Rebirth From Ordinary Person To The Strongest

With a sudden burst of energy, I felt lightning surge through my entire body. I had activated the inherited relic of Raiko Doji, enhancing my whole body with lightning.

I grabbed Nina-chan and kicked off the ground with full force.

"I want skin! I want to be a pretty girl too!" the monster screamed.

At the same time, it leaped toward us, snapping its jaws like a massive insect.

Its movements were so erratic and insect-like that it sent shivers down my spine.

But the monster\'s attack missed. We had already moved out of its range. Realizing this, the monster scuttled toward us like a cockroach, its long limbs skittering across the ground in an unsettling way.

"Nina-chan! Can you do it again?" I shouted as we ran past a poster that read, "Please walk in the hallways."

Nina-chan, still pale, managed to respond, her voice trembling but resolute.

"…Burn it! Burn it again!!"

As soon as the monster\'s hands touched the floor tiles, flames erupted once more. It lost its balance and slammed its head against the ground.

A loud thud echoed through the hallway as the monster\'s head collided with the tile floor, but it wasn\'t enough to kill it. In fact, the impact was so hard that the tiles were the ones that dented, not the monster\'s head.

However, even with its head on the floor, the monster crawled toward us, using its four long arms.

"I\'ll wear skin! I\'ll become a beautiful girl too!" the monster screeched.

You know, if all it wanted was to wear skin and look cute, it should\'ve become a VTuber or something. Do they have YouTube in this version of Japan? I have no idea.

"Itsuki! Look ahead!" Nina-chan suddenly shouted, pulling on my clothes and pointing forward.

Ahead of us, the entrance to the music room was quickly approaching. Right. School hallways aren\'t endless. Of course, the corridor would come to an end eventually.

"Nina-chan, hold on tight. We\'re gonna fly."

"Huh? Eek!"

I stomped down hard, launching us into the air. I kicked off the door to the music room, using the momentum to flip backward. Then, I shot a Silveit thread behind us and pulled, changing direction mid-air and flipping over the monster.

We soared above the monster, and once we were safely past, I landed gracefully on the ground.

"What was that!? What did you just do, Itsuki!?" Nina-chan asked, her eyes wide as she looked between me and the monster still charging toward the music room.

"Nothing special."

Honestly, I was just imitating the wire-action stunts I\'d seen before. It was a relief it worked. My little makeshift attempt at mimicking the fifth-rank monster I\'d fought in the forest was a success. But I couldn\'t help but think that people like my dad or Renji would\'ve just done a triangle jump off the walls without needing Silveit.

I still have a long way to go, I thought to myself. Despite teaching Nina-chan how to exorcise monsters, I\'m still very much learning, too.

Just as the monster was about to crash into the music room, I shot another Silveit thread and formed a net, catching the creature before it could destroy more of the school.

I couldn\'t let it break any more windows or dent any more tiles. Enough damage had already been done.

As the monster struggled against the Silveit net, I gently set Nina-chan down.

"Now\'s your chance, Nina-chan. Finish it off."

"…Yeah, this time for sure," Nina-chan said, sounding more composed. She focused her gaze on the flailing monster, now trapped in the net, and spoke softly but firmly.

"Exorcise."

At her command, the fairy dove into the monster\'s body.

The next moment, flames erupted from the monster\'s mouth, pouring out like molten lava.

The monster thrashed in agony, its massive eyes melting away in the blaze, consumed by the inferno.

It couldn\'t endure the pain any longer.

The monster was dead.

It disintegrated into a cloud of black smoke.

With a faint hiss, the smoke drifted out through an open window, carried away by the breeze. I turned to face Nina-chan, a huge smile on my face.

"You did it! You really did it, Nina-chan!!"

For a few moments, Nina-chan stood frozen, staring in disbelief at the music room\'s door. Then, she whispered, her voice full of astonishment.

"No way... Did I really... exorcise it…?"

"Yes, you did! You exorcised it, Nina-chan!" I shouted.

At that, her face lit up, and she suddenly jumped toward me, throwing her arms around me in an unexpected hug.

"I-I did it! I really did it!!"

I was so taken aback by the sudden hug that I froze. The only other time a girl had hugged me—well, if you could call it that—was when Aya-chan knocked me over when we were little.

"I actually exorcised a monster! This means I\'m one step closer to becoming a real exorcist...!"

"Y-Yeah, exactly! You\'re becoming an exorcist, Nina-chan!"

"It\'s all thanks to you, Itsuki!" she beamed, stepping back and smiling brightly at me.

