Her Hidden Physique

"Hey Ddraig, you got the time?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know? Does the Boosted Gear look like a watch?" The irritated voice of a certain heavenly dragon echoed through his head.

"Geeze, no need to be so grumpy. I was just asking." Issei shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, if you just paid attention to the sun, then you'd notice that it's close to mid-noon." Despite his grumblings, Ddraig was an ever-helpful companion.

"Thanks," he nodded his head. "That means she should be here at any minute."

Issei (and by extension, Ddraig) were currently standing beside the platform of a ruined Shinto shrine.

The old shrine was located south of Kuoh, nearly a mile into the adjacent forest. It was in a state of complete and utter disrepair. The shrine looked as if it had been smashed apart by a barrage of lightning bolts. Aside from the charred carcass of the main building, nothing else remained.

The place was rather secluded and quite a ways away from the city. It would have made for a great place for his breakthrough. Unfortunately, the shrine also happened to be located on top of a tall hill. That meant that the place was semi-visible to the ordinary citizens of Kuoh and even more visible to its supernatural residents.

Issei was currently waiting for the arrival of his new recruit.

Well, calling her a new recruit might be a bit of a stretch. After all, it's already been more than a month since she started training. Aika's made great progress so far, even advancing to the 4th stage of Qi Condensation.

While they waited, Issei decided to make conversation with his inner dragon.

"You know, you've been very quiet recently." He pointed out.

It was true. During the past five weeks or so, the frequency of Ddraig's mental conversations had decreased significantly. Aside from the occasional comment here and there, the old dragon had remained uncharacteristically low-key.

Ddraig let out a snort. "Of course I've been quiet. I'm not going to sit in your left arm all day and just watch you court that human girl."

Red seeped into his cheeks. Issei let out a sheepish chuckle.

He understood where the old dragon was coming from. Ever since the bedroom incident, things between him and Aika had only continued to escalate. These days, it was as if they were playing a very dangerous, often erotic game of chicken.

"Thanks for not peeping," Issei awkwardly scratched the back of his head. It was a nervous tick from his childhood that somehow carried over to the present. "I guess I won't have to call you the voyeur dragon."

"If you call me that, then I'll quite literally rip your heart out with your own left arm."

Issei simply laughed at Ddraig's very real threat.

While he knew the dragon was fully capable of doing just that (if he really pushed himself, then Ddraig could temporarily take control of his left arm via the Boosted Gear), he was also confident that the old dragon would never really go through with it. Even if he did seriously attempt to rip his heart out, Issei was confident in his chances of survival.

Besides, threats of bodily harm weren't really all that uncommon between the two of them. God knows how many times he had threatened to stick various objects of massive girth and length down Ddraig's 'scaly asshole'.

As his mother would always say, 'boys will be boys'.

"That reminds me, are you ever going to talk to Aika?" Issei asked.

The girl still did not know about Ddraig or his Boosted Gear. It wasn't as if he was trying to hide them from her. Issei merely wanted Ddraig to make the first move and reveal himself to Aika.

The old dragon paused for a moment. "You cannot rush fated meetings…when the stars align and our destinies cross, then I will introduce myself to the youngling."

Issei rolled his eyes at Ddraig's attempt at being mysterious. "You just haven't found the right time to talk to her."

"Well, how could I?!" Ddraig hotly responded. "All you two idiots ever do when you're around one another is flirt! It's difficult to interrupt that sort of atmosphere. Honestly, I sometimes feel like a third wheel."

"Ouch…" Issei winced, "sorry about that, buddy. I'll try to be more considerate next time."

Despite his words, Issei secretly doubted his ability to maintain self-control, especially when he was in front of Aika.

"Speaking of which, here she comes."

Issei had sensed her approaching a while ago. He turned to his right, just as Aika stepped past a large tree and onto the hiking trail. She looked around the clearing and quickly spotted him. Issei waved at her.

She waved back before she made a beeline towards him.

Issei took note of Aika's appearance.

This was their first 'session' outside of her home, so it was expected that she was dressed a bit differently from usual. She wore a set of workout clothes— a pair of yoga pants, some sneakers, an old t-shirt, and a headband that kept her bangs from blocking her vision.

Issei nodded appreciatively. Aika was a homebody, so to see her in clothes like that was a unique experience.

