Isamu realized that a powerful attack was coming! Yet, there was nothing he could do.

But, there was no need for him to do anything.

The caped person raised his unarmed hand. Instantly, there was a loud thud, and Isamu witnessed a golden bell materializing in midair and covering the monster's entire body!

The bird monster's attack was interrupted, and it collapsed to the ground while screaming in pain. The electricity on its body was suppressed, and it was seriously injured…

After seeing this scene, Isamu was almost absolutely certain: this person was Seigo Harano!

Isamu had previously witnessed Seigo using this exact technique to fight against enemy monsters in his dream. It had left him with a deep impression.

"Ha— White Night, is that you?" Isamu was about to reflexively address Seigo by his last name, but managed to change to using Seigo's alias at the last second.

The caped person turned around and nodded at Isamu.

Isamu was overjoyed at this news!

He no longer had to be afraid of anything with Seigo here.

At this moment, there was the sound of sirens.

The police had arrived!

Isamu followed the sounds and saw multiple police cars rapidly approaching through the rain.

What would happen now that the police had arrived? With Seigo's current getup, he surely wouldn't want to reveal his ident.i.ty to the police… would he fight against the police?

Isamu then looked at the monster. While still trapped under a golden bell of light, it could be seen transforming into mist and struggling painfully while screaming.

It seemed that some more time was required to completely eradicate the monster.

The police cars soon arrived and parked near the scene.

The police got out of the cars and approached slowly and vigilantly, with guns fully drawn!

Isamu became quite tense at this scene. Since he was only an ordinary high school student, he couldn't help but panic when faced with fully armed police.

"We… we're good people!" Isamu put both his hands up in the air and shouted, "The monster is almost taken care of. Don't shoot!"

"Don't move! Just who are you people!?" a policeman shouted back.

Isamu didn't know how to answer this. He looked at Seigo.

The caped person, who was indeed Seiji, looked to his left. Seiji then suddenly picked Isamu up and jumped!

This was a familiar sensation… Isamu was quite used to being carried by Seigo in his dream already.

The police and other bystanders looked on in astonishment as the caped individual carried the teenager up and jumped in succession onto the side of buildings, jumping all the way to the rooftop and vanis.h.i.+ng from sight!

"Thank you for saving me, White Night."

In a deserted alleyway, Isamu thanked Seiji as he was put back down onto the ground.

"You're welcome… did you transform just now? How did you accomplish it?" Seiji looked at him.

"It was thanks to you…" Isamu told Seiji about what happened.

Seiji was rendered speechless. He'd never expected that the words he previously told Isamu would have such an effect!

"Thanks to you, I've also managed to become a spiritual ability user. Although my power is still weak, I can now fight for the sake of justice!" Isamu clenched his fist as he spoke in a hot-blooded tone.

"No… this is the result of your own efforts… You were the one who was able to tap into extraordinary powers in order to save your cla.s.smate. That's something amazing," Seiji told him sincerely.

Although Seiji felt previously that Isamu Seima had potential, Isamu's speedy development truly astonished him.

Isamu was quite happy to hear such praise. He smiled in a foolish fas.h.i.+on.

"By the way, what was that monster? Was it a result of Sin Activation?" After Isamu's joy pa.s.sed, he remembered to ask this question.

Seiji fell silent.

That monster wasn't a result of Sin Activation like in the dream. It was the side effect of Ecstasy… but he couldn't tell a secret like that to Isamu.

Not only that, Seiji was unclear on what exactly the Sin Activation masks were. Neither did he know if the Sin Activation masks and Ecstasy had any connection with each other. It might be possible that the two were connected as both were projects being run by the Messengers.

Was it truly only because of Isamu himself that he had been able to transform in the real world?

Actually, there was another possibility… that Isamu had been unknowingly influenced by that bird monster.

"White Night?" Isamu found it strange that Seigo was being so silent.

"To my knowledge, that wasn't Sin Activation, but I can't say what it is specifically." Seiji paused for a moment. "But, Sin Activation might still be related to it. The evidence is that you were able to transform when you met that monster."

"…So is it Sin Activation or not?" Isamu was rather confused by the explanation.

"You can treat it so. The effects are fairly similar to Sin Activation."

"Oh…"

Both of them fell silent for a moment.

"How did you appear there? Did you know that there was a monster, so you rushed over?" Isamu asked next.

"Um… Don't ask too many questions. You should return home now," Seiji told him. "Don't worry about the police. It will be taken care of."

Return home just like this?

Isamu wanted to help out, even though he knew that his power was insufficient. Still, he was unwilling to go home just like this.

"Tell me how I can improve my power!" Isamu requested. "I want to become stronger!"

"Don't think about such a thing now. You should hurry home, take a shower, and get some good rest."

"I'm not tired!"

"Don't force yourself to go on. Calm down, Seimkun," Seiji spoke in a stern tone.

Isamu fell silent.

"You just did something for the sake of justice. You've protected your cla.s.smate as well as other people. That's a good thing." Seiji changed to a gentle tone. "But, you also need to understand that you did something incredibly dangerous. If I had arrived any later… I won't say anything unnecessary. Anyways, it's also important to take care of yourself. You've already done plenty for today. You should go home now."

Isamu still remained silent, but he slowly nodded his head.

Isamu then walked off into the rain.

After he walked swiftly for a while, he couldn't help but turn and look back.

The caped figure was no longer there.

Seiji stood on a rooftop and watched Isamu leave before looking in the opposite direction.

A man wearing a gray jacket, gray pants, and a gray helmet was standing there while carrying a large video camera.

This man had been standing on the room during Seiji and Isamu's entire conversation. Isamu hadn't noticed his presence at all.

This gray-clad man's presence would have been undetectable to Seiji as well unless he used [Astral Vision].

Although Seiji could detect his presence, it was easy to forget about his existence.

This man was the "cameraman" that Kamitani had arranged to film Seiji's deed! There were three cameramen in total, two men and one woman. All three had the same entirely gray attire.

Apart from filming, they were also in charge of retrieving the defeated Ecstasy mutated monster that had been a former human. They didn't say anything unnecessary at all to Seiji. Although their words were polite, they were distant and refused to answer any questions.

Seiji figured that they'd probably already reported to Kamitani about how Isamu had "Awakened". He would have to talk to Kamitani about this later…

At this moment, a large shadow moved above Seiji and blocked the rainwater.

A long rope ladder fell down and landed right next to Seiji.

Seiji grabbed the rope ladder and climbed up.

The gray-clad cameraman followed after him.

The two climbed up to an entirely gray helicopter!

This helicopter was completely noiseless as it stopped in midair.

After the two people got on, it rose higher and flew towards the north, seeming like a tremendous ghost in the rain.

Seiji observed the city down below from the helicopter.

If this had been a scenic tour, he would have enjoyed the view. But right now, he was doing something he didn't enjoy.

Hero… Isamu was the true hero. Seiji felt that he himself was nothing more than an evil organization's janitor.

After looking at the scenery for a while, Seiji took out his cell phone and contacted the person in charge of all this.

"My bro Haruta, it must have been fun to be a hero!" Kamitani's voice spoke up on the other end of the phone.