Chapter 76 :Danmachi World Planning — Shizuka Hiratsuka Wants Help!

Normal High School Student: If you're coming to another world, you might want to change your clothes a bit... to avoid attracting attention. Blue Ribbon's world is a bit special.

Blue Ribbon: I've already prepared an outfit for you. I just hope it fits.

Mai Sakurajima: Got it. Thanks, Shirakawa-kun.

—

Morning.

After replying to the chat group, Shirakawa began planning his day. He glanced at the girl peacefully asleep beside him.

First, he would return to his original world to retrieve the adventurer registration device from the Konosuba world—needed to help Lili officially leave the Soma Familia.

Second, he'd start looking for a suitable base for the familia. He had some valis left, so a short-term lease was doable.

If he wanted to buy…

He'd need to make more money. But unlike the Konosuba world, he couldn't just sell modern knowledge as IP.

"When can I bring the other Chosen of Pleasure to Danmachi world…?"

As the best starter world for leveling up new members, Danmachi would be ideal. With Hestia watching over them, and Lili's support skills—

Safety wouldn't be too much of a concern for now.

The only real threat might be Zanis of the Soma Familia. If Shirakawa remembered correctly—

Zanis had always been interested in Lili's transformation magic. Once he found out she'd left the Soma Familia, he might challenge Shirakawa's familia to a war game.

Something to look forward to.

The Soma Familia's members were all obsessively devoted to divine wine and had stockpiled a sizable fortune. If Shirakawa won—

He could claim all their assets.

—

As she stirred from sleep, Lili—now one of the Chosen of Pleasure—had undergone a drastic transformation. All her hidden illnesses were cured.

Feeling the arm she'd been clinging to pull away—

Lili slowly woke up and saw Shirakawa deep in thought. She asked seriously:

"Master… is something on your mind?"

"Just thinking things over."

He was especially anticipating Mai Sakurajima's arrival in the Danmachi world. For now, progress in the Konosuba world would be put on hold.

Saeko Busujima and Shizuka Marikawa could keep leveling in the Apocalypse world.

As for the real world—

He was waiting for Yukino Yukinoshita to make her decision. Miura Yumiko wasn't a concern—being a cleric, she could handle almost all spiritual threats.

Shirakawa gathered his thoughts slightly, then said to Lili, "I've arranged a few things for today. I'll need you to handle them."

"I'll do my best, Lord Shirakawa," Lili nodded seriously.

This was a feeling she had never experienced in the Soma Familia… That so-called god was only obsessed with brewing wine, and all Familia matters were left to the former captain, Zanis. which caused the Familia to develop its toxic atmosphere.

"I'll be heading to another world soon. Becoming a chosen of the God of Pleasure isn't like the blessing you're used to. I'll be giving you a whole new system," Shirakawa said.

What he was referring to was naturally the Adventurer Ability Appraisal Device purchased from the Konosuba world. It would allow Lili to assess her stats and change her class.

Her future development path would be much broader.

More importantly, high-level adventurers in the Konosuba system weren't necessarily weaker than those blessed in Danmachi.

"Another… world?" Lili asked, confused.

All she knew was that Shirakawa came from the upper world. As for other worlds? The very idea was hard to comprehend. Still, having decided to entrust everything to him, she now felt excitement rather than fear.

Before leaving, Shirakawa reminded her, "I'll be heading out now. I won't be gone long. If any adventurers come looking for trouble…"

"Wait for me."

Feeling the gentleness in his voice, Lili nodded with resolve. If she couldn't handle even this, she'd never be of help to him in the future.

Watching Shirakawa's figure disappear, she didn't return to rest. Instead, she took 1 million valis from the stash he left behind—just enough to pay the penalty for leaving the Soma Familia.

Using an inter-world teleportation anchor, Shirakawa returned home to the modern world—only to bump into Miura Yumiko, now wearing her Soubu High School uniform again and looking radiant without the threat of spirits looming over her.

She was already used to Shirakawa appearing out of nowhere in the living room, but she still subconsciously leaned in and sniffed.

With a slightly resentful tone, she muttered, "Shirakawa, I don't mind your whole harem plan, but could you at least take a bath before coming home?"

"Next time, for sure."

Lili's place didn't have the conditions for a proper bath anyway. Shirakawa chuckled and shook his head. His current apartment complex was far superior in every way.

He grabbed the phone from his bed. As soon as he turned it on, he saw a bunch of unread Line messages. No signal in other worlds, of course—so the phone had been useless.

