OREGAIRU : Hikigaya Hachiman's Exorcism Story

"Ah!"

Before Hikigaya Hachiman could figure out how the high-level evil spirit had come, Yotsuya Miko's terrified scream reached his ears.

Shaking his dizzy head, Hikigaya Hachiman used his katana to steady himself and stood up.

What he saw was a spirit with the head of a bird and the body of a man, with large wings and pitch-black feathers. It had Yotsuya Miko in its grasp, trying to feed her to its beak. Yotsuya Miko struggled, desperately trying to break free by hitting the spirit's arm.

But the spirit's hand didn't move at all.

As the beak drew nearer, Yotsuya Miko felt a wave of hopelessness rise within her.

Thud, thud, thud...

Suddenly, rapid footsteps sounded from the left. Hikigaya Hachiman, gripping his katana, charged straight at the head of the high-level evil spirit. 

When the spirit saw the katana in his hands, a flicker of caution passed through its eyes.

Earlier, in the air, it was clear that this human had used his sword to kill its two subordinates.

So the advanced evil spirit didn't choose to continue swallowing Yotsuya Miko. Instead, it grabbed her with one hand and flapped its massive wings, sending a strong gust of wind toward Hikigaya, trying to slow him down.

However, Hikigaya Hachiman gathered his spiritual power in front of him, forming a cone shape, and continued rushing toward the advanced evil spirit.

Realizing it couldn't fly up into the sky before Hikigaya Hachiman arrived, the bird-headed evil spirit decisively gave up on flying. It drove its sharp feathers into the ground, sending countless rocks flying toward Hikigaya.

Sure enough, compared to just wind, the obstacles made of rocks and dust significantly slowed down Hikigaya.

To avoid injury to his eyes, Hikigaya Hachiman had to cover them with his hands, slowing down as he charged toward the bird-headed evil spirit.

Seeing that Hikigaya Hachiman's speed had greatly decreased, the bird-headed evil spirit felt that his threat had lessened considerably.

After all, no matter how strong Hikigaya Hachiman's Demon Slaying sword was, as long as he couldn't land a hit, it was no threat at all.

As the wings flapped, the bird-headed evil spirit summoned several small tornadoes around it. With the firestorm left by the samurai evil spirit, they quickly turned into powerful fire tornadoes.

After admiring its creation for a moment, the bird-headed evil spirit flapped its wings, and the fire tornado roared toward Hikigaya Hachiman.

"This is troublesome..."

Seeing the fire tornado in front of him, Hikigaya Hachiman's heart skipped a beat, and he couldn't help but slow down.

The fear of fire isn't just an animal instinct—humans are afraid of such intense flames too.

But!

In less than half a second of hesitation, Hikigaya's speed picked up again. He allowed the fire tornado to burn his skin and rushed through the obstacles set by the bird-headed evil spirit.

"Die!!!"

The bird-headed evil spirit, now more than two meters off the ground, suddenly heard Hikigaya Hachiman's furious roar.

It looked around, trying to locate him, but the sharp blade passed just above its head.

Then, with his body covered in flames, Hikigaya Hachiman fell from the sky and chopped off the bird-headed evil spirit's hand, which was holding Yotsuya Miko.

Yotsuya Miko fell toward the ground along with the severed hand of the evil spirit.

Terrified, she closed her eyes as the ground drew closer.

But the expected impact, dizziness, and pain never came.

Instead, strong arms firmly caught her!

Opening her eyes, Yotsuya Miko saw Hikigaya Hachiman's face, blackened by the flames. A complex look flashed in her eyes.

She had only met him once, yet he had saved her multiple times. How could she ever repay him?

However, just as Yotsuya Miko was lost in her thoughts, Hikigaya Hachiman suddenly threw her away.

Yes, he threw her away!

Suspended in mid-air, Yotsuya Miko was completely confused.

Why had he thrown her? He had caught her just a moment ago—what changed?

But soon, with the sound of metal crashing nearby, Yotsuya Miko instantly understood why.

Ignoring the pain in her body, Yotsuya Miko climbed up from the ground.

She glanced at Hikigaya Hachiman and the bird-headed evil spirit, who were still locked in a fierce battle, and decided not to interfere. She staggered away from the fight.

She remembered what Hikigaya Hachiman had said earlier.

There were 18 evil spirits in total in this space. The 14 lower-level evil spirits had all been eliminated, and two of the three mid-level evil spirits had just been destroyed.

Including the advanced evil spirit currently fighting Hikigaya Hachiman, there was actually only one mid-level evil spirit left in the entire academy.

As long as Yotsuya Miko isn't too unlucky, she shouldn't be in any danger.

Sure enough, after seeing Yotsuya Miko leave, Hikigaya Hachiman didn't get angry. Instead, he let out a huge sigh of relief.

He was worried that Yotsuya Miko might hesitate and stay in place, which would have tied his hands.

Now that the only person he was worried about had left, he could finally go all out and fight the advanced evil spirit with everything he had!

In sharp contrast to Hikigaya Hachiman, the bird-headed evil spirit grew frantic when it saw Yotsuya Miko moving farther away.

It had searched for so long in the human world, and finally found its desired prey. How could it let this delicious meal slip away?

But Hikigaya Hachiman was just too difficult to deal with.

Especially after fighting the samurai evil spirit, his combat awareness had greatly improved.

The bird-headed evil spirit, which had been stuck on the ground, had no chance to return to the air and use its full power.

Suddenly, while fighting it, Hikigaya Hachiman stumbled and showed a pained expression on his face.

The bird-headed evil spirit's eyes lit up instantly.

This was the chance it had been waiting for!

Although the spider evil spirit had given up easily, the samurai evil spirit had left Hikigaya Hachiman with significant injuries, and especially after charging through the fire tornado, his wounds had worsened.

The bird-headed evil spirit had judged that Hikigaya Hachiman wouldn't be able to keep fighting at a high intensity for much longer, which is why it had stayed on the ground to stall him.

After all, if Hikigaya Hachiman had intended to drag things out until dawn, it wouldn't have been able to do anything to him…

Now, the long-awaited opening had finally appeared. The bird-headed evil spirit swung its wings and aimed for the human's neck.

It was sure that the battle-worn Hikigaya Hachiman wouldn't be able to avoid this strike!

"Spirit Flow Technique!"

But suddenly, a massive surge of spiritual energy flowed through Hikigaya Hachiman's hand. A stream of energy shot out from his hand, piercing the bird-headed evil spirit's chest.

Remembering what happened when he faced the samurai evil spirit, Hikigaya Hachiman didn't let his guard down after hitting the target. Instead, he charged forward and swung his sword, severing the bird-headed evil spirit's head. Then, he hacked at its body relentlessly.

Only when the body's spiritual energy collapsed and could no longer hold its shape, turning into a puff of black smoke, did he stop.