There's a game called tag. It's a type of group activity played in a wide-open space, and it's always been incredibly popular with children. Because it's a simple game of running, even adults can enjoy it. The rules can vary, but the basic premise of having one person who chases (the one who is "It") and others who are chased remains the same.
It's a simple game, and I've always quite liked it. I used to run around the schoolyard with my classmates all the time, and no matter the age difference, you could always have a good time with anyone. Yes… the game of tag is supposed to be a very fun game. At the very least, it's not supposed to be some terrifying activity where you're drenched in a cold sweat and one wrong step means certain injury. In the first place, it's just wrong that I'm the only one running away. This is beyond just being ganged up on.
"Ah, there he is~"
"Gah?!"
"Dummy, don't say it out loud!"
Two cute voices echoed from behind me as I was hiding, clutching my Sacred Gear. You've got to be kidding me, they found me already? I'd been running for so long, and my stamina was almost gone. My concentration for sensing their presence had clearly lapsed. I clicked my tongue softly at having let them get so close, quickly changed my Sacred Gear's ability, and started to run again.
"Wait up!"
"It's my turn to get him!"
The pursuers who found me flapped their wings, spitting a barrage of fireballs from their mouths. They were only about the size of tennis balls, so they probably wouldn't kill me, but getting hit would hurt and a burn was guaranteed. I dodged the first fireball that came for me and used my spear to delete the second. After the third, I managed to escape the attack range. My base speed is slightly faster than theirs, so I pushed forward, trying to pull away.
"Found you!"
"Yay, we'll pincer him!"
Just as they said, another one appeared from the direction I was heading. My cheek twitched. If I stopped here, I'd be assaulted by all three of them. And if I tried to change direction now, I was going so fast that I might crash. I steeled myself and chose to charge straight toward the newcomer.
If I turned to escape, the three of them would just chase me down together. The commotion would attract the other ones who were "It." My only option was to outmaneuver the one in front of me to put even more distance between myself and the two behind. I readied my Sacred Gear, carefully dodging the incoming fireballs without losing speed.
I'd failed and gotten burned so many times at the beginning. While I can delete the heat, the pain, and the wounds, I still really don't enjoy my body being set on fire. Even now, a fireball zipped past, making my skin crawl and my fear swell, but I'll say it again: if I stop, it's over. I've had enough of pain.
The fireballs weren't particularly fast. If I focused, I could see them well enough to react. But my Sacred Gear's abilities are a battle of stamina. In a draining game like tag, relying solely on my deletion power would leave me out of gas in no time. I had been looking straight ahead, but a signal from my partner made me dodge to the right instantly. A moment later, a fireball from one of the pursuers behind me flew past the spot where I'd just been. That was close. Thanks for the save. For the things I can't handle alone, I have no choice but to rely on my partner to cover me.
"Mmph!"
Perhaps because I kept dodging its fireballs, the distance between us had closed considerably. Getting annoyed, my opponent stopped its barrage, landed on the ground, and began to gather a single, concentrated ball of fire in its mouth. It looked like it was preparing a breath attack to hit a wide area. Stop that, I'll die. A nervous sweat ran down my face, but this was also an opportunity.
I'm not allowed to injure them. That means I can't activate "Ruin" or use "Delete" to knock them out. But a little something should be fine. Apparently, getting a little hurt during a game is within their acceptable limits. Though, I think having fireballs fly at you is well outside the normal definition of "acceptable"! It might be fine for you guys who are resistant to fire, but I'm just a normal human!
"Partner!"
In the brief pause while the barrage of fireballs stopped, I gripped my spear, imbuing it with the effect that deletes matter. I stabbed its power into the ground in front of me and then swung it wide, kicking up the earth. The dragon, which had been charging its fire, froze in surprise at the sudden spray of dirt and pebbles, hastily covering its face to protect its eyes. As the fine debris rained down on its face, I sprinted past its side. I'd made it through.
"Hey, that's cheating! Wah?!"
