DxD 0120: Touki

"Let's start training," Abaddon said as he stood in front of Koneko. She was dressed in simple black yoga pants and a white tank top that matched her hair. As for him, he was merely wearing a comfortable pair of joggers and nothing more.

Koneko nodded with a serious expression as if she was ready to face the world.

"First off, I want you to show me your aura. Hype yourself up and release your Touki completely." He told her.

"But it's invisible…" She said dryly, "You won't be able to see it."

"Don't be a smartass. I've trained with Sairaorg and helped him hone his Touki for most of that time. Release it," He said, "I'll be able to tell."

Koneko nodded before closing her eyes for a moment. She opened them with an intense expression and let out a spirited shout before stomping her foot on the ground. As she looked at Abaddon with an intense gaze, he felt the pressure that she was exuding and two magic circles appeared in front of his eyes, allowing him to see the aura of natural energy that was functioning as her Touki.

'Not bad… I think it has increased since I saw it the last time…' He thought to himself. The strength that Sairaorg could exhibit with his Touki completely dwarfed Koneko, but that was more about how overpowered that man was than being about Koneko.

"Good, you can let it go now." Koneko instantly followed Abaddon's words and let out a breath as the aura surrounding her dissipated.

"Good?" Koneko tilted her head and asked with a slightly expectant gaze in her eyes.

"Very good," Abaddon couldn't help but caress her head, "You're very strong. We'll aim to at least increase it by ten times by the next two weeks."

Her eyes widened when she heard what he'd just said, "T-ten?" She felt that she'd heard incorrectly.

"Yeah, I'm aiming low since you aren't used to the training that I've devised for you yet," Abaddon said as if he didn't notice her astounded expression.

Koneko gulped apprehensively while thinking of what Abaddon had in store for her.

Abaddon continued speaking and started explaining the process, "I'm going to be sitting up there meditating and working on some of my spells," Abaddon pointed to the comfortable chair that he'd created in the center of the empty room, "You have to reach me through the obstacles."

Koneko expected him to continue, but she was surprised when he stopped, "That's it?" She asked.

"Yeah," He said, "What more did you expect?"

"Torture," She replied without hesitation.

"It is going to be torture," Abaddon smiled, "Just not the painful kind. The kind that directly attacks your willpower. Plus, you'll realize that these obstacles are going to be much harder to dodge than the ones from before since they can escape your energy sensing. You're supposed to get caught and break through by brute force."

As Koneko gulped apprehensively once again, Abaddon snapped his fingers before a crackling sound filled the room, and quickly, a large number of thin tree-like pillars grew from the ground and attached to the ceiling. Instead of the usual wood, they had a texture that seemed as if they had magma running through it in streaks, but it was Destruction energy instead.

There was no pattern to the placement of the pillars, they were randomly placed all around the room, forming a sort of maze that Koneko would have to traverse.

"Some vines and branches can grow out from these pillars to ambush you at any time, be prepared. You have to get through everything and reach me, and it won't be easy," Abaddon said as he floated upward, passing through the pillars as if they didn't exist for him, and sat on his seat, "Also, try not to touch the main pillars, they'll sting horribly."

A sizzling sound was heard as Koneko realized that the streaks of red that constantly traversed through the surface of the sticks weren't all for show. Abaddon pulled his palm away and said, "Understood?"

"Hm…" Koneko gulped and nodded with some hesitation before looking at what seemed like some sort of Destruction-infected forest of death and hyped herself up.

"Also, some incentive," Abaddon said, pulling Koneko's attention toward himself, "If you can reach me within the hour, I have a reward for you." Seeing his expression, Koneko knew exactly what kind of reward he was talking about. Any other time, she would've been disgusted and called him a pervert, but after two weeks of very intimate alone time with him, she was a tiny push away from offering herself completely to him. Right now, all she could feel from his incentive was motivation.

