Reincarnated in a Shounen Manga - Chapter 229: Realization

I picked up a stick on the way to the destroyed park, where most of the swings and slides lay in ruins. With the stick, I began writing down everything I knew on the playground sand.

First, there was some individual attempting to alter the past, adding an extra layer of complexity to the situation. Despite halting my team’s interference, this person had not intervened when Agon had come here.

I was well aware that I couldn’t be arrogant enough to believe that a powerhouse like Babylon, its guards, and the creatures inhabiting it would back off due to my power. But whatever that silver-haired dipshit had in mind, it was going to end horribly.

Even if, by some chance, he succeeded, what would come next? He would only erase himself from existence.

“Hell yeah! We’re so damn good!” Agon exclaimed.

“C’mon, we need to meet up with the others,” I said.

This place was either the remnants of a time long past or perhaps ruins from the future. Either way, like every other location on this cursed island, it undoubtedly harbored something dangerous, and lingering here for too long could be risky.

I leaped toward a broken skyscraper, using the nails on my hand to secure a hold on the solid concrete. Almost instantly, Agon joined me, one of his hands covered in white scales, and his nails a dark purple that nearly appeared black.

Agon imitated my actions, gripping onto the building as well.

“You know, this feels kinda cool,” he smiled.

“Of course, Ord is always cool,” I smiled back and positioned myself horizontally, and jumped off the skyscraper.

The wind tousled my hair, and I gazed down below. I stood at a height equivalent to a twenty-story building.

In my previous life and even when I arrived here, I had always been afraid of heights, like most people. However, knowing I could survive such heights, even having fallen from higher points a couple of times, gradually made my fear disappear.

Those heights that once terrified me had now become comforting and familiar.

As I landed on another broken skyscraper, the aftershock of the jump caused me to slide down a bit, leaving a claw mark on the building’s wall. Eventually, I slowed down and grinned, looking back at Agon.

“Oh, shi-” was all he managed to utter before crashing through a wall and into the building.

As the dust settled, he poked his head out of the hole in the wall, his dark hair, with a purple strand, now covered in dust, and his face also dusty. “Don’t worry, I’m okay.”

“I was more worried about the wall,” I clarified.

He frowned, then grabbed a rock from the debris he had created and threw it at me. I leaned back, dodging the projectile. “Hey! Asshole, don’t do that.”

He looked away and tried to act innocent, looking away and whistling. “What’re you talking about? M-My hand just slipped.”

He was a terrible liar, and even a blind man could see that.

I retrieved a small pebble from the building using my nails and flicked it back at him with precision and control that came naturally to every Master.

Agon, still looking away, couldn’t react in time, and the pebble hit him right in the eyeball.

“Ow! Not in the eye, asshole!” he whined.

“You started it, I’m just finishing it,” I retorted as he retaliated with another stone. With a swift motion, I leaped off the building, leaving just a small crack where I had put my feet before jumping.

Agon, now angry and nursing his eye, followed me, trying to throw pebbles my way, but he failed to hit me; I didn’t even need to put much effort into dodging.

When I landed on the adjacent building, Agon attempted an Ord-imbued kick, but he was still a bit clumsy in mid-air. I caught his foot and knocked it away. He then imbued his fist with Ord, seemingly ready to unleash his special ability, but he thought better of it, settling for an ordinary punch instead.

I deflected his punch, easily redirecting his arm and making him miss me.

It was strange. I had just finished battling an ultimate-class demon, and here I was, playfully sparring with my friend. We were throwing attacks capable of breaking boulders, yet I felt no danger.

The life of an exorcist was indeed peculiar. Despite having been a normal office worker barely two years ago, I had adapted to this dangerous and bizarre life, and oddly enough, I enjoyed it.

“Did you really train with the Sage or what? Because you don’t even know how to throw a punch,” I teased.

Despite the danger we had faced before, an exorcist had come to realize the importance of keeping a smile on their face and seeking moments of fun. Otherwise, the toll of their work could lead to a depressed emo phase.

Of course, I was somewhat kidding with that last part. But truthfully, this world was quite grim for those who worked as exorcists. Each of them had experienced the loss of a friend or family member at some point.

Agon’s nostrils flared as he responded, “No, she didn’t teach me things like that. She always believed that a Warrior’s strength lay in their raw power, dismissing technical aspects as something only for the weak.”

