Issei and the rest of Occult Research Club were trekking on their feet on the steep hills towards the Gremory private villa on the mountain site to train themselves for the rating game against Raiser Phenex. They could have just teleported right away to the site, but Rias suggested to walk through conventional means, saying that it would serve as physical training as well. Rias, Akeno and Asia's luggage were not that heavy, as most of their belongings were assigned to Issei, Yuuto and Koneko.
"Ise, Yuuto, Koneko… Are you still up to go?" asked Rias behind her in concern, perhaps her servants could use some rests, considering it was a long hike to the training grounds.
"Don't worry, buchou. I'm still good to go!" Yuuto was the first to reply.
"Same here, ojou-sama! Right, Koneko-chan?" Issei followed and he turned towards the rook, who simply hummed and nodded in agreement.
Yuuto's bag-pack, while the size was two or three times more than human's standard, Yuuto's luggage size was pale in comparison against Issei's and Koneko's. The pawn and the rook were walking behind the knight and walking side by side, with each of them carrying a luggage as big as a car on their back. While Issei was already used to heavy lifting thanks to his daily exercise, Issei found it was more exhausting try to get a proper foothold on the uneven, mountainous grounds, as the pawn almost slipped several times thanks to the steep path. Koneko took a glance at her 'devil junior' on her side to see Issei was still trying to get used to walk on the rocky ground with his extra-large luggage on his back, his sweats were apparent as the boy seemed having a hard time.
"Issei-senpai, are you sure that you don't need to take a breather? You looked tired…" Koneko voiced her concerns. For the rook, who was already given by enhanced strength and defence on her muscles and bones, not to mention her past experiences to boot, Koneko just had to use her strength on her legs to simply sweep off any obstacles on the hiking. However, Issei's pawn trait, while it did enhance his physique, his basic strength was not as absolute as a rook.
But fortunately for Issei, he just managed to get used to the uneven ground as he started to feel easier and easier to take steps by steps. His lips twitched to a playful grin. "Of course, I am, Koneko-chan…" His eyes darted to the rook beside him. "Rather, are YOU sure that you can keep going? 'Cause it seems like you're slowing down", said Issei as he got ahead of Koneko.
Koneko's eyes twitched in slight annoyance, as she was aware of what was going on. It was not that the rook was slowing down, but it was just that Issei quickened his pace after the pawn managed to get himself accustomed to the terrain. Feeling her pride as the pawn's 'senpai' (considering how long she had become a devil compared to Issei), Koneko also quickened her step to keep up with the pawn.
Once Koneko had gotten ahead of Issei, Koneko looked over her shoulder and sent Issei a small, challenging smirk. Issei who noticed the expression grinned back as his eyes lit up in excitement. "So it's going this way, huh? Game on, little girl!" Issei muttered as he also picked up his speed again.
The hiking immediately turned into a foot-race to the top between Koneko and Issei, as the two tried to overcome each other as their walk escalated into a jog, and full-speed running as they ran passing Yuuto, who was slightly surprised at sudden burst of speed from the two runners, then Koneko and Issei ended up running passed Rias, Akeno and Asia, who also got surprised at the two antics.
"Wha- Wait there, Ise! Koneko! Don't overexert yourselves! This is not a race!" Rias yelled at her two running servants, but her words seemed fell on deaf ears, as the rook and the pawn kept running to get ahead of each other towards the top of the hill.
"Geez… What's wrong with those two?" Rias only sighed at the two, while she thought it was kind of dangerous to run like that on a steep path, she also knew that their destination only several hundred meters away, and her two 'racers' seemed had already reached the place before the rest.
"Ufufufu… Isn't it good for those two were already that excited in the first day of training, buchou? It could serve as a good warm-up, if I have to say myself", Akeno giggled at the spectacle, while Asia only smiled sheepishly.
"I hope so. Anyway, we need to catch up with those two since it's already come to this. Yuuto!" Rias commanded and turned towards the knight who was still behind, assuring that the knight would keep up with them. The said knight shook his head in amusement at Issei's and Koneko's antics, before he yelled back in affirmation as he started to speed-up as well.
When Rias and the others arrived at the villa, they found Issei and Koneko were resting after their 'race'. The pawn was found on his fours, his breaths were heavy, but his expression was nothing like exhausted. The rook was resting her hands on her bent knees, her face remain impassive but she was panting as well, both of them were sweating like a river from their heads.
"…(Pant)… (Pant)… How's that… (Pant)… Koneko-chan?" asked Issei staring at Koneko, who stared back.
"…(Pant)… I got… (Pant)… here first… (Pant)…"
"Good grief… What did I tell you about over-exerting yourselves? Now you're already tired even before the training even started…" Koneko and Issei turned their heads towards the voice that belongs to their 'king'. Rias' sighed again with the rest smiling sheepishly behind her. The pawn and the rook quickly regained themselves as they steadied their breathings.
""We're sorry…""
"Never mind that. Now everyone, let's get inside and packed yourselves to your rooms and get changed. We'll start our training once we're ready!" Rias commanded at her peerage.
"YES!"
X
After quick-cleaning the house from the pilling dusts, everyone was told to prepare themselves for training in their respective rooms. Issei and Yuuto got their rooms on the first floor, while the girls got the rooms on the second floor. When the boys were about to go inside their rooms to change their clothes, both of them said in unison.
""Don't peek""
""Eh?""
Both of them stared at each other in awkwardness. After looking at Yuuto impassively, Issei simply groaned as he smiled and he waved his hand in dismissal, as if to say 'forget about it' and went into his room. The knight himself only giggled as he went inside his own room as well.
(Scene break)
Currently, at the villa's backyard, Issei and Yuuto, now clad in jerseys/track suits, were facing each other with bokken on their hands, or to be precise, magic-reinforced wooden swords. The first training for Issei, who was still a rookie, was weaponry training against Yuuto, who was specialised in using swords. The purpose of this spar was actually to gauge Issei's overall fighting skill, since the group never really saw how Issei fare during a combat. Issei himself never held a weapon before. So he swung his bokken with his right arm for a few moments to get the feel of it, then he prepared his own stances, positioning his sword in front of him pointing at the knight, while his body simply stood in defensive manner, his legs stretched to hold his ground. His Boosted Gear was not present, for Issei decided to try not relying for his trusted Longinus for once in a while. Yuuto, who put a classic kendo-style, raised his eyes slightly at the sight of Issei's unorthodox stance, but he decided to see how it would play out for now.
Rias who acted as the referee with Koneko, Asia and Akeno, clad in their jersey suits as well, on the side line as spectators to gauge Issei's parameter with their own eyes. The 'king' raised her hands. "Ready?" the two fighters hardened their stances. Then Rias swung her hand down. "Begin!"
At Rias' words, Yuuto was the one who moved first, given his superiority in speed. Issei however, aware that he would not be able to keep up with Yuuto if he moved, so he decided to stand on his ground and relied on his senses and defence to deal with the knight.
Yuuto suddenly appeared in front of Issei, and with his right hand, the pawn quickly reacted by slamming his wooden sword to the ground to intercept, which Yuuto quickly dodged to Issei's side to strike back. However, Issei managed to react quick enough to swing his sword to clash with Yuuto's.
THWACK! THWACK! WHOSH! THWACK! THWACK! THWACK! WHAM! WHAM!
The two clashed swords with Issei used minimal movements to hold his grounds while Yuuto used his agility to evade and retaliate. After few clashes, Issei managed to find an opening and swung his sword,
"Ha!"
TRAAKKH!
Forcing Yuuto to block and let himself to be thrown backwards to reduce the impact on his body.
