There Was No Secret Organization to Fight with the World's Darkness so I Made One (In Exasperation)

Welcome to Underground

This 'Defeat Event' is a Service so Please Give it Your All

Part 2

The two hailed a taxi and rushed to the scene. When they arrived, they paid the fare and went around to the back of the ward office. There, in a narrow back alley between buildings, was a manhole with its lid half-off. They were able to find traces of slime trails here and there as well. It was obviously the entrance of a 'dungeon' that would eventually lead them to the world's darkness. It's important for these things to be easy to understand so they don't have to worry about getting lost.

Shouta-kun clad both of his hands in cold air, kicked the manhole cover aside, then jumped down into the sewer. There's a loud noise, *Dan!*, but he manages to land successfully. Ooo, how brave! It's incredibly reckless though. If we had used Kaburagi-san's "the moment you enter the manhole, it's a monster house" plan, he would've died. He jumped in just now without taking any precautions.

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"It was higher than I thought. I hurt my foot."

"Don't move, you stupid idiot. What if there's a surprise attack?"

Touka-chan climbs down the ladder carefully, illuminating the darkness with a low-temperature flame. Shouta-kun laughed fearlessly while limping and checking the condition of his foot.

"The world's darkness is made mostly of water, right? I can probably freeze it in one shot, just one shot. Hey, hey. My ice is way better than flames – because it's more compatible, you know."

"Don't you get that the reason you were scolded by Kaburagi-san is because you get carried away like this? You have too much worldly desire. Today, Takahashi, your virtue is rather low."

"Shut up, you Buddhist prayer-woman. That's not at all cute."

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I was spontaneously surveying the perimeter when Shouta-kun soured the mood by spitting out those insulting words. Oi, you're lucky Kaburagi-san didn't hear that. I heard it though. You may be trying to hide your embarrassment from this cute girl by insulting her, but that's no excuse. Touka-chan is not at all annoying, but she is cute, you know! Even if she is a Buddhist prayer-woman. If you continue to lower my impression of you, I'll crush your ego even more.

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After that, the two ESP'ers split up and began their search of the sewers in two seperate directions, working apart from each other. Touka-chan's failure to be a senpai resulted in Shouta-kun having to face his first real battle by himself, which made things easier for me. It seems that Shouta-kun has forgotten how nervous he was about it being his first real battle.

Although, it's not good that Shouta-kun's saying "Since I'm the strongest, leave everything to me". This kid, just how carried away are you going to get? It looks like the combination of superpowers and typical adolescent emotions has made him the worst. I'll simply have to beat it out of that hot-blooded idiot.

Shouta-kun walked quickly while illuminating the shallow water flowing through the sewer with the light from his smartphone. He marked the walls every few dozen steps with a marker he took out of the pencil case that was inside his bag. It seems like he's trying to keep track of the distance in order to avoid getting lost. I guess he hasn't completely gone off his head yet.

Nevertheless, this is still a defeat event.

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Once he was far enough away from Touka-chan, the star performer made its entrance with a high-pitched grinding sound, *giri-giri*. It was the world's darkness: Lv. 2. The adult-sized world's darkness that had been stuck on the ceiling dropped down right in front of Shouta-kun.

"*Uuh-hi!* Shouta-kun let out a weird voice, but unexpectedly, he didn't falter, and immediately struck out at it. His fist clad in cold air hit the world's darkness and broke through the outer black membrane. And then, he couldn't break through any further. He didn't reach the nucleus. It remained unfrozen.

"Oh yeah? Then take this!"

Shouta-kun tried punching it with his other fist, but the result was the same. He tried to withdraw his fist, but the world's darkness seized the arm that had entered its body and wouldn't let go. It even further restrained him by attacking with tentacles, as if it was hugging him from the front.

Shouta-kun was defeated.

Isn't it way too early to lose already?!

