Chapter 130: I Don't Want Brother to Go!
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: vb24
"President, I’m currently in some sort of bedroom. Shika Kagura… a much younger version of her is sleeping on the bed right now."
He put down the mirror and asked for instructions. "What should I do now? Should I wake her up?"
Natsuya didn’t reply to this.
"President?"
"I was thinking about what to do," she finally responded. "It’s possible to wake her up right now, but I recommend looking around first. Are you able to leave the room?"
Seiji took another look at his surroundings.
"There’s no door in this room… not even a window."
"Then… go ahead and wake her up. But prepare yourself first," Natsuya advised in a serious tone of voice.
‘Prepare for what?’ Seiji wondered.
Without warning, the young version of Shika on the bed muttered something and stirred.
Seiji looked at her.
The young Shika slowly opened her eyes.
When this happened, all the toys in the room suddenly began hovering in midair!
Seiji felt like he was being propelled upwards as well, and he couldn’t help but look at the ceiling. He noticed that the ceiling… magically seemed to be far away from him when it was so low a few moments earlier!
He had barely registered this when his perspective turned upside-down!
He began "falling" towards the ceiling!
"Whoa!!" He couldn’t control himself and let out a shout of surprise.
He imagined that this was what a first-time bungee jumper would feel!
Seiji’s mind was going blank!
He didn’t know what was going on. Just as he calmed down slightly and prepared to take action, he suddenly fell in a different direction again!
The room—or perhaps it was more apt to describe it as a space in the shape of a room—had now changed. Multiple layers of the room overlapped in his vision.
Seiji felt like he was trapped inside a kaleidoscope! 'This completely breaks every law of physics.'
Countless flying stuffed plushies, building blocks, dolls, and so on were strewn everywhere, just like the colorful contents of a kaleidoscope.
They grew larger or smaller, distorted, changed colors, or transformed back into their original states in a maddening cycle!
Seiji crashed into a teddy bear. The rebound sent him hurtling into a castle constructed of wooden blocks, which were sent flying everywhere after the collision. He then grabbed onto the hem of a doll’s skirt, but it suddenly turned minuscule, making him unable to hold onto it anymore. He ended up falling into a giant whale puppet’s mouth and being ejected from the blowhole on its back, whereupon he continued crashing left and right into many other strange, distorted objects.
But, unexpectedly, it didn’t hurt at all.
Seiji was unsure of speed which he was falling at, but if he calculated it according to real-world physics, he guessed that he would have been seriously injured from the impacts long ago.
'Welp, so much for Newton’s laws of gravity!'
At first, Seiji had been confused by the situation. Now, he had calmed down enough to assess the situation, even while flying through midair.
After an indeterminate length of time passed in this chaotic kaleidoscope, Seiji finally crash-landed onto the floor together with a large number of toys.
Seiji slowly regained his feet and used his arms to shield his head from the subsequent downpour of toys.
After he finished catching the final teddy bear, the room returned to its original state… or was it slightly larger than before? He had no way to compare or know.
Shika-chan finally rose from her bed and opened her eyes.
"Brother~" she called out happily upon seeing Seiji.
Then she hurriedly ran towards him and jumped into his arms with her arms outstretched.
"Good morning, Brother!"
After rubbing her face against him several times, she raised her face to reveal an expression that was just too cute to withstand!
Seiji felt as if he could hear his sense of reason becoming twisted.
She was just too cute!
He repeatedly tried to recite as many numbers of pi as he possibly could and somehow managed to maintain his sanity.
"Good morning, Shika-chan," Seiji smiled and greeted her normally, putting his earlier mysterious experience behind him.
…
This was the inside of Shika Kagura’s soul.
The younger version of Shika… Shika-chan was the manifestation of her soul.
That was to say Shika-chan had the ability to affect the entire area inside here. Her knowledge, emotions, and thoughts had the ability to change the surrounding environment.
But she couldn’t control it.
