I Don’t Want to Die as a Mob in My Second Life! ～A Story Where I Kept Training from Inside the Womb and Ended Up Being Mistaken for a Monster～ - Chapter 05: Loved by Everyone! / Target for Termination: Kanata Soranaki

Chapter 05: Loved by Everyone! / Target for Termination: Kanata Soranaki

A strong body leads to a strong soul.

And those with strong souls sometimes develop the rare ability to emit a power called spiritual energy.

Spiritual energy is like the radiant heat and light overflowing from the “sun” that is the soul.

You could call it the will to live itself—essentially, life energy.

By circulating this energy throughout the body, the parts it reaches become more active, allowing for temporary physical enhancements.

“Now then, to efficiently channel spiritual energy throughout the body, our Heian-era Reisoushi pioneer, Abe Seimei, came up with something brilliant. That’s the concept of Spiritual Pathways.”

I was explaining this to the Conceptual Spirit trio. We had plenty of time, and honestly, these guys needed to get a bit smarter sooner rather than later.

Hey, hold it, [Ittan-momen]! Don’t just pull bondage-themed doujinshi out of my brain and make it real! Don’t read it! Don’t get excited! Listen to the lecture!

“…Ahem, back to the topic of Spiritual Pathways. To deliver spiritual energy more efficiently to different parts of the body, we lay down invisible pathways from the engine room that is the soul. These pathways are what we call Spiritual Pathways.”

I brought up a visual window to make it easier to explain.

Alright, so where someone thinks their soul “exists” can differ from person to person. For me, I feel like mine resides in my heart.

From there, I imagine drawing a second set of “veins” branching out… Hey, [Blank Shot], stop cutting out just the Russian roulette scenes from the manga! And stop getting excited! Wait, what? Russian roulette counts as an erotic scene for you? Gross…

“Anyway, the point is, setting up Spiritual Pathways makes transmitting spiritual energy much more efficient. And that’s not all. Since these pathways are like extensions of your soul, the more pathways you build, the larger your soul’s capacity becomes, which means it can produce more spiritual energy.”

That’s the gist of it. In this world, more is always better.

“However, just like with Spiritual Body Modification, Pathway Construction becomes really hard once you’re fully grown. By then, your soul’s shape is pretty much locked in.”

It’s an incredibly challenging type of training.

Inside the Spiritual Domain, you have to focus intensely, picturing your soul and body in your mind, and then strain yourself like Unnnghhh to imagine pathways stretching out from your soul into your body.

And even with all that effort? You’re lucky if you get them to grow a single millimeter after hours of work.

That’s the kind of training it is. A lot of people who reach adulthood with too few or short pathways figure they’re better off just focusing on muscle training instead—it’s way more efficient.

“Alright, let’s get to it.”

Here I am, still in my prime fetal state. Thanks to that, I’ve been able to tweak my body as much as I wanted.

“Now, how much can I modify the shape of my soul…? Guess I won’t know until I try.”

Will it stretch efficiently?

Or will the fact that my soul carries the consciousness of my 23-year-old self—an adult—mean its shape is already fixed and won’t grow?

Man, I really hope it’s not the second one…

“Anyway, let’s give it a shot. Meditation, start—!”

Hmmmm… I began by picturing the transparent diagram of my fetal body that I had been working on earlier.

Next, I visualized a pale blue soul overlapping with the heart.

“Okay, now imagine growing a tentacle-like extension from here, heading toward the lower abdomen. Not a rapid stretch, but a slow and precise growth. Picture every detail of its outline, making sure it extends steadily and accurately…”

Let’s aim for 3 centimeters for now. Ready, and—

“Go!”

In that instant, my soul transformed dramatically, and instead of 3 centimeters, a 30-centimeter pathway stretched all the way down to the, uh, lower region.

“Gwaaaaaahhh!?”

What followed was a wave of nausea and a massive earthquake!

The entire Spiritual Domain—my soul—shook violently, wobbling like crazy.

Meanwhile, the Conceptual Spirit trio clung to me, screaming, “Gyaa!?” as my consciousness started fading.

“—Huh!?”

I… woke up! My eyes are open!

How much time has passed since then…?

