Dropout Exorcist Part 1 Chapter 6

 Chapter 6: Overpowering

"Haah!"

"GAAAAAAH!?"

Shinya's attacks reached a fever pitch of ferocity. But the red-faced oni wasn't just taking the beating one-sidedly either. It tried to crush Shinya with its powerful arms. But not a single attack ever landed on him. He read every strike and dodged each one without fail. The blows unleashed by those powerful arms scattered a considerable shockwave through the surroundings from their aftershock alone but Shinya blocked every single one with his spirit talismans.

"Too soft."

The oni's blows really were fast and heavy. Take one straight on and a human body would burst apart like a pomegranate from that alone.

But Shinya had racked up all kinds of combat experience in that other world. He'd even received tutoring from the hero party's War King and been praised for his good fundamentals. On the flip side, when it came to handling weapons in general, including swords, he'd been told he was second-rate at best, which had left him with a complicated feeling that he'd never admitted to anyone.

Shinya's main means of attack were strikes, mostly with his fists. He had kicks too but he rarely used them. It wasn't that he couldn't, it was that his hands just felt right to him. It was purely personal preference.

That said, given the defect that kept him from releasing power outward, fighting bare-handed did mean he could throw his spirit power directly at an opponent. So in that sense, his hands were more effective. With his feet, his clothes and shoes would get in the way and there was a good chance they'd end up damaged in the process.

What's more, there was a reason Shinya had been called the hero party's guardian back in that other world.

"!?"

"If you think you can get past this spirit talisman, go ahead and try."

Shinya held out his palm and a spirit talisman moved into place there, forming a massive defensive wall. With the talisman at its center, geometric patterns spread out in front of him, almost like a magic circle and it blocked the red-faced oni's right-arm thrust completely.

"Amazing! To be able to take that head-on and still block it completely!"

Akane couldn't help crying out. Having felt that very blow with her own body, she understood just how outstanding Shinya's defense really was.

This spirit talisman didn't just block the impact, it dispersed and canceled it out entirely. Otherwise, even if he blocked the strike, the impact would have sent Shinya's body flying backward.

The force behind the red-faced oni's strike was scattered away and Shinya felt neither impact nor damage from it at all.

In that other world, he'd carried the role of tank. Whether stepping to the front himself or throwing up remote defense over his companions with his spirit talismans, he was a shield who could hold the front line and still cover the rear-line Saintess and Archmage as well. And his defensive power had been the best the hero party had, the strongest the party had ever seen in its whole history.

"With this defense, I could block even your attacks with room to spare. And as for offense..."

He clenched his left fist tight and drove it straight into the oni's flank.

"GUGAAH!?"

"And a little extra!"

He condensed even more spirit power into his right hand. There was so much power condensed there that Shinya's fist blazed with light.

"GUGIGAAH!?"

He followed through with the fist he'd driven into its solar plexus and the oni's massive body lifted off the ground and went flying backward.

"No way!?"

Akane's astonishment showed plainly at the impossible sight before her. That a human, exorcist or not, could send a Special Rank oni flying off its feet with their bare fists was something she simply could not believe and it was precisely because she was an exorcist that she found it impossible.

"W-why can you punch an oni flying with your bare hands!?"

"Pack spirit power into the punch and anyone could do it, right?"

"There's no way anyone could do that!? Not even my father or my uncle could!"

At Shinya's words, Akane exploded. "There's no way anyone could do that! Argh!"

It was raw power, brute-forced through with spirit power, so maybe it wasn't something to be praised, exactly. But precisely because it was simple, its destructive force was immense.

"Well, guess it's enough that I've confirmed it's an effective attack. This should let me handle most youma."

"No, this is clearly turning into 'you're stronger than us' territory. And that Mizunami guy and I both have spirit armaments but yet your attack still hits harder than ours, doesn't it?"

Shinya had overwhelmed an opponent they couldn't beat even with an amplifier in hand, with his bare fists. No matter how you looked at it, Shinya was the stronger one.

"GAAAAAAH!"

But the red-faced oni who was sent flying, let out another roar. Its malevolent energy amplified further. Its muscles swelled as if it was trembling with rage.