The dragon, lifting its face from the dirt, naturally tried to chase me, but I had used my Ruin Javelin to delete the ground beneath its feet as I passed. It seemed to have fallen neatly into my little trap. Don't call me a cheater. Humans can't survive if they don't play dirty. Remember that, you little brats!
"Damn it! I was relieved it wasn't a game of tag with Tannin, but nobody told me I'd end up being a playmate for a bunch of dragon whelps!!"
I managed to escape from the three young dragons behind me, but the terrifying game of tag—me versus a pack of twelve—was far from over.
***
"Kana, here's some water."
"...Thanks, Lavinia. Ah, it's truly wonderful to be alive."
Each round of tag was limited to two hours, and I had somehow managed to keep running for the entire time. In the beginning, I was getting roasted every few minutes... The rules were that hiding was allowed, and as long as no one got hurt (by a young dragon's standards), attacking was also fine. Those kids are so full of energy, they'll chase you anywhere. Our stamina levels are just on completely different planes. It was the morning of the seventh day since my training with the dragons began. It seems I'm still alive.
I clutched the cross I keep in my pocket, which has become something of a good luck charm. I know God doesn't exist here, but I can't help this feeling of wanting to pray. Wishing that I'll survive another day has become part of my daily routine. It's kind of sad.
"Kana~, what game are we playing next?"
"I wanna play hide-and-seek!"
"Kana's holding something weird~"
As I lay on the ground, the young dragons poked at me, demanding to play. "Hold on, you bundles of infinite energy," I said in a serious tone. "Big brother's stamina gauge is in the red zone right now. Go over there and play 'Red Light, Green Light' like I taught you yesterday."
I couldn't let them drag me away. At my words, they started rolling around on the ground, copying me. "Okay, we'll roll around too~" It was cute, but joining their games was just plain dangerous. Even as whelps, they were a bit bigger than me, which made dealing with them—especially a whole group of them—a huge challenge.
Speaking of young dragons, I remembered Rassei, the Sprite Dragon who became Asia's familiar in the original story, but the ones I was dealing with seemed to be a bit older. Still, their big, round eyes and innocent nature were very childlike. Normally, I wouldn't be able to hear their voices as larvae, but the translation magical tool I received from Mephisto was amazing. Of course, most of what I heard was about playing and eating.
"They are cute, aren't they?" Lavinia said.
"Are they making any unreasonable demands of you, Lavinia? They're begging me to play with them twenty-four seven."
"Is that so?"
"We have to protect girls~" one of the dragons piped up.
"Yup, protect~" another agreed.
Hey, what's with this blatant sexism? I knew male dragons were harsh with males of other species, but I could use a little kindness too. Still, I was glad Lavinia wasn't being hassled.
"But still, how do they keep finding me even when I use my Sacred Gear to erase my presence and appearance? In the first game of tag, I got roasted right at the start because of it."
"We dragons live in harmony with nature. And we are sensitive to aura. Your presence concealment is like a beacon telling those children exactly where you are," a deep voice explained.
"Tannin."
"Wait a minute, Tannin. What do you mean it's like a beacon?!"
I couldn't just let that slide. My pseudo-presence concealment was working perfectly. There was no way they should be able to detect my aura, or whatever it was. Those kids shouldn't have the power of a high-class being or anything.
"The problem is that the effect of your deletion works too well."
"Too well?"
"Your ability is excellent. However, for dragons and other creatures that live alongside nature, that effect creates a sense of unnaturalness."
I pushed myself up from my resting position, mulling over Tannin's words. If my ability was excellent, then there was no doubt my presence concealment was functioning correctly. Even if dragons were sensitive to aura, they shouldn't be able to detect mine. That meant there had to be another factor. Then, the word "nature" made something click in my head, and I looked up.
"You mean my pseudo-presence concealment isn't actually blending into nature?"
"Correct. When you use your power of deletion to erase your presence, everything in the space you occupy vanishes completely. That includes your aura. Normally, a user who conceals their presence isn't truly erasing themselves, but rather blending their presence with their surroundings. In your case, however, you are truly erasing it."
