Rebirth From Ordinary Person To The Strongest

The last thing I remembered was that Ireena-san had left Haneda Airport, heading somewhere within Japan for her exorcist work.

I had assumed she wouldn't be back for a while and was busy with her assignments, yet here she was, in Tokyo, standing right in front of me at my school.

"You seem surprised, Itsuki-san," Ireena-san said with a knowing smile.

"...Well, yeah. It's hard not to be when you show up here out of nowhere."

Ireena-san's smile widened slightly, and she explained, "There's a spell known as Shunting. It allows you to exchange positions with a fairy. As long as you can manage the timing and handle the magical energy expenditure, it's quite useful. I used it to get here quickly."

Ah, I see now. It's similar to that teleportation magic I saw a monster use before.

Interesting. I should try experimenting with Raikou Douji using that technique sometime. But I shook off the thought. This wasn't the time to be thinking about new spells.

"More importantly, how did you know Nina-chan hadn't returned home after curfew?" I asked.

"Eh? Well, that's…" Ireena-san trailed off, her hesitation obvious.

I pressed on, determined to confirm my suspicions. "You've been watching over Nina-chan the whole time, haven't you?"

"No, I wouldn't say that…"

Nina-chan was still unconscious in my arms, and behind Ireena-san is Sensei, who's also knocked out. Neither of us could afford to back down in this situation.

But that was fine. I had no intention of backing down.

But that was fine. I had no intention of backing down. Not when there was still a corrupt, rotting slime-like monster standing in front of us. My objective was to exorcise it. And until I completed that task, there was no way I was retreating.

"You don't have to lie. I've been wondering for a while now. Why doesn't Nina-chan's house have a barrier?" I asked pointedly.

Any exorcist would set up a protective barrier around their home to guard against monsters. It's a basic precaution. My own apartment has one, and so does Aya-chan's home.

But there was no barrier around Nina-chan's house.

At first, I assumed Ireena-san didn't care enough about Nina-chan to set one up. But that idea was shattered when I spent time with Nina-chan, drinking tea at her home.

That's when I realized the truth. The house wasn't protected by a barrier. Instead, it was surrounded by a thin layer of fairy magic, so faint that I hadn't noticed it unless I focused.

That fairy magic even helped regulate the flow of Nina-chan's leaked magic. I'm sure it also had mechanisms in place to defend her if a monster came too close. This is just speculation, but it seemed plausible.

The only fact I was certain of was that the fairy was protecting Nina-chan in Ireena-san's absence.

And that raised an even bigger question.

"You were protecting Nina-chan all along, weren't you? If you cared enough to do that, then why didn't you teach her magic?"

"..." Ireena-san remained silent.

"If you're willing to show up in dangerous situations like this, wouldn't it have been better to teach her magic to defend herself? If she knew even basic defensive spells, she could protect herself."

"...That's not the way, Itsuki-san," Ireena-san finally responded.

At that moment, the slime monster transformed, turning into a dog in a desperate attempt to flee. Before it could get far, its right leg was severed, causing it to stumble.

That was Ireena-san's fairy magic at work.

As the dog struggled to get back up, I aimed my magic at it. But before my spell could hit, the monster shot out a black Silveit thread, canceling my attack.

...This is going to be a pain.

"Not everyone can become as strong as you, Itsuki-san. Not everyone is born with your talent. Nina's level is Fourth Order, a Bishop. She could fight if she wanted to—like me," Ireena-san said with a stern expression.

"But if I had taught her magic, she would've surely wanted to become an exorcist. And in this world, lacking even a shred of talent can get you killed. I couldn't risk her entering such a dangerous life."

"Still, you could've taught her just enough magic to protect herself," I argued.

"If I taught her defensive magic, then when faced with a monster, she would have developed the option to fight. That mere hesitation—the time it takes to consider fighting—would be the difference between life and death. That's why I chose not to teach Nina any magic. I wanted to limit her choices," Ireena-san explained calmly.

