ch21-ch40 · 026-ch23

Chapter 23

While Hiyori and Mio were in the bath after their training session at Shinjuku Tower, Sai was taking a walk by himself.

He hadn't decided on a destination.

He was in the mood to try walking down streets he hadn't been on before, at most.

His purpose was simply to enjoy thirty years' worth of change.

Looking at the road, cars and electric kickboards were running.

The push kickboards he'd seen as a kid had become electric kickboards in the modern era thirty years later. Maybe trends just come full circle.

The cars looked sleeker. Sai, having come back from the other world, couldn't tell how much they'd evolved in thirty years. But he felt that cars from the old days had more angular designs.

The interiors must have evolved too, no doubt.

"...Come to think of it, I can get a license now, can't I."

Car licenses required you to be eighteen, if he remembered right. Sai was old enough.

It would be convenient in various ways, and making time to get a driver's license wouldn't be bad.

Ever since returning to Japan, he'd had more freedom with his time than when he was in the other world.

If he got one, moving around would be more convenient.

...As things stood, this guy who only ever moved between his home, Shinjuku Tower, and Ichijō Hiyori's dojo was thinking "moving around would be more convenient" — Sai's inner voice scoffed at him.

But when he was a kid, he'd been taught that "when you grow up, you'll enjoy driving."

It might be worth trying.

Thinking about things like that, he wandered along.

Suddenly, he sensed a presence.

—The presence of a demon.

He turned his gaze. Through the gaps in the protective sheeting of a building under construction, he could see an ogre.

"An ogre... a hungry ghost?"

It was a monster he'd never seen in the other world, but as a Japanese person, Sai was familiar with it.

In Japan, the mana in the atmosphere was still too thin for ordinary people to see such beings. But people with sufficiently developed Mana Perception could see demons and evil spirits even now.

The fact that Hiyori and Mio, as exorcists, could see them was proof of that.

"I'll take care of it."

Sai confirmed the surrounding presence of people and made sure no one was paying attention to him.

He quietly generated a small holy-attribute magic bullet in his hand.

If he entered the building under construction, he'd get yelled at, so he increased its homing properties and fired it through the gap in the sheeting.

"GYAH!"

He confirmed that the hungry ghost had been hit cleanly and was dissipating.

Whether demons or evil spirits, their bodies were composed of magical power.

Beings of that level, upon death, vanished without leaving even dust.

"The question is, how often do they normally appear around here..."

When he enhanced his Mana Perception and looked around, he sensed several more demonic presences.

In the urban areas of the other world, barriers kept the occurrence rate of low-level evil spirits low.

Barriers that operated continuously over long periods sometimes developed gaps, and that was when appearances occurred. In such cases, church priests, knights, or adventurers would be dispatched to deal with them.

What about Japan?

How did the reporting and communication flow work here, anyway?

Ordinary people didn't even know exorcists existed.

"I'll talk to Hiyori and Mio about it next time I see them."

Having decided that, he quickly dealt with the remaining hungry ghosts whose presences he'd sensed.

Meanwhile, on the roof of a decrepit multi-tenant building a few kilometers north of Shinjuku Tower.

There were beings watching Sai's actions.

All of them were demons with twisted forms.

"That mongrel... so he took out the stray, did he?"

"He looks weak. Acting all high-and-mighty against small fry!"

One was a male demon with a lean, fierce body.

But his stomach area was like a large mouth, and his head bore a strange mask and twisted horns.

The other was a female demon in Japanese-style clothing.

She had an alluring figure, but her entire body was covered in fur — half-beast, half-demon.

To anyone who knew what to look for, she'd give the impression of a fox beastman.

"Appearances can be deceiving. He might not be as weak as he looks."

"You think he's hiding his power, like us? Kyaha! No way! That guy's a small fry, for sure~♪"

The male demon felt that maybe — just maybe — there was skill in how he'd spotted the hidden hungry ghosts and disposed of them with minimal effort.

But as the female demon said, the man who'd killed the hungry ghosts gave off no spiritual presence at all.

More importantly, he didn't smell like their hated enemies — the exorcist clans they'd fought in the past.

"Might be a letdown, then."

The door to the roof rattled loudly as it opened.

"Hey! Kinya, Rokuya! Found something interesting!"

A massive, muscle-bound red man stood there. His face had a nose that was completely gouged out, and in his hand, he was gripping the scruff of a dying salaryman by the neck.

