Chapter 8

The following days continued peacefully, we didn't have to fight any other beings. Considering that only a stray devil showed up, and it was Sona's turn to deal with it, I couldn't say much about the peace. I guess that's why they were sent to Kuoh, it's just a quiet place.

I thought things would change with the deal between the Chino couple and the kings, but I was wrong, for some reason no one else went to the dojo. The only exception was Asia, who kept her promise and tried it out.

-O-O-O-

"Issei-kun, are you going to train tonight?" She asked me right as the time we went home came around.

She knew the answer, but I know that her question wasn't as simple as that.

"Yes… Do you want to come with me?"

She gave me a small "Um" sound, which I took as a positive answer and we left. I could only hope that her open interest would motivate the others to try it out.

Our track to the dojo was quiet, we walked hand in hand while appreciating the company of one another, we didn't exchange any words, because we knew that it'd only break the mood.

When we arrived, Miki was delighted that I hadn't gone alone. Usually, I take Asia home before going to the dojo, so I wasn't surprised by her mood.

"Good evening, Issei-san. I see that you finally managed to bring someone else with you."

To that I smiled, we both talked about the other devils that studied at the Academy, with me always asking if any of them had gone there, however, I had only received negative answers.

"Yes! This is Asia-chan, she's from the same peerage as me, and she decided to try it out."

My introduction prompted Asia to bow and exchange pleasantries with the receptionist.

"So tell me Asia-san, what is it that you are looking for here?" We both looked at Asia for her answer, I was curious to know it as well, she hadn't mentioned anything to me about it.

"I… I don't know… I want to spend more time with Issei-kun, so I wanted to see what he did here." Her voice got increasingly lower as she finished her sentence, but there weren't any issues for us to hear it.

Miki grinned, that smile was the one that she used when she thought about something to tease either me or Sadao-sensei.

"I see… So you want to know your boyfriend's routine… We can work with that."

At the word boyfriend, Asia got so red I thought she'd pass out, fortunately, that didn't happen.

"Ye-Yes! I want to see how his day goes!"

Miki didn't expect that answer, neither did I. We thought she'd deny the relationship, but my parents' continuous encouragement made it so she took it in stride. Now I'd have to talk with Asia about it, and I don't want to do it tonight.

"Right… I thought we could see if Asia-chan learned anything here. I don't think she'd rely on hand-to-hand combat as much as I do, but it'd be good for her to know what to do if someone tried to get close to her."

I could see the teasing smile start to form on Miki's face. I suppose this will be normal whenever I'm here with Asia.

"We should get going, I don't want to let Sadao-sensei wait for too long," I said before she could tease us again.

Her professional face came in as she escorted us to the training area. When we got there, Asia looked determined to get started, she stuck to every word that Sensei said.

Her class was focused on self-defense, she'd learn how to stall for time, how to make sure that any attacks on her were avoided. I don't think she'd be very good at that but she did try hard.

And, as I expected, it didn't go well.

Initially, Sadao-sensei wanted her to strike back, but she refused. After a few rounds of her not hitting back, we concluded that it wouldn't work, so the focus changed to dodging.

I don't doubt that if Asia had been a human, she'd be bruised all over, but thanks to our devil's physiology she shrugged off most of the attacks, that is until Sadao-sensei changed his approach and somehow started hitting her hard.

He was strong enough to hurt devils, even with a human's strength. He also sped up, and now Asia didn't have a chance in doing anything. It got to a point where I intervened because she'd simply crouched and tried her best to curl as tightly as possible.

I did sort of lash at sensei for that, to which he responded in kind. With that I learned that he took his lessons pretty seriously, to the point that he got frustrated if he saw that the student wasn't giving their all, I figured this had to be the main factor for his students to leave.

After the failure of a class that we went through, the three of us sat down and had a breather. Due to Asia's state, I chose to focus on solely petting her head, and giving her an encouraging hug.

Sadao-sensei didn't enjoy that very much, but Miki-san showed up and he didn't say anything about us.

"I guessed this would be likely to happen…" She said when she entered the room.

Sadao was too annoyed to give her any attention, Asia was focusing only on my attention, so I was the only one that looked at her, I didn't understand what she meant, and it was clear that she noticed it.

"Sadao takes this a bit too seriously, and a nun coming here with the only motivation being to be closer to the boy she liked, sounded as if it wouldn't work."

