Dropout Exorcist Part 1 Chapter 9

 Chapter 9: Adversaries

The malevolent energy had appeared in a park tucked into a residential neighborhood. It was a small park, but green, dotted here and there with playground equipment like slides and swings.

The sun had already set, and night had fallen over the area. A single streetlight lit the park, but everything was dim and the surroundings had fallen eerily silent.

The three of them stepped into the park warily.

"The malevolent energy hasn't moved from here, has it?"

"Yeah. And that big presence was only there at the start. Since then it's stayed strangely calm. Maybe it's just a youma that wandered in from the other realm by chance?"

"But the presence I sensed was that of a High Rank youma. The higher the rank, the lower the odds it wandered in by chance. At High Rank, it might be better to assume it came into this world of its own will rather than by accident."

A High Rank youma was a dangerous opponent to face alone, even for a first-rate exorcist.

Shinya aside, both Akane and Nagisa were skilled enough to win a straight one-on-one fight against one too. Arrogance or carelessness was out of the question, of course, but with this lineup, there shouldn't have been any real risk at all.

"Alright. This is where it gets tricky."

"I've already deployed a barrier around the area. Ordinary people can't get close and the enemy can't easily break out either."

It seemed Nagisa had already cast a barrier over the entire park. Being able to cover the whole park in a barrier while standing right here was no small feat.

"Small park or not, it's still a decent size. If you're putting up a barrier over all of it by yourself, can your spirit power hold out?"

"It's not a problem. I have a fair amount of spirit power myself. And besides, keeping the youma from carelessly escaping and keeping unrelated people from wandering in take priority."

"...Fair enough. Then I'll take care of the youma. You focus on keeping the barrier up."

"No, I can handle the youma extermination too..."

"Just leave it to me. I'll pull my weight enough to make up for the meal, at least. And besides, this is the city we live in. Exterminating a youma that's shown up here is my job."

Akane believed in paying off her debts quickly too. Besides, she'd been wanting an outlet for her frustration, both over the incident earlier that afternoon and over having her dinner with Shinya interrupted.

"Now then, where's this youma?"

Manifesting her spirit armament spear and resting it on her shoulder, Akane felt for the youma's presence.

A hissing, ugly miasma leaked out into the surroundings. Something was closing in.

It was like a giant spider. But yet it wasn't a spider. Where its face should have been was something like an oni's.

"Isn't that an Ushioni!? Why's something like this here!?"

Ushioni. A powerful youma, without question, classified as at least High Rank. Individuals classed as Top Rank, or even Special Rank, had reportedly been confirmed among them too.

"Yesterday it was a Tsuchigumo, this afternoon an oni, and now tonight an Ushioni. Why do I only ever run into youma that all seem connected somehow?"

"For Hoshimori-kun to run into all of them within the span of a single day, that's... how should I put it..."

"Nah, either way's fine. Guess you run into a lot of ugly-looking opponents too, Kyogoku."

"Most youma look like that. Well, I've gotten used to it by now, though."

"I see. So, Akane. You need backup?"

"Don't need it. Just watch from there."

"GOOOH!"

Crimson spirit power surged from Akane's entire body. It blazed with light, brightening the surroundings as if it were broad daylight.

"High Rank or not, it doesn't even measure up to that oni from this afternoon. An opponent at this level, I'm plenty on my own."

She leveled her spear and charged straight at the Ushioni.

"GRURAAH!"

"Don't get cute with me!"

As Akane charged in, the Ushioni brought its spider-like limbs swinging down at her. Akane sidestepped, again and again, dodging the attack with room to spare.

"Haah!"

She swung her crimson spear in a horizontal sweep and severed one of its legs clean off. Flames clung to the severed stump and from there began burning their way through its body.

"GUGIH!?"

"Have this one too!"

She pointed the spear's tip at the Ushioni, and a clump of flame shaped like a crimson arrowhead shot from it, gouging into the creature's body and setting it alight.

"Hmph! Too slow! Well, if you come at me, I'll skewer you with this spear in one thrust!"

Her reddish-gold hair streaming behind her, Akane spun her spear round and round, almost taunting the creature into making a move. But the Ushioni, wary of Akane's spear, couldn't bring itself to act.

"Not coming? Fine, I'll come to you, then!"

Akane moved again, charging straight at the Ushioni. Refusing to be underestimated by some human girl, the Ushioni bared its fury and condensed demonic power into its mouth. Once a mass of malevolent energy had gathered just in front of its maw, it let it loose all at once.

The mass of malevolent energy took on a spherical shape and flew towards Akane.

But Akane didn't even bother dodging and just curled her lips up into a savage grin.

"Useless!"

She thrust the spear forward and its crimson glow intensified. With flames wrapped around the spearhead, Akane drove the tip straight into the mass of malevolent energy.

"GOOOOOH!"

The flame spread from the spear's tip into the malevolent energy and the fire, created from spirit power, burned it away completely.

"!?"

"Too slow!"

Having burned away the malevolent energy, Akane drove her spear straight into the Ushioni's face, all in the same momentum.

"GUGIAAAAAAH!?"