"Sōya! Don't shout so loud! You're annoying!"

"Sorry, sorry, Rokuya!"

"So, what's that?"

"Heh, Kinya. This guy was keeping an eye on us."

The big man called Sōya tossed the salaryman carelessly onto the ground.

Both his legs were already broken, and his body was covered in bruises, on the verge of death.

In this state, he couldn't even speak — only let out groans.

"Ugh, this old dude. He fuckin' stinks!"

"He's from an exorcist clan. I recognize the smell of this blood."

"Kill him?"

The half-smile vanished from Rokuya's face, and just as her hand rose—

Kinya stopped her.

"Stop."

"Hey, why're you stopping me?"

"If he's from an exorcist clan, there's a good use for him."

Kinya spoke in a level-headed voice.

But the mouth on his stomach split wide open into a grin.

"It's been a long time since we last visited this world. We ought to send them a message."

"GAHAHAHA! It's been about three hundred years, after all! Gotta send 'em a greeting!!"

"Ah~, that kinda thing? Got it♪"

All of the demons wore cruel smiles.

They were looking at Shinjuku Tower.

"We'll use this one to declare war. Then that tower. That unnatural presence — something from the Age of the Gods. Let's go take it."

The large mouth on Kinya's stomach laughed.

Ever since Shinjuku Tower appeared, the supernatural had returned to reality.

The occult was considered part of fiction — a way to put a label on phenomena that science couldn't explain, and in modern times, it was seen as material for creative works.

But part of the occult was true.

Science still hadn't explained it, but the existence of Skills and magic was proof.

The existence of supernatural beings... monsters, had also become clear. As long as the rules weren't broken, they wouldn't come out of Shinjuku Tower, but they'd been exposed to public eyes and ears.

So what about spiritual phenomena?

It had been confirmed that monsters called evil spirits appeared inside Shinjuku Tower.

But for example — during Obon in Japan, did ancestors really return to their homes? Did spirits that couldn't find peace wander the streets? Could a videotape actually become possessed by an evil spirit?

These were topics that had become hotly debated right after Shinjuku Tower appeared.

They dominated television and the internet day after day, changing religious perspectives around the world.

Major chaos had continued, but the eventual conclusion was: "Even if they exist, we can't see them."

Amid all this, a very small number of people — those close to the political and economic centers — had, through their existing connections, reached out to certain people.

Families with whom they'd had ties as faith healers.

In the early 2000s, amid global change and chaos, without the general public ever knowing, the Ichijō family and its faction had dynamically shifted their position.

The Ichijō family — said to be a line of exorcists stretching back to the Heian period, who'd run a faith-healing business as their selling point — had "evil spirit exorcism" as one of their trades.

At the time, it was dismissed as mere ritual or a superstitious gesture. But the Ichijō family's exorcism was real.

The government secretly made contact with people who worked as exorcists, including the Ichijō family.

In those days, the world had been on edge from the chaos caused by Shinjuku Tower's appearance, but citizens had been able to maintain their composure because it was established that "as long as you follow the rules, monsters won't come out of Shinjuku Tower."

But if evil spirits and demons actually existed, and if monster-like beings were running rampant outside of Shinjuku Tower — and if that came to light... It wasn't hard to imagine what kind of problems would arise.

The Japanese government (and governments of other nations), wanting to avoid further chaos at all costs, decided to handle the existence of evil spirits and demons in secret.

As a result, the organization "Japan Exorcist Alliance" was born, backed by the Japanese government.

Their existence was kept hidden, and they were obliged not to publicize their activities.

The morning after Sai dealt with the ogres.

Early morning.

The building housing the Kanto branch of the Japan Exorcist Alliance.

A man in a salaryman's outfit was about to enter.

There was a caretaker's room right next to the entrance.

The system was that you couldn't go upstairs without the caretaker unlocking the door.

"Yes, who is it... oh, Yashiro-san."

"Ugh..."

"I'll open it now. One moment, please."

The lock was disengaged.

The man called Yashiro went upstairs without saying anything, just groaning.

The caretaker was absorbed in his smartphone at the time and didn't look properly at Yashiro's face.

If he had, he might have noticed that Yashiro's eyes were unfocused.

But since Yashiro was a Kanto branch member, he didn't think anything of it.

He only noted from Yashiro's tone that he seemed to be in a bit of a rough state.

Five minutes later.

A massive explosion occurred on the third floor of that building.

The chaos began.

================

Thank you for reading.