Upon my realization, she continued, "With the way that he is right now, I don't think you'll be able to get any classes out of him… So instead why don't you two join me for some tea? We can let him sit there brooding all on his lonesome."

I figured it'd be that or go home, and since we did have plenty of free time, I chose to accept her offer.

She guided us towards the part of the building where they lived, it was small, with a kitchen and a living room sharing the most space of the floor, basing on the size that the dojo area occupied, I believed that other than this main space, their home had only two other rooms and a bathroom.

"Have a seat!" She pointed at a small table that sat right in the middle of the living room area. I could see four cushions that we could use to sit in a seiza position.

We followed her words, Asia had some trouble sitting properly, but after some help, she got comfortable. The two of us didn't have time to talk between ourselves, for Miki was already coming with a tray that held the teapot and three small cups for us to use.

The quickness was strange, but considering that she expected the class to not last it should be reasonable that she had started before inviting us in.

My thoughts distracted me enough to make it so I didn't notice her pouring us tea, I only came out of it when she started talking.

"Firstly, I'd like to apologize to you Argento-san, I only saw the ending of the lesson, and I can assure you that Sadao doesn't normally act like that."

Asia, being the sweet girl that she was, didn't take the apology very well…

"Ah… You… You don't have to apologize… It was my fault, I didn't take it seriously… And that made Sadao-sensei mad… So, I'm sorry for it!"

Miki-san didn't know how to react to that, so she froze upon my blond friend's response.

"Asia-chan, Miki-san is right this time… Sadao-sensei overstepped, just because you weren't that interested in the class doesn't give him permission to hit you like that, you could've been hurt!"

She didn't seem to agree with me, but I saw that her reluctance in doing so was wavering.

"I'm sure he'll apologize to you later, so for now let's just focus on something else." Miki intervened before Asia could say anything else.

That successfully made us move on… a bit.

"I wanted to ask you two if you'd like to learn something from me. I believe that my expertise will be more suited to you Argento-san, and it'd give you a significant boost, Issei-san."

I didn't have a clue as to what she was talking about, Asia either if I went by her expression.

"I'm talking about senjutsu, the art of using life energy."

Upon her clarifying words, I got interested, unfortunately, Asia still didn't know what we were talking about.

"I see that at least one of you knows about it… Well, in simple terms I should say that senjutsu is the use of your own life force to get stronger or feel the world around you."

Her explanation didn't help… So I tried to help.

"Asia-chan, I think it'd be great to give it a try… Senjutsu is very versatile, and it could help you a lot with your healing power."

She looked at me, still uncertain.

"Will you do it? Will you learn it as well?" She asked.

I nodded which prompted her to accept as well.

"Great! We can try it after we finish our tea, you two should drink it all, it will help in calming you down, and that'll be the first step to learn senjutsu."

We followed Miki's orders, and after finishing our cups moved on with our new classes. It wasn't interesting at all, following her instruction to calm down we had to meditate, truly meditate, something that I believe would take some time to get a hang of.

We tried for one hour that day, as expected we didn't manage to get into the right state of mind, so we went home and ended our day, tomorrow we'd try again, and if we didn't manage to do it, we'd continue going until we did.

I wasn't going to lose the opportunity to learn senjutsu, and this seemed simple enough for Asia to not give up.

-O-O-O-

It was during the next day that I realized the problems that this new class brought to me.

It started when we were studying in the club room after our school classes. I wanted to know if Asia was going to the dojo with me again.

When Rias asked what for, and the word senjutsu training left our mouths, Koneko froze, she got even whiter, the pastry that she'd been eating fell to the floor which alerted us to her state.

"NO! Don't do that!"

Her outburst was unexpected, even though I remember her having some sort of trauma-related to it I didn't think it'd be this severe.

Rias was the first to react to it, she rushed and embraced the petite girl.

"Calm down Koneko-chan, it's alright… We're here, don't worry."

Her words had some effect, the white-haired girl's breathing got less frantic, her movement came back, but her frightened expression didn't go.

We sat in silence, waiting for Koneko to calm down, and perhaps tell us about what bothered her so much. It was after a few minutes that she looked calm enough so we could inquire about it.

