Exorcists Again II

"Tch!" Seeing his Magic Bullets not having the intended effect, Jun clicked his tongue and jumped back, tossing an explosive Rune Stone towards his enemy in the process while said enemy tried to retreat from the slowing Bounded Field.

Much to Jun's shock however, the exorcist tanked the explosion albeit taking more significant damage but his battle effectiveness seemed perfectly fine.

"It will take a lot more that that to take me down heathen!" The exorcist taunted.

"I've figured you out too! You're using runes so you must have some connection to the northern pantheon huh?" He added.

'He's smarter than I gave him credit for but his taunts are getting on my nerves. I am technically a child though, so being irritated by these things is totally fine.' Jun thought to himself, trying to justify the overkill he was about to enact.

Jun tossed another Rune Stone towards the exorcist.

"That again? It won't work this time either!" The exorcist shouted and braced for the incoming explosion.

It however, never came. The rune fell into the ground before the exorcist and was absorbed by the barrier.

"A dud?" The exorcist asked himself.

"Not even close asshat!" Jun taunted.

The rune caused the bounded field to converge of the exorcist rather than occupy a large area and thus strengthening its binding power immensely, stopping the man from moving almost entirely.

"You-" He barely managed to get out.

"Goodbye buddy. Don't mess with someone out of your league in your next life." Jun said.

He then took a deep breath as his lungs filled up with large amounts of magical energy.

It was the Dragon's Breath. A destructive torrent of magical energy carved the ground while blasting towards the exorcist at blinding speed.

'I might have not needed to restrain him at all . . .' Even with his accelerated though processes, Jun could barely form this coherent though before the Breath impacted and utterly annihilated every last trace of his enemy.

It then continued going further, smashing against the barrier and shattering it with its last remaining power before dying out.

"Damn! That was more powerful than expected!" Jun said to himself.

He was a bit winded though, the Breath took a lot out of his magical energy reserves after all, being such a powerful attack, it was a matter of course.

'Guess I'll bring this up with Touji-ojii-san tomorrow . . .' Jun thought, the excitement of battle starting to leave him.

He collected two light swords and two light pistols from his first two attackers and then proceeded to dispose of their bodies with magecraft. As for the third exorcist, his body and equipment were all vaporized by the Dragon's Breath so there was nothing left of him.

Expending three more Rune Stones, Jun fixed the destroyed park in a few seconds and left for his workshop to have some sleep, he would figure out how to tell the events that occurred to Touji after he had some much deserved rest.

What he didn't know, was that someone else had been watching and recording his battle.

'What an Interesting child . . .' The mysterious figure thought before teleporting away with a magic circle, leaving a few inconspicuous black feathers behind . . .

The following day, Jun woke up refreshed, did some routine exercises and set off to Touji's house, ditching school in the process. this way, he could be sure Irina wasn't home in case things went badly. For the same reason, he ha multiple escape plans ready and replenished his supply of Rune Stones as well.

Ringing the bell of the Shidou residence, Jun awaited for a response.

"Jun-kun?" He heard Miya's voice through the intercom.

"Yes. May I come in?" Jun asked.

"I'm afraid this isn't a good time . . ." Miya replied.

'Taking Touji-san's current state into account, I should turn Jun-kun away even if it's a bit impolite of me.' She thought.

"I imagine so but I assure you I'm here for a very important matter." Jun insisted.

Miya thought for a bit before changing her mind.

"I see. I'll unlock the gate so just come in." She replied.

She then welcomed Jun at the door and sat him down in the living room.

"Can I speak to Touji-ojii-san?" Jun requested.

"Touji-san isn't feeling very good but I'll tell him of your matter later when he is feeling better." Miya said.

"Very well." Jun acquiesced.

"That Kawamura fellow and two other exorcists attacked me last night so I came to ask for an explanation." He calmly said.

". . ." Miya was shocked into silence.

"I . . ." She did not know what to say.

"I believe this is something better discussed with Touji-ojii-san." Jun said.

". . . Yes . . . You are right . . ." Miya agreed and went to call her husband.

A few minutes later, Touji came down looking somewhat haggard and lacking sleep.

