Chapter 46: Teacher & Student

Chapter 46:

"___" - Speech

(___) - Thoughts

(___) - Internal Voice(s)

Join the discord! - https://discord.gg/gqSKcC43NW

AN: Update, in the last chapter I seemed to have written "lower course" when I meant to write "upper course". I was a little tipsy whilst writing so forgive me on that one, sorry about that.

—

"Looks like we've arrived," Jin announced, causing Issei to flop on his backside as he hurried to catch his breathe, heaving a deep sigh of relief as he no longer had to endure the torture Jin called a 'light jog'. "It's quite something." He marveled at the vast expanse of the river, just the upper course alone seemed to drag on for miles and miles with no end in sight. 

The width of the river had to at least be more than 50 meters, as Jin dipped his hand into the water he felt a current that could weather away at even the toughest of stone. "Hyoudou." 

"Yeah?" He replied, his chest puffing up and down rapidly as he continued to fight the pressing urge to regurgitate. 

Jin had a stern look on his face as he looked upstream, staring at what appeared to be nothing. "No matter what you do, do not activate your Sacred Gear, or use any of your abilities under any circumstances." Similarly, Raon's attention also seemed to be captivated by whatever lay ahead. 

"Why not?" 

Jin continued to sniff the air, his nostrils all but confirming his suspicions. "There's a youngling up there, accompanied by two adults." Issei gaped as he too looked in that direction, a sense of both excitement and worry welling up inside him. "The adults know we're here, and they won't approach us since it's unlikely that they'll leave their child's side. However your presence has set them even more on edge then they're supposed to be, it won't end well if we end up startling them." Jin had to make all of his observations with smell alone, if they detected his presence latching onto them for even a second, it would undoubtedly trigger their flight or fight response. Especially since they had a hatchling with them. "Understood?" 

"Understood." Issei swallowed down a nervous gulp at the unexpected shift in tone of Jin's demeanor. 

"Good, I'll give you a minute to rest before we continue." 

"Much obliged." Issei allowed himself to fall onto his back, laying his arms out as he ignored the feeling of his back being held against a supercharged refrigerator. 

Jin on the other hand, seemed to have become infatuated as he looked down at the sweeping river. "Huh, there's fish here." He watched in wonder as a gargantuan school of white-colored salmon sized fish rushed through the upper course, headed downstream as the current guided them. "Don't mind if I do." 

SQUELCH! 

With cheetah-like speed, his right hand reached into the river and stabbed its claws into the skin of one of the fishes, allowing him to pull one out and get a closer look. "Oh?" Upon closer inspection, he noticed a set of small stubbed peach colored horns on its head, giving it an almost beastly appearance. "What a strange creature, oh well, time to test what's really important." He said whilst sniffing its body.

CRUNCH! 

Jin opened wide, slamming his teeth down on its scales causing Issei's stomach to churn at the sight of him consuming the sea creature raw. 

"Seriously?" Issei questioned whilst clutching his stomach. 

"Hm? Oh, how rude of me. Did you want a bite?" Jin held out the half-eaten, saliva-covered fish in Issei's direction. 

"I'm good, thank you." He replied quickly, turning his head away from the grotesque sight. 

"You sure? It's good for you, I think." He spoke whilst munching on his meal. 

"Yep, I'm sure." 

"Your loss." Jin shrugged, holding the fish in Raon's direction instead. "What about you?" After briefly inspecting it with his snout, Raon snatched the fish into his maw, quickly swallowing it without offering Jin any response. 

Instead, he simply walked into the river, and eagerly began hunting for more. 

"I guess he likes it." Jin smiled, allowing his child to happily continue his hunt. "This should help him with his training as well, it's like killing two stones with one bird." The other stone being Raon's insatiable appetite. 

"Alright breaks over," Jin clapped as he turned in Issei's direction, causing the latter to go wide eyed as he had hardly even had a minute to allow his muscles some rest. "Time for some sparring." Jin declared nonchalantly as he started stretching. 