"So, what are we doing today?" She asked as she approached him. Her eyes momentarily wandered over towards the ruined shrine. This was not her first time here; she had visited the place once before, during one of her day trips with Issei. Still, the sight of the shrine's charred exterior was still just as shocking as the first time she had seen it.

"Cultivation practice, just like always," Issei responded.

She cast a doubtful stare at him. "Really? You don't normally drag me out to a place like this for training. What, have you finally decided that you've had enough foreplay, so you brought me out here just so you could have your way with me?"

Aika wiggled her eyes suggestively as she made the universal hand symbol for sex.

Issei simply rolled his eyes. "As tempting as that offer sounds, that's not the reason why I brought you here. I wasn't lying when I said we'd be practicing your cultivation. More specifically though, we're here to finally figure out what your physique is."

"Oh yeah, you mentioned that before." She stated as she recalled their previous conversation earlier this week. "You're talking about my supposed super-secret hidden ability that will make me super special."

He let out an amused sigh. "You've been reading far too many web novels lately."

She flashed him a smile. "Well, you're the one who recommended it to me."

"And it's been my greatest mistake yet."

"I don't know about that," she shrugged her shoulders. "I'm sure if we try hard enough, we can make a couple more 'mistakes' by the day's end."

"Oh? Trying to seduce me again, aren't we Ms. Kiryuu?"

"Maybe I am. Are you man enough to finally bite the bait?"

The duo locked eyes. During their devolving conversation, their bodies had naturally gravitated towards each other. By this point, they were mere inches away from one another. So close was their proximity that Issei could feel Aika's hot breath tickling the bottom of his chin.

Issei opened his mouth, probably to continue their verbal dance, but before he could so much as get a word out, someone beat him to it.

"Can you two stop this nonsense for one second, and get on with the more important stuff already?"

Aika jumped back in surprise. Meanwhile, Issei simply breathed out a defeated sigh. He had just been cockblocked by a frustrated dragon.

"W-what was that?" Aika looked around the forest, confused and a little bit rattled. Her brief inspection did not last long though, as she had quickly noticed the change in Issei's left arm.

From his elbow down all the way to the tips of his fingers, a red gauntlet covered his entire arm. There was an emerald gem embedded on the back of his hand. Aika was not one hundred percent certain, but she thought she had felt a strange ripple of energy coming from the gem.

"Are you done staring, girlie?"

Her eyes widened. Did the gauntlet just talk?

She turned to Issei and opened her mouth to question him, but before she could get a word out, the transmigrator beat her to it.

"Before you say anything, yes. My gauntlet did just talk."

"But… how?"

"Well, I can explain that, but let's do the introductions first."

"Introductions?"

Issei simply nodded before he tilted his head towards the red gauntlet. "This is Ddraig. He's an ancient heavenly dragon currently stuck within the Boosted Gear, which is this thing right here." He tapped the gauntlet with his free hand for emphasis.

Aika blinked. She understood what the words coming out of his mouth meant, but she still couldn't wrap her head around this situation. "Okay, let's rewind for a second here. So, you have a dragon stuck in your left hand, which can turn into a gauntlet called the Boosted Gear?"

He nodded his head.

She sighed in exasperation. "I know after everything that's happened these past few weeks, I should really start expecting the unexpected, but can you please provide a little bit more detail than that."

Issei sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "Right… well, let's start from the beginning then. So, there are these things called Sacred Gears that were originally created by God— yes, THAT God…"

*****

After a few minutes of explaining, Aika was eventually able to understand the general concept behind Sacred Gears and by extension, Ddraig and the Boosted Gear.

Speaking of which, Aika and Ddraig were also properly introduced to one another.

Suffice to say, she was greatly embarrassed to find out that Ddraig was permanently stuck to Issei, meaning that the heavenly dragon had been around during all the times she and Issei played their little 'game'. Fortunately, Issei was quick to reassure her that Ddraig could hide within his soul, so it wasn't as if the dragon was just constantly getting front-row seats to two teenagers awkwardly flirting with each other.

With the introductions done and over with, Issei finally returned to the original reason for why they came out here in the first place.

"The sooner we can figure out all the ins and outs of your physique, the sooner I can pick out a suitable cultivation technique for you."

"What's wrong with my current one?" Aika asked with a frown.