It let out a death shriek. The grating cry rang out across the park, but Akane paid it no mind, driving the spear in even deeper and letting flame gush from it to wrap around the Ushioni's entire body.

Wrapped in scorching flame, the Ushioni disappeared before their very eyes. In under a matter of seconds, what had once been an Ushioni was gone from this world entirely.

Nothing was left behind. Dust, ash, even the last trace of its malevolent energy, was all burned away completely.

"Heh. How's that for you?"

Once she confirmed the Ushioni had vanished, Akane rested her spear on her right shoulder and walked back toward Shinya and the others with a confident smile on her face.

"...As expected. Honestly, I'm impressed. So this is the strength of the Hino clan."

Even Nagisa couldn't help marveling. When it came to offensive and destructive power, the Hino clan had a strong reputation as the strongest among the Six Houses. Their overwhelming power trampled youma without a shred of mercy.

Nagisa herself had no intention of falling behind against an Ushioni either, but if asked whether she could have erased one this easily and cleanly, she could only say no.

"Ahh, that felt great. Nothing beats letting loose when you're irritated, huh?"

"You know, that's the kind of thing a dangerous person says."

"What's wrong with that? I'm not bothering anyone. Besides, it went and ruined our sushi meal. I erased it ly, so honestly it should be thanking me."

So it seemed Akane simply couldn't forgive the sushi being cut off halfway through.

"If you'd like, I could treat you again?"

"There you go. What'll you do?"

"Hey, I'm not that much of a glutton."

"How rude," Akane muttered, but just then Shinya's expression suddenly hardened and he glared toward the depths of the park.

"Shinya?"

"Is something wrong?"

Both Akane and Nagisa looked puzzled, but the reason became clear soon enough.

"Yo. Good evening! Nice night, isn't it!"

A golden-haired young man stood there. Wearing a frivolous smile, he came strolling toward Shinya and the others.

"Who're you? What were you doing here?"

Akane's face twisted with suspicion, but she'd already taken a stance ready to move at any moment. Nagisa did the same.

It just shouldn't have been possible. There was a barrier here, one Nagisa had put up. Ordinary people couldn't enter a barrier that was still deployed like this. So maybe he'd been here from the start, they thought, but that was strange too.

If he'd been here from the start, he should have seen the fight just now. And yet he'd come strolling out looking completely unfazed, which was, if anything, the strangest part of all.

"Ahh, I got to watch it, you know. Amazing! Was that fire spirit art? And using a spirit armament on top of that, so that makes you a pretty serious exorcist, right? Man, taking down that Ushioni that easily, even I'm impressed."

The golden-haired young man — Miroku Kyouji — came closer to the three of them.

As he drew closer, the abnormal presence radiating off him left Akane and Nagisa breaking into a cold sweat without even realizing it.

"Huhh? What's wrong? You're wasting a cute face like that. Why are your faces all tensed up like that?"

At his words, the two of them started. They'd only just realized they'd been swallowed up by this unfathomable man's presence.

Shinya stepped in front of the two of them, keeping the man in check.

"Ohh, there's a guy with you too. Hmm, I'm not really into guys, though."

"Sorry to cut into your monologue, but I don't have all day to stand around talking to some shady guy like you either. So I'll keep this short and simple. You're our enemy, right? That's what this is?"

"Eh? What do you mean, 'you're'..."

"Don't play dumb. There's someone hiding over there, isn't there? Did you really think I hadn't noticed?"

Akane and Nagisa turned in surprise to look where Shinya had pointed. Out of the darkness, a boy stepped into view.

"Huh. So you noticed I was here."

There stood Yashiro Rihito.

"No way, I didn't sense a thing!?"

"It just means he's that good at concealment. Though it looks like he's been here from the start."

"Heh. You saw through my concealment?"

"I could just kind of feel eyes on me. I'm bad at searching and stuff, but I'm pretty sensitive to being watched. Ever since the Ushioni went down, your presence got stronger. Or rather, was it your killing intent that got stronger? You couldn't keep it fully hidden anymore. That's what tipped me off. Otherwise, I don't think I'd have been sure."

"Oh-ho, guess I messed that up. Ahh, my bad, huh~. Sorry, sorry, Yashiro-chan. Slipped up there. Teehee♪"

He stuck out his tongue with a playful expression, but Yashiro felt his anger flare at the sight. His own name was out in the open now, on top of everything else. What is this guy even thinking, he couldn't help wondering that.

"You! What the hell are you thinking!?"

"Ahh, well, this way there's no going back now, see. Now you've gotta actually deal with these kids for real, don't you, Yashiro-chan?"

Shinya could tell, somehow, that whatever relationship these two shared, it wasn't a simple partnership.

(Doesn't feel like it was some mismatched buddy act either. Being forced to obey? No, that's not quite it either.)

He eyed the boy called Yashiro warily. He looked to be about Shinya's age, his face twisted like he'd bitten into something bitter.

(Well, whatever the circumstances, if they're going to be hostile, I'll just neutralize them without mercy. I can always hear them out after.)

If they were enemies, there'd be no mercy. He wouldn't go so far as to say he'd kill first and ask questions later, but even that depended on the situation. People called him soft for it, but if he killed them outright, he couldn't get any information out of them.

