Dungeons and Devils 2 (Chapter 14) (Patreon)

I sit cross-legged in front of a white haired girl who stares at her hands, two cat-like ears sit atop her head as her eyes close, she takes deep breaths.

Her hands begin to suddenly shake as I reach out and place a hand on her shoulder. "You've got this. It can't hurt you. You won't hurt anyone. Even if you somehow were corrupted, which is impossible need I remind you, I'd be able to stop and fix you. You. Are. Safe. Don't let fear and anxiety control you."

She takes a shaky breath then exhales; her eyes cracking open as she looks around.

"Have you got it?" I question.

She quietly nods once.

Good.

I slowly stand, an illusion surrounding me.

I turn invisible underneath and begin slowly walking to the side, her gaze following me as she turns her head. Not seeing through my brown-haired disguise but being about to see my 'life aura'.

I dispel both illusions and nod slowly. "Good. You're starting to get into it. Let's see if we can reawaken your Touki now. Stand up."

The girl slowly rises to her feet and takes a deep breath as her arms fall to her side.

Touki flares around my body as I cross my arms in front of my chest.

A white aura flares out from her briefly, but it rapidly dissipates into mere motes of white light as she lets out a shuddering gasp.

"Take your time." I soothe. "We've got all day."

She shakes her head and tries again, this time the aura completely surrounding her and sustaining itself.

"Good... it looks like you weren't all that out of practice to begin with." I nod slowly.

"Attack me." I order.

"H-Huh?" The girl mutters.

"This is sparring. I need to see just how strong you are."

"Oh." The girl mutters.

"Here I come..." She announces in her muted deadpan tone.

She lunges forwards with a sudden charge, punching towards my center of mass, I make sure to tell my tails to not immediately fuck her over by tripping her, stealing her panties, ripping her skirt off, and putting her in a stranglehold all at once.

My tails are kinky perverts. Who knew.

Instead, I simply twist out of the way allowing her punch to pass me by as I fold my arms behind my back.

Her leg comes up and with a brief spin she lashes out with a kick that I narrowly avoid by leaning back, causing the girl to inadvertently flash her panties at me.

"Don't high kick in a skirt." I chastise.

Her mouth morphs into a frown. "Pervert."

"You're the one showing your panties to me." I reflect with an eye roll as I suddenly backflip, avoiding two rapid, mildly miffed punches.

My tails arc downwards and act as basically four long extended legs as I use them to propel myself back further.

'Well, damn, since I got four of them now, just call me Doc Ock.'

'Wait... why was he called Doc Ock again? He only had four of those big limbs..."

I land on the ground and guide another punch out of the way.

'Well, I mean, technically speaking, two arms, two legs, four robot legs is eight... is that why he's Doc Ock? Is marvel a thing here? I mean, gods exist in that world and anything in anime that is 'supernatural' more or less is changed by the thing in question so... hn...'

'My tails lash out, wrapping around her wrists as she struggles against my vice like grip.

I'd imagine at the very least Ironman and spiderman exist here... perhaps captain America? I don't know if they became popular here or not...'

Fuck. I'll be forced to check that out. Does Robert Downey Junior exist here? What's the state of movie actors.

I lazily fling the petite girl over my head, causing her to flip through the air as her body crashes through a few of the thick upper branches of a nearby tree, causing wood chips to rain down on me.

'Oops. Anyways, I should probably check to see if Marvel is real then start collecting some of that stuff. That sounds pretty rad.'

Koneko lunges around the tree as I turn to face her, I hold up a single hand.

Her fist impacts my open palm with a noise akin to thunder, my fingers wrap around her knuckles as I smile slightly.

She seems briefly stunned that I just took her touki enhanced rook strength head on.

I pull her forwards and punch her in the stomach with my other hand, flipping her over my head as she lets out a low wheeze.

She rolls across the ground and flips to her feet.

