Chapter 6: 7 Years in the Blink of an Eye

"You're doing well, Ryuken. Remember, demonic power and demonic magic rely heavily on imagination. The more stable your mental image, the more stable your output will be." Lectured Shinichi during one of Ryuken's training sessions.

Standing in the middle of a large underground training facility, Ryuken is holding the hilt of a wooden sword, surrounded by a hurricane of floating cherry blossom petals. Or, that is how it would appear to those who were unaware of the truth.

These cherry blossom petals are, in actuality, pieces of the wooden sword's blade that is conspicuously missing from the hilt in Ryuken's hand. The missing blade is the result of the Senbonzakura bloodline ability. This ability allows its user to break down items belonging to the user into components the size of cherry blossom petals and then reconstituting the original item, provided none of the pieces were destroyed or sealed away. The pedals can also be strengthened and controlled by the user's demonic and mental energies, respectively. There is a caveat to this power, however. The item must truly belong to the user. Meaning, the user must believe the item belongs to them on a subconscious level.

Standing in the center of this surging torrent of wooden sword pieces, Ryuken is standing in his training outfit which consists of a black short-sleeved, kimono style shirt, a white undershirt of the same style, a black hakama, and a white sash that holds the outfit together. On his feet, he has a pair of thin white socks and low-cut black shoes commonly worn by boxers.

Ryuken, now 7 years old, has grown up to be a remarkably handsome boy. Ryuken found this to be a bit strange, though. Even though he knew that he was good-looking in his past life, it was not to this extent. In actuality, it is due to his 2 non-human bloodlines. The bloodline corrections have perfected his physique. Standing at 4 feet 7 inches (140cm) tall, with a slim muscular frame and caramel skin tone. Ryuken has chestnut brown irises with a dusky pink almost red ring around their outer circumference. Sharp eye brows, and long black hair in individual braids tied into a ponytail that falls to his shoulders.

"This really is just like Byakuya Kuchiki's zanpakuto." Ryuken looked over the flying cherry blossom petals with amazement. Frowning shortly after, he thought, 'there are 2 things about this that don't really add up for me.'

"Alright, that's enough. Bring it in, Ryuken." Said Shinichi, signaling the end of today's training.

Allowing the wooden sword fragments to return and reform into the blade of his wooden sword, Ryuken suddenly stumbled forward with labored breaths.

"*Pant* The *pant* hell? *pant*"

Before Ryuken could even out his breathing, he was swatted in the back of his head and heard his father's stern voice. "Language, young man."

'Damn it, I messed up again.' Ryuken thought to himself. 'I know I need to cut down on the swearing, but it's hard after so long.'

"Sorry Pop, I was really surprised at how tired I felt."

"Well, the fatigue is normal." Said Shinichi with a smile. 'What's abnormal is, how quickly you were able to fully awaken the bloodline ability.' Shinichi decided to keep that bit of information to himself.

Shinichi began Ryuken's training to awaken his bloodline shortly after he turned 6. In less than a year, Ryuken could stably deploy the ability and maintain it for 5 minutes.

'With this kind of progress, Ryuken is nothing short of a genius, not that I would ever tell him that. His level of confidence is already bordering on conceit.' Thought Shinichi, looking at his son with an immense sense of pride.

"Hey Pop, how come no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't push the petals more than about 15 feet (approx. 4.5m) away from me? And why do my petals look different than yours?" Ryuken asked his father in curiosity and frustration.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, kid." Said Shinichi, laughing at his son's impatience. "You don't have fine enough control of your demonic energy to extend the range, yet."

'Energy control, huh?' James began trying to remember all the precision energy manipulation training methods he could from the works of fiction in his past life.

"And to answer your second question, the petals are covered in demonic energy." patiently explained Shinichi. "Which means..."

"... because we have different energy signatures, our petals will look different to reflect our different energy signatures." Finishing Shinichi's sentence, Ryuken said with realization.

Shinichi nodded in satisfaction at Ryuken,before he said. "Go clean up and get some rest. After awakening our bloodline ability, you will need it."

"Got it, Pop." Ryuken replied while walking toward the entrance of the training facility.

"Don't forget to put the pendant back on, and you can turn off the barrier on your way out." Shinichi shouted after Ryuken.

The pendant Shinichi mentioned was created to conceal Ryuken's demonic energy. Because the U.S.A. is the territory under Heaven's watch, it would be dangerous if Ryuken was discovered.

"Yeah, yeah." replied Ryuken, waving dismissively.

"Oh, and no training for the next 3 days."

"What? Why?" Questioned Ryuken.

"*Chuckle* Bloodline awakening puts a huge strain on your body. You need to let it rest before you can start training again." Said Shinichi.

Dropping his shoulders in dejection, Ryuken replied, "Fine..." then he left the training facility.