Once he got on his feet again, Yuuto steeled himself once again and he once again lunged at Issei. This time, the knight tried to put more power in his strike instead of pure speed and agility alone. The result was not much different than the previous fight, after few times of clashing weapons, evading and counter-attacking, the knight was pushed back once again while Issei was still remained on his position. The pawn was panting as sweats were pouring down lightly, clearly that he was actually having a hard time to keep up with Yuuto's speed and his sudden increased strength to add. Yuuto himself was quite surprised that Issei's reaction and reflex were better than he thought.
The spectators' eyes were widened at the battle. All of them did not expect Issei to fare pretty well against the experienced knight of Gremory. While Issei's fighting style was more like a delinquent instead of proper swordsmanship, the new pawn had proven himself to be able to hold his ground against the Gremory knight.
"Quite a barbaric style he has there… But he's pretty good for a beginner… Interesting… How about this, then?" Yuuto smirked as he thought to himself as he attempted on a different approach as he started to incorporate both eastern and western swordsmanship in his stance.
The knight ran circling Issei instead of running straight to him like before for few seconds, then he lounged again towards Issei and the magic-reinforced wooden swords were clashing once again. As Issei blocked, retaliate, and dodged slightly at Yuuto's quick attacks, he found himself had to hone his senses and body even higher due to Yuuto's attacks suddenly more varied. Then, the pawn found another opening and he brought his bokken down, slamming it towards Yuuto. However, that opening was a decoy. The knight easily side-stepped to dodge the pawn's sword and as soon as the sword made contact with the earth, Yuuto quickly stepped his foot on Issei's sword, then he put his weight on it to prevent the sword from moving.
Issei's eyes widened at his blunder. "Crap!" he cursed as he found that he could not move his weapon. He was also aware that trying to pull back his sword from the ground would give enough time and opening for Yuuto to attack. Right on cue, the knight smirked in victory and he swung his sword horizontally at Issei's exposed neck.
At first, Rias thought that she would have needed to end the session once Yuuto's strike connected, but she did not do so when she noticed Issei's eyes were not the eyes of those who were about to loose.
Issei's eyes focused on the incoming attack on his neck, then he let his instinct took over, surprising the spectators and the opponent before him. The pawn jerked his body backward, evading the sword's slash at the last second, then as soon as he regained his footing back again,
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
Issei resorted to use bare-handed martial arts as he sprung towards his opponent with several punches, kicks and swings of his arms. Yuuto, while surprised at sudden retaliation, still managed to dodge at last seconds and jumped back to gain another distance. The knight did not expect to see his opponent to abandon his weapon and resort to unarmed strikes, but the pawn himself was breathing even heavier, as if he was startled as he picked up his sword from the ground.
Yuuto's smirk back to his face as he commented, "That's really surprising of you, Issei-kun…"
Issei tried to steady his heart-beat as he took a deep breath, before he smirked back at Yuuto. "Haha, thanks. I honestly thought I was a gonner back there…" Then the pawn swung his swords lightly several times with his right hand. "Now it's my turn, isn't it?" Issei said as he took and let out a deep breath to regain his focus, and his body suddenly leaking out a small amount of aura that glowed dimly in white. Yuuto and those who were watching from the side, safe for Asia, had their eyes widened slightly at the phenomenon that occurred on Issei's body. However, from the spectators who aware, one particular rook had a slight fear in her eyes.
Issei crouched down a bit, preparing to strike. Yuuto also put back his stance again in return. Issei started to run towards Yuuto and the pawn suddenly lunged at the knight with tremendous speed after few steps, leaving a small crater on the ground from the force of his legs. Yuuto did not manage to evade as he suddenly had to block the attack and was being pushed back when he just took a step forward to retaliate.
"Hup!"
THWACK!
"HAAA!"
Issei let out a cry as he used his strength to swing his sword that was still pressed against Yuuto's sword. As the pawn swung his sword diagonally, he managed to throw the knight to the air.
"Kuh…! What a power…!" Yuuto grimaced as he was thrown away. "And he's not even using his Boosted Gear!"
While the knight was still in mid-air, suddenly the pawn already leapt to the air above the knight and he flipped his body to gain momentum before he slammed his sword downwards.
CRASH!
Fortunately, Yuuto managed to brought his sword up in guard as Issei's strike sent him back to the ground. Immediately after Yuuto hit the ground, Issei suddenly already landed and he swung his sword once again.
THWACK!
The sound of reinforced wood clashing was heard even louder as Issei and Yuuto were now locked with their bokkens pressing against each other.
"That's enough!"
At Rias' command, the two immediately loosened up and they backed off each other. The two combatants were sweating bullets and breathing heavily from exhaustion, but they shook hands.
"You're surprisingly good for a first-timer, Issei-kun…" Yuuto complimented with a smile.
"Thanks. Your moves and techniques are hard to deal with, Kiba… I was having a hard time keeping up with your speed…" Issei replied with his goofy grin.
X
The girls were having various reactions. Asia and Koneko were stunned at the display before the former cheered up as she approached the pawn, while the latter simply silent with wide eyes. During the battle, the rook noticed something from the pawn's body earlier.
"Ise-san, Kiba-san, that was amazing!"
"Ufufufu, our new kouhai really is full of surprises, isn't he?" Akeno commented.
"Well done, you two", Rias claimed with proud smile. She was surprised by her newest pawn yet again.
"I'd like to test your ability in hand-to-hand combat as well, but…" Rias said darting her eyes to Koneko than back to Issei. "Seeing the way you retaliated when Yuuto took your weapon away was enough for me to gauge your aptitude in that field. What do you think, Koneko?" Rias turned towards Koneko, whom is also a specialist hand-to-hand combat.
The rook blinked at Rias's question. Her expression softened, yet resolved as she spoke, "I'd like to see it for myself", as she took a step forward.
Rias looked towards Issei in slight worry since the pawn still looked tired from his spar against Yuuto. However, the said pawn took a deep breath as he nodded with a smile, saying that he was still good to go. Issei himself wanted to see how he would fare against a rook opponent as well. As soon as the two combatants took their respective positions, Rias swung her hand down, signalling the beginning.
However, the fight between Koneko and Issei was rather anti-climactic. As soon as Koneko made the first move forward, Issei found that Koneko's movements were significantly slower than Yuuto. The pawn still did not use Boosted Gear, instead he simply clenched his fist and moved faster than Koneko and he quickly connected his left fist on the rook's gut.
BAM! CRASH!
"Kuhhk…!" Koneko grimaced as her body was launched straight away through a couple of trees, before finally stopped as her body stuck at the last tree in line. Issei, who still had not pulled back his smoking punch yet, only sweat-dropped at the result of his attack.
"Koneko!" Rias and the others shouted in worry after they saw Koneko being launched back in one hit.
"Oh, shit… Did I go too far?" Issei thought worriedly. He knew that rook's traits were enhanced strength and defence, thus he tried to put the amount of power in his punch more or less the same amount of the punch he used on the male fallen angel with fedora a while ago.
"U-Um! Koneko-chan! Are you okay? I- I'm so sorry!" Issei stuttered as he apologised. The boy had no idea that his punch would have dealt so much damage.
Few seconds later, the rook pulled her self out from the tree trunks. She coughed out for a couple of times before she walked over to the group as Asia quickly approached her and put her healing power on the rook's stomach. Thanks to her rook's strength, her body did not suffer any internal injuries. Rias, Issei and the others quickly followed as well to make sure that Koneko was fine, with the rook in question simply took a deep breath, massaging her sore stomach for a second, and she held up her hand, gesturing that she was fine.
"Koneko-chan, I swear I didn't intend to hit you that hard! Please forgive me!" Issei said as he bowed his head.