"Very good Koneko, but let's stop here... there's other things I want to teach you... things that I am fairly sure that you don't know how to do." I say as I fold my arms behind my head. "firstly, are you hurt at all? I can heal any scrapes and bruises with senjutsu easily."

"I'm fine... Rook durability and Touki..."

"Ah good. I was worried about the tree slightly as it tore your shirt a little." I point at her. "Mend."

The miniature rips in the back of her clothes seal up I dispel my touki aura.

The girl follows along and falls to a seated position, letting out a huff of exertion.

"Wait... before I teach you this new thing... do you know how to use Youjutsu?"

The white haired girl tilts her head, her ears quirking slightly then shakes her head.

"Oh. In that case, I'll give you a choice... would you like to learn some basic Elemental Youjutsu or something that'll put some real oomph into your punches?"

"Punch." The girl responds simply and immediately.

"Oh goodie. I haven't really tested the limits of this yet." I smirk as I raise my fists and turn to the side. "You normally use touki like... this."

I activate my touki as normal, briefly meditating to regain ki points.

"Mn Mn." The girl nods twice, seemingly deeply invested in where this is going.

"What you probably don't know is that you can do this."

The aura around my hands intensifies as I do a few quick jabs.

"By controlling your touki and wielding it as sort of an explosive you can cause some real damage with it... oh, and it's not merely your hands you can do this with... you can channel it into anything. Drastically improving not only the damage potential, but the durability of the items immensely."

I walk over to the tree and give it a fairly weak punch.

The bark is blasted off in a small circle as the wood becomes slightly splintered.

"But... through mastery and a lot of your ki... you could eventually concentrate it to the point where it does something like this."

I thump the tree trunk causing an explosion to rip entirely through it, sending splinters careening out the other side, the tree begins to fall towards me, but I simply hold up a single hand and catch it, holding it there for a moment before redirecting it down to the side.

"The thing with this power though is that it isn't merely a 'one and done' power... it sticks about as long as your touki does meaning..."

I gently chop the fallen tree, creating showers of splinters as I walk along it. "Each. And. Every. Attack. Has this force."

The energy aura is erased as I look back to Koneko.

Her eyes sparkle as I see the first unsuppressed emotion I have seen on her face.

Desire... and unsuppressed wonder

Not for me or in a lustful way, but a deep desire to learn.

"But I'll warn you right here and now... what I just did took a LOT of my energy. If you plan to go 'all in' like that, I'll also teach you a method to prolong your touki usage and how to extend this 'touki infusion' ability."

"Don't care... want." The girl replies

"Alright, stand up, I'll walk you through how to manipulate your touki to explode out when you want while also protecting yourself from damage." I state as I slowly walk towards her.

**Linebreak**

I look between Akeno and Rias. "I don't really have much to say to either of you as advice for training, but I do have some minor observations, Rias, you overly rely on your power of destruction, yes, it's powerful, but it sort of renders you a one trick pony... which is probably a bad thing despite how powerful that trick may be... Akeno, you only seem to use the bishop aspect of your queen piece, leaving the strength and durability of the rook and the speed of the knight to rot."

"Rias, the one thing I can suggest for you is to get some variation to your power of destruction. Instead of just gathering a metric ass load of it and shooting a big blob of it at people, experiment... you like animes, right?"

The girl who was cupping her chin and looking down at the floor thoughtfully glances up to me, she seems happy that I am being 'nicer' than I was on the first day.

"I-… yeah... I do." She nods.

"Why not pull a Frieza and try small blasts of destruction to disable enemies before finishing them off with a big blast... because they could dodge your first attack and then you're out of luck and weakened because you spent a lot of energy." I question. "Admittedly this won't work on Riser, but it'd be pretty good on any of his peerage that can't regenerate."

"That... could be useful in the future... but I really need something that'll work on Riser specifically. He's the biggest problem we have and... I have no real way to deal with him."

"Why don't you just use your devil imagination magic to use a spell to stop him from regenerating?" I question.