"Koneko-chan… Can you tell us why you were like that?" Rias whispered, too afraid to cause another reaction by saying anything louder than that.

We waited a bit more when we thought that she wouldn't answer, she did.

"Senjutsu is a bad thing to learn… It'll only turn you into a monster, I won't let that happen to you two! I won't let that happen again!"

By everyone's reaction, I was the only one that had some idea of what this was about, but I knew I couldn't simply say it, so like the others I waited for her to elaborate.

"What do you mean by that, Koneko-chan? We've never talked about senjutsu before…" It was Akeno who tried to get more information, Koneko didn't seem to want to talk about it freely.

Koneko shivered when she heard the word again, but she composed herself, as best as she could, and tried telling us about her experience with the art.

"It happened before I met Buchou… My sister and I were at her master's house when one day, while we were practicing, she became a monster…"

We could see that she was having a hard time recalling these events, but before anyone could interrupt her, she continued, "She killed everyone in the mansion, even her king, after that she ran away and I never saw her again. I was left alone, when the devils showed up they wanted to blame me, but they didn't and Buchou's brother took me to her house so I could join her peerage."

From the little I knew, there were some important holes in that story, however, that is her perspective of it all. I don't know what Kuroka was thinking, but what she did left her sister sacred.

"So since she was practicing senjutsu at the time, you think it is because of it that she did what she did?" I was the one to break the silence this time.

My question wasn't well-received by the others, but Koneko answered me nonetheless.

"When you're practicing it you absorb all of the hate in the world, I was doing it too, I remember how it felt… There is so much that you almost drown yourself into it, that is what happened to her… And that is what will happen to you, so you shouldn't do it!"

That was a strong argument, so strong that I didn't know if I had a good counterpoint to it.

"Miki-san is the one that is teaching us, she's strong, so even if we lose control, I'm certain that she will be able to help us, and make sure that nothing bad happens."

My words looked to have been ignored, Koneko still was shaken by our announcement and the others didn't want this topic to continue.

"Issei-kun, drop it! We will talk about this another time… For now, it is best to forget about it." Came the commanding voice of our king, for a second I thought she had taken Koneko's side and was prohibiting me from learning senjutsu, but by the way that she was looking concerned at Koneko, I figured that she meant for me to stop talking about it.

I did, and so did everyone else. We didn't feel like talking after all that, so people started leaving for their homes.

I and Asia left as well, I wasn't going to drop out, I knew it was difficult and I knew how much it'd benefit me to learn it. Asia on the other hand seemed shaken by the story.

When we got to the dojo, I discovered the other problem with starting a new class, time.

I still had to train with Sadao-sensei, and I couldn't do both at the same time. It looked like I'd have to choose between one or the other. I didn't want to do it.

Luckily for me, Miki had thought about it, when we got there she presented me with some options.

I could stay there and do my senjutsu lessons after my class with Sadao-sensei or instead do them at home.

The second option only worked because I still needed to learn how to meditate and it wasn't necessary to have someone looking at me during the whole process of it.

If I chose the second option, we'd have to come up with another plan for when I'd be ready. It sounded tiresome, but it was what I chose to do. I'd gain some time to think about it and see what I could do.

-O-O-O-

At the end of it all, I went with trying it at home, how hard could it be, right?

Well, pretty hard… At least, in the beginning, clearing my mind was hard, oftentimes stray thoughts about my day would come, sometimes music that I heard years ago, but most often all of those were my worries for the future.

My knowledge was limited, I only vaguely remembered that Loki would attack some event where we'd be present, I don't remember any detail of it, and this was starting to happen with events that shouldn't be that far in the future.

Who were the leaders of the attack at the peace talks event? What were the powers of Riser's peerage? How did Issei manage to come ahead in the Excalibur debacle?

Those kept coming and going, and I could do nothing to remember… I think the memories of the original Issei are making me forget about those details, after all, the more I think about this future knowledge the more this world seems like fiction, and at the same time the opposite happens with Issei's memories, the more I remember, the more real all of this feels.

It was in the midst of these thoughts that I passed the week, at school, senjutsu turned a prohibited topic of conversation, not much of a problem there, only Asia would be interested or have any interesting topics to talk to, and we did that when we were alone, so not much of a problem.

