After leaving school, Seiji walked to the construction site from yesterday and boarded a car owned by the Juumonji group.

When he reached their residence, he entered Michirou Juumonji's study again and began to recount the story that he had prepared to Michirou, in order to enable the Juumonji group to understand the current situation. Seiji made sure not to reveal too many details.

As Michirou Juumonji expressed his grat.i.tude, Seiji took the opportunity to request his a.s.sistance, and it didn't take much considering on Michirou's part for him to readily agree.

This was doubtlessly the best outcome.

In fact, the proceedings were uncannily smooth. This gave Seiji a peculiar feeling about the whole scenario.

Michirou Juumonji was a mafia boss, and even though he treated Seiji politely, it should have been obvious that there was something more behind this request. Seiji didn't expect Michirou to acquiesce so easily.

Although Seiji considered it strange, he didn't display anything untoward on his face. At any rate, as long as Michirou agreed, Seiji considered his mission successful.

Afterwards, Michirou invited Seiji to stay for dinner, but Seiji refused, saying he was busy.

Surprisingly, yet again, Michirou didn't insist; all he did was speak a sentence filled with deep meaning as they parted ways.

"In the future, I hope that… Haruta-sama will take excellent care of my daughter and son, and give them lots of advice."

Seiji failed to grasp the profound meaning behind this sentence.

Forget about it; it was fine as long as Michirou agreed to provide his a.s.sistance.

"President, the Juumonji group has agreed to help us."

Seiji called the president to make a report while he walked towards the confectionery shop.

"There were no problems; everything went really well… Although the mafia boss's att.i.tude was slightly strange, it shouldn't be anything of concern. I'll accept your grat.i.tude. I didn't really do anything all that amazing; just take it as me repaying your favor."

'Let's just leave it at that.' Seiji relaxedly hung up his cell phone.

On the other side of the call, Natsuya, who was still in the student council room, was the complete opposite of relaxed.

The extremely difficult problem she previously faced now had a hope of being resolved due to the boy who had just called her. As long as she was able to quickly ma.s.s-produce as many talismans as possible to enhance her detection spell, she'd be able catch the enemy's Spirit-branded Retainer efficiently!

"I owe him a huge favor…"

The lady scion with sleek, long black hair was seated in the chair reserved for the student council president. She currently wore a different type of frustrated expression.

Although Seiji Haruta acted like it wasn't a big deal to him, and perhaps it wasn't that difficult for him, Natsuya regarded his a.s.sistance with this matter a huge favor for her.

If it wasn't for Seiji's help, and the current situation persisted, Natsuya would be forced to use her last resort plan. Except from that, she didn't have any other methods left. And even if she used her final trump card, there was still a chance of failure.

If the present situation developed without changing, the end result could have devastating consequences for Natsuya and her two Spiritual Retainers, Hitaka and Rana… The ending was so horrifying that Natsuya didn't even dare to consider it.

So, no matter how Seiji Haruta viewed this affair, this definitely wasn't a small favor at all in Natsuya Yoruhana's eyes.

Giving him money would be the most direct method, but the lady scion with sleek, long black hair felt like that would be insulting to him.

If Seiji Haruta had wanted money, he probably would have asked for it already with his direct personality. However, he hadn't asked for money nor had he requested for anything else, which meant that he was truly helping her out of friends.h.i.+p.

Natsuya wanted to repay his sincerity with her own.

So that was why she was now faced with a difficult problem.

Ever since her birth, Natsuya Yoruhana, a beautiful, brilliant scion and the Genhana High School Student Council President, had never even once had the experience of showing her true self to a boy!

How should she display her appreciation to a boy who'd given her so much help? She wanted to give a gift that wasn't cliché; one that would make him delighted in addition to showing her grat.i.tude and sincerity… Giving such a heartfelt gift was something she'd never even had to think about before!

"Hitaka, tell me—how should I return his favor?" After being frustrated with this problem for a while, she sought the advice of the red-haired girl beside her.

