Chapter 83 - Volume 5 (2/2)
“……You, did you want to say something?”
Until now, Onzada who felt that he had only seen spirits as something to ‘destroy,’ spoke to it.
Neither his father nor brother felt anything, they just got the exorcism done. What Onzada felt, although it might just have been his gullibility and childish sentiment, caused him to hesitate in doing so.
“[………]”
The gaze of the ghost tethered to the earth shifted slightly. Following the gaze, he found the flowers that someone had offered it withering, and a small sake bottle was visible.
“……Is it okay if I open it?”
Even though he asked, the spirit didn’t answer. Onzada opened the cap of the bottle of sake, and splashed it on the stone that the flower rested on.
“Is that okay?”
After being asked again, the spirit looked at Onzada.
“Can you even talk? ………*cough*”
Onzada made an unpleasant face and coughed unexpectedly when he licked a bit of the liquor. Seeing that the expression of the bound spirit seemed gentler than before, Onzada took a closer look.
“Is that enough?”
“[………]”
Onzada scattered the spirit with the ‘ki’ in his palm. There was no resistance…… at all.
Onzada didn’t feel any sense of euphoria at his first exorcism, and his mouth twisted with the taste of the remaining sake.
“Haah…… how bitter.”
＊
On that night, Onzada exorcised another bound spirit.
It was the spirit of an infant with an indeterminate shape, that spoke about a fairy tale that was somewhat familiar, and then faded away even without being struck by ki.
“………”
Remembering the taste of the sake that he had licked a while ago, Onzada felt like drinking. He grimaced, since he was unable to do so as he was a grade-schooler.
Onzada was shocked by the realization of the truth.
“…… This was… not a practice battle at all, was it?”
He was slow to notice it.
“……geh.”
And as he walked along looking for a strong presence, he saw something strange in the corner of a scrap bin.
Simply put, it was the form of a ghost of a glitzy woman. Strangely enough the outline was very clear and so was the malice.
Remembering his brothers’ words: that the number and malice of the evil spirits were increasing because of the [Evil], Onzada’s face turned green.
It was the kind of evil spirit that made him want to call out for his brother, but Onzada hesitated. It wasn’t that he was overestimating his own power, but that the evil spirit had collected other floating spirits and was eating them.
“……Shit.”
Because they were already dead, there was nothing he could do.
While thinking so, Onzada rushed out towards that evil spirit.
“Stop it!”
Screaming that, Onzada infused his fist with the ki of his ‘anger’ and drove it into the back of the spirit.
“[KishaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!]”
At the evil spirit’s ‘scream’, the scrap bin around it cracked and shook, bursting open.
“Are you serious………?”
It was a fairly powerful evil spirit. If this was just the influence of that [Evil], then just how much power would that evil have?
“Uwah!”
Onzada managed to dodge the evil spirit’s swipe, but the back of his hand that had touched it slightly was bruised.
“…… Is this a spiritual attack?”
He couldn’t help it. To say nothing of exorcism, with Onzada’s power, even escape was difficult.
“…[Holy]…”
At this point, the evil spirit was wrapped in a pillar of light by that voice.
“[GyaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!?]”
The evil spirit screamed in agony.
“W-what?”
A few meters behind the evil spirit, there was a black, diminutive shadow.
It was wielding a sword as large as it was, and, with a speed that even Onzada couldn’t follow, it slashed the evil spirit vertically down from the head.
“[……o…… ah……]”
To easily destroy that kind of evil spirit, he wondered if that sword was some sort of divine instrument.
“……Y-you…”
That person who was wearing black clothing and whose face was covered in a black mask was even younger than Onzada, who was only in the fifth grade himself, and looked like a very young elementary schooler given their height.
“………”
And after glancing at Onzada who was dumbfounded, that black-masked person suddenly began to slash the floating spirits that were drifting around with the sword.
Every time it slashed, Onzada saw that something like light was being absorbed by the black covering, and he instinctively kicked them.
“Stop it!”
“!?”
Onzada’s ki-loaded kick was caught by that large sword and spat an unusual spark.
Even knowing that that black-masked person was his savior, Onzada couldn’t overlook them.
“You, what are you doing?”
“……?”
The black-masked person looked at Onzada oddly, and then nonchalantly swung the sword at him.
““………””
The two of them faced each other dead on.
At that moment,
*Jajan, jajajajan*
The theme song of a certain old man played, and the two of them unexpectedly lost the tension.
“Wai-wait a moment”
After clarifying, Onzada took out his mobile phone with a red face, and his face changed at the email with no title and no content.
Onzada felt the anxiety that bound his heart as he looked at the mail.
“……Yuzu?”
Author’s Notes:
Story Template:
[Onzada’s House of Worship [Adolescence Arc]] added.
Next time, the malicious shadow that approaches Yuzu.
…… Should we be worrying about the protagonist?