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Chapter 17

One thing I started to notice lately, is that there are clear differences between a 'natural' Illusion Barrier and the ones I make with my gamer skill.

The oppressive supernatural feeling radiating from every direction and pretty much neutralizing my Spiritual Senses skill was still there, but in natural Illusion Barriers it feels almost like it was… pulsating, like it was moving by itself, or maybe breathing. The only word it comes to mind when I try to focus on describing it is organic, but like, spiritually organic… but not really, I'm going on a tangent, but basically, things get confused from there on.

Other than the differences in structural foundations of pocket dimensions, another big distinction I found was in the monsters living inside. Namely, they aren't really monsters, not Gamer System's monsters at least.

A dust cloud billowed behind me as I raced across the rocky landscape. Long, thin forms of the pale-white dead trees blurring around me.

The blue glow of my inventory screen shone starkly against the darkness. My Gamer System allowed me to move it in any direction I want as long as it was at arm's reach, so I placed it right behind me. From it, a virtual swarm of Earth Sprites poured out as I ran, making for a very curious trail.

Sprites were my own little magic innovation I somehow managed to cook up. To say it changed my relationship with Lucretia would be an understatement. Sure, my new magic teacher was already interested in me for my unique abilities, but the Sprites were the thing that made her sit down and pay attention to my magical potential.

Little pseudo spirits made from your own mana that greatly enhanced the power of your spells as its most basic ability. We're still in the process of figuring out everything they can do, but the results were already very promising.

In this particular case; due to them standing somewhere between being their own individual creatures and being part of me, I could control them as I could my own mana, so I had them keeping up with my speed, circling around me like an improvised earth wall.

You could say it was the only thing keeping me from a rather messy death.

"""""""""""""SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"""""""""""""""

The aggravatingly loud, shrill sounds that melted together into one booming screech have been the only thing I was able to hear in a while, since I started to run, in fact. It was the battle cry of the second swarm, one equally big as the one circling around me, as it assaulted my improvised defenses from all directions.

That constant assault meant that holes were constantly opening and closing over my barrier as black, imp-like forms swept in and ate chunks of it before retreating to give space for the next attacker. I have no doubt that they would love to use this tactic on my naked flesh rather than earth spirits-things, but I wouldn't be where I am today without perfecting my ability of not giving my enemies what they want. As that thought crossed my mind, one of the little flying pests broke past the last layer of my wall, the first one that managed to do so.

Kurokoumori
Vagrant Akuma
Level 06

The grotesque bat-like akuma immediately exploded in a shower of gore due to a closer encounter with my baseball bat of course, but the fact it has managed to get this close was telling. I was running out of earth sprites.

Time to end this.

Swirling my heels into an abrupt turn, I dashed forwards in a different direction for a couple of steps and then leaped. The sudden change was enough to throw the murderous colony of akuma bats off for a couple of seconds, but soon they were shooting upwards, following me as I climbed one of this forest's overly tall, leafless trees.

I kept my eyes ahead towards the very top. My bat rested on my shoulder while my other hand lightly tapped on the rushing white trunk beneath to orient myself and give me the occasional bust. My legs worked under me, rapidly curling and uncurling, throwing me upwards faster and faster, but never throwing me off. I felt a smile crossing my face, I couldn't exactly feel it doing it, but I knew, I just knew that my ki was coursing through my legs, helping my body achieve the impossible objective my mind set to it, keeping me glued to the tree as I ran across like it was a continuation of the ground and gravity was a kind suggestion instead of a hard rule. I've been… not feeling it but noticing these little ki interactions a lot more lately. Best not to focus too much, as I noticed that if I did that, the stuff usually stopped working.

It was almost the opposite of mana; you don't use ki to do stuff, you do stuff and ki come attached to it.

Ten seconds is all that it took to get me to the top of the dozen stories tall tree. By the end, I had to sink my fingers into the stone-like wood to help me bleed off the momentum and finally stop.

I ended up gripping the last length of the tree trunk that led to the very top, with a foot on the last, frail-looking branch, like the other waved midair. A moment later and the rising trail of bats caught up, breaking against my dangerously thinning wall and then spreading around me like a giant, fluttering cloud.

A group of small, flying enemies that, despite dying in one hit, could replace their lost numbers at a seemly endless pace, all while posing a genuine threat if all attack at the same time. I chuckled. A week ago, this would be a nightmare to deal with.

A week ago.

Now, I just wrapped my elbow around the tree trunk to keep my balance and slapped my hands together - making sure to shift the handle of my baseball bat to the crook of my other elbow in the process - and closed my eyes.

"Practe bigi nar." I uttered the practice incantation Lucretia had taught me. Normally, this would only work after a period of mental training where these words became a sort of self-hypnosis key to put the apprentice magician into the proper mentality to cast spells, but, as it's often the case with me, I cheated.

My new 'Activation Key' skill currently increased the power of any of my spells by 7%, cut off the mana required to cast for about 2%, and, even more bullshittingly, allowed me to perfectly remember the incantation of the spell I intended to use.

I like to think that countless mage apprentices bent over large tomes wracking their brains trying to memorize the long sentences of magical words that are required to cast their spells cry tears of blood each time I use this skill.

"Basiliske, galeōtē, meta chōktō podōn kai kakoin ommatoin!" The words popped up to the forefront of my mind just as my mouth move to voice them. Curious thing these Words of Power, just like any other word until you pour mana and intention to it, then it becomes a reality-warping cheat code, I wonder where they originated from.

At that point, my improvised barrier couldn't keep up with the assault and more and more bats were getting in, tearing through my clothes and rasping their fangs against my superhumanly hard skin, some even managed to draw blood.

Any other mage would have their concentration disrupted by that point.… and that is why I was grateful for the new perk that I got from finally passing 50 of Intelligence.

Perk: Steady Mind.
+ 10% increase in your focus and concentration.

Perks continued their tendency to give minor but useful abilities rather than the game-breaking powers I remember them giving in some of the Gamer fanfics I used to read. But I wasn't complaining, heck, it was perfect for situations exactly like this one.