Wait a minute. Wasn’t her ability unique and more technical compared to other Warriors? It seemed like some of these exorcists were being hypocritical. Well, it wasn’t a surprise by this point.

We engaged in a thrilling game of cat and mouse, leaping from skyscraper to skyscraper until we finally reached where the rest of my crew was waiting.

Upon reaching the rooftop, we found Anika with her hand on the chest of the Strength Exorcist, her face focused and determined. Almost invisible to the trained eye, thin strings made of Ord entered through the Strength Exorcist’s mouth.

Although I couldn’t sense the exact details of the healing process inside his body, I knew that Anika was utilizing the restorative aspect of her special ability to mend the Strength Exorcist’s internal damage.

Anika had attempted something similar in the original story, but only on herself, not others.

Did she learn this right now? She was truly growing at an astonishing rate.

I had never seen her use this yet in battle, did she come up with it right now? I have to keep moving and growing too. However, there were limitations to my Perfect Me ability. After all, how does one progress beyond perfection?

While there were some ideas I wanted to experiment with, like transforming into a half-demon and back or weaving my Ord through my body like a string, I knew it wasn’t the right time to test them. Such risky endeavors might also affect my fusion with Carpy.

Despite witnessing the growth of others around me, I tried not to be overly anxious. There was still some time for Carpy to evolve into the ultimate class demon.

I settled down next to Sei, the lingering smell of coppery blood no longer bothering me as much as it used to.

It was peculiar to think back to the man I used to be as if my life as an office worker was a distant memory that didn’t even feel like me anymore. I had indeed undergone significant changes.

“What happened here?” I whispered to Sei, careful not to disrupt Anika’s concentration. Her precise and skilled Ord control was a display of her extraordinary talent.

“We were stopped and defeated,” Sei sighed, gazing at the purple-ish sky with a tinge of melancholy. “Our enemies keep growing stronger, and we seem to be improving at a snail’s pace in comparison.”

***

‘Except you,’ — Sei wanted to add, but he decided not to be childish about it. Kon being able to handle Avalon Island was a good sign for all of them.

However, it truly felt like with each step they took, the enemies they were facing took two.

The world had grown a lot stranger lately, and it wasn’t the same one he used to read about as a kid.

He closed his eyes and dreamed of simpler times – a time when he would lean against the mirror his mother was sealed in, holding a book on his lap, while his mother read it to him.

That beautiful world of friendships and defeating demons together was just a fairytale. In reality, people died horribly, and friends were temporary when faced with the inevitability of death.

Sometimes, it was almost suffocating. No matter how much they grew, their next enemy would be ten times stronger than the last one.

For example, in the war, encountering an ultimate class demon was rare and unlucky. Yet here on Avalon Island, every battle they had was at the ultimate class level or above.

Sei had killed the weird lizard Ultimate class demon that could burn mountains and felt a sense of accomplishment from that. Yet his enthusiasm was crushed when the silver-haired man suppressed him as if he were nothing more than a fly.

“All done, this is all I can do for now,” said Anika, leaning back and breathing a sigh of relief, and breaking Sei away from his thoughts.

Agon came and sat next to Kon, his legs dangling off the edge.

“Are you okay?” Kon asked Anika, who was leaning on the ledge.

She shrugged. “Yeah, though it was strange how the enemy could forcefully put Ord in my body. It was as if some kind of special ability was being used that allowed them to control their Ord perfectly.”

As soon as she said that, Kon’s eyes widened, and as if realization dawned on him. Anika continued like she didn’t notice, massaging her own shoulders and saying. “But at least feeling such a precise Ord inside of me gave me some ideas on how to control it better. Sadly, I don’t think the level he did it at can be replicated unless someone had a special ability specific to that.”

As Anika continued speaking about this mysterious silver-haired man, Agon suddenly perked up. “Uhm, I think I know who you’re speaking about. He has silver hair and red eyes that look like a cat’s eyes, right? He helped me after I was taken away by some weird naked monster without a… rod.”

At that, Kon’s mask slipped even more, and his shock was clear to everyone there.

However, Sei had his own thoughts and didn’t pay much attention to what Kon was doing. What Sei had in mind was his hesitation when the silver-haired man appeared. Next time, he won’t hesitate, and attack immediately.