Volume 6, Chapter 12: Awakening, Part 1

Even though Shijima Yuuki was a sixth grader, he continued to help out with the ramen shop in the shopping district.

Takamine School was well known as a school for children of good families, but with the number of them decreasing, there was a renewed focus upon academics, and the secondary school side had also reoriented themselves into a preparatory school.

Yuuki was receiving the treatment of a special student with excellent results at his prep school, and although the number of other students would swell when they advanced to middle school, they would still have to maintain their top grades. Yuuki, with the memory and intelligence of his previous life, studied earnestly, due to his serious character, and didn’t feel anything special about Takamine School.

Rather, he was happier helping out in the ramen shop.

Up until now, Yuuki had wanted to return to his own world sooner or later, to have his revenge on the “heroes from another world” who had ambushed him in his previous life, and had tried to avoid being involved in this world as much as possible.

However, Yuuki was unexpectedly able to make a friend.

Another reincarnator like Yuuki, a human who had already quit being human, the magician of another world…… Yuzu.

Yuzu’s friend, who was a practitioner of ‘Ki’ that Yuuki wasn’t familiar with, Onzada.

And the one who grabbed onto Yuuki’s hand and showed him a new world…… Misa.

Earth, the home world of the heroes who had killed him, was the object of hatred for Yuuki, but Misa taught him that there were wonderful things in this world too.

He wanted to get to know this world with her…… he began to think that way before he knew it.

“…… Fuu”

Yuuki was on his way home after having just finished helping out in the ramen shop on a sunny day.

Before he knew it, he had begun to think of Misa’s older brother, the shopkeeper, as his teacher, but he didn’t feel like such a relationship was bad either.

However, Yuuki had something on his mind, and sighed in spite of himself.

A certain ‘presence’ that he had felt since a long time ago increased in strength with each passing day, and now it covered the entirety of Tokyo thinly, and that ‘presence’ stimulated the anger and hatred within Yuuki.

Within he could hear it crying out “[Help me……]” As a former hero, he was worried, but feeling the ‘distortion’ of that voice, Yuuki was wary of it.

Someone stepped out and blocked Yuuki’s path even as he walked down the road having these thoughts.

“…… Fuuhn, is this guy a hidden character?”

“…………”

Yuuki was caught off guard by the girl who had suddenly begun to say things that he didn’t understand at all.

“You, I don’t know whether you’re a bug or something, but won’t you come over to my side? Thanks to this, I’ve been stuck with something unpleasant, no?”

“……Who are you?”

From the girl, who was the same age as Yuuki, he could feel that ‘presence’ strongly overflowing.

Though usually people like this would lose their mind, this girl wasn’t quite normal in the head, so she still seemed to keep her sense of self.

“Fufufu, I am Matsuri. The true protagonist of this world. Be grateful that I am speaking to you, minor character.”

………*twitch*

Yuuki suddenly felt a strong dizziness assail him, and fell to his knees on the spot. He had been wary, but he wondered if he had been struck during that gap thanks to her idiotic behavior.

“Waa, it’s just as that [God] said! He completely surrendered to my ‘charm’ at once!”

“……You bastard…… who are you?”

The ‘presence’ that was overflowing from Matsuri strongly fanned Yuuki’s anger and hatred, muddying his consciousness. It seemed that Matsuri had come this far after being tempted by that [Existence].

“Fufufu, I can’t go back now. You, your face isn’t so bad, even as someone in my periphery…”

“…Flash!”

“Giyaa!?”

A flash of light that tore up the night burned Matsuri’s retinas.

Yuuki, who managed to cast the spell at the last minute, was able to escape…… Although he had avoided becoming Matsuri’s puppet, his spirit had been contaminated with each passing day, and his hatred was distorted.

And now……

＊＊＊

“……UOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

Yuuki-kun shouted as if he was shaking off his reason.

Taking out his huge sword from within his subspace, he started to cast as he stared at me.

“O-oi, what are you doing!”

“Onzada-kun.”

I grabbed onto Onzada-kun’s neck and flung him away.

“DowaaaaAAH!?”

“[Protect!]”

“Lightning!”

At the same time I put up my magical shields, Yuuki-kun’s lightning struck and sparked off of it.

The lightning strikes were of the wind attribute…… Come to think of it, he was a hero who used the element of wind.

Was his possession incomplete? He regarded me as an ‘enemy’, but hasn’t fully lost his mind, so it’s quite a troublesome situation.

“Yuuki-kun…… are you serious about this?”

“……Destroy…”

“……”

In an instant, he swung the sword that was the same size as his body to the side, and I deflected it off of my fists narrowly by cladding them in magic power.

Is it not just body-strengthening magic, but also ‘Ki’ being infused into his movements? It was pretty fast, so I wasn’t able to break the sword.

Yuuki-kun had been training his power since the very moment he had been born. Not only that, he had also been absorbing the power of his enemies through the power of his [Hero’s secret arts] and raising his physical [levels], plus he had the knowledge of ‘Ki’ from Onzada-kun and my own knowledge as well.