"To phōs emēi cheiri katiās tōi kakōi dergmati toxeusatō!" I could feel the effect the Words had on my mana. It churned, boiled, and twisted inside me; weaving itself into a complex series of patterns I couldn't even begin to comprehend. But for now, that was fine. Lucretia had said that it took years for even master magicians to decipher the spell patterns enough to be able to reproduce them silently.

"Oculus mali Petrificationis!"

The last Words were the name of the spell proper; they serve as a type of ignition key that activates the whole thing. Normally, this particular spell would eject a magical pulse from the palm of the caster's hands – appearing to the outside view as a flash of light – that would deliver its effects on anyone hit by it. Naturally, the further away the targets were from the source of the pulse the lesser the effect over them would be, with about ten meters of distance neutralizing the spell entirely. So other than a supposed 'laser form' Lucretia had alluded to when she taught me this, it was very much a short-range spell, hardly something one would use against an enormous swarm of monster bats flying far away from them.

And that is why instead of concentrating the charged mana on the palm of my hands like I was supposed to, I threw it through the many connections I maintained with something that was technically still part of myself but not at the same time. The Earth Sprites, or, more precisely, the Earth Sprites still inside the bats' stomachs.

A huge chunk of my MP disappeared in an instant due to the sheer amount of target I had to focus on, but the effects were quite spectacular. There was a single unifying SCREECH! And it was like a violent wave rippled across the murderous cloud. The next second saw the bats start to fall from the sky like a black rain, or just bursting outright in a shower of blood and gore. I got to confess this last one caught me by surprise a bit.

Out of curiosity I reached out and grabbed one of the akuma bats as it dropped past, holding it by the tip of one of its wings at arm's length because, um, gross. I took one look at the thing's screeching, twitching, dying form and the blood pouring out of its every orifice, and realized what must have happened.

Kakon Omma Petrōseōs was supposed to be one of the safest petrification spells there is. Any living target caught by its flash would be encapsulated by a magical layer of stone and have its movement locked, but they would still be able to breathe and their organs would function normally. The spell was even gentle enough to put them in a magically induced sleep to avoid an 'I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream' situation. It was practically an overzealous binding spell.

But what happened with the bats was a little different. I had intended to completely petrify them all and have them die by the fall, or at least keep them out of the way for the time being, but what ended up happening was that some of the spell structure got chopped up due to me transferring it through so many different 'channels', so it could only petrify parts of the targets and not their whole, adding to that; the spell did not start from the outside like it was intended, it started from the inside, directly from their stomachs.

The result what that these bats who were high on adrenaline and blood pressure suddenly had half their inwards turned to stone. And that meant, well, death by pop.

"Not even a month as a mage and already turning perfectly safe spells into killing curses, way to go Hiroshi," I said to myself, dangling the now dead yokai back and forth. "The Harry Potter community would be proud."

Well, it's not like I wasn't going to test that out when I face my next demon, especially if It's a frog demon.

Chuckling at the nice mental image, I finally released the corpse and let it fall towards the fellows of its kind now painting a rather grim picture at the base of the tree.

… There was no body popping into smoke, no loot left behind, even the tags above their heads were different. These aren't monsters made by my Illusion Barrier skill, these are real monsters, real akuma, no, yokai, attracted by and living inside a natural Illusion Barrier.

I guess that confirms the fact that my monsters are actually constructs created by my skill. This might raise some questions from the people in the known, but I'm a bit glad me and my friends weren't committing genocide on a regular basis, I have no doubt this would have bitten us in the ass later.

I exhaled a long cold breath, dropping off my musings and shifting my focus back to the present. One swept across the brilliant night sky told me that I got most of the demonic bats, there were still some stragglers here and there, but they were too few in numbers to pose any threat, not as they were before that is.

Secured in the knowledge that the sky wasn't dominated by a fluttering storm of biting dead anymore, I dipped my hands inside my inventory screen pulled out a flare gun, then promptly illuminated the sky with a large, red-colored signal.

A couple of long seconds later, a second signal surged at the distance. I smiled at that.

A long drop and a fast run later, and I reach the general area the second flare had come from. The dark form of the huge, medieval castles made itself evident among the almost equally tall trees. Soon enough, I broke past the tree line into the vast hilltop, hopped over the initial set of half-collapsed walls without much difficulty, leaped over a large, empty moat, and made my way to the front gate of the castle.

"So, everybody holding on alright!?" I called up as I approached the group huddled up by the entrance.

It says something about Furikan students that they were not trembling and cornering anymore – granted, the lack of a colony of demon bats clouding the sky and trying to eat them helped with that – five of the students still mostly leaning on each other for support though, with the most panicked girl crying softly against her boyfriend's shirt, but they still reacted to my presence and sent me grateful and relieved looks, so at least they weren't in shock.

The sixth student was the one who looked like they had their shit mostly under control and was actually standing a bit apart from the rest in a show of defending them.

As expected from someone in my crazy class.

"Ah, Ōe-san glad to have you back with us. I trust your task has been successful?" Isayama Suzue, my class' president, said to me like I had just come back from a casual stroll. Damn girl, that's an almost Haruka-level of coolness you're rocking there.

I kept my smile up. "Well, you aren't seeing any more bats, are you?" I laughed. Then made a brief show of catching sight of my own baseball bat and cheekily trying to hide it behind my back.

This produced the result I wanted and got prez to open her own slightly shaking smile. "Indeed. I'm glad you managed to lose them."

'Lose them'. Heh!

"Ah," Prez's eyes dropped down as if she had just remembered something, and then she presented me the thing she has been threateningly holding in her two hands the entire time. "Here you go, Ōe-san. Hm, if I might ask, where did you get a flare gun?"

Put my hand over it and gently pushed it over to her, indicating she could keep hold of it for now. She was clearly getting some sense of security from it. "I'm not sure. I just wrote a list of equipment I wanted in case of an emergency and gave it to my kunoichi to acquire it for me. She ended up overachieving it and going for the stuff I put it as a joke. I thought wise to not ask too many questions."

Prez adjusted her glasses in a very anime-like fashion. "I-I see?" She says uneasily.

