Chapter 803: Just because I'm your friend

'Should I try redoing this conversation again?'

Seiji thought that to himself as he watched Yui's car drive off after their conversation.

Should he load again and redo this conversation? Would that help him to obtain even more information?

After thinking about it, he felt that it would currently be difficult for him to convince her to give him any more information. Redoing this conversation again would likely be meaningless.

If it would have been meaningful, Seiji would have unhesitatingly loaded.

Compared to before, he was now more willing to use his save and load ability for more "minor" reasons. This was his way of more proactively using his ability.

If he completely abandoned all inhibitions, he could... no, he definitely would become some type of existence that was different from ordinary humans.

For ordinary people, time flowed in a straight line, from past to present, from present to future, like a flowing river that couldn't be changed.

But if Seiji completely went all out with his save and load ability with zero restrictions whatsoever, even if he was able to maintain his sense of self, he felt that his sense of time would become warped. That was because time would become porous to him.

Seiji had the ability to keep as many save files as he wanted. Each save file was like a timeline. He could choose any point in time where he had a save file and start from that timeline, which would then create a new timeline when he reached a point where he made a different decision from before.

This was just like the different paths possible in each playthrough of a dating sim game. Except, this game was the real world, and there was an infinite number of possible timelines. Seiji could casually jump around, go to, or repeat any timeline that he wanted, with zero restrictions or cost...

If he really did such a thing, using his ability to the fullest to experience as many timelines as possible, then the world that he saw would become tremendously different from the world that everyone else knew.

At that time, even if Seiji was still able to maintain his sense of self, he would no longer be the same "Seiji". He would be more like a certain time traveler who called himself a mad scientist.

Besides, Seiji wasn't confident that he would be able to maintain his sense of self if he went all out with his ability like that. Even if he didn't have a mental breakdown like that mad scientist time traveler, he really might go crazy in a different way.

That was why he didn't want to use his ability wantonly.

Whether or not he needed to load was incredibly important to him.

It could be said that these were the "rules" that he set for himself.

The first rule that Seiji just set for himself was how far back in time to load.

The farther back in time that he went, the more careful he would need to be.

For instance, he would be more careful about loading back to one day in the past compared to one hour in the past.

The farther back in the past, the more he would consider how necessary it was to do this.

However, if he deemed it absolutely necessary, he would repeatedly load back to a critical moment as many times as it took until he achieved a satisfactory result.

Of course, he would also be careful about repeated loading. Still, he could be less careful after the first time.

Obviously, his conversation with his sister Yui was an important moment in time. If it had been necessary, Seiji would have loaded repeatedly until he obtained the result that he wanted.

But since he judged that it was difficult for him to currently obtain any more information from her, he decided against it.

Seiji still wasn't quite used to this way of thinking.

No... this way of thinking was more akin to different ways by which he could choose to play a dating sim game. It wasn't a matter of getting used to it or not. It was more of whether he accepted it or not.

Seiji hoped that he would never have to "get used to it".

He returned to his apartment and went to his study. He then sat down in his chair and took out his cell phone to make a call.

The call connected.

"Hey, my bro Haruta," Kamitani's voice replied on the other end of the phone.

"Good evening, Kamitani-kun. Are you free now?" Seiji asked calmly.

"I'm actually rather busy. But since my bro Haruta is calling me, I do have some time to at least chat~"

"Are you busy with preparing to attack Soul Society and trying to steal the Yasakani no Magatama?"

Kamitani instantly fell silent for a while.

And then, he laughed.

"Haha, you're right! How did you know, my bro Haruta?"

"You were the one who told me about it."

"I did?"

"You went out of your way to give me so many hints. I would be rather stupid if I still couldn't guess what you, or maybe I should say the Messengers, intended to do."

Kamitani laughed even more uproariously this time.

Seiji laughed as well, letting Kamitani hear his laughter loud and clear.

The two of them both laughed into their phones for a while. They then simultaneously stopped.

"Should I say that you satisfied my expectations, or that you didn't...?" Kamitani's tone became rather deep. "What do you want to do, my bro Haruta?"

"Of course, it's to stop you guys. I've already told my guess to Yui. She's probably having Soul Society increase their vigilance level right now. Your attack will become highly difficult."

"Haha, did you really think that you would stop me by saying that?"

"No, but I have something else to tell you." Seiji paused for a moment as he switched to his most severe tone possible. "You guys will fail in stealing the artifact. And if you forcefully try to steal it regardless, it might cause a horrific consequence that you can't even imagine!!!"

Kamitani fell silent for a moment.

"Why do you say all this?" he asked in a soft voice.

"Because I think it will happen," Seiji stated in an adamant tone.

Kamitani fell silent for an even longer while.

"I can believe you, my bro Haruta." Kamitani chuckled lightly. "But, that won't do anything. The Messengers' plan is already set in stone. No matter what attitude I have about it, the plan will still be carried out."

"I don't need your belief in me. I need you to do something for me."

"You want me to betray the Messengers? Although that will also be really interesting, I don't have any intentions of doing so currently. Besides... just what makes you think you can request that of me?"

"Just because I'm your friend," Seiji told him calmly.

Kamitani fell silent once more, followed by uproarious laughter which was almost like loud guffawing.

"Hahahahaha!!! Well said!" Kamitani laughed loudly. "You said it so very nicely, my bro Haruta!!"

He sounded incredibly happy.

"Still, this still isn't enough, friend. Just this alone won't be enough to make me betray the Messengers. Can you give me even more than that?"

"Don't be so greedy, Kamitani-kun," Seiji spoke softly. "My friendship is far more valuable than you think. For someone like you, this is the only chance I'll ever make in my entire lifetime to offer you my friendship. If you refuse me here, you'll never have the chance to obtain my friendship ever again."

Itsuki Kamitani felt chilled when he heard this.

Even though they were speaking across cell phones, he could still sense a bone-piercing chill pervade him. He instinctively sensed great danger in Seiji's words.

However, this didn't make him afraid. Rather, he became excited.

Interesting.

Truly interesting.

Seiji Haruta... was incredibly interesting!

Itsuki Kamitani really wanted to reject Seiji. He wanted to know what would happen if he rejected Seiji. However, he forced himself to restrain himself from acting on this impulse.

It still wasn't time yet.

Things could become even more interesting.

This was only the beginning. He couldn't just follow his urge and act however he wanted. He needed to be patient if he wanted to see everything become more interesting.

"Alright, I accept, my bro Haruta," Kamitani spoke in a joyful tone. "I'm willing to betray the Messengers for the sake of your friendship. Still, I'm going to need to be careful in just how much I betray them by. I have to guarantee my own safety, after all. You wouldn't want your friend to be immediately dealt with by his organization, now would you?"

"If the Messengers were able to instantly deal with you so easily, I bet they would have done so long ago already," Seiji said calmly.

"Thank you for your praise~ I'm quite happy right now, friend." Kamitani chuckled. "Now then, what exactly do you need me to do?"