"No way!? Don't tell me it's still getting stronger!?"

"...Fine. I'll go all the way with you on this one."

From Shinya's point of view, waiting around for an opponent to power up shouldn't have been on the table in the first place. But he'd judged he could still handle it even if it was further strengthened and since he still had a trump card of his own he hadn't played yet, he decided to let it be for now.

He wanted to confirm the cause behind this abnormal growth, or rather, the phenomenon that deserved to be called evolution.

(This thing's clearly not right. The cause is probably that gem on its forehead. I need to find out what that thing is and if it's going to keep strengthening without limit. I need to get some sense of how far it can go.)

That was exactly why Shinya had deliberately let it go. But that transformation was about to reach an abrupt end.

"G-GUGUGAAAAAAH!!!!"

All at once, the red-faced oni began writhing in agony. It clutched its head in both hands, and in obvious pain, vomited what looked like stomach acid from its mouth.

Its swollen muscles rapidly began to deflate. Its overwhelming malevolent energy scattered. Its body shrank smaller and smaller until it reached roughly human size, then it collapsed right where it stood.

With a crack, the gem on its forehead shattered and the red-faced oni breathed its last right there. Its body crumbled like sand, transforming into a cluster of malevolent energy and scattering into nothing. All that was left behind was the stained black ground.

"W-what just happened?"

"...There are a few possible reasons I can think of. Maybe whatever kept powering this thing up was that gem-thing on its forehead and this is the backlash from getting too strong too fast. Maybe its body just couldn't keep up with how quickly it was being strengthened."

"Then what in the world was that gem on its forehead, anyway?"

"Who knows. If what Ryuki said was right, this thing started out as a mid-tier High Rank youma. Then it grew or rather evolved, at a terrifying speed, all the way up through Top Rank to Special. My guess is that it was some kind of amplifying device for boosting a youma's power or maybe some kind of feed."

But it was all nothing more than just speculation. Every last piece of evidence had vanished after all.

"If this thing didn't have it originally, the only real possibility is that someone, or something, planted it in there."

"Someone? Just who in the world would do something like that?"

"That's exactly the part where there's too little info to say anything for sure. Well, one thing I can say is that whoever's behind this is seriously dangerous. Making a thing like this, being able to make it at all. Not to mention planting it inside a High Rank youma and even coming up with the idea of doing it in the first place. All of it screams danger, far as I'm concerned."

"Yeah, true enough."

Akane agreed with Shinya's words. If this could happen anywhere else too, it would go far beyond just being a threat to exorcists.

"I'll report this to my father and the others right away."

"Probably for the best. As for the Hoshimori... whether they'd believe it even coming from me, who knows."

Whether they'd believe it was another question. Even if he explained, they'd ask how he'd come out of it unharmed after facing an opponent like that in the first place.

"Alright, let's do it this way. This thing destroyed itself. If we say Akane was the one buying time for it, then the Hoshimori should be satisfied. You should report it in that way too."

"Huh!? What are you even saying! We're only okay because of you, Shinya! Why should I be the one stealing the credit that's rightfully yours!? And also there's a bunch of stuff you still need to explain to me, too!"

Akane closed in on Shinya. There was a mountain of things she wanted to ask.

"Calm down. I'll explain everything, including why I've got power like this in the first place. But for now, just let it be your credit. That way, things will go more smoothly."

It was obvious which claim the other clans and exorcists would find more convincing, Shinya who called a failure or Akane who is a member of the Hino main house who wielded a spirit armament.

"Besides, none of them saw me fighting, right? Even if I told them, nobody would believe it anyway."

"...Wait, did you do this on purpose?"

Akane suspected Shinya had left them unconscious on purpose to hide his own power. And Shinya remain silent. That silence only deepened her suspicion further.

"Ahh! I knew it! Why would you even do that! You should just show off your strength, Shinya! Make those people who've looked down on you all this time finally get that you're this strong now!"

"Sorry, but I've got no intention of doing that. Sure, I'm planning to make it public eventually but not right now. And besides, isn't it a little uncool? Getting stronger just to look down on the people who used to look down on you? I'm not saying that's wrong and I think that's a fine way to go about it too. But at least for now, I've got no plans to do that."