"I see..."
"In a place like this, overflowing with the various auras of nature, there is suddenly a single spot where nothing can be felt. I was watching from above, and it was far too unnatural. It is no wonder that the young dragons, who can sense the surrounding aura, found you so easily."
Seriously? Is that how it works? So my presence concealment isn't the problem, the problem is the environment? For example, you can't see a white mark on a white piece of paper. But if there's a white spot on a yellow piece of paper, you'd notice it immediately. And that "yellow" is the aura that nature emits. In this world, there's something called Senjutsu, which draws power from nature. If someone could read the flow of kiin the area, my stealth would be exposed in an instant.
"You erase too much of everything. True, it might work against humans and other non-humans as it has until now, but it's a poor strategy against beings who live as one with nature. You might be able to fool the common monsters around here, but if your opponent can read the flow of aura and ki, you're finished."
"Erasing too much..."
"Your cowardice is a weapon in its own right. But at the same time, it is also your weakness."
He was right. I am hopelessly cowardly. That's why I've always erased every trace of myself that an opponent might sense. But there are opponents in this world that it won't work on. There are those who won't be looking for me, but for the disturbances in the ki around me.
"A moment ago, the children said they wanted to play hide-and-seek. Kanata Kuramoto, this time, you will be 'It.' Show me you can find every last one of these dragons who live as one with nature."
Faced with Tannin's challenge, I took a moment before giving a quiet nod.
***
"Hah, hah... Damn it. I can't find a single one."
I couldn't help but curse under my breath. An hour had passed since we started hide-and-seek, and I hadn't been able to find anyone. The place we were playing in was a forest, a natural playground left inside the canyon for the young dragons. There were no creatures dangerous to them, but there were still small monsters, so I couldn't let my guard down. This was the stage for today's training.
The forest itself was apparently small enough to traverse in an hour or two. The time limit was until sunset. Since I was keeping the energetic young dragons occupied, the other adult dragons seemed to be enjoying the spectacle from the main canyon. It was training for me, fun for the kids, and a break for the adults. "Killing three birds with one stone," Azazel had laughed before he left. But doesn't it feel like I'm the only one suffering here? It's training, so I guess I can't complain.
"Partner, do you sense anything around here?"
I focused my consciousness on the Sacred Gear in my right hand, scanning my surroundings, but I still couldn't find them. Whenever I detected something, it turned out to be another creature. I was striking out completely. Wiping the sweat that had dripped down to my chin, I pushed forward.
"There are twelve of them in total. They're all a bit bigger than me, so they should be hard to miss in a forest, but their bright red scales should stand out against all the green."
And yet, in this space of greens and browns, I couldn't find a single speck of red. It wasn't as if they'd all just vanished—that couldn't be it. It just meant they were better at hiding than I was at seeking.
Since this was training, I was allowed to use my Sacred Gear's power, so I'd been constantly trying to sense them. Still nothing. I'd walked a lap around the entire forest, but it seemed hopeless. Just running around aimlessly wasn't going to work. This training had to have a purpose.
"Think back to what Tannin said. This is probably training for my sensory perception. And through finding the young dragons, I think it's meant to teach me how to use my presence concealment without creating that sense of unnaturalness."
I looked up at a large forest tree, and the sound of a bird's wings beating as it flew toward the sky reached my ears. Come to think of it, they can fly. Is it possible they're hiding in the treetops? I still had time. I sat down for a moment at the base of a suitable-looking tree, letting my stamina recover as my mind raced.
I'd talked it over with Lavinia, and she said that finding the young dragons would probably be extremely difficult for me, given my current abilities versus their natural advantages. The first thing young dragons learn from their parents isn't how to hunt, but how to hide. They become one with nature and conceal themselves. It's a survival tactic for the young dragons, who have many enemies due to their small size.