“Phew, passing out inside my own soul… that’s pretty extreme. Normally, something like that only happens if a Conceptual Spirit attacks and directly damages your soul itself…”

“Kanataaa~!”

The Conceptual Spirit trio flew over and pounced on me. Oh, were they worried about me?

“Scared us, you!”

“Gyaa!?”

Nope, not worried—they shoved me to the ground! Wait, are they mad!?

“Alright, alright, I’m sorry for causing the earthquake! I didn’t think my soul would shift around that much!”

As the spirits clung to me, I muttered the command, “Soul Projection (Soul’s Open).”

And then—

“Whoa…”

What appeared was a black silhouette of my body, with a ridiculously long pathway stretching from my heart all the way to my, uh, lower region.

“Yeah, no wonder I passed out. I can’t believe my soul morphed this much all at once…”

I had predicted two possible outcomes before trying this:

The first option: the pathways would grow exactly as I imagined.

The second option: they wouldn’t grow at all, because my soul was already fixed in place due to my adult consciousness. Reality can be cruel.

But what I got was the third option: it stretched ten times further than I imagined. What the heck!?

“Hmm… could it be that my current soul is a fusion of my original fetal soul and the soul of my future self? Maybe that’s why my soul has such a large capacity, and why it’s so unstable right now—like a massive pool of unset jelly that spilled everywhere and stretched so much?”

This was just a hypothesis. Since I’d never heard of anyone surviving something as bizarre as [Regression], I could only make wild guesses.

Still, considering the extreme transformation that just happened, it made a weird kind of sense.

“Hey, [Doll], do you know how long I was unconscious?”

“Half month~.”

“Are you serious? That’s full-on coma territory… Well, I guess I’m just lucky to have woken up at all.”

I mean, I’d warped my soul into a complete mess.

There was a real chance it could have ruptured entirely, leading to my soul’s destruction—or worse, I might’ve woken up as something fundamentally not me.

It was a relief to wake up still myself.

“Phew, lesson learned… but this might actually be exciting!”

If I can freely reshape my soul, then with careful effort, I could lay down as many pathways as I want.

And it might even be possible to change the “element” of my spiritual energy.

“Spiritual energy comes in five elements: fire, water, earth, wind, and lightning. Your element determines which spirits resonate best with you.”

For example, I’m wind-aligned. As a mob in my previous life, I survived missions by being cautious yet easygoing, and somehow ended up with wind as my element.

That’s why I get along well with [Blank Shot], whose concept involves “air shocks,” and [Ittan-momen], who embodies “fluttering in the wind.” Even [Doll] works well with me since its nature involves “drying to take form,” meaning it enjoys feeding on wind-element spiritual energy.

“Alright, let’s start making some modifications—as long as my soul doesn’t burst!”

“Good luck~!”

Maybe, as a Reisoushi, I’ll actually become pretty strong this time around!

And hey, in this life, I’d really like to be at least a little admired by those around me…

◆　◇　◆

“You’re the father of Kanata Soranaki, correct? If you resist, We’ll kill you.”

“Hiii!?”

On this day, Michitaka Soranaki, the fifth head of the Soranaki family, was trembling in fear.

The scene was his modest family home—a single-story residence that had a decent size and charm but was, at its core, a simple and humble lower-tier household without any luxuries.

And yet, his peaceful home was now swarmed with black-suited individuals.

“E-Excuse me, but what’s the meaning of this…!?”

“You are not authorized to ask questions.”

“Hie!?”

The black-suited figures glared at him coldly. They were agents of the Spirit Conductor Agency.

In addition to supporting the activities of Reisoushi, these agents operated in the shadows, monitoring and cracking down on any illegal actions by Reisoushi.

For them to suddenly show up at his house like this…

“—Mr. Michitaka Soranaki.”

From the group of black-suited agents, a girl with pale blue hair stepped forward.

She was stunningly beautiful.

Despite her petite frame, her figure was captivating, with curves that seemed almost out of place on someone so small. Her traditional Japanese outfit was shockingly short, revealing her entire thighs, and its design left her sides and part of her chest boldly exposed.

Her Reisoushi cloak was casually draped over her elbows like a shawl, making the exposed areas of her pale skin stand out even more.

