Hello. This is Naoya-kun, who despite being a third-year middle schooler to the public, is the main breadwinner of the family. Currently working hard at night with rave reviews. A violation of regulations, right?
...No, Toji-kun, work too! I told you if it's a curse user, you can kill them! Hurry up and kill 10 or 20 of them and convert them to cash!
—That said, if I said that directly to the person himself, I'd probably get smacked. Even though I've boosted my physical durability rock-hard with bindings, it still hurts—as expected of a Heavenly Restriction. Fucking hell.
So, anyway. It's already been a month since coming to Tokyo. As soon as I got here, I contacted the Technical College via a 'Window' and had them pass missions to me every so often. Earning the kids' food money and Toji-kun's pocket money with these requests is what I've been doing lately.
"You gotta be kidding, why do I have to go through this alone?"
"...Naoya-san, are you okay?"
"Megumi-kun, it's nothing, thanks."
I'm mentally exhausted enough to accidentally have that kind of exchange this morning while we were all waiting for the kindergarten bus.
However, well. On that point, Megumi-kun is admirable. Same face as Toji-kun, same eyes. He looks scary, but he understands from the bottom of his heart that he is a dependent. Tsumiki-chan too, of course. ...Is he really Toji-kun's kid???
Thanks to Toji-kun, conversely, I've started thinking the brats are cute lately, seriously. Maki-chan and Mai-chan are also, well, smart for brats.
Even so, not being able to bring Maki-chan and the others' mom along was a failure. But it couldn't be helped. No, well, you see, Toji-kun would definitely eat her. He's the type who'd enter a hole if there was one. In a sexual sense.
Zen'in men are all gutter trash for whom DV and rape are par for the course, after all. Well, I'm a pure body who can't even masturbate due to a binding, though.
In my future projection from a year ago, by now I was supposed to be enjoying 'sex with my wife', the only thing not conflicting with the binding due to marriage after coming of age... Where did my glamorous wife disappear to? I was supposed to be indulging in lewdness to the limit with a slightly older, curvy, busty big sister, you know?
Sigh... Because of the binding, I can't even carelessly talk to myself, so lately, staying silent like this and bitching in my head has increased. Even now, I'm being driven to the site by an 'Assistant Director', but because of the 'Poetry Recitation' binding, talking is a hassle, and they're nervous so the atmosphere is awkward, and well, what to say...
"U-Um. Special Grade Zen'in, we're almost at the site."
"Is that right? It's a Grade 1 this time, right?"
"Yes, an estimated Grade 1 cursed spirit and its entourage. Already, three children who wandered into the elementary school at night have gone missing by today. Most likely..."
"They're dead. Poor parents. I'll exorcise it quickly."
"Y-Yes! Please hurry!"
"It's fine, having come this far, I already know. Stop there. I'll be back soon."
The elementary school visible in the distance. The presence of curses that aren't even trying to hide. For a Grade 1, it's quite stupid, but well, a cursed spirit haunting an elementary school is probably like that.
Then, let's exorcise it quickly and go home quickly.
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'Curtain'. Originally, that barrier should be activated with the incantation 'Emerge from darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure.' However, for Naoya, who has restrictions on his speech due to 'Binding', it is an item that cannot be activated as usual.
However, that is merely an incantation to receive assistance from Tengen. If one properly accumulates study in barrier techniques, it is possible to erect a separate barrier by oneself.
"'A shadow of a single night reflected in the magic lantern'—Extension Technique: Fourth Wall."
Accompanied by those lines, what envelops the elementary school where Naoya is located is a barrier like a thick drop curtain. Amidst that, the area around Naoya shines brightly as if bathed in a spotlight, and at the same time, lights flicker on sporadically inside the school building.
Inside this barrier, strengthened by establishing bindings such as 'Objects bearing cursed energy within the barrier are hit by a spotlight and become super conspicuous' and 'Deployment always requires chanting and hand signs', surprise attacks become roughly impossible regardless of whether one is a sorcerer, cursed spirit, curse user, or cursed tool.