"I'm fine, Issei-senpai. In fact, that was not a bad hit", Koneko replied, trying to cheer-up the pawn. Issei raised his head back again and he smiled sheepishly, still feeling guilty.
On other hand, though painful, the rook had confirmed her suspicion thanks to the hit she received. Koneko turned towards her 'king'. "Buchou, Issei-senpai can use touki."
At Koneko's remark, Rias, Akeno and Yuuto had their expressions turned into those who had a confirmation. "It's faint… But I can tell that it was definitely touki that leaked out from Issei-senpai's body during the spar with Yuuto-senpai."
Everyone turned towards Issei who looked confused. "Um… Sorry, but what's touki?"
Rias put up a thinking position before she answered. "Well… I don't know much about that particular field, but basically, touki is an ability where a person can create aura to envelope the body, giving that person an enhanced attack power, defence, and speed tremendously", she thought again before she continued. "Because you've been training your physique quite hard since you're young, I guess it's given that you have a talent to use touki. You should learn to get a better control on your touki manipulation, Ise."
Rias was about to ask Koneko to at least give Issei an advice or two to utilise touki better, since that particular field supposed to be the speciality of Koneko's origin. However, she decided to go against the idea, considering the rook's past.
Issei looked at both of his hands after listening to the explanation. Then he tried to remember the feeling when he stroke back against Yuuto earlier. True to him, even without his Boosted Gear, Issei found his body was stronger and faster. He contemplated for a moment, that time, he remembered again when he fought with Koneko, he was using all his muscles to move, and he suddenly felt something like a power boost. The pawn tried to tense the muscles on his hands, then he could see a faint white glow coating his arms. So that what touki is, huh? Issei made a mental note to learn controlling this new-found ability later.
"Well, then… Let's see how you will fare in magical arts, shall we?" said Rias signalling Akeno to come up.
(Scene break)
BOOM!
Another explosion occurred at Issei's spot in the living room where Akeno was teaching Issei and Asia how to control their magical powers. In Asia's case, the new bishop was doing quite well as she managed to create a magic sphere as big as a softball. The bishop also managed to induce various elements into her magical sphere as well.
However, on Issei's case, the earlier explosion was from his attempt to make a magic sphere for a second time. Akeno and Asia ended up had to gain distance from Issei in order to avoid the explosion. Every time the pawn tried to create the sphere, at first there was only something invisible appeared on Issei's hand. Akeno could not really see it, but she could tell it was probably Issei's own magic since there was a visible space-distortion where Issei's magical energy should have appeared. When Issei was told to use his imagination to give his magic sphere a more concrete form, suddenly his magical energy glowed in green and suddenly the green energy flared out wildly like a raging fire, and when Issei tried to control the energy and make it into a sphere, the energy burst out in explosion just when the spherical shape started to take form.
"Hmm… I see now, I understand why you couldn't use the teleportation magic in the beginning, Ise-kun", said Akeno looking at Issei attentively.
"Yes?" Issei said after coughing few times from the dusts, his body was covered a bit with burn marks, turned his head towards the queen.
"Your magic was somewhat… too volatile. The reason you couldn't teleport back there was because your magic was too out of control, causing the magic circle to malfunction, thus making it exploded", Akeno explained.
Issei put a contemplating expression on his face. If his magic was so hard to control, why did he manage to fire his dragon shot in the first place?
[It's because I was there to help you controlling your magical reserves, I simply fused a fraction of my own power so I had a share of control as well] Ddraig's voice was heard in Issei's mind as the dragon listened to his host's mind.
"I see… I guess I should thank you for all those times. Well, it's time for me to be independent, don't you think?" Issen looked up at Akeno. "Akeno-san, I'd like to try one more time", Issei asked his senpai.
Akeno blinked at Issei's request, but she then smiled. "Ufufufu, if you're still up for it, who am I to refuse?"
Asia who was watching as well also nodded faithfully. "Un! You can do it, Ise-san!" the bishop said with resolute eyes.
Issei took a deep breath and let it out as he tried to channel his magical reserves once again into his opened hand. As he closed his eyes to focus, a green flare, this time smaller than before, erupted on his palm and it immediately started to dance wildly again as it increased in size. Issei winced slightly in pain as the magical energy started to burn his magic circuits.
Seeing the magical energy on Issei's palm going wild again, Akeno's eyes hardened. "Ise-kun, stay calm and focus!"
Issei focused his mind even harder as a reaction was seen on Issei's magical energy. After few moments, Issei's eyes shot open and he grabbed his left arm that held the magic energy with his right.
"OOOOH…!"
Issei cried as he tried to control his magical energy with all his might. The energy slowly turned into a softball-sized sphere as the pawn glared at the sphere intently. Then suddenly the sphere started to fluctuate wildly again. Akeno braced herself for another explosion as Asia closed her eyes and covered her ears in anticipation.
"Hnngghh…!"
Issei grunted, sweats pouring down from his head as he tried to keep his magical orb from exploding again. He drew several deep breaths and the sphere stopped fluctuating. When Issei relaxed, the sphere simply remained glowing on his palm. The pawn's expression brightened up and he turned his head towards his friends. He just managed to create a magical sphere that was only slightly smaller than Asia's.
"I… I did it!"
"Ufufu… Well done, Ise-kun…" said Akeno as her expression turned pleasant and proud.
"Congratulations, Ise-san!" said Asia joyfully. However, just before Asia took a first step to approach the pawn, the door leading to the room where Issei was training suddenly flung open, revealing Rias, who just returned after supervising the quick spar between Yuuto and Koneko, who were following behind her into the room.
"Akeno, how's Ise and Asia's magic training?" the king asked as she entered the room.
"Ah, ojou-sama!" Issei's eyes shot at his master and he took a step with his magical sphere on his palm.
Akeno took a glance at Issei and suddenly her eyes widened in alarm. "Ise-kun! Don't let your guard down! Stay focus!"
"Eh?" Issei then realised his magical sphere started to act up again. "Oh shi-!" Issei grunted as he struggled again to stabilise his magical sphere, only to have the said sphere to fluctuate again and explode in his face again.
BOOM!
As the smoke from explosion cleared out, Rias and the others only sweat-dropped and finally laughed when they saw Issei's face was all marred in slight burn marks, his hair was curled slightly from explosion.
The pawn let out a sigh as he waved his hand and simply said, "I still have a long way to go".
X
As Rias had called it a day for now, Issei was found with Akeno and Asia cooking dinner in the kitchen.
"I don't know that you can cook, Ise-kun…" Akeno said with amused tone as she chopped up some meat.
"Yeah, I sometimes had to cook my own meals when my mom had to go for a while for some business. As long as it's nothing fancy, I could fix a meal or two", Ise replied as he slicing and dicing the vegetables.
"Come to think of it, what about your father, Ise-san? I've never seen him around ever since I moved into your house", asked Asia at Issei as she prepared the utensils, spices and other stuffs.
"He left".
Akeno and Asia stopped on what they were doing as they paid attention at Issei who was still cutting up the vegetables. "Eh?"
"My mom said that he just left when I was two years-old."
At Issei's answer, Asia covered her mouth with her hands and her eyes gleamed in tears, while Akeno had a kind of sorrowful expression. "I… I'm sorry, Ise-san…" said Asia apologising.
"Nah… Don't sweat it. It's not like he left us for good", Issei smiled and he waved his hand then he continued to pour the chopped-up vegetables into the pot. "I don't know what he's doing now, but every once a month, he will sends us enough money to sustain ourselves".
