Half an hour passed in their spar.Koneko had attacked relentlessly, while Itsumi simply defended without breaking a sweat.
And yet, no matter how hard Koneko pressed, she didn't manage to land even a single clean hit.On the contrary—Itsumi had taken every chance to harass her with little touches here and there.
For a stoic girl like Koneko, it was humiliation of the highest degree.
Fighting Itsumi was simply too disadvantageous.But when she thought about how she was improving little by little under his guidance, she could only grit her teeth and endure it.
It was just… being taken advantage of a little.Fine. She could tolerate it. Maybe.
So, when Megumi and Asia returned after warming up, what they saw was:
—Koneko attacking with grinding teeth and burning determination.—And Itsumi, grinning while muttering something that was definitely not constructive.
The contrast was so bizarre it was almost surreal.
Itsumi himself had used that thirty minutes to discover small gaps in his own technique, so while teaching Koneko he also polished his own movements.
Eventually, he clapped his hands lightly."Well then, Koneko-chan, that should do."
"Take a break."
Itsumi, of course, hadn't used up much stamina. Koneko was still too weak compared to him. His energy reserves were practically untouched.
Megumi and Asia were already warmed up as well, so it was time to move on from sparring.
He wanted to teach them a spell―no, a magecraft.
Koneko stopped, shot Itsumi a glare full of pent-up frustration, then walked away in silence to sit and rest.
She had absolutely been bullied today.
Itsumi only chuckled.Receiving his tutoring always came with a price.
Itsumi sat down in front of Asia and Megumi.
"What I'm going to teach you is a magecraft called Judan—the Cursed Bullet."
Megumi blinked. "Magecraft? Isn't it just… magic?"
"Same thing," Itsumi said with a shrug. "Just different naming conventions."
"This one's pretty good. If you learn it properly, you can output something close to the power of an E-rank strike."
"You two are still F-rank chickens, but with the tiny bit of mana in your bodies, you can probably fire… two shots?"
His bluntness pierced both girls like a knife.
They both felt strangely offended—being called weak was one thing, but chickens?!
Ignoring their hurt expressions, Itsumi raised his index finger.
"Watch carefully."
He gathered mana at the fingertip.
"Judan is basically the act of firing a mana bullet infused with a curse effect."
"It's just a simple application of mana manipulation."
"When it hits, it can inflict curse-type damage, and the more mana you inject, the stronger the physical impact becomes."
"It scales directly with your magic power."
As he spoke, a dark red sphere the size of a fist formed at his fingertip.
Megumi and Asia's eyes widened.So that was the spell he planned to teach them?
Itsumi flicked his wrist.
The Judan shot forward and slammed into one of the training sandbags.
A thunderous BOOM echoed through the yard as the sandbag instantly exploded into flying debris.
In the corner, Koneko froze.
Her favorite training sandbag…Gone.Obliterated.
Itsumi didn't notice her suffering and continued cheerfully:
"This technique is really versatile. You can use it like a bomb—"
"And also like a machine gun."
He raised both hands, forming finger-gun shapes.
"Like this— tutututututu."
At the same moment, dozens of dark red bullets began flying from his fingertips, peppering the open area with rapid bursts of energy.
Megumi and Asia stared, slack-jawed.
…It can be used like that?!
Before they recovered, Itsumi snapped his fingers.
A cloud of floating Judan spheres appeared behind him, lined up in rows like a magical artillery formation.
"Cool, right? Super useful."
Megumi felt her soul leaving her body.
Showing off was fine.But did he have to destroy the training field in the process?
Couldn't he see the storm cloud gathering over Koneko's head?Was this guy secretly obsessed with blowing things up?
At the church, he blew up a building.Now, during a simple demonstration, he blew up Koneko's equipment.What next?
Looking nervously at the floating mass of bullets behind him, Megumi whispered:
"Um… could you please put those away?"
"If you blow up one more of her training tools, Tōjō-san might actually kill you."
She glanced toward Koneko—who was indeed glaring, expression utterly unreadable but clearly dangerous.
Itsumi blinked.Then finally realized.
"Oh—my bad, my bad! Habit! Totally a habit! Ahahaha…"
"As compensation, Koneko, you can join the lesson too. I'll teach you Judan as well!"
He scratched his cheek awkwardly.It was becoming a problem.He was starting to enjoy explosions a bit too much.
He really needed to control himself.Otherwise he'd end up like a certain explosion-happy starfish mascot…
Koneko snorted and said nothing, still sulking over the destroyed sandbag.
But she still walked over and sat beside the other girls.
Itsumi began explaining the core principles—mana compression, curse infusion, and projectile stabilization.The three of them quietly took mental notes.
Once the explanation ended, they each began to try it out.
Koneko successfully formed a Judan on the first attempt—though it dissolved within seconds.
Still, it was impressive.
Asia, as expected from someone with high magical affinity, also succeeded quickly.
The bullet she formed also dissipated soon after, but the talent was undeniable.
As for Megumi—the girl who had sunk all her stat points into "assassin" yet wanted to become a mage—
She managed…A red dot.A tiny sparkling red dot that vanished immediately.
Itsumi nodded with satisfaction.
"Not bad. With a few days of practice, you'll all get the hang of it."
"Keep training. If you have questions, ask."
After giving them instructions, he moved aside, picked up more training equipment, and resumed working on his own physique.
He wanted to grow stronger too—preferably until every single one of his stats reached EX-rank.