This underground training facility was built with magic after Lauren and Shinichi bought the house prior to their marriage. The underground is fitted with a concealment barrier that has 2 settings. The first is passive, always concealing the underground so it would not be detected by casual probing. The second, active setting, prevents spikes of energy from escaping the underground during training. The training ground itself is just a large room modeled after a Japanese Dojo with wooden floors and weapon racks lining the wall with the entrance, and on the far end of the Room is an area with several magically enhanced weight lifting machines.

Ryuken climbed the stairs leading away from the training facility, then opened the false wall that led to their home's basement level. The Senbonzakura family home is a standard western house with 2 above

ground floors and a basement. The ground floor contains a family room, living room, kitchen, dining room, and a half bathroom. On the second room, 3 bedrooms, a master bedroom, and 2 full bathrooms. One of the bathrooms being connected to the master bedroom with the other along the hallway.

The basement, which is also where Ryuken's living space is located, contains a bedroom, a full bathroom, an activity space, and a laundry room. Right now, Ryuken is looking at his reflection in the mirror in what he describes as his personal bathroom.

"Damn... who's that handsome little mother fucker in the mirror?" Ryuken is still amazed that he looks the same but somehow more handsome.

'It's hard to believe it's already been 7 years since I was born in this worldline.' Ryuken thought to himself while preparing to take a shower. 'I've done a lot since my rebirth. Studying about the supernatural world, training, meeting people, going to school. Even so, at least I haven't been bored.'

For the first 3 years of his new life, Ryuken lived like your average toddler. No training or supernatural occurrences. Just a few playdates with 2 little girls around his age. The first was the aforementioned younger sister of Satan Sirzechs Lucifer, Rias Gremory. The second is Sona Sitri, the sister of yet another Satan, Serafall Leviathan.

Shortly after the age of 3, Ryuken asked is father, Shinichi, to tell him about the supernatural. This led to classes on the subject taught by Shinichi himself. At 4 years old, Ryuken began physical, martial arts, and demonic power growth training. As Ryuken is still growing, his physical training consists mostly of running and cardio. Martial arts training is mostly just free sparring with Shinichi. Shinichi found himself absolutely gob smacked at Ryuken's talent in hand-to-hand martial arts. To the point he never tried to teach anything specific. Instead opting to start weapon training, Ryuken taking a liking to Kenjutsu. As for demonic power training, it consisted of releasing a constant amount of power until his reserves run dry, then going to bed. Apparently refilling demonic power reserves after they are completely depleted makes the maximum threshold increase.

Standing in the shower, Ryuken recalled an energy manipulation training method. 'If I recall correctly, it came from a fan fic, right? You coat a finger in your energy, then dip it into a bowl of water. You have to keep your finger dry and keep the water still, too.'

After finishing his shower and getting dressed in comfortable around-the-house clothes, Ryuken went to the kitchen and got a bowl out of the cupboard. Making his first attempt at this new training... It went about as well as you'd expect. Although his finger stayed dry, the water was splattered all over because the demonic power coating his finger was too thick and too turbulent.

"Got-damn it!!!"

*smack*

"Ow! Pop that hurt."

Having appeared without Ryuken's notice, Shinichi slapped Ryuken in his head because of his foul-mouth.

"Before I punish you for this mess, I will give you a chance to explain yourself." Said Shinichi with a no-nonsense expression.

Ryuken's expression changed at a speed that would make someone think he had never actually been swatted by his father. He began excitedly explaining his actions and his idea for energy control training.

Hearing his son's idea, Shinichi found it intriguing.

"Why don't you let me try it out." Said Shinichi, as he picked up the bowl Ryuken was using for his training idea.

After filling the bowl and setting it on the kitchen table again, Shinichi coated his finger in his demonic energy, he slowly dipped it into the water and... made an even bigger mess than his son.

"Pfff."

Ryuken used his hands in an attempt to stifle his laughter.

Glancing at his son, Shinichi contemplated the usefulness of this training. Removing his hand from the almost empty bowl, he inspected it. Noticing that his finger was dry, he thought, 'If someone was able to apply a thin coat of energy and lower the output to the minimum amount necessary to keep their finger dry, their control would have gone through a monumentally positive change.'

Noticing his father's expression, Ryuken was proud and immediately decided on his next course of action.

'I need to get to the point that I can dip 2 fingers without issue before the next time Rias and Sona come to play.'

But before he could be happy for long, he heard is father's voice.

"Now you have explained what you were doing. I'll even admit that it is a brilliant idea," Said Shinichi with a gentle smile, before switching to an expressionless mask to ask, "How should I punish you for not following my orders? You were supposed to abstain from training for 3 days, if I recall."

"Huh?"

'I'm fucked!' was the only thought in Ryuken's mind.

Shinichi did not intend to give Ryuken the time to come up with an excuse, however.

"NI'll be moving your TV and all of your video games out of your room for the next 3 days." Shinichi said, accepting no compromises. "You should pick up a book and learn to enjoy reading for a while."

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"