At the dojo, I delved into my physical training, Sadao-sensei said that a stronger body had an easier time learning the art, which made him train me with vigor. He pushed me harder and harder, and I kept up, punches, kicks, elbows, knees, whatever it was I tried to absorb how to use them.

I still got beat up at every spar we had. I discovered how he was keeping up with a devil, he was also a senjutsu master, but he focused on Touki, the art of using nature's energy to strengthen one's body, the same that I wished to master.

A good thing that came out of this punishment was how much closer I and Asia became. She'd meditate in the training room, so she'd always encourage me whenever something didn't go well for me.

It turned out that she didn't have much difficulty learning how to meditate, she compared it with praying and the peace she felt when she did it, only now she didn't talk with anybody, she just focused on those peaceful feelings.

Alas, I overcame the meditation barrier, I had felt my improvement, I could tell when I got to the right state of mind, I just couldn't keep it for long enough. Thus I kept doing it, until now where I can maintain it for a time long enough to move on with the class.

An interesting side effect of the meditation for me was the possibility to talk with Ddraig, that is because when I obtained the state of mind I'd automatically enter the Boosted Gear, I did have to keep it for a good minute, but at this point that was easy.

the first time I did it was great, Ddraig was surprised and even gave me some praises, saying that it was hard for his users to meditate, something about the sacred gear seemed to interfere with that, he never mentions what it was, or even if he knew what it was, he just shared stories, and I still don't know how that didn't take away my concentration.

Now, with the first step taken, the teaching plans had to change. I relaxed when I meditated, so I could stay at the dojo until the late nights, what bothered me was Asia. She'd stay there with me, and I didn't want her to lose her time while doing nothing.

Miki said that the step that we were on was the one to feel the natural energy in and around us, and this was a delicate part because if we tried for too long our bodies would automatically start absorbing it, and what Koneko feared happening could become a reality.

Obviously, Asia didn't mind sitting there for an extra hour, just looking at me concentrating, but that did put some weight on my conscience, that's when Miki had a wonderful idea, we just had to find something for her to train while I meditated.

Physical anything was out, we couldn't do anything more with senjutsu either, so the next obvious choice was magic, and we found another roadblock. Sadao-sensei didn't know any magic, and Miki's magic was exclusive to Youkais, thus we had to find a way around that.

For me it was obvious, we'd get some magic books from Rias, and Asia would see how she did with self-study, I knew that Rias had some books on it, I had read some to help Mil-tan, I had also found what'd be perfect for Asia, Defensive Magic.

She didn't want to cause any harm to anyone, be they friends or foes, and this branch of magic would give her more ways to protect those that she cared for without going against her morals, it was a win-win situation… Good thing she agreed with me, and so did Miki.

And that's how we ended up spending up to three hours every day at the dojo, my parents weren't happy about it, but they allowed us, our peerage companions didn't show any interest in our activities outside of the school, I think they were afraid another situation like Koneko's would occur, so we were left to our own devices.

That is until Rias showed up in my room, naked, in the middle of the night.

-O-O-O-

"Issei, wake up!"

I thought it was just the dream I was having, but the phrase repeated itself too many times. What pushed me over the edge was the feeling of someone shaking me.

"Wha...? Buchou, what are you doing here? And why are you naked?"

"We don't have time for that… I need you to take me, right here, right now!" It didn't seem that she heard me.

The next thing I know, our lips are connecting, and her tongue is furiously pushing in my mouth. Now I was awake, and with the sudden rush of adrenaline, I kissed her back.

I hadn't the faintest idea how to do it, so I tried mimicking her, using my tongue to explore her mouth, I was careful though, when she first started she shoved her so hard that I felt my gag reflexes come out, I didn't want that to happen to her.

Our make-out continued, things got hotter, our tongues somehow intertwined, and her hands started exploring my body. I felt her going for the bottom of my shirt, I felt her taking it out.

It was when she moved to my pants that I stopped.

"Wha… Why did you step back? Weren't you liking it?" I heard more frustration than anything in her tone.

"I was… But I don't want to go too fast… And I don't think you're thinking straight."

She looked genuinely sad, as if I had rejected her, somehow I saw how her lust evaporated, maybe it was the fact that she started crying.

"Bu… Rias, please… I don't know how to deal with crying people, what is going on? Talk to me." We ended up sitting at my bed, I was facing her, and she had her head in her hands.