Humans were unable to control every part of their bodies, and their souls functioned in the same way.
Although Shika-chan was powerful in this realm, she couldn’t control everything.
Thanks to Seiji’s personal experience and Natsuya’s explanation beforehand, he was now able to understand all this.
Currently, he was accompanying Shika-chan in her room… According to her current knowledge, this was the living room of her "home." They sat together on a couch and watched some TV.
The TV was only playing just a few scenes from a really old anime repeatedly instead of broadcasting some normal episodes.
Shika-chan appeared to be completely engrossed by this. She didn’t feel that anything was wrong.
It was just like a dream.
Well, this was indeed a dream.
A beautiful, eternal dream about her "family" and her "brother."
"Have you finished inspecting the entire room?" Natsuya's voice asked.
"Yep, I’ve checked everywhere, and nothing seems particularly abnormal," Seiji replied.
"In that case… the enemy’s spell isn’t located in this room. Or, more accurately, it’s not located in this soul layer," Natsuya muttered.
"Yeah…" Seiji observed the window that had now appeared in the room.
This window didn’t seem like it could be opened. Everything outside was pitch dark.
However, strange white shadows kept streaking past the window. Occasionally, blood-red eyeballs could also be seen staring at the inhabitants.
"If it’s not inside, it can only be outside… but it doesn’t look very pleasant out there."
"Shika-chan is only capable of maintaining this room, the setting of the ‘house’ in her soul." Natsuya sighed before continuing, "According to Shika-chan’s knowledge, the area outside her 'house' is dangerous and unfamiliar. That’s why it looks foreboding and dark."
After a period of silence.
"What should I do?" Seiji asked for Natsuya’s advice.
"You have two choices," Natsuya said, pausing for a second. "Your first choice is to venture outside Shika’s house by yourself. You would have to protect yourself by using your personal spiritual power combined with my support in order for you perform your investigation."
"Your second choice is to take Shika-chan with you, so she can assist you. But…"
"She might end up getting hurt by the enemy’s spell, right?"
"That’s right; it’ll be risky for her."
There was another momentary silence.
Seiji knew that he needed to make a choice.
The innocent little girl was still sitting there, watching TV. She kept singing together with the characters in the show, and sometimes she even stood up to dance along with them.
Take this girl out of her warm home to face unknown dangers?
No…
Seiji instantly made his decision.
"Shika-chan."
She turned around and blinked innocently. "Hmm? What is it, Brother?"
Seiji smiled gently and patted her on the head.
"I… have something to do outside. Can you watch TV by yourself for a while?"
Shika-chan squinted happily upon being patted on the head, but after hearing her brother’s words, her eyes her shot back open.
"Outside?"
"Yeah… I have to go outside for a little bit."
"…Don’t go."
Shika-chan had an unwilling expression.
Her brows were furrowed, her mouth was pouting, and her eyes showed signs of sadness.
"I don’t want Brother to go outside…"
Seiji felt a twinge of pain in his chest at this sight.
But it was necessary for him to do this.
"I have something important to do. There’s no helping it, but I’ll come back as soon as I can."
"No!" Her voice rose an octave.
The little girl ran to Seiji and hugged him tightly.
"I don’t want Brother to go outside! I... won’t allow Brother to go!"
She was almost screaming now, and she whimpered softly midway.
"Shika-chan…" Seiji was moved.
"The last time Brother went out… you were gone for so long… so long…"
Tears started streaming out of her eyes.
"I waited for so long… so long… by myself… I was so lonely… so scared…"
She was hugging him tightly, clinging onto him with all her might.
"Finally… Brother returned… I was so happy… I wanted to be together forever, for eternity…"
Tears kept dripping down her face.
"Don’t go out! Brother… I’ll be a good girl! I’ll listen to everything Brother says! As long as Brother doesn’t leave again… as long as Brother doesn’t leave me alone…"
"Wahh…"
Her miserable sobs echoed off the walls.
The warm house was filled with sadness.