And of course, that was about the time a comet crashed nearby. It produced a large boom, cracked the ground beneath it, and made the students let out frightened screams. Prez froze up and latched on my sleeve for a moment.

"KORA! YOU TINY BATS ARE NOTHING AGAINST MY POWERRRR!" A mountain of muscles molded in the form of a sexy minotauress rose from the smoke and brought her gauntleted hands together crushing, two demonic bats against each other. "MINON SMASH! MINONNN!—GAURH!"

Her cry was rudely interrupted by my baseball bat striking her on the back of her head and nearly driving her whole upper body into the ground.

"Keep it down damn it!" I hissed out. "You're going to attract stragglers to… and of course."

Even more demonic bats paradisaically materialized in the skies and dove towards us. Thankfully, this time they were on a more manageable number.

My sharp aim and Mana Bolts took out five before they even got close. "Minon!" I barked.

"YESSIR!" The muscular cowgirl in tiny bikini armor instantly sprung out to attention, rising from her ostrich-like position to her full height with a large chunk of the ground still stuck in her horns and a trail of blood dripping down her forehead. Her beaming smile never left her face.

I shot down a few more bats. "Go to the others and keep them safe. Smash any enemy that gets too close." The usage of her favorite word killed any protest the Cardian might have about playing defense.

"AYE AYE SIR! MINON!" She shouted as she took off running.

"Hey, wait—" I sighed, watching her retreating back. Minon and I are going to have a talk after this.

Resisting the urge to massage the bridge of my nose, I turned to class prez, who was still standing rather stiffly with her arm crossed under her flat bust.

"Please duck," I spoke.

She obeyed without question and my swing obliterated the yokai bat that had dived for her head.

I stepped closer to her crouching form, standing practically over her. The screeching mass of bats descended upon us.

But it wasn't the overwhelming murder cloud of before, so I wasn't worried. Twisting my entire body into swing after swing, using the momentum of one to build up the next, I practically flowed into a nearly constant series of attacks, circling around Prez with the steps of a dancer while obliterating anything within a baseball bat-length radius around us. Any akuma that so much as fluttered an inch closer died, simple as that.

To my surprise, when the mass thinned to singular numbers, a bright red light shone behind my back and one of the demon bats got yeeted to the distance by a flare, screeching away as its flesh burned. It would be awesome to say it died from that, but it was simply too tough. A quick Mana Bolt put an end to it before it could rise back up, though.

I quickly killed the last two still flying around before stopping right above Prez. the girl was clutching the flare gun to her chest, breathing heavily.

"Nice work," I said, trying to give her a reassuring smile, she raised her eyes and looked fixedly at me for a couple of seconds while her breathing slowed back down, before nodding. Her face red from the adrenaline.

I could hear the distance screeching coming close and knew that the second wave was about to go around the castle and come here. So, I reached down and pulled her up.

"Can you walk?"

Prez did the anime glasses push once again. "… I'm afraid not, Ōe-san." She said slowly. And indeed, her legs were trembling slightly under her.

"Then raise your arms," I said and she did so without hesitation.

If prez had any qualms about being thrown over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes she didn't vocalize it. But with a swarm of akuma bats threatening to be upon us at any second, I really needed a hand free to wield my baseball bat. Besides, I was only taking her a short distance away, so it's not like she'd have to bear the indignity for very long.

… But God damn I couldn't help but admire the absolute treasure right next to my face, discreetly, of course. Prez wasn't the prettiest girl in our class, that spot was taken by Tendo Akane or arguably Fujimori Yuka, but no one could deny that Isayama Suzue left every other girl in the dust when it comes to her behind, the girl was so thick that even Ranma took notice.

Depositing prez to the rest of the students – Stoically and professionally of course. No, you didn't see me looking at the ass, I saw you looking at the ass you dirty fiend – I swiftly turned back just in time to meet the second wave of enemies. A few Mana Bolts and some quick repositing drew them away from the bystanders, to much of Minon's loud disappointment.

"HYAH!"

Cried out my unnecessary but still appreciated reinforcement as she suddenly jumped down from one of the castle's low rooftops and took out five bats with her landing.

Tendo Akane.
Heiress to the Tendo's branch of Anything Goes Martial arts school.
Level: 25

"Your cow woman ruined the plan, Ōe-san!" Akane's quick report drew my eyes back to her and I managed to witness the series of punches and high roughhouse kicks that ended demonic bats left and right.

"I'll talk to her later!" I answered back, satisfied that her increase in level wasn't just for show.

High above us, a glint of metal told of a collection of spinning blades of various sizes being launched in the sky like boomerangs, taking out the bats on the higher altitudes before spinning back to the sender. My grin only grew when I saw who it was.

But without further delay, I threw myself in the action.

There wasn't really any interesting way to describe the next few minutes; we fought the bats and we killed them all. I suppose there was some effort made to make sure they do not get close to the non-combatant, but that was barely an addendum.

"Last one," Akane informed as her ankle bisected the little akuma and its body joined the rest on the ground.

"Yeah." I agreed, swinging my baseball bat to the side to get rid of the excess blood.

Hm, we made for a rather grisly sight standing over all these bloody bat corpses, now that I noticed.

"More?" The girl asked, her guard still up.

"Maybe in deeper in the forest. This place is completely clear."

"… Good." Akane folded her arms to her sides with her fists sticking out and let out a long breath. One of Anything's Goes 'ending stances' I recognized; I think it steadies your ki for something because I tried myself and it actually works to help you focus and relax after a fight.

"Good work, Akane-san." I beamed at the girl, which broke her tranquility a bit and made her sigh.

"You're being a little too chirpy, Ōe-san."

"I wonder…" I said, still smiling. I wasn't without reason; I just learned a new way to brutally kill demons, I brushed my cheek against class prez's glorious rump, but more importantly…

I leaned closer to the girl, not really doing anything too overt but making it clear with a tilt of my chin that I was talking about our fellow students at the distance. "Look at them, Akane-san." She blinked at me, taking a couple of seconds to get it. "They were just going about their day, enjoying lunchtime, before being swept into another dimension. They did not ask to be here, and they don't really understand what is happening, the only thing they are certain of is that this is a dangerous situation… Yet they know we are the 'odd ones' at school, and given the way they've seen us act, they must have realized that we have an idea of what is happening and probably think we have things under control." I paused to let the words sink in, looking into the girl's eyes so she could see how serious I was. "So, Akane-san, I won't ask you to smile or act casually like I'm doing, but please, show them your strength, because they badly need it."