"Devil magic doesn't work like-" the girl begins only to cut off, inhale and exhale. "Devil magic, can be called 'the power of imagination' and while that is technically correct, that really only applies to simple magics... a ball of water or a bolt of lightning for instance. We can't just... imagine ridiculous things like time stopping... or a boost in physical strength. It doesn't work like that."

"Oh, I see... I sort of thought you all were just boring and unimaginative."

"That is a very narrowminded way to-"

"Almost as narrowminded as killing a village of extremely rare youkai because one singular youkai snapped and killed their master." I shrug with a bright smile, causing the red-haired girl to cringe and almost fold in on herself.

"Well, I guess 'Village' is a bit of a strong word... more like 'family'. Five people don't really make a 'Village.' But I mean, your race literally killed more than fifty percent of their race and forcefully reincarnated two others, hell, I think there's only one pure Nekoshou left alive and she's only like eight years old!"

"But ah, that's not important right now, we're working on beating up your little disgrace of a boyfriend."

"Riser is NOT my-" Rias protests.

"He... sort of is... like... legally..." I point out bluntly. "Because you're engaged."

She silently fumes as I suggest something actually helpful. "Why don't you just hurt him so bad he gives up then?"

"huh?" The red head mutters.

"His regeneration restores his body, not his mind. Just have Akeno here go all Pope Palpatine on his ass until he gives up and be done with it." I state while gesturing to Akeno. "Or, another plan... his regeneration is fire based, just freeze him or drop a biblical storm upon him. Snuff out that fire. Change the battlefield into a humid, muggy, rainstorm to lower the power of his fire abilities, slow his overall regeneration, and increase the power of ice and electricity just to REALLY mess with him."

"Hmmm." Rias hums. "That... could work... a weather spell... that may be possible with demonic magic."

"Coolio. If I've given you ideas you can work on those. If not, you're on your own. I'm going to go train your pawns some more." I wave as I turn and physically disappear under an invisibility spell.

**Linebreak**

It has been a full seven days since I have started the training of the group.

Sari, Issane, Koneko, and Kiba were being trained in Touki. Koneko achieved it, but the others haven't yet.

It's about time I change Sari and Issane to sacred gear training.

Kiba can stay with Touki... that's like the only thing I can really do to train him beyond teaching him my personalized combat style... but I'm going to refrain from that... for Kiba at least.

Kiba has been trained by the underworld's greatest swordsman if I remember correctly... he won't need the technique... Koneko on the other hand I don't think has been ever trained by anyone, using nothing more than raw strength to simply punch her opponents.

I'll probably make her my student and teach her the unarmed variant of my martial art...

That'll be... interesting.

I look to the two sweating teens prone on the ground before me.

"You two." They twitch slightly at my voice and sit up.

"Remember what we did on the first day... where I told you both to attack me? Do it again."

The two girls slowly nod as they shakily rise to their feet.

They don't even bother to summon their sacred gears as they lunge forwards.

I swat away the brown haired girl's punch as I avoid the punch of the blonde.

I step past the two of them, tripping Issane as give Sari a bored chop with the side of my hand.

The brown haired girl rolls to her feet and lunges at me again as the vritra wielder whirls around and lashes out with a kick.

I block the kick with my forearm as the girl cringes and staggers backwards, letting out a weak groan as she rubs her shin with her hands.

Issane gets a kick to the stomach for her efforts.

Her hands grab my ankle as she glares up at me.

I look from her to Sari who lunges forwards and tries to punch me in the face.

I turn and kick my leg, with Issane still grabbing onto it, into the blonde girl, sending both rolling through the dirt with groans.

They cough and writhe for a moment as Issane slowly rises.

"What's... the point of all this training?!" Sari question as she lays there motionless. "Y-You are playing with us just as much as you did the first time!"

"I'm playing with you as much as I did the first time?" I question with a sly smirk. "Is that what you think?"

"Rias is going to lose because of how pathetic we are... and then I'm going to get raped by some fucking devil I barely even know!" The girl growls. "I-I shouldn't have let her convince me to join her!"