"I know my words ought not to mean much since this is a repeat offense but allow me to apologize for my subordinates' actions once again." He started.

"I assure you they will be properly punished." Touji added.

"Ah, there's no need for that." Jun said which left Touji consused.

"What do you mean Jun-kun?" Touji inquired.

"Since this is the second time and he even brought two friends, I decided enough was enough and just killed them." Jun calmly replied.

"Y-You killed them?!" Touji asked in disbelief.

"Yes. I believe in second chances but not thirds. The idiot even brought in more friends to join in so it's clear your previous actions only succeeded in keeping him at bay for a while. As such, I simply made sure I wouldn't be attacked by them again." Jun explained.

"Anyway, I do not expect compensation for my trouble but from now on, any exorcist that shows hostility towards me is going to end up dead, that's all I have to say." Finishing his words, Jun left the speechless couple behind, returning to his workshop.

"Time for some intensive training." He said to himself as he started designing his new training routine.

First though, he sought some clarification from Ahsaka over he matter he had only lightly considered during his research into magecraft.

'Ahsaka, can I use Magic?' Jun mentally asked.

'No.' Ahsaka replied.

'Why not? Is magic not obtained by reaching the Root or creating a path to it?' Jun further inquired.

'Magic is the ability to produce phenomena that are impossible for the humans and the planet to produce in a certain era.' Ahsaka started.

'Reaching the Root can grant one such powers but you have an innate connection to the Root so you're different.'

'The basis on whether you can produce an event through magecraft or not is based on if said even or phenomena as ever been produced, is being produced, or will ever be produced since your power is drawing on the Root itself.'

'In other words, so long as it is an event produced by the Root, you can reproduce it with magecraft and since all events, past, present and future originate from the Root, there is nothing you can't reproduce with magecraft, thus making Magic impossible for you.' Ahsaka concluded.

'So, I can't use magic but my magecraft can reproduce any effect created by magic due to my connection to the Root?' Jun requested clarification.

'Exactly.' Ahsaka confirmed.

'In other words, in practice, I can use magic but strictly speaking, it is not categorized as such for me.' Jun said.

'It can be put in that way.' Ahsaka responded.

'This changes my future plans a bit but I lack the necessary knowledge and skill in magecraft to consider reproducing the Five Magics of the Nasuverse.' Jun thought to himself.

Knowing that his magecraft had no theoretical limit and could be use to do anything so long as he had the skill and resources, Jun became determined to create his own school of magecraft and even martial arts.

Hopefully, this would result in a complete training that would allow him to exhibit all of his abilities and make the most of his talents.

Thus Jun got to work. To create his own branch of martial arts and magecraft, he required more knowledge. He began studying various schools of magecraft and martial art, even ones he did not plan to actually learn to use so as to boost his theoretical knowledge base.

For martial arts, Jun studied everything from common martial arts taught in the modern world to mythical combat methods like the Nine Lives developed by Heracles into a martial technique useable with any weapon or even barehanded and adjustable to any combat situation.

For magecraft, he focused on Numerology as he truly wanted to train in it but also researched into multiple other disciplines like Golemancy, Witchcraft, Black Magic, Formalcraft, Beast Magecraft and more.

While he dutifully trained, Jun's other rooms and all of their thought processes focused on soaking up as much knowledge from the Akashic Records of the Grimoire as they possible could, turning Jun's Mental Archive into a veritable treasure trove of knowledge.

A few days later, from the beginning of this new training routine, the Shidou family moved out just like in the original series. Irina shared a tearful goodbye with Issei and Jun and a second private farewell with the latter, even giving him a shy and innocent little kiss on the cheek before scurrying away demanding for Jun to not forget her and that they would meet again.

The cuteness honestly made Jun smile while thinking.

'How precious.'

After this, he isolated himself even more, throwing his all into training and eventually stopping any attempt to lead what could pass as a normal life and just focusing on himself while ignoring the outside world.

This all came to an abrupt stop however about two years later as the outside world came knocking on the door to his Magecraft Workshop . . .

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P.a.t.r.e.o.n is officially up!

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