Mornings.

Chapter twelve.

''Three, two, one… Alright, time's up!'' Tsubasa said, her palms coming together to make the sound of a loud clap. In response to her words there was a tired groan thrown back at her, the target of her words making his displeasure known. ''Come on, up! The first two weeks are the worst ones, you will get used to it soon.''

''… I know, I know.'' From his position on the ground Akemi managed to mutter that much in response to the blue haired devil's words. He was wearing some sort of weird looking weights around his arms and legs, which had been provided by the she-devil next to him.

It had been around two weeks that flew by, fourteen days that he had spent spamming the technique he needed to master, polishing his movements and finding himself to be a lot more comfortable with the weights than without them.

At first it had been difficult to even walk with them given the surprising weight for such small looking weights. He was still wondering what the hell were those things even made of.

''A –ke –mi!'' The blue haired tomboy repeated when she noticed her classmate was zooning off on her again, it was almost a habit of his. At first it had been kind of fun, cute even, watching him stare at the air like he was deep in thought out of nowhere, now it was a little bit frustrating. ''I said up!''

''I said I know!'' Akemi yelled back at her and sure enough a few seconds after he was up, standing up next to her while taking his weights off. While doing some quick stretching Akemi looked up, noticing that the sky had darkened sooner than he had expected. ''Looks like we overdid it a bit though…?''

''Looks like we did.'' Tsubasa agreed, her gaze focused on him while he kept looking upwards.

The girl gulped, holding a few curses from escaping her mouth at the sight that greeted her; it looked like she had done it again, was it a bad habit? Was it some weird kink of hers?

Tsubasa had been wondering about it for these past weeks, but in each training session she had deliberately pushed him to the point he got muddied, bloodied and had his clothes ruined much like he was right now.

The reason behind it? At first she was not too sure about it herself, but now she was sure of it, it was because she liked the sight, and the nature of her likings wasn't all that innocent if she was honest with herself.

''Stop that.'' Akemi said to her, making her panic at the fact she had been found out gawking at him for what had to be the sixth time since their training had begun. ''You can look, but at least do a better job at hiding it, will ya?''

''I-I w-wasn't looking! You can save that narcissistic response for yourself!''

"Sure thing." Akemi replied with a mocking smirk plastered all over his face, it was his turn now to look all smug at her now. He was not oblivious to the kind of looks he had been receiving from her, it was honestly cute to watch her look all confused at him unable to figure out what she was feeling. "Still, I should get going. This past week it's been a pain in the ass to wake up for class in the mornings, I need to get some good sleep."

"You..." Tsubasa gritted her teeth at the boy, he just loved to bring up stuff like that and change the topic a second later, leaving her even more confused than before. "Fine, but I won't be healing you tonight! That's what you get for behaving like an asshole!"

"That was not part of our de..." Akemi made an attempt to protest her decision but not a second after she was done talking, the blue haired girl was gone from his sight leaving him all alone in the middle of the forest in his battered state.

"Tch." He clicked his tongue. "Whatever, I'll get back at her tomorrow."

A second after those last words were muttered out loud, the lone teenager vanished from his spot in the middle of the clearing while leaving nothing but a pale green light behind him.

. . . . . . . . . .

'This never gets old!' Akemi thought while using his technique to cover huge distances in mere seconds. With the use of his high-speed movement technique and his training to get used to it he was now able to make use of it to travel wherever he wanted without smashing his face against someone's house, so he could cover distances that normally would take him hours in a minute or less.

The feeling of the wind blowing past his figure while jumping from roof to roof was becoming all too familiar for him, almost like a walk in the park. That did not mean he had perfected this move though, since it would prove far more difficult to make use of it in the middle of a life-or-death situation.

'I think I am good to test myself out with a real challenge.' While heading home, the sudden thought of another fight reached his mind again. He had not been informed about any Stray Devils near the area so for now all he could do was wait until Rias managed to find a suitable target for them.

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

"No, no... Hm." Rias frowned, frustrated at the fact she had been unable to find or get a report on any nearby Stray Devils. Under normal circumstances that would have been a thing to celebrate, but such was not the case for her right now.

Rias picked up the next report, now looking at the requests that had arrived for her 'servants' to complete in the hopes of finding something promising there. What could this tranquil state in their otherwise chaotic town mean? Was someone taking care of the Strays? Given their agreement with Akemi that couldn't have been his doing, so that left two options left in her mind, and she was not sure she liked either of them.

Fallen Angels or Rogue Exorcist could be behind this all, but given the delicate peace between the Three Factions that was not a nice thought to have in mind.

