ch21-ch40 · 021-ch21

Chapter 21: Blooming

"So you were eating together with Lumiel-kun after all! Geez, Lumiel-kun sure is a glutton. Of course I'll prepare your share later—"

"No, I was eating alone."

"O-Oh, I see..."

Momose-san immediately fell silent.

Momose-san, who'd been consistently calm and collected ever since he saved us from the Hunting Dogs guild, was clearly shaken now.

Please don't tell me this is some kind of bug because my magic power's too low or something?

"Can you still eat more?"

"Uh, yeah. In fact, I'm getting hungry."

"..."

Momose-san glanced at Lumiel briefly.

Then, after a short pause, he spoke again.

"If it were simply a case of low magic power, you should've felt full after just one bite of kibidango. But you didn't. Which means, Hagane-kun, you don't have low magic power."

Then it follows—Momose-san continued.

"As Shiki-kun theorized, Hagane-kun's magic power is depleted. To put it more precisely, you might be in a state of constant exhaustion."

"Constantly exhausted?"

"In other words, what we're doing right now is like pouring water into a bucket with no bottom."

So I'm a bottomless bucket, huh.

Momose-san looked at Lumiel again.

"Lumiel-kun. Is this what they call your price?"

"I don't want to answer."

Lumiel's reply was so cold it could almost be taken as rejection.

"Hey, come on, you don't have to say it like that..."

"I don't want to answer."

With that, she kept her head down and fell silent.

If it weren't true, she could've just said "no," so Lumiel probably knows something about the magic depletion issue.

『First, we need to know what this girl really is.』

『There has to be another reason why she descended. Figuring that out should come first.』

My sister's words came back to me.

Maybe I can consider that I've made a little progress in understanding Lumiel.

Momose-san didn't seem inclined to push further either, and his eyes turned back to me.

"If you can't increase your magic power, then all the plans I had in mind are out the window. Instead, there's something I'd like to try."

With that, Momose-san pulled out a tablet and showed me the footage from the test with Shiki-kun.

The video stopped at the moment I hugged Lumiel.

"See here — right when Hagane-kun hugged Lumiel-kun. At this instant, the barrier's nature shifted from defense to absorption."

I'd noticed that myself.

After that point, Lumiel even managed to absorb and release.

Then Lumiel, who'd been silent, spoke up.

"That was Koh's power."

"Come again?"

My power?

I heard Momose-san mutter "Just as I thought" from beside me.

"I suspected as much. I was planning to test that theory, so actually, I prepared a machine for this."

Momose-san's tone seemed to be rising, but I'll ignore that.

Where Momose-san waved his hand, a pompous-looking scarecrow sat enthroned.

It looked like a mage wearing spiky armor.

"Battle Mage-kun Model 038! At full charge, it can handle five straight hours of training! A superb machine that can even simulate magical attacks!"

"Why are you talking like an infomercial?"

"Because I bought it on that infomercial."

It's probably gonna break and become unusable right away! (Prejudice)

If I asked the price, my sister would probably come flying over to yell at me for wasting money, so I'll pretend I never heard that infomercial part...

"I believe Hagane-kun has a talent for absorption. So to confirm that, I'd like you to take Battle Mage-kun's magic directly with your body."

"Take it... wait, won't I die?"

"Don't worry, I can adjust the power. First I'll hit you with a very low-output spell. Just receive it with the image of absorbing it. Think you can do it?"

If it's just imagining it, I can do that.

I held out both hands vaguely and kept chanting "absorb~ absorb~" in my head.

An ominous sound rang out as Battle Mage-kun raised its wand. I could see magic power gathering at the tip. The crackling sound definitely meant it was lightning-type.

More importantly, how much power are we talking?

I remember once going into an electric bath at a public bath and twitching so much my friends laughed at me. Physically, I might be weak to electricity.

I never want to go through that again...

If I mess up, electrocution. If I mess up, electrocution...

"GYAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

"STOOOOP!"

Momose-san stepped in and the electric shock stopped.

The result: I couldn't absorb the magic and got electrocuted.

"Hagane-kun, were you thinking about something else?"

"N-No, not at all..."

"No good, no good. Focus, focus."

Momose-san turned Battle Mage-kun back on (apparently the power cuts every time you turn it off).