The girl's lovely features hardened, and she gave me a firm nod. When she looked ahead, her face was the very picture of bravery.

I couldn't help but chuckle at that. Laying on a bit thick, but she got the right idea.

Prez wasn't the only one standing among the students anymore. It seems that seeing the picturesque 'kung fu' fight, or maybe the utter annihilation of an enemy we could do nothing but run away before had raised their spirits quite a bit. Akane and I were showered in cheers and praises when we approached, Akane especially because while everybody at Furinkan knew the girl could literally fight an army, I was the tall, burly delinquent with a baseball bat and she was the short, 'delicate' girl, so her show was more impressive by default.

No, instead of focusing on the students, I turned towards my minions.

"Masterrrr! Did you see me? Did you see me? I stayed there the entire time! I've done exactly what you ordered me too, nyan~!" Falion skipped on her feet towards me like an overly happy nun gliding over a field of flowers at the start of some period drama. Though the clinking of the rolls of bloody knives on her waist broke this image. She bumped her forehead against my arms and began to nuzzle me like a possessive cat. One of her eyes then popped open and sent an evil look at her fellow Cardian behind her. "Unlike someone, falion~"

"Lies! I didn't disobey master's orders! I would never ever do that! Minon!" The minotauress shook her head vigorously while her fists did the same in front of her, it did distracting things to her gigantic, barely-covered chest.

Amusingly enough, a piece of the ground was still stuck in her horns.

Yes, two Cardian summoned at the same time. I'm still not used to that, but a second slot opened when the Summon Cardian skill hit level 5, a fact that doubled the number of reinforcements I could bring to the field, it would be criminal not to exploit that in situations such as this.

There was a catch, however, and it was clear to see floating above their heads.

Minon
Cardian of The Strength
Level: 15

Falion
Cardian of The Chariot
Level: 15

My summoning skill increased the maximum level my Cardian could be summoned by five with each skill level. Currently, at level six, I could summon one of my Cardian at any level up to thirty, where they get… surprisingly powerful, if I say so myself. But to summon more of them I'd have to divide the levels between the two, at any proportion I'd decide, so I was literally exchanging quality for quantity when I put the two in the field at the same time.

This odd tangent could wait, however, for now there I something I needed to deal with.

"Minon," I said, growing serious. My hand absent-mindedly went over to Falion's ears and made the cat girl moan in delight. "You left, I told you to protect the others, but you left."

A strangled gasp escaped my cowgirl and she looked absolutely devastated for a second before she close off her face with her own serious expression and did a perfect salute. "Master, this Cardian obeyed your orders to the letter, no harm befell on those under my protection while you're gone. But I left my post, yes, but it was because I judged that to be the best course of action to protect the group; several clusters of enemies needed to be dealt with before they gathered together and posed a bigger threat, and I only did so after I made sure they would stay at a safer place."

…

… Ok, not gonna lie, I wasn't expecting that, especially not from Minon, but I kept my expression schooled as I gave her a slow nod. "Alright. I accept your logic." I said eventually, and Minon nearly sagged to the ground in relief.

"You've still left the group without a protector though… at least not a visible one." I looked at Falion and she nodded happily.

"Falion is the sneakiest of cats, nyan~!"

I know at least half of her act is to get her enemies to drop their guard, but damn she's cute.

"Don't worry master!" Minon called out, her fist bumping on her chest. It was amazing how it didn't just bounce it off, considering the amount of jiggling it produced. "The younglings will learn to fend for themselves eventually! They just need a few more trials by fire!"

I couldn't help but smile at her worldview. That was so far from my point it's incredible.

"Ōe-san," Prez called for my attention and interrupted the short meeting. Akane followed right behind her. "We have a problem."

"Let me guess."

Akane didn't. "Ranma hasn't come back yet!"

Yeah, that… That's a bit worrisome. I turned to look at the half-opened castle gate leading off to its shadowy interior.

From the start, it was obvious where the 'Boss' of the area, or at least 'The High Leveled Enemy' that was preventing me from breaking the barrier or simply picking everybody up escape was located. Ranma had gone right in after he got an idea of the situation; his logic being that if he could defeat the boss fast enough, he could get us a way out of the flying swarm of bats that had threatened to kill the trapped students. I stayed behind to make sure those said students didn't die while he did so.

I'd truly expected that he would be able to finish way earlier, but another try with my Escape Illusion Barrier skill just now got me the usual error message, confirming that the boss was still alive. I tried to keep my nerves calm by reminding myself that he wasn't alone in there; he had the support from a certain vegan werewolf that also got roped into this. But, still, it was hard not to have some NOMAD flashbacks.

"You didn't hear any sounds? No explosions or parts of the castle breaking?" I asked because the last thing a pissed off Ranma would be was quiet. I mean, I can't hear anything like that now, but…

Class Prez shook her head. "There's been nothing since they went inside."

"I'm going in." Akane declared, her tone firm but tinged with worry.

My hand snapped up and gripped her shoulder. "We are going to do this smartly." She frowned and shook my hand off, but thankfully didn't rush in ahead. I turned back to Prez.

"Taichou, I need you to take the others and find a place to hide. We already took care of all the enemies in this area, so you should be safe if you keep away from the forest." The girl nodded. I could see that having a clear direction has brought her some comfort.

"You two." I addressed my Cardians. Falion swiftly bounced back from where she was bodily nuzzling against my back and stood to attention next to Minon. "I need you to continue to protect the others, but I need you to stay close to them this time around. Hopefully, this won't take it too long." My orders caused a happy cry of acknowledgment from them, but I was already turning back to Akane.

"Now we're ready."

The girl let out a long breath, squared her shoulders, and then strode forwards. Myself only a step behind her.

