Confession From Our Heart

"Is that your best effort?"

"Give me another two rounds!"

"What the hell are you doing? I said run, not walk,"

"My turtle can walk faster than your half-assed running,"

It was supposed to be a calm and enjoyable morning for Kagura and Co. However, they did agree to train with Ray and the special forces. To tell the truth, things are not looking well for them. Fitness program between the military and supposedly combat-able teens does have a very large gap, underestimating it will cause misfortune. Proof? Well…

Crane is a having hard time breathing to the point he couldn't move from his spot thanks to the extensive running.

Aki and Rose laid beside each other, eyes closed, mouth wide open for gaining oxygen and releasing carbon dioxide easily. Tired is an understatement for the two.

Jane despite being the granddaughter of Kaid, still couldn't do much. Stuck with the medic to heal her cramped legs.

Despite the whole crew's misfortune, some of them did manage to cope. Them being Kagura and Shiki.

"Take this!"

A roar left Shiki's lungs. His sword swung downwards, clashing with a certain captain's dagger. The two struggled in power to maintain the grip on their weapons before Ray swept his leg making the green haired teen fell. In the nick of time, Shiki did a backflip, thus letting him land safely on his feet.

The young warrior had already done with the harsh muscle training thus proceeded to close quarter combat without any magic involved. Surprisingly he managed to keep up, but from the looks of it, he might pass out if he keeps continuing the training.

'How in the world is he still standing?' Shiki thought as he vigorously breath. The fatigue is taking a toll on his body. 'He can not use magic and if he did use the demon, there should be a dark aura around him. But from the looks of it….'

The said captain remains calm in his posture with his dual daggers in his hands. No signs of actual fatigue seem to be visible on him.

'Something is not right,'

'What is it Ragsherum?'

'He's the only brat that managed to barely keep up with us and I can feel a light aura around him. As if you know, self-righteous? But that doesn't match with his persona, even in one bit,'

From Ray's perspective, he could see the green haired teen glowing with a faint light aura as if it's helping Shiki to stand on his feet. Nevertheless, the teen forfeit with his knee on the ground, gasping for air.

"That's enough for today, Shiki. We can continue tomorrow. Get some rest,"

On the other side. Two certain girls who have a huge thing for the white-haired captain, are currently clashing their blades together. Kagura with her rope daggers, gracefully dances in the battlefield, throwing the weapon to hit her opponent, Aiwa. The later on the other hand, with an SIG SAUR and a Karambit, which she borrowed from Ray, keeps countering her attacks by shooting back the daggers back to its owner.

One of the ropes managed to wrap around Aiwa's ankle. With the chance in her hand, she pulled it firmly making the girl almost lose her composure. Unbeknownst to Kagura, Aiwa was trained under Ray's wing himself. She quickly spun on her heels and yanked her leg forward causing the external force to the drag Kagura towards her. Immediately she spun again and did a quick jab right at her face. The schoolgirl got thrown a few centimetres backwards.

She wiped the spit on her mouth while having her shit-eating grin plastered on her beautiful face as if to mock her assailant. To add fuel into the fire, she taunted her by doing the akanbe. Surprisingly, it works like a charm. Tick mark started to take shape on the side of her face.

Aiwa quickly got into her battle pose, her pistol arm on the karambit's. She shot multiple rounds but only onto Kagura's non-vital parts. Panic struck her system leading her to forcefully block the bullets using her magical barrier.

"Come on Kagura," Aiwa cackled. "That's just cheating,"

"What can I do? Desperate time calls for desperate measure," Kagura retorted.

The two went into a staring contest for two minutes. Aura started to glow around their body, signalling the use of magic to further enhance their combat capabilities.

The spectators, some of the Elite Force and Martha's soldier could only witness the scene from the side line while exasperating for their action.

'They are really going at it,'

'I'm going to get into the crossfire, right?'

'Let me get my popcorns for a moment. It's a sin for me to miss this,'

Multiple coloured rope daggers started to emerge behind Kagura while Aiwa's eyes started turning bright pink, her karambit and pistol also has a pink ambience around them. Just before the two lunged at each other into a ferocious battle, a flashbang suddenly made its entrance by landing gracefully between them.

"Eh?" both exclaimed concomitantly.

BANG!

Everyone caught in the crossfire shrieked. The moment their vision became stable, Ray had already stood between the two girls, successfully stopping their fight. Both of his hands were placed firmly on their shoulder.

"Alright you two, we can stop now. You might've overdone it,"

He's not wrong. Kagura and Aiwa paused for a split second to observe their surroundings. Everyone else had already done their training and blissfully taking a break, only to be interrupted by them being too focused in their fight. They looked down in shame as red hue started to form on their cheeks. Ray chuckled.

