Chapter 171: Heroic Spirit
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: vb24
Seiji slowly opened his eyes.
He felt a new presence residing within his body—one that he could borrow strength from whenever he wished.
It was akin to having an additional AI cheat assisting him.
He had now "combined with a spirit."
'If I equip additional spirits, their effects will stack, and… no, no, that's from a game in my previous life—let’s not get things mixed up!'
"Haruta-kun," Natsuya asked, "how are you feeling?"
"Pretty good." Seiji smiled at her. "I feel like I’m stronger… and although it’s technically not my own strength, I have a faint feeling that I can use this power as I like."
"This… is far from being at the level of faint." Natsuya sighed, keeping her gaze focused on the handsome boy.
"Eh?" Seiji blinked in surprise. "Is something wrong?"
"You haven’t noticed how special the spirit you received is?"
"Special…" Seiji thought about it. "I heard his voice… but spirits should all be able to talk, right? He said his name was…"
Wait a moment.
He noticed something strange.
"My spirit… isn’t a demonic spirit?"
"Of course I’m no demon," a disgruntled voice said within Seiji’s head. "Seiji-sama, please don’t mix me up with those lowly spirits."
"Oh, sorry," Seiji apologized reflexively. "What I meant was…"
Weren’t spirits all demons of some sort?
He looked at the president, seeking an explanation with his eyes.
Natsuya wore a serious expression on her face.
"Your spirit is a heroic spirit, Haruta-kun," she said.
Seiji was lost for words.
Heroic spirit?
Hey, hey, what exactly was going on this time!?
He revealed a strange expression.
Natsuya interpreted his expression as confusion, so she gave an explanation.
"Heroic spirits refer to heroes from either history or legends that have been worshipped by people over many years. Due to this, they've formed as powerful spirits.
"Compared to a demonic spirit, not only are the powers of a heroic spirit of a more positive type, they combine better with humans, and are at a much higher level than demonic spirits, which is why they are regarded as the most powerful spirit.
"But it’s extremely difficult to summon a heroic spirit. There are high requirements for both the Spiritual Ability user acting as the vessel and the Yin-Yang Master in charge of the summoning. Plus, you typically have to consume a precious item related to the heroic spirit in question. Even if you make the perfect preparations, there’s no guarantee of success.
"That’s why heroic spirits have always been viewed as the rarest and most difficult type of spirit to obtain, but you…"
The president stopped her explanation.
Her meaning was quite obvious.
'This is the wrong genre again!' Seiji energetically commented in his mind.
Heroic spirits were just like receiving an SSR in a Japanese cell phone game! What the hell was this!?
Hey, wasn’t this getting a little too cliché!!?
Seiji coughed to interrupt his rapid stream of thoughts. 'I should calm down.'
Thinking about it more closely, weren’t many demonic spirits humans to begin with?
If a demon could be explained as the materialization of a human's negative emotions, then a heroic spirit could be explained as the materialization of a human's positive emotions.
'That’s right—that's how I should interpret it!'
Well, he only considered it strange due to the memories he had of a previous life. If he set those aside and understood it simply as him having gotten lucky by receiving an SSR… no, receiving a miracle, that was good enough!
Seiji forced himself to calm down.
"So, President, you mean to say that I accidentally received an incredible spirit, right? Then what am I right now? What level of Spirit-branded Retainer am I?"
Natsuya blinked, and her eyes transformed into a Sharingan-like state.
Seiji thought to himself that he should ask her the name of this ability and try learning it from her.
Every Naruto reader had the dream of learning Sharingan!
"You can now be considered as… a medium-level, low-ranking Spirit-branded Retainer." Natsuya made her judgement after observing his condition.
"The same as Shuho-san?" Seiji glanced at the red-haired girl, Hitaka, who was watching them quietly.
He recalled that Hitaka and Rana were both medium-level, low-ranking Spirit-branded Retainers.
"Yes, this is already an incredible achievement. Your Spiritual Abilities are still considered rather lacking, and I haven't I given you a large portion of my Spiritual Power as support. You were actually able to reach Hitaka and Rana’s level instantly, which is plenty of evidence for how strong your summoned spirit truly is.
