ch1-ch20 · 019-ch17

Chapter 17

A few days after Sai declared he'd take the two high school girls as disciples.

Their first lesson was to assess their capabilities.

Truthfully, he only knew their strength from the streams his nephew had shown him, and from when they were in a pinch on the eighth floor.

He needed to know more details — how strong they were and how they moved.

So to figure that out, he needed somewhere spacious, and ideally a place where they could train without attracting attention. The place Hiyori suggested was this.

"...I had no idea a place like this existed in Tokyo."

A two-story building — a fairly large, imposing house stood firmly on the lot.

He hadn't measured it precisely, but it was big enough to fit an entire city block.

At first glance, it looked like the kind of place someone in a certain line of work would live.

Security cameras were installed everywhere, and there was even a magical barrier.

"Sensei~, over here!"

Hiyori, dressed in a dojo uniform, called out to Sai.

Her jacket was white and her hakama was vermillion — at first glance she looked like a shrine maiden, but the fabric seemed to be the kind used for training wear.

If he just stood there staring at a high school girl, that'd be a problem, so he followed her lead.

They arrived at a large training hall.

"Here it is!"

"I see. This is exactly what I ordered."

The floor was fully wooden, and the ceiling was nice and high.

It looked like a kendo dojo, but looking closer, there were traces of blood left behind, a well-used sandbag, and wooden training dummies like the ones you see in kung fu movies. The shrine... well, kendo dojos sometimes have those too, so he'd set that aside — but it was clearly more magnificent than his home shrine and radiated magical energy.

Putting the oddities aside, it was a spotless, gleaming dojo, well-worn but meticulously cleaned.

Sai bowed once and entered the dojo.

"Sensei, thank you for your guidance today."

Mio approached quietly and greeted Sai.

She was also wearing a shrine-maiden-like dojo uniform.

Sai decided to change in the changing room.

After some deliberation about what to wear, he went with the outfit he used to wear when he was an instructor at the Adventurer's Guild in the other world.

To a Japanese person, it might look like medieval European clothing, but it was the same outfit he'd worn when sparring with rookies at the Adventurer's Guild. It was easy to move in, and while it looked like plain cloth, it was training combat gear with excellent cut resistance and magic defense.

He hadn't worn it in a few months, but putting on clothes he'd often worn in the other world inside a Japanese dojo felt strangely surreal.

When Sai changed and came out of the changing room, the two girls' reactions were amusing.

"Ooh, it's got that other-world vibe."

"It feels kind of like how I imagined it would."

"It's what I used to wear over there."

He figured the surreal feeling came from the mismatch in time, place, and occasion.

Standing in a wooden-floored dojo wearing full-on medieval fantasy gear — the incongruity was doing its job.

"Alright, since this is our first session, I want to gauge what you two can do. You brought your weapons, right?"

"I've got this!"

What Hiyori showed him was a katana.

"A katana made in the Edo period for exorcists. The inscription is 'Shiroharai.' It's about mid-rank among the swords in my family's collection. I've got stronger weapons, but I can't really handle them yet, so this is what I'm using for now."

Sai took Hiyori's Shiroharai and checked the blade. The edge was thinner than a typical katana, and it felt light. It was designed so that even a physically weak woman could use it to full effect. The blade length was about the same as a standard short sword — roughly two shaku three sun. A good length for swinging around inside a place like Shinjuku Tower.

He could also sense a purifying-type magical power — it was clearly a weapon made for demon exorcism.

"A good sword. By the way, do you ever use other weapons? Ranged ones, for example."

"I can use a spear a little, I guess. Bows and guns? No good at all."

"Usually, Hiyori fights as the front line and I support from the back."

"I see... Well then, Mio-san, can you show me your weapon too?"

"My favorite one broke on our last expedition, so this is a gun rod I used to use."

A gun rod. It looked like a gun, but it was unmistakably a magic wand.

Its key feature was that since it was shaped like a gun, it was easy to aim when firing magic.

Magic wands served various purposes — some simply amplified magical power, others improved control or accuracy, and still others functioned as mana tanks.

There were even oddball ones with hidden weapons built in.

The gun rod Mio took out this time had the advantage of being easy to aim, but beyond that, its power amplification and control were barely worth mentioning — it had almost no advantages beyond being easy for beginners to handle.

"Hmm. So this is a straightforward beginner weapon. Mio-san, do you use any other weapons?"

"I borrow a short sword from Hiyori sometimes, but I don't use it in actual combat."

"Okay. Then let's start with a warm-up sparring match."

"Sparring — Sensei, what weapon are you using? What'll it be?"