He opened the messages and was surprised to find they were all from someone he rarely spoke with: Hiratsuka Shizuka.

Hiratsuka Shizuka: I heard your club's focus is on spiritual and ghost-related research?

Hiratsuka Shizuka: Are you coming to school today?

Hiratsuka Shizuka: This is a little awkward to say, but lately I've been having strange dreams… last night's was especially weird.

Hiratsuka Shizuka: If you're busy, just ignore this message.

Now that the message had been marked as read, there was no pretending he hadn't seen it.

Shirakawa frowned slightly. By logic, without interference from the Human-Faced Dog, she should have returned to normal life. Could her spiritual sense have awakened from past contact with urban legends?

"Something up?" Miura Yumiko asked, bending over to slide her foot into her shoe, noticing his slightly puzzled expression.

"You could say that. It seems Hiratsuka-sensei is being troubled by evil spirits. I'm thinking about meeting her today to see if I can help."

He didn't try to hide it.

Shirakawa replied to her message: Hiratsuka-sensei, I'm free this morning, but it'd be a bit of a waste to go all the way to school. Want to meet somewhere else?

Without waiting for her to read the message, he went to wash up. After yesterday's magic refinement, his stats had improved again.

He pulled up his status screen:

Name: Shirakawa

Gender: Male

Age: 17

Constitution: 27 (29.7)

Agility: 26 (28.6)

Strength: 26 (28.6)

Spirit: 27 (29.7)

Stamina: 26 (28.6)

Magic: 2226

Current Classes: God (?), Student (Lv5), Exorcist (Lv5), Holy Sword Wielder (Lv9), Arch-wizard (Lv7)

Thanks to his God class and the blessings of eleven Chosen of the God of Pleasure, all his base stats were over 50. The only downside was his limited range of attack skills.

Explosive magic—when fully powered—could likely annihilate the entire Fujimi Academy in the Apocalypse World.

"Not many new skills to learn…"

Right now, the most valuable class remained the adventurer class from Konosuba. He could learn the Electricity User Profession from Misaka later. As for the High School DxD world, it could be a future development path.

After all, the True Red Dragon Emperor could apparently destroy stars.

That kind of world was too dangerous to enter blindly. At least for now, he'd wait. Once he finished washing up and changed into clean clothes—

His phone rang.

It was Hiratsuka Shizuka.

He picked up and heard her familiar voice: "Shirakawa, where are you?"

"I took the morning off from school. How about this—"

"Want to come over to my place? Or if that's too much, somewhere quieter. I'm fine with anything."

"Sure. Same address, right?"

"…Yeah."

Still as decisive as ever. Once the location was set, she immediately hung up. She didn't seem to care much about her own leave—she had no classes this morning anyway.

She informed the director she'd be taking a day off, then hopped into her wine-red convertible and headed for Shirakawa's apartment.

Actually, the messages she sent via Line were already the toned-down version of the truth.

Last night's dream hadn't featured the familiar Human-Faced Dog.

Instead, it had been full of terrifying, foul-smelling evil spirits. At first, she thought it was just stress or exhaustion.

But…

When she woke up and still saw ghosts lingering around her home, the fear was indescribable. Suppressing her panic, she remembered the Classics Literature Club's ghost and spirit discussions.

That led her to contact Shirakawa—she needed answers before she could find a solution.

Using her phone's GPS, she drove toward Shirakawa's apartment. When she was just two traffic lights away, she sent him another Line message.

Then—

Seeing Shirakawa already waiting downstairs gave her an inexplicable sense of relief.

Unlike her usual formal appearance as a teacher, she was dressed casually—probably because she had the day off. A simple short-sleeved top that showed off her figure, paired with a sun hat and her long black hair down over her shoulders.

She didn't look like a teacher at all.

More like the kind, friendly big sister next door.

Waving at him, she called out, "Over here!"

"..."

"Hiratsuka-sensei."

As Shirakawa opened the passenger-side door and approached Hiratsuka Shizuka, he immediately sensed the lingering resentment on her—caused by being harassed by evil spirits.

It was thick.

But it wasn't the aura of the Human-Faced Dog. Most likely, she had awakened spiritual perception, allowing her to see evil spirits—thus attracting them.

"Fasten your seatbelt."

"Every day is just work and teaching... It's been a long time since I took this car out to relax."

Hiratsuka sounded slightly sentimental. She didn't bring up the topic of evil spirits but slammed the gas pedal, the roar of the engine unleashing a burst of power.