There were twelve red dragons in this forest. If I hadn't been told, I never would have known. It felt as if I were the only person here. It was that quiet; all I could feel was the breathing of the forest itself. In this vibrant, natural world, they erased their presence by blending in. I realized then that in the middle of such magnificent nature, a pocket of absolute "nothingness" would, of course, feel incredibly out of place.
"First of all, what even is aura? I've heard of a dragon's aura, but is it basically just 'ki'? Is it like the Senjutsu that Kuroka and Koneko use?"
As I recalled, Senjutsu wasn't like magic or sorcery, but the fundamental power that flows through all life. It utilizes the unknown potential hidden within the plants and animals of nature, and within humans themselves. Senjutsu lacks direct destructive power, but it's a dangerous art that allows one to detect others through the flow of ki, strengthen the body inside and out, and manipulate the flow of life itself. Azazel had taught me that countermeasures are limited, so I should avoid fighting a Senjutsu user whenever possible.
The reason humans are said to be able to use Senjutsu is because there are real examples of sages and enlightened beings who could. The most famous one, who also appears in the original story, would be the Buddhist monk Xuanzang Sanzang, Albion's counselor. It was a power that could only be used by humans who had accumulated great virtue like him. Apparently, there were some human geniuses who could use Senjutsu, but they were exceptionally rare. I was told that simply sensing ki was difficult in the first place.
"If I could use Senjutsu, it'd be really useful... But where is this 'unknown potential' in the human body? Do humans in this world have some kind of strange power besides Sacred Gears?"
I patted myself down, but I couldn't tell anything. When I first became aware that I had been reincarnated, I was able to sense a foreign object inside my body that hadn't been there before—my Sacred Gear. If this "ki" was another power unique to this world, maybe I could sense it in the same way. But they call it life force, so it might be difficult. I think the concept of ki existed in my previous world, too.
Come to think of it, Tannin said I was erasing my own aura completely so that others couldn't sense it. And that's why the dragons, who can sense the surrounding aura, were able to find me. Doesn't that mean I'm capable of stopping the outward flow of my own aura?
If so, what would happen if I consciously tried to erase only my aura? At the very least, that "unknown potential" exists somewhere in the human body. It's just difficult to sense, which is why so few humans can use Senjutsu. But doesn't that just mean I need to become able to sense it?
Deciding it was worth a shot, I placed my Sacred Gear on my lap, closed my eyes, and concentrated. Aura is essentially life force, so if I erased all of it, I might die. So I decided to try just a little. Gripping my Sacred Gear with both hands, I activated my ability.
"...Delete Aura."
The moment I whispered the words, I felt "something" inside me begin to disappear. In the next instant, my eyes flew open, and I scrambled to cover my mouth. My vision suddenly blurred, and a wave of nausea washed over me, forcing me to let go of my Sacred Gear. I couldn't properly put strength into my limbs, and an incredible sense of exhaustion assaulted my entire body. I felt genuinely sick. A horrible, strange feeling still lingered inside me. Just erasing a tiny bit of my aura did this to me? Now I understood why they said Senjutsu that attacks aura was so vicious.
"But... I think I get it now."
It was purely instinctual, and I couldn't explain it well, but I truly felt like I understood. Ah, so that's aura. That's the unknown power inside the human body. It was only for a second, but the sensation of that "something" disappearing was still vividly etched in my mind.
I waited for a moment, opening and closing my trembling hands, before picking up the Sacred Gear I had dropped. I then turned my attention to the tree growing right behind me. I couldn't understand what it meant to "sense nature" or "nature's aura." So, I would have to get creative. After all, I'm human. I'm not a dragon or a youkai, and I certainly don't have the virtue to become a sage.
I focused my consciousness on my Sacred Gear, tilting it as if to see the world through my partner.
"Delete Aura."
The instant I stabbed the spear into the tree, the aura overflowing from it began to rapidly disappear. I apologized to it in my head as I continued to perceive the aura through my Sacred Gear. I watched the tree's life force vanish through the effect of deletion, and finally, as its aura was erased, the tree began to age rapidly from its leaves, withering until it was dry and brittle.