Hitaka Shuho regarded Natsuya with a blank gaze.

'Fine! My friend and Spirit-branded Retainer is even less experienced than me in this topic! I'm really an idiot for attempting to ask her,' Natsuya commented inwardly.

But she really didn't know what to do… Should she just send him a pile of otaku goods as a gift?

In the end, this was the best idea that she could come up with.

'Forget about it; let's think it over later. Right now the most important thing is creating as many talismans as possible!'

Finally, Natsuya chose to avoid her problem for the time being.

After finis.h.i.+ng his work s.h.i.+ft, Seiji returned home.

He didn't see Hos.h.i.+ Amami at work today, but Seiji didn't put any thought into it, since he figured they'd meet again sooner or later anyways.

In his apartment, after grinding [write a diary] and [draw] like usual, Seiji put on his mask and opened his live-stream.

"Cat-loving Flying Fish" instantly joined his stream.

She instantly greeted him with a long string of angry and condescending emoticons.

Seiji chuckled.

"Where did you disappear to last night!? Idiot streamer! Stupid streamer!" A long comment, flas.h.i.+ng with vivid colors, appeared on Seiji's computer screen.

"It's too long to explain. I had quite an eventful day yesterday, with various situations popping up at school, before I ended up getting invited to a mafia boss's home for a discussion, and finally, I was stuck in some fierce battles; I didn't have any spare time at all!"

'Yep, I didn't lie at all! The fierce battles are referring to the all-nighter of games I played together with Hisas.h.i.+ Juumonji. I'm such an honest person,' Seiji inwardly flattered himself.

"You're just making it all up!!!"

He was once again peppered with a stream of vividly colored exclamation marks, combined with another long line of angry and condescending emojis.

'Sigh, why is it that n.o.body these days believes the truth on the internet?'

Seiji pretended to act hurt.

"I'm not lying—why don't you believe me?"

"Who'd believe that!? Hmph, you probably forgot the time while playing games together with someone and accidentally pulled an all-nighter!"

The bright words flying across his screen saw through half of the truth.

"My apologies, but you're completely wrong, beautiful Flying Fish…" Seiji shook his finger at his webcam and acted cold and haughty.

"I didn't forget the time, nor was it an accident. It was… I got to know a new rich otaku friend and intentionally stayed over at his place for an all-nighter!"

He revealed his secret.

"Go to h.e.l.l—!"

An endless stream of colorful comments and countless emoticons drowned his entire screen.

Seiji laughed out loud.

Ever since he began live-streaming, it'd been one week since he met this cute spectator of his.

He'd already become internet friends with her.

Apart from live-streaming, they also chatted occasionally on other messaging devices. Although they didn't communicate frequently, Seiji felt like they were quite compatible with each other.

He wasn't certain if she felt the same way, but judging by her words, it seemed highly likely.

If this was in real life, they could become even closer friends, but this was the internet.

She didn't seem to intend to become any closer than this to him, and Seiji cooperated by doing the same, so they just casually chatted about their hobbies, the news, and whatever struck their fancies.

At any rate, she was a pretty good internet friend, but in the end, she was only an internet friend.

Hmm… Only…?

To be honest, Seiji had already considered another possibility.

Perhaps… this girl behind the screen was actually… a person that the original Seiji knew!

Because they were remarkably compatible with each other!

Ever since that song "Snail and Sparrow," any old songs, movies, comics, animes, games, and everything from their childhoods—whatever they liked and hated—the reasons for liking and hating… every detail seemed to be the same.

It was almost as if they were childhood playmates who had been separated and coincidentally met again on the internet after growing up.

In the teeming sea of people out there, meeting someone with the exact same interests as you wasn't impossible.

But, wasn't it also likely that the two of them actually knew each other, grew up in the same environment at the same time, and played together? They saw and liked the same things together and hated the same things together… Wasn't that a possibility as well?

Which of the two possibilities was a greater one?

'Hey, Cat-loving Flying Fish, do we actually know each other? Could I ask your name in real life?' Seiji thought to himself.