"You can start whenever you want," Abaddon said before closing his eyes and focusing on his own thing. The spells that he'd put up all over the walls on the previous day were completely autonomous and wouldn't need him to constantly monitor the situation. He only needed to check things out once in a while.

Koneko took a few seconds to decide the path that she would take through the maze before taking a deep breath. After that, Koneko hyped herself up fully and released her Touki to its maximum extent. She jumped in and tried her best to reach Abaddon as quickly as she could. Just as she took two steps, she heard the familiar crackling sound and before she could realize what was happening, she collided with a branch that had appeared between two of the pillars, connecting them like a bridge. She was only able to notice it when it had already collided with her stomach, and the recoil pushed her back, almost making her fall down on the ground.

Koneko barely stopped herself from colliding into one of the other pillars that would burn her if she collided with them and wanted to wait for a moment to gather herself. Before she could do that, one of the branches grasped her wrist and pulled her in a random direction. Before she could use her other hand to free herself, that arm was also grasped by another branch. Just as she was about to try to use the ground to get some leeway to free herself, the branches lifted her off of the ground, rendering her helpless.

She slacked and her Touki receded after realizing her helpless state. She felt that it was going to be more difficult than she initially thought. Just as she thought that she would be thrown out of the affected area to try once again, she found more branches wrapping around her ankles and spreading her legs apart, putting her in a spreadeagle position.

"Start resisting, Koneko. It's not going to be as easy as you thought…" Abaddon's words rang through her ears as she gathered her strength to try to break through the branches. Just as she yanked them for the first time, attempting to compress her entire body into a ball, she found a much more flexible vine approaching her and her eyes widened as she yanked once again. If more of these branches restrained her, it would be even more difficult for her to escape.

Unlike what she expected, the vine didn't restrain her, but before she could heave a sigh of relief, she felt it slithering along her right arm and up to her shoulder. She didn't know what was going on but knew that it wasn't good for her, making her double her effort to get free from the branches. Sadly, with her Touki having been previously dissipated, it would take her some time to bring out her full strength.

Among her fruitless yanking, the vine slithered up her arm and formed some sort of a soft brush at the top and traced it along her armpit, "Yah!~" Koneko yelped and felt her entire body go slack, losing her gathered strength as a jolt went through her entire body. She tried to scrunch her arm and waist to prevent the vine from tickling her, but her restraints were taut, not allowing her any leeway, especially with her being unable to actually gather her strength.

Before she could completely recover and tightly grasp the branches to pull on them, the brush stroked her once again, making her shiver as a laugh escaped her lips, forcing her to let go of the branch.

"Get to it quickly, Koneko," Abaddon's amused voice entered her ears once again, "Twenty seconds later, another vine will start tickling you."

Her eyes widened in horror as she was forced to let out another laugh and she desperately pulled on the branches, without being able to gather her strength completely before the brush stroked her repeatedly. After ten seconds, the brush pretty much won against her and she gave up on resisting and was laughing her ass off while wiggling and shaking.

A few more seconds passed and a second brush also joined in on the assault and made things even more difficult for Koneko as she kept laughing, but her resistance had returned. She realized that she had to get herself out of there otherwise it would get out of hand. Sadly, wanting to do it and being able to do it were two completely separate things. She couldn't do anything against the branches that had restrained her with the brushes continuously disrupting her concentration.

She spent almost an entire minute under the assault of those brushes, her eyes had already started watering as she heaved every once in a while due to the loss of air, but the brushes weren't stopping. Finally, her desperation seemed to bear fruit and she was able to use her Touki at full blast for a moment to yank on the branches. Though she only freed one of her arms, it was a significant victory for her. She quickly grabbed one of the vines that were continuously tickling her and stopped it.

After a few more moments, she was finally able to free herself from all of the branches, and just as she broke free from the final branch, she felt another, much stronger branch grabbing her wrist and throwing her outside the bounds of the 'battlefield'.

***

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