Returned from Another World, Earth Turned Out to Be Quite the Fantasy Too. Also, Losing Heroines, Stop Looking This Way. - V5 Chapter 45: “Sudden Flashback Arc?!” ①

Chapter 45: “Sudden Flashback Arc?!” ①

“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!”

And it wasn’t just Natsuki shouting.

Koume, Senju, and Yusuke all cried out in disbelief.

Even Shuten Doji and Tamamo-no-Mae looked intrigued—they’d never heard anything about Natsuki being attacked by an oni before.

“Let me take you back a few years… to when I first met Shinonome Abe-kun. —Howan howan howan howan howan.”

“…You’re the first person I’ve ever seen actually say the flashback sound effect out loud!?”

—A few years ago.

Wearing his school uniform, Shinonome Abe crouched down and brushed his gloved fingers across a pool of blood.

“…To think that Madoka would get attacked by an oni without even having awakened his spiritual power… damn it.”

His voice was sharp, laced with venom as he cursed the oni—unable to hide his irritation.

Truthfully, he was shaken.

His younger brother, Madoka Abe, had been attacked.

Oni attacked ordinary people without hesitation—

So of course, Madoka, who hadn’t yet awakened, was just as vulnerable.

But to actually watch… a boy he’d recently grown close to… get eaten right in front of him?

Who could have imagined that?

“…If only I’d kept a closer eye on him. No—that’s just an excuse. What I really wanted was for Madoka to live as a normal kid. We finally got out of the Abe clan, so why… why did it have to come to this?!”

With a loud BANG, he slammed his fist into a nearby vending machine.

The metal crumpled into a bent “く” shape under his strength, and the wall behind it cracked from the impact.

“And now you’re telling me it was Ibaraki Doji—the one as terrifying as Shuten Doji himself—who saved Madoka? Don’t insult my intelligence. An oni wouldn’t do that. If they found a weakened kid, they’d happily eat them alive.”

Kyoto’s spiritualists were split into two factions:

The moderates, who sought coexistence with youkai—

And the hardliners, who wanted to wipe them out completely, especially the oni.

The Abe clan as a whole might have been on the moderate side—

But Shinonome Abe, personally? He was firmly a hardliner.

If you killed every oni—starting with the big names like Shuten Doji—

The small fry would have nothing left.

After all, those small fry only ran wild because they had a monster like Shuten Doji backing them.

“I’ll kill them.”

Thick, concentrated killing intent seeped out of him along with his spiritual power.

Honestly, part of him wished an oni would be drawn to it—just so he could rip them apart on the spot.

Even as a student, Shinonome Abe was known as the strongest in Kyoto.

He’d once marched straight into the psychic training school run by the Institute—the organization that oversaw spiritualists across Kanto—and taken down every single person who came at him, teachers included, before stealing their title as the top.

He didn’t think he could lose to an oni.

In fact, he was confident that once his current techniques were fully refined, he could even kill Shuten Doji himself.

“Excuse me?”

“…Hm?”

“Sorry to interrupt your anger, but I’d like to speak with you.”

“…Who’s there?”

He scanned the area—but no one was around.

“Down here, boy.”

The voice came from below.

Frowning, he looked down—

“You, who hold such burning rage… I am not human, but I wish to speak with you as a friend.”

There, peeking out from behind the vending machine Shinonome had just smashed—

Was a twenty-centimeter-tall middle-aged man in a tailcoat and silk hat, holding a cane.

“—A Tiny Old Man?!”

〜〜Afterword〜〜

At last, the past arc begins.

Thanks for waiting.