"Nothing's wrong with it, per se. It's actually pretty good, but it could always be better. That's what we're here to do."

After a moment of hesitation, she nodded her head. "Alright, fine. So, what should I do?"

"For now, just answer my questions." Issei led Aika over to the ruined shrine, where they could momentarily escape from the summer sun.

"So, can you describe to me your… er, Size Scouter?"

"Oh? You want to know about that?" A playful smirk twisted her lips. "Why? Curious about what I can really see between your legs? Well, don't worry. From my own observations, I'm sure you can satisfy any woman with that package of yours…"

"That's not what I meant!" Issei hotly responded. He shook his head in exasperation. "What I want to know is about the ability itself. When did it first appear? What can you really do with it? Describe it to me."

"Well… I guess it showed up around the time I was six or seven."

"You could see through people's pants when you were at that age?!" Issei asked, incredulous.

"No!" She hurriedly shook her head. "Actually, the Size Scouter wasn't originally used to measure a man's manhood. I adapted it to be able to do that."

"Then what could it originally do then?"

"It just lets me know stuff, I guess." She shrugged her shoulders, unsure of how to properly word her next statement. "It allows me to figure out things that most people would have trouble figuring out. For example, the number of marbles in a mason jar or the size of a woman's waistline. I can tell all these things with just a single glance."

"And what's your accuracy like?"

Aika stopped for a moment. "Back when I was younger, I guess I could get things right about half of the time. As I grew older, my accuracy increased. Right now, I can confidentially say that my Size Scouter can identify a man's size with one hundred percent accuracy."

"And it's all vision-based?"

"As far as I can tell, yeah."

"I see…" Issei mulled over the information he had just received. It was enough to give him some ideas, but nothing too concrete. A thought suddenly struck him. "Can you tell when someone is lying?"

Aika frowned. "That's a weird question."

"Just humor me for a second."

Her frown deepened. "I don't think so, but I've never really thought about it…"

"Well, try and think about it now. Can you recall ever knowing that someone was lying purely because you saw them speak?"

Issei's request was a bit difficult. People lie all the time, but not as often as some may presume. For example, Aika usually kept her conversations with others sparse and to the point. In other words, she did not give them a reason to lie to her, so they didn't. Still, now that she really thought about it…

Aika couldn't help but recall one incident that had happened to her fairly recently.

It involved a group of girls from her previous class. While Aika had not been a part of the conversation that had taken place, she had been around to witness it.

The group was fairly popular with the rest of the student body. They had been discussing random things when the topic of conversation suddenly shifted towards romance.

One person asked the group if they currently had boyfriends. They all answered no. Another person asked if the group had ever kissed someone. Half the people said yes, and the other half said no. None of them had lied. Then, another person asked the group if they ever masturbated. None were brave enough to admit it, so they all said no. Aika, who had been watching the whole thing from the back of the classroom knew that they all masturbated.

Back then, she chalked it up to common sense. After all, girls were human too, and nearly everyone on Earth masturbated at least once (or so her brain told her). Now that she really thought about it though, had it really been common sense, or was Issei right? Had it been the power of her unique eyes?

In the end, she could not give Issei a definitive answer.

Fortunately, Issei took it in stride. It may not have been a one hundred percent confirmation, but a maybe was a good enough cause for further investigation.

In fact, with all the information that he had gathered over the past few weeks, he was pretty certain he had almost everything figured out. Now, it was time for one last test.

'Her eyes are the main focus. She can even tell when people are lying. How does she do that? I don't think she can tell the 'intent' of a person nor does it allow her to read minds. That leaves one last thing…'

Body. Or rather, body language. With her eyes, Aika was somehow 'reading' a person's intent through their body language. But if she can distinguish between lies by simply seeing the cues that one's body subconsciously makes, then what more could she do?

Issei's eyes suddenly widened. He just had an idea.

He dragged Aika to the center of the clearing. The girl sat down on the short grass, while Issei walked a couple of feet away from her.

"Alright, just watch me, okay?" He stated as he entered into a loose fighting stance.

Aika nodded, still a bit unsure as to what Issei was planning.

Issei began punching and kicking the air. He wasn't practicing any one specific martial skill. Instead, he was merely replaying a particular battle he had with someone back in the Immortal World. In short, he was shadowboxing.

