"I'm not going to duel that guy by myself. Instead, I want to duel him together with you."

"Eh?"

"After you lectured me, I carefully thought things over, and came to the conclusion that it was indeed too arrogant of me to want to singlehandedly take on Akatsuki Mitarai. Also, I didn't take your pride into consideration," Seiji said seriously while looking at Natsuya. "Just as he said, he's your opponent. For me to want to duel him and make you into a mere spectator was truly foolish of me. I shouldn't have taken the main role away from you. You're the real person that should be dealing with Akatsuki Mitarai, while I should only be your companion… That is to say, the correct way is for me to fight together with you against Akatsuki, just like when we fought together against Okubo Yos.h.i.+aki."

Natsuya didn't know what to say after hearing all this.

His logic sounded correct, but she somehow still felt like there was something off. The student council president revealed a complex expression.

"Akatsuki Mitarai is very strong. I learned that already at the Winter Snow Festival. This will definitely be a difficult duel, but we can win. Just give me a little more time…"

"Wait… I noticed something wrong here." Natsuya stopped him.

"Hm?"

'What's wrong?' Seiji asked that with his eyes.

"I recall that I told you to stop getting involved in this and to leave it alone…"

"I apologize, that's impossible," Seiji responded directly. "I've said it multiple times that I truly dislike that guy and really want to beat him up."

"So you just changed your idea of dueling him by yourself to dueling him together with me?"

"Yep."

'Isn't this just a circular way of coming back to the starting point!?' Natsuya felt rather chaotic inside as her expression became even more complex.

Seiji looked directly at her.

"Don't you want to duel with Akatsuki Mitarai and utterly defeat him?"

"It's not that…"

"Then is it that you think he's too strong, and that we can't win?"

Natsuya felt silent.

Indeed, that was the foundational problem.

If it was so easy to defeat Akatsuki, she would have done so long ago. It was precisely because he was stronger than her that she had always been forced into pa.s.sivity.

"Akatsuki Mitarai probably thinks the exact same thing, which actually gives us a chance," Seiji stated. "He'll definitely accept your duel request and might even give in to some of our requests for the duel's conditions. You may view challenging him to a duel as something risky, but just allowing him to continue doing as he pleases is just as risky, or perhaps even riskier. After all, he has a stalker's fascination with you, and definitely won't be giving up on you. It's certain that he'll be doing something on his own in the future. Rather than waiting like this and giving him the opportunity to make all the preparations he wants, why not just go all out right now… just like how we dealt with Okubo Yos.h.i.+aki, forcing him into an official duel before he was completely ready. Besides, if you think about things pessimistically, I think that Akatsuki's well-prepared already. Otherwise, why else would he be in such a hurry to get rid of me? Of course, maybe he just dislikes me, but there are worse possibilities out there as well, right?"

Something flashed in Natsuya's eyes.

"While it may be willful of me to say what I'm saying, I didn't just mention it casually. I hope that you can consider what I said." Seiji retracted his gaze. "Also, I need just a little more time…"

"Hmm?" Natsuya didn't clearly hear the last part of his sentence.

"I'm going to go eat breakfast now. Let's talk after that."

Seiji left just like this after saying so.

Natsuya watched him leave. She didn't imagine what would happen to him immediately after breakfast…

In his guest room, Seiji lay on his bed, opened up his system, and chose the [Yin-Yang Seal activation card] in his system.

An exquisitely beautiful card that glowed silver appeared in front of him. There was a shadowy figure that gave off a mystical upon the card. This shadow was wearing white clothing and appeared to be trying to create a seal.

Seiji was intending to use this card now to fulfill the final two requirements that he needed to create his own [Yin-Yang Seal]!

However, he believed that the process likely wouldn't be so easy on his body.

Seiji mentally prepared himself, then used his card on the fifth and sixth requirements for the [Yin-Yang Seal].

His card instantly transformed into a blinding silvery-white light that entered his body.

Seiji witnessed the progress requirements for these final two requirements increase at a high speed. Then, it felt like something was exploding in his brain! His consciousness was instantly swept away before he even felt any pain.

Seiji faintly felt as if he was floating.

Everything was dark around him. However, he could sense some colors and hear some sounds.

The colors transformed into scenes, and the sounds became livelier. He could smell aromas and felt as if he could touch something… but there was still some sort of barrier.

Something gigantic, countless and endless existed here, touching, colliding, overlapping, combining…

Some voices that sounded very far away spoke up.

"What exactly are Spiritual Power and Mana?"

"Spiritual Power is human ability to control Mana, while Mana is the original energy of all beings."

"That's such a rough description."

"What do you believe, then?"

"Spiritual Power aside, Mana… this type of energy, when you think about it, it breaks so many natural laws, such as conservation of energy, creating matter out of nothing, and so on. It's quite inconceivable. From my experiences, I suspect that it's something not completely from this world."

"What do you mean?"

"Mana is actually an energy product of different worlds… produced by many parallel dimensions colliding or overlapping together!"

"Oh… this is quite an interesting theory of yours."

"I know, right? At the very least, I think it's a lot more interesting than such a rough description like calling it the original energy of all beings."

"Heh heh, just because you were bored, you so casually refuted what all Yin-Yang Masters… no, what all Spiritual Ability users in the world believe to be one of the basics of Mana."

"Don't make me sound so grand. I was just mentioning it as a casual aside… Apart from my 'Parallel Dimension Theory,' I also have a 'Dark Matter Theory' as well."

"What's that?"

"I'd have to explain dark matter first then, along with dark energy. Actually, I don't really understand these either, after all, I'm only…"

The voices gradually faded.

Who were these two people talking to each other? Seiji felt like he knew, but also didn't know.

He floated just like this, feeling and experiencing things…

His consciousness gradually rose, but also felt like it was falling. His consciousness separated into two clear extremes that then combined again with each other.

"When everything, including the very world's existence, is unclear, just like illusions, what is your most fundamental nature?"

Seiji felt like he heard this question and smiled in response to whatever existence asked him this.

'My answer is simple. I'm simply…'

The handsome boy opened his eyes.

He felt like he just finished a long journey that he had forgotten during his sleep as he rested on his bed. He couldn't remember what occurred, but felt that something had definitely changed within him.

"I… what…" He carefully thought about what happened, then recalled who he was and what he was doing.

"I'm Seiji Haruta… and from this moment onward…"

Seiji lifted his hand as something silver flashed on his palm. An intricate three-colored runic seal appeared, intersecting with black, white, and gray in a complex pattern that seemed like a version of the Yin-Yang diagram.

"I am now a Yin-Yang Master."