…… This cheating bastard. Are you a protagonist somewhere?

“[Burn away.]”

“!”

As Yuuki-kun leapt out in response to my magic power, the trees around him burned to nothing in an instant.

“You, you’re a demon!”

I heard Onzada-kun protesting from where I’d tossed him earlier, but what had he expected from a Demon and a former hero who was driven mad by thoughts of revenge……

To offer love no matter how hostile your opponent was something only found in children’s fairy tales, you know?

Nonetheless, given that he dodged that blow, I don’t think I will be able to defeat him easily with magic. Although I had the physical strength of a demon, it’s impossible for me to engage in hand-to-hand combat with him.

“…[Summon]…”

A small magic circle formed within my hand, and black things fell out of it with a pitter-patter.

…… Is that more seafood? But as the seaweed grew at a strange rate, it turned into a humanoid figure and stood up. …… eeww, gross.

[Ubo~]

“Lightning Sword!”

Against the seaweed possessed by a lesser Demon, Yuuki-kun built up a small magic formation and tore through it with his extreme ‘Chuunibyou sword’, and absorbed its power.

Ah, it’s no good. Still, I unleashed the [Spirit Magic] I’d prepared in the meantime.

“[Open Dimensional Gate]”

A door that by my reckoning was about twice as large as it was normally opened up at Yuuki-kun’s feet, and the dimensional rift tried to swallow Yuuki-kun together with the surrounding air and the tree leaves.

“Wouldn’t it be great if you returned to your home world?”

Although there was no air or water on the journey there.

“UoooooooOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

As I spoke of it lightly, Yuuki-kun placed a similar summoning magic circle on his sword and hit the dimensional door. Eh…… Did you just repair the dimensional rift?

You seriously practiced what I taught…… what a diligent pupil.

“Lightning!”

“Uwaa”

*BZZT*

I deflected the shot again with my bare hands as I set up a defensive barrier with magic power. Thanks to that, my blouse sleeve got burnt.

“If that’s the case…”

I used my physical strength as a Demon and grabbed the slender trees in my vicinity, pulling them out and throwing them at him.

“Tei!”

“HAaaAAAAAAAAAA!”

Yuuki-kun slashed down at the trees that were flying at him with a thunderous roar and dragging clods of earth behind them, as he sliced down cleanly, splitting the trunk in two.

Naturally, I expected him to do as much.

“How about this?”

In the middle of the fight, a single ‘phrase’ came to mind.

“…[Let there be light]…”

As a dazzling light was emitted from my whole body, a bright light emerged from the whole forest surrounding the shrine, and something like an ‘angel of light’ appeared.

Ah? Why did it turn out like this?

“………!?”

Yuuki-kun tried to slash at me with his sword, but it bounced off the angel.

I didn’t feel any backlash. Maybe, it was the same attribute as Yuuki-kun…… the power of a spirit of light?

However, even though it doesn’t let attacks through, it doesn’t attack. Still, it should earn me enough time.

“… [Penetrating light…… form a Sparkling Sacred Spear]…!”

With the ‘words’ emerging in my mind in the [Spirit Language], I poured magic power into it.

“……uh…”

This, uses quite a bit of my magic power. It’s not to the point that it exhausts my magic power, but ‘Yuzu’s’ body was screaming out under the strain of channeling the magic.

“Go!”

I threw the golden spear that looked to be about 5 meters long towards Yuuki-kun.

“OOOOO!?”

Yuuki-kun threw his thunder-coated sword at the Sparkling Sacred Spear, leaping away from the impact. …… He’s got a good intuition.

The Sacred Spear instantly destroyed the sword, and deflected a little away, it hit the ground, exploding its surroundings in a burst of light.

Ah, it had the holy attribute…… It’s not very effective against Yuuki-kun, but that’s kind of meaningless if the ground itself is left glowing red. If someone kept staying in the sun, they’d die eventually.

Yuuki-kun, who had been blown away by the blast and was rolling away, turned about sharply, and ran towards me with a new sword, even with his worn-out body.

“……Eh?”

I can’t move? My body has lost its strength and I can’t move.

Oh crap, I pushed my human body far too much. I hurriedly channeled my magic power into my body and tried to move myself forcefully,

* cough*

I suddenly coughed, and my body stiffened, stuck.

“UOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

His straight sword thrust out towards my heart. But……

*Gashi*!

In front of my belly, the sword was kicked away, and grazing across a few centimeters of my face, it pierced the ground.

“That’s enough!”

I heard someone speak out, and then I was hauled away from Yuuki-kun by the waist.

“Sorry, now I can finally make my move. Leave it to me. I will protect you, Yuzu.”

“Onzada-kun…”

It was Onzada-kun, who both Yuuki and I had thought to be out of commission, who had saved me.

Author’s Notes:

Next time, the [Monk] vs the [Hero]…… and…… an awakening.

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