C40: Mission Impossible

"You know if you put some kind of condition in your ability like; If your wooden doll is destroyed, then you die. Or if for every injury the doll suffers, so do you. It would make the ability stronger," I gave some advice to the semi-conscious senior.

Judging by his ability, he was probably a creator, and those guys have an easy time accessing a lot of power.

He might be a bit of a bully. But when the time came, we needed all the cannon fodder-... I mean brave fighters we can get.

To me, it seems like he's a creator that just created a doll of wood to fight. He might not have even put any conditions on the ability, which made it a trashy power unless he had a lot of Ord to back up the lack of conditions.

The senior student was somewhat conscious so he should have heard what I said. But why was he looking at me as if I was crazy?

I took a step back, noticing that people from other classrooms had started looking at what had happened.

After a while, the senior student was taken to the infirmary by other seniors. I could only hope that he would listen to my advice.

But deep down the answer was obvious. I knew he would probably think of me as a crazy person and dismiss whatever I said.

While being an exorcist was dangerous, most of them never created abilities with death as the repercussion of breaking conditions.

Doing something like that required a crazy mindset. Like the kind of people who go skydiving by throwing the parachute bag and jumping off the plane to catch it mid-air.

Since humans were heavier than a parachute bag, it would be logical to assume that as long as one stayed calm, he would be able to catch the bag.

But here's the counter-argument; why the fuck would someone ever do that?

That's the same with Special Abilities; someone can make them and train to grow them strong with time. So conditions in most cases would only be put on abilities after one has reached their limits.

Some would even consider this more efficient, and maybe they were right.

But for someone to reach their maximum with training first, it would take at least a decade or two of hard work. That was time I didn't have.

Unlike the others who would just stay on the plane. I knew I had to jump out and take a risk as the aircraft was about to explode. The plane in this analogy is the world as a whole.

But except me, everyone else didn't see a need to rush things.

The class didn't even start as Agon was pulled away by the old-looking Professor Chain. "You're coming with me to the principal's office. Cross your fingers and hope that you're expelled. Because trust me, you won't want to see what I have in store for you."

Unlike Agon's life. My time in school was mostly quiet. I spent most of my time reading or discussing something stupid with Gem and Bets.

But as soon as I walked out a female senior student came and notified me. "You're Kon, right?"

She shifted around nervously. I didn't answer at first to try and read her intentions. In the end, she said. "The Headmaster has called you to meet at his office."

Oh? I thought the seniors might try and use a honey trap to have me go somewhere and try to bully me. Some days I almost wish they did that. Since my life consisted of watching everyone do that to Agon, his life was full of action. Also, I wanted to test out my fighting powers too!

"Okay, I will go and meet him," I didn't say the exact time. The seniors might have just said this to ambush me on the way to the headmaster's office.

I went to my dorm room and packed stacks of talismans under my shirt. Holding the papers in my hand, it felt like stacks of cash.

With everything prepared, I walked to the headmaster's office while keeping an eye out for any surprise attacks.

Sadly, my life wasn't exciting enough to warrant a sneak attack, and I arrived outside the headmaster's office without any trouble.

Maybe I should start some fights?

I was just about to knock on the office door when the headmaster's voice came from the other side. "Come in."

Did he have surveillance cameras? Do those kinds of things even exist here? I mean, televisions exist so it would be logical that cameras exist too. But would exorcists use them for surveillance?

At first thoughts, they obviously would. But some talismans and origami spells could do the same as a surveillance camera.

"Are you just going to stand out there and leave an old man waiting? Or are you going to come in?" The headmaster's voice woke me up, and I entered the office.

No one else was there except the headmaster leaning back on his chair. He had a smirk on his face. "I have some good news. Some people are willing to allow you to graduate early."

"But there is a catch, right?" I could somewhat guess the outcome. Since I knew the higher-ups he was talking about. They were an arrogant and indecisive bunch that couldn't agree on anything.

"Blegh! You're no fun!" The headmaster pouted, a weird expression on an old man's face.

Actually, it was kind of creepy seeing him do that. "I have a chess game to get to."

"Uhuh, I can see you're in a rush," he said jokingly. Before leaning back on his chair even more, and about to fall off. "Since we have a lack of expert exorcists. The higher-ups had decided to send you on a mission alone as an initiation to get the Senior Exorcist Rank. After all, you did hold back the Demonic Exorcist."

"No," I refused. Whatever mission they had in mind if the notion was that I somehow had the power to hold back the Demonic Exorcist. Then the task was bound to be too dangerous and out of my league.

"That's what I told them too. So we instead agreed that you would get to choose a teammate." The headmaster said, and that immediately got me thinking.

That could work out if it were two teammates instead of just one. "What about two people as teammates?"

"Sure. But you will have to also take a fourth teammate that I will choose," the headmaster agreed almost immediately.

His response was a bit too fast. As if he didn't even need to think about it. Had he predicted that I would ask him this? "Who is the one you're putting in our team?"

"Agon."

I fucking knew it!

This guy probably planned this shit all the way back when he allowed me to use the demon-turning sword!

He's trying to stick the main character onto me. But why is he doing that? The only reason I could think of was that he was trying to get Agon out of the academy for a bit. Why, though? I have no idea.

He probably had a valid reason. The higher-ups wanted their weapon soon and would deal with anyone in their way. Though I eliminated an entire Arc, that doesn't mean they changed their goals. "Sure, my teammates will be Bets and Gem."

I didn't necessarily like this since Agon might draw danger.

"Done," he nodded and offered his hand in a handshake.

We shook hands and smiled politely. I knew the old headmaster was planning something. Essentially I was just a pawn in his board to accomplish what he needed. But the same was true vice-versa. He was also useful to me.

A small favor like this will be something I could use as an incentive in the future to ask for a favor.

Also, I knew that the headmaster wasn't the kind of man who would do something that would harm me.

…

The next day, I waited for the new team at the exit of the academy. I stood by the stairs which led to the surface and observed the students that went in and out of the academy.

I was nervous, though I was keeping an outwardly calm facade. My first mission and my companions were rookies too. The only upside to this whole thing was that we had Agon on our team. Also one of the most significant downsides was that we had Agon on our team.

Typically, while on a mission involving demons, it wouldn't be strange for something to go wrong. It was less than a 10% chance. But with Agon here, if we go by a shounen manga format. Then our first mission was bound to go wrong.

"Oh! You're already here!"

Think of the devil, and he shall appear.

Agon waved at me with a massive smile on his face. "Wow, and I thought I was early. You must be an early riser!"

"You could say that," I hid all of the uncertainties and tried not to even think about them.

After some small talk, Bets and Gem arrived too. They had been informed of the situation by me yesterday, and no doubt the headmaster or one of his assistants also told them what we needed to do.

Still, I took out a scroll. With Agon here, I wanted to be sure we were all on the same page. "Before we set off, I wanted to brief everyone on what we need to do."

Within the scroll, there were writings on the scroll. There was also a small description and rough map of where this was happening.

"Investigating strange drownings? People have already died from this?" Gem inquired. He seemed a bit surprised.

In any mission with demons involved, by the time it is reported, there are already victims. "Yes, and the demon seems to have a taste for children. As amongst the four drowned victims, three were children from the nearby village."