Both girls' expressions softened and Issei spoke again. "But it won't stop me to drag him back home, though", Issei looked over his shoulder to see the girls' eyes were back at him again, prompting him to continue. "Once I got the permission from ojou-sama later, I'm gonna set on a journey to find him", Issei said as he wiped down some vegetable pieces that stuck at the knife.
Akeno and Asia smiled at Issei's declaration. "Then, I hope you can find him and make up with your father, Ise-san!" said the bishop cheering, but before she returned to the task at hand, she asked shyly. "And when you set out on your journey… Can I come with you?" Asia asked with flushed face as she played with her fingers.
The pawn blinked once then he grinned, "Sure, I guess introducing you girls and Kiba to my dad is not a bad idea!" Issei replied with a thumb-up. Asia's eyes beamed for a second and she nodded with her joyful smile.
"Fufufu, make sure you'll give your dad a good beating if he resist, okay?" said Akeno teasingly as she turned back to her own task. Unknown for Issei and Asia, despite her smiling and giggling, her eyes were somewhat sad for a second.
"Hn, you bet, Akeno-san! The first thing to do when I found him is to punch him in the face on behalf of my mom!" said Issei exclaiming raising his fist. The girl only sweat-dropped before they giggled again.
Meanwhile, at the unknown side of the world, a certain bald-headed hero suddenly sneezed. Strange for him, since he never got sick ever since he obtained his current power.
(Scene break)
"Well… That was pretty good…" Rias said as she wiped her mouth with a napkin. The rest of the peerage had just finished with their dinner as well.
"You have Ise-kun and Asia-chan to thank for", Akeno interjected, motioning her hands towards the pawn and bishop.
Asia only looked down in embarrassment while her expression was quite a happy one, while Issei only smiled sheepishly as he rubbed his head. "No, no… Akeno was the one doing all the work, Asia and I are just assistants", the pawn said waving his hand.
After dinner, everyone still remained at the dining table. "Okay, now let's do a quick review of today, shall we?" said Rias at her peerage around her. "While everyone still have not lost their touch, Ise was doing much better than I had expected", Rias said smiling, looking at her pawn. The said pawn only nodded in gratitude.
Then Rias' smile dropped as her expression turned serious again. "But you're still lacking in regulating your own magical reserves. Tell me, Ise… How good are you with your Sacred Gear?"
Issei rolled his eyes in contemplation for a few seconds. Then he replied, "Well… I pretty much have mastered all basic abilities of the Boosted Gear, but…" Then Issei turned sheepish. "For some reason I still can't achieve my Balance Breaker. So I've been relying on my daily exercise to strengthen my physique".
Rias nodded in acceptance. "Well, thanks to that you have a talent to use touki to enhance your strengths even further. So, aside from increasing all of our fighting capabilities, Ise, you need to either achieve your Balance Breaker or have a better control of your touki. Of course, both would be much preferable. Is that clear, Ise, everyone?"
All of the peerage shouted in unison. "YES!"
However, Issei widened his eyes as he remembered something. "Oh, actually, ojou-sama…" Issei said raising his hand. The rest of the group turned their attention to the pawn. "I have another proposal for our training camp. May I?"
At this request, Rias simply raised her eyebrows, prompting Issei to elaborate himself.
X
The second day of training camp was started by a 'warm-up' exercise, as Issei had explained during the dinner last night. The 'warm-up' consists Akeno teaching Asia some defensive spells, Rias supervising Issei's magic training (which Issei's attempts still ended up in explosion from time to time, with the pawn was only able to make a stabilised magic sphere about slightly bigger than a size of a golf-ball), and Koneko sparring with Yuuto. When Rias decided to train herself with Akeno, Issei and Asia would join Yuuto and Koneko as the pawn would also spar with the knight and/or the rook, with the bishop standing-by as a medical aid.
During the match with Yuuto again, while the knight would use his sword (real sword), Issei chose to achieve his Balance Breaker during the training rather than his touki control, thus instead of using a reinforced wooden sword, Issei used his Boosted Gear as his respective weapon, saying that using weapon other than his Boosted Gear was not really his thing. Koneko had given some basic explanations about touki, but when Issei asked the rook more about life energy and those stuffs, Koneko turned her gaze side-ways, as if she did not want to discuss about the matter. Yuuto himself only put a hand on Issei's shoulder and shook his head at the pawn, asking Issei to drop the topic for the time being. When the match began, thanks to Boosted Gear ability, Issei managed to keep up with Yuuto's speed, however, the knight's techniques and his other arsenals made Issei always got outsmarted by Yuuto's counter-attacks. The field were filled with noises of Yuuto's sword collided with Issei's gauntlet.
THWACK! CLANG! CLANG! WHOOSH! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHAM!
Overall, while Issei is stronger, had better reflexes and could be faster than Yuuto if given enough time, Yuuto still out-classed Issei in terms of techniques and agility.
While during the match between Koneko and Issei, the rook decided to play defensive. She simply stayed on her spot as she jerked her hand in taunting. Issei immediately knew that the rook before him was planning something, so instead of dashing forward, the pawn also tried to use a different approach. With steady pace, the pawn walked towards the rook cautiously and as soon as he was close enough, Issei threw a punch to Koneko's face, which this time, Koneko managed to block it. The rook quickly retaliate right after she slapped Issei's fist away with a punch of her own, with Issei easily blocked it off.
BAM! WHAM! BAM! WHAM! BAM! WHOOSH!
The cycle of punching, blocking, and retaliating kept repeating between the two and it soon became simple exchange of attacks in high-speed between Issei and Koneko. Soon kicks were also delivered from Koneko, since Issei's posture is bigger, the pawn could not really deliver any powerful kicks and stayed in using his hands and used his feet to hold his ground. Koneko used the advantage of her smaller build to sneak through Issei's defences and she quickly wrapped her arms around his body. Issei was quite surprised that Koneko was pretty nimble for a rook, and her position behind him made Issei difficult to make a counter-measure. The pawn's eyes widened as the rook used a German-supplex on him.
BRAAK!
"Ouch…" Issei simply let out a groan. Now he learned that the strength of a rook was quite a force to be reckoned with.
Issei quickly got up on his feet again and he walked around circling the rook, with his eyes glued on Koneko whom staring back as well. The rook learned that the pawn already had a knack in a hand-to-hand combat, and one of ways she could find so far to get around him is using grappling and throwing techniques, basically, pro-wrestling moves.
The spar went on with Koneko still stayed on her pro-wrestling techniques as she tried to find another opening to grab Issei while she dodged and blocked the pawn's strikes, while the pawn, being more cautious now, less attacking and he kept moving in circle to avoid Koneko to catch him. When Rias and Akeno came over to call the group for lunch break, the match ended in a tie, or rather, technically in Koneko's favour since the rook was the one who managed to make a hit on Issei. The rest of the match had gone with neither of them managed to go through each other's defence.
As the group had their lunch while discussing about their earlier training, Rias turned to her pawn. "Ise, prepare yourself when we had finished our lunch".
The others turned their gazes at the pawn as they put their respective smirks, safe for Asia, aware that the next session after lunch was the real training that Issei proposed from last night.
The pawn blinked twice at first then he let out a small sigh, then he let out a confident grin with eyes fired-up. "Of course. Do your worst, guys…"
(Scene break)
Issei was now hiding inside a large bush within the forest at behind of the villa. He sharpened all of his senses to detect any movements around him, his eyes could only see straight at front, since the pawn himself was surrounded by leaves and twigs. In fact, his sight in front of him was not that clear as well since all the leaves and the twigs were in his line of sight as well. He dismissed his Boosted Gear since the gauntlet's announcement would reveal his position, which irked him. It was ironic, in a way, his greatest ally in battle was now his greatest hindrance.
