui praised him. "I will make sure that you are rewarded properly."
She then looked over at Kungo.
"As for you… are you going to obediently come with me, or must I destroy you right here?"
Right after she said this, Kungo instantly lifted up his hands with a determined expression to seek death on his face!
However, Yui acted even quicker than he did. She snapped her fingers, instantly sending out a bolt of white lightning that entangled Kungo's body all around like chains!
"Wargh…!" Kungo shouted out in pain, but then stopped in the middle as he was no longer even able to speak.
He was now completely bound to his chair. His entire body was trembling slightly, but he was unable to move even one little bit. He now had an expression of despair.
"If you had obediently come with me, perhaps I could have allowed you to live. But since you chose to resist…" A powerful glint appeared in Yui's eyes.
"Wait a moment!" Seiji spoke up to stop her.
Yui turned around to look at him with a wondering expression.
"Um… he might still be useful. If it's possible, please don't kill this spirit," Seiji requested.
He was thinking about the remnant souls in his Soul Room.
If the true ident.i.ties of the remnant souls were the "people" back in that spirit town, then perhaps Kungo would be useful in communicating with those souls.
Yui fell silent for a moment as she contemplated.
"I will need to return to Soul Society in order to take this spirit out of s.h.i.+gure's body without killing him."
"Then take him to Soul Society. I'll be troubling you, Yui Nee-san."
"It's no trouble at all. When I go back to Soul Society, someone else will take care of this for me."
'After all, this is his younger brother's body,' Yui thought to herself.
She then increased the strength of her binding spell to knock Kungo completely unconscious. After that, she used telekinesis to take him away with her.
After Yui left, everyone felt like the pressure in the room had been greatly reduced.
"Seiji's Nee-sama seems really mighty," Kaede spoke first.
"Yeah, as expected of our king's older sister." Hisas.h.i.+ nodded in agreement.
"She's the first person I've ever met who's been the perfect fit for the honorific 'Nee-sama'. Although it might be rather embarra.s.sing to address her as such, I really do want to try," Yukari commented.
"I also agree…" Hos.h.i.+ raised his hand.
"I really want to draw her. Oh, could I start drawing right here and now?" Mayuzumi had sparkles in her eyes.
"That's the person that Seiji established his team in order to defeat…" Mika spoke up.
"Although she's the person that Seiji wants to defeat, she's still his older sister. I really wanted to talk to her, but didn't dare to speak up," Chiaki remarked.
"It's the same for me. She gave me the impression that she would execute me if I dared to speak too casually," Kazuko said. "I can understand why Seiji would want to defeat her."
s.h.i.+ka and Kaho didn't say anything. Natsuya calmly sipped on some tea. Hitaka was playing with the cat girl Rana, and Rana was allowing her to play with herself. Mai smiled without saying anything as well.
"Yui Nee-san is incredibly strong. All of you have now seen her for yourselves. We're going to need to continue becoming stronger so that we can defeat her and her team of Spirit-branded Retainers," Seiji told everyone.
And so, this incident came to a conclusion… not.
"Natsuya, could you come to my Spirit House together with me?"
Seiji brought Natsuya into his Soul Room this time as they checked the remnant souls together.
He wanted to finish what he was previously doing and attempt to communicate with each and every soul here. Perhaps he wouldn't learn anything else in the end, or perhaps he would learn something incredible.
