Dropout Exorcist Part 1 Chapter 1

 Chapter 1: Return

"Hah, hah, hah!"

Somewhere in a forest thick with overgrown trees, a girl stood gasping for breath.

She wore a school uniform: a black blazer, a white shirt, a black necktie, and a skirt.

Black hair, violet eyes. Maybe around a hundred fifty centimeters tall. Her beautiful black hair was cut short and neat, smooth with a glossy sheen. Her skin was fair too, and she was a delicate, striking beauty.

What made the scene strange, was the Japanese sword in her hand and the monster standing right in front of her.

The monster she faced was a giant spider. Its body stood as tall as a grown man, and its full length stretched past three meters. Sharp fangs. Razor claws tipping each leg. Countless eyes, glinting an eerie, malevolent red.

It was a species of youma known as a tsuchigumo, and judging by the sheer malevolent aura it gave off, prehaps it have grown stronger with age.

Youma. Ordinarily, they lurk and live in another realm entirely. Long ago, the boundary between that realm and this one was closer and more blurred than it is now, and the youma who lived on the other side crossed over into this world often.

But as the times changed, as people multiplied with the recede of nature and the spread of science in the modern world, the boundary grew more distant and they could no longer cross over so easily.

Even so, every now and then the boundary warps, and youma could slip into this world. Subduing them is the exorcists' duty.

(This isn't good. At this rate, I'll be grounded down bit by bit.)

The girl was an exorcist, and a fairly well-known one at that, among the practitioners her own age.

This tsuchigumo was also one such being that had happened to appear in this world. Several disappearances had occurred and once it became clear they weren't man-made but tied to a youma, the girl had been dispatched to resolve it.

Tsuchigumo themselves were a fairly strong breed of youma to begin with and this particular one was even stronger than most. Even so, it was an opponent she could have handled without trouble, if only it had been an one against one.

(I can't believe there were two of them!)

This tsuchigumo had came as a mated pair. She'd taken down one, only for the second to lunge at her right after. That alone, she still could have handled, but her bad luck came in the form of a near-surprise strike that grazed her arm.

If she'd been alone from the start, she wouldn't have taken this wound at all.

The cause was the other exorcist who'd come here with her. He'd taken the tsuchigumo's surprise attack first, and that instant when her attention shifted to him, her opening was exploited.

Now that other exorcist was bound in the tsuchigumo's silk, pinned unconscious to a nearby tree.

What's more, the claw that had struck her arm was poisonous.

The potent youma venom ate steadily into her body. A wet, throbbing pain spread even as feeling drained from her arm. She was managing to purify it with spirit power while keeping it from spreading further, but that had meant lesser spirit power was left over for attacking.

The poison itself was quite strong too. Her purification alone wasn't enough to clear it completely; if anything, it was robbing her body of movement and draining her spirit power all the while.

"Kchk, kchk, kchk."

It clacked its jaws menacingly, threatening the girl. Deeper in the forest stood something like a web, countless eggs embedded within it, and beyond them, several other people bound in silk and trapped.

From the tsuchigumo's point of view, she was probably just more prey, the same as the rest. No, with its mate slain, its rage might drive it to devour her right here, right now.

"I'm terribly sorry, but I have no intention of being eaten."

She drew a spirit talisman from her uniform and hurled it at the tsuchigumo. The talisman stuck to the spider's forehead, and a massive flame burst out, swallowing the tsuchigumo whole.

Flames roaring, blazing bright. Enough to have burned an ordinary youma to nothing.

But...

"Kiichi, kiichi, kiichiii!"

"No way!?"

The tsuchigumo burst out from within the flames. Parts of its hide bore scorch marks, but it was otherwise whole, all limbs intact.

It closed the distance in an instant, and one of its legs sent the girl's body flying.

She managed to block it with her sword, but the force sent her flying backward and she slammed into a tree.

"Nngh!"

A small groan of pain escaped her and her face twisted in agony. Her body wouldn't move the way she wanted. Part of it was the damage, part of it the poison. She'd meant to dodge that last attack too, but hadn't managed to fully dodge it.

(This is no good. My vision's going blurry...)

She was reinforcing her physical abilities with spirit power but even that had lost its edge. Her body wouldn't respond. At this rate, she'd share the same fate as the others.

(Nngh, move... I can't die somewhere like this...)

She poured strength into her limbs but it wouldn't gather the way she needed. The tsuchigumo crept closer slowly.

And that was when it happened.

"Hey, hey. Why the hell would he send me back to some place this weird?"

A voice somewhat listless and yet irritated all at once, reached the girl's ears.

She turned her gaze toward it and there stood a black-haired boy dressed in a school uniform of white jacket and white trousers.

"Guess my clothes are still the same as back then. They were in tatters over there but now they're spotless. I don't mind this kind of service, but seriously, this? Trouble the second I get back? Am I cursed or something?"

