Chapter 29: No Longer an Ordinary Daily Life
When the outline of the mountains appeared on the right side of the car, Hikigaya happened to wake up.
It had already been a week since the god-slaying event, and school was out for summer vacation.
Wrapping up that matter indeed took quite some time. During that period, a bunch of people were very busy.
Of course, for Hikigaya, the main task was comforting his little sister.
Her brother, who clearly went upstairs to sleep, was nowhere to be found when she woke up in the middle of the night from the thunderstorm. He hadn't returned all night.
On that night filled with lightning, thunder, howling wind, and pouring rain, Hikigaya Komachi had been deeply distressed.
Though she wanted to go out to look for her brother, it was impossible due to the storm.
When Hikigaya returned home, it took him several hours to coax her into smiling again.
In the end, he covered it up with some nonsense about "training in martial arts under a powerful master, so I went out at night to train."
Naturally, because it sounded like total BS, Komachi didn't believe it at first. Who the hell goes out to train martial arts in a typhoon? What is this, Dragon Ball? But when Hikigaya gritted his teeth and performed a full set of Pencak Silat moves in the living room like some circus monkey, the innocent girl actually bought it.
She thought it looked really cool, even better than what she saw on TV. And because it looked good, she felt it must be powerful.
If Silkwat Jenazad had heard this reasoning, he might have suffered internal injuries from sheer frustration...
Then, just a few days after calming his sister, Hikigaya received a call from Hiratsuka Shizuka.
It felt like he hadn't heard that voice in a long time.
Even though he had turned into a ridiculously overpowered cheater character, Hikigaya had no intention of giving up his student life.
It wasn't just for show… okay, maybe a little. But mostly, it was because he genuinely didn't know what else to do with his life for now.
Besides, some seriously shady characters had recently enrolled in the school for some unknown reason. That so-called protagonist and strongest disciple, Shirahama Kenichi, turned out to be a fellow student.
If he didn't stick around to enjoy the show, it would be a disgrace to all who had traveled through dimensions.
Being an OP character really is the best. You can ignore everything in a super badass way. The constant feeling of being arrogant, cool, and untouchable is just too refreshing.
Because if it were the old him, he would've just muttered "WTF" internally and run away as fast as he could.
Anyway, back on topic—the mountains were now visible to the right.
Chiba is located on the Kanto Plain and has flat terrain, so seeing mountains is pretty rare.
But not completely impossible.
For example, there's a place called Chiba Village, which has lush green mountains and many hot springs.
Even someone like Hikigaya, who preferred to stay at home playing video games all summer, wouldn't object to coming here for a vacation.
As for that "volunteer activity" that Hiratsuka Shizuka mentioned—he had already selectively erased that from his memory.
That stuff's just not important. He'd deal with it when the time came.
The parking lot was at the edge of the forest. It was filled with a mixture of coach bus exhaust and the scent of grass. The scenery looked great, but Hikigaya sincerely sympathized with the grass.
It's not easy being a blade of grass these days. He wasn't sure if the exhaust harmed them, but after being run over by tires and stepped on by crowds repeatedly, they were probably doomed. He sincerely wished the grass a longer life.
"Wow, this feels amazing!"
A girl known by the nickname "Dango" (somehow he randomly remembered it) shouted as she got off the bus, stretching in a big, exaggerated motion.
Yeah, one of those stretches that make a good figure look even better. If you didn't have a good figure… pretend that stretch never happened.
The others got off one after another and started chirping about the awe of being deep in the mountains.
The world's "correction force" once again showed its boring nature—everyone who should have shown up here did.
Hikigaya was the last one to get off the bus and immediately walked away.
Even a god-slayer didn't like inhaling bus exhaust.
But he seemed to have walked the wrong way, because another coach bus rolled up and stopped right next to him.
Good ol' Exhaust-kun happily enveloped the 7th Demon King again.
God, he really wanted to kick that damn bus. It had to be doing this on purpose.
And now, he could actually kick it. Even though he didn't know what authority (power) he had gained, his body had clearly been enhanced. Especially after sparring with Silkwat Jenazad, who had claimed he was itching for a fight.
His body was completely inhuman now. Though Silkwat Jenazad undoubtedly crushed him in martial arts skill and experience, Hikigaya could still overwhelm him through sheer physical power alone.
Thankfully, Silkwat Jenazad was a master of the highest order. Even though Hikigaya hadn't fully awakened or figured out what kind of power he had, Jenazad had still been able to engage in a meaningful spar with him—at least preserving Hikigaya's last shred of dignity.
Silkwat Jenazad's martial arts could only be described as transcendent. Despite being "martial arts," he made it look like actual magic. There was even a technique like a physical clone illusion—Hikigaya's god-slayer eyes couldn't even track the real body.
This completely shattered Hikigaya's previous belief that martial arts were useless once someone became a god-slayer. The Demon God Fist had shown him the limitless potential of martial arts training.
Magic in the hands of humans was just magic—but in the hands of god-slayers, it could become divine weapons. So then, what about martial arts? If he could cultivate martial arts to the extreme like the Demon God Fist…
Authorities (powers) were certainly the symbol of god-slayers, but foundational attributes—basic qualities—were actually even more important. This was true even for god-slayers themselves.
Despite looking invincible and glorious, god-slayers actually lived the most dangerous lives. They could never be sure they'd live to see tomorrow. Gods could descend at any time and would never spare anyone who had slain one of their own. Once you became a god-slayer, there was no turning back.
If you didn't kill gods, the gods would kill you. That was the cost of becoming a god-slayer. They had forever lost the right to choose a normal life.
"Hey, Hiki-penguin."
A cheeky voice interrupted Hikigaya's thoughts.
Hiki… penguin?
Oh, somebody's got guts. He didn't know where this mysterious creature had come from, but were they ready to be beaten to death?
Hikigaya looked over with a not-so-friendly glare.
A group of people was getting off the coach that had just so kindly brought Exhaust-kun to the 7th Demon King again.
At the front were four familiar-looking faces—pretty boys and girls with that "youthful idol group" vibe.
They were classmates, the so-called Hayama Group. Among them was that overbearing girl who once seemed possessed by the altar of Set.
Normie these days… naming their friend circles "groups" like it's a mafia. But since they were kids, Hikigaya decided to be magnanimous.
Among them was also the little punk who called him "Hiki-penguin."
Still, considering that if he really responded, the guy might die for real instead of just being a clown, Hikigaya decided to spare him. After all, clowns were the natural allies of losers, and Hikigaya was someone who didn't forget his roots—even though that guy wasn't really his buddy, he did fall under the same loser-ish category (plus, he also referred to his own friend group as a "group").
Of course, that was all in the past. Now, Hikigaya Hachiman was one of the world's seven greatest (and dumbest) Demon Kings.
Such top-secret info naturally didn't need to be broadcast. Hikigaya Hachiman now wasn't just great—he was also a modest, quiet, handsome young man.
And then Hikigaya saw the group behind them.
Boris Ivanov…
What the hell?
He kept looking—Kenichi Shirahama, without a doubt. Next to him was that sweet-faced but explosively curvy girl he once saw at the candy shop. Both of them smiled warmly at him—like hell they did! Dumbass couple!
And then… ugh. Too much. He didn't want to look anymore.
Even though it was just a guess, he was almost certain they were Yomi-type characters—disciples of Yami's Nine Fists!
Right now, Hikigaya's only desire was to go find Yami and beat up the guys who let these disciples wander off.
Seriously!?
He was supposed to be on vacation today!!!
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