"Since this is about gauging your strength, I'll go with this."

With that, Sai flexed his hands open and closed. Unarmed.

He was saying he'd use his fists.

"You two use the weapons you've got now."

"Eh?"

The weapons they had right now — Hiyori had her katana Shiroharai, and Mio had her gun rod, even if it was a beginner model.

He was saying he wanted to spar with weapons that were dangerous enough to kill.

"No matter how you look at it, isn't that dangerous...?"

"I'm not taking a single hit from a couple of rookies."

That remark got Hiyori a little irritated.

Hiyori had her pride as someone who'd fought continuously as part of an exorcist clan. Sure, the man in front of her might be a veteran adventurer, but was it really possible that she couldn't land even a single hit?

"Don't blame me if you get hurt, okay?"

"Don't worry. Come at me."

The moment Sai said that, Hiyori immediately drew her katana in a horizontal slash.

Her aim was Sai's neck. A hit there would mean serious injury for sure.

Of course, she had no intention of actually hurting him.

She planned to stop just short.

But that thought was shattered in an instant.

She'd drawn her katana in a horizontal sweep. It should have been a lightning-fast draw, but Sai had pinched the tip of the blade between his fingers.

"Huh?"

"I've got potions with me, so come at me as much as you want. Mio-san, don't just stand there — attack too."

"...U-Understood!"

The two high school girls got serious.

"Mio-chan, let's go."

"I've got your back."

Hiyori slashed at Sai.

Sai dodged with a fluid motion.

Mio tried to shoot him with a magic bullet as he dodged, but Hiyori was in her line of fire.

Even when she tried to shoot around Hiyori, Sai moved to match her.

Using Hiyori as a wall on the line of fire, Sai kept his distance from Mio.

"Tch!"

"Are you just going to watch, Mio-san?"

Sai's provocation irritated Mio, but she had no room to attack.

Just as she thought that, Hiyori sidestepped.

The line of fire to Sai opened up — and without missing that moment, Mio fired an unaspected magic bullet.

Mio figured this much would only sting a little.

But the magic bullet vanished in Sai's palm.

"What was that...?"

Hiyori, who'd seen the move up close, was even more shocked than Mio.

"Normally I'd dodge or deflect a magic bullet, but doing that would wreck the dojo. So I used a magic shield to cancel it out."

Normally, he was protected by an arrow-deflecting enchantment, so he didn't even bother dodging.

Sai grinned.

"Hiyori-san, that last move was good. Think more about your coordination."

The moment Sai spoke, Hiyori thrust her sword at him.

"Too slow! You should have thrust the moment I dodged before!"

Hiyori and Mio readied themselves and caught their breath.

"Sensei, you might actually be really strong."

"Yeah. I'm glad we asked him."

From the exchange just now, it was clear he was stronger than anyone in the Ichijō family.

That was the impression they got.

"One more!"

Hiyori slashed at him, layering feints using an application of Mist Slash.

But the next moment, she stumbled.

Sai had tripped her.

"You think I'd fall for such obvious feints?"

Sai tried to follow up with a punch at the fallen Hiyori.

"Hiyori!"

Mio fired a rapid volley of magic bullets to stop him.

But they were all cancelled right in front of Sai.

Every single magic bullet in the barrage vanished in Sai's hand.

"That was good! When your comrade's in trouble, you support them immediately!"

"Yes!"

Even as she said it, Mio thought to herself, But my magic didn't even hit him...

"There's a reason your magic keeps getting cancelled! Don't dwell on it now! Hey, you're standing there like a statue!"

"Y-Yes!"

Mio answered flustered.

With that, Sai took another step back.

By then, Hiyori had gotten up, and Mio stood at a slight distance.

"Alright, now I'm coming at you. Try to dodge or defend!"

At that, Hiyori and Mio readied themselves to defend.

Hiyori stepped forward to protect Mio.

Her stance was that of a front-liner determined to hold the line — but the next moment, Sai was above Hiyori's head.

"No way!?"

Mio had been moving in sync with Hiyori, and that turned against her.

A heavy, strong fist was right in front of her face.

A fist that made her feel death itself —

"Boo. That's one."

Sai didn't actually hit her, but the large fist right in front of her face overwhelmed her, and she plopped down onto the floor.

"Mio-chan!"

Hiyori was startled by the movement, hesitated for a few moments, then charged at Sai.

But the moment she reached out, she was thrown.

It was a beautiful shoulder throw.

"Gah!"

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Thank you for reading.

Today also marks a two-chapter update.

Another update is planned for 8 PM.

Thank you very much.