"But I can also tell that your heroic spirit… doesn’t seem complete, or perhaps he’s currently in a weakened state."
"This Yin-Yang Master-sama is correct," said the voice in Seiji's mind. "I have indeed been weakened. I feel like I’m missing many parts of myself, and I can’t even remember my name."
"He said that you’re correct about his weakened condition, and that he can’t even remember his real name. He only remembers that he used to be called Light-chan, and he also said I could call him that."
"Light-chan… a heroic spirit with the word for ‘Light’ in his name? Or perhaps this is his nickname?" Natsuya considered the information carefully.
"He also remembers that he was searching for a certain demon… one that particularly enjoyed harming girls," Seiji continued.
"A demon that particularly enjoyed harming girls… and this heroic spirit has ‘Light’ in his name… Could he be!?" Natsuya's eyes suddenly widened in shock.
Could this heroic spirit be that spirit?
Were there any other possibilities?
Yes, one of that person’s subordinates also had the word for ‘Light’ in his name.
But if this spirit was that subordinate, it was an unbelievably high-level spirit! And if this spirit was who she thought he was, then this spirit was…
Natsuya already had the feeling of randomly winning the lottery without knowing what was going on. Now, she felt as if she had won the lottery and the mother of all grand prizes!
'Heavens, how did something like this happen!?'
She was simply performing a temporary Spirit-branded Retainer contract ceremony and using the simplest, lowest-cost spell to summon any random spirit, so a normal demonic spirit should have appeared.
But a heroic spirit appeared instead!
And even among heroic spirits, this one was at the very top!!
This wasn’t even at the level of a happy surprise—it was complete shock! It was as if she had went to a restaurant and asked for a waiter, but instead a world-class idol handed her a menu. That was how shocked she was!!
Natsuya was too stunned to know what was going on anymore.
She was even a little frightened because she couldn’t comprehend the situation.
"President, what’s the matter?" the boy asked in a confused voice.
Natsuya instantly returned to her senses.
'That’s right—Haruta-kun… Seiji Haruta!'
No matter how much she thought about it, the problem couldn’t possibly have been with her, so he was the only explanation.
The miracle-creating boy… who had created miracles more than once.
Because he was the vessel, she was able to summon this heroic spirit… that had to be the explanation!
Natsuya instinctively made that conclusion.
Even though it was still rather mysterious to her and she didn’t understand it, she was certain that the heroic spirit had bonded with him due to his uniqueness.
Even if this heroic spirit wasn’t in a complete state, it was still…
By the way, this heroic spirit and his ancestor—the strongest one—were from the same generation, and legend had it that they'd worked together before…
Various thoughts flashed through the president’s mind.
"Haruta-kun…" She finally opened her mouth again. "I have a guess as to the identity of your heroic spirit."
"Oh? Who is it?" Seiji asked curiously.
"Although I can’t be one hundred percent certain, I'm at least eighty or ninety percent sure of his identity. If he’s really who I think he is, then this is no longer at the level of simply shocking."
To Natsuya, this matter was as shocking as thunder striking on a clear day.
"It’s even worth the effort for me to make a new battle plan with this spirit’s identity as the foundation," Natsuya said in a serious tone, focusing on Seiji’s face. "This new battle strategy will have you as my main fighting force! Another way to say it is that you shall become my ace."
"What?" Seiji was the one shocked this time.
‘Ace!? Hey, hey, wasn't I was supposed to be a bystander!?’
"I know that this is really asking a lot of you, but your strength… your heroic spirit’s strength is so strong that it’s worth me doing all this! Of course, you have the right to decide. If you’re willing to accept, I’ll prepare this new battle plan. If not, it’s okay to forget I ever brought it up."
‘What do you think?’ Natsuya’s inquired with her eyes.
Just as Seiji was deliberating over his response, "Light-chan" spoke up again in his mind.
"Go ahead and agree to her request, Seiji-sama."