"Huff… Now what to do from here…" Issei whispered to himself after he took a few deep breaths. Then he recalled about his touki talent. Since Boosted Gear was out of option, at least for now, he could use other alternative to enhance himself while still being stealthy, as well as to train his touki manipulation at this opportunity.
Issei took another deep breath as he concentrated to feel the life energy inside him. He tensed his muscle a bit as he felt the aura enveloped him and he felt stronger. Issei sharpened his senses once again to make sure that his surroundings were clear of hostiles. Suddenly, his eyes widened in alert and he quickly bolted out from his hiding spot.
"Shit!"
BLAAR!
Right after few steps away from the bushes, Issei's previous hiding spot was struck by a lightning-bolt. Glancing back at the bush, which was now burning, Issei realised that his position had been compromised through some means and he manifested his Boosted Gear.
[Boost]
The gauntlet yelled as it starting to double-up Issei's parameter. He looked towards the tree-covered sky, and he could spot two shadows with a pair of bat wings on each backs were looming over him.
"Fufufu… I found Ise-kun~", a voice with playful and teasing tone came from one of the shadows.
Issei soon knew it was the sadist queen in his group, Himejima Akeno and his master, Rias Gremory. The pawn clicked his tongue and he quickly ran away as powerful bolts after bolts were struck down right at the spots he was at previously. When the queen saw the pawn was running for his dear life, her face flushed, she held her right cheek with her hand, and she licked her lips in bliss as she kept sending her thunder magic.
"Ohohohoho! What's the matter, Ise-kun? You need to run faster, or else you're going to get burned! Ahahahaha!" Akeno said with gleeful, yet sadistic laughter. The queen was clearly enjoying what she was doing to her devil junior.
Rias, who was flying beside Akeno, only sweat-dropped at her queen's antics. She thought it was only to be expected from her sadistic queen. Issei, who listened to Akeno's sadistic glee, only groaned as he kept running to avoid the thunder strike.
"She's really into this… What was I thinking, proposing this idea?" Issei thought as he started to regret his earlier proposal for the training camp. Finally, the continuous thunder strikes had stopped together with Akeno's laughter, as Issei ran longer, however, the pawn suddenly felt two presences. One was tailing him, the other one was already waiting in front of him.
[Boost]
A pincer-attack? Issei thought as he decided to change his course to avoid the opponent in front of him. But after he changed his course, the spot where his foot stepped on while running suddenly glowed in red. Issei's eyes widened as he realised that he just triggered a trap created by magic.
"Crap!"
Issei quickly leapt out of the way out of the explosion that occurred from the trap.
BOOM!
Issei's body was thrown away by the explosion's kinetic force. The boy covered his face with his arms from the blast, his body rolled over the ground as it landed, and Issei continued running.
[Boost]
The training Issei was doing now was the training method that Issei had proposed to his friends during the dinner last night. Since their opponent, Raiser Phenex has a complete set of peerage, which put Rias in disadvantage in terms of numbers, the pawn proposed that each member of the group, except Asia, to be trained to engage multiple opponents at once. The training went as one member would be placed at a certain place inside the forest behind the villa, and the member was to accomplish either one of two objectives: 1. Race back to the villa within one hour, while the rest of the group would have to attack and stop him (with intent to kill), or 2. Defeat the other four opponents within the said time limit. This training would also help the others to train their teamwork as well.
Asia, who did not have any combat experiences nor capabilities was assigned to stand-by at the goal and to act as a medic if the current member on the challenge were to suffer bad injuries. The bishop herself had already been taught several defensive spells during the morning / warm-up training. And right now, Issei was the one to be the first to fulfil his own training idea. As Issei was running for his life and avoiding traps after traps, the pawn was ambushed by Yuuto, with his sword readied. Using his Boosted Gear gauntlet to intercept Yuuto's sword, Issei tried to fend off his attacker while made sure that he was still running at right direction towards the villa.
[Boost]
Issei ended up cornering himself into a tree as he dodged and blocked Yuuto's strike, only to be ambushed by Koneko who fell from top of the tree.
"Ei!" was all that came out from the rook as she brought her fist down.
BAM!
Issei managed to roll out of the way to avoid Koneko's punch that left a crater on the ground. Yuuto was now on him again and the pawn back to fend off his attacker again and having even harder time as Koneko also joined in to attack him.
[Boost]
Issei decided to have enough and he raised his gauntlet-cladded fist and he brought it down.
"HAAA!"
BAAM!
Koneko and Yuuto were forced to leap away from Issei to avoid the flying debris of rocks caused by a shock-wave , as the pawn's fist created a crater on the ground, even bigger than the crater that was made of Koneko's attack. Seeing Issei ran-off again, Koneko and Yuuto was about to give another chase, but remembering the direction where Issei was heading to, the two decided to wait for another chance. Since Issei's direction was also a part of the plan.
Issei who was running blindly for a second finally realised that he was being led to a clearing. As soon as he arrived at the open area, he stopped, he looked up as he felt a powerful energy signature, and he saw Rias and Akeno were flying right above him, as if they had been expecting him, with their respective magic were prepared to be fired.
[Boost]
Issei's eyes widened at the smirks that adorned the king and the queen's faces, and the girls on the air shot their hands together toward the pawn, and a mass of Rias' power of destruction together with Akeno's thunder were fusing into one powerful attack. The pawn did not have to think again as he decided his course of action.
[EXPLOSION!]
Issei's green aura exploded from his body, he quickly held his Boosted Gear towards the mass of thunder and power of destruction above him and he used his now enhanced power to counter Rias and Akeno's fusion attack.
"Dragon Shot!"
The red beam was fired from Issei's gauntlet, and its force was enough to stop Rias and Akeno's combined power to hit him.
KA-BOOM!
"Kyaaah!" Rias and Akeno let out surprised shrieks as they were enveloped by the wave of smoke from the explosion.
As soon as two magic attacks were collided, an explosion occurred and Issei quickly used the explosion smoke as a cover and he quickly ran away back into trees. Due to all tensions that had occurred, Issei had lost his track of time. How long has it been now? 30 minutes? 40 minutes? The pawn only knew that he had to either reach his goal or knock all of his opponents out. The second option was rather hard, considering his two opponents were staying on air while his flying skills were still lacking, and dealing the rook and the knight, who were pretty good in co-op attack, was already quite difficult for him. So the most favourable option left for him was to head towards his goal as soon as he could.
When he could see the villa from the distance, Yuuto and Koneko had ambushed him again. However, this would be different. Since Issei still had his enhanced power from his 'explosion' before, the pawn was now able to keep up with the knight's speed and manage to take care of the rook with a surprise punch to the gut. As Koneko was thrown quite far across the forest trees this time, Issei only had to make sure that he would not go off-tracks as he dealt with Yuuto. The said knight was having a hard time this time due to Issei's increased power, so the knight had to use his trump card.
"Sword Birth!"
Yuuto slammed his hand to the ground, and numerous blades and swords in various forms and shapes sprout-out from the ground to impale Issei.
SCHLING! SCHLING! SCHLING! SCHLING!
"Whoa!" Issei's eyes widened in shock as some of the blades tore off a part of his suits around his torso.
"The hell was that!?" the pawn yelled in surprise after he barely managed to dodge the blades that came out from the ground.
Yuuto only smirked at Issei's surprise. "Fufufu, that's my 'Sword Birth'. A sacred gear that allows me to create demonic swords based from my mind. You've done well to force me to use my trump-card, Issei-kun…"
"Gee, thanks for the compliment", Issei said playfully. Then he stopped to think for a second. "A sacred gear that can create swords? Then…" Issei turned to Yuuto again.