Her smile was... surprisingly powerful. I realized I had never seen Nina-chan smile like that before. She usually wore such a stern expression, but when she smiled, it was almost... overwhelming.

"It\'s all thanks to you that I can finally become an exorcist. My mom will finally acknowledge me. It\'s all because of you, Itsuki…!"

Her eyes sparkled as she spoke, and I felt my face flush with embarrassment. Trying to shake it off, I spoke up.

"Well, I don\'t know if Irena-san will acknowledge you just yet."

"I-I know that! But that\'s why I need to keep improving! I\'ll get stronger and stronger, and one day, I\'ll surprise my mom! I\'ll do it with you, Itsuki!"

Seeing Nina-chan\'s determined eyes gleaming with excitement, I found myself at a loss for words. But then, I smiled and nodded.

"Yeah. Let\'s get stronger together!"

Nina-chan seemed startled for a moment, her expression softening, before glancing at the clock.

"Itsuki, we\'re in trouble. The time!"

"Huh? Oh no!"

I had completely forgotten about Nina-chan\'s curfew.

We hurried down the hallway, past the "Please walk in the halls" poster again, and made our way to the first-floor classroom to grab our bags.

As we descended the stairs, Nina-chan suddenly squeezed my hand, holding on tighter than before.

...This is kind of embarrassing.

I don\'t know why, but now that I was consciously thinking about it, it felt a lot more awkward. I mean, I was just holding her hand to help, but still.

But it would\'ve been weird to shake her off. Instead, I tried to distract myself by changing the subject.

"Hey, Nina-chan. Have you heard of the school rumor?"

"What rumor?"

You know, with all the talk about the creepy toilet monster earlier, I remembered another rumor that\'s just as famous. This one is about the school stairs.

"They say the number of steps going up and down the stairs is different."

"That sounds ridiculous. Is that even real?"

"Who knows? It\'s just a rumor."

I laughed it off as a silly joke, but Nina-chan frowned slightly, her curiosity piqued.

"…I\'ll count them."

"Wait, what?"

"I said I\'ll count the steps! It\'s bugging me."

Without waiting for a response, Nina-chan started counting as she ascended the stairs.

Honestly, what had gotten into her? Maybe she was still riding the high of successfully exorcising her first monster. I remember feeling the same kind of excitement when I exorcised my first monster—although, now that I think about it, I can\'t really remember how I felt…

Before I could dwell on that thought, Nina-chan reached the landing and turned to me.

"How many steps?"

"Thirteen."

She began descending again, counting the steps aloud. When she finished, she turned to me, a disappointed look on her face.

"It\'s the same—thirteen steps."

"Well, yeah. It\'s just a rumor," I said with a shrug, and together we walked down the stairs.

As we approached the classroom to grab our bags, something strange caught my attention.

…Wait, why is everything so quiet?

I glanced out at the schoolyard. Usually, at this time, some kids would still be playing outside, but the yard was completely empty. The time was only 4:30 PM.

Had everyone already gone home?

That couldn\'t be right.

"Itsuki, what\'s wrong? Aren\'t we going home?"

"Huh? Yeah, let\'s go."

I grabbed my black school bag and followed Nina-chan out of the classroom.

As we made our way to the entrance, I realized something odd: we hadn\'t run into anyone.

Okay, that wasn\'t completely unheard of. Most of the first graders had probably already gone home by now.

But still... why was it so quiet?

"…Huh?"

"What is it, Nina-chan?"

"Look, Itsuki. Everyone\'s shoes are gone."

Nina-chan pointed to the shoe racks.

Indeed, they were empty. Not just our class\'s shoes, but all the other classes\' too.

Usually, the shoe racks would be filled with the indoor shoes of students who had already left.

But today, there was nothing. Absolutely nothing.

That didn\'t make any sense. Everyone had to be leaving school at some point, right?

At that moment, the setting sun suddenly became blindingly bright, and shadows crept across the schoolyard.

…Impossible.

It\'s only June. The sun shouldn\'t be setting this early. It\'s not even 5 PM yet!

"W-What\'s happening? Why\'s it getting so dark all of a sudden…?"

"Nina-chan, we need to get out of here. Now!"

Something was wrong. Something strange was happening right here, right now.

I grabbed Nina-chan\'s hand, quickly changing into our outdoor shoes, and rushed out the door.

But when we stepped outside into the schoolyard, we found ourselves standing right back inside the school.

"…What?"

I turned around, trying to leave again, but we couldn\'t. We had just walked straight through the school entrance, but there was Nina-chan, standing right in front of me.

Both of us stared at each other, utterly confused.

Whatever was happening, we weren\'t able to leave.

We were trapped inside the school.