He patted both of their heads, reassuring them. "Come on you two. Don't be so down," he keeps patting the two. "Only this time, I will overlook it. However, please be more professional next time. I might have to punish you two. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir,"

"Good," he beamed a smile. "Let's get some food, shall we?"

"Ray nii!" two shouts came from two certain kids.

A light blue and yellow blur came crashing to the captain's body. He let out a low chuckle seeing the two coming up to him giddily.

"Hey you two. I was just about to get some food. Wanna come?"

"That's why we're here," the two kids, Storm and Ariel said joyfully.

"Aiwa nee, Kagura nee, follow us too,"

"Yeah!"

Storm and Ariel playfully dragged Ray along with them, leaving the girls having to catch up to their abnormal speed for a kid. The bystanders witnessed the scene from a far with loud whistles and laughter.

"Yo captain, save some woman for us,"

"Damn captain. You're lucky!"

"Tell me when you're going to get married later,"

Ray could only sweat drop at their antics. They finally settled themselves at a cafeteria. The said location was full of customers including the soldiers who are indulging in their own food. Kagura excused herself as her group suddenly called out for her to sit with them, which they freely let her be.

Her group waved their hand, motioning her to sit with them slightly far from Ray and the immortalists. She sat down besides Aki. As soon as she got into her seat, the others started to bombard her with multiple questions to the poor girl.

"How did you manage to keep up with them!"

"Girl, that was a crazy stunt you did there. I'm surprised you're still alive,"

However, one particular question caught everyone's interest including her.

"Just what kind of monster Ray is?"

"He's not a monster!"

Kagura's shout alerted almost the whole café. Granted, Ray and his group were practically far from ear's reach. She sighed in relieved and calmed herself down.

"I'm sorry for my rude remarks," apologized the green-haired teen. "But I'm just as confused as everyone else here. You all knew about my bloodline, correct?"

They looked at each other before nodding.

"Yes,"

Shiki Azusa is famous for his rare bloodline, the hero's bloodline. It grants him the ability to sustain longer from the average fighter in the battlefield. Those ability includes strength, speed, magical prowess and even stamina.

Without a doubt Ray would puzzle the young warrior. How could an incompetent non-magic user easily best him in contest of power. Magic in this world gives one a slight boost in every aspect. Non-magic users are being looked down due to them having a lot of disadvantages in everything.

Kagura sighed. "You'll get used to it. I was just like you guys too. I can hardly keep up with his training but fighting him WITH magic is actually doable,"

"Speaking of Ray," Rose interrupted. "How's your progress with him? When are you going to confess? Oh, that girl Aiwa too! Maybe you should just kidnap Ray and- "

"Alright, that's enough talking, Rose" her mouth was suddenly shut by Jane to prevent her loudmouth spouting out inappropriate words.

"MMMFFF!"

"She's getting blue,"

"Woops, sorry," she eventually released her hand, giving a room to breath some oxygen into her lungs.

"Well, I was thinking about talking to Aiwa about it. We decided to come to a conclusion of sharing him,"

"Huh?"

This puzzled the whole group. Logically, girls are very competitive when it comes to their loved one. Plus, how will Ray react to this?

"Are you sure about that? You know it's going to be hard later. It might come to bite you in the back,"

"I'm positive. So, the only thing the two of us will need is to confess to him. We could only hope that he accepts us,"

"Tch," a certain spiky blonde-haired male clicked his tongue silently. He roughly chugged his drink in anger while being observed by his green-haired mentor. Shiki sighed.

"Just give it up Crane. Is there any reason for you to be mad? Everyone is cheering for her. If you truly love her, you should just let her go,"

"Shut it, Shiki. You've never fallen in love with anyone. You wouldn't understand a thing,"

"Now that's just harsh," Shiki wiped a fake tear at the corner of his eyes. He turned his direction to look at Ray, who is having a little bit of trouble handling Storm and Ariel, as the two keep pestering him to feed them, much to the group's delight. Shiki couldn't help but smiled and pointed at their direction for Crane to observe.

"Look at them Crane. Couldn't you look at how happy they are with him. I don't think there's anything wrong with letting Kagura be with him,"

Crane huffed in annoyance. "You can never trust a demon holder. Don't forget what your bloodline used to do until now," he said. Shiki could only lower his head.

"Yeah, I know,"

...........................…..

The pale crescent moon shone like a silvery claw in the night sky. A certain white-haired male is walking around the village, taking some fresh air. Strangely enough, he couldn't get any sleep at all tonight. His danger instinct keeps bothering him in his sleep. As if, something sinister is about to be released.

