ch21-ch40 · 033-ch29

Chapter 29 — Shinjuku Demon Frontline ⑥

The enemy was overwhelming.

Yoshida, Hiyori's attendant who had come to support the front lines, and Sakuraba of the Exorcist Alliance covered their eyes at the grim scene. Many exorcists had fallen, and the front-line captain had stopped breathing.

The red giant — no, though his nose was cut off, the opponent was a tengu.

The tengu who had mastered the immortal arts was laughing.

"KAKAKAKA! Little girls, not bad! You're holding out well!"

Hiyori and Mio coordinated, trying to oppose the tengu, but their coordination was broken by sheer brute force, and they were beaten relentlessly.

"Miss!"

"Hiyo-chan, that's enough! Run!"

The girls were battered by violence.

Were the adults who couldn't fight simply fated to watch?

"Hey, Sakuraba. I'll make myself a wall. During that time, retrieve the young ladies."

"Got it! Don't you die!"

"I made a promise with the young lady!"

Yoshida's body was no longer fit for battle. His right hand was a prosthetic, his left eye was artificial.

He still had both legs, but they weren't legs that could run. His muscles were damaged.

But enduring the pain, Yoshida ran.

No, he couldn't be said to be running properly.

But to save the master he was meant to protect, and her partner, his own life was insignificant.

Thus, Yoshida and Sakuraba made it near Hiyori and Mio.

Hiyori was unsteadily getting to her feet.

Mio was still down.

"Young lady! Flee, please!"

"...No."

The unexpected refusal made Yoshida's blood boil.

Just as he was about to shout, Sakuraba next to him raised his voice.

"Don't talk crazy! If Hiyo-chan dies, what then?!"

"I'm... almost there. More importantly, do you have a potion...?"

"Here...! This is the last one!"

Hiyori walked, dragging her battered body, stumbling as she approached.

She snatched the intermediate recovery potion from Yoshida as if taking it by force.

Then she took only a single sip and headed toward Mio.

If it was the last one, her partner needed healing too.

"Young lady, what are you doing?!"

"...Quiet, Yoshida-san."

At that moment, Yoshida was confused by his master's words.

The correct response as an attendant would be to stop her, even by force, from not fleeing.

But his master — Hiyori — still had her eyes blazing bright.

Though her body seemed about to give out, her will still burned.

He knew better than anyone that when she got like this, she couldn't be stopped.

He saw his younger self — who had kept fighting long ago — overlapping with the girl before him.

If he stopped her now, if he held her back...!

Sakuraba started to run toward Hiyori.

But Yoshida stopped him.

"Oi, Yoshida! What the hell are you doing?!"

"The young lady wants to fight! How could I stop her!!"

Gritting his teeth, tears streaming, Yoshida stared at Hiyori's retreating back.

Hiyori went to Mio, let a little potion drip onto her chest, then poured it into her mouth.

Mio spat blood but revived.

Sōya watched the scene with a grin.

Ichijō Hiyori was incomparably strong when it came to fighting demons.

In one-on-one combat, she had a perfect winning streak, and she sought to become even stronger alongside her partner, Kuri Mio.

Because she knew that if she wasn't strong, if she couldn't win... Japan would fall one day.

The adults she could rely on in demon combat were far fewer than she'd imagined.

In fact, of the front-line unit, only Hiyori and Mio were still standing.

That was precisely why she sought strength alongside Mio.

She'd asked Sai to teach them, and was moved by how much stronger she'd become in just two months.

At this rate, when a great demon eventually appeared, she could face it.

Just as she thought that, a Majin calling himself Sōya — a tengu — appeared.

His nose was gone, but with his bright red skin and muscular, brawny physique.

The Majin before her was a tengu who had mastered the immortal arts.

He might not quite be a great demon, but he was an entity that should be classified as a high-rank demon.

For some reason he didn't use immortal arts, but he trampled everything through sheer terrifying physical strength alone.

Why had a demon of this caliber appeared in the present world?

The tengu possessed the same strength as Sai.

No — because he struck with full force without holding back, the damage was worse than during sparring, and her entire body was screaming. Thanks to the simple barrier ring and recovery potions Sai had lent her beforehand, she could somehow keep facing him, but her physical fatigue limit had long been exceeded.

"...Mio-chan, you good?"

"Hiyori... I'm fine."

Both of their bodies were already in tatters. But their eyes hadn't died yet.

As they adjusted their stances, Sōya also took his combat posture.

Mio thrust with her staff-type magic wand.

"KAKAKA! You tried that trick already!"

The tengu caught the thrusting staff in his brawny arm with minimal movement.

