It's massive... I can feel this incredibly powerful wave of energy flowing through me.
Sometimes it's like the rough, fatherly earth, sometimes like the all-embracing motherly sea... Yeah, this is the world itself. I suddenly realize that what I've been sensing with senjutsu was just a tiny piece of the whole picture. It's like my body's wrapped in the life energy of the world—hell, the entire planet. I'm part of the world, and the world's part of me. I can feel my exhausted body getting its strength back.
...And slowly, I opened my eyes.
"Nyo? Ee-tan woke up nyo!? Thank goodness nyo~!"
There was a battle-hardened nurse giant who'd crossed thousands of battlefields right in front of me... actually, in the same futon as me.
"WAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"
"Nyo! What a quick reaction nyo! Your consciousness seems clear, which is great nyo!"
"Too close! Too close! Too close! Too close! Too close!"
What?! What is this! What the hell's going on?! What's this situation supposed to be?!
Without understanding anything, I just scrambled to get away from Mil-tan. I slammed my back against the wall pretty hard, but I didn't feel a thing.
"Um... Mil-tan... san... uh... well..."
Looks like I'm still confused—I can't string words together. There's tons of stuff I should be asking, but my thoughts are all over the place.
"What... what's going on?"
That's all I managed to squeeze out. Mil-tan started explaining.
"Nyo! Mil-tan went to see a Milky stage show on a department store rooftop nyo! Watching Milky live in the same space is totally different from TV Milky nyo!"
"Uh-huh..."
I just gave her a halfhearted response.
"While walking home with Milky's greatness—how she never gives in to evil—carved into my heart, I sensed something really nasty from far away nyo! As someone who aspires to be a peace-loving magical girl, I couldn't ignore evil being there, so I headed over and found Ee-tan being bullied by an evil army! So I defeated the evil army with my practice Milky magic nyo!"
I guess it's not weird that Mil-tan could beat stray exorcists, but normally a regular person couldn't handle those guys! There were like ten of them... Well, nothing's normal about this anymore!
"I... I see. And then? What happened after?"
"Ee-tan's injuries were terrible, so I brought you to this apartment for treatment nyo! When I went to another world before, I defeated a bad turtle that kidnapped a princess from a certain kingdom and got its blood nyo! According to the delivery guy I fought with, it heals wounds and cures all diseases nyo! I'm so glad your injuries healed nyo!"
...Nope. I can't understand this anymore. Actually, I don't want to understand it.
So Mil-tan's already been to other worlds, huh? Living it up on grand adventures! The details are different, but that's totally a Super Mario world! And I got regenerated by turtle blood?! Looking closer, even my shoulder wound's sealed up. It's like Phoenix Tears! No—if it cures all diseases, it's even better than that!
"Next, I brought the evil army guys along with Ee-tan, but Mil-tan thought about why those guys did bad things nyo! But I figured it out right away nyo! They must not have experienced love, courage, dreams, or hope—that's what Mil-tan realized nyo! So Mil-tan worked really hard explaining how wonderful Milky is, since it's packed with all those things nyo! The guys immediately started crying and shaking when they realized how bad the things they'd done were nyo!"
I'm pretty sure those tears and shaking were for totally different reasons...
"...Where are these reformed guys now?"
They're not anywhere in this room.
"The guys volunteered to take responsibility for what they did nyo! They said they were going to fill in the hole in the sports field nyo!"
...They ran. Quick cleanup is necessary and showing repentance is important, but that's definitely not the real reason.
"Finally... why were we in the same futon?"
Right! I saved this for last, but it's the most important question. Depending on the answer, I might have to say goodbye to this world right here and now.
"The turtle blood healed your injuries, but Ee-tan's complexion was still bad nyo! One of the guys told me body warmth would be effective nyo! And Ee-tan's color kept getting better and better nyo!"
Those damn stray exorcists! Looks like there was one mixed in who needed more repentance (Mil-tan's Milky lectures)!
Next time I see them, I'll personally send them to the afterlife!
…
After that, I thanked Mil-tan and headed home.
He'd saved me and even used a rare item like Phoenix Tears on me.
...I think I got traumatized the moment I woke up, but that's separate from being grateful.
Oh, and He instantly mended my torn clothes too—apparently his Milky costume gets torn "for some reason" a lot, so his sewing skills improved while fixing it... If he's that good at sewing, why doesn't he just make his own?
"...Sigh."
Luckily my injuries and stamina recovered quickly, so I wasn't unconscious that long and made it home before my 6 PM curfew.
But this whole incident really highlighted a bunch of issues I need to work on. Thinking about that, I opened the front door.
"I'm home~"
"Welcome back, Ikki. Dinner's almost ready, so go take a bath and wash off that sweat first."
I heard Mom's voice from the kitchen—oh, by the way, she stopped calling me Ikki-kun and switched to just Ikki. Even I was getting embarrassed by Ikki-kun at this age...
"Okay~"
After my bath and dinner, I went back to my room and seriously analyzed today's battle mistakes.
First, I let the fallen angel get close to me. He probably found me by accident, but I can't just write it off as accidents happen.
I was cursing myself for slacking on senjutsu detection back there, but thinking about it calmly, constantly maintaining senjutsu detection is basically impossible.
The wider the detection range, the more information floods into your head.
I could probably keep it up for a while with a narrow range, but that wouldn't be very useful.
So I should try the opposite approach. Instead of searching, I should hide.
For presence concealment, I basically only need to focus on my own presence. The sustainability would be in a totally different league.
Even Azazel entered the Hyoudou house through the front door without anyone noticing, and Grayfia got right up to the clubroom door without Kiba's sharp senses detecting her. And those are people with Maou-class auras.
Advanced practitioners probably naturally suppress or hide their presence.
Thinking about it, those fallen angels' presences were leaking all over the place.
"Well, so was mine..."
Anyway, unconsciously concealing my presence on a daily basis should be Challenge #1.
Next, the throwing technique with Zarich and Taurvi.
Looking back, this is also full of problems. I got excited when I saw a chance to counterattack, but even if I hadn't taken that light spear hit right after, I would've been worn down anyway.
Unfamiliar first-time throwing, me on the ground versus him in the air—those two factors alone might've been manageable, but from his perspective, there was no need to take risks like reading the attack and dodging or deflecting with a spear. He could've just put up a light barrier and called it a day—and I don't think I could've thrown hard enough to break through a barrier...
Still, it did deliver the finishing blow, so the issues are throwing practice and defense...
As for Self-Destruct... I got a rough idea of its power this time, but is this even useful? It's way better than when I knew nothing about it, but if I keep training and improving my basic abilities, the Self-Destruct range is definitely gonna expand, right? What, am I supposed to regularly test it by blowing myself up somewhere?
"Yeah, that's a NO."
I learned how much it hurts... I'll call that good enough for now.
Finally, my assumptions were way off. I misjudged enemy strength. If I'd assumed the worst case, I should've focused on hiding when no one showed up for ten seconds after I killed the second guy.
Whether I could've actually hidden is another question, but that should've been my choice.
"Ugh! My inexperience is completely exposed. I really wish I could find someone to train under, but that's just not happening..."
And that day, I went to bed early from mental exhaustion.