“My apologies for this sudden visit.”

Overall, she was an extraordinarily eye-catching beauty—but—

Her eyes were icy cold and emotionless. Combined with her frosty hair, Michitaka couldn’t help but see her as a heartless snow spirit.

“Y-You are…?”

“I am Setsuna Kirisame, a Class-1 Reisoushi.”

“C-Class-1…!?”

Michitaka’s face stiffened.

Class-1 Reisoushi are the highest combat power below the elite seven Special-Class Reisoushi. For someone of her rank to be sent here, it must mean something incredibly serious.

“S-So, Reisoushi Kirisame, what brings you here today…?”

“I’ll get straight to the point. Mr. Michitaka Soranaki, the Spirit Conductor Agency suspects you of involvement in spiritual biological experiments.”

“What!? That’s ridiculous!”

“Half a month ago.”

At those words, Michitaka’s eyes widened in shock.

“Half a month ago… you visited the Spirit Conductor Hospital with your pregnant wife, didn’t you? You reported that ‘our son’s spiritual energy suddenly spiked significantly.’”

“Y-Yes…”

“In the end, the cause remained unknown. As a precaution, your wife was admitted for observation, and you’ve been waiting for the results since then, correct?”

“…That’s right. We’ve had no explanation at all…”

Michitaka’s shoulders slumped. His naturally timid personality, combined with his constant worry for his wife and unborn son, had left him anxious for days.

To him, Setsuna delivered her next words bluntly, without a trace of emotion.

“This morning, the hospital uncovered new information. Inside your son’s Spiritual Domain—‘Kanata Soranaki’—we detected the presence of three Conceptual Spirits.“

“What!?”

Michitaka was stunned into silence. The idea of three spirits residing within a fetus’s soul was unthinkable.

“T-That’s impossible! How could that happen!?”

“We don’t know… However, your son apparently already had nearly double the spiritual energy of an average person. Because of that strong, dense soul, it was difficult to detect the presence of Conceptual Spirits.”

But now—

“This sudden spike in spiritual energy prompted advanced, cutting-edge tests, which finally revealed the truth. That’s how we arrived at this discovery.”

Setsuna Kirisame softened her demeanor slightly. Seeing Michitaka’s panicked reaction, she concluded, “He’s innocent.”

After all, the fact that he had taken his wife to a public hospital in the first place made it unlikely that he was conducting insane experiments to implant spirits into a fetus.

“Ah… ahhhh… aaaaahhh…!”

But Michitaka was far too distraught to notice her shift in attitude.

“W-What will… what will happen to my wife and son!?”

He fell to his knees in shock, looking up at Setsuna with tearful, desperate eyes.

“…I’ll be blunt. This matter has already reached the upper levels of the Spirit Conductor Agency. Some believe ‘it would be best to terminate the child before birth.’“

“That can’t be…!”

“However, because this is such an unusual case, many others argue ‘we should monitor the situation for now.’ For the time being, no final decision has been made. Your wife and child will be taken into custody by the Agency.”

In other words—at worst, execution.

At best, they’d be treated like specimens under observation.

Michitaka was speechless, unable to find the words to respond.

“Mr. Michitaka Soranaki. You will also undergo questioning.”

“…”

“Now, stand up.”

And so, the wheels of reality began to turn. Suspicions and scrutiny were now directed squarely at Kanata Soranaki.

At this moment, no one could have known—

That this very fetus, Kanata, was thinking in his blissfully laid-back way, “Maybe if I get stronger, everyone will admire me!”

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[Tips]

Pathway Construction: A spiritual organ enhancement and expansion technique developed a thousand years ago by the Special-Class Reisoushi, Abe Seimei.

By extending the tentacle-like Spiritual Pathways from the soul, it not only improves the efficiency of spiritual energy transmission but also slightly increases spiritual energy production by expanding the soul’s area.

Spirit Conductor Agency: A national organization that oversees all Reisoushi.

It was originally established by Abe Seimei as the Onmyoryo.

The agency assigns missions to Reisoushi and monitors them for any illegal activities.

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Next time: The long-awaited birth!

(↓ If you have any thoughts or questions about the setting, feel free to ask away!)