...I didn't entirely disagree with her logic.

My father had told me something similar before.

In combat, exorcists who were trained in both close-range and long-range fighting often struggled the most against enemies that fell into the middle range.

Hesitating between which form of attack to use often resulted in death.

"So that's why you didn't teach her magic?" I asked.

"Yes. By distancing myself from her, I hoped she would come to resent me, and by extension, the life of an exorcist. I thought… I thought that would be enough to keep her from becoming one," Ireena-san said, her voice softening into a sad smile.

"But I was wrong. This girl became an exorcist on her own. People say children can't understand their parents' hearts, but I suppose the same goes for parents when it comes to understanding their children."

"..." I wasn't so sure about that. Honestly, it just sounded like a lack of communication to me.

Before I could dwell on it further, the dog-like monster began to rise again.

"Ah, two exorcists. A Seventh Order and a Fourth Order. How terrifying," the monster muttered sarcastically as its form shifted back into that of a human.

"...I feel like I'm about to burst into tears from the fear," it continued, mockingly.

Ireena-san's fairy moved to attack once more, but the monster countered with its black Silveit, dispersing the fairy into thin air.

"Let's stop this bullying, shall we? You don't enjoy fighting someone stronger than you, do you? No one wants to die, right?" the monster said, extending its Silveit threads toward Ireena-san.

In response, I quickly summoned my own Silveit, weaving it into a net to block the attack.

The monster shrugged, seemingly unfazed.

"Truth be told, I don't want to die either," it said.

"That's rich, coming from someone who tried to devour Nina-chan," I shot back, sending out a fiery spear-shaped Silveit.

My magic was designed to pierce through any monster, which is why it's called Homurabachi—the Fire Hornet.

"And you also tried to kill Ireena-san."

The fiery spear shot forward, faster than the speed of sound, but it was quickly nullified by the monster's black Silveit.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"Close call. That would've ended me for sure if it hit," the monster said nonchalantly, canceling the explosion before it could even happen.

Before I could launch another attack, Ireena-san stepped forward.

"Shall we try again?" she asked, her voice calm.

As soon as she spoke, the monster's shadow stretched unnaturally long.

"Hmm? A shadow-based magic, is it?" the monster remarked as its shadow began to split apart.

One shadow, then two, then three—more shadows formed, and each one grabbed hold of the monster.

The shadows pulled, dragging the monster into the ground as if it were sinking into quicksand.

"Ah, how terrifying," the monster muttered, forming a small black box with its Silveit and clutching it close.

"I feel like I'm going to die from fear," it added sarcastically as it was pulled completely into the shadows.

Even though the monster had disappeared into the shadows, Ireena-san didn't relax her stance.

She looked at me, still tense, and said, "My Shadow Sending can only buy us time. The monster will break free in less than 30 seconds."

"...How are we supposed to exorcise it?" I asked.

The problem was that black Silveit. It kept nullifying our magic.

"The monster is using inverse-phase magic. Essentially, it cancels out any magic we throw at it by neutralizing the magical energy," Ireena-san explained matter-of-factly.

"Then how do we deal with it?" I asked, frustrated.

Ireena-san gave me a confident smile and said, "It's quite simple, really."

Suddenly, shadows began to flood the area once more as the monster emerged from the ground.

At the same time, the black box it had been holding opened and expanded, growing larger and larger until it could easily surround all of us.

In the blink of an eye, the world was sealed off again, and silence enveloped us.

"I've closed off all the exits this time. I'm not taking any chances," the monster said, weaving Silveit threads while Ireena-san's fairies disintegrated, their magic scattered by the sealed space.

But Ireena-san paid no mind to the threads or the collapsing fairies. Instead, she simply turned to me and said, with a smile,

"You just need to overpower it with a greater force of magic and pierce right through."

She looked at me expectantly.

"It's easy for someone like you, isn't it, Itsuki-san?"