While taking a sit on her desk chair, the beautiful redhead took her glasses off and rested her back on the chair intending to relax a little. It would do her no good to stress so much about all this when there was no concrete proof behind her thoughts.

All alone in the Occult Research Club, Rias allowed a faint smile to adorn her beautiful features. For once it looked like she has been given the chance to meet someone that could help her get out of this mess... She just needed to see him in action herself.

Shaking her head at the myriad of thoughts that assaulted her mind, she directed her attention at something that had been bothering her for a while, or rather, someone.

"... Where the hell is Akeno, anyway?"

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

"Late again...?" Tsubaki Shinra inquired, her arms resting on her waist while she directed an inquisitive look at Tsubasa Yura, the girl who had somehow managed to arrive late to their meetings for the third time in a row. "What's the excuse now, Tsubasa?"

Tsubasa looked sheepishly at Tsubaki, the Queen of Sona Sitri's Peerage and thus, her superior. It was no secret for them all that she had been holding 'secret' meetings with Akemi, but for reasons unknown to then all she had refused to tell them too much about them, even to Sona herself.

"Y-you see, this funny thing happened while..." She tried to explain herself, ruffling her own hair while thinking of a good excuse to provide to the visibly upset girl right next to her.

"Save it, I don't wanna hear it." Tsubaki interrupted her mid-sentence, a tired sigh escaping her lips while looking at her fellow devil. "It's no big deal as long as you are able to keep up with your work... That's what Sona said, at least."

Truthfully Tsubaki herself was confused about that; it was uncharacteristic for someone like Sona to say something like that, especially given the fact that the whole situation didn't seem to benefit them in any sort of way.

After all, from where she was standing, it was far more likely for Akemi to end up joining Rias, so all this effort for someone else's servant made little sense to her. Besides, was he even that big of a deal to begin with?

Orders were orders though, and she trusted Sona's judgement even more than her own so there would be no complaints coming from her side.

"Thanks a lot, Vice President!" While clasping her hands together the blue haired girl looked in an apologetic manner at her superior, reminding herself to make sure not to arrive late in the near future. "It won't happen again, I promise!"

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

"Mhm..." This, this was it. It was a feeling I had been slowly but surely growing used to, the feeling of a woman resting her figure against me; the spot where some would kill to be in had now become almost part of a routine for me.

The softness of the skin that made contact with my own was of an unmistakable female nature, something I could recognize even while my eyes remained closed. The fact that I couldn't feel any sort of pain also meant that the slight wounds that I had sustained from training had been taken care of.

"What's that...?" I questioned with a smirk, although given our positions in the small bed it was impossible for the beautiful intruder invading my bed to see that sly smile on me. "I thought I was not about to get healed tonight... You just couldn't help yourself, Tsubasa?"

Oh I was for sure about to tease the hell out of her for this, acting all tough at me just to come back at me like a sad little lost dog. With my head swarming with ideas to embarrass her, I made a slow turn towards her intending to meet our gazes at last.

"Ufufu... Now isn't that interesting? You were expecting someone else to be on this bed?" I froze mid-turn, a voice that did not belong to the blue haired girl I had grown fond of reaching my ears. "Who would have thought a cute little student like you would be such a heart breaker?"

I paused, taking just an instant to rethink the whole situation all over for a second time, now noticing the little details I had missed when first waking up.

For instance, the feeling of a massive pair of boobs resting on my back that surely did not belong to Tsubasa, the unmistakable sultry and teasing tone from a woman that was hard to forget and the long strands of hair that had become mixed between our figures... Just one person came to mind.

Making the turn to meet glances with the unknown intruder, I got to see her at last and those thoughts of mine proved to be correct after all.

"... Akeno Himejima?" That was all I managed to get out of my mouth when looking at a sight few or none had the luck to experience. The second most famous female student in our school was in nothing but her underwear resting right next to me, a pink bra and panties was all that she was wearing, nothing more than that.

You know, now that I was thinking about it wouldn't the normal reaction to this would be at least panic a little...? And here I was, checking out what should have been a complete stranger given our limited interactions. Quick note; she was hot!

"... My my." Akeno did not make even the slightest attempt to hide her figure from what was admittedly a rather obvious look coming from me. Not like I expected something different from someone like her. "That wasn't the reaction I was expecting... You don't look all that surprised about this little situation, could it be...? No, surely you couldn't have expected me to show up, right?"

"Perhaps this is not the first time you have a situation like this in mind?" Her embrace tightened just a little bit around me, her smile growing ever so slightly at her own words.

Again, she looked and behaved all too natural for someone that could be reported to the police given the situation at hand... It was honestly kind of unnerving, I was not used to handle this sort of girl. Still, all that didn't matter one bit, what mattered to me was I had some questions that needed to be answered right around now, for instance:

"What the hell are you doing on my bed?" Yeah, hot or not this was more than a little unsettling. It was one thing to have Tsubasa sneak up on me when I was asleep, she was at the time in debt to me so there was not much to be afraid of.

Akeno on the other hand... Well, I was not sure what to make of her intentions. What I was sure of however was that a firm hand was required with someone like her or else I risked being teased into oblivion.

"..." I watched her beautiful violet eyes widen for the first time since our unusual interaction had started. It was clear to me she had imagined a lot of possible responses, but that sure as hell was not one of them.

"This is a bit unexpected." Akeno blinked in what looked to be nothing less that genuine surprise, I could tell that much from the look on her face. It was kind of refreshing to see her out of that seductress persona for once. "From hearing a little about you I was under the impression you would enjoy something like this."

"Don't get me wrong, I do like what I am seeing." I admitted that much to her, which had the small side effect of having her jump back on her sultry attitude. That might have been a mistake. "I can also sense you healed some of the wounds I had, but well... Next time knock the door, I guess? You looking hot is one thing, still doesn't change the fact I do like to have a little privacy."

"Next time?" Akeno questioned, it was clear she was decided to make the most out of the whole ordeal. Props to me though, I had still somehow managed not to blush like a little bitch in front of her, so that's got to score me some points, right? The readers love that!

"I said what I said." I decided doubling down was the best shot I had at making a lasting impression on her. Given how weird our situation was already it would prove straight up impossible to make it all even weirder, which meant I have free roam to say whatever I please.

"You kind of ignored my question though." I reminded her while hearing a sweet laugh escape her plump lips. Not blushing was one thing, but there was so much a teenager like me could take before getting a boner, and I was kind of at that point right now.

I had the feeling she would make the most out of that situation too, so it was better to change the topic while I was able to. I needed to avoid doing something very stupid after all.

"I did, didn't I?" Akeno agreed, and again her infectious laugh followed her words, she had still to release her hold onto me so there was nothing more than a few centimeters that separated us two. "You see, I wanted to see for myself what the deal was with our cute new prospect... I had this nice plan thought out to give a hot surprise to what could soon be our newest devil, but when I sneaked in here..."

She left the sentence in the air, leaving me to figure out the rest of the events that had followed afterwards. Not like I needed her to finish, I had a good picture in mind of what had transpired after given the fact I was healed up, no doubt thanks to her.

"That *kind of* makes sense." I replied to her, between the two of us, her plan made no fucking sense at all to me, what kind of girl sneaks into the house of a complete stranger and jumps on his bed? Ah, that's right, Akeno. But again, this is a world where breasts can power someone up so... Nothing that weird for this world's standards.

'It's a shame though, Tsubasa does this technique while naked... I was under the impression skin contact was required for the technique to work.' I couldn't help but think that much, making a quick promise to in the not so distant future work towards having her be comfortable enough not to wear her underwear at all. That however was a topic for some other time, right now...

"You sure don't hide what you want with that look of yours..." Akeno noted with a flirtatious smile, and I still was not sure how much of this was nothing more than a joke to her. Was all of this meaningless flirting? Most likely, however there was still hope.

After all, she had to be at least a little bit interested on me or else she wouldn't even entertain this idea, right? Right.

A soft knock in the door got both of us to look towards the door that connected our kitchen with the main hall on the second floor, and there was just a single person that would be home this early in the morning.

"... What is it, mom?" I questioned from the other side. The old her would have no doubt walked in after hearing me, however after I slashed her she had become a little more... Agreeable, so to speak.

"You will be late for school." Her voice sounded distant when compared to her former self, even through the door, almost apathetic in nature. "Breakfast is ready downstairs, I will be leaving for work."

With no further words exchanged between us and not bothering to wait for the response I intended to give her, both Akeno and I heard her steps through the door, leaving without much care about what I had to say.

"..." Cold, ice cold in fact. Not that I cared about all that much about her to begin with, so this worked fine for me. I could tell Akeno was directing some weird look at me that I couldn't quite make out the meaning behind, so that was also something to note.

Was she concerned? Curious? Envious even? That I did not know, what I did know however was that I was indeed late for school, and I also happened to be sharing a bed with one of the school's idols too so yeah... This promised to be one hell of a morning.

I hate mornings, I really do. I hate it a little bit less when I wake up next to a hottie though.

End of chapter twelve.