The Academy's Savior
BOOM! CRASH!
Explosions thundered one after another. The blasts kept erupting all over the place, so frequent and so violent it almost felt like a war had broken out.
A diversion. They're trying to rattle the teachers and students of Arashi Academy.
The raiders had no intention of fighting a full-scale war against Arashi Academy. They weren't terrorists — they were thieves. The explosions were nothing more than a cheap trick to draw every eye. Casualties would be almost nonexistent.
BOOM! CRASH!
I spotted a masked man roaming the academy grounds, lobbing bombs as he went. For the actual force of the blasts, the noise was absurdly loud.
Annoying as hell.
He was tossing the things practically right next to me. My ears were ringing, irritation was climbing fast, and that bastard was getting on my last nerve. Before I knew it, my feet were already carrying me straight toward the masked man.
I sprinted at him in the open. Even so, he never sensed me coming. That was the Ghost Cloak at work.
Rank: S
Conceals the wearer's appearance and presence.
The Ghost Cloak was a different kind of stealth item from the Illusiter I already owned. The Illusiter only made the body invisible. The Ghost Cloak erased presence itself. I could charge him head-on and he still wouldn't feel a thing.
It's not perfect. Anyone hypersensitive to presence, or with serious detection skills, would still catch me.
But a guy running around scattering bombs was clearly a grunt. He didn't have the skill to pierce what the Ghost Cloak was hiding.
I reached him from behind, stretched out a hand, and seized his head. Before he could even react, I drove him face-first into the ground with raw force.
"Ghk—!"
He screamed, but his hands still moved with cold precision. From a pouch strapped to his thigh he drew a razor-edged dagger, the blade flaring with light.
Not sword aura. A skill, then?
Whatever it was, I just had to put him down before it hit me.
Lightning.
CRACKLE—ZZZZT!
Current erupted from my palm and raced through his skull. He died without even managing another scream.
Finally, some peace and quiet.
I started to rise — then froze. A dark energy was seeping from the dead man's body.
Demon Hunter (S) has detected the presence of a Demonkin.
All stats temporarily increased.
Attack power against Demonkin temporarily increased.
The moment Demon Hunter (S) reacted, the corpse began to change. His frame swelled, and six blades sprouted from his back.
"Demonkin transformation. He died to electrocution, but… demonic power, huh."
Demonkin.
Humans who had contracted with demons for power.
People of this world called them traitors to humanity.
Summon Hwaryeonbido.
Before he could fully rise, I swung Hwaryeonbido and took his head. Shhk! The head rolled across the ground. Even as a corpse, the body that had begun transforming into a Demonkin never reverted to its original form.
You have hunted a Demonkin. A portion of HP and mana has been restored.
I didn't feel much of anything. I hadn't burned any real HP or mana in the first place.
Leaving the Demonkin's corpse behind, I ran for Tsukuyomi Shrine.
Tsukuyomi Shrine was a wreck from the fighting.
The barrier that had protected the shrine was down, and most of the buildings had been smashed to pieces. Debris lay scattered in every direction.
The battle was still raging. Masked figures were locked in combat with Arashi Academy teachers. Hyodo Yuuki was dueling a man with a blade, and Miyakado Mieko, the shrine maiden of Tsukuyomi Shrine, was fighting for her life as well.
Arashi Academy was losing ground. If I joined the fight, the tide would turn — but my goal wasn't to help Arashi Academy crush the enemy.
No sign of Principal Tenrai Nagisa. Just like the original story — she's tied up somewhere.
Events were unfolding according to the source material. That worked in my favor. Wrapped in the Ghost Cloak, I headed deeper into Tsukuyomi Shrine. Everyone was busy with the fighting. Even people sensitive to presence never noticed me as I walked straight into the shrine's interior.
Heh. Things are going smoothly.
I made for the shrine warehouse. Masked enemies were gathered there. At their center stood a man in a red coat, staring into the depths of the warehouse. A black eyepatch covered his left eye.
Hattori — a cadre of Madojeong.
His subordinates around him were moving with frantic purpose.
Hattori stood motionless, eyes fixed on the warehouse interior.
"How much longer to break the barrier?"
"It's more solid than we anticipated. We'll need twenty minutes."
"You have ten. Break it."
"Ten minutes is far too short!"
"Ten minutes."
"…Understood. We'll do everything we can."
"I said ten minutes."
"…We will get it done."
I kept my distance and watched. Hattori, a cadre of Madojeong, was a powerhouse even I couldn't take lightly. Get too close and I was guaranteed to be caught.
It's still following the original plot. The opening will come.
When the chance arrived, I'd use Charna to snatch the prize, then vanish with a spatial transfer scroll. My face was already hidden by the Ghost Cloak. That was enough.
Alright. Let's see if the goods are really there.
I activated Heavenly Eye and scanned the warehouse.
Beneath it, protected by a barrier, sat a crimson magatama roughly the size of a fist.
