Fun

After a moment of silence, we started letting our guard down. I still apologized to Akeno, after all no one wants to dig out old scars. Me too.

"She is Akeno Himejima, my queen and friend." said Rias, since Akeno was still silently standing on her right. "And he is Kurokawa Haru, a resident of the city whom I was trying to recruit."

"Nice to meet you." Still a little awkward about the situation.

"Nice to meet you too." She said finally. I guess she managed to regain her composure.

"Like I said Gremory-san, I can't accept your proposal. Honestly I do not gain anything good by becoming a devil under this conditions. Not to discredit you. I can see that you are a pretty tight-knit group." I said.

"That's a shame. I had great expectations about you. My offer remains open if you change mind." she said, regaining a little of her smile. Seriously before it seemed like the atmosphere was freezing. I guess that's what happens when you keep poking the sore point of other people.

"I still was hoping to cooperate with you." I said, after some thought.

"Oh, what type of cooperation do you want to have?" she asked, a little bemused.

"You remember when I told you that I keep getting attacked by stray demon?"

"Yes. So?"

"I have realized since that time when I was 10 years old ,that if you don't have power in this world you are destined to be trampled. Ahahah, that time I really thought I was going to die." I said laughing a little. I guess that is my way to defuse the situation.

I think they did not find it funny. They are watching me as if I was some strange pervert. Strange.

"So since then I have kept seeking power. But I feel like I have reached my limit like this. I need knowledge, martial arts techniques, more strength. I was thinking that maybe we could have some sort of an exchange. I teach you all I know, become a sparring partner maybe and you give me knowledge. What do you think?" I said. I really need to fight with someone who didn't die in less than a minute. Sure, they were tough at the beginning, left some scars here an there, but I am pretty much high class devil level now using touki.

"I don't want to sound rude but, it seems like you are the only one to gain from this. I appreciate your talent but giving information like that without contract and remuneration, is a little hard for me to do." She said.

"Then you can test my strength and consider if it would be beneficial to you." I said. " Maybe a little sparring match?"

She seemed a little lost there. After some time Kiba said.

"I will test him, Buchou( club president)."

After some time contemplating if it was the right thing to do Rias agreed and so here we are in the the forest. There was a space without tree in the backyard of the club building. Probably they train here and judging from the lack of people here, there might be some barrier too.

"This is just a friendly sparring match. So you should avoid killing blow or debilitating strikes." She said.

"I don't know how to hold back." I said. "Everytime I fight to kill, but I will try it."

"No need." Said Kiba. Did I hurt his pride or something? He seemed a little irritated.

"Ok then. You can start."

In that moment he materialized a black sword in his hand and tried to slash me. I can see that he is really fast but I found it a little lacking. In that moment I just shifted my body a little to the left and punched with a touki imbued fist at his gut. The moment my fist was about to connect he blocked it with another sword he materialized between me and him. Still my fist was enough to send him flying backwards.

"What do you think? I'm not bad right?" I said a little arrogantly.

"It's true. I need to take you more seriously." he answered and created another sword. This one was crimson and when he slashed at me produced flames. Not wanting to try the luck and find if my touki can resist fire, I gathered most of my strength in my fist and blasted the flames with the air pressure created. He was not anymore in front of me when I watched. Suddenly I felt a chilling sensation on the back of my neck and crouched down on instinct. Over me was Kiba swinging a freezing blade. This bastard keeps spamming sword like shirou from fate. In that moment as if I was just doing some squat I got with all the strength I had in my body and gave him a backwards headbutt on the gut that sent him flying back again.

The moment he flied down I heard him say: "Sword birth" and ,under my body, light started glowing. Realizing that it was too late to dodge I hardened my muscles to the maximum and covered my body in touki. I was not able to defend against all the swords that kept trying to impale me but still I managed to get only some superficial wounds. In that moment I felt good. This was the first time I was having fun fighting. I was not trying to kill my enemy, I was just competing. Every single cell of my body felt alive, as if it was shot by a wave of adrenaline.

"Ahahah." Without realizing it I was laughing. "You know. This is the first time in my life that I felt fighting is fun. I never felt like these fighting others. This is fun. Don't you agree Kiba Yuuto?"

He too gave me a smile and nodded. Something more genuine than those fakes ones he kept plastered all the times.

"I agree. Now I can understand. You really don't know how to hold back, huh?"

"Ok then. To show respect to you and thank you for this experience I will use the first and last technique my master imparted to me before dying." I said.

I jumped forward toward him with all the power I could master, leaving a small crater behind, and started the breathing pattern necessary to launch a "black flash". Maybe I should change the name later?I'm confusing myself with all these anime technique names" I thought.

Kiba created another sword in his hand. It was a silver giant sword, about two meter long, and slashed at me. I ,still intoxicated by the the adrenaline pumping my body, punched with my right arm directly at the sword. I did not think of dodging it. In that moment I wanted to win, to destroy that sword.

I could hear Rias screaming to stop but I could not stop, no, we did not want to stop.

The moment my fist connected, the sword broke in shards and all around us a shock-wave expanded. My fist did not remain unscathed, he managed to cut me too. It was not very deep, but it would take at least a week to heal even with my enhanced body. My fist was still in the air and he had only the hilt of the sword in his hands.

"Draw?" I said smiling.

"Draw." He said smiling too and extended his hand toward me. Just when I was about to shake it, Rias came screaming.

"You idiots. Look how much you got hurt? And to make it worse the backyard is completely destroyed. I told you it was a friendly competition, right?" She said a little angry, pouting.