Chapter 2: Progress

After I finished training with Renji-san, Momoka-san gave me a ride back to my temporary apartment.

Aya-chan wanted to come along too, but Renji-san told her that they hadn’t finished training for today, so unfortunately she is now training with him.

“Give my regards to Kaede-san.”

“Yes!”

At the entrance, I saw Momoka-san off and was about to walk back to my room when I saw a familiar black-suited brother standing at the entrance.

What’s that? Isn’t that guy from the Kamiarizuki family?

As I approached and looked at his face, I remembered. He was the one who taught me attribute change.

It is no exaggeration to say that he’s one of my masters of magic.

He was about to put something in our mailbox, so I spoke to him.

“Hey, Onii-chan! What’s wrong?”

“If it isn’t Itsuki-sama. It has been a long time. Are you just getting home now?”

The brother noticed me after a while and widened his eyes in surprise, then he knelt down and looked at me. He didn’t have to go that far.

“I was training with Renji-san to sharpen my senses for the guiding thread silvate.”

“At the age of six, huh? You’re already training to sense the thread silvate…. as expected of you, Itsuki-sama.”

What’s so special about it? I wonder what this is all about.

“Do you like to practice magic?”

“Yes. I like practicing magic. I love it.”

“It’s good to know that.”

The older brother smiles at me.

“Why are you here?”

“Yes. The Lord wanted to talk to you, Itsuki-sama before you entered elementary school, so I came to give you a letter from the Lord, but no one was there.”

“What? Neither my mother nor Hina were at home?”

“Yes. The timing wasn’t good.”

Then they went shopping at the supermarket?

My mother, who never stepped out of the house until I was three years old, has recently been going out on her own, not by mail order, for shopping. My mother is the kind of person who likes that kind of thing.

So, did I really miss them along the way?

Well, I have a duplicate key to the house, so there is no problem.

“In Kamarizuki again? Why?”

“Well, isn’t it true that Itsuki-sama exorcised Raikou-douji?”

“Yes.”

“That’s why there’s been a bit of a ruckus in the area.”

Ruckus….?

Did I do something wrong?

No, I exorcised the monster. There should be nothing wrong with that.

“Why?”

“Because Raikou-douji is a monster that has lived for hundreds of years and has killed countless talented exorcists. It is great news that he has been exorcised….”

Did he live that long?

That’s why he had a subtle, old-fashioned way of speaking.

“Yes, and after word got out that it was Itsuki-sama, not Soichiro-sama, who exorcised the Raikou-douji, all hell broke loose, up and down. The story even went overseas.”

“Is that so…?”

“Yes. The Lord wants to talk to you about all of this and much more.”

The brother in black bows his head.

“So, if it’s not too much trouble, I would like you to give this to Soichiro-sama.”

“To Papa? Yes. that’s fine!”

“Thank you.”

After receiving the letter from the brother in the black suit, we talked a few more words and parted ways.

Then, after pressing the elevator button, I let my thoughts wander.

But still, the older brother said that news about the exorcism of Raikou-douji is causing a ruckus. But why?

It seems that they know that I exorcised him, so I wonder if the fact that a child exorcised a monster of the sixth rank is the point of all the fuss. I wonder if they will make me fight stronger monsters because of this.

With that thought in mind, I used my duplicate key to enter the room and found that the house was really empty.

I looked in the shoe box and saw that there were no shoes of my mother and Hina, so they might have gone shopping somewhere.

…… so this is a good chance, right?

“I’m home.”

I greeted my return home properly, which I never did in my previous life, even though no one was home.

It’s a habit now.

I took off my shoes, washed my hands, and headed for the living room.

In the corner of the room is a Japanese dictionary. I had brought it with me from the house that had collapsed.

I pulled out the Japanese dictionary, opened it double-faced, and muttered triumphantly in high spirits.

“Today’s the day I’m going to name my magic!”

Yes, this is also my dictionary of names of magic techniques.

Flipping through the dictionary, I look for the name of Raikou-douji’s “Body Enhancement” that I used today, as well as the names of other lightning magic. This is a secret ritual that I can only do when no one is home. The reason why I can only do this when I am alone is simple: my parents taught me only simple kanji characters other than hiragana and katakana.

Imagine me flipping through a Japanese dictionary while trying to think of the name of a technique.

It’s abnormal, isn’t it?

That’s why I choose the names of my magic tricks in secret when my parents are not around.

The house we used to live in was big enough for me to do it in an empty room while my father was at work and my mother was doing housework, but where we live now, there are only a few rooms and there is no place where I can steal a glance and read the names.

So I can’t name them unless Hina and my mother are out shopping like this.

“…… Raiso(Lightning Armor) is a little too much as it is. it’s a little too direct, isn’t it? Reverse it, and you get “Sorai Raiso”….. Hmmm. It doesn’t feel right either.”

The reason why I am naming my magic in the first place is that I’m creating a routine for activating magic.

To explain briefly, an exorcist has a habit of stabilizing magic when he or she performs magic. For example, when using magic, they may strike their toes against the ground, blink twice, and so on.

In this way, an exorcist stabilizes the power, output, and success rate of magic by having his or her own unique habits when invoking magic.

However, this isn’t something that only exorcists do.

It is exactly the same as the routines that athletes do before and during games.

They eat curry every day, shower during halftime, take a unique stance before shooting, and so on.

And my father says that the success rate of magic in extreme conditions is totally different if you have a magic habit routine than if you don’t.

When I looked into what my routine was, it was ‘chanting’ that I was unknowingly using.

Originally, I used to say it to memorize what kind of magic I had been taught, but I found myself muttering the name of the magic before using any magic. It’s a habit. So, my routine became “chanting”.

I decided that if I was going to go to the trouble of saying the name of the technique, I might as well make it more exciting, and so I consulted the dictionary.

“…… Lightning-type challenge English? No, I think that’s going too far…..”

As I was mumbling and flipping through my Japanese dictionary, I heard a clatter from the front door.

“Itsuki? You’re home!

“Hello, niicha. Welcome home!”

And then, two familiar voices echoed.

Oh, no. I have to close the door next time.

“Oh, you’re back! Mom! Hina!

I closed the Japanese dictionary and put it at the end of the living room.

“Put your shoes properly when you get home!”

Oh, I’d forgotten.

I ran to the front door to see Hina putting my shoes together for me…what’s up with being a big brother to a 3 year old?

Previous chapter | TOC | Next chapter