I slowly point my hand at her and flick a pebble as hard as I can, it is surrounded by a slight white aura as she covers her face, seemingly seeing the action coming.

*THWACK*

The pebble smashes into the back of her hand, causing the girl to let out a quiet hiss of pain.

"You think you are weak, pathetic, and that you regret joining Rias..." I sigh and shake my head. "For the first time since we have begun training... I am disappointed."

"Do you think I was actually trying to defeat you when we first fought? No. I wasn't. I limited my strength to something that was the same as a normal non-supernatural body builder and defeated you in such a manner despite your racial advantages."

"That pebble that I just hit you with... stings, doesn't it? No... it's probably better by now... allow me to tell you something, Sari, if I had done what I just did... if I hit you a pebble exactly like I did just now at the start of your training... you would have been killed."

The girl stiffens.

"You see no growth because I am adjusting my strength in relation to you and Issane. You two have improved leaps and bounds since you have first started training... you just aren't aware of it. To bring your thoughts back to what I called you earlier... I said that you were a paper cup and that Issane was a one... if I had to guess right now, I would say that you are now a one-liter bottle. And Issane is an eight or a nine."

I crouch down before the girl and narrow my eyes. "The first step to losing... is thinking you are going to lose. Don't let this happen again."

I stand and walk a short distance away. "We are going to be working on your sacred gears now."

"Wh- but if we do that I won't have enough time to master this Touki thing!" Issane gasps. "AND THEN I WON'T BE ABLE TO PET YOUR TAILS AND EARS!!!"

"…" an idea forms in my head. A way to fully abuse the perverted gender bent protagonist's lusty nature.

"Tell you what, train yourself physically as you have been for one more day. If you are unable to use touki, we are going to move on. But if you can use it... I'll take off my shirt for the remainder of the time I train you."

I can see my words being comprehended behind her brown eyes. It's as if I can see a loading bar.

"…"

"ALRIIIIIIGHT!" She roars as she stands up, rushing off into the forest. "I'LL BE BACK YOU BETTER GET READY TO TAKE OFF YOUR SHIRT! AHAHAHA!"

"…"

"Mental note. Abuse her lust to get her to train more effectively." I hum quietly as I watch her disappear from sight.

I look over to Sari. "Now, summon your sacred gear."

With a flash the gecko-like sacred gear appears on her forearm.

"Now... use your sacred gear on me. We are going to train your reserves by having you drain me for all you can take, then I want you to give it back."

"O-Okay... I-I'm sorry that I lost hope."

"Don't worry about it. Like I said, don't let it happen again, otherwise Riser's already won."

**Linebreak**

A white aura crackles around a brown-haired girl as she does a small victory dance.  "AHAHAHA!"

"…"

The blonde stood beside me stares blankly as I share her emotion.

We share a glance then look back to Issane.

One hour.

One fucking hour.

Holy shit.

I let out a sharp inhale, then exhale. "Alright. You win."

I take off my shirt and place it within my spatial storage.

"YOOOO!" The girl grins, her eyes sparkling as she soaks up the appearance of my shirtless body, drool appears at the corner of her mouth.

"Alright, since you've got that... remember the feeling of it and you should be able to call it when you need it."

"Huh? Oh. Yeah yeah." The girl nods.

"Summon your sacred gear." I order.

She doesn't seem to hear me.

An illusion of a shirt covers my body.

"HEY! I worked hard for that!" The girl snaps. "Y-You said that you'd remain shirtless for the rest of the time you train us!"

"I'm still shirtless... this shirt is an illusion. But my goal here is to train you. If my shirtlessness gets in the way of that I will break my word and put it back on."

The white outline surrounding the girl breaks, causing her to fall to her knees and breathe heavily.

"Careful. This is your lifeforce you are using to power up." I chastise as I walk forwards.

"Then... is it killing me the longer I use it?" The girl asks.

