Chapter 346: Thanks For the Meal!
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: vb24
Ryuuno Izawa wasn't seriously injured.
He said that he could carry on battling and urged his master to continue the game. However, Kanna adamantly refused.
Kanna Fujihara decided to forfeit the game. Although it would give her a bad reputation in the Yin-Yang Master society, she didn't care.
Kanna's family had forced her into coming to this party. At heart, she was an otaku girl who didn't care at all about such venues. Nor did she care what others in the Yin-Yang Master society thought of her. At most, her family would scold her about it.
Izawa was resting on a bed in a guest room. Kanna, seated on a nearby sofa, began reading a light novel.
Rather than being together with other Yin-Yang Masters, she felt that this was far more relaxing.
Kanna felt that the only good thing about this entire party was that she had become acquainted with Natsuya Yoruhana.
She never expected to meet a girl of similar status and similar interests at such a party.
Kanna wanted to continue chatting about anime and manga with Natsuya and invite her to the upcoming otaku doujinshi convention!
'I'll try talking to her again later,' Kanna mused. 'It'd be nice if she agrees to go.'
Izawa suddenly sat up on the bed. "Master, I would like to observe the remaining rounds of the game."
"Eh? Why?"
"Because I have my attention on... Yashuu-san and Shiroya-san," Izawa said with a solemn expression.
Kanna was rendered speechless.
This fujoshi girl's mind nearly exploded!
'To think that my own handsome Spirit-branded Retainer has his attention trained on two other boys!'
Various fantasies of boys' love scenes flashed through her mind: love-and-hate relationships between the three handsome boys, uke and seme , secret feelings for each other, intimate contact, and a love triangle were all included in her fantasies...
Kanna coughed mentally. 'Perhaps I'm getting a bit too excited...'
Kanna did her best to suppress her fantasies and asked, "Why do you have your attention on them?"
Izawa fell silent for a moment.
"I... before I served milady, I met Yashuu-san in the past," he revealed. "At that time, Yashuu-san was a friendly and open individual who took good care of me. Today, when I came here and happened to see Yashuu-san in the garden, I was quite happy to see an old friend.
"However, when I went over to chat with him, not only did Yashuu-san not know who I was, he had a terribly cold attitude, and the look in his eyes seemed abnormal. I was quite concerned about what he must have experienced. I asked him about it, but he refused to talk to me."
A beautiful past, a coincidental reunion, and an unexpected change! One side was cold and heartless, and the other was struggling to conceal their sadness...
Kanna grew even more excited! Her mind started running wild again.
"After that," Izawa continued, "I met Shiroya-san. Although Shiroya-san is concealing his true appearance, after I talked to him, I felt that he is a friendly and open individual.
"He loves light novels, anime, and manga, which matches milady's interests quite well. I feel that he would get along excellently with milady, but he's unwilling to show his true self, which is truly regrettable."
'Shiroya is an otaku? He complements his master Natsuya so well... perhaps he became an otaku because of Natsuya,' Kanna mused.
"After the game began, I saw that Shiroya-san defeated Yashuu-san in their first match. He was quite strong in his other match as well, which was why he caught my attention. Afterwards, I fought against Yashuu-san and was defeated... I had a deep impression of Yashuu-san's true strength.
"Will Yashuu-san's master challenge Shiroya-san's master to another duel? If they duel again, who will win? I'd really like to know the answer to this question."
Izawa expressed his true thoughts, but Kanna misunderstood them.
'I understand, Ryuuno,' she thought, feeling a pang of pity. 'I understand quite clearly. On one side is an old flame that you have deep feelings for, and you were happy to see him again. Even if he rejected you coldly, you still can't let go of your feelings.
'On the other side is your new romantic interest. You received a warm feeling from him on your first meeting—what's new and fresh is always exciting. And now, the two of them are about to fight, so you want to watch them. This is only natural!