"Hold on just a minute! You barely gave me any time to rest!" Issei argued. "How the hell am I supposed to fight you like this?" He motioned towards his energy deprived legs. "Besides, how are we going to spar without using our abilities?" 

"You're a close quarters fighter like me right?" Issei nodded in response. "Then you don't need your abilities, we'll just fight as we are now." Jin hopped around as he allowed his blood pressure to gradually increase. "On your feet, we're burning daylight." 

"Would it kill ya to have a little mercy?" Issei chided sarcastically as he reluctantly hauled himself to his feet. A sense of weakness ever present in his body as he had yet to catch his breath. 

"Maybe." 

THUD! 

Without warning, Jin's fist planted itself into Issei's gut. "Kuh!" The latter spitting out a chunk of saliva as his body was catapulted into the snow behind him. 

"Try not to get caught off guard." Jin calmly commented. 

"How the hell was I supposed to react to that?" He retorted whilst clutching his abdomen in pain. 

"Your instincts already know what to do, but it's up to you whether you choose to listen to them or not." Slowly, Jin began to pace around Issei's position, watching how his eyes followed his movements intently. 

"Huh?" Issei blurted out in confusion, in what seemed like an instant, Jin had completely nullified the distance between the two of them. His hand reaching out to Issei's chest 

"See? I can reach your heart just like this." He offered a sly smile. "Even though your body just told you exactly how to counter me." Issei heard every last word Jin said, but none of them made even a modicum of sense to him. 

"Instinct? What are you talking about? My body isn't telling me anything!" 

BOOM! 

Jin sighed, hitting Issei with a thunderous kick to the ribs as he was sent tumbling once more. "Like I said, it is, you just have to learn to start listening to it. Look over there." He pointed to his child, whom was effortlessly catching fish after fish like he had a built in aim assist function. "I didn't teach him to do that, he's simply just able to do it." 

"But he's a Dragon!" 

Jin breathed yet another groan as his message didn't seem to be reaching Issei as well as he wanted it to. "And you aren't?" He queried rhetorically, appearing right in front of the Red Dragon Emperor in a mere instant. 

"What are you trying to say?" Issei replied weakly, taking the brief pause as an opportunity to reclaim some of the lost air from his lungs. 

"I'm saying that it's time for you to let go of your fear," Jin stated plainly, his figure reflected in Issei's pupils. "That arm, you've been treating it like a disease, or some sort of punishment," Jin took an abrupt pause, resting his fingers on his chin. "No, perhaps it's more accurate to say that you still do to some extent. The way you see your Sacred Gear is undoubtedly flawed, filled with holes and self-inflicted limiters that do nothing but hold you back." 

Issei's reply wasn't immediate, instead he wisely took a few moments to absorb what he had just been told. "Then, what would you have me do?" 

"Let go, of everything." 

"I'm afraid I'm going to need you to be a little more specific than that." Issei meekly remarked, scratching the side of his head in confusion. 

"Your fear of Ddraig, your hesitance of allowing the blood he gave you to flow, even your reliance on the Gremory girl." The last part more than caught Issei off-guard. 

"Hold on, what do you mean reliance?" 

"The world is being dragged into more and more conflict as the days go by, you've already witnessed some of it yourself." It was blatantly apparent what Jin was referring to. 

"Khaos Brigade?" 

"Indeed, I won't hold it against you if you want to spend more time with the Gremory heiress, but I'm afraid the world cannot wait for you to slowly climb up the ranks one by one, it needed a Red Dragon Emperor yesterday." The words coming out of Jin's mouth felt awfully heavy, like an anvil being dropped on his shoulders one after the other. "The same applies to all us Dragon hosts, they expect a lot out of us." 

"But," Issei hesitated, receiving an admonishing glare from Jin before he even had the chance to speak. 

"You can do as you please with her once the Brigade is gone, but until that day comes you must hone your strength to the highest degree possible. Like it or not, you have to live up to the title of Heavenly Dragon. A high school boy who's just trying to find his place in the world isn't going to cut it." Jin stretched his shoulder as he assumed a battle stance. "But talking alone won't get you anywhere. Prepare yourself, we're continuing."