Chapter 722: The cherry blossoms are glowing!?

The scion's expression was rather subtle when faced with the tomboy's overly excited display of passion. Still, Natsuya didn't resist, and obeyed the command to share a meatball skewer together with Chiaki.

The King's Game then continued with various commands, livening up the atmosphere more and more.

Seiji took many pictures, and many pictures were taken of him. He felt that these were all wonderful memories.

A peaceful and happy daily life was the best for him.

Playing games, admiring the cherry blossoms, chatting, eating, touring the park... Seiji and his group stayed in the park until it was night.

Some lights in the park illuminated the cherry blossom trees, giving them a different type of beauty from day. The shimmering lights seemed like a fantastical illusion.

The falling cherry blossoms seemed to become ethereal objects that were somewhere between illusion and reality. It was as if they were falling into another world.

Seiji was quite satisfied to have such a beautiful scene as the end for today.

But just as he was getting ready to leave, he felt that something was off.

This type of feeling was...

Seiji had a premonition of what was going on, so he immediately cast [Astral Vision] and instantly saw an abnormal glow.

The cherry blossoms were glowing!?

All the countless flower petals—on the trees, floating in midair, everywhere that he could see—were glowing with a mystical white light!

"This is..." Seiji widened his eyes in surprise.

He looked all around him and felt as if he was within an illusionary dream world.

A glowing flower petal fell right before him. Seiji reached out and caught it in his palm, observing it closely and witnessing its glow fading gradually.

At this point, Natsuya and the others also detected that something abnormal was going on. The girls with spiritual powers all used Astral Vision and witnessed the same scene, causing them to all widen their eyes in surprise.

"What's going on?"

Why were the cherry blossoms glowing with a mystical light? Had something happened?

Seiji didn't know what happened, but he felt as if this was a Spirit World.

This was similar to the time at the Bloodwine Ritual tournament, as well as being similar Kazuko's Domain and the Inner World... but this feeling was most similar to the first Spirit World that he ever went to!

Could it be that this location was turning into a Spirit World? Seiji recalled what happened at the Forest Palace.

But then, he recalled that a location wouldn't transform into a Spirit World if there were humans within it... no, wait, this information was outdated! The Bloodwine Ritual tournament was the best evidence that it was possible to transform a location into a Spirit World even if there were living humans within!!

By now, Seiji was almost completely certain that Koshou Park was turning into a Spirit World. Otherwise, it would be something similar.

What should he do?

Of course, run!

Although there might be miracle opportunities within a new and unexplored Spirit World, not all the girls present with him knew how to fight. If they got split up, then the same situation from Kazuko's Domain might reoccur here. That would be highly dangerous.

"We need to get out of here!" Seiji immediately shouted towards Natsuya and the others. "Get away from here! Immediately!!"

"Seiji..."

"Listen to me! Run!!"

Due to his urging, Seiji's group didn't even clean up after their picnic as they hurriedly ran away.

Of course, this type of action attracted a great deal of attention from the other park visitors. However, Seiji didn't really care about that right now.

Only when everyone was out of the cherry blossom forest and in the parking lot did they all stop.

"The cherry blossoms beginning to glow means that place is highly likely to transform into a Spirit World. Staying there wouldn't have been safe," Seiji explained to Natsuya and the others. "Still, I can't just leave things alone, as there are so many people in the park still. That's why I'll stay behind here and act according to the situation. You all should leave."

Shika silently went up next to him, indicating nonverbally that she was going to remain behind with him.

"I'll stay here as well," Natsuya stated adamantly.

She couldn't possibly just abandon her boyfriend. Of course, her Spirit-branded Retainers Hitaka and Rana were going to stay with her.

Mai knew that her own power was insufficient as she had low Spiritual Power. She wisely chose to leave and not be a hindrance to everyone else.

Mika also wanted to stay behind, but Seiji gently coaxed her into leaving. She could only obey.

Chiaki smiled and said that she would wait for him back at the Uehara apartments.