"Hn... depends." I shrug. "You can compare Touki to two things. Firstly, a candle. If you burn it, the candle burns away and turns to wax... however... the second thing touki is like is a muscle. The more you use it the stronger it gets. And, as in the comparison to a candle, nothing bad happens if you ignite the candle... and snuff it out before the wax melts. Just keep in mind your limits and the 'Muscle' comparison will counteract the 'Candle' downsides... and maybe go even further beyond."

"Humans who have managed to tap into Touki last far longer than humans who haven't. Easily reaching one hundred years old and still being within good physical fight-able condition. So, if you are careful with touki... and don't overuse it, you might even outlive pure blooded devils born after you."

"Now... summon your sacred gear." I command.

She slowly raises her hand.

Instead of the little bracer that appeared last time a full-on gauntlet appears with a crimson flash.

"Huh?" The girl blinks.

"So... it was the boosted gear. Interesting."

"Give it all you got really fast. If you do, and promise to focus, I'll remove the illusion again."

"HELL YEAH! FOX BOY ABS!" The girl grins as she rockets to her feet.

[BOOST!]

The green gem in the back of the red gauntlet shines brightly as she clenches her fist, ten seconds pass.

[BOOST!]

Another flash of light shines from the back of the gauntlet.

[BOOST!]

[BOOST!]

[BOOST!]

[BOOST!]

[BOOST!]

[EXPLOSION!]

"Seven? Not bad. You're still tired from using your Touki. We'll try it out first thing tomorrow." I nod in approval.

[RESET!]

The girl falls to her knees once more and lets out a long breath of exertion, giving me an expectant look.

"Fine. You've earned it." I sigh as I dispel the illusion.

"You take a breather for a little while. I need to get back to training Sari." I order as I turn back to the blonde girl.

"Back to draining, you." I command.

**Linebreak**

"So, you've figured out Touki, hn?" I hum as I cross my arms in front of the blonde swordsman.

"I did." He nods once. "Thank you for teaching me. I can't use it for very long, but if I can make it last longer if make sure to only use it briefly... I finally feel as if I can help Rias after all she's done for me."

"Hrm... well, Touki is really the only big thing I planned on teaching you... and you learned it four days early..." I note as I cup my chin. "For the remaining couple of days, work on your sacred gear... I'd suggest working on some form of ice or water sword... maybe a 'pain' sword if you can manage that."

"Pain?" The boy mutters.

"Riser's regeneration restores his body, not the mind." I explain.

"So, if I just cause him enough pain... he'll surrender, huh?" The blonde mutters, seeing my point.

"Beyond that, work with your touki a little bit and polish your fighting style with it." I suggest.

"Thank you for you teaching, Argo." Kiba bows his head slightly.

"Wait... there's one more thing I can teach you." I stop the boy as he turns and begins to walk away.

"huh?" He blinks owlishly as he turns back to face me.

"Well, less 'Teach' you and more guide you towards..." I correct as I turn and walk away gesturing for him to follow me.

We trudge through the forest for a good two minutes.

"Tell me Kiba, what is more important... a swordsman's' mentality or his weapon?"

"Hn." He hums as we come to a large clearing. "That is... a tough question certainly..."

He thinks on it for a moment before deciding on one thing. "I would say that both is needed... the right mentality is needed, but they also need a weapon that can fully withstand them and their opponents."

"I believe that mentality is the most needed thing. But that is primarily because of my type of swordsmanship." I answer honestly as I come to a stop in front of a massive boulder.

I pull a nonmagical katana from my storage.

"This Katana is one I picked up for six thousand yen at the store... forty American dollars... thirty-five British pounds... forty-one euro... it is not magical in any way... in fact, it's not even a good nonmagical sword. The edge is dull, the blade is full of imperfections, and the tang barely goes halfway through the handle"

I slash the sword downwards as hard as I can.

*CRACK*

The blade snaps, sending the sharp pointed end flipping over my shoulder. Kiba catches it in between his fingers before it passes over his own shoulder.