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This was a reasonable result, even if you omit the revision to the defeat event. In the first place, if you smash a -10°C fist into a mass of water the size of a small bathtub, will all the water instantly freeze? Of course not. It will only cool the water by dropping the temperature a little. Shouta-kun should have at least trained to release cold air long distance, or he should have prepared an ice sword to stab the nucleus with.

Even though I had prepared a despair-inducing ability that would've strengthened his opponent, taking it out was unnecessary. The nucleus is harder than ordinary stone, so even if it was frozen, it could still move in ice form.

"Damnit, then I'll freeze it from the inside…!"

Shouta-kun seemed to be planning to do something that resembled something out of a battle manga, but he was too slow.

Too late. Negligence, arrogance, hubris. Your reward for that, you'll be tasting it with your body.

"IT HURTS, GAAAAAAAHHHHHH!? STOP IT, GEAAAAAAAAAHHH! LET GO OF ME, GEAAAAHHHH!"

While I was restraining Shouta-kun with the world's darkness, I tore off a piece of Ice-steroid. Horrible screams echoed through the underground sewer. Remember this well. This is what "being eaten by the world's darkness" feels like. This sensation that feels like your soul is being torn to shreds and eaten, carve it into your bones.

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Shouta-kun wet himself after only one tear, but it's not over yet. I know. Even if a boy at this age feels a little pain, they'll make excuses like: "I wasn't serious"; "I wasn't feeling good"; "I stayed up all night yesterday"; "Actually, I had a headache at that time" and etc. They refuse to reflect on their actions. So I'll corner him and make it so that there's no room for excuses. I'll push him to his limits…

⋯⋯⋯.

I can't do it.

His screams are so awful. They sound like death throes or something. It seems like he's in more pain than when Kaburagi-san got hers peeled off, maybe because she has much more willpower than an ordinary person. Any more than this is just pure torture. Change of plans, let's abandon doing it a second time. It's painful to listen to his screams.

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The world's darkness oozes, *nyuru-nyuru*, and wraps itself around Shouta-kun, who has lost his strength and is no longer struggling. Suddenly, it was cut into pieces by Touka-chan's flame sword, and so was forced to spit out its prey and retreat. Touka-chan pursued it with flames emitted from her hand, and finally finishes it off with a combo of emitted flames and flame bullets that destroy the core. There was silence for a moment.

"Hey, Takahashi! Are you OK? Your screams were terrible! Are you alive!?"

Shouta-kun's screams when the world's darkness captured him and was in the middle of ripping his 'soul' into shreds made Touka-chan presume that the worst had happened and even made her consider the possibility that he had died. The usually calm and composed Touka-chan was even upset, and she hugged the shaking and sopping wet Shouta-kun. I know from personal experience that there are no after-effects or physical damage, but… is he in shock from a near-death experience…?

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Shouta-kun opened his eyes a little, and vaguely looked at Touka-chan. Good, he's alive.

"Fire, fire, warm fire…"

"What? You're cold? Warm?"

Touka-chan warms Shouta-kun with some lukewarm flames while he mutters nonsense. Although it's early autumn in the underground sewers, it seems that having his freezing ability severed reduced his resistance to cold as well. Well, I thought he was cold, but Shouta-kun is acting strange. He's estatically trying to touch Touka-chan's flames, and has a dangerous look in his eyes.

"Fire, it's fire. Fire cleanses away the darkness. This is, certainly this is…"

"Takahashi? Are you alright? Are you conscious?"

Touka-chan also noticed that Shouta-kun was behaving strangely. She cautiously called out to him. Then, Shouta-kun suddenly opened his eyes wide and spoke. Uh-oh.

"It's fire. This is, certainly this is, the truth of the world!"

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Uwaaaaaa!

A strange door opened in him!

I went too far!

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†∼‡∼†

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"Bussetsuma ka hannya wa ra mi ta – "

"Stop chanting."

Shouta-kun recovered and made a serious face when Touka-chan started chanting the "Heart Sutra" while shaking him. It must be a spell for healing abnormal statuses.

It seems like he'll be OK.

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