Communion (1)
Time passed, and Tuesday came.
The first-year cadets of Class A had shaken off their Monday fatigue and were heading for the classroom, greeting the morning in fine form. They drifted together in twos and threes, and talk flowered among them as it always did. Lately, though, there was only ever one subject.
"So, listen."
"Today makes it exactly a week, doesn't it?"
"The top student's taking the whole stretch off, packed solid? His internal injuries must be seriously bad."
"There's even a rumor he suffered qi deviation and his skills all fell apart..."
All of it concerned Bihyung, who had missed a week of class on account of the internal injuries he'd recently taken.
"Well. We'll know when we see him."
The allotted leave was up. He would either have to extend it or show up for class, and either way, they were going to see his face. The cadets of Class A couldn't quite hide the excitement stirring in each of them.
Mina watched them from behind, her eyes cold.
They think that once Bihyung steps down from the top rank next semester, they'll finally get a chance of their own.
Absurd. Bihyung was far more intact than they imagined, and his internal injuries were healing cleanly. Just this past weekend, when she had gone to visit him, she had heard that eighty percent of the damage was already gone. Even so, she hadn't been able to reach him since the day before yesterday, and that had left her with worries of her own.
And so, each of them lost in their own thoughts, they opened the classroom door.
Whoooom—!
An unapproachable presence bore down and pinned them where they stood.
"Ghk!"
"This is— what!?"
It felt like coming face to face with one of those mighty yokai they had only ever heard about in stories. Or perhaps this was what it would feel like to stand beside a high-rank exorcist in the middle of a fight and take the force of it head-on. It was not an atmosphere that had any business leaking out of a first-year classroom.
Then, as if it had been nothing more than a gust of wind, the presence crushing them vanished all at once, like a phantom. Dumbstruck, the cadets took in the only person already inside.
"...The top student?"
"Didn't he take internal injuries? Then what was that..."
Their common sense was cracking apart, and confusion was flooding in to fill the gaps, when a single footfall sounded.
Thud.
That one step became, in the next instant, the bright patter of a run.
"Bihyung!"
Mina paid no mind to the many eyes on her and ran straight to him.
The second-ranker saw all that and she can still smile like that?
...Top rank or second, they're both monsters.
Someone said they saw the second-ranker going into the top student's dorm over the weekend... don't tell me that's actually true?
The Class A cadets muttered among themselves as they watched the pair, but Mina and Bihyung didn't spare them a glance. Mina's eyes sparkled at the sight of him after two days.
"Are your internal injuries all better?"
"Yeah."
"But... what was that just now?"
When she asked about the presence, a bitter smile touched Bihyung's lips.
So it did leak. Even while I was focused on the staff.
In truth, the presence that had crushed the classroom hadn't been his full power. The pillar inside the staff had suddenly tried to thrash, and what spilled out was nothing more than the dregs of him venting a little extra presence to keep it down. Even so, that scrap alone had been enough to stamp a single realization into every cadet of Class A.
I am the top student.
"There's this thing I picked up recently. If I'm going to handle it, I have to vent it. Otherwise it gets rough on me."
"Okay! Got it!"
Mina didn't press. She simply nodded. The sight moved him, in its way, but the cadets still trembling nearby left him with a complicated feeling.
How am I supposed to live an ordinary life like this. Seriously...
A sigh welled up on its own.
I need to find a method, and soon.
He had tried to dismantle the spear that had lain in Eodugi's domain and fuse it into the divine weapon. The result, however—
As you can see. A clean, total failure.
...I suppose it's only natural, if anything is. The spear turned to ore and fused, and what it became is the divine weapon itself.
In other words, that spear could be called a part of the divine weapon. Or a fragment of it. Trying to dismantle it—and recombine it—with a staff that was merely S-rank was a distant hope. He would probably need to reach at least EX before it was even possible.
If not that, then burn through the spear's durability as fast as I can.
But that was difficult too.
Even in the game, swinging it day and night, the durability only barely wore out around the ending.
Playing the game, he had enjoyed the luxury of ignoring durability altogether. Now that it was reality, the same thing had come back around as a penalty. He was scratching furiously at his head in frustration when a voice cut in.
"Oh? And what's this, now?"
With his trademark lazy drawl, the homeroom professor parted the crowd of cadets and stepped into the classroom. His eyes met Bihyung's.
"Our top cadet. Did you go around advertising that your injuries were all healed? Why are these kids so spooked?"
"It's not— ...Yes. Well. Something along those lines."
"That so? Bursting with energy, as always."