That look messed with me, here was this girl who had treated me like family, who had shown some interest above the teases that she liked to do, she looked as if her world had ended, all that came to my mind was that this was her confession, she had mustered all of her confidence and did whatever that was, and I did what could be seen as rejection.

What if that was it? What if I was responsible for that broken face of hers?

Luckily, she did something to my attempt at comfort. She looked up, and still sniffing, she looked ready to jump me again.

"Wait! Wait, before you do that tell me what's going on." I managed to let it out.

After another sniff, she did just that, "I'm in trouble… I thought I had more time, but my father is pushing it now… The only thing I can do now is break some clause, and the celibacy one seemed the easiest of them…"

She didn't make any sense until I remembered… Riser, he showed up!

"Umm… Rias, you're not making any sense…" I couldn't just tell her that I had an idea of what was going on, it might not be that…

"Issei… I-I, my family has made a contract where I have to marry someone, I should have until after university, but they are pushing it… They want to do it now… He's coming, I have until tomorrow."

Good, she seems to be calming down…

"Okay, so we have someone coming to take you to some marriage that by the looks of it you don't want to take part in… Why did you try to choke me with your tongue?"

I did get a smile from her, as small as it was.

"I didn't… It was my first time, I didn't know it'd be like that…" Now she was shy, she looked cute.

My hand went to her shoulder, I pulled her closer to me, and dropped the blanket I was using on her.

"Rias, why are you here?"

She finally looked me in the eyes, they were red, as if she'd been crying for way more time than this little conversation of ours.

"For me to marry I have to be a virgin, so I figured…" she started strongly, "If I had my first time, I'd get out of the contract," but, by the end of it she was barely whispering, her eyes anywhere but on mine.

"And why did you come for me? You know a lot of people, I'm sure some of them would do it in a heartbeat."

Hearing me she blushed hard, her meek attitude only got stronger, now even her body wasn't facing me.

Fortunately for her, a teleporting circle appeared right in the middle of my room.

"Rias-sama! You mustn't! To degrade yourself so low."

What came out was a beautiful young woman with back-length silver hair that had two long braids on each of her sides, she wore the typical french maid outfit, though hers was the long, classic one.

Rias acted as if nothing had happened before, she held the blanket tighter around herself, and with what looked to be a scared mixed with a pleading look she talked with the woman.

"Grayfia, what are you doing here? Leave us, Onii-sama shouldn't have let you come, you're invading someone else's home!"

She gained some courage, but the maid didn't back down.

"Rias-sama, we know what your intentions were with this young man, we don't mind if you wish to sleep with him, we only ask you to wait until after you bed your husband." It appeared as if she wanted me to react negatively to her words, she was looking at me when she mentioned the husband.

Unfortunately, I was successful in keeping my poker face, or whatever it was that I was showing at the time.

"What?! No! That is exactly why I'm here, so my first time is with someone I actually like, and if that happens to make it so I don't have to marry that disgusting man, it's just a happy coincidence."

Oh… She did it, she kinda confessed. Nice, and now she realized… She's looking at me, the same shy expression, it got worse... I'm smiling. Why am I smiling?

"Ahem!" Grayfia doesn't look happy. "Rias-sama, I'm happy to see that you found someone you like, but that is not important right now. You mustn't continue with this, and I'll use force if I have to to stop you."

She looked scary saying that, she was even looking at me… As if I'm the one being troublesome, lady please, I'm just a happy victim.

"I won't let you hurt Issei." Rias caught her threatening glare.

"Rias…" Both looked at me, "Go with her... It's late, we can talk about this tomorrow, I'm sure there are other ways than to do something reckless that you might regret later."

The maid was happy that I was at her side, Rias looked sad once again.

"So you don't want to… Sleep with me?" Oh, why are you so cute? And sexy?

"That's not the point, I'd love to, but you're not thinking straight right now, and that lady doesn't look the type to simply let us continue."

"He's right Rias-sama, I see that you found a very good peerage member, you should listen to him like he said you can discuss this tomorrow."

Rias was simply defeated, she didn't object to Grayfia grabbing her, she didn't even give me some parting words, one moment she was there, the next a blinding red light took over my room and I was alone.

She'd also taken my blanket… At least I got my first kiss, that was nice.

Ah! Now I have to relieve myself… What a night.