-0-0-0-

Fortunately, this turned out to be a case of us worrying too much.

The insides of the castle were trashed, plain and simple, I have no idea why the people outside didn't hear anything, but the fact was that this place clearly looked like it has come down with a terminal case of Saotome Ranma. Every wall, ceiling, and even some of the floor was marked by cracks, craters, or enormous holes. Shattered remains of great clockwork mechanisms that took me a while to realize were traps littered about everywhere. There were also enemies, what's left of them at least; armored golems, canine-like beasts, giant insects that made Akane shriek, all laying either dead or unconscious along the hallways.

Two of them in particular gave me pause. We found each in lavishly decorated rooms that seems to be filled with contractions and specifically build to give advantage to one side. They were giant, humanoid bats and unlike every other monster inside this barrier, they seem to have a specific name and a unique title. That alone made me glad they were among the unconscious, because all the signs pointed to them being actually sapient yokai.

I'm still learning about supernatural politics, but by what I've come to understand the more animal-like yokai like the demonic bats from before were free game if they attack you, but when the yokai are smart and self-aware enough to be considered a person, then things get a lot more complicated. Even if the Game System was titled then as 'Akuma', which was basically rogue yokai who eats humans indiscriminately, I prefer them unconscious over dead to lower the risk of a diplomatic incident.

After finding the mini-bosses - because they could only be mini-bosses - Akane and I had an easier time tracking the trail of destruction Ranma left behind. At the start, he seems to be going off in random directions, but after the mini-bosses, it was clear he got some kind of a lead and broke things apart a single and straightforward path to the boss room, which we, of course, followed.

There we found... the actual reason it was taking so long.

"STOP GETTING IN MY WAY MAN-GIRL!"

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU CALL ME YOU, DAMN FURBALL!"

… Of course they would be too busy fighting each other to fight the boss, what was I thinking?

Ranma, now in his female form, bounced across the walls and chandeliers like a god damn pinball, the fast movements leaving a trail of cold air that lowered the temperature of the entire room and somehow cloaked her body with a layer of rotating wind; a clear indication that Ranma was pissed enough to use one of her new, experimental airbender-like technique – I still have no idea how the fuck she pulled that off.

Himiko Kenji in the meanwhile was rooted to the center of the room, the upper half of his Furinkan Uniform in tatters and showing up a way more muscular build he had started his morning with. He was snapping his head around trying to follow the redhaired's movements while also throwing the occasional expensive-looking furniture at her.

With an impulse that cracked the stone wall, Ranma launched herself at the werewolf in a direct attack. He managed to get into position just in time and caught Ranma's fists. A deafening shockwave followed as Ranma's tornado cloak continue forwards and opened bloody cuts across Kenji's whole form. Those cuts closed a second later as the werewolf's muscular form swelled even more, this time reaching bodybuilding sizes. He still got blown back and crashed against the opposite wall though.

I just stood there by the entryway and sighed. I could picture it now; two guys with abrasive, headstrong personalities already pissed and on edge because innocent people got hurt and/or their meal got interrupted, rushing inside a twisted labyrinth they knew nothing about, getting harassed by traps and enemies the entire way, probably getting lost a few times, definitely getting into each other's way due to the unfamiliarity with each other's move sets. I have no doubt many insults were probably thrown in that environment, maybe some provocation, or some general ribbing, all building up pressure and getting on their nerves till finally, something set them up right in the boss room.

It was almost like chemistry, really.

"W-What are they doing!?" Akane finally found her voice, and by the tone of it, she was yet to believe in what she was seeing.

"Letting out steam," I said, my eyes scanning the room. Ah, there's the boss.

The poor guy was pressing his trembling body against the wall behind what appeared to be the remains of his throne, looking at the display of wanton destruction happening before him with horror in his eyes.

Koyumaru
Nobusuma Akuma
Level 42

He was one of those humanoid bats like his mini-bosses, but way taller, bulkier, and dressed in an elaborated cape-and-tuxedo combo that could easily be confused with a tacky Dracula cosplay. He was also bright orange, a color that almost made him look like a squirrel rather than a bat.

And...

And he was weak.

I couldn't really put into words how exactly I figured that out. I just took one look and knew this guy wouldn't be a trouble in a fight. There was just something in the way he positioned himself and the feeling he gave off that I could just tell...

But his level was higher than mine, apparently that was all my Game System needed to block my skill.

"I'm going to throttle the two!" Akane fumed, finally putting all the pieces together.

"Let's take care of the trash first." I mused, dipping my fingers into my inventory screen that I opened beside me.

It's a bit unfair to Ranma and Kenji after all the trouble they went through… but I'm also a little peeved at them for making me worry.

A long trail of fire sprites followed my hand as I took it out. Akane's eyes widened at the sight, still not used to seeing me use actual magic. I admit her attention made me put a bit of a flare in my movements as I theatrically raised my arm, spread my hand into a finger gun, and then pointed at the boss. The little sprites instantly snapped to action and formed an orbiting ring around my wrist.

"Practe bigi nar." I sang out the Activation Key and all of the rotating sprites melted into my arm, fulfilling its most basic function by injecting new, charged energy directly in my mana reserves and making my entire body thrum with power as consequence.

The Word of Power bloomed inside my mind aided by my new skill... But to tell the truth, I did not need my skill for this specific spell. It wasn't that it was easy, or particularly memorable.

It's just that I'd already memorized this spell long ago.

"Undecim spiritus ignis,"

Suddenly, I was in another place, in another time, in a different, much younger body. I held my grandfather's hand as we entered the small, homely bookstore. My eyes traced over the thick tomes and dusty journals, quickly growing bored with it all.

"Vincula facti inimicum captent."

Yet, near the shop's counter there was a small magazine stand, by far the most colorful reading material in the entire store, so, naturally, where I gravitated towards. In here, tucked away between a pair of drab and uninspiring American comics, was a short, but surprisingly thick book with a peculiar art style that I was instantly drawn to. My very first manga.

I fell in love right there.

"Sagitta Magica, Flammae Capturae!"