Chuckling, the professor beckoned to the cadets huddled together at the entrance.
"If you're going to call yourselves exorcists, don't cower—get in here. What is this? You're not frightened puppies."
Only then did the cadets, faces flushed scarlet, file in one by one and take their seats. After confirming everyone was present, the professor went on.
"This week's lesson is the same as yesterday's... though some of you weren't here to hear it, were you? I'll explain again. This week, you'll be getting familiar with the weapons you obtained in the weapon selection."
Bihyung's ears pricked.
Getting familiar with the weapon? Right—there was something like that.
The weapons gained from the selection were growth-type, their functions upgrading little by little according to the exorcist's own achievements. That was why the Academy itself set aside time to grow more accustomed to them and carefully dig into what they could do. By the midgame you swapped the Academy weapon out for something better, so he had forgotten it completely.
In the game you just meditated and that was that. How's it going to work here?
He found himself interested. The spear he had come to regard as nothing but a burden was a prize from that same selection. If he could grow even a little more familiar with the thing, maybe he would finally get a handle on it. That was his hope. Please. Seriously.
"Fundamentally, you hold your weapon and meditate, and you go through a process of communion. Along the way you break down the wall between yourself and the weapon, and you take reaching the realm of Divine Weapon-Body Unity as your final goal."
The moment he finished, cadets who had already sat through yesterday's lesson raised their hands.
"Professor. Does a realm like Divine Weapon-Body Unity really exist?"
"Why? Look impossible to you?"
"...Honestly, yes. I meditated all day yesterday, and the idea of becoming one with a weapon still won't settle."
"That so? Well then... you lot. Count yourselves lucky."
With a snicker, the professor sprang up and planted himself atop the lectern.
"It's not something you get to see just anywhere."
As he spoke, the moment his hand closed around his wooden staff—
"...!!"
Every cadet froze. A person had been standing there only a moment ago, and suddenly what stood upon the lectern was not a person, but a wooden staff.
...It's enormous.
Bihyung saw the staff's shadow as well. But unlike the other cadets, who saw an ordinary wooden staff, what appeared before him was a staff of immeasurable scale, vast beyond any size he could gauge.
That's Divine Weapon-Body Unity?
"Put no distance between the weapon and oneself, and the distance between weapon and wielder shrinks without end."
"Therefore the weapon is my hand, and a part of my own body."
Lines spoken, in the game, by those who wielded the realm of Divine Weapon-Body Unity.
Using it raised the efficiency of energy transfer, didn't it?
Go further, and you could acquire a skill called Qi Sword Control. One hand drawing talismans, while a sword floating in empty air poured energy in and inscribed a formula. The ultimate form of playing several parts at once, and the stage at which you became a monster unbound by the limits of being a single person. The NPCs in the game used to insist that Divine Weapon-Body Unity was the higher art, of course.
As far as I was concerned, Qi Sword Control was better.
Back when he had peaked as an exorcist, keeping five swords aloft and intercepting his opponents with them was still one of the joys he couldn't forget. While he was briefly steeped in the memory, the professor drew his momentum back in and grinned.
"Know that you're honored. At the Academy, almost no one besides me can do this. Among the professors, not a single one."
Even the way he said it, snickering, somehow looked less sloppy than magnanimous. So this was why a person needed ability.
"Anyway. Divine Weapon-Body Unity is an attainable realm. But expecting it from hatchlings like you would be like telling a newborn to go kill a yokai, so... just hold it as a goal while you commune."
Between a clear goal and a half-hearted one lay a gap that could not be crossed.
"So quit grumbling and give it a try. Who knows? You might pass beyond the realm of communion and step into the realm of intimacy. Then you can even repair a worn weapon through your energy."
At those words, Bihyung's eyes flashed, as if something had clicked.
Divine Weapon-Body Unity had a function like that? Repairing worn-down durability?
Then—could the opposite be possible too?
As if he had caught the thread, he nodded and followed where the professor led, toward the indoor training hall. He opened a door like an auditorium's, and a broad open space revealed itself.
"All right, grab a spot anywhere and— hm?"
Before the professor could finish, Bihyung was already the first to step forward and claim a place. A spear rose in his hand.
Let's try this.
He slung it roughly over his shoulder, folded his legs into a lotus seat, and sank into meditation. As his deep breathing gradually evened out, the spear across his shoulder thrummed. The professor's eyes went round as he watched.
He entered the realm of communion in a single breath. Talent, at least, is exceptional... hm?
Then his eyes flew wider still at Bihyung and the spear, which had begun to change.