Kapitel 19: Chapter 19: First Day
Class 1-A was filled with nervous murmurs as their teacher hadn't shown up yet. Said teacher was me, and currently I was hiding under the shadow of my podium. The only part visible of my body was my head as I listened to their chatter.
"Hey, did you hear about our teacher? I heard he chased down the Phantoms that attacked the school and killed them!"
"Bullshit, there isn't any way a teacher can kill a Tier 3 let alone three of them!"
"But the headmistress—"
"She's just stroking his ego, it's very rare for an exorcist captain to become an instructor so she's buttering him up to keep him here. I'll bet he's some weak little—" I dove under my shadow as I heard one of the desk chairs scrape across the floor loudly. Someone was getting up and they were getting up in a hurry.
I could guess who it was and when I emerged from the shadow of the snot-nose brat who'd been badmouthing me her pink eyes met mine. Her fist was inches from colliding with the chubby boy's face, a pink foam covering her hand being the telltale sign of her using geist. Grabbing her wrist I held her gently as only now the little fatty noticed what was going on.
"W-wha—"
"Fumiko-chan please refrain from attacking students with potentially lethal force, even if Takahiro-kun deserves it." The boy's double chin jiggled in the best approximation to his adam's apple bobbing. His face was paler than a bed sheet and when I smiled at him he shuddered, his flabby flesh jiggling along with his fearful trembling.
"Okay..." The brown-skinned gyaru muttered reluctantly, her pink eyes still boring holes in Takahiro. She trudged back to her desk, each step filling the quiet classroom. Everyone watched the spectacle with slack jaws except for the main heroines who were off in their own little worlds.
Using [Shadow Portal] I emerged behind my podium and looked out at the class, the potential exorcists of the future, and I found them lacking. They had Geist reserves and bloodlines from some of Japan's most noble exorcist clans, but that didn't matter if you were too stupid to follow instructions.
"Miura Chizue, can you please explain to the class why you decided to wear piercings to class despite the dress code strictly forbidding them?" I looked at the girl with short brown hair, her body seemed to wilt under my gaze.
"I-I didn't think it'd be a really big deal, y'know." A brown-haired girl answered my question, her coal brown eyes quivered as she felt her piercings pull themselves out. Using [Shadow Puppet] I brought the earrings and nose ring stud to the palm of my hand. The girl held her ears in pain as blood dripped from where I'd forcefully yanked at her earrings.
"Had it been a phantom capable of manipulating metal he would've jammed these puppies inside of your head like a speeding bullet. Do you want to end up brain-dead when we go on our first mission?"The girl shook her head fiercely as tears streamed down her pale cheeks.
"Good, because I feel like some of you aren't taking this seriously enough. Can someone tell me what an exorcist is?" I asked as I turned to write on the chalkboard, the word exorcist had a question mark beside it. "Any takers?"
Unsurprisingly the ultra-diligent Homusubi Akari raised her hand to answer. I couldn't help but smile at the familiar sight in the manga. She was always such a bookworm.
"Yes, do you have an answer Akari-chan?" I asked as I turned to fully look at her. Crimson hair cascaded down her back like a wave of fire, and her azure eyes looked at me with no emotion. Her perfect face remained in a frozen expression with no change whatsoever, she really did lack any feelings.
"An exorcist is someone who exorcises phantoms and keeps the existence of the supernatural a secret from the general public." She spoke in a voice similar to that of a text-to-speech bot. The monotone way she pronounced every word already had half of the class on the verge of sleep.
"Thank you, Akari-chan very good. Now can anyone else tell me what exorcism means in the context of dealing with a phantom?" I didn't really plan on rehashing things they should already know, but I wanted to make a point to them. The job of an exorcist is not a game.
"You kill it." Ōishi Tsukasa spoke with a hard edge in her voice. Her amber eyes glared down at her desk, and her hands were clenched in a white knuckle grip. This girl might as well be an honorary Uchiha with all that angst, but her answer was exactly what I was looking for.
"Excellent answer Tsukasa-chan!" I smiled, and geist began pouring off of my body in roiling waves of purple-colored mist as I leaked killing intent into the energy. "Exorcists are killers, and if you did it as long as I've been doing it your aura would like this too." The class froze, images of death flashed through their eyes as every conceivable way I could kill them played in a slideshow. That day the janitorial staff had to clean vomit and piss off the classroom floor.
The only four still conscious were Fumiko, Tsukasa, Akari, and Yuzuki. Fumiko smiled as if my killing intent meant nothing to her, and she'd be correct as I'd never harm what is mine. Tsukasa grinned like a feral animal bearing it's fangs, the inner battle maniac inside her letting its presence be known. Akari's emotionless state played in her favor as she shrugged off the killing intent with minimal effort. And Yuzuki was the last to remain conscious, the pupils of her wine-red eyes had constricted into slits like a cat. Her fingernails scraped across her desk as they grew into sharp claws. Once again the power of the main characters strikes again.
***
"Garridan, why did you make me order... these?" Charlotte gestured to the kids wearing dark navy blue flak jackets. The things had shoulder pauldrons that covered halfway down the side of their biceps and a triangle groin guard that dangled in front of their sensitive bits. They looked like soldiers if you ignored their school uniform underneath the vest.
