"Allow me to explain, Houjou-san," Saki said. "Feel free to ask Mayuzumi about the details." 

Shouhei Hirai was a handsome, relatively popular guy in college. He fell in love with Mayuzumi and attempted to woo her, but Mayuzumi didn't have any feelings for him and rejected his advances politely.

Another boy was also attempting to woo Mayuzumi, and Shouhei ended up coming into conflict with his love rival.

Afterwards, most likely due to his anger and frustration, Shouhei blindly believed some unfounded rumors and misunderstood the type of person Mayuzumi was. Not only did he viciously shout at her in front of many people, he even did some rather rude things to her.

Mayuzumi was frightened by this and started ignoring him.

Shouhei later learned that he had been mistaken and regretted his actions. He apologized to Mayuzumi and sincerely asked for her forgiveness.

Mayuzumi forgave him, but she still remained distant from and avoided him.

Shouhei saw that there was no hope for him anymore, so he gave up, and, a few weeks later, he hooked up with a different girl in another cla.s.s.

After graduating from college, Mayuzumi hadn't seen Shouhei again—until the day of the school festival, that was...

"And from the second night of the school festival, Mayuzumi was plagued with nightmares," Saki said, concluding the story. "Is this related to Hirai in any way?"

When she heard Saki's question, Mai looked towards the manga author, and her eyes flickered briefly. It was evident to Seiji that she had just cast Astral Vision.

"I don't see any sign of a curse upon Milady Amami… but I can't say definitively that it's unrelated to him," she said after examining Mai for a while. "Is this all the information you have on him?"

Saki nodded.

"Understood," Mai said curtly. "I shall now begin tracking down this person, and, when I find him, I'll deal with him. Wait for my news."

After saying this she left, she left.

Seiji, Mayuzumi, and Saki exchanged awkward glances after Mai left.

"We can stay here, or wait somewhere else," Seiji suggested. "Let's not go back to Sensei's home for the time being, because we might get attacked again."

"Let's go to my home then," Saki offered.

"No, if we're discovered and there's another fight, your home will be trashed." Seiji mulled over the options. "I think that going to a hotel and booking a temporary room would be better. Alternatively, we could just go shopping or have fun somewhere else… we can treat this as a vacation!" He started smiling.

Mayuzumi and Saki both blinked in surprise at this.

'Treating it as a vacation…' This made it feel more relaxing for them as well, and both women began smiling.

"Sensei, why don't you decide where to go? I'm the bodyguard, and no matter where you and Editor Yos.h.i.+zawa want to go, I'll accompany you."

"It feels like the school festival all over again," Mayuzumi muttered. "I'm so sorry to trouble you like this, Harano-kun." 

"No need to say that; I'm more than happy to help Sensei." Seiji smiled.

Faced with his gentle smile, the manga author's heartbeat quickened once again.

Although she was previously frightened by the attack, all the nervousness and anxiety in her heart seemed to have magically disappeared.

'Where should I go with Seiji and Saki?' Mayuzumi asked herself.

Mika's phone started ringing, and, when she saw it was from Seiji, she answered the call.

"Hey, Seigo, where did you go?" she asked.

When she knocked on his door in the morning to go to school together, s.h.i.+ka told her that he'd set out early in the early hours of the morning to do something somewhere. When Mika tried calling him, he didn't pick up and only sent her a message saying that he would contact her later.

"I'm about to go on a spiritual journey," Seiji told her.

'Spiritual journey!?' The double pigtailed girl was shocked by this.

"Some things happened, so I won't be going to cla.s.s today. I'll give you an explanation later, and there's no need to worry."

These words… and this type of situation... made her feel a sense of déjà vu!

"Hey! Seigo, could it be that…"

"The monorail is here! I'm getting on now, gotta go."

Monorail?

Was he really going on some type of trip!? Mika was absolutely stunned.

Meanwhile, Seiji, Mayuzumi, and Saki boarded the monorail and found some empty seats to sit down in.

Saki brought out a deck of poker cards and put them on a table. Seiji brought out some snacks and drinks and put them on the table as well.

It was time to have some fun!

Not long after, the monorail began moving.

The monorail began driving off while the three of them idly played cards.

Their destination was the ocean, which was what Mayuzumi wanted to go see. It obviously was out of season to go visit the ocean at such a time of year.

But since Mayuzumi wished to do so, Saki and Seiji would naturally accompany her.

Even if it wasn't seasonal, that didn't mean that they couldn't go. In fact, precisely because it was out of season, it would be a rather fresh experience.

Playing cards, chatting, and eating snacks… time pa.s.sed just like this.

The monorail reached its destination.

After they exited the monorail station, they took a taxi to the ocean. There was n.o.body at all by the seash.o.r.e.

The three of them walked together on the seash.o.r.e and faced the ocean, feeling the ocean breeze and listening to the sound of waves.

It was rather cold…

Of course it was, as it was already winter!

Fortunately, both women had already prepared thick jackets for this trip beforehand, otherwise they would have suffered greatly.

"It's been so long since I came to the ocean," Mayuzumi mused aloud with a sigh.

She walked up to the water and kneeled close to it. She casually drew on the sand with a finger.

Saki looked deeply worried as she watched her friend's back.

"Harano… about Mayuzumi's nightmares, there's actually one thing… it happened ten years ago, in the year when I got to know her…" the editor began telling a tale from the past.

Seiji quietly listened to the story.

In the freshman cla.s.s of their high school, Saki Yos.h.i.+zawa became acquainted with Mayuzumi Amami, who happened to sit next to her, and two quickly became friends. Later, the two of them both entered the literature club.

During summer vacation, the literature club attempted to hold a certain activity known as a test of courage.

Mayuzumi originally didn't want to join in, but Saki wanted to have fun together with her and convinced her to join.

The activity was quite well received in the end.

After it finished, many members even felt that it wasn't scary enough, and they wanted more.

And so the club president suggested an additional activity befitting the literature club: everyone would tell ghost stories together!

Mayuzumi was even more reluctant to partic.i.p.ate, but Saki dragged her along and forced her to join in.

"At the time, I thought that the scared Mayuzumi was… rather cute and wanted to see her like that some more, so that I could enjoy the feeling of her tightly clutching onto me…" Saki paused and sighed. "I was vulgar back then," she said in a low, remorseful voice.

"No," Seiji interjected, "I think that you just wanted to tease a good friend slightly; it was just a joke or prank… Editor Yos.h.i.+zawa, you didn't really have evil intentions towards Sensei."

Saki fell silent for a moment before continuing her tale.

The literature club members took back all the candles they used for the test of courage earlier and returned to the clubroom. Without turning on the lights, they lit all the candles and began telling ghost stories.

After each story was told, they would blow out a candle.

This was… the story of a Hundred Demons game!

This was a famous scary game with hundreds of years of history behind it. Its basic flow was very simple. It was merely to blow out a candle every time a ghost story was finished.

A genuine version of a Hundred Demons game required one hundred candles to be lit up, and the cla.s.sic version had even more detailed requirements. All of them had one part in common, and it was the most important rule of all: you definitely couldn't blow out the last, 100th candle!

But many modern people didn't fear things such as ghosts, demons, and spirits anymore. They would commonly break this rule on purpose when playing this game.

What would happen if someone blew out the 100th candle?

It was said that a demon would be summoned, and some even believed a portal to the netherworld would be opened.

And there was one major demon had a famous connection with the Night of One Hundred Demons or this similarly named game.

Green Lantern Demon!

It was another major demon on the same level as Shutendoji, who was also an

SSR

card, and her ultimate ability was… cough, Seiji was getting sidetracked.

Seiji didn't know what the Green Lantern Demon really would be like in this world, nor did he know if the One Hundred Demons game would really be able to summon this legendary existence.

As the game continued, the atmosphere in the clubroom gradually changed.

Fear took seed and grew in the hearts of the gathered club members. Even Saki felt that something was seriously wrong.

The club president laughed it off and said that everyone was doing a good job with their ghost stories. She joked that they were really about to summon a demon. Although the literature club president said this in an attempt to ease the atmosphere, only a few members forced themselves to go along with it and smile.

Near the end, even the club president felt that it would be bad to continue on; she offered to tell the last story and blow out the final candle.

At this moment, Mayuzumi, who had clung onto Saki for the entire duration of the game, spoke up weakly: "You shouldn't blow out the final candle in the story of One Hundred Demons."

The club president ignored her; she said that this wasn't the real story of One Hundred Demons and that there weren't a hundred candles or a hundred stories.

The club members didn't pay any attention to her either, and some even joked how lacking in courage she was.

Saki didn't pay this any mind, either.

The club president told a final story before casually blowing out the last candle.

"But after that something frightening… appeared in the darkness." Saki began to s.h.i.+ver.