Arguably the most iconic magical spell of Mahou Sensei Negima, or at least a variation of it, burst out from my finger. The singular trail of fire quickly diverged into eleven different ones, and they streaked over the chaotic battlefield like shooting stars. Hitting the boss just as he noticed them.

The concussive force of the magic arrows had knocked him back against the wall, but the flames clung to his body, turning into long threads of fire that wrapped tightly around his form before shooting off and latching on the nearby stonework, locking him in place.

Then the screaming started.

Now, usually Sagitta Magica, Flammae Capturae was a simple binding spell, and did exactly as its name indicated; shot some magic arrows at a target and bound them in place. It did not actually burn the target even though the end result made them look like they were on fire. However, Lucretia was kind enough to teach me her own version of the spell, a 'Sardinia version' according to her. It still didn't burn the target... but it made them feel like they were on fire.

I wonder what passed through the boss' head at that moment. From having his castle trashed like never before, to witnessing the two crazy people responsible having an apocalyptic fight with each other instead of him, then to suddenly being set ablaze, and now watching this extraordinary handsome and stylish delinquent running across his chamber and jumping towards his with his baseball bat raised high.

I know what went through his head when my bat connected though; "Ouch!"

As the akuma crumpled to the floor, utterly unconscious. I turned around with a flip of my jacket, a hand on my hip, and a baseball bat on my shoulder and gave a look to the two combatants who had stopped to gawk at my awesome entrance.

"That's right suckers, I. Stole. Your. Win!" My announcement rang across the chamber.

A pair of surprised looks turned into murderous glares.

"Hiroshiiiii..." Ranma muttered darkly.

"Grrrrrr..." Kenji just growled, his face starting to elongate.

Oh, they're approaching me?

Very well then, I slapped my baseball bat on my palm, time to teach some punk ass bitches the pecking order.

"OHHHHHHH!"

"GRAHHHHH!"

"HORAAAAA!"

Drinking deeply from the glorious shounen kool-aid, and with our hotblooded battle cries on our lips. We lunged toward each other like the awesome meatheads that we are.

"STOP THAT, YOU IDIOTS!"

And just like that, a meteoric impact exploded on the top of my head and I ended up with my face half-buried into the stone floor.

... Hm, so that's what a trope backed Akane's punch feels like.

Worth it.

Hehe Hehe!

Ouch.

-0-0-0-

The students were handling their unprompted adventure far better than I imagined they would. I honestly thought that once we were out of the pocket dimension, all the stress of the situation would come boiling up and they would break down. But no, there were some tears, many long and loud thank yous, the general support of each other, but overall, they just seem happy to be alive… Though I did have Falion give them a round of healing, just in case, so they might be tripping a little bit.

"Oi Ōe-san! That was as awesome Ōe-san! There's a giant burger Ōe-san!"

"The big dumpling family~ The big dumpling family~ The mischievous roasted dumpling, the gentle bean jam dumpling~~"

"He turned into a girl! Funniest shit I've ever seen!"

Ok, they were tripping a whole lot. But hey, they're alright.

I stood by the doorframe of the weirdly large and well-equipped infirmary – Having a hundred male students brutally beaten every single morning led to some infrastructural changes in the school – watching the students being wrestled into their bed by the trope-appropriately hot school nurse and her two assistants, before turning to the less-tripping student who was currently sitting on a chair near me.

"Hey Prez, how are you feeling?"

"… I'm a little lightheaded." She admitted. Then cast a look across the room. "Are you sure this is safe?"

"You've seen the injuries closing, haven't you?" I shrugged. "They'll snap out soon enough and will be better for it."

Different people deal with the aftereffect of Falion's healing in different ways I discovered. Ranma and I snapped out almost immediately, Akane and Haruka get a bit dazed for a few seconds, most of the NWC trip balls for minutes after it, Prez seems to be coming down from it slowly over time, and the others are yet to come down even after the ten minutes mark.

The girl looked at the others for a couple of seconds before nodding. "I'll trust you on that, Ōe-kun."

So, I am a 'kun' now huh? Level up, I guess.

"Hmm…" She shifted around uncomfortably.

"Take your time."

That got a laugh out of her. "I'll definitely need that." She leaned down a bit, her figure tensing, for a moment. I thought she would warp her arms around her legs, but she kept herself from curling up further. "I have… many questions… But I'm having a bit of trouble formulating them."

"Like I said, take your time." I shifted my body a bit, fully directing my attention to her.

"Right. Of course." Before I could say anything else, she relaxed, rising to lean on the back of her chair, already looking more in control of herself. Her glasses got pushed once again. "For now, there is one thing I'll need to know… Will I… Will I get my memories altered?"

"Eh?" I tilted my head at the girl.

I don't know how she took this gesture, but she clearly got embarrassed by it, like, she flushed so much I thought steam would come out of her ears.

"I-I-I mean, that's what happens in the novels right!? When a normal person learns about, h-hm, magic!" She added quickly, her fingers compulsively pushing her glasses again.

"Nah…" I rolled my eyes, remembering the answers I got from the Milf Miko and my magical teacher when I asked this very question. "Asian countries are more relaxed about this whole supernatural masquerade thing. There's never been a great effort to keep things hidden beyond the usual 'don't comment if it isn't happening' and the Japanese population has a history of accepting some weird stuff and going on with their lives regardless." I gave her another shrug. "So, if you don't go around trying to leak this stuff to the media or reveal too much to a large enough crowd, you shouldn't have the magical inquisition knocking on your door."

Prez's shoulders tensed a bit before she forcefully lowered them and opened a shaky smile. "Ah, Ōe-kun certainly says a lot of scary things sometimes."

Huh? It was just a meme… but I supposed she doesn't have context for that. "Hehe, sorry about that Prez." I offered casually.

"I suppose I could forgive you this time." She answered back trying to match my tone.

A couple of minutes after that, it was clear things were finally calming down and the students were getting back to normal. I yanked my eyes away from the school nurse's miniskirt-clad behind and address Prez once again. The girl looked away at the same moment.

"That's my clue, I got to—"

"I get it. I'll take things from here. Thank you for everything you've done Ōe-kun." She turned back gave me a charming smile, that's presidential treatment right there. "Please give my thanks to the others all well."

