Nakuru VS Kouro

Kouro along with Susannah went to exercise at their usual place, where they found out that Durandal was already there and was focused on warming up.

Well... This is not surprising, Durandal always trains with a set of exercises very similar to 'Goku' compared to Kouro's exercise following the set of 'Saitama' exercises.

Because of this, Durandal sometimes wondered how Kouro who only did such a small amount of training sets could become so strong.

If Kouro knew what she was thinking, he would have told her to apologize to 'Saitama' who had become invincible after doing that set of exercises...

Kouro and Susannah then greeted her before also starting to exercise.

By the way, Susannah was not an avid exerciser at first, but... After seeing Kouro exercising diligently she ended up following suit... And of course, the reason she often exercised together with Kouro was definitely not to see his body okay!

'Well... Although the smell of Kouro's sweat is fragrant and makes people feel addicted... No! Susannah remember you're exercising to maintain your body!'

She who was currently staring at Kouro who was exercising quickly slapped both her cheeks before focusing on exercising.

Kouro who didn't know the turmoil of Susannah's mind, by now had gotten used to the exercise set given by the daily Quest, he even increased his exercise even if it didn't give him a better reward.

After two hours of non-stop training, Kouro finally stopped, his body already sweaty, he then picked up a small white towel before wiping his face.

He turned to look at Durandal who was still exercising, he didn't bother her as he saw her very focused on exercising.

He then turned to look at Susannah who had also finished exercising, her body was sweating so much that she didn't realize that it had soaked her clothes which were just a thin black tank top.

Kouro could see a beautiful scene, but he just put on a natural demeanor as if he did not see the beautiful scenery.

After all... As someone who had once peeked at her while bathing albeit 'unintentionally', he had already seen Susannah's 'beautiful body', so he felt normal.

But...

Kouro's eyebrows visibly twitched as he looked at Susannah, due to guilt, he actually wanted to forget about it, but the more he thought about forgetting about it, the more the memory took root in his brain.

'Damn! Having a strong memory is really good- I mean, bad...'

He really couldn't forget the memory that was still fresh in his mind.

"Kouro, what's wrong?" asked Susannah after feeling Kouro's gaze.

"It's nothing." Kouro's eyes naturally avoided Susannah's gaze.

He then looked at Durandal again who was still focused on exercising even though her body was covered in sweat.

"Bianca-san, I'm going to the arena first, see you later." He then said goodbye to Durandal.

By the way, Kouro ended up calling Durandal by her real name because they became close after they practiced sparring with each other.

He also said goodbye to Susannah who was currently leaving to meet her team.

Kouro initially wanted to accompany her, but Susannah politely refused, saying that she could go alone.

Because of this, Kouro ended up going to the arena to spar as usual with Lin and Ana, but this time he saw a new face...

"Who are you?"

He looked at Nakuru who was standing beside Lin with his eyebrows raised, he could vaguely sense an unusual aura from Nakuru.

Hearing his question, Lin then quickly introduced Nakuru to him, "This girl is Kurokami Nakuru, she is a B-rank Valkyrie and she is here because she wants to spar with you."

Kouro nodded his head and smiled warmly at Nakuru, though Nakuru returned a strange smile...

He didn't really mind anyway this wasn't the first time he had sparred with a Valkyrie other than Durandal, Lin, and Ana.

Previously, when he practiced with the two of them, there were sometimes some young Valkyries who also wanted to come to spar with him.

Even so, the end result was the same, namely losing, but strangely they did not look sad at all but instead looked happy to be defeated by him.

Hmm... It seems like the Valkyries always have a good mentality, he should definitely emulate them in terms of mentality.

(E/D: Blackholes are the strangest things in the Universe. They just don't make any sense.)

Kouro did not know that the young Valkyries were happy not because their mentality was good, no, maybe this was one of the reasons, but the main reason was that after finishing sparring, Kouro would always carry the most seriously injured ones in a princess carry.

As Valkyries, they all knew that they were destined to always experience near-death situations, hence their more mature mentality.

And as young girls, of course, they wanted to feel 'Love', hence Kouro who was the only male of the same age as they would be sought after by all the young Valkyries.

Well... It's not surprising, after all which girl wouldn't want to be with Kouro?

Even a Herrscher herself would target him... In a 'positive' sense, of course.

Kouro also didn't realize that he had even been targeted by a god...

...

A few minutes later...

Kouro had finished sparring with Lin and Ana, regarding Nakuru, he wanted to spar against him alone.

Kouro didn't think much of it and accepted it.

Currently, Nakuru was looking at Kouro who was currently resting with a pensive expression.

'I can see that he suppressed his strength when fighting those two, he fought against them purely with his martial ability... If that's the case then his power level is probably equivalent to a veteran A-rank Valkyrie, no, probably equivalent to an S-rank Valkyrie!'

'Hmm... If I fight him without using my shadow power...' Nakuru with a thoughtful expression was calculating his winning percentage against Kouro.

Shadow who had been trained by World Serpent naturally had a strong physique, but even so, he rarely fought frontally like Kouro.

He has been trained to be an assassin, and an assassin must kill the target 'quickly' and 'precisely'.

He also relied too much on his shadow power because of which he was not too confident in his martial art skills.

After calculating for a while, he finally concluded.

He wouldn't win against Kouro, if he didn't use his shadow power, of course, he didn't feel like he would lose against him either.

After all, he had more experience in fighting against humans than Kouro.

But he felt unsure because he had never seen Kouro's full power.