'Ahh... I can't take this anymore! I can't stop my own imagination!!'
The fujoshi Yin-Yang Master envisioned such an out-of-control scene in her mind that she almost went wild.
She couldn't control her raging heart, and her face flushed crimson.
Izawa was mystified by her reaction. He was about to ask why his master had such a strange expression, when he suddenly saw bright red liquid spurt out of her nose!
"Milady!? You're bleeding!" Izawa was shocked by this occurrence.
"Ahh... it's just a nosebleed; no need to mind it." Kanna covered her nose with one hand. With sparkling eyes, she gave Izawa a big thumbs-up with her other hand and said, "Thanks for the meal!"
"Eh?" Izawa was confused and grunted foolishly; there was no food in sight.
Kanna placed her arms on her hips after she blocked her nosebleed with some napkins. "Alright, let's go back out again and look at your 'lovers...' Whoops, I meant the two people that caught your attention."
After the second round finished, the judge Ryouta Moritama once again displayed the point rankings.
Natsuya had risen up to claim first place. Akatsuki wasn't doing too badly as well; he was now fourth. The third round began after everyone drew cards again.
For this round's duels, the majority of the Yin-Yang Masters opted to use their cooperative battle cards and left the card table to go assist their Spirit-branded Retainers in combat.
The duels became even more spectacular to watch.
The Yin-Yang Masters cast spells to strengthen or protect their own Spirit-branded Retainers and also attacked or obstructed their foe. The cooperation between master and retainer, the strength of their spells, their timing, their judgment of the situation... all of the above was important.
Seiji and Natsuya had never cooperated in battle together like this. Although this put them at a disadvantage, they believed in each other.
Seiji trusted in Natsuya, and she trusted in him as well. Mutual trust was the foundation of unspoken cooperation, so he decided to make up for what they lacked in experience with spirit!
It was now Akatsuki Mitarai's turn. He used both his duel card and cooperative battle cards to target Natsuya.
He came for them as expected. Not only did Seiji and Natsuya expect this, the others were also anticipating it.
"As expected, Mitarai-kun wants his 'revenge.' I'm looking forward to it."
"Yep, I'm curious to see whether Hanyuu Yashuu or Shiroya-kun will emerge victorious when both are fighting seriously."
"I'm curious about Shiroya-kun's true appearance. I hope that his disguise gets unveiled during the course of battle."
The Yin-Yang Masters laughed and chatted about the upcoming duel.
Some people asked Natsuya just who Shiroya was and why he was unwilling to show his true appearance. Natsuya politely responded by saying that it was a secret.
When they heard this, the Yin-Yang Masters refrained from inquiring. As for how many people among them cast spells to see through the disguise and discovered the truth for themselves… that was unknown.
It was just as Seiji had told Izawa before. His own action was meaningless as many would be able to discover his identity. It was his attitude that was meaningful.
'It's fine if you find out who I am. Just don't say it out loud in public, because I want to avoid trouble.'
If someone intentionally said it out loud, then that would be intentionally going against him. For the time being, nobody did such a thing.
Natsuya also used her cooperative battle card against Akatsuki Mitarai's challenge.
"It'll be really interesting to watch Mitarai-kun and Yoruhana-san cast their support spells as well."
"That's right. I really want to know who will do a better job between them."
"Mitarai-kun likes Yoruhana-san, so perhaps he'll go easy on her."
"No, with Yoruhana-san's personality, she probably wouldn't like that. Mitarai-kun should display his true power."
"I agree. It's wrong to go easy on her. They should go all out."
The people involved in the duel didn't hear these discussions.
Both pairs had left the card table to head for the dueling arena. Seiji entered the arena and stood facing Yashuu.
Natsuya stood behind Seiji outside of the dueling arena. Akatsuki similarly stood behind Yashuu.
Shunsuke Furukawa checked to ensure that both sides were ready and gestured for the duel to begin.
Battle... start!