After all, they are naturally being illuminated brightly from above. In fact, relying on the light, Naoya instantly kills the small fry cursed spirits that are the Grade 1's entourage and runs towards the source of the cursed spirit bathed in the largest spotlight.
That cursed spirit, like a large 'Gaki' (hungry ghost). Before its eyes, Naoya dares to stop and fires a 'greeting' at the cursed spirit: "Good evening. This is sudden, but drop dead."
That is an 'Instant Binding' that discards the element of surprise and flaunts his own existence. In addition to that, by daring to yield the first move to the cursed spirit and taking the passive role, he layers further instant bindings. Naoya, having drawn out the power of his technique, parries the approaching Gaki's fist as if warding it off, and slams a punch with his whole body into that defenseless, idiotic face that has been 'turned into film'.
It is certainly just a single blow, a right hook. But the head of the cursed spirit that received it ruptures with a continuous roar as if it had been bludgeoned multiple times, and everything above the neck bursts apart.
—The technique Naoya handles is 'Projection Sorcery'.
Although it is the same technique as Naobito Zen'in, its effects, heavily tuned by bindings and the expansion of interpretation, draw a line apart from Naobito's.
One example is that current blow. In Naoya's Projection Sorcery, which sets the angle of view not on vision but on space and strikes 'frames' from a third-person perspective with himself as the base point, the concept of 'camera switching' exists.
The blow that applied this is the extension technique 'Multi-Angle' that just now exorcised a Grade 1 in a single hit. It is Naoya's specialty where he overlaps events by 'striking frames' of a single punch from multiple perspectives like 'Camera 1', 'Camera 2', 'Camera 3'... and hammers in the impact for multiple times' worth.
However, a battle result that would be a great victory for an average sorcerer—exorcising a Grade 1 in a single blow—is not something that particularly shakes the emotions of Naoya, who is a Special Grade. Rather, Naoya's consciousness is split towards the 'ritual' he must perform after exorcising a cursed spirit in a separate matter.
"Is it dead? Ah, it's dead, it's melting. I really hate this. Even if it's a binding... —Damn it. Ah, it tastes fucking bad, the worst. I'm definitely going to ruin my health someday."
The 'ritual' that Naoya performs while spilling such complaints is eating the residuals of the exorcised cursed spirit. That act, forced by the 'Licking Gall' binding, one of Naoya's 10 bindings, places a cruel load on Naoya's body.
After all, the residuals of a cursed spirit are essentially like the carcass of a cursed spirit. Composed of dense negative cursed energy, it is extremely harmful to the human body. Accompanied by a mouthfeel and taste that are too terrible, which could be described as 'the taste of a rag soaked in vomit left in a manure pit for 3 years', the toxins residing there mercilessly eat away at Naoya's body.
However, by enduring that poison with physical functions forcibly strengthened by bindings, his total amount of cursed energy, which is 'not supposed to grow' originally, increases, albeit slightly.
"No good, this... the taste is too crazy, I'm dizzy... I can't get used to this damn taste every time."
That said, it is a fact that his mood and physical condition become the absolute worst. Technically, the poison in his body isn't impossible to eliminate with Reverse Cursed Technique, but since the growth of his total cursed energy would worsen by that amount, Naoya decides to resist the poison as long as there is no danger around him. His nature of being greedy for strength is the greatest factor tormenting him.
"Ah, exhausting. It's a plight of my own making, but I want to go home early. I'm super tired."
Spilling one such complaint, Naoya, having safely wiped out the cursed spirits in the elementary school, returns to the car where the Assistant Director waits and falls into a brief sleep.
The time is 2 AM, the hour of the ox. if he goes home now, he should be able to sleep for about 3 hours until preparations for the kindergarten drop-off.
While making such a plan, Naoya heads back straight to Toji's house, his lodging.
By the way, after that, Naoya would fly into a rage upon returning home to find a streetwalker Toji brought in sleeping in Naoya's futon, but that is a story for another time.
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