A week had passed since that day.

They say children’s interests shift quickly, but Nina-chan’s focus remained unshaken, still entirely on exorcising monsters.

That’s why every morning, we met early and spent about an hour practicing magic behind the gym—since no one ever went there. Then, after school, we’d go on what we called monster-hunting walks together.

As for what exactly a monster-hunting walk is, it’s really just as it sounds, and it was something I had suggested.

I’d told Nina-chan, “Maybe it’s better to start by getting used to seeing monsters first,” a rather naïve suggestion, but she had accepted it, saying, “That makes sense.”

Incidentally, if we just wanted to encounter a monster, all I’d need to do is recklessly release my magic power. That alone would be enough to attract monsters to me like moths to a flame on a hot summer night.

But that would be dangerous.

The reason? We’d have no idea what level of monster might show up.

First or second-tier monsters would be fine, but there was a real chance that something as strong as a fifth-tier—or worse, a sixth-tier—monster could show up, and I wasn’t prepared for that.

So, we were left with no choice but to walk around, searching for monsters on foot.

At this very moment, we were in the middle of one of these monster-hunting walks. With our school bags still slung over our shoulders, we wandered around inside the school.

The time was already past 4 PM.

Nina-chan would need to go home soon, so we walked a bit hurriedly through the school grounds.

Over the past week, we’d lightly scouted various places, and the conclusion we came to was that schools were the best places to find monsters. With so many children around, it was the perfect hunting ground for monsters looking to easily absorb magic energy.

The odds of encountering one here were far better than in any other location.

“Itsuki! Let’s check out the fourth-floor bathroom today!” Nina-chan said with enthusiasm.

“The bathroom? Why the bathroom?” I asked.

“I heard today that a monster appears there in the evenings.”

“A monster?”

“Yes! They say a woman with long hair shows up.”

I repeated her words.

A monster in the bathroom, huh? Classic.

It’s a staple of ghost stories, really. Still, it’s not entirely out of the question. After all, they say that during life, animals are most vulnerable when they’re asleep, relieving themselves, or mating. One of those is definitely the bathroom, so it’s not completely unreasonable to think a monster might appear there.

Although, I’d never encountered a monster in the school bathroom myself.

What piqued my curiosity more than the bathroom monster, though, was where Nina-chan had heard this story. I didn’t want to sound harsh, but I’d never seen Nina-chan talking to anyone at school besides me.

“Hey, Nina-chan, where’d you hear that story?” I asked.

“…The bathroom.”

“Huh?”

“I said, I heard the rumor in the bathroom! Got a problem with that?”

“N-no, no problem…” I stammered, instinctively apologizing under the pressure of her glare.

Well, this one’s on me.

Nina-chan sniffed defiantly, clearly wanting to change the subject.

“This time, I’m going to exorcise a monster for sure.”

She must have been thinking about the monster we encountered two days ago.

We had heard that someone was playing the piano in the music room after the students had gone home, so we had gone to check it out. There, we found a giant, disembodied index finger silently playing the piano.

I don’t know much about piano music, but judging by how monotonous the tune was, there aren’t many songs you can play with just one index finger.

When the finger noticed us, it hopped toward us, and I ended up exorcising it. Nina-chan had turned pale, standing frozen beside me the whole time.

That one had probably been a first-tier monster.

“Hey, Itsuki,” Nina-chan called.

“What’s up, Nina-chan?”

“I think I’ve started to understand Condensing Magic a little.”

“Really? That’s great!”

“Look, watch this.”

Nina-chan held out her hand, and a purple mist appeared. This was her fairy. Though it was still incomplete.

“Please… burn!” Nina-chan whispered.

In the next instant, the purple mist in front of my eyes trembled and burst into flames with a whoosh!

“Whoa! It’s really burning!”

“This is called a Will-o’-the-Wisp. It’s the basic form of Condensing Magic!” Nina-chan said proudly, clearly pleased with herself.

Watching the flames dance before me, I took a moment to analyze the situation.

What she was doing was essentially elemental transformation: fire. However, unlike my Guiding Thread, Nina-chan’s magic didn’t require the caster to actively manipulate it. The fairy itself was autonomously transforming its body.

In other words, she could perform two actions simultaneously, by herself.

That’s not just a benefit—it’s a huge advantage.

