Spar.

Chapter eleven.

In the centre of a clearing deep into one of the several forests that surrounded the outskirts of Kuoh, I had decided to set this space isolated from curious looks as what I considered to be the ideal training grounds for me.

There was however one downside to the place; that downside being the fact it would take me a little over an hour to get here, which in turn meant that whatever time I had left for training needed to be exploited to its maximum.

'Not like that…' I frowned, the one slash that I had performed not having its desired effect, missing the target I intended to hit by a significant margin. It was hard enough for me to even perform an accurate jump with the high-speed movement technique I had created, but it was much harder to land a slash while in the middle of it.

'It's not because I suck with a sword, it's more than that.' I told myself, despite lacking the formal training that someone who wielded a blade should have, that was not the problem here.

The problem was a simple one, but it was proving hard to solve: I wasn't accustomed to moving at such high speeds. The overflow of information that I needed to process plus performing accurate responses to the information received was proving to be a pain in the ass.

That's not to say there wasn't much progress being made, at least I was not crashing head first against a tree all the time now. However I was far from being able to sustain a sword fight while attacking at high speed.

''…'' I heard someone whistle from my back, making me turn towards it and interrupting the analysis on the progress made. ''You found a nice place here, I will give you that much.''

I didn't even need to meet faces with the person who that voice belonged to, the feminine tone to it was unmistakable for me. Besides, I was expecting one person to meet me here, so the list regarding who this visitor could be was rather small.

''You made it a little earlier than I expected.'' Meeting the gaze of the blue haired devil that had accepted to have a spar with me, I smiled. I felt like making random moves would –although make a slight difference- prove to be far slower than testing me out in an actual fight.

''Yeah, not thanks to you!'' Tsubasa said back at me, the irritated look she directed towards me alongside her words only served to further amuse me. She was right though, I had been quite vague with the directions I gave to her when talking about this place.

''You sure are complaining a lot for someone who will get to punch me for free in a few minutes.'' I replied to her, making her smile at the thought of having some revenge on me at least in that department. I was holding no pretentions of beating her, in fact, I was expecting her to whoop me so bad I would need medical care after, which reminded me…

''There is however one condition…!'' I added when I saw her dangerous smile at the prospect of beating me senseless. This was a new face I was seeing from her, something different from the ashamed girl that had been red with embarrassment in front of me. ''If I get too injured, you are the one responsible for healing me… No, no arguments!''

I cut her response short when I saw her open her mouth to make a retort; if she accepted to take care of whatever atrocities she did to me during our short spar, I didn't mind a few broken bones to make the training feel more like a real fight.

''Y-You…! You planned for this!'' Tsubasa said, pointing an accusing finger at me. What can I say, if the treatment to a few punches was a naked girl in my bed, then I'm all for it! ''You totally did!''

''I plead the fifth.''

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Throughout the entire meeting that had transpired not even over twenty four hours ago, Rias had been thinking about what had been talked in their private conversation. No, not their first meeting with Sona, but her second meeting with Akemi to agree to the so called 'organized hunts'.

It was an interesting proposal she was eager to test out, but there was still a few details that needed to be worked on. For instance, a target was needed, a Stray Devil that could be handled by a group of two devils and a human…

'A human.' Rias mused, it was weird when she thought about it. Was his power an unknown Sacred Gear? Granted, summoning a blade was no insane feat when it came to Sacred Gears, there was no need to look further than to her own peerage to give credit to that.

The problem was the obscure details around the effects that blade had on the stray devil. He had been discrete about it, but she knew for a fact there was more to it than just a 'plain' katana, she was sure of it.

'… No matter, I'll get to see it soon.' The redhead concluded, she had decided that for their first little hunt it would be imperative for her to take part on it. This was her shot at recruiting someone that could prove vital for her future challenges.

''You are awfully quiet today, Rias.'' The sultry voice of her Queen greeted her ears, making her turn towards the unmistakable sound of someone taking a shower, that someone being no other than Akeno.

Yes, a shower inside the Occult Research Club. One of the numerous benefits of the Occult Research Club was the distance between it and the main school building, allowing for them to do stuff like this inside their club.

''… Could it be our cute little new prospect made an impression on you, I wonder?'' Akeno voiced, a soft laugh escaping her lips from behind the curtains that covered her naked figure.

''It's not like that.'' Rias denied, not bothered in the slightest by Akeno's teasing, no doubt looking to get a reaction out of her. ''Not in the way you meant it, at least.''

''Ufufu… Is that so?'' Akeno didn't seem to be all that convinced by her friend's response. She had heard about the details of their meeting, so she was certain the redhead had the full intention of recruiting the boy to their group. ''Well, I am interested in him. After all, who would have thought there would be someone so knowledgeable about us all?''

There was also the fact that he did not look half bad, one might call him cute even. That did kind of help his case even if just a little. What was there not to like about a cute mysterious student that she knew nothing about? Well, a lot, not that she cared enough to consider all of the possible negatives though!

''You are free to go and talk to him, if that's what you want.'' Rias replied, shrugging her shoulders at her friend's antics. It had been established during her second meeting with Akemi that he didn't mind talking to them so if her Queen wanted to go and meet him, it was her decision to make.