There's barely even a scratch in the rock.

I toss the broken blade aside and summon another, this time the blade is sheathed in a simple blue metallic sheathe with the image of a dragon coiling around it.

"This is a blade I bought at the exact same place as the first... for the same price as the first."

I shift my stance. Lowering my body as I attach the blade to my waist, hand grabbing the handle.

A low hissing breath escapes my lips as my body tenses.

The katana explodes from the sheath as I slash towards the rock.

*CRACK*

The blade breaks... just like the first attempt...

The main difference is where the break happened.

The first broke almost immediately upon contact, but this time, the blade I have slashed managed to cut through nearly the entire boulder

The broken blade remains lodged almost four entire feet through the rock which is five feet across.

"My blade broke, but... I cut through three and a half feet of stone before it did." I observe as I toss the broken handle aside, Kiba's eyebrows raise.

"a good enough swordsman, even with a nonmagical weapon, can cleave through magical weapons as if they are Styrofoam." I pat the rock. "This rock was just an example. If I had to make a comparison, me cutting through this much rock is like cutting through a foot thick block of nonmagical steel. That's not easy. Even for a magical swordsman. This is why I think mentality is king. I did nothing to those swords. No magic infusion. No touki. but the difference between my desire to cut resulted in large variations."

"I see." Kiba mutters while looking over the rock inquisitively. "You've given me a lot to think about."

**Linebreak**

Pov: Rias.

She... isn't all too sure about this 'trainer' that Serafall sent them...

Argo doesn't seem to have done much since he got here and she's about to give him a piece of her mind!

Not much that she can see at least. He hasn't even slightly trained Akeno or herself beyond his brief suggestions here and there.

That leads her to doing what she is now...

She's going to see one of his training sessions.

*BOOM*

The red haired girl stiffens at the loud explosion.

What... is going on?

She takes to the air with a flap of her wings and comes across a violent battle.

A white haired girl flips through the air, landing on her feet in a crouch

She leaps suddenly, whirling around and lashing out with a kick that comes into contact with a long brown tail.

The kitsune who has been said to be their trainer lunges downwards from the sky, the white haired girl's eyes widening as he punches towards her center of mass.

Her hand comes up and chops into the side of the fist, causing the punch to narrowly pass by her as she is left spinning through the air.

She lands a moment later, her shoes scraping against the dirt floor as she stops her rotation, her arms fall to her sides as she stares dead ahead at the kitsune, his four tails waving out behind him as he smiles.

One of his tails lunge forwards at high speed, causing the white haired girl to cross her arms in front of her chest.

The tail doesn't reach her, but a blast of wind pressure crosses the remaining five feet and forces the girl into an impromptu backflip.

She lands and short distance away as she flings one of her arms upwards.

The kitsune stomps, causing a five foot wall of earth to shoot up from the ground, he jumps and leaps off the wall, gaining tremendous distance as an invisible force causes the wall to crumble inwards.

He lands crouched on the side of the tree, his tails wrapping around the trunk and branches to keep himself anchored there against the forces of gravity

The white haired girl rushes forwards, merely a blur to the eyes of the red haired girl, a white outline crackling to life around her body.

Has... Koneko always been this fast?

The kitsune leaps, rushing right for the youkai girl.

Their fists crash together as they are both blown backwards, carving trenches in the earth as their hands seem to explode.

Argo's tail lashes out and grabs a nearby discarded tree trunk and hurls it forwards with great speed.

Koneko's eyes narrow slightly as she swings her hand downwards in a chopping motion.

But the log is still out of her range...

The log, a short five feet away from her hand splits in half, two circular halves passing on each side of the girl.

The first emotion Rias has seen from Koneko in years appears on her face.

She's smiling brightly.

Not a mere 'slightly upturned' straight deadpan expression, a full-on bright beaming grin. Her white ears perked up and her two tails lashing out behind her.