"R-run! Please!"

To the boy who was muttering something under his breath, the girl somehow forced her voice out, urging him to run.

But it was the tsuchigumo that reacted to her voice first and moved.

It swung its jaws toward the boy and shot silk from its mouth.

"Ahh!"

A sound like a scream tore from the girl.

Tsuchigumo silk was extremely sticky and once it caught its prey, it hardens to the point that not even an exorcist, let alone an ordinary person, could easily tear free of it. It had meant to bind the boy in its silk and carry him off, not letting him escape.

But...

"Get out of the way."

The boy muttered the words and a single talisman rose up before him. The silk never reached him at all; the talisman seemed to throw up an invisible wall in front of him, deflecting everything.

"That much won't get through my protective spirit barrier."

Whether the boy's words provoked its anger or not, the tsuchigumo charged straight in, driving its sharp claws forward to pierce him. But those claws too, were stopped by the invisible wall.

It slammed against the invisible wall again and again, with each strike landing with a heavy clang but it was the tsuchigumo's claws that shattered first.

The boy glanced briefly at the girl and closed the distance to her side at tremendous speed.

"Hey. You alright?"

He crouched low, facing the tsuchigumo as though to shield her.

"...Are you an exorcist too?"

"...Well. Something like that."

The boy — Hoshimori Shinya — answered vaguely. Calling himself an exorcist stirred up more complicated feelings than he cared to get into.

"More importantly, what about you? Can you still fight?"

"Not particularly well. I've been hit with the tsuchigumo's poison and I got slammed hard too."

"I see. Whoa."

The tsuchigumo came at them again and he threw up his talisman defense once more. The instant it struck, the spirit talisman flared bright, and the invisible barrier looked as though a thin membrane had stretched taut across it.

No ordinary attack could pierce Shinya's talisman defense. The invisible barrier held completely, blocking both the tsuchigumo's strikes and the full weight of its charging bulk.

"To block that tsuchigumo's attacks completely..."

The girl herself couldn't hide her shock at the sheer strength of the defensive spirit art unfolding before her. How many exorcists in this business could take blow after blow from a tsuchigumo like that, head-on, without their defense ever breaking?

"Well, it's the only thing I'm good for. Unfortunately, I can't use offensive spirit arts at all."

Shinya admitted his weakness honestly. Not that he was entirely without a means of attack; he simply had no intention of showing it here, now.

"Judging by that other tsuchigumo's corpse lying over there, you've got a spirit art that can take one of these down, don't you?"

"If I were at full strength, yes. But right now..."

"Got it. Then let's get you back to full strength."

With that, Shinya pulled out another spirit talisman and pressed it straight onto the girl's forehead.

"Eh?"

"Hold still. This'll be quick."

The girl was confused, but her confusion melted away almost at once. The pain in her body began to fade. It was as if the talisman itself were drawing the venom straight out of her, and at the same time, her body started to heal.

"This is..."

"Can you fight now? If so, I'll leave that thing to you. Getting beaten down without paying it back would bug you too, right?"

"...Yes. Thank you."

The girl rose to her feet, thanked Shinya, and raised her beloved sword.

"Haaaaah!"

With a piercing battle cry, she raised her spirit blade high and brought it down with everything she had. Light poured from the blade, and it cleaved the tsuchigumo clean in two.

"Giiiiiiiiii?!"

With a death shriek, the tsuchigumo split in half and collapsed to the ground.

"Hah... hah... hah..."

The girl's breath came ragged, but she steadied it quickly and turned back to face Shinya.

"Thank you very much. I'm alive because of you."

"Hm? Well, thanks. Guess that's that, then? I'll leave the rest to you. I'm heading out."

Shinya judged that the people caught in the tsuchigumo's web were merely unconscious and was in no danger of dying right away so he moved to leave the scene as it was.

"Ah! Please wait!"

The girl called out, stopping him.

"You strike me as quite a high-ranking exorcist. Might I ask your name?"

"Ah, my name... my name, huh."

Looking a little awkward, Shinya scratched his head and let out a sigh.

"...Is there some kind of problem?"

"No. But isn't it manners to give your own name first, when you're asking someone else for theirs?"

Shinya said it because he intended to change his answer depending on who she turned out to be. At his words, the girl nodded, seeming to accept the point.

"My apologies. I'm Kyogoku. Kyogoku Nagisa."

"Kyogoku? As in the Kyogoku they call the finest of the six clans?"

"Yes. Though I myself don't much care for being called that."

"My bad, then."

"No, it's fine. Now that you know my name, might I ask for yours in turn?"

Faced with an unexpectedly big name, Shinya considered what to do for a moment but decided that a clumsy lie would only cause trouble down the line, so he chose to answer honestly here.