"Oi, Kiba!" Yuuto stopped moving at Issei calling his name. "Can you do Unlimited Blade Works with your sacred gear?"
"What?" Yuuto asked with an expression as if Issei had grown a tail on his ass.
After few seconds of awkward silence, the pawn raised his both arms and he shook his head. "You know what, forget what I asked", then Issei used his still-enhanced strength to leap on trees above Yuuto, passing the knight and the pawn continued his trek towards the villa, but of course after he fired off a quick Dragon Shot as a distraction.
BOOM!
Yuuto coughed out some smokes caused from Dragon Shot's explosion, then he saw Issei's figure that was already far away. "Wa-wait!" But even with his knight speed, it was too late already to catch up with Issei.
By the time the rest caught up with Issei, the pawn was already on his fours, panting and sweating as he finally reached the villa's backyard. The pawn noticed that the others had arrived and he rose on his feet to turn towards them, and he hold up a victory sign as he snickered in satisfaction.
"42 minutes and 30 seconds, good work, Ise-san!" Asia said holding a stopwatch. Issei only smiled back at her with his usual goofy grin.
"Well done, Ise…" Rias said complimenting.
"Yes, good work for you too, ojou-sama, everyone", Issei replied towards the others, whom also nodded in acknowledgement.
Rias remained silent at the moment. She was aware that Issei was not so good at flying, so she understood why he was avoiding to fight her and Akeno mid-air. Considering his feat during stray exorcists and fallen angel feud a while ago, Issei should have been able to defeat Yuuto during the yesterday's match. Perhaps her pawn was not using his Boosted Gear that time, hence he was only able to keep up with her knight. But if so, then her pawn should have been able to at least defeat either Koneko or Yuuto earlier to have easier time to accomplish his training objective.
Rias watched her pawn who was chatting and discussing about the training with everyone else. Issei during the feud with Asia and rogue fallen angels was not thinking properly of his own well-being, that was why the pawn did not come out unscathed after he had taken on the enemy forces. But now, he had less enemy to fight with, and he also had touki for his additional arsenal beside his Boosted Gear, so why was Issei not able to defeat Yuuto and Koneko immediately earlier?
But Rias closed her eyes and shook her head slightly as she decided to put her thoughts on hold for now, since she needed to focus on her current objective. Since Issei had done quite well in the training so far, she guessed she could think about her predicament later.
Rias clapped her hands to gain attention from her peerage once again. "Alright, everyone. Since Issei had finished his turn, and we still have ourselves quite some time for today, who wants to go next after the break?"
At the king's question, Issei grinned as he stared at his comrades with vengeful, yet playful looks in his eyes. The others only glanced at each other, contemplating on who will be the next to be targeted by four other members.
X
(Time-skip, 7th night)
That night, while everyone else was sleeping, Issei was lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling as he was reminiscing the past training days and how everyone, including himself, had developed the fighting skills during the training.
Asia, while she did not take part in Issei's intensive training regimen, she was now able to deploy barriers and other defensive spells that will enable her to defend herself and escape to regroup with the others in case if she were to encounter the enemy team.
Koneko, while she was taken out quite easily during her first time, the rook was quite tough and skilful enough to survive for almost half-an hour. After tries after tries, Koneko became more crafty, even better than Issei to conceal her presence to avoid detection, relying on her speed more, as well as training them, despite being a rook, her hand-to-hand combat skills also had improved significantly. During her last try, Koneko managed to defeat Yuuto with her superior strength and her speed had gotten better, though still pale in comparison to a knight, but still faster than rooks in general. Her defence also improved, as she managed to remain standing after being struck by Akeno's thunder magic, although the rook was still receiving quite a damage and was stunned for a few moments before she could move properly again from the electric shock. When she engaged Issei, the rook still resorted to pro-wrestling techniques, using her strength and her build to sneak and catch Issei in her grip, giving the pawn a hard time to retaliate. Issei felt that there was something more inside Koneko than it usually appeared on the outside, but he decided not to pry too much into it.
As for Yuuto, the knight was very versatile during his first try. While he was easily taken down after got a direct hit from either members, especially Koneko and Issei, the knight had his defence improved as it took much more than one direct-hit to take him down. During his couple of final tries, Yuuto managed to invent new swords from his sacred gear to intercept Akeno's thunder and Rias' power of destruction, the knight also managed to incapacitated both Koneko and Issei by pinning them down to the ground with his demonic swords. The swords were not exactly harming them, but the way they were implanted through their clothes was proven to give Issei and Koneko quite some time and effort to break free, until both of them decided to forget about their modesty and forcefully broke free from the swords that pinning them down by ripping their own outfits (of course, Koneko had to glare at Issei whom ended up staring at the rook's revealed parts). However, it was enough time for Yuuto to reach the goal quite easily, as he just had to outrun Rias and Akeno with his speed alone.
In case of Rias and Akeno, both of them were the ones with the biggest guns in the group thanks to their magic. Akeno, being a sadist she is, was having fun in attacking the running Issei, who could not reach her due to his inability to fly properly, with her thunderbolts. Issei was only able to attack her if he used his dragon shot, which took some time to charge up if the pawn wanted to deal actual damage. Not to mention, if Issei had opted to jumped off to attack Akeno mid-air, the pawn would be quite an easy target for Akeno's attack. While the others, who actually able to fly, managed to force Akeno to descend to the ground, the queen still managed to give the others a difficult time thanks to her arsenals in elemental magic. Overall, it took several days for everyone, except Rias, to manage to force Akeno to fail her session, either by knocking her out through teamwork, or by making her ran out of time. But they usually made it through the latter method. During that time, like with Koneko, Issei felt that Akeno was hiding something in her power, but he could not make out what it is.
Rias was a similar case with Akeno. However, being a king, Rias had known her servants very well thus made her easily outsmarted and outran them, except Issei, who managed to surprise her during aerial combat. The pawn, for the first time, managed to avoid Rias' attack by gliding side-ways after his many failed attempts in flying, only to loose control again immediately as he flew uncontrollably and crashed into Akeno's boobs, much to Issei's embarrassment and Akeno's amusement, making the queen misdirect her thunder towards Yuuto and Koneko instead of Rias, disrupting the teamwork thus giving Rias enough time to complete her session in her first try. However, by the end of the training, after numerous trial and error, her attackers' teamwork and others' improved skills, Rias was forced to tamper her tactical skills and use her power of destruction in more variety and efficiently.
As for his own case, Issei simply believed that he had done his best and had improved himself compared to previous days. However, Issei still lacking in magic department. While he managed to manifest a small magic sphere with enough ease now, Issei still had to struggle to maintain his soft-ball sized magic sphere from exploding (which was still ended up exploding in his face sometimes).
Then, Issei got up, cringed his neck and stretched out his body before he walked out of the room to grab some drinks to help him sleep. When he was on his back to his room from the kitchen, he noticed that there was someone, whose presence was familiar, still awake despite the late hour.
Curious, Issei strolled through the villa and he spotted his master was reading a book. She sat by the window in the study room, wearing only her pink night- gown, and a pair of red-trimmed glasses could be seen on her face. Once again, Issei was captivated by the sight of Rias Gremory under the moon-light that shone through the window. Snapped out of his reverie after a moment, the pawn decided to approach his king.
"Ojou-sama?" Rias turned her head towards her pawn. "What are you doing here at this hour? You should get some sleep", Issei said as he walked towards his master.
"Ah, Ise", Rias turned to her pawn. "I still have to look for more information about Phenex. Why don't you come here and sit with me? I can appreciate a company", Rias said patting an empty spot next to her.
Issei smiled lightly as he complied and sat next to his master. "So… Ars Goetia?" Issei asked as he noticed the book Rias was reading. The king simply nodded. "Ojou-sama, I don't know that you're wearing glasses", the pawn said again commenting at Rias' glasses.
Rias fixed her glasses' position. "Well, it's just for looks. It makes me able to think better and more calmly", Rias replied with a small smile, before she returned to her reading.
Issei remained silent to let his master finished her reading, then after a while, Rias let out a sigh as she closed the book. "Um… How did it go?" Issei asked.
"I could only confirm how formidable our opponent will be", Rias replied as she removed her glasses and massaged the bridge of her nose.
Issei gave a thoughtful look, and he asked, "Aside from using flames, is there anything else our opponents store under their sleeves?"
Rias turned to her pawn and let out a sigh. "Phenex clan is known for having a power of the immortal bird in their bloodline. They possess immortality and a control over fire and wind. Just like a Phoenix".
"I see… An enemy who doesn't die, huh?" Issei said, giving another thoughtful look as he put his finger on his chin. "However, ojou-sama…" Issei said at Rias. "In a battle, especially a specific type of battle like a rating-game, there was always a way around an immortal, am I correct?"
Rias simply blinked at Issei's question, then the pawn said again. "Besides, I've once defeated a hydra, that is also an immortal, remember?" Issei said with confident grin.
Rias smiled as she let out a breath. "Indeed, you are right. But know this, Ise. Hydra may be immortal, but in the end, it's just an animal. What we're going to fight with is a devil who has enough experiences in rating games."
"How good is that gigolo wannabe, anyway?" Issei asked with his eyebrows furrowed.
"8 victories out of 10 games. Not to mention, his 2 losses were 'gifts' for the opponent's households he's close to…" then Rias continued after letting out an exasperated sigh, "This entire rating game was planned as if to tell me that I have no choice but to comply with the marriage…" Rias finished with tone of resignation.
"Say, ojou-sama…" Rias turned her attention again to Issei's call. "Why do you oppose this marriage so much? Not about marrying that Phenex guy particularly, rather, you oppose the entire idea of arranged marriage. Why is it?"
Rias remained silent for a second, then, "It's because I'm a Gremory." Issei simply tilted his head slightly at Rias' answer. "Back at my home, people only see me as Rias of Gremory instead of myself. Many men like Raiser only see me as a trophy because I'm a heiress of my family name…"
"So… You don't really fond of your name?" Issei asked after taking in his master's words.
"No, that's not it…" Rias shook her head. "I'm proud being a Gremory. I'm more than happy to inherit my household. It's just…" Issei saw Rias' gazed at the night sky outside the window, as if she was longing something. "I wish to be seen as simply me, Rias, not as Rias Gremory. That's why I go to attend school in human world, because everyone sees me as Rias, not the heiress of Gremory household from 72 pillars. Raiser only sees me as a trophy to be obtained, and I don't want that… I want to be with someone that only sees me as who I am… That's all I want." Rias concluded as tears started to well up a bit in her eyes.
"You know, ojou-sama…" Rias wiped her welling-up tears and she looked at Issei again. "Do you remember when our eyes met that day? You looked at me from the window of your classroom."
Rias immediately remembered when she spotted Issei dragging his two friends from her classroom's window. Sure, Rias had been interested in Issei ever since the pawn entered the first year of the Kuou high-school, but she did not expect that Issei still remembered that day. He remembered such a mundane event?
Issei averted his eyes the other way and a tint of red shade appeared on his cheeks. "Well… When I saw you from your classroom that day… I thought, 'beautiful', when I took a good look on your appearance, your hair, everything. I'd already heard about you, but until that day, I'd never seen you myself in person…" Issei said as he awkwardly scratched his cheek.
Rias listened at Issei as she still managed to supress a blush that starting to creep out on her face. "Then, when you saved me from dying that day…" Issei continued as he closed his eyes and his smile grew slightly. "I was really grateful…"
Rias started to smile as well when she knew that Issei was glad about his resurrection. "And do you remember what you said to me in the clubroom after we rescued Asia?"
Rias blinked once before she nodded at her pawn's question. "Then, just like you and the others will be there for me, I , Akeno-san, Kiba, Koneko-chan, and even Asia will be there for you", Issei said with confidence in his eyes. "And in my… No, in our eyes, you're not simply Rias Gremory, you are Rias, our master, our dear friend, the third-year student of Kuoh Academy and also the president of Occult Research Club. And also…" Issei's tone turned slightly embarrassed. "You're also the senpai that I admire so much…" Issei finished with grin.
Rias could not hold down her blush anymore as her cheeks turned deep red, which was not noticed due to lack of light in the room. "So you don't need to worry much about our rating game, ojou-sama! Everyone's gotten stronger day by day, and I'm sure we'll find a way to get you out from this stupid marriage!"
Suddenly, Rias' eyes turned guilty for a second. She had not forgotten, the reason she wanted to recruit Issei was to find a servant that is powerful enough to be her aid in opposing her own engagement.
"Ojou-sama? Are you alright?" Rias' snapped back to the reality when Issei closed in to check up on her. "Ah, yes. I'm fine. I guess I'm just getting tired. Let's go to sleep, Issei. We still have couple more days to train ourselves, after all…" said Rias as she stepped up from her seating spot.
"Yeah, let's do our best, ojou-sama!" Issei replied as he went back to his room after saying his goodnight.
Rias who also had returned to her room sighed as the guilt came back to her. However, after a moment, she opened her eyes as she decided to think about it later. There was no turning back for her after this far. She had to move forward and she will cross that bridge when the situation calls for it.
X
(Time-skip, 9th day, evening)
The group was now enjoying the villa's hot-spring bath after the long day of training. However, unlike the rest of previous days, the morning training that day was for Issei and Asia to study more about three factions under Rias' tutelage. Unlike Asia who already had a knack in theory lessons because she was taught by the church before, Issei on the other hand, was having a hard time to memorize all the names of leaders of three factions. However, the pawn could still understand about the devil's weakness against light element and holly artefacts, claiming that he just had to use his common sense and his knowledge gained from supernatural stories and movies.
However, at the moment, Issei was facing another predicament. Right after dinner, Rias suddenly invited her peerage to take a bath together in the hot-spring, saying that taking baths together in order to strengthen the bonds and camaraderie within the team. Of course, Isse refused at first, imagining himself taking a bath with a bunch of naked, beautiful girls was too much for his mind to take. When Issei tried to reason about whether the other girls have a saying in this, Akeno simply shrugged as she claimed that she would like to wash a man's back, Koneko did not have anything in particular to object Issei's presence (nor that she cared anyway). However, a stern order from Rias and a shy puppy-look from Asia, Issei ended up to hung his head down in defeat. Even when the pawn asked Yuuto to help him out in his reasoning, the knight simply said that it was rude to refuse a woman's invitation.
Currently, Issei was drowning himself until only the upper-half of his face showing on the water, trying his hardest to look anywhere other than the girl's bountiful sights. Inside the spring, there were him, Rias, Akeno and Asia also were relaxing themselves in the water, neither of them, except for Asia who was blushing from being nude near Issei rather than the heat, showed any sign of embarrassment.
"Hm… Thanks for doing this for me, Koneko." Issei took a glance at Yuuto whose back was being washed by Koneko. "It's fine, Yuuto-senpai. It's a reward for your good work today, after all", the rook simply replied with a small smile as she kept rubbing the knight's back with a cloth clad in soap. "Then would you like me to wash your back in return? You also have worked hard during the whole training", Yuuto said looking over his shoulder. Koneko simply nodded with her small smile present. "Yes, please do so, Yuuto-senpai".