Argo shifts his stance slightly, causing the white haired girl to stiffen slightly as her eyes widen. "What... is that?!"

What does she see that the red head can't? He just changed the way he was standing.

The kitsune blurs forwards, his tails whipping behind him as he zig-zags... but he doesn't slow down, in fact he seems to speed up.

He appears in front of the white haired girl but as she tries to punch him, he leaps over her, placing a hand on the top of her head and using her as a support to finish his vault.

He smirks as he continues facing away from the girl.

His tails stab down at her.

She twists her body out of the way of the first, and bends forwards out of the way of the second, she moves in such a way that all four tails are stabbed into the dirt around her.

She's off balance, one leg perched on one of the tails as she had to contort herself to avoid all four.

The tails suddenly coil, wrapping her up and pinning her arms to her sides.

She is held upside down in front of the kitsune, completely wrapped from ankle to neck in the tails.

"I win again." He smiles.

"Mn." The Nekoshou pouts. "I am getting closer."

"You are," the kitsune nods. "Well, I mean..."

He tilts his head seemingly thinking on something.

"You are getting pretty close to my nonlethal capabilities... which is fairly shocking all things considered. Twelve days. You managed it in twelve days. You have tons of potential."

"What was that move that you used at the end?"

"Oh. That was the 'Shifting Waters stance'. That's a bit too advanced for you... it basically allows you to keep your full momentum no matter what sort of direction you go. I could run back and forth at my full speed with zero slowing down to change directions." The kitsune explains while staring into the upside down girl's eyes.

Koneko isn't the type to let someone hold her like that. More importantly let a BOY hold her like that.

If Rias is correct under her assumption that a youkai's animal traits are more 'intimate' at least.

Even if she's wrong, they seem... close... like best friends.

Koneko seems to have really opened up in the past twelve days.

The cat eared girl continues to pout. "Too advanced for me?"

"To be fair, I've only recently figured that one out. Even a prodigy like you would need like... five days. Bare minimum."

His tails uncoil suddenly, dropping the girl from ten feet up.

She flips backwards, landing on her feet as the boy's tails retract. They appear to be stretcher than they look...

"Mn. Fine." Koneko sighs.

"Well, since you've done so good, learning basically everything I can teach you in this time... wanna take a quick hour long run back over to Kuoh?" The kitsune questions while gesturing over his shoulder with a thumb. "Hit up a bakery or something? I'll get you whatever you want~"

"Whatever I want?" The girl gasps.

"As long as you can eat it in a reasonable time and it doesn't make you sick, yeah." Argo nods as he gives the girl an impish smile. "Just don't tell Rias, we're slacking off, eh?"

"I won't if you won't." The girl replies with a small smile as the two of them take off in a jog.

The red haired girl watches them as they leave, a small smile gracing her features.

Koneko... has found another friend!

She shakes her head, that small smile growing as a warm feeling crosses her chest.

She'll let them slack off a little bit. After all, they've clearly worked so hard. Most of those moves she saw Koneko do would be hard for even the red haired girl herself to dodge or block.

She is trying so hard for her friends... that's so touching...

Even if she loses... she should thank Serafall for sending Argo here... he really helped Koneko work through her issues.

She needs to also figure out who goes where if she loses.

She's sure as hell not letting RISER get his greedy little mitts on his peerage.

Sona and Serafall have open positions.

She'll give either Kiba or Sari to Sona to take up her second knight, then give her Gasper and Issane.

Serafall has many open peerage slots if she remembers correctly. Koneko can go to her, as could Valerie and Sari.

The only issue is Akeno.

Where can Akeno go?

If all else fails, she could give the entire peerage to Grayfia...

That might work.

The red haired girl nods slowly.

Yes... and if it comes to this... after saving her peerage... she'll kill herself on the night after she is married... before Riser can taint her purity.

With grim determination the red-haired girl turns and flies back to her family's kuoh mansion, continuing to strategize for the rating game to come in two short days.