An SSS-rank artifact.
It wouldn't be strange for a nation to designate it a national treasure. If the Japanese government ever learned it existed, they would absolutely lock it down under special management.
Only a handful of people in Japan even know about this magatama.
Tenrai Nagisa, who could be called the true owner of Tsukuyomi's Magatama, didn't trust Japanese intelligence. That was why the treasure was kept here.
It's so powerful that even owning it doesn't make it easy to use.
In the original game, the moment you acquired it, it was just another item — no messy aftermath to worry about. But this wasn't a game. This was reality.
In the game, Tsukuyomi's Magatama is used either to craft something or to enhance equipment.
The more efficient option was enhancement.
Upgrade a weapon with it and you get a thirty percent chance to deal a one-hundred-percent defense-piercing attack.
Defense pierce applied to magic as well.
I let the happy fantasies spin.
I take that thing into the world of God's Atlantis. I've got Hephaestus's mission waiting. Use Tsukuyomi's Magatama to upgrade Hwaryeonbido or Stormbreaker… Heh. Just thinking about it makes me giddy.
That was when it happened. Hattori, who had been standing still and staring at Tsukuyomi's Magatama, suddenly turned his head. I'd been deep in my little fantasy circuit, so I nearly jumped. Fortunately, his gaze wasn't aimed at me — it went toward the entrance.
She had green hair. Pale skin. Shinbo Reika, the top-ranked first-year at Arashi Academy. Her emerald eyes shone with confidence.
Reika leveled the silver rapier in her hand at Hattori. Familiar spirit power radiated from the blade, carrying a crisp, clean energy.
The second I saw her, my face twisted.
What the hell is she doing here?!
The original story had just been derailed. I had no idea why.
"The wind told me. You're the one behind all of this, aren't you?! Get out of Arashi Academy right now!"
"…I've heard of you. Shinbo Reika. Youngest knight of the Yggdrasil Knights, correct? Killing you would complicate things, so I won't. An arm, however… that should be fine. Let's see if you have the right to run your mouth like that."
Hattori swept his right hand. Three shuriken flew at once, moving at near-bullet speed.
"Aeris!"
A barrier of wind bloomed in front of her. The shuriken slammed into it and clattered to the floor.
An intermediate wind spirit. So Aeris is the spirit's name.
I activated Spirit Eye and watched the fight. The wind spirit was hidden in the air currents, but it couldn't escape my Spirit Eye. I locked onto it.
Aeris was a rare humanoid spirit — female form, no less. Of course, as an intermediate spirit, the finer details still diverged from a real human. No nipples. No sex.
She fights differently from ordinary spirit users.
Spirit users normally put their spirits out front. The reason was simple: spirits were strong. Reika, though, fought with the rapier herself. The wind spirit handled support exclusively.
Less raw power, but she uses the spirit's strength with real efficiency.
The duel between Hattori and Reika continued. Hattori was relaxed. Even if Reika was the top-ranked first-year, Hattori was the kind of fighter who could give even an A-Class hero a hard time.
"Your combat sense isn't bad. That's as far as it goes."
Another Hattori appeared beside the first. A clone. The fight became two-on-one in an instant. A kick from Hattori sent Reika crashing to the ground.
"I can still… fight…!"
Reika forced herself up, coughing blood. Her will to fight hadn't broken. Hattori's eyes went cold. He gripped a shuriken, and the blade elongated into a long edge.
"Looks like you're right-handed. I'll take the right arm. From now on, stop playing at heroics and live as an ordinary civilian."
"Aeris! Blow everything away!!"
Reika shouted. Instantly, a colossal wind dropped from the sky. It spun around her like a blender, grinding everything in its path.
Even Hattori had no choice but to fall back and focus on defense. Same for me. I put distance between us, deployed a force field, and blocked the wind that came my way.
The gale gradually lost its force and faded. Around Reika, only the scars of the rampaging wind remained.
Thud.
Reika dropped to her knees.
Hattori clicked his tongue and walked slowly toward her. Blood dripped steadily from his right arm.
"That last thrashing was fairly useful. I was going to settle for the right arm, but… on second thought, you'll be a nuisance later. Uproot the weed before it grows. I'll end you here."
I felt a presence racing toward the shrine. Hyodo Yuuki. He'd seen Reika's wind and was charging this way with everything he had. Hattori was so focused on killing Reika that he still hadn't noticed Yuuki's approach.
Damn it. This situation…
The classic Japanese light-novel plot: the protagonist saves the heroine in the nick of time, she falls for him, and she joins the harem!
No! Reika is a woman I'm after!
For a split second, I hesitated.
Step in first and save Reika — or wait, and take the chance to grab Tsukuyomi's Magatama?
Fuck it! There's nothing to think about!
Obviously the woman comes first.
Charna
Remaining stacks: 6
I gripped Hwaryeonbido and exploded forward at full power.