As Sōya's movements paused, Hiyori followed up by swinging her beloved Shiroharai at his throat. But he skillfully manipulated the staff he'd seized, altering the katana's trajectory, sending the blade in a different direction.

Then, with deliberate care, he tossed the staff back beside Mio.

He was enjoying the fight, this tengu.

At that moment, a distant explosion echoed.

But Hiyori and Mio were focused solely on the enemy before them.

"Mmm?"

Sōya turned his face toward the direction of the explosion.

"Chance!"

She didn't know why, but an opening had appeared. A critical moment had been born.

Hiyori and Mio simultaneously fired a rapid barrage of magic bullets at Sōya.

"GAHAHAHAHA! So only I'm left!"

Hiyori and the others didn't understand what the tengu was saying, but at that moment, Sōya had sensed Kinya's annihilation.

"No way..."

Sōya didn't even dodge the magic bullets — he absorbed them completely.

It felt like there was no impact at all.

"Now then, it's my turn!"

Sōya threw a punch at each of them — Hiyori and Mio.

For what felt like the umpteenth time since the battle began, the two lost consciousness.

"...Hey, Hiyo-chan!" "Young lady!"

Voices called them from afar.

Hiyori woke to them.

She used her sword as a crutch to stand up.

When she came to, Mio was also using her staff-type magic wand to get up.

"Stop already, Hiyo-chan! Mio-chan! You're at your limit!"

She could hear Sakuraba and Yoshida's distant voices, but ignored them.

She felt like she was just about to grasp something. They were noisy.

She was so close to grasping it.

That was what Hiyori was thinking.

At that moment, someone approached Hiyori and Mio.

Her head was still hazy, but she could tell someone was near.

Sakuraba, Yoshida, or another exorcist.

Honestly, Hiyori found it annoying.

She couldn't afford to lose here. She had to keep fighting.

"You two alright?"

Standing beside Hiyori was Sai.

When had he arrived? Or had he been fighting somewhere too? Sai was also wounded.

But they were all just superficial scratches.

In terms of damage, Hiyori and Mio were far more seriously injured.

"I just need a little more to take down that guy... the Majin."

"Watch us, Sensei."

"But with that damage..."

Even Sensei was going to try to stop them.

Even though she felt like she could almost defeat him.

Even in her hazy consciousness, Hiyori's fighting spirit hadn't died.

"Just watch...!"

"We'll defeat him..."

Hiyori shouted, while Mio declared it quietly but firmly.

Their entire bodies were already screaming, yet their hearts still shouted to fight.

It was a kind of trance-like state, perhaps.

Sai looked at their bodies.

Thanks to their adventurer armor and the accessories he'd lent them, they didn't have fatal wounds.

But their bodies were at their limit.

They wouldn't die, but they were on the edge — he could see that.

The biggest problem was that if he stopped them here, their adventuring careers would be over.

If Sai defeated that tengu, from now on they wouldn't be able to fight properly.

In future battles, when they were in a pinch, they would learn to give up.

They would lose the most essential talent for an adventurer and a warrior — the ability to "not give up."

He understood that painfully.

Facing an overwhelmingly stronger opponent and achieving victory.

Even though they might be able to do it, having that opportunity taken away was frustrating.

That was precisely why Sai decided to let them do what they could.

"Alright. Still, in that state, you can't beat anything, can you. Here, first drink this."

Saying that, he handed each of them a high-grade recovery potion.

First, he fully restored their stamina and injuries.

But even so, their consciousness was still hazy — no, they were in a state of hyper-focus.

Hiyori and Mio had been beaten down who knows how many times while Sai wasn't watching.

He confirmed the two had drunk the recovery potion.

"One piece of advice. You already know this, but change up how you fight. Use everything I taught you, every trick you have, and read the enemy's movements before they make them."

Focus all five senses on the enemy, and use intuition to anticipate their moves.

And if they realized the essence of magic control... they should be able to defeat an opponent like that.

Hiyori and Mio answered vaguely, not quite knowing or caring.

"Right... yeah... got it..."

"Pull out more..."

The two saw nothing but the tengu before them.

Whether the advice had reached them or not wasn't clear.

But maybe, with the way they were now...

As Sai was giving them advice, Sōya butted in.

"GAHAHAHA! So you're the one who took down Kinya! Forget the little girls! You fight me!"

"You shut up and keep dealing with these two."

At that moment, Sōya flinched at a fury he'd never felt before.

The tengu himself took a step back.

He felt joy at that fact.

"KAKAKA! The little girls are done after this round! Then I'll take you on!"