"Will do," I said, before slouching out of the infirmary.

It was almost the end of school hours, I noticed that now, not really important in the grand scheme beyond the fact we spend the whole day dealing with this mess.

With these idle thoughts in mind, I got back to the school roof.

"What did I miss?"

Ranma and Falion slowly circling each other like they were in a western duel apparently. Falion with an expression of pure, feline smugness and predatorial eyes, and Ranma looking like she was about to face her most terrible enemy.

… Do I embrace the chaos or not?

Eh, not. I'll have time for that later.

My decision made, I shameless stepped between the two and bonked Falion in the head.

"Behave or you won't get summoned later."

"But she's so fun to chase!" My catgirl whined. Then let out a loud "Nyan~!" when I rubbed her ears.

"Behave," I warned again and continued moving.

I could practically hear Ranma giving Falion raspberry behind me. And just like that whatever happened after that point became her problem.

My friend got to learn to not poke the tiger when you're deadly afraid of it. Plus, this will probably cause me some amusement later.

For now, I just walked over to the main part of the group.

"What did I miss?" I repeated.

The tied-up and chained form of Koyumaru, the bat akuma boss, glared at me from his place on the ground. His two mini-boss lackeys were lying beside him, one still unconscious and the other awaked and afraid.

"I will gouge out your eyes and feast upon your blood you filthy human— GUH!?"

The vegan werewolf literally sitting on him cut off the giant squirrel-bat's illuminating rant by literally stuffing his mouth with several dirty socks. The bat didn't like that at all.

I ignored the raging akuma beneath and cocked an eyebrow at Kenji. I must confess my interest in him only grew after witnessing some of his abilities.

He was less muscular than the bodybuilding form before, but he was still taller and bulkier than he was at the start of this morning, and his Gamer Tag was very interesting.

Himiko Kenji
Vegan Werewolf
Level: 27

Sure, nothing special at the first glance… but he was level 19 whe barged into the classroom and practically dragged me to the Illusion Barrier that it had appeared at the school and swallowed a few students. And I wasn't paying attention at the time, but I bet his level went even higher during his fight with Ranma.

He can manipulate his level, probably not directly; it's most likely something related to his werewolf's transformation and the levels are just a side-effect. But it was the first thing I've seen that could affect the level of a person besides Haruka's weird glitches.

To my surprise, he met my eyes with an angry glare.

"This is your fault."

And that melted away every trance of friendliness from my expression.

"Fuck you." My abrupt answer made him pause. "I hadn't opened any barrier around these parts ever since you told me not to. And even if the effects of my barriers could linger for that long, which they can't, it wouldn't have made a single difference considering that we were dealing with a completely new barrier and not some random yokai that got attracted by it. So, no, this wasn't my fault." Yeah, punk, I'm not completely ignorant about these matters anymore.

A low growling escape Kenji's throat as we continued to match our glares. Sensing the aggression, Minon shifted from where she was watching the captives to stand closer to us, ready to put herself between me and the werewolf in case something happened. Akane just looked unease on the opposite side.

Thankfully, nothing happened, Kenji let out a huff and looked away first. "… These guys are an established Akuma gang. They'd probably been using the Oumagatoki to escape notice and been probably doing that for a while given how well constructed it was. The thing must have drifted close by due to the Migration."

If he knew all of what, why the fuck did he accuse me for!?

Urg, whatever. "Migration? Do bat yokai migrate?"

The werewolf sent me a weird look. Shit, probably stepped into some common knowledge I was supposed to have, but I held my ground.

Just got a feeling now that I'd probably get along better with him if I treated him with a bit of dog logic. Parallels of the character Bitch from Worm ran across my mind. Can't believe I hadn't made this connection till now.

"No." He began slowly. "You… You didn't notice the chaos all through the city?"

I try to resist the urge to sigh, really did. "Please, don't tell me this is related to Ragnarok."

"Who?" The werewolf scoffed. Slamming his hand over the Boss Bat's head to muffle his annoying protests. "No, this one is probably because…" He paused, taking another moment to look me over before finally deciding to share what was on his mind. "… Someone extremely powerful made the Chiyoda Ward their territory early this year, and they kicked out everyone even tangentially related to the supernatural from there."

I blinked, not really expecting the direction the conversation took. But I considered the news, nevertheless. "Wait, isn't Chiyoda ward in the center of Tokyo? Doesn't that mean-"

"A stupid number of supernatural groups, families, and organizations with deep and ancient roots suddenly got displaced, yeah. There are only normal humans living there now. Everybody else got thrown to the other wards, and this caused ripples across Tokyo, igniting territorial conflicts and power struggles and complicated politics and whatever. My point is that people are calling it The Migration, and these guys must be here because of it."

Okay, that's… very fucking interesting.

Wait, if it was happening since the start of the year, it meant that Shiori, being one of the leaders of a governmental organization specifically created to deal with the supernatural, must be dealing with it since the beginning. Holy crap it recontextualizes some of her actions, like the fact she was away during Minon's attack and… No, maybe I'm reaching too much.

But her interest in my barrier-busting skills, though, and this drifting barrier… I couldn't help but to make this connection. If this person was powerful enough to throw away every single individual no matter how strong and well connected they were from their ancestral territory and get away with it, doesn't that mean they could throw out even the Illusions Barriers as well? If so, there must be a crisis with dozens, possibly hundreds of barriers drifting around Tokyo…

Fuck, even the existence of an individual powerful enough to do that living in the same city as I already give me much to chew over.

I wanted to ask… But no, I got to focus.

"Alright." I nodded then pointed down. "So, what are we doing with them."

Kenji paused, looking down at the bat akuma who had finally stopped struggling and was now trying to murder us with a glare.

"… They have a bounty. I'll take them to my Aneue, she'll take care of it."

Ah yes, this mysterious Aneue of his, he mentioned her once saying she tasked him with keeping an eye on me. Since then, he pretty much clamped off whenever I tried to breach the subject.