Well... No matter what, after he sparred against him he would definitely know Kouro's true strength.

After a few minutes of rest, Kouro and Nakuru then climbed onto the arena and faced each other 3 meters apart.

They did not use any weapons.

Nakuru looked at him with a serious expression before taking up an attack stance.

Kouro's eyebrows raised slightly at the sight of the stance, that was because the stance was a move his grandfather had taught him.

As expected, Nakuru's background was unusual.

He seemed to think for a moment before finally adopting the same attacking stance Nakuru used.

'Maybe being a little serious wouldn't be bad either.'

Nakuru's eyes narrowed at this.

Lin who was currently the referee then looked at the two of them and raised her hand before dropping it.

"Start!"

*Swoosh! * x2

At the same time at high speed, their fists clashed together creating a shockwave.

*BOOM!*

They were both knocked back a few steps before looking at each other with serious expressions.

'Our strength is... the Same!' x2

Kouro did not expect that Nakuru who was a B-ranks Valkyrie would have the same strength as him.

He was a little surprised, but quickly became focused again.

This time the two of them did not rush to attack like before, they walked in a circle and slowly approached each other.

Once Nakuru came into the scope of his attack, Kouro quickly performed a spinning kick.

*BAM!*

Kouro's kick was blocked, no, parried by Nakuru's kick, they then did a few more kick-based attacks that were blocked by each other before then fighting with their hands.

With the distance so close, they fought each other using martial arts at such a high speed, that Lin couldn't even see their movements clearly.

But this time their attacks looked completely different, Nakuru was seen fighting by constantly targeting Kouro's weak points like an assassin, while Kouro himself was also doing the same thing but more like a hunter...

There was only one thought in Lin and Ana's minds when they saw the two of them fight, 'What the hell! Nakuru-chan can actually fight equally with the Captain!?'

Kouro and Nakuru's violet eyes shone brightly, they never took their eyes off each other, and their attacks also gradually became more aggressive.

Kouro's fists grew fiercer and finally broke Nakuru's defense, his fists then seemed to be getting closer to Nakuru's face, but he looked calm and even walked forward to face the attack, his body suddenly moving in a strange snake-like manner.

Nakuru ducked his head and felt the wind rushing over his head, he then made a kick aimed at Kouro's cheek.

'Damn it!' Kouro thought, he quickly raised his hand to protect his cheek.

Unfortunately, it was too late.

*BAM!*

The kick hit his cheek causing him to be knocked back a few steps, Nakuru did not waste the opportunity, he ran and quickly did a 'Dropkick' towards him.

Kouro who saw this quickly raised his arms and even raised one leg to protect his body.

*BAM!*

He was knocked back a few meters due to the thrusting force, but even so, his defensive stance did not change at all, and even scuffed the floor.

Both of Kouro's hands looked reddened and even slightly smoky from Nakuru's attack.

He looked at Nakuru from behind his hands with a serious expression.

'She's strong, strong enough to be able to compete against Durandal... Then I must be serious.'

Kouro's eyes shone brightly, he activated [Sprint] and it only took a blink of an eye to suddenly appear in front of Nakuru.

But seeing this, Nakuru's movements did not slow down, he without hesitation punched straight at Kouro who was in front of him.

But Kouro suddenly disappeared and then appeared behind him with his fist strengthened by the [Power Strike] ability.

"What!?" Nakuru's eyes darted around, as he felt a powerful killing aura from behind him.

He looked back with a dumbfounded expression, Kouro's fist looked enormous in front of his eyes.

'DEATH.'

That was all Nakuru had in mind, he subconsciously activated his shadow power before the fist stopped inches in front of his face.

*SWOOSH!*

A shockwave seemed to come out of Kouro's attack that made Nakuru's hair flutter and even all the objects behind him fall apart.

"I give up." said Kouro with a bitter smile to Nakuru who looked dumbfounded.

He gave up because he had used his full strength, after all this was just a sparring match not a life and death battle.

So he then quickly turned around and jumped out of the arena.

"Etto... The winner is Kurokami Nakuru!" Lin raised Nakuru's hand under the applause of the crowd.

Nakuru then looked at Kouro before shouting, "Why are you giving up?"

Kouro seemed to pause before turning to look at him for a moment and saying, "I'm hungry."

After which he walked back towards his room but then stopped again before turning around and looking at Nakuru, "Want to eat with me? I'll cook."

Nakuru wore a surprised expression before unconsciously smiling, "I hope your cooking can satisfy me."

He did not realize that his hatred for Kouro had lessened, perhaps because he admired a strong person.

He then walked side by side with Kouro leaving Lin and Ana looking at each other.

"Lin-chan... Don't tell me Captain asked Nakuru-chan out?" asked Ana with a worried expression.

"....Maybe..." Lin replied with a wry smile.

If the two of them knew Nakuru's true gender they probably wouldn't have thought of this, no, maybe they would have thought that Kouro was 'Gay'.

Kouro didn't know what the two of them were thinking and even if he did he just said that the two of them were thinking too much, he was just purely inviting Nakuru to eat together.

But... if he knew Nakuru's true gender he would probably have an expression that could not be described in words.

A man who had a face that was more beautiful than most girls...

Fortunately, Kouro did not have such a fetish.

(E/D: Unfortunately, I do have such a fetish.)

...

It was only after he exited the arena that he stopped and stared at the few people in front of him with a speechless expression.

"Why are you guys here?"

Kouro looked at Kiana, Mei, Bronya, Ayame, Himeko, Kallen, and Theresa who were in front of him.