Kaede and Nozomi told Seiji and the girls staying behind to be careful. Reo said she would cheer for them.

After watching Mai and Kaede drive off in their respective cars, Seiji and his remaining group returned to the picnic location. They saw with Astral Vision that the cherry blossoms were still glowing.

Yet, they were simply glowing, and no additional changes had been made... Or was the change here just a slow process?

Seiji wanted to disperse the remaining crowd for the sake of everyone's safety.

Spirit World related incidents were the jurisdiction of Soul Society. Natsuya immediately contacted them.

Seiji also logged onto Soul Society's website with his cell phone. He attempted to learn what information he could.

At this time, he found that Soul Society's website had a new addition—a message forum.

He immediately entered the forum and saw that the thread with the most posts was about the cherry blossom glowing phenomenon.

He clicked the thread and read through it, learning that this phenomenon wasn't limited to only Koshou Park. All the famous cherry blossom viewing parks and locations had the same identical phenomenon, and the glow was spreading as well!

Soul Society had yet to announce any information regarding this phenomenon. Perhaps the higher-ups already had information, but if so, it wasn't publicized to the members yet.

For now, the only thing that was happening was that the cherry blossoms were glowing with a mystical light that ordinary people couldn't see. No other phenomenon or unusual things had appeared. Nobody had been harmed by this light as of yet.

Still, this obviously was no small matter.

With such a large-scale phenomenon of cherry blossoms glowing, if this wasn't stopped and something changed in the situation, it was highly likely to become a serious incident involving the entire city that Seiji was in!

Seiji then noticed something happening in the sky.

The originally clear sky was gathering dark clouds at an astonishing rate. Rainwater immediately came down soon after.

Pitter patter... Soon, the rain became a torrential downpour!

The remaining park visitors started hurriedly cleaning up after themselves as they were drenched. They grabbed their things and left as soon as possible. For the few that had just arrived and hadn't begun their picnic yet, they could only helplessly return home.

This rain was naturally caused by magic. Seiji figured that it was caused by Soul Society.

With this, the ordinary people, here to view the cherry blossoms, naturally left on their own.

Seiji, Natsuya, and the others used a spell to block out the rainwater and conceal themselves. They remained here to silently observe the situation.

The drenched cherry blossoms were still glowing. They now appeared more hazy and ethereal, giving them even more of a dreamlike impression.

The scenery was quite beautiful under Astral Vision. However, staying here seemed to be useless, so Seiji and his group decided to leave.

They swiftly cleaned up the remnants of the picnic they'd left behind earlier and left the park.

Mai soon arrived back at the park in her car to pick them up.

"Last night, I received an invitation from Soul Society," Natsuya spoke when they got on the car.

"To have you join?" Seiji looked directly at her.

"Yeah." Natsuya nodded. "The invitation even emphasized that they valued my personal abilities, not my status... Although it might have simply been polite talk, I was still somewhat moved."

"Do you want to join them?"

"I do..." Something flashed in Natsuya's eyes. "This type of invitation is something that I'm supposed to discuss with my family. But, I can already expect their reaction, and I don't want to tell them... This already indicates that I'm quite tempted to join Soul Society."

Seiji fell silent.

"What do you think I should do?" Natsuya looked directly at him.

"So if you tell your family about this, it's highly likely that they'll object, is that right?" Seiji inquired.

"Yes."

"If you want to join, you'll have to directly accept, but this will likely anger your family."

"Yeah."

"Do you have time to consider the invitation?"

"I do... but the invitation indicated that they would prefer to hear an answer as soon as possible. And, the longer I stall, the more likely it is that my family will find out."

"Even if you decide on your own to join Soul Society, that won't be the equivalent of betraying your family, will it?"

"...I don't think that it would be so severe to count as betrayal, but..." Natsuya clenched her hands and didn't know what to say.

Seiji could tell how anxious she was, so he reached over and held her hand.

At this moment, conversation options appeared before him...

[A: I think that you should join.]

[B: I think that you shouldn't join.]

[C: I think that you should think it over as much as you can in the time that you have.]