"Hoshimori. Hoshimori Shinya."

The moment Shinya gave his name, her expression flickered with surprise. Her eyes went wide, fixed on his face.

"You're a Kyogoku, so you've probably heard of it: the failure born into the Hoshimori."

"T-that's..."

Nagisa's words caught in her throat. The name Hoshimori Shinya was fairly well known in exorcist circles, especially among the six clans. In a bad way, of course.

The Hoshimori. Even among the exorcist world's great factions, the six clans known as the Six Houses, they were held in respect as the single most famed and powerful exorcist bloodline of all. Their individual strength as exorcists surpassed even the Six Houses, a prestigious family effectively regarded as the strongest in the country.

Fifteen years ago, twin brothers had been born to the head of the Hoshimori family.

But from the moment of their birth, a clear difference set the two apart. The older brother had been born with a vast reserve of spirit power while the younger had nothing close to that amount.

From birth, the elder brother's spirit power comfortably exceeded that of an ordinary exorcist, and it only grew stronger as he did. By the time he was twelve, his spirit power stood on par with, or even surpassed, that of first-rate exorcists.

The younger brother, by contrast, had grown only enough spirit power by age twelve to barely qualify as an exorcist at all.

The elder brother showed a rare, exceptional talent for spirit arts as well. He had an aptitude for every elemental spirit art and could master any of them.

The younger brother, though, only had an aptitude for support-type spirit arts like defense, barriers, and healing, and couldn't master a single offensive art or any elemental one, be it fire, water, or wind.

On top of that, he carried a defect that kept him from properly releasing spirit power outside his own body.

He could manage some simple release of spirit power spread across his whole body, but condensing that power into a focused burst, the kind needed for an attack, was beyond him.

And at age twelve, the secret technique unique to the Hoshimori, the very thing that made the clan the strongest of all, was something the younger brother failed to master as well.

And so that boy — Hoshimori Shinya — was branded a failure, both within the Hoshimori and, by extension, throughout the wider exorcist world.

The dishonorable names given to Shinya.

Failure. Talentless. Defective. The dregs left behind after his brother took every scrap of talent for himself. And more.

For Shinya, none of it made for pleasant memories.

"But if you can use techniques this powerful, isn't there really no reason for anyone to call you a failure?"

To Shinya, Nagisa looked, somehow, like she was angry at something. By her own judgment, his defensive spirit arts weren't just first-rate; they might well be closer to top-tier. His healing techniques, too, were remarkably potent. He'd restored her in nearly an instant, which alone should have been reason enough that no one had any business calling him a failure.

At her words, Shinya let out a wry smile.

(No, it's only since I went to that other world that I've been able to use techniques this powerful.)

Before that, there was no way he could have wielded a defensive spirit art strong enough to withstand a tsuchigumo's attacks. His healing arts, back then, could do little more than mend minor wounds. He'd never have been able to restore and purify someone in an instant, the way he just had for her.

Even his spirit power, before he'd been summoned to that other world, had never amounted to more than an average exorcist's, no matter how much he'd stretched himself.

Looking back on it now, he even thought being called a failure, being called talentless, had been fair enough.

And throughout the Hoshimori's entire history, he was the only one who, despite carrying the family's direct bloodline, had ever failed to master the clan's secret technique.

And just as the god had said, he could feel that he'd come back somewhat weaker than he'd been in that other world. Part of that, no doubt, was his body having grown younger, still mid-way through growing up again.

"Whatever other people say doesn't matter to me, either way. Besides, other people's opinions are careless and vague at best. If I let myself get pushed around by every word out of someone's mouth, I wouldn't last and more than that, it just wouldn't be any fun."

Through his many experiences in that other world, Shinya had grown in more ways than one and grown stronger for it. That was exactly why he could say something like this now.

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. And do me a favor: keep it a secret that I helped you."

"...Why?"

Nagisa asked, sounding puzzled.

"I'm a Hoshimori, sure, but a failure of one, and you're a Kyogoku. Say you were saved by someone like me, and nobody's going to believe it. Even if they did, being saved by someone like that wouldn't do your standing any favors."

Shinya spoke as though he were worried about her standing, but that wasn't his concern at all. He simply didn't want to draw unnecessary attention to himself.

(I still don't even know how weakened I am and getting tangled up with the Kyogoku, one of the most influential clans among the Six Houses in this business sounds like a hassle. I'd rather take it easy for a while.)

Getting made a fuss over, only to be dragged into more trouble, was the last thing he wanted.

(According to that fortune-telling witch, apparently I've just got the kind of constitution that draws trouble to it. I only helped this one because of how things happened to fall out. I don't need any more hassle than that.)

In that other world, it had been one battle after another without end, hardly any time to breathe. This world had its own dangers, youma among them, but it wasn't nearly as brutal or perilous as that other world had been.