"Why not!? Doesn't it bug you? And if you've actually gotten stronger so there's no reason to hold back from it, is there? Well, I guess it depends on how you got stronger, though."

If it was power gained by sacrificing others, that would be a problem but if he'd gotten stronger through his own effort, he ought to be proud of it.

"...Wait, Shinya. Don't tell me you got stronger through some method you can't tell people about?"

Akane's gaze sharpened. She didn't think he'd do something like that and didn't want to think it, either. But this was something she had to confirm. She couldn't come up with a single reason why Shinya would want to hide his power.

"Don't glare at me like that. It's not some reason I can't tell people and it's not power I got by preying on innocent people, either."

Whether anyone would actually believe him was another question entirely. No matter how many exorcists there were, would even any one of them listen to the reason "I got summoned by a god from another world, spent four years there and gotten stronger" and "when I came back, they de-aged me by however long I'd spent over there and only five minutes had actually passed," then just nod along and accept it right away?

If someone told him a story like that, he'd genuinely think, "Are you feeling okay in the head?" and probably recommend a hospital.

If Akane were the one to start saying something like that, he was confident he'd give her the exact look you'd give someone you genuinely pitied.

"I'll explain that too, along with everything else."

"You'd better be telling the truth. I won't forgive you if you lie."

"Got it. Though whether you actually believe it is up to you."

"Depends on the story. But if that's the case, there's no reason not to just tell everyone, is there? I mean, revenge or payback is one thing, but I don't think just bragging is uncool at all."

"Well, I've got my own reasons for all kinds of things. Anyway, just let this one be your credit for now. You can count it as a debt I owe you, if you want."

"If anything, I feel like I'm the one racking up debts to you."

Akane let out a sigh and agreed to Shinya's terms.

"Fine. It's not what I want, but let's do it that way for now. But once we're back, you'd better explain everything properly."

"Yeah. Once we're back. Alright, guess I'll take down the barrier. But stay on your guard, Akane"

"What for?"

"I've got the feeling someone's watching us."

"...Is that for real?"

"I'm not certain but there's a chance. So stay on guard even after I take the barrier down."

"Got it. So I should be careful about what we say too, right?"

In moments like this, it was a relief that she caught on fast.

"Right. Just to be safe, I'll stick a talisman on you too. This spirit talisman's got a concealment art built into it. Stick it on and the target can use concealment too, but for now I'll just keep the talisman itself hidden."

"Hey, that's a pretty advanced art, isn't it? Why can you just whip that out like it's nothing? I'm honestly starting to doubt whether you're really Shinya."

At Akane's narrow-eyed stare, Shinya let out a wry smile.

"An impostor, huh. Guess I'll bring up something only Akane and I would know, then. Let's see, how about that time, back when we first met, Akane was at the park and..."

"Waaah! Not that! We promised not to bring that up, remember!?"

"If that's still not enough to convince you, let's see next is. In the bathroom back at my family's place..."

"H-hold on! Wait! Please! I told you to forget about that one too, didn't I!? Okay! Okay, I get it! Yeah! You're definitely Shinya, no doubt about it! Case closed!"

With her face bright red, Akane raised her voice to keep Shinya from saying anything more.

"Glad you get it then."

"Ugh. I feel like I just dug my own grave, somehow."

"Don't sweat it. Anyway, stay careful. There's a chance we could get attacked out of nowhere."

"Got it. I won't let my guard down. What about them?"

"I'll leave them asleep for now. Once we've kept watch and if nothing is happening then I'll wake them up."

Shinya pressed the spirit talisman onto Akane's back and released the barrier.

"..."

"..."

Akane looked toward Shinya without a word and he nodded. He was saying, without speaking, that he could still feel the sense of being watched.

But after keeping watch for a while, that sense of being watched, the one they'd felt just moments ago, faded away.

"...Looks like it's gone, I think."

"What in the world even was that?"

"Who knows. My guess is it was some kind of watcher keeping tabs on this thing but I really don't want to get dragged into anything more troublesome than this."

Shinya genuinely felt that way, but unfortunately, at this point, he had no way of knowing that he and Akane were already caught up in a certain man's revenge plot.