Truth be told, she had kind of been planning to do the same. Rias was convinced the more she interacted with him, the more it was likely for him to join them. However she needed to avoid showing herself to be too desperate, and she feared that during their first meeting she had revealed a little too much on that department.

''You know what…'' Even through the sound of the droplets of water hitting the floor coming from Akeno's direction, Rias managed to hear thanks to her heightened scenes the unmistakable sound of her friend licking her lips. ''… That's not a bad idea at all, I might just do that.''

'Oh dear.' Rias thought, rubbing her temples at the feeling of a headache at the sole thought of what her friend was about to do. Knowing Akeno, things could go very well or horribly wrong, depending on how Akemi took sexual harassment and innuendos coming his way from a hot devil.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

''Wrong again.'' The sound of a pained grunt and something falling to the ground followed that one word. Though given the situation, it had not been 'something' but rather someone that had ended up falling from on his own ass to the ground. ''Honestly, are you even trying? You need to look down too! Remember, I'm not limited to using just my arms.''

''You little…'' A boy grunted from the ground, a pale green light showing up from behind his feet and surrounding them. He looked frustrated, having expected to be beaten down was one thing, but not to land even a blow was humiliating.

These two people were both Tsubasa and Akemi, who had been sparing for what might well have been a couple of hours nonstop. In those two hours, Akemi had not been able to land even a single solid hit on her, most of his attempts dodged or blocked before finding their target.

The difference between both of their hand-to-hand combat abilities had been so striking that at some point the 'spar' had turned more into some sort of lesson, with the girl giving tips here and there to better his stance.

In normal circumstances he might have able to appreciate the help and be thankful for the free tips, however in his current position from the ground all he was thinking about was landing a punch, nothing other than that.

With that goal in mind, he launched himself at the girl in a blur of speed mixed with pale green light covering his legs. Up to that point he had considered it would be best not to use it given his lack of control on the technique, but his determination on having a little revenge on her made him forget about that.

'That is…' Tsubasa's eyes widened for an instant, this had been the same technique she had witnessed that night she had been captured. The speed was on par with that of a Knight, no, it might have been above that and given the short distance between them it would prove impossible for her to dodge.

Yura attempted to cross both of her arms in front of her face in an attempt to guard against what looked to be like an upcoming side kick aimed right at her head.

''…'' And so she waited, bracing for the impact that promised to hurt quite a bit. However and much to her surprise, it never came. What did come on the other hand was another pained grunt coming from the boy, who was more than six meters away from her on the ground.

''T-this is such bullshit.'' Akemi muttered just loud enough for the blue haired girl to hear, making her look in confusion at him; that should have been a blow for sure, his speed had been nothing short of amazing. ''I missed again…''

His side kick had gone over her head for a few centimeters, grazing the top of her head and with nothing left to hit and stop his dash forward he had rolled over the ground for meters until coming to a stop.

''… What? You mean this happens often?'' The she-devil looked at him strangely, still very much confused at what had just transpired. Despite that, in the back of her mind the engines of her brain where working for an answer, linking this accident with the one fight against the stray devil.

Could it be that…? He had broken his ankle after all, and now he had missed a guaranteed hit against a target that wasn't moving.

''Hold on a second.'' Tsubasa said, managing to get the attention of her pained classmate. ''You can't control that technique, can you?''

''Sometimes I can…'' Akemi mumbled back at her, not wanting to go further into details about his consistent failure on performing on his new technique. ''But most of the time, I end up like this. I don't know what it is… I can't for the life of me keep up with the speed.''

''Well, what did you expect?'' She inquired, walking near him and offering a hand to get him up from the ground. Akemi accepted it and with her help managed to get up from the grass, standing right next to her. ''You want to run before you can walk, you can't expect to learn much like that. I'm surprised you managed to even get that far like this.''

''… And how do I 'learn how to walk', then?'' Akemi questioned, other than repeating the technique again and again there was not much he could do. It was difficult to regulate the speed of the technique as it was, the direction also presented a problem and summoning the green light wasn't that simple either.

''How about using some weights first?'' Tsubasa offered, she did not at what point this little spar between them had turned into whatever this was, but she kind of liked it. He was a gem that needed to be polished, all she needed to do was push him in the right direction. ''Enough of them to hinder that speed a little, whenever you grow used to that we can start removing the weights little by little.''

''Huh.'' He blinked, now that he heard it from her it did sound quite simple. He couldn't help but muster a genuine smile at how obvious it all saw, weighted training was the oldest trick in the book after all, but he had never considered that it could be used to help himself keep up with his own speed. ''… That does make a lot of sense actually. Now I feel kind of stupid.''

In normal circumstances one would use weights with the idea to –amongst other factors- increase his speed, but this was the perfect method for him to perfect his creation. He doubted there existed that many people with this kind of problem after all.

''… Doesn't it?'' Tsubasa agreed, sharing his smile with one of her own. It might have been a last minute decision, but now she kind of wanted to help him develop his talents.

There was potential in him, and given his lack of experience there was no doubt in her mind there was a lot more to come from him. There was also something else, something she wasn't willing to admit just yet…

Tsubasa took a look at Akemi, the bloodied and battered state he was in, the dirt marks that covered his face and clothes; the dirt mixed with the drops of blood that streamed down his skin. His rough breathing, his torn up shirt… It was kind of hot.

End of chapter eleven.