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Inyouchuu Etsu Prologue Part 2

[Yeah, you said it! That being said, watch our surroundings, Mikoto! And Takeru! Please work your magic! We leave the dispelling of this barrier to you!]

Hearing the boy’s words, Takeru smiled fearlessly behind the metal frame of her glasses. In this situation where everyone’s fate was at stake, it was utterly irresponsible to say things like: “I’ll leave it up to you!” But still, by saying that, a hot flame was lit inside of Takeru’s heart. By mobilizing all of her knowledge inside of her head, she would search for the most efficient and daring technique that would immediately allow her for dispelling the barrier, and once she was able to find it, she would spring to action right away.

[Alright, I understand, Tachibana-kun. Nee-san, please go behind me.]

Takeru couldn’t help herself but to think that this was the usual way in which this Black Cat Agency would choose to do things. After all, this is just the way in which Yamato would act and what he would say.

The greatest enemy of every exorcist is to be distracted by fear or anxiety. If you let your mind wander unnecessarily, you won’t be able to demonstrate your abilities at their fullest potential, your movements will become sluggish, and you’ll be delayed in your immediate response to threats. In actual combat situation, that momentary hesitation can be the difference between life and death more often than not.

But Yamato was able to easily dismiss that fear and anxiety with his natural optimism and easygoing attitude, something that would always calm down Mikoto and Takeru’s hearts. His was a presence that reminded both of them of the pure and unwavering trust that he was putting in his comrades, and the importance of friendship in this particular line of work.

[I, I implore you, oh the Great King White West: bring down your tender roar and cast the rain that harms your dignity away! Bring down your might to cleanse the impure world and bring back the natural order of your creation!]

Takeru chanted the spell while taking out a small ofuda talisman from her uniform’s chest pocket and throwing it in the air. The talisman continued to soar higher and higher, even though it should have been brought down to the ground by the heavy raindrops.

[Your tender roar…… Let it be heard…… LET IT BE HEARD!!!]

Takeru’s fingers pointing towards the sky were wrapped in faint phosphorescence at that moment. And in the next moment the gust of wind blew so hard that everyone was unable to keep their eyes open, and then the pounding rain suddenly came to an abrupt stop.

[Whoa, amazing…… I guess that’s what it feels like to call upon the gods for a divine intervention, huh?]

[Takeru, are you alright?]

It must have taken a considerable amount of stamina and spiritual power to erase all that weather manipulation barrier. Takeru was breathing hard while her chest was moving up and down heavily,as the rain drops and sweat continued to drip from her eyes and glasses frame.

[Don’t worry about me, Nee-san. This mountain is a sacred mountain, after all. So one’s spiritual power should be recovering fairly quickly in here…… Ahh?]

[Whoa there!]

Yamato grabbed Takeru by the arm just as she was about to stagger and fall down to the ground, and then he supported her and pulled her right back on her feet. Then Yamato put Takeru’s arm over his shoulder, and he started to carry Takeru while giving her a piggyback ride.

[H-Hey, Tachibana-kun!]

[We don’t know what kind of other traps are waiting for us up ahead, so let’s just move on for the time being. Let’s go, Mikoto.]

[Hey! Oh no, you don’t! Don’t you even think about leaving me behindddddd!!!!!!]

“Ikihimeyama” is a sacred mountain where Oni demons are said to be sealed away.

At the base of the mountain, there is a small village governed by a family of exorcists, whose bloodline goes as far back as the ancient Heian period.

At the current moment, Tachibana Yamato, Shiratori Mikoto, and Shiratori Takeru, three exorcist apprentices, set from that village up the sacred mountain in order to undergo their final examination, a challenge that would make them into fully-fledged exorcists, called the Rengendou.

ZWOOOSH!

A pale light of spiritual power sweeps through the sky, cutting off the head of a huge beast.

The carnivorous beast’s head, which didn’t look like any of the beasts that would normally walk the earth, even though it was a ferocious one, turned into many white paper cards and shot up in blue flames upon its death thralls. This was not a normal beast made out of flesh and blood.

It beast was a being known as a “shikigami”, an artificial creature brought to life by the use of an exorcism technique.

[Tsk, just how many of you are hiding in there, huh!?]

Mikoto, who held up the Exorcism Sword “Raikou” in her hands, spat out on the ground in a show of disgust.

Since interference through weather manipulation turned out to be unsuccessful, it was only natural that what fallowed right after it was the interference through sheer force. Even though she was prepared to brave some hardships during this final examination to become a fully-fledged exorcist, but the ponytailed beautiful girl was irritated by the sheer number of traps that were more persistent than expected along their way.

(Each one of those things is not all that powerful, especially for my Raikou, but there are just so many of them and they just keep on coming…… Not to mention that Yamato is……)

When the shikigamis that lurked behind his back tried to jump at him, he turned around in a hurry only to see the beasts being stabbed through their bodies and exploding into a myriad of pale blue flames and explode.

[Yamato! Don’t overdo i! We must retreat for now! There! Eat this, you bastardssssss!!!]

STRIKE!

With a loud sound Mikoto pierced the ground with Raikou and then she formed a few hand seals with both of her hands in a quick succession.

BZZZZT! BZZZZT! BZZZZT!

Bluish-white lightning surged out of the sword, and intense arcs were scattered all over the place with Raikou at their center. As a result, all of the shikigamis surrounding the three exorcist apprentices were set ablaze and gone before long.

[Nee-san! We can’t stay in one place! We need to move, or else we are going to get surrounded!]

WHOOOOO!

A gust of wind rushed along with a swing of Takeru’s arm, tearing the gigantic beast to shreds in an instant.

The wind-type spells used by Takeru do not have that much offensive power to begin with. However, Takeru’s hurricane attack was only pinpointing the marks on the shikigamis bodies which held the talismans that animated their movements in the first place.

SWOOSH! SWOOSH! SWOOSH!

One, two, three…… Takeru steadily reduced the number of the enemies that were surrounding them. At first glance, it looked like she was attacking them blindly, but that was not the case here.

Mikoto had already noticed that her sister’s technique was skillfully trying to group the rest of the shikigamis in one place, so that others could make a short work of them.

[Raikou! Lightning Flash! Exorcise all that is impure!]

The surviving shikigami were lined up almost in a perfectly straight line right in front of Mikoto, who was holding a large Japanese sword. Moreover, the shikigami were currently preoccupied with Takeru, and Mikoto was completely free to move and act, apparently not being considered as that much of a threat.

[Here we gooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]

The girl’s body rushed through in an instant while spitting out electric shocks from Raikou’s tip.

All shikigami who touched the plasma that shook the air turned into charcoal and vanished into the void. With just one blow, more than ten beasts turned into dust and were blown away by the wind.

[Don’t underestimate the combination attack of the Shiratori twins!]

[Mop them all at once, Nee-san!]

Although she was not nearly as good at precise techniques based on knowledge like Takeru was, brute force and wide range physical attacks were the things that Mikoto pretty much excelled at. So she did just that, her huge breasts swaying from one side to another, swinging her sword at the remaining shikigamis that were still alive, and before long all of them turned into scraps of paper and were set ablaze.

[Yamato, we’ve pretty much sorted this situation out! What about you? And are you alright, Takeru?]

When Mikkoto turned around, her face turned pale. Surrounded by a bunch of shikigamis, Yamato was brought onto his knee, holding his wooden sword piercing the ground and using it like a cane to keep himself from falling over to the ground. Right behind him, Takeru held a talisman and put up a protective wall to protect the boy from the fangs of the incoming beasts.

[Yamato!!!]