ch21-ch40 · 028-ch25

Chapter 25 — Shinjuku Demon Frontline ②

Hiyori and Mio entered the site of the bombed Japan Exorcist Alliance Kanto branch building.

The center of the explosion was on the third floor.

There, several men and women were conducting an on-site investigation.

On the wall, some kind of red pattern was drawn.

Nearby, one person was sniffling and crying.

All of them were Hiyori and Mio's colleagues.

"Yo, Hiyo-chan. You're here."

"Good work, Uncle Sakuraba."

"Good work to you too. So, what's the situation?"

The man called Uncle Sakuraba made a grim face.

"Well... first, the damage report. Everyone on the third floor is dead. The others have some injuries but they'll live. The one with the least damage is this guy."

He indicated the man who was sniffling and crying.

Sakuraba, looking exasperated, scolded the crying man.

"Hey. Stop crying already."

"It's my fault for not noticing... ugh..."

Mio was surprised by how utterly crushed the man seemed.

"What happened?"

"Yeah, I'll answer for him... Looks like it was a human bomb."

"Huh? Human... bomb...?"

"It's a shitty story I don't really wanna tell girls your age, but brace yourselves, alright?"

This morning, an exorcist named Yashiro had entered the building.

The caretaker thought he sounded a bit off from his voice, but didn't think much of it and let him in.

A few minutes after Yashiro went upstairs, there was an explosion.

When the caretaker rushed up to the scene, there was a pile of dead bodies centered around Yashiro.

"Thanks to that, the exorcists on the third floor are all wiped out. The security cameras were still working up to a point, and we confirmed it from the data on the server too."

Sakuraba spoke with obvious disgust. Hiyori and Mio were stunned.

"A p-person turned into a bomb...?"

"............"

Mio was shocked by the revelation. Hiyori remained silent, her mind racing.

"Probably some kind of curse or magic that controlled Yashiro. Then they used Yashiro's own magical power to go boom. Like some forced self-destruct bullshit. The hell is wrong with these guys!"

Hiyori forced herself to stay calm and asked.

"What about the demon that did this?"

"At the very least, it's not here. No presence, and it never even came. But take a look at this."

What they'd thought was a pattern on the wall was actually writing.

Painted in large red letters on the wall was: "Tonight, at Shinjuku. We shall claim the tower."

The reason it was red — was that the blood of exorcists?

"Shinjuku... that means Shinjuku Tower, right?"

Ignoring Mio's words, Hiyori stared at the writing on the wall.

In the past, she'd never met a demon capable of something like this.

"Uncle Sakuraba. The one who wrote this — how strong do you think it is?"

"Based on the residual mana... it's way beyond the ogres we usually deal with. No mistake — it's mid-rank, like I told Yoshida. At the very least, I can't do a damn thing against it."

Sakuraba was a Mana Eye wielder, and while he was skilled at investigations using that power, he was completely useless in combat.

That said, he did possess sealing techniques using his Mana Eye. He had the ability to seal low-rank demons.

And that man had said "I can't do a damn thing" instead of "I can seal it."

If the low-rank ogres they usually fought were the bottom tier, then this opponent was mid-rank.

In terms of combat ability, it was an opponent that even a swarm of Redcaps — the goblin variants Hiyori had fought before at Shinjuku Tower — couldn't match.

In Shinjuku Tower terms, it was comparable to floor fifteen... no, floor twenty-class monsters.

And the number of them was unknown.

The gap in fighting strength was, to say the least, despairing.

"Mio-chan."

Unable to hold back, Hiyori called out to Mio.

"I'll fight alongside you."

Feeling Hiyori's unease through her skin, Mio declared firmly.

"I'm really sorry. That helps."

"Hehe, we said we'd get stronger together, didn't we?"

Seeing Mio's smile, Hiyori pulled herself together again.

After conferring with Sakuraba and the others for a while, Hiyori and Mio left the building.

They didn't know exactly when "tonight" meant, but they wanted to spend as much time as possible on preparations.

Hiyori and the others returned to the car where Yoshida was waiting.

Seeing them get in, Yoshida asked.

"So, what now?"

"I want to ask Sensei about armor. With what we've got now, facing a mid-rank demon is risky."

"Armor... it'd be nice to have equipment with strong magical defense."

"I don't really wanna tell him all the details, but..."

They both knew instinctively that this demon was bad news.

But at the same time, there was a feeling of "am I already going to lean on him for an opponent like this?"

"He's our teacher. I'm sure he'll have a good idea."

Mio said that with a smile.

That day, Sai was at home adjusting his own armor.

It was an attempt to disguise his equipment by attaching some Japanese-made armor plates over the gear he'd used in the other world.

The Mage Chimera on floor fifteen had been manageable with Japanese-made weapons and armor, but from floor sixteen onward, Japanese equipment was nothing but a liability, so he'd finally started work on the disguise idea he'd been sitting on.

He'd been meaning to do it for a while, but taking on Hiyori and Mio as disciples had pushed it to the back burner.

With a clang and a clatter, he hammered out parts of the armor and attached them to the leather armor he'd used in the other world.

Japanese-made armor wasn't bad in terms of materials, but it had no enchantment formulas carved into it at all, so it couldn't provide any magical defense or resistance.

"I wish magisteel tech would show up in this world too..."

Sai found himself wishing for the other world's technology — where enchantments were carved directly into the material itself — to exist on Earth.

Wishing for what he didn't have.

Still grumbling, the armor was taking shape nicely. "This should pass for Japanese-made armor," he thought, smirking at his handiwork, when his phone rang.

It was late morning.

When he answered the door, Hiyori and Mio were there, still in their uniforms.

"Yahoo~!"