So for a while, at least, he wanted to live slow and easy in this world, which felt almost peaceful by comparison.

"But if this incident became known, wouldn't it help clear at least some of your bad name?"

"I don't think my bad name's light enough to wash off with something this small. Besides, it's true I can't use offensive spirit arts at all. Being able to defend and nothing else still makes me a defective exorcist, doesn't it?"

That said, it wasn't as though Shinya was truly incapable of fighting on his own, but there was no need to bring that up here, so he kept quiet about it.

"Besides, I don't want to deal with any more pointless jealousy, either."

"Jealousy?"

"Yeah. From 'failure' to 'exorcist who's only good for defense.' And to anyone who didn't see this fight with their own eyes, the whole thing would sound unbelievable anyway. They'd just write it off as exaggeration or whatever and be done with it. That'd be its own kind of annoying, wouldn't it?"

Defensive and healing spirit arts were useful, sure, but being completely unable to use offensive ones made him defective as an exorcist all the same. He couldn't destroy a youma on his own.

"So if you just keep quiet, nobody's inconvenienced. I don't have to deal with any more pointless gossip behind my back, and if it never even becomes a topic in the first place, neither of us has to listen to other people's stupid nonsense and you don't have to put your own embarrassment on display, either."

"But then I can't repay the debt I owe you for saving me."

"I don't need that kind of thing. If you really feel like you owe me then keeping your mouth shut does me a lot more good."

Shinya said it in a tone just firm enough to leave no room for argument.

"I didn't help you to make you feel indebted to me. I'm not looking to keep score of favors, either. I did it because I wanted to, that's all. So you don't need to go thinking about paying me back. It'd just be a favor I didn't ask for."

Say it this firmly, and she probably wouldn't push the matter any further.

"While I'm at it, it'd help if you didn't go digging into why I was here in the first place either. Me showing up here was, well, more or less a coincidence."

"...Understood. I'll report that I defeated the youma alone, as far as this incident goes. And I won't pry into why you were here, either."

Nagisa still looked like she had more to say, but perhaps she understood that Shinya truly didn't want this, because she pressed no further and respected his wishes instead.

"Do that, then. I'm heading out now. Looks like those two tsuchigumo were the only ones too. You can handle clearing out the nest, right?"

"Yes. Thanks to you, I'm at full health, and my spirit power's recovered too, somehow. I won't let my guard down again."

"Got it. What about the one tied up over there on that tree?"

Where Shinya pointed his thumb, a boy around his and Nagisa's own age was pinned to a tree by the tsuchigumo's silk.

"...I'll rescue him too, so there's no need to worry."

Nagisa's expression carried something like exasperation, tired around the edges. She must have had her own thoughts about the boy.

"Got it. I'll leave the rest to you, then."

"Yes. Thank you, truly. You saved my life. I'll never forget this debt, not for as long as I live."

"It's not that big a deal. You made it out because you got lucky, that's all. If you want to thank someone, thank whatever god's watching over you."

In truth, if that god from the other world hadn't teleported Shinya to this exact spot, there would have been no way for him to save her at all. In that sense, the god wasn't so much her benefactor but rather her benefactor deity.

Having spent so long in that other world alongside a hero for whom helping people was simply second nature, Shinya had come to see helping anyone in trouble in front of him, anyone whose life was in danger, as second nature too.

Of course, he didn't think he could save everyone, and he didn't believe he even could. Nor did he think every single person deserved saving, either.

Life might be equal in value, but there were without question, people out there for the world and everyone in it, whom would be better off if they died.

But when someone's life was in danger right in front of him and he had the power to help, he'd become someone who simply couldn't look away.

(Even I'll admit it: I got reshaped into a real pain of a personality.)

Helping someone had gotten him tangled up in trouble before. There'd been times when looking the other way would have been the right call.

Even so, the hero Shinya had traveled with was the kind of person who couldn't look away from someone in trouble. Having spent so long alongside someone like that, Shinya had ended up picking up the habit himself. That was why he'd helped her too.

"...You haven't changed at all, have you."

"Hm?"

It seemed like Nagisa had murmured something quietly, almost to herself. But unfortunately, Shinya hadn't caught it.

"You say something?"

"...No. I didn't say anything. Understood. If that's what you want, then I'll do as you say."

"Do that then. See you."

Shinya murmured, sounding satisfied, and left the scene with a lazy wave of his hand.

Nagisa, for her part, simply stood there, watching his retreating back long after he'd gone.

**Translator's Note:** Near the end of the chapter, the narration calls the god Shinya's "恩人ならぬ恩神 onjin naranu on-shin" — a play on 恩人 (onjin, "benefactor") swapped to 恩神 (on-shin, "benefactor god"). The pun doesn't carry over cleanly; it's rendered here as "not so much her benefactor but rather her benefactor deity."