I wanted to learn to use it too, so I asked her, “Hey, Nina-chan, how did you manage to do that?”

“Hmm, I tried copying the magic Mama used that time.”

That time? She must have been referring to the incident from a week ago.

Shoot. I’d been too focused on Irena-san’s sudden appearance to properly observe her magic.

“So, what you do is, you split the magic into two parts so it doesn’t scatter.”

“Two parts?”

“Yes. One part is the core, and the other part forms a container around it.”

Now that she mentioned it, Nina-chan had said something similar when she visited my house.

She’d told me it was easier if you had something to hold the magic in.

So, that means you can create the container out of magic itself. I hadn’t tried it with a doll or anything yet, but Nina-chan’s explanation gave me an idea.

That’s right—it’s like the method I tried once during Alchemy that didn’t work. You create magic like a daifuku, with a different type of magic inside and surrounding it. It doesn’t have to be a daifuku—it could be an anpan or a curry bun—but the point is that you differentiate between the core and the outer layer of magic.

I’ll give it a shot later.

With that thought in mind, we continued our walk to the rumored fourth-floor bathroom, where we heard the sound of dripping water. Was someone messing around with the faucets? Or maybe the bathroom had been broken for a while?

As we cautiously approached the bathroom, peeking around the door frame, there it was—a monster.

Its long black hair was in tatters, messily hanging down. Its skin was pale and rough, and it looked severely malnourished. But most striking of all was its neck. It had to be at least a meter long. Its arms and legs, too, were elongated, each over a meter.

It was a disjointed and grotesque creature.

That’s the impression I got when I saw it.

It had wedged its arms and legs against the floor, ceiling, and walls of the washroom like a spider, holding its body in place as it drank from the faucet. Creepy.

But it hadn’t noticed us yet.

If it hadn’t noticed us, then this was our chance.

“Nina-chan, now’s your moment. Use your magic,” I whispered quietly.

Nina-chan, trembling, reached out toward me as if searching for something.

“…Itsuki, hold my hand.”

“Okay.”

Since this had happened before, I took her hand. She seemed to calm down, or at least it appeared that way.

Taking a deep breath, she sent her fairy toward the monster.

“Please… burn!” she cried out.

In the next instant, the monster’s head erupted in flames.

With a whoosh, flames burst forth, engulfing the monster’s head.

When I squinted and focused, I could see Nina-chan’s fairy spreading over the monster’s head, using attribute change: fire to ignite it.

The monster flailed its long neck, swinging it wildly in an attempt to shake off the flames, but the fairy remained firmly attached, refusing to let go.

Brutal…

Watching Nina-chan’s magic in action, I couldn’t help but think that. The Silveit magic I usually use to control and direct attacks already felt deadly enough, but this? This was merciless in its own way.

The determination to exorcise monsters without fail, that kind of resolve, is evident in the spells we exorcists use.

However, the monster quickly dunked its head into the faucet, dousing the flames. It reminded me of how athletes in my past life used to cool off by sticking their heads under the faucet during the summer.

The fire extinguished, the monster twisted its long neck and turned toward us.

Its two enormous eyes locked onto us. Those eyes, so large they seemed to cover half its face, moved independently from each other as they stared us down. Creepy.

“My throat… it’s so dry… so dry…” the monster wheezed, its voice rasping and distorted, as though filled with static.

The sound made my skin crawl. For a moment, I’d forgotten what true monsters were like.

I quickly prepared to exorcise the monster with Silveit—but stopped.

At that moment, countless ways to defeat the monster flashed through my mind.

I could bind its long arms and legs and sever them.

I could pierce its head with Heaven Piercer.

Or, I could even try mimicking the spherical cutting magic I saw a week ago.

But none of that would matter.

I’m here to help Nina-chan learn how to exorcise monsters, not to do it myself.

Just like how Nina-chan taught me Alchemy and Condensing Magic, I needed to guide her on the path to becoming an exorcist.

“Nina-chan, can you do it again?”

“Hah… hah…” Nina-chan’s breathing was shallow, her face pale. It seemed like she was nearing her limit.

“Water… I need… a child’s skin… give me skin…” the monster groaned.

Its long arm crushed a nearby glass pane with a loud crack, and one of its feet dug into the wall, while the other braced against the floor.

It was like watching an amoeba move.

Then, its mouth opened.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep