2 The Dojo

It was Saturday morning.

Touma was alone in the dojo, preparing the equipment for today. Normally, this was done by his father, but he…wasn't in the shape to work after what happened last night. Thankfully, his mother doesn't work on weekends and Touma could handle the dojo affairs.

Touma wiped the sweat on his forehead as he finished putting the equipment on their respective shelves. He looked at the time and it still had some time left for them to arrive.

Touma sighed and muttered to himself. "I hope this finally works.".

This was a problem that had been haunting him since he reincarnated, his mana.

Touma had tried several methods to awaken his own mana pool by himself, but all attempts were unsuccessful so far.

Meditation, training his body to its limits every day and other methods he thought so far didn't work, at least for him.

This could be considered his last attempt in awakening it before Touma had to ask for external help, as he didn't want to rely too much on the Essence, as he knew enough that heavily relying on one thing might lead one astray…

His plan was simple. Just like a newborn baby that needed a little slap in the ass to learn how to breathe, Touma planned to activate his Crest of Star and forcefully awaken his mana.

When he received the Crest, he instinctively learned how to use it, the same goes for the other things he received or will receive.

So without wasting his precious time, Touma quickly activated the Crest of Star.

The white markings engraved on his body started to glow, symbolizing the activation of the skill. At that moment, a flux of foreign energy entered his body, giving him a feeling of power.

Touma was grinning excitedly like a kid who just got a new toy.

"So this is the famous mana! I feel like I could punch through a wall!" Touma said excitedly, almost shouting, and tried to punch the air. And as he expected, it was way faster and had a lot of force behind it.

After the punch, it was followed by a series of punches, kicks, jabs, etc.

(E/D: Just finished Retsu Isekai. Now I imagine everything as Baki. This scene just reminded me of Katsumi testing out his new arm.)

It was an addictive feeling, Touma felt like he had unlimited energy and power, but he held back and stopped sending mana to the Crest of Star. As there was a quote "Power corrupts a person" or something like that.

Touma arranged his clothes and looked at the clock on the wall.

"They should arrive at any moment…" Touma muttered and he was right, because as soon as he said that, the doorbell rang and the door was opened by a girl.

"Excuse us." The same girl said as she entered with a group of teenagers behind her.

She was Sona Sitri, or Sona Shitori in the human world, she was a young woman with a slim figure, black hair styled in a short bob cut and violet eyes.

And as you may guess, the group led by her was the student council, which consisted only of reincarnated devils that belonged to Sona's peerage.

Seeing them caused a slight frown on Touma's face, as he knew that they were nothing but trouble magnets but he relaxed his facial expression to not show anything.

'I am not the same as before…' Touma internally thought and decided that he would stop hiding as soon as he got stronger than someone.

The reason the student council came to this dojo was due to a contract that Sona made with Tendou Kamiya, which allowed them to practice privately in the dojo while Tendou acted as an instructor and a good start for creating some battle foundation for the newbies.

While Tendou was a pure human, he was a master of kendo, sojutsu (Japanese spear martial art) and some others. For that reason, he decided to settle in his own dojo in Kuoh and that's when he met Rika.

"Good morning everyone." Touma said and turned around. "Come in, I was waiting for you."

"Kamiya-kun?" Sona exclaimed in surprise, not expecting to see Touma here. "Where is Kamiya-sensei?"

Knowing that she was referring to his father, he felt there was no need to hide the "truth".

"Sorry, my father suffered a terrible stomachache and he is still recovering from it. So I am here to substitute for him." Touma said with a smile as if he wasn't the cause of it.

"But don't worry, although I don't know how I am compared to my father in teaching, I promise that my skills aren't any worse than his."

Sona pondered for a moment before nodding. While she hasn't seen his skills directly, she heard Touma's skills being praised several times, even within the student council.

"Very well. I wish your father to get well soon." Sona said before gesturing to the girls to go to the locker room and change clothes.

"Please go easy on me." Saji approached Touma with a nervous smile.

Touma only chuckled at his friend. "You know I can't do that. You won't learn anything if there is no pain."

Touma first met Saji in the first year of highschool when they were in the same class. Initially, Touma avoided him because he didn't take any chances to get involved with the supernatural.

However, everything changed at the beginning of the second year. Saji became a devil and sought a way to get stronger in order to help Sona.

That's when he heard about Touma's father owning a famous local dojo, so Saji reached for Touma and after a few weeks of interacting with each other, they eventually became friends.

Saji smiled wryly as he went to the male's locker room. "Hahaha…Then I will be in your care."

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(Sona's POV)

I and the girls left the locker room all wearing training outfits.

We saw Touma and Saji already in the spacious room with equipment organized in different sections.

"President." Touma called me and I noticed that he had a notebook in his hand. "So let me check if this is correct. Meguri-san will train in kendo, Shinra-san will train in naginatajutsu and the rest will be training in hand-to-hand combat?"

(Naginatajutsu = Japanese martial arts of wielding Naginata, a polearm weapon.)

"Yes." I nodded in affirmation.

Although I, Reya and Momo, my bishops, were more oriented in spell casting, it wouldn't hurt to learn some close-range techniques.

If only Rias was more interested in strengthening her peerage's overall strength instead of constantly searching for new members for her peerage and spoiling them constantly.

I don't have any ill intent towards them, on the contrary, I find them nice to talk to and easy to befriend with. However, each of them has personal problems and traumas which Rias isn't actively trying to confront and resolve.