Issei could not help but awed at Yuuto. The knight was having a cute loli washing his back, and there was no sign of any embarrassment nor perversion on his face while talking to the nude girl behind him. Not to mention, he was also nude as hell! As expected of a highly esteemed knight, Issei thought. Being a comrade with these girls for so long had made Yuuto got used being with them in various occasions, including being nude together in a bath. Unless if the reason Yuuto could handle this situation well was because him swinging the other way, Issei had no idea what to make out of the Gremory knight.
"How's the water, Ise-kun?" Issei's thoughts were halted by Akeno's question, whom was dipping in the water not far from him. Issei automatically looked at Akeno, before he quickly turned his gaze other way. "Err… Yeah… It's nice…" Issei replied nervously. Issei honestly wanted to just bolt out of the water and quickly ran back to his room to calm himself, but other part of his mind made his body wanting to stay in the bath. His mind was torn between leaving or enjoying the view.
"Shit… I got to get out of here quick before I lost my mind… But I can't bring myself to do so! Damn! And those breasts and hips really don't help! Mustn't look! Must not look! Calm down, me… Calm down! You're unlike those two perverts!" Issei thought trying to compose himself.
[An advice from me, partner… While you're caught in this kind of situation, you can only either ignore the girls, imagining that you're alone, or simply just enjoy the view while you still can, otherwise you're only hurting yourself]
"Shut up, you! Easier said than done!"
"Um… Ise-san? Are you alright? You looked frustrated…" Asia asked shyly, since being nude together with a guy was completely new to her.
Issei took a glance at Asia who was shyly drowning her body until her neck, then he turned his glance away again. "Uh… Yeah. Don't worry Asia… I'm fine, really".
"Ufufufu, are you sure you're fine, Ise-kun? If you want to, I can give you a massage…" Akeno asked teasingly, scooting over to the pawn, making Issei's face fuming this time.
"Akeno, stop teasing him. This supposed to be for him relaxing himself, no?" Rias said reprimanding her queen.
Akeno turned to Rias with her teasing smile still present. "Oh my, buchou… Are you perhaps jealous? Wanting to have Ise-kun for yourself to tease? Fufufu…"
Rias turned red this time. "Wha- No! I just want Ise to have a good rest after days of training! That's all! It's not that I want to tease him or anything!" Rias replied with flustered face.
Akeno giggled at Rias response and thought, "Oh my, I've never seen Rias being this cute, before…"
"U-um… Ise-san, if you'd like… I also can give you a massage…" Asia said even more shyly as her face also fuming.
Fortunately for Issei, before things could get even more awkward, the pawn noticed that Yuuto had joined into the spring together with Koneko. Issei inwardly relieved, knowing that he would no longer be the sore thumb in the hotspring once a fellow guy also had joined him.
"Haahh… It's good to have a fun bath like this after hard training, isn't it?" Yuuto said as he enjoyed the water. Koneko who was next to the knight also purred slightly as the water heat ran through her body. "Ise-kun, that ability you showed me during our last training really impressed me. I never knew your Boosted Gear could do something like that", Yuuto said to Issei.
Issei immediately relaxed as the topic in the bathtub had changed. "Yeah, I actually almost forgot about it myself, probably since I never really fought along side you guys before…"
Rias who noticed that her entire peerage was now enjoying the bath, returned from her flustered to her own self. "Well, I must say that I'm impressed at all of your progress in these past days. However…" Rias turned to Issei, who was now more relaxed. "Ise, how's your progress with Boosted Gear and Touki?"
Issei rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry… It seems I still can't reach my Balance Breaker. As for touki…" Issei showed his right fist as an aura, still faint, but more visible than previously shown. "I still don't really get about controlling my base of life and all, but I know that I can increase my current aura through training…"
"Fufufu… Even so, you've done well more than I'd imagined. Everyone here also showed a significant growth, don't you agree, buchou?" Akeno said to Issei and Rias, whom nodded in agreement.
Rias knew that everyone had improved. Yuuto had gotten tougher and he had become better in employing his strength and speed as a knight, combined with his Sacred Gear. Koneko, despite being a rook, she had become more agile and faster, proven to be fast enough to be able avoiding Issei and Yuuto's combined surprise-attack during her last session. Asia had mastered few defensive spells, not to mention her Twilight Healing can be an irreplaceable asset in the rating game. Akeno's magic had also improved in terms of fire power, considering that she managed to fend off her power of destruction even longer than her previous attempts. Rias herself also had found more ways and techniques to use her power rather than simply fired it off like a canon. As for Issei…
Rias' thoughts about Issei came back to the earlier days of training camp. Not being able to achieve Balance Breaker was still understandable, unable to master Touki in less than 10 days after finding out about it was also one thing, but thinking back during his feats in the abandoned church and forest of familiars, Rias had expected Issei to fare much better during training than he had shown. Her suspicion about her pawn not using his full power had grown even more. But still, Rias had to admit that Issei was still faring even better than Yuuto and Koneko during his last session. In his last session, Issei managed to defeat Yuuto and Koneko, and he almost defeated her and Akeno with his boosted-dragon shot. Nonetheless, despite her suspicion, she still decided not to pry too much into it, at least until the rating game was over.
Rias finally dismissed her thoughts as she rose up from her sitting position. "Alright, everyone! We all have trained to be stronger, we all have become stronger, and I'm proud of it, all of you. Let's preserve our strength tomorrow and preparing ourselves to the fight on the day after! We, Occult Research Club will prevail and we will resume our daily lives once this rating game is over!"
Everyone, including Issei who managed to put his attention on Rias' speech instead of her naked glory, cried in unison. "YEAH!"
Then Issei also stood up from his sitting position as he thought of something. "Then everyone, what do you think of victory celebration in the clubroom once we've won?" Issei said as he pumped his fist to the air.
Everyone glanced at each other for a second, then everyone smiled in amusement as they raised their hands as well. "OOUGH!"
Issei grinned widely with his fist remained in the air as he enjoyed the happy atmosphere. However, right that moment, the towel that was wrapping around Issei's waist suddenly fell off, revealing Issei's 'little Ise' for everyone to see. Rias and Asia blushed as their eyes caught the sight of the 'little Ise', Akeno giggled with her hand on her cheek as she muttered 'oh my, oh my' with her eyes glued on the 'little Ise', Koneko blushed with a frown as she looked away, and Yuuto only stared for a second before he tried to muffle his laughter. The bath during that night ended up with Issei tried to drown all his embarrassment down into the hot-spring.
X
At the same night, when everyone else had fallen asleep, Issei was the only one that still awake. The pawn walked out towards the backyard as he stopped at the middle of the field and he closed his eyes, taking the feeling of his surroundings. Taking few deep breaths, Issei cracked his neck and stretched his limbs a bit, and his mind trailed-off to everything that happened in past times.
He gained the power of the Heavenly Dragon after his training to search for his father.
His life changed forever as he met with his master and his new friends from Occult Research Club.
He found another friend, whom he failed to protect despite his newly acquired strength. He also remembered the first time he had been so angry over his lost. He as well still remembered the terrible feelings and regrets from that day.
He remembered the words his master said to him the other day.
He trained to be even stronger along with his comrades.
He recalled the promise he made to his master on the other night and the laughter he shared with his friends earlier.
Then Issei told himself.
I want power.
So I can laugh again together with them like earlier.
I need power.
So I can be stronger for her sake, for their sake.
As the pawn told himself those words, a powerful aura mixed of red and green covered Issei's body from head to toe, and when Issei opened his eyes, his eyes were gleaming with power.
Later that night, everyone who was sleeping in the villa suddenly woken up by a sudden jolt of powerful aura that came from the backyard.
To be continued