The sudden acceleration slammed Shirakawa back into his seat.

She focused on driving, using the thrill of speed to shake off the frustrations of recent days, gradually leaving the city behind.

Eventually, she parked the car on a highway overpass.

Without waiting for Shirakawa, she got out, pulled out a bottle of black coffee, and lit a slim cigarette.

Her hands rested on the guardrail as her gaze drifted toward the vast ocean. Her voice was much lighter now: "I don't know why, but it feels like I've been running into a lot of frustrating things lately."

"..."

Standing beside her, Shirakawa noticed that even though she had the tall, mature vibe of an older sister type, she was still half a head shorter than him.

Seeing her face lined with fatigue, he didn't seem particularly fazed.

Casually, he said, "Hiratsuka-sensei, I think you've… run into evil spirits, haven't you?"

"Right on the mark!"

She took a deep drag of her cigarette and passed him the black coffee. Stretching lazily, the sea breeze ruffled her hair.

Her tone was calm.

But when she turned to see Shirakawa taking a sip of her drink without a second thought, her eye twitched furiously.

I asked you to hold it, not drink it!

Isn't that the same as an indirect kiss?!

Still holding the guardrail, she glanced sideways at his calm face. Somehow, her mood softened. In private, she just couldn't treat this guy like a typical student.

"Evil spirits… they've actually existed for a long time. It's just that most people don't have spiritual perception, so they're not affected by them."

"So I suddenly gained spiritual perception?"

"Exactly."

Hiratsuka was definitely easier to talk to than Yukinoshita. Shirakawa retracted the passive aura of his [Diamond Body], which normally deterred spirits, and pointed ahead.

It seemed there had been a traffic accident on this overpass.

A disfigured evil spirit, still bearing the wounds of its death, wandered the roadside, waving to try and stop passing cars. But the drivers didn't notice the ghost at all.

The vehicles passed straight through its ethereal, intangible form.

"If you don't have spiritual perception, evil spirits won't affect your daily life. But if you can see them, there's no avoiding them."

"And worse, you can't let them realize that you can see them."

Shirakawa pointed toward the ghost. "If they do, they'll attack."

"..."

Following his gaze, Hiratsuka spotted the figure ahead, waving by the roadside—its body broken and cloaked in malevolence.

She swallowed nervously.

According to Shirakawa, pretending not to see them was the key to avoiding danger. She wanted to do that…

But—

The moment she focused her gaze on the spirit, it seemed to sense her and Shirakawa. It began shambling toward them, dragging its battered body.

Its voice was chilling: "You… you can see me?"

"..."

"I see your mom," Shirakawa muttered flatly.

Noticing Hiratsuka's growing tension, Shirakawa remained calm. Seeing that no vehicles were currently on the overpass, he summoned his holy sword—

[All Things of Creation].

With his Holy Sword Wielder class leveled up, he wielded it even more smoothly now. With a single thought—

The crimson blade flashed like an afterimage.

It pierced the spirit clean through. Pure soul power was a natural counter to evil spirits. The spirit's malevolent form shattered instantly.

[You've slain a mid-level evil spirit. EXP +100.]

"..."

Watching the ghost vanish in an instant, and seeing Shirakawa summon a divine weapon like it was nothing, Hiratsuka stood stunned.

The spirit dispersed into a cloud of black mist.

Struggling to calm herself, she turned to Shirakawa and said seriously, "So… besides being a student, you're also—"

"An exorcist?"

"...More or less."

Since Miura Yumiko was already a supernatural class holder, there was no need to keep much hidden from Hiratsuka either. Shirakawa smiled and nodded.

Looking at the older woman beside him, he added lightly, "Honestly, there are lots of people with spiritual perception. My recommendation is simple—just pretend you don't see them."

"Once awakened, you can't lose that perception."

"I mean, I can't exactly live out some light novel cliché and follow you around like your personal bodyguard, exorcising spirits every day for a beautiful teacher."

"..."

"What do you mean, 'personal bodyguard exorcist for a beautiful teacher'?!"

Having read plenty of cheesy manga like that, Hiratsuka couldn't help twitching at his comment, sizing him up suspiciously.

Taking a deep breath, she asked seriously, "Shirakawa, is there any way for me to fight evil spirits too? That way, I could actually solve the problem."

"There is."

"But it comes at a price. Are you willing to accept it, Hiratsuka-sensei?"

She could tell he wasn't joking.