"Sorry to drop by so suddenly, Sensei."

"Oh, it really is sudden. Well, come on in."

They'd messaged him a little while ago saying "we're coming over now."

He set up the usual table in the garage and prepared tea for both of them.

"Hey, Sensei. Is this..."

Hiyori and Mio were looking at the armor Sai had been working on.

"This? Heh, pretty good, right? I was disguising the light armor I used in the other world so I can use it in Japan too."

It felt like DIY, but it had come out nicely, and he was pretty proud of it.

Hiyori picked up the armor and looked it over.

"Whoa, it's light... What is this lightness? And it feels so nice!"

"The armor's main job is defense, but the key is how much resistance enchantment you can put on it while keeping it light."

"Sensei, you can put resistance-type enchantments on armor?"

"No, I can't do it myself. I had a partner in the other world make them for me."

"I see..."

Mio looked a little disappointed.

"What's with the face?"

He served them tea and sat down to listen.

"Well... actually, we came to consult you about armor, of all things."

"Armor?"

"The thing is, we might end up fighting a pretty strong demon, and our current armor isn't cutting it. But the armor we use as adventurers has really low magic defense..."

"Come to think of it, I never really asked — what kind of armor do you normally wear for exorcist work?"

"Normally..."

"Normally..."

Both of them looked off into the distance.

Then, steeling themselves, they answered.

"Whatever's okay to get dirty!"

"...In other words, normal clothes."

It was a shocking revelation — no armor at all.

Naturally, you couldn't count regular clothes as armor.

Sai's face immediately clouded, and his eyes became half-lidded.

"For real? Are you underestimating injuries? Taking combat lightly?"

"Sensei, let me explain! Let me plead my case!"

According to Hiyori:

The Ichijō family had — or rather, had once had — armor made by exorcists and smiths of the past.

But through the passage of time and the results of battle, much of it had been damaged and become unusable.

According to Hiyori's grandfather, "a lot of it burned in the air raids" was also a major blow.

As a result, what remained was mostly samurai-style armor.

But even that was "the wrong size and too heavy to be usable."

Besides, in battles up to now, the exorcists had defensive magic passed down through the generations, so they'd managed somehow.

"I see..."

"Plus, up until recently, my fighting style was me on the front line dodging, and Mio-chan in the back casting magic. It's only lately that Mio-chan's started standing on the front line too."

"So your fighting style's changing, and on top of that, you're facing a strong demon... that's the situation."

"That's why... we were wondering if you had any good armor or a way to improve our defenses. It'd be great if we could use the Hexa Shield, but we can't use it yet."

Sai listened and thought.

He'd shown them the magic barrier Hexa Shield before, but they still hadn't learned it.

It was a magic barrier suited for both physical and magical defense, but this time, it was out of the question.

For physical defense, the armor they normally used as adventurers would do.

So that left magic defense equipment.

The best option would be to give them clothes or armor with magic defense and various resistances, but unfortunately, his stuff wouldn't fit them at all.

He couldn't have them fighting in his shirts like some weird high school girls.

"Clothes won't fit, and with your weapons, you can't carry shields... By the way, do you know what kind of demon this strong one is?"

"No idea at all. All we know is that it's way stronger than anything we've faced before."

Sai listened, humming thoughtfully, and thought about what kind of defensive gear he might have.

"Isn't there anything? Like that necklace you showed us before..."

"Oh, right. That."

Sai opened his Item Box and took out several pieces of equipment.

Necklaces, rings, and earrings.

He had two of each ready.

"Sorry they're old men's used items, but this is about what I've got."

Sai explained the properties of each.

"This necklace boosts your overall magic defense and has an arrow-deflecting effect. The arrow-deflecting uses a bit of magic power, so be careful. This ring can deploy a simple barrier. The ring's sized for me, so wear it on your thumb or wrap it around a chain on your wrist or something."

"As expected of Sensei! You've got great stuff!"

Even to Hiyori's eyes, the accessories he'd brought out were clearly amazing equipment.

"And the biggest highlight is probably this earring. It's a mental defense earring. I don't really know what demons are like, but I'm guessing some of them use mental attacks. It'll deflect things like charm or fear — that kind of spiritual contamination curse."

They'd just heard that morning that the victim of the Kanto branch bombing had been controlled and turned into a human bomb. There was a very real possibility of mental contamination attacks.

Hiyori and Mio looked at each other in surprise.

This was more than they'd hoped for.

"Please, lend us this equipment!"

"Sensei, you're the best! I seriously love you!"

"That's a pretty mercenary declaration of love, but if it works for you, I'm glad."

Mercenary joy aside, it seemed the two were pleased, which was more than enough for an old man like him.

After chatting for a bit, Sai saw them off at the door.

"I don't know the full story, but do your best."

"Yes. We'll do our best!"

"Sensei, see you later~"

He noticed a black car parked near the house. Hiyori and Mio were walking toward it.

It seemed they had a driver today.

Sai gave a slight bow to the man in the driver's seat and watched them leave.

After seeing them off.

Sai realized he'd forgotten to tell them about the ogres from yesterday.

Was it just a common occurrence, or was it related to the "strong demon" Hiyori and Mio had mentioned?

Hiyori and Mio had been driven here today — unusual for them. Both were in their high school uniforms.

Yet instead of going to school, they'd come to Sai's house.

And there was the information about fighting a strong demon.

For a teacher to interfere while his disciples were trying their best... that wasn't right.

But he had no intention of being a man who just stood by with his thumb in his mouth while others headed into a death trap.

Whether in the other world or in Japan, Sai's judgment was the same.

"I'll watch over them..."

Sai hurriedly began rechecking his own equipment.

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Thank you for reading.