The bat akuma's struggling returned with a vengeance at the news he was about to pay for his sin and make us profit for it. This time he had even come close to breaking his bounds. This lasted until Kenji lay down a brutal punch directly on his snout that made the concrete floor crack under his head. That put him right back to sleep.

"Ehh, so there's a super-strong guy, squatting in the middle of the city and everyone are just bearing with it cuz they're too weak to do anything about it." Ranma sniggered, she had sneaked close and had been listening in for a while now, along with everybody else, I suppose.

"… Please don't tell me you want to go and challenge them." I gave voice to my growing dread.

Ranma's following grin was worrying naughty, and I only describe it like that because it was on her female face, so my less innocent thoughts were allowed. "I'm not that crazy, Hiroshi."

I want to believe you, you crazy hot shortstack, but you are not making it easy when you say it like that.

Kenji evidently got tired of the conversation, and just hoisted all three bat Akuma over his shoulders. He turned around to inform us "I'll share the bounty." And leaped off the roof before anybody could say anything.

Well, that happened… At least it was a productive talk at least, already better than most I have with him.

A soft clap could be heard as Nabiki closed her notebook. "Hum, that was very informative, thanks for that." She gave us all a sweet smile. "Bye guys."

What the fuck!? Wherethefuckdidshecomefrom!?

Snapping to attention, I grabbed her arm, stopping her in her tracks. "Look, I don't know what exactly you are thinking, but this is serious Nabiki, you'll be in danger if you start messing with that stuff."

Her smile didn't change. "Ah luckily, I have someone to protect me, right Ōe-kun~" She practically singsonged my name.

I scoffed. "Yeah, till something follows you home and kidnaps you when you're sleeping, or strike you down when you're alone and vulnerable, or do infinite other things that will end with you dead or worse without giving us time to do anything about it. These are the kind of danger you can bring to yourself."

Her eyes went cold for the first time since I met her. She shook herself out of my grip. "I can take care of myself." And then, the casual, semi- flirtatious look was back on her like it never left. "But it does feel nice knowing there's someone so worried about me. Thank you Ōe-kun~" She laid a kiss on her fingers and made a motion of blew it to my general direction, before spinning around and sashaying out of the roof.

Fuck.

It was not ideal, to have Nabiki hear that, should have paid more attention… but I doubt I could have made her leave without using force, and I doubt Kenji cared enough to agree to have the talk in a more private setting.

Nabiki now knows about the supernatural. No, I doubt she hadn't known already giving Nerima's general craziness and the way Ranma and I were so blasé about keeping our more supernatural activities hidden, she's too smart to not have put some things together by now. She just… had some more concrete information about it…

I let out a long breath, finally deciding on a course of action. There are some situations in life in which the best answer is a good ol' 'Fuck it'. I can't prevent Nabiki from getting her fingers into the supernatural, frankly, it was bound to happen eventually. Best thing I could do for now is to deal with whatever result of it when it comes.

… Not too much, though, just enough to mitigate the damage for the people who don't deserve it. I'm not Saotome Ranma, I have no intention of shielding Nabiki from the consequences of her own actions.

"Your sister is frustrating to deal with Akane-san," I commented with a sigh.

"Don't underestimate her, Ōe-san. Nabiki is really smart." Was the bluette's response.

I rubbed my eyes to relieve some of the migraine threatening to form around there. "It's not really a matter of underestimating her or not."

"Meh, we deal with that later." My thoughts exactly, Ranma

"She got a great ass." Yes, she does Minon. Yes, she does—

All our gazes turned to stare at the minotauress, who, in turn, smiled and preened at the attention. Akane's mouth literally fell open in shock.

"What… What did you just—"

She got interrupted by the sound of the school bells ringing, signalizing the end of today's classes. That caused a whiplash in the Tendo Dojo's heiress.

"Wait, the classes are already over!? But I didn't— the midterms are coming!" She looked around a bit panicked but quickly found her focus. "I have to see if Yuka and Sayuri took notes!" She declared out loud, then spun on her feet and pointed at us. "You two! Do not get into trouble, you hear me!" She demanded before dashing the stairs.

I watched her go for a few moments, before turning and meeting Ranma's gaze. At that very moment, our minds got completely in sync, and I knew exactly what she was thinking.

School's over, time to pick up Haruka like we planned, we have things to do today.

We're definitely getting into trouble.

"Oi Hiroshi… Give me the damn warm water already!"

…

… Ok, maybe our minds weren't as in sync as I originally thought.

A/Note: Couldn't present everything I wanted after the timeskip, but it's good enough, you'll see more of what they can do as the day going along.

Also because she appared more than once I decided to just reveal her title, here it is:

Isayama Suzue
Diligent High School Girl
Level: 09-10

Yeah, she leveled up by assisting in killing an demon bat.

Also, Ranma's airbender trick isn't from Avatar the last airbender. It's just a trick he learn from playing around with some Ki concepts he discovered, concepts from his own series. I'll explain in the story eventually,

New abilities shown in the chapter that I couldn't describe due to the risk of messing the narrative flow:

New skills:

Activation Key, lvl 07

increased the power of spells by 7%, lower the Mp cost by 2%. Allows you to remember the incantation of the spell you intent to use.

Chant: (Practe bigi nar)

Sprite Creation, lvl 09

Allows you to create sprites at the cost your Mp.

New Spells:

Kakon Omma Petrōseōs

Produces a flash of light that petrify anyone hit by it.

Chant: (Basiliske, galeōtē, meta chōktō podōn kai kakoin ommatoin! to phōs emēi cheiri katiās tōi kakōi dergmati toxeusatō. Kakon Omma Petrōseōs / Basilisk, Lizard with Eight Legs and Evil Eyes! Light Placed into My Hand, Shoot Forth the Evil Look! Evil Eye of Petrification.)

Sagitta Magica, Flammae Capturae

Shot flame-based magical arrows that binds the target. (Sardinia/Lucretia Zola's version: also make them feel like they're on fire)

Chant: (Undecim spiritus ignis, vincula facti inimicum captent. Sagitta Magica, Flammae Capturae / 11 spirits of fire… Make shackles to capture my enemy. Magic Arrows, Capturing flames.)