The transmigrator danced through the field, each and every one of his punches sounded like cannon fire, while his kicks were akin to whips. They distorted the air and even caused the leaves to rustle.

Aika watched all this with transfixed eyes. She had seen Issei perform various feats of superhuman ability, such as jumping down from a ten-story building completely unscathed or outracing cars on the freeway. This was different. What Issei displayed was not simply just his physical prowess, but his mastery of the art of combat.

After three minutes of silent shadowboxing, Issei suddenly stopped mid-punch. He stood there in complete stillness. After nearly two seconds of nothing, he suddenly tilted his head ever so slightly to Aika.

"Now, what am I going to do next?" He asked her.

"What?" She furrowed his brow, confusion clear on her face.

"What am I going to do next?" He repeated. "You've seen me throw all those punches and kicks. Now, tell me, what am I about to do next?"

Aika paused and really thought deep and hard for the answer. "You… you're going to throw a left hook next?"

A ghost of a smile formed on his lips. "Correct."

Just as Aika had stated, Issei resumed his shadowboxing as if nothing had ever happened. He executed a perfect left hook, followed by a vicious snap kick.

He continued shadowboxing for another thirty seconds before he stopped again. "Now, what am I about to do next?"

Again, Aika answered, this time with more confidence. "A headbutt, followed by a spinning back kick."

"Correct" Issei stated just as he executed a headbutt aimed at an invisible enemy. After the headbutt, he used his gathered centrifugal force and performed a spinning back kick.

This pattern continued for a while.

"What's next?" He asked.

"An uppercut next." She answered correctly.

"What about now?" He asked.

"A palm strike." She answered correctly.

"Now?" He asked.

"A… a German Suplex? Seriously?"

"Correct."

This sort of pattern continued for over thirty minutes. Issei moved around the clearing like a specter, his fist and kicks finding their mark on whatever invisible enemy he fought. Meanwhile, Aika would predict his moves with one hundred percent accuracy. At some point, she simply began narrating Issei's every action a mere few seconds ahead of when he was actually going to do them.

The true beauty about this was the fact that Issei was not simply listening to whatever Aika told him he was going to do. Issei was reliving a fight that had actually taken place back in the Immortal World. He strictly followed these memories, not deviating for even a single second.

Aika was reading the flow of battle. It was an ability that most warriors picked up after decades of battle, yet Aika here could already do so thanks to her unique physique.

Issei did not think that Aika would have been able to do this prior to her cultivation. It was only with the True Qi in her body that her eyes underwent a qualitative change. They would only get even stronger from here on out.

Issei's mock battle eventually came to an end. He breathed out a long exhale, while Aika sat on the grass, in awe at both Issei's performance and her own ability.

"Wow, that was weird." She stated breathlessly.

"You tell me." He chuckled back. "You did well. I think with that, I finally have enough info to get a lock on your physique."

"Oh, what is it?"

"Well, it's clear that your physique is centered around your eyes and maybe a part of your brain. It takes in visual cues from your environment and uses them to reach a sort of hypothetical conclusion or 'truth'. It would probably work on anything that you can visually see, be they disguises, techniques, even the flow of battle, which you did just now. It's definitely useful and it will only grow stronger as your cultivation increases. Who knows what you'll be capable of in the future?"

"It sounds cool enough." She suddenly had a thought. "Maybe if I increase my cultivation, I'll be able to upgrade the Size Scouter."

"… What sort of upgrades, exactly?" Issei questioned, somewhat dreading her response.

"Well, I'd like to be able to tell how many times a person's had sex. Or maybe how many times they've masturbated."

"…"

To even think of such a thing… she truly was a vicious girl.

"Anyway, does my physique have a name?" Aika asked.

"I know of similar physiques, but none are an exact match to yours." He explained. "As far as I can tell, it might be entirely unique to you." Issei paused for a moment. "You want me to give it a name for you?"

"Would you? I'm not really good at naming things." The girl admitted. She didn't particularly mind Issei naming her physique. Of course, she would have probably been singing a different tune had she known about Issei's rather 'unique' naming sense.

"Alright. Then from this day forth, your physique shall be known across the lands as… the Eyes of the Voyeur!"

"…"

'Oh god, that poor girl.' Ddraig commented inwardly to himself from within the Boosted Gear.

Suffice to say, a clearly pissed of Aika spent the rest of the day chasing down an unrepentant Issei.