"Hah!"
I exhaled the breath I'd been holding and collapsed, leaning my back against the slightly withered tree. Raising my arm, I saw that the bracelet's gauge was right at the edge of the red zone. That was dangerous; it took a huge chunk of my stamina. It seems this pseudo-Senjutsu imitation isn't ready to be used for offense yet. If just withering a single tree a little bit takes this much out of me, using it on a living creature would be tough.
Still, this might mean I could learn to damage an opponent's ki like Koneko. My 'Consciousness Erasure' apparently only makes a higher-level opponent feel dizzy at best. But the original story said that 'Aura Erasure' was brutal even with a glancing blow. This is draining, but couldn't I use it as a trump card to turn the tables? I'll have to ask Azazel about it later.
And I think, just maybe, I've managed to grasp what aura is. The flow of aura I felt through my Sacred Gear… the scenery before my eyes seems to have changed slightly compared to before. I think I understand that sensation inside my body a little better now, too.
After that, I took a short nap to let my body rest until the gauge was back above halfway. Sleep is the fastest way to recover. I set up a magic tool to ward off monsters in the area and set an alarm on one of my bracelet's functions. I was running out of time, but when I woke up, I would definitely find those whelps.
"Alright, time to do this."
The alarm went off. Feeling much more refreshed, I stretched my body to warm up. The sky was growing darker, so there was probably only an hour or so left until sunset. But I was going to give it everything I had.
"Finding an opponent who has blended in with nature's aura is probably impossible for me at my current level. And trying to search for them using the ki I just barely learned to sense is reckless. In that case, I have no choice but to apply the effect to myself."
The aura of nature I had just sensed. I was already capable of preventing others from sensing my own aura. So, conversely, I should be able to make it so that I can't sense the aura of nature. No matter how much they blend in with nature, if I block out the very nature they're supposed to be blending into, all that will be left is everything else. If the best place to hide a tree is in a forest, then all I have to do is make the forest itself invisible.
"Remove."
I would delete a part of what I myself perceive. Since I was only removing a portion of it and not everything, I decided to change the activation key for the ability. It's a subtle difference, but it's better to have something that's easy for me to understand.
Thanks to all the cleaning practice I kept up even after returning to Japan, I've gotten pretty good at deleting one part of a whole. Enveloped in a crimson light, I erased my own ability to perceive the breath of nature and the aura of the trees that was flowing into me.
The next thing I felt was silence. There was still sound; birds were still chirping. I could hear the rustle of grass in the wind. But what I perceived was a stillness, as if all the life that had been so abundant just moments ago had vanished. It was like watching a video. I could see and hear, but it felt as if I couldn't perceive anything else. I reached out and touched a nearby tree, but it was like touching an inanimate object. I could feel the texture, yet it didn't feel alive.
The sensation was a little unsettling, but I just had to bear it for a moment. With the aura of nature removed from my senses, I looked out through my Sacred Gear, scanning the area. And then, the presences of the small creatures I couldn't sense before came through to me with perfect clarity. I could sense the birds hiding in the trees, the rabbit-like creatures hiding in the grass, even the insects in the ground. I was amazed at how many living things had been hidden within nature.
A few minutes after I started walking, I sensed a strong presence in the forest, different from the others. It was small compared to Tannin and the other adult dragons, but its powerful aura was undeniable. I could now clearly feel the existence that had been hidden by the overflowing life aura of the forest.
I deleted gravity and let my body float upwards. Toward the young dragon that must have been cleverly hidden in the gap between two trees, I spoke the classic line.
"Found you."
"No way..."
When I pushed aside the leaves, a small, red-scaled dragon was hiding there. Its eyes were wide as it stared at me, who had come straight for it. It seemed my surprise had been a success. I know it might be cheating, but Tannin gave me permission to use my Sacred Gear's abilities. He'll forgive me for a strategic victory, right?
And so, using the rest of the time I had left, I successfully managed to find all twelve of the young dragons.
***
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