"Think of it as training wheels."
"Training wheels?"
"This armor is only meant to stop attacks from Tier 0 phantoms and anything beyond that is impossible for it to stop, but just for this early phase I wanna ensure they're as safe as I can make them." I may not be the most caring man but nobody wants to have to tell a family that they lost a child. Plus even if the flak jacket can't directly stop attacks from a higher-tier phantom it can still block the shrapnel from them.
"I see, you really are caring, darling." She smiled fondly at me before giving me a chaste kiss in front of the students. Fumiko pouted at the sight while the others looked at us with slack jaws. I guess seeing your teachers kiss would be pretty shocking or maybe it's the fact that Charlotte looks their age?
"Okay stop your gawking it's time for a little practice! Do all of you know the three basic techniques?" Everyone nodded at my words and I sighed in relief. I couldn't imagine having to go through and coach every single one of them individually as I did Nozomi and Fumiko. The time that would take would lead us straight into our first mission without any time for them to gain combat training.
"Good, that's good. Now, Tsukasa and Yuzuki will be captains of Team Red, anyone who fights up close and personal is going to want to be on this team! Fumiko and Akari are Team Blue's captains, if ranged combat or techniques is your forte then you'll want to join them!" As I spoke I gave each team a box of red and blue armbands.
The class split pretty evenly after that with Team Blue holding a slight edge in the number of people joining it. Exorcists generally avoid close combat with phantoms as that's a good way to get gutted like a fish, but for a team of exorcists to even have a chance they need close-range fighters to draw the phantom's attention.
"Now that that's out of the way, Red Team follow Charlotte as she'll be teaching you how to kite a phantom. Blue Team you're with me, and we'll be focusing on sealing techniques. Alright, ready set break!" With that my little ducklings followed me with nervous looks and blue bands around their arms.
***
"Can anyone tell me the first sealing technique every exorcist learns?" I asked as we entered a large torii gate that was almost 50 feet high. Paper talismans were peppered over the thing like confetti and geist was practically leaking off of it. Ropes extended from its sides as they wrapped around the trees of the forest in a circular shape. This was the Tokyo Exorcist Academy's infamous [Phantom Forest].
"That would be a [Geist Field] sensei as it seals the sound and sight of anything inside." Akari chimed in as she stared at the massive gate with a blank expression, the other student's awe and fear didn't seem to affect her.
"Correct and can you tell me what makes sealing arts difficult to learn?" It felt nice to bounce questions off her so she could explain them to the class for me. Is this why teachers ask questions?
"That would be the need to control the three basic techniques: control, release, and masking to effectively make a technique capable of being projected from the body in a radius around the exorcist and be invisible to not alert the enemy." Ah, it's so wonderful to have a nerd on the team.
"Is there anyway of circumventing this?" The students listened intently to our words, and even the usually airheaded Fumiko was paying rapt attention to our discussion.
"That would be... elemental techniques, right?" For the first time Akari seemed unsure. Her lack of knowledge about elemental techniques was a direct result of her family shunning her for her muted emotions. The girl probably had less knowledge than most of the students at the academy in terms of elemental knowledge, but that was about to change.
"Correct, channeling geist into your element of choice removes the need for masking and allows you to hide your technique in plain sight. In my case I would channel geist into my shadows to use a technique, here watch." The sound of trees crashing down on the forest floor thundered through the woods. Birds squawked in terror as they left the canopy of trees, and the sound of leaves rustling filled our ears. Whatever was coming close was massive and moving quickly.
"Gachi Gachi, fresh meat!" Breaking through the dense forest brush was a giant skeleton, the thing was at least 30 feet tall. The Gashadokuro, a Tier 1 phantom stood before us wreathed in yellow flames. It's sun-bleached bones were made of hundreds of human skulls like a sculpture of death. Its hand reached out for the terrified students ready to devour them as its massive teeth clacked together with a 'gachi gachi' sound.
"[Necto]." Chains of inky blackness swirled around the creature's hand before pulling it off course as it crashed into the ground missing the students.
"This kids, is the most basic [Dark Aether] sealing technique." Even as I spoke geist traveled through my circuits and straight to my dark aether node. "And this is an advanced one."
"[Necto, Black Coffin]." The sky darkened as the shadows drained from the forest floor and rose into the shape of a massive coffin. The Gashadokuro's fist tried crashing into the black box but that was a big mistake.
The door to the coffin opened. Umbral arms reached out and clung to the skeleton's white hand as the once normal looking coffin turned into a writhing mass of black severed arms. The phantom tried pulling back but like a drowning man the coffin pulled the monster down into the inky depths with it. The door closed with a resounding thud and the sound of the Gashadokuro's pounding fists trying to break free filled the air. The coffin sunk into the dark pool below it and was stored in my shadow.
"Okay, now that I've caught my own it's now your guy's turn. Our goal is to bring back at least five phantoms so we can use them for practice with the Red Team." As I spoke the students before me looked less than enthused and I couldn't help but smirk at their fear. Teaching is fun!
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein