[Battle]

After Divergence, the idea I had for the shield just didn't seem to stack up. It was too impractical and too situational for it to be used.

The idea was a shoddy round shield that was so badly made that it looked like a table. To anyone with eyes, it looked like it would fall apart with one hit.

That was the bait.

In reality, there was a deconstruction spell embedded into the side of its inch-thick width. The moment something hit it, it would explode outwards and disintegrate anything that the pieces touched.

Numerous issues deterred me from creating the shield, however. For one, this would be a spar. The deconstruction embedded into the shield would be self-acting and I wouldn't be able to stop it if it decided to disintegrate my opponent.

Secondly, the reaction time needed for that to work was most likely beyond me, and I didn't want to test it during battle.

And finally, it required too much magic for a one-shot move. I didn't have the magic required to fill it up after creating Divergence, and the fight was in a day.

So I scrapped it and settled for a 50cm hardwood and steel round shield. Anything else would be impractical or cost too much magic, so I didn't put anything on it.

That was yesterday. Today, I was heading to the chosen fighting area with my wakizashi on my right hip and my shield strapped to my left arm.

After a few minutes of walking, I finally arrived at the clearing near the school. An obscure place, to be sure, but this was the chosen area.

It seemed that I was the late one, as everyone was present. And I mean everyone.

And it also seemed that with my training, I was among the same level of power that almost everyone else had.

<Katsuo Naoki – Battle Rating: C>

Both peerages, Sona's and Rias' were waiting on the sidelines while Saji stood on the other side. Sona began speaking to me, something about making sure of something?

I don't know.

I couldn't hear her over the drumming of my heartbeat. My breathing picked up as well as I readied myself for a fight.

The glare the blonde was giving me told me that he knew what this fight truly was. A clash of wills, a settling of pride. Not some petty test to find out if I was strong enough to take care of some shitty crows.

This was a- wait. No.

None of that made sense. This IS just a test, not whatever I just thought it was.

I shook off those destructive thoughts and readied myself to fight, resting my hand on the hilt of my sword while the other held the scabbard.

We both simultaneously glanced at Sona for her to signal the fight. She sighed, and I could faintly hear her mutter something about 'boys' and 'fragile'.

Rolling her eyes, she raised her hand into the air.

I tried to activate Revelation Shatter but to no avail.

'This is your fight. Do it yourself.' Cain said blandly, offering nothing else.

That feeling came back full force, filling me with a confidence I didn't know I had. A justification.

Not being able to use my sacred gear? Great. Perfect, even. Now no one can say that I won this by relying on some old sealed-up fool. All of this will be from my own efforts.

My own strength. Me. I will not lose here. Because throughout heaven, hell, and earth-

"Begin!" Sona yelled, bringing her arm down.

-I alone am the honored one.

[}-{]

Seeing Naoki again, Sona was very surprised at his rapid change. Even if she didn't show it.

For one, there was the blade he hadn't told anyone about. She didn't even know he knew how to use a sword, much less own one.

And although his magic power hadn't changed that much, even she could tell that he was quite a bit stronger than before.

That fact concerned her more than anything. His power growth was much more than she anticipated and extremely abnormal. To reach the level of power he'd obtained in a few days would've taken other humans years.

Lifetimes even, for the truly untalented.

Humans were among the weakest, and their growth rate was low as well. Even with Sacred Gears, they just didn't have the strength to back it up most of the time.

This... HE was an outlier. An anomaly. And a problem.

But she decided to ignore that in favor of watching the fight. If things got out of hand, they'd have to be the ones to stop it.

They did have phoenix tears on hand for healing, but she'd prefer not to have to use those for a spar as meaningless as this one.

And as she looked to her right and saw Rias' familiar starstruck look, she resigned herself to dealing with this alone if it came to it.

That was the same look she had whenever she deemed something 'so cool!'. Usually, it was reserved for anime, but Sona mused that the oriental weapon he had must've sold her.

So she rolled her eyes and decided to get this lunacy over with.

The moment she commenced the fight's beginning, the battlefield went eerily silent. Not a single breath nor a movement was made, almost as if time had frozen over.

And then, Saji made the first move.