Suddenly, he heard someone talking to each other not far from his current location. He turned to the direction of the voice and saw Aiwa and Kagura talking with a worried expression. They let out a heavy sigh while leaning against the balcony of the village inn.

'What's wrong with them?' he thought to himself. Ray walked up to them to greet the two girls.

"Hey girls," he greeted warmly. "What are you two doing here? I thought everyone else had gone to sleep,"

Kagura and Aiwa were surprised by his appearance. Aiwa cleared her throat before replying. "Nothing, just about some...stuff,"

"Yeah," Kagura answered tensely. "Enough about us. What are you doing here? Weren't you with Ariel and Storm minutes ago,"

"I was," Ray answered. "Until they got sleepy. So, I tucked them into bed. They are a handful," he rubbed his head sheepishly.

"I was just about to go on a walk. Care to join? It might take your mind off your problem," he invited the two. The two looked at each other before nodding in agreement.

"Sure, let's go," the three left the inn and let their steps lead them.

They eventually reached the entrance of the village. The chilly wind blows soothingly as it brushes some of their exposed skin. The two girls, who are surprisingly low resistant towards the cold night started to shiver. Ray noticing their uncomfortable gestures, took off his jacket and put it on Aiwa, while his scarf is on Kagura.

"Here, you two need it more than me," now he consists only in his pants and dark blue long-sleeved shirt. Kagura and Aiwa made eye contact with the young captain the moment he gave them the clothes, only to quickly shift their attention shyly, confusing the captain.

"How about you? Aren't you going to get cold?" Kagura asked. Ray chuckled before patting their head.

"Nah, I'm fine. Besides, this cold is nothing compared to what I've faced and thanks to my new ice magic, I can withstand the cold much stronger," he keeps rubbing their heads lovingly while they closed their eyes in bliss.

Realising their chances, Aiwa decided to act.

'It's now or never,' she thought to herself.

"Actually Ray, we do have a little bit of problem. Only you can solve it," this landed a question mark on Ray's head.

"What is it?"

"Let's go to that bench over there shall we? It's better that way," they made their way to a wooden bench placed between two light poles. The three sat down with Ray in the middle of the two charming girls. Sweat started to form on his forehead despite the cold wind brushing against his skin.

Kagura started to lean her head on his right shoulder while Aiwa faced him with a confident look from his left. "What do you think of us, Ray?" Aiwa asked.

"What do I think of you two?"

"..."

He paused for a moment, which worried the two females. However, they could soon let out a relieve after hearing Ray's response.

He took a deep breath and smiled brightly. "You two are the most wonderful girl I've ever met. At first, I was scared, especially with Kagura. Were you going to betray me too? That was my first impression the moment I had met you. I think I've told you about my past with woman. Having framed for sexual assault was not the best experience known to every man,"

"However, the longer we spent time together, I managed to realize that you are very different. That goes the same to you Aiwa. Kind, beautiful, reliable and loyal," he stopped for a while as he felt his heart skipped a beat.

'There's no turning back now, is it?'

'Damn right you are kid,'

'Shut it Ragsherum,'

"And truthly speaking. I,"

"I love both of you dearly,"

Kagura's and Aiwa's eyes went wide. Those are the words, that they want to hear. Even though it doesn't go as planned, it's still a welcome one.

Kagura started sobbing while Aiwa had tears in her eyes, startling and worrying the young solider.

"Wait, did I say something wrong. I know it's not that cheesy and you might not like it- "his words were stopped by a sudden kiss on his cheek and a warm hug. His mental paused for a brief second.

"Actually, it's quite the opposite. That was the words that we wanted to hear," said Aiwa.

"We were really worried that you might reject us and eventually ruin our friendship altogether. We were scared that might not even be friends anymore,"

"And I guess it's time for our own response," the two girls inhaled a deep breath before hugging him comfortably and said.

"We love you, Ray! We'll be in your care from now," Ray accepted the hug, indulging himself in the warmth.

"Thanks a lot girls, that really means a lot to me," despite being a soldier, his soft heart couldn't take it. Tears of gratitude formed on the corner of his eyes.

The two continued to hug for a while. Unbeknownst to them, some people are watching from afar. The girls squealed delightfully and some of the boys congratulate their captain for his success in romance.

"Took them long enough, didn't they?"

"You can say that again,"

"At least Ray doesn't have to face that bullcrap anymore,"

"Shush, quiet down for a bit. We might get spotted,"

They let the two in their own little world, enjoying each other's warmth, as the stars shone with all of its glory to the newly formed couple as if wishing them for the best, in the future.