That other world had been brutal too, but even there, he'd avoided killing whenever possible, out of deference to the hero's wishes.

(That said, I'm not that soft, either.)

He wouldn't go so far as to deal death to every enemy in equal measure, but he'd long since abandoned the softness of hesitating to kill. What the Hero, the Saintess, and the Holy Knight couldn't bring themselves to do, the rest of the party had handled it. Shinya was one of them.

"Tch! Knew I shouldn't have come."

"Ahahaha! Well, my condolences♪ Alright then, Yashiro-chan, you take that guy, okay? I'd rather deal with the girls."

"...Fine. I don't wanna deal with the women either. But don't go overboard."

"I'll do my best. Well then, shall we get started!"

With a snap of his fingers, Kyouji deployed a new barrier around them. A barrier dark as night dyed the area black, and an ominous presence spread out.

"You destroyed my barrier and put up a new one!? But this barrier is..."

"That's right. How is it, my barrier? Sets a pretty good mood, doesn't it? You guys can't escape from here, and your spirit power's gonna keep draining away, so if you don't take me down fast, things are gonna get bad."

Nagisa shuddered at the sheer speed and malevolence with which the technique had been deployed.

"Don't underestimate us so much! I'll bust through a barrier like this myself!"

"Heh. I like it! Yeah, go ahead and try that! But, well!"

Skitter, skitter, skitter, skitter, skitter...

That sound came drifting from all over the park. Countless red eyes glowed, scattered here and there, burning bright in the darkness.

Straining their eyes to look closer, they saw many Tsuchigumo of all different sizes.

"T-Tsuchigumo!? But what's with this number!?"

"T-that's not possible! This many Tsuchigumo!?"

It wasn't ten or twenty. At worst, there were close to a hundred.

"Ahahaha! How's that! My little pets! I brought them along special, just for you! You can go ahead and break the barrier, but then these kids get out too, you know. If that's fine with you, be my guest!"

"You!"

Akane bared her fury openly at Kyouji's words. If this many Tsuchigumo were let loose on the city all at once, there was no telling how much damage they'd cause.

"So, you know, just play nice, alright? I can drop this barrier whenever I feel like it too. You get what that means, right?"

At Kyouji's grin, Nagisa let her disgust show openly too.

"Ah, don't worry, I'm not gonna kill you two girls! You'll be my new pets instead! My last pet girl broke, you see. Poor thing, but I ended up feeding her to these guys."

"...The more you talk, the more it pisses me off. So, are you done saying what you wanted to say?"

Shinya felt anger welling up in him too. He could tell exactly what kind of man stood before him: the kind he could never, under any circumstances, get along with.

"Ohh? Are you sure you should be saying that? You guys are the ones at an overwhelming disadvantage here, you know? If I just drop the barrier a little, it's gonna be a real disaster."

"Then all we'd have to do is put up our own barrier, wouldn't we?"

"Ahaha! My barrier's already here, and you're gonna destroy it and overwrite it? You really think you can pull that off?"

"Yeah. Already done."

In an instant, the scene around them changed. The world that had been ruled by darkness crumbled away with an audible crack, and a barrier of Shinya's spirit power spread out to take its place.

Spirit talismans deployed on all four sides and overhead enclosed the park like a four-sided pyramid.

"Wha!?"

"What!?"

Both Kyouji and Rihito cried out in shock at the barrier that had suddenly appeared.

"That should make it a lot harder to slip out now. All that's left is to wipe out the Tsuchigumo and neutralize you two, and we're done."

"As expected! Heh! No more worries now! But is your spirit power going to be alright? You used up a fair amount this afternoon too..."

"No problem. I've still got plenty to spare. More importantly, how are you doing?"

"I'm still fine too. Well, I'll need to hold back a little while I fight, but."

Akane answered brightly, giving an accurate report on her own condition.

"How about you?"

"Eh, ah, yes. I'm fine too. I can still fight."

Nagisa, who'd been a little dazed, steeled herself at Shinya's words.

"Geez, pull yourself together."

"My apologies. But I had no idea he could use a technique of this caliber."

"Well, yeah. I only just found out about it myself this afternoon."

"You didn't know either?"

"U-ugh, quiet. I'm gonna corner him about it later and make him spill everything properly."

"I see... I'm curious too."

Both Akane and Nagisa were careful not to give away information or say each other's names out loud in front of the enemy, but both of them were burning with curiosity about Shinya's power all the same.

"That's a story for later. So, what are you two planning to do? Not that I'm planning on letting you go, either way."

Shinya said it with a thin smile, looking toward Kyouji and Rihito.

"You really piss me off. Smashing my barrier like that? I'm furious. Don't think you'll get to die easy."

"That's a real small-time villain line. Save the speeches and just come at me already."

At Shinya's provocation, anger spread across Kyouji's face.

"Ugh, seriously! You're pissing me off! Fine! Alright, Tsuchigumo-chans! Kill him!"

Skitter, skitter, skitter. The Tsuchigumo swarmed in all at once.

Shinya, alone, charged straight into the swarm of Tsuchigumo.