"Shut up. Don't underestimate my disciples."

Saying that, Sai glared at Sōya.

"You two, go!"

"Yes!"

Hiyori and Mio stood before Sōya.

The final showdown of the Shinjuku Majin Frontline began.

Hiyori and Mio wore expressions they'd never shown before. The faces of warriors.

Opposite them, Sōya had yet to suffer any serious wounds, and he laughed at the thought of the feast (Sai) to come.

Hiyori struck first.

Firing holy-attribute magic bullets, she drew her beloved Shiroharai and ran.

Flowing smoothly, Hiyori unleashed her sword strikes at Sōya.

For Sōya, it was a movement he'd seen many times in this battle.

They only moved along the ground. Tedious movements for Sōya.

"KAKA! I've seen that movement countless times!"

Sōya threw his iron fist.

With this fist, he'd knocked Hiyori down many times.

This time, the iron fist would sink into Hiyori's chest — or so he thought, but it didn't.

"What?!"

He'd punched her, but an abnormal sensation blocked it.

"...I knew you'd punch like that."

Hiyori had finally, as her teacher taught her, "built her intuition" and read Sōya's moves.

And the source of that abnormal sensation that stopped the iron fist — that too was the universal shield her teacher had taught her.

In this extreme state, she had finally mastered it.

Sōya was stunned.

She read his moves! But even so, the human eye couldn't catch his iron fist!

How on earth?!

This confusion created a massive opening.

He had focused too much on Hiyori in front of him.

At this moment, Mio was behind Hiyori.

And before he knew it, she was directly above Sōya's large body.

"She's flying?!"

Those who knew would understand.

It was a Hexa Shield. Mio was standing on a Hexa Shield.

Just like that day when her teacher saved her, filled with admiration, she had decided to stand on the universal shield.

Mio's staff was a magic wand.

A mid-rank magic wand from the other world — one Sai had once used.

"UAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Screaming, Mio loaded her maximum magical output into a magic bullet and fired at Sōya's head from above.

If she could control the magic within her.

Then she could also put more than the usual amount of magic into a single spell.

What would happen if she put fifty, or even a hundred, instead of ten into a single strike?

An unprecedented, concentrated, massive magic bullet struck Sōya.

"GUAAAAAH?!"

Sōya took damage and barely escaped.

"Why is she flying?! It's not even like immortal arts!"

He urgently readjusted his stance.

At that moment, Mio — who had somehow appeared right in front of him — was swinging her staff.

As she swung it through, he grabbed the staff.

It was a flow he'd seen many times in this battle.

Perhaps because of that, Sōya tried to grab the staff.

But the staff didn't come flying. It was just a feint.

Sōya couldn't read through it.

Mio had won the exchange of reading movements.

"Ngh?!"

And then.

"Secret Sword Draw: Shiroharai — One Flash!!"

From behind Sōya came Hiyori's voice as she unleashed her ultimate technique.

The next thing Sōya knew, his head had fallen to the ground from Hiyori's secret art.

"NUOOOOOH?!"

Hiyori had seen through the moment Sōya focused on Mio with her five-senses concentration, and struck from behind with her ultimate technique.

"KAKAKAKA! To think I'd be done in by little girls! What a disgrace!"

Even though only his head remained, Sōya was still laughing.

Though they'd been trying to kill each other just moments ago, his laughter was oddly disarming.

Hiyori and Mio were dumbfounded by the strangely cheerful Majin.

"But tonight's battle was good! I applaud your growth!"

With named demons, unless you used magic like Sai had against Kinya, their souls merely returned to Kakuriyo.

And now, with other exorcists watching, Sai couldn't very well use that magic, and more importantly, he didn't want to spoil the magnificent victory Hiyori and Mio had achieved.

"A tengu's praise... that's not bad, but I think I'll pass on fighting you again."

At Hiyori's words, Mio nodded silently, over and over.

"KAKA! Don't say that! We'll meet again someday, little girls!"

Gradually, Sōya's body and head began to disappear. He was returning to Kakuriyo.

"Oh, wait! Little girls, I never got your names! I only knew you as the Ichijō girl!"

"Ichijō Hiyori."

"Kuri Mio."

They'd introduced themselves at the start, but he'd forgotten.

Whether because of the thrill of battle or something else, this tengu had completely forgotten their names.

"Ichijō Hiyori and Kuri Mio! Understood! I'll carve those names into my being! My true name is—"

He tried to answer with his true name, but Sōya's head vanished.

His body also faded away, returning to Kakuriyo.

At that moment, the Shinjuku Majin Frontline came to an end.

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Thank you for reading.