"H-Hold on, Momose-san. The claim that I have absorption powers is still just a hypothesis, right? For all I know, I might just keep getting electrocuted pointlessly from now on—"

"Alright, round two."

"MONSTER!"

Battle Mage-kun's magic power swelled.

Telling me to focus is easy for him to say...

Something hugged me from behind.

It was Lumiel.

"If you fail, I'll die with you."

"What are you saying..."

Her words hit me like a shock.

Die — right, if I fail, I die.

Sure, Battle Mage-kun is adjusted, but if this were a real battlefield, failure means death.

If I die, would Lumiel, as my Descent Beast, die too?

Would she be sent back to where she came from? Or would she vanish?

"I won't let that happen...!"

I raised both hands and concentrated.

The lightning bolt came at me in slow motion.

And then it hit my palm — and vanished.

"(I did it...!)"

The sensation of electricity being drawn into my palm and energy swirling inside my body.

It felt completely different from blocking.

It was more like it got sucked into my body.

"Momose-sa—"

"!"

The moment I turned around, Momose-san's fist came flying!

I blocked it with my hand instinctively... and it was surprisingly light, easily stopped.

"Hey, what was that all of a sudden!?"

"I see. Excellent."

"Don't just say 'excellent' like that!"

Momose-san looked at his own fist and continued.

"That punch just now — it was actually full force."

No way, that can't be right.

That can't be right... right?

"Hagane-kun. The essence of your power isn't limited to absorbing magic. More broadly, it seems to be an ability to absorb power itself."

Absorb power itself?

"Wait, so does that mean I could stop a car with one hand or something?"

"Well, yeah, you probably could, but please don't."

Wait, isn't that like, the strongest??

Is that the thing from Super___ that I've always dreamed of!?

"Please don't?"

"Ah, yes."

He really stressed that.

But still...

"Is it normal to have two skills?"

"That's the thing."

Momose-san crouched down and stroked Ken-kun (who was lying weakly on the ground).

"For example, Ken-kun has the ability to produce kibidango that restore magic power. In that sense, I have two abilities: summoning and kibidango production. But that's a case of a summoned beast's unique skill, so it's not uncommon."

But, Momose-san continued.

"Hagane-kun, you yourself have two abilities — Descent Arts and absorption. This is probably another world-first."

World first — why does it always have to be me?

Does this mean I'll be hunted again?

Another thing I can't exactly be happy about...

"There's one more question."

Momose-san raised his index finger with a troubled expression.

"If this absorption power could be converted to release like Lumiel-kun does, it would be a very logical ability."

"What do you mean?"

"Like Lumiel-kun did during the test — charging the opponent's power into your body and firing it back — that would be rational since it doesn't require fuel. But with Hagane-kun, it's different. Because you can't store the energy needed to convert it into an attack."

Momose-san stroked his goatee and looked at me.

"After eating kibidango, after taking a punch — your magic power remains depleted... So where is the energy gained from absorption going?"

In short, I'm in this weird state like someone who's a big eater but stays skinny.

It would make sense if the absorbed energy was being transferred to Lumiel, but she won't touch this topic at all. Hmm.

Well, whatever! Momose-san clapped his hands.

"For now, let's find the upper limit of energy you can absorb. Just being able to stop an S-Rank Hunter's full-power punch is proof of S-Rank potential."

Looks like the direction for now is decided.

But still...

Descent Arts that can stop a World Clock solo.

Absorption power that can stop an S-Rank's fist.

So why am I still G-Rank?

And so, our training began.

And then the time moved forward — to the day before the World Clock Liberation.

○○○○○○○

A sudden announcement.

Originally I planned to stop at the end of the first arc, but with everyone's support, I got carried away and kept updating live. As a result, the second arc hasn't been properly reviewed, and critical comments have increased. It's a difficult thing.

My plan was to finish the publication manuscript I'm currently writing, then resume daily posting once I've written up to the end of the second arc...

But after thinking about it, I've decided to keep writing as far as I can. Because I want to write. Because what I write when I want to write is the most interesting. Criticism accepted — the one who writes the freest novel in this world is the king of Kakuyomu!!

So there will be another update tomorrow. Thank you for your support.

If you could follow, rate, or leave a review, I'd really appreciate it!