He ran quickly, keeping his sloppy boxing stance, as he swiftly closed in on Naoki as he stood there with sharp brown eyes.

'He's not using his Sacred Gear? Odd.' She thought, referring to both of the two boys.

The moment he got within close range, he threw two jabs while still moving forwards. Naoki didn't even blink, simply stepping back while seamlessly blocking the two hits with his shield.

"Worthless." Naoki muttered, not breaking a sweat.

Her pawn continued this for a few seconds, a boring bout of jabs and blocks. He couldn't get through Naoki's defense and Naoki didn't seem to care much for retaliating yet.

Frustrated, Saji did something unexpected.

"Promotion: Rook!" He shouted, his demonic power shifting and increasing as he became more physically powerful and durable.

Naoki only raised an eyebrow, before finally taking advantage of an opening he saw, taking out his black blade and slashing at Saji's head in one instantaneous movement.

She almost rushed to stop him but stopped herself when she saw the blade go through Saji's head, yet do nothing at all. No pain, no screaming, no blood. As if the sword wasn't even real.

Everyone present was confused at the development, including Naoki from his expression, but Saji was the first to recover first.

Taking advantage of the pause, Saji crouched down and winded up all his strength into a sloppy uppercut, attempting to take advantage of his momentarily improved strength.

Seemingly instinctively, Naoki blocked the punch but was still sent flying into the air due to the force behind the punch.

While in mid-air, Naoki began to glow a bright white, his Ki flaring to life. Using his temporarily boosted strength, he sent back two flying sword slashes.

Both slashes of pressurized wind managed to hit Saji, creating a dust cloud that obscured him from those watching, as Naoki landed flawlessly.

It was an intense start to a battle, and the silence that resided on the battlefield again showed that.

Suddenly, a blue rope flew out from the dust cloud, threatening to ensnare and absorb the power of whatever it touched.

Without missing a beat, Naoki simply raised his shield to it. It impacted, before curving in the air and wrapping around the shield.

"Ha! I bet you didn't expect that, did ya?" Saji laughed triumphantly, thinking he finally had an advantage over Naoki.

In response, Naoki slashed down at the offending blue line, before tilting his head when the sword impacted it but didn't go through.

"Interesting. Useless in your hands, but interesting nonetheless," He responded blandly, before readying his footing for his next action.

He heaved, pulling Saji towards him by the Absorption Line that connected the two. Surprised, Saji panicked in the air before catching himself, letting out his wings, and disconnecting the line.

She noticed that as the battle continued, Naoki's face became more and more serene. Slowly, he was becoming the picture-perfect image of calm.

"Oh? It seems Cain was right about that one. Though, I don't like being looked down at; Come down here." He commanded Saji, unperturbed by his ability to fly.

Saji sputtered before screaming back indignantly, "Haah?! Who the hell do you think you a-"

The packed dirt beneath Naoki's feet shattered into cracks as he tapped the ground with his foot. He blurred through the air before arriving a bit above Saji, his leg raised above his head. His foot glowed with a sinister white, the usage of Ki abundant.

"Fine, then. I'll simply step over you," He declared.

The axe kick that descended upon Saji threatened to send him flying to the ground at dangerous speeds. In a moment of desperation, Saji raised his hands above his head.

Within that split second, the Absorption Line came out and wrapped around Naoki's ankle, connecting the two. Still, Saji was already hit.

He plummeted to the ground, forming a crater with him lying in the middle of it.

Naoki, noticing the line between the two, quickly acted. Swiftly and in one movement, he pulled in his legs before taking off his shoes and socks.

Underneath all of that were white bandages that wrapped around his feet tightly. Throwing his shoes away from him, he flipped through the air as he was pulled to the ground. A white glow resurfaced on his legs to signify his Ki.

Contrasting Saji's pitiful state, Naoki kicked off the air a few feet from the ground, landing gracefully opposite of him.

'Did... did he just double jump?' She blinked, confused at what she'd just seen.

A sudden sound disrupted the flow of the battle, everyone pausing to see Rias enthusiastically clapping and smiling with that star-struck look on her face.

Noticing everyone's stares, she stopped, looking around, "Eh heh heh... sorry," she muttered, avoiding the judgmental but fond looks.

Sona failed to hold back her urge to facepalm, almost groaning at her best friend's antics.

The attention was brought back to the fight as Saji slowly stood back up, dusting himself off. He looked pained and bruised, but there was no blood drawn yet.

He raised his fists silently, his bravado from earlier shattered.

Naoki sighed, taking his shield off and placing it down on the ground. "Surrender. Otherwise, you will die by my hand." He simply said. Sona shuddered at the way he said it.

It wasn't a normal statement.

From the way he said it, it was an edict of truth.

"With my Absorption Line connected between us, I'll always have the upper hand! You can't beat me if we're like thi-" Saji began, gesturing to the blue line between them.

"Understood,-" Naoki suddenly threw his scabbard at his opponent.

Surprised, Saji barely managed to block it as it bounced off his Absorption Line and into the air. Taking advantage of that split second, Naoki blurred forward, catching it in the air and slashing downwards with his other hand.

The hit made sparks fly from the blade and Absorption Line, but Naoki wasn't finished. He used the scabbard and hit upwards from below, knocking Saji's head backward.

After that was a flurry of slashes and blows in an odd bout of dual-wielding. With his Ki to boost him, Saji could barely react, getting bludgeoned and having phantom slashes fly at him.

Still, none of the attacks seemed to do anything substantial before Saji became frustrated and managed to stop the scabbard mid-attack, causing it to spin in the air.

Taking advantage of that, Naoki jumped into the air and steadied the scabbard with his foot, before kicking it, hitting Saji in the face with the other end and sending him flying a few feet back.

The absorption line pulled against Naoki, but he was like a statue, unmoving. It stopped Saji in mid-air and made him fall to the ground faster.

"-You have chosen death."

Saji once again tried to stand up, seeing that Naoki was walking towards him. He almost managed but fell to his knees instead. Something was wrong.

Disregarding the sword that seemed to go through his body, he hadn't taken that much damage considering his Rook promotion. He shouldn't have been tired enough that he couldn't stand.

When he was finally in front of Saji, he looked down at him with what looked like pity. Then, a moment later, his face abruptly shifted into one of impassivity.

"Rejoice, Genshirou Saji. You can die with honor knowing that your final opponent was me."

With that, he raised his sword above his head, a familiar glow beginning to emanate from it. And then he slashed down.

The screeching of metal on metal was the result.

Multiple different magic circles flared to life as almost every devil present rushed to stop the execution. Kiba and Tomoe stopped the slash with their blades, while the rest used their respective magic to restrain him.

Although all present saw how the blade had no effect, there was a finality in his tone that caused them to act. He truly believed it would kill Saji, and no one here wanted to take that chance.

No one even got a word out before thick layers of bloodlust oozed off of him. He closed his eyes, breathing deeply before he scoffed.

"Fuck it, then," he muttered, loud enough for everyone present to hear.

His eyes opened, flickering from light brown to scarlet red, before settling on scarlet. That was another thing, she realized. He hadn't even been using his Sacred Gear.

"You want to get in my way? Fine."

The screeching of the swords slowly started to become cracks as the Ki surrounding his body slowly increased, parallel to his bloodlust.

"All those who are foolish enough to face me..."

The blood-lust she felt coming from him exploded outwards, promising certain death if they moved any closer, and emphasizing the weight of his words.

A red magic circle with an insignia unfamiliar to her began to expand underneath all of them, brimming to life ominously.

"Do not truly understand the value of lif-"

His words were cut off, as was the blood-lust, as his eyes became white. He passed out while standing up, his body following shortly after, crumpling like a puppet without its strings.

There was a tense atmosphere as no one moved, still locked onto his unconscious form.

A few of them fainted from the sheer amount of bloodlust, while others like herself, were sweating and trembling out of fear.

Koneko, in particular, was on the verge of having a panic attack.

"...The fuck... was that?" Thank you, Saji, for so eloquently expressing everyone's present thoughts.

-----

A/N: I decided to change the chapter a bit. The previous iteration made it seem like Katsuo lost completely, but that wasn't my intention.

It was supposed to be 'A technical draw, but obviously in favor of Katsuo.' The main point of this fight was to showcase his pride, which only showed up at the end from Sona's perspective in the last iteration.

Will post again in a little while.