Not that Rias didn't care about her peerage, no, it was the opposite. Rias cared too much about them, so much so, that she was afraid to approach those topics for fear that it might cause them pain…

Just thinking about this gave me a headache, not even adding to the fact that there was a stray devil hidden in the city that had already killed a lot of people…

(E/D: I am thinking the cliche will happen and Touma will be the one to kill it while the others watch like idiots.)

I sighed tiredly and rubbed my temples.

"Are you ok, President? Do you want to rest for a bit?" The vice-president of the student council and my queen, Tsubaki Shinra, asked worriedly, seeing the frown on my face.

"It's nothing, Tsubaki. I am completely fine, just thinking of some troublesome matters." I said and reassured her.

Then I looked towards the instructor, who was a year younger than me and was my underclassman, with a conflicted expression.

On one hand, my instincts kept telling me that this boy was special since the first time I saw him on the school campus.

And that's why I found myself conflicted, it was checked that he didn't possess a Sacred Gear, nor was he a descendant of a famous historical figure. The only clue I had about him was his talent in martial arts which was greater than even my peers, who have been in the battlefield.

Kamiya Touma was truly a mysterious individual.

We finished the warm-ups and Touma called everyone to gather around him.

"Let's see…I will first distribute some exercises for everyone in their field, while I first focus on Shinra-san, then Meguri-san and finally the rest of everyone. Is that ok?" Touma asked us.

I turned around to look at my peerage to see if anyone had objections and there were none, so I turned around and nodded in affirmation.

"Good, then first…" And Touma started explaining the exercises to us.

(E/D: The entire Sona POV was written in 3rd person like the words Sona and herself were used. Today, I was reminded why I exist and for what reason, I continue to edit these FFs.)

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(Narrator POV)

Touma and Tsubaki stood in front of each other, all geared up with protective equipment.

"Before anything, I would like to assess your skills, so up to a friendly spar?" Touma asked in clear anticipation. He wanted to test his abilities and who was a better target than a devil's queen piece?

"I accept." Tsubaki said as she picked a wooden naginata and swung it to make herself familiar with it. "What are the rules?"

"The rules are simple. The one being hit three times loses and also no targeting vital spots. Do you agree with it?"

"I agree." Tsubaki nodded and walked away to give some distance between them. "I would advise you to not underestimate me or else you might lose."

'I know…' Touma didn't reply to her taunt, he simply picked up a wooden staff and returned to his spot. He reached into his pocket and took out a coin. "When the coins fall on the ground, the spar begins. Ready?"

Tsubaki nodded and without wasting any more time, Touma tossed the coin into the air and they immediately entered into a battle stance.

The coin flipped through the air and reached its peak, before falling due to gravity.

*Cliiing!*

The coin fell on the ground and in that instant, Tsubaki charged at Touma with the naginata raised in the air.

Touma widened his eyes as she was faster than anyone Touma had seen so far, but he didn't let that fact distract him.

Touma stepped aside as soon as she was in his range and moved his staff to intersect her naginata, bringing it down to knee level.

'Strong!' Even if she was holding back, the devil's physiology gave her a strength above the average joe, which made her strikes quite heavy.

Touma let out a silent grunt and spun the staff, letting the other end of it knock the naginata away and immediately went for her stomach.

Tsubaki was surprised for a second, but she managed to dodge by jumping back and avoiding the staff.

'Amateurish.' Touma thought as he pinpointed some weak spots in her guard, which Touma gladly explored.

This time, it was Touma who was the attacker.

He raised the staff and swung it down with some force behind it, which forced Tsubaki to defend by raising naginata to intercept.

Touma knew she would do this. He knew he was at the advantage in terms of physical strength, speed, etc. So he only needed to overwhelm her with skill, which he didn't lack.

Before the staff made contact with her weapon, Touma lowered his hip, caught her by surprise and swung the staff toward her knees.

One!

Touma hit Tsubaki one time!

Tsubaki grunted in silence and ignored the pain she was feeling to dodge another attack from Touma.

She charged once forward again and swung down her naginata at him. Touma raised the staff horizontally to defend and the naginata hit his staff. However it didn't end there, Tsubaki spun her weapon and tried to use the backend of the naginata to knock the staff off.

Touma smiled slightly knowing what she was doing, so one of his hands let go of the staff while he sidestepped. The staff made a half-moon movement and hit Tsubaki's knee again!

Two!

Tsubaki was growing annoyed and impatient as this went on. Not only could her opponent read her movements, but she would also lose at this rate!

So she immediately struck at Touma and started her barrage, trying to overwhelm him with physical strength.

Seeing her attempt, Touma could only do one thing: Dodge!

No way that he would tank her attacks as it would mostly result in him being hit, so he chose to flee from her range.

Touma rolled on the ground and ran to escape her attacks. This caused Tsubaki to chase him while trying to hit him, which looked like a comedic scene taken from a movie. A vein popped out of her forehead as she grew more impatient and infuriated.

"Stop running!" Tsubaki yelled as she swung the naginata at him, only for Touma to roll again.

"No." He replied between breaths before stopping suddenly.

Tsubaki grinned and swung from below, which would block him from rolling on the ground again.

But that was a mistake.

Touma blocked the naginata with the staff, which made his hands go numb for a second because of the impact of her strike, but that was fine and the reason for that was because she was wide open!

Tsubaki widened her eyes in realization as she immediately jumped back while bringing her naginata in front of her to defend, but it was too late.

Touma was already in motion to strike his staff in her belly region.

"And three." Touma said as the sound of the chestplate being hit rang through the dojo.

(E/D: It is confirmed, Nigerundayo solves all problems.)

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