Beyond Critical - Chapter 14.2 (Patreon)

"…I gotta ask, do you actually find this fun?"

Kaito looked up from where he lay flat on his back, panting deeply and trying to regain his breath. He'd changed out of his school uniform in favour of a pair of shorts and tank top…that were practically cut to ribbons and his body was covered in bruises and cuts.

The one who asked the question, was Yanagi. Currently, they were in an abandoned construction lot Kaito had come across a few weeks back, where he'd taken to sparring with Irina away from prying eyes.

Yanagi was sitting atop an empty drum of what was once probably oil, hand cupped in her palms and leaning on her knees as she stared straight at him.

A golden glow emanated from behind her bangs.

"…Kind of, yeah." Kaito shrugged, despite the extra gravity pressing him into the dirt and making it even harder to move with his beat up body.

The result of sparring with Irina and letting her try out out new Sacred Gear…while having Yanagi herself use her Gravity Jail on him to increase the gravity pressing down upon his body five times over.

…He got his ass kicked.

Badly.

While it was true at his full strength he had been stronger than Irina. They were more or less on the same level when they fought Satanael until he transformed his organs and then gained Arondight.

Her own new Sacred Gear was very simple to use and an incredible equalizer. It could go either way in a fight with her at that point, never mind with gravity increased around him.

"Do you want to go again Kaito-kun?" Irina asked with a bright smile from where she stood a few feet away from him, in much better condition than himself.

"No I think that's enough," Yanagi shut her down right quick, "I'm bored now." she informed.

Kaito winced a bit.

Honestly, things were…a bit awkward still after everything that went down in his apartment. A few hours had passed since then, it was already passed six and approaching seven in the evening.

Beyond anything else, he'd wanted to make sure Yanagi understood the kind of world she was entering. For all she knew she had 'super powers' she hadn't even known where they came from until today or the true wider world.

So he figured he'd kill multiple birds with one stone. He'd explain things to her and give her a demonstration of what a lower-tier supernatural fight was like using himself and Irina as an example.

…And at the same time get a feel for moving under gravity and see if it was viable to train with it.

Also, seeing him get beat up would possibly vent some of the anger Yanagi had at him. While she had accepted things in the end, that did not mean she was at all happy with him right now.

He found that indeed it was possible to train under increased gravity. But, multiplying the force of gravity pressing down on him even from just above…was not at all as simple as just increasing weight.

He'd not even been sparring with Irina half as long as they had a few times before, but already his body ached in ways it never had before.

It was quite painful, but at the same time he relished the feeling. It was an odd mindset to have for sure.

"Mmm, fair enough, probably for the best Kaito-kun is super beat up, he'll need to take a day or so to heal," Irina agreed with a shrug, "And it's about time for dinner, I tried out making cookies with protein powder this morning that I want Kaito-kun to try out."

"Tch, you're good Irina-chan, I have to admit, you're a worthy rival," Yanagi clicked her tongue. Weirdly, as opposed to her being angry with him, the short girl had started getting along quite well with Irina, "But it's my first time at his apartment, so I'll be making dinner for him tonight."

"Okay dokie!" Irina agreed without much fuss, or any actually, "He can just have my cookies for dessert."

'I don't understand girls at all.' Kaito sighed. Even with the memories of his other self, he didn't get them one single bit. It wasn't even like he was the one that actively pursued them and dumped this on them, it was the other way around yet somehow he was the one in the bad books.

Well, he supposed it didn't matter. As long as they were getting along he could deal with Yanagi being a bit miffed at him for a while.

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And so they returned his apartment. Though on the way, they had to stop at one of the grocery stores.

Because and Kaito quoted, 'An idiot himbo like you won't have proper ingredients for making true healthy food.'

It was rude.

And insulting.

And when they got back to his apartment, Irina wasted no time in jumping back on the chair to resume watching her anime. Some kind of magical girl thing. Milky-something or whatever while Yanagi got started on cooking up dinner for the three of them.

Kaito found himself just standing there awkwardly, not sure what to do. Sure, he could watch the television with Irina, but he found his eyes more on Yanagi than anything.

He wasn't sure what to do.

And it was awkward.

"Idiot," Yanagi sighed, not looking back at him as she stirred something in one of his pots, "Don't just stand around, if you're gonna say something, say it already…and change your clothes while you're at it, those are all ripped now."

"…I will in a minute," Kaito couldn't help but let his lips quirk up into a deprecating smile, "I'm just not sure what to say, you kind of got put on the spot earlier."

A spot partly of her own making, but she was still stuck in it and having to decide.

"Then don't say anything," she replied, without turning around, "Am I still pissed? Hell yes. I never once imagined I'd have to share you with another girl, never mind have to deal with the fact that you're apparently going to atttract tons of girls because you're strong. And can I just say that supernatural girls are all complete and utter total thots? They're not all that different from gold diggers from the way Irina-chan explains it."

"Well…they're not all that bad, just for a lot of them like devils power is is attractive to them." Kaito shrugged.

Or at least that was what he picked up from the memories of his other self. The power was the draw for most of them, but that didn't mean they wouldn't actually gain actual proper romantic feelings for the target of their attraction.

Or maybe that was just nonsense and he only saw what he wanted to see and wanted to believe he could make this work.

"Whatever, it's partly my own fault anyway," Yanagi clicked her tongue, "I should have just brushed your baby whining about being poor aside and locked you down ages ago. Or tried at least, because going by your luck I would never have managed it, all these supernatural annoyances would have still found their way to you."

The short girl sighed, shoulders slumping, "The worst of it is, I can totally understand the logic Irina-chan told me earlier," she admitted, "You've already got a bunch of girls at our school crushing on you after you saved Murayama, Aika took one look at you while you were hard and wants to slobber all over your dick and you've even got two literal demon chicks wanting to seduce you into their service…keeping you to myself was a fools errand all along."

Well, he didn't think Rias or Sona were interested in him at all sexually. He wouldn't put it past them to use it as a possible recruitment strategy though. Rias' drew Hyoudou's initial loyalty with promises of him getting a harem if he rose up the ranks after all. And she had no problem getting naked in front of him or giving him the chance to feel her up.

Still, there wasn't much he could say in response to her words. He could, tell her he loved her. But, again, he wasn't the most experienced with it and while he felt very strongly for her, beyond strong in fact and would pick a fight with Great Red for her if it ever came down to it, he didn't know if that was truly love, he couldn't even explain it properly to her either.

But in the end, he wasn't that good with words anyway, he was always a man of action.

"Sorry." he apologised as he stepped behind the short girl and wrapped his arms around her shoulders.

"You should be," Yanagi replied without missing a beat, even as she relaxed into his hold and leaned against his chest, "Stupid himbo."

"That I am," he agreed, "…Though, I have to ask. Why did you agree? I honestly expected you not to and I'd totally understand."

"You really are a stupid himbo," she repeated her insult and stopped stirring the pot to look up over her shoulder and give him a dry gaze through her bangs, "I just weighed my options. I either had to share you and still have you or give you up, in the end, pissed off as a I am about it, there's really no contest on the choices."

Kaito blinked, staring down into her eyes, "….And choosing to have me is really that big of a no brainer?" he found himself asking.

Yanagi snorted, "The fact you can be so confident about who you are and see no problem in taking on a guy that according to Irina at full strength could wipe out this entire city…yet not be able to see your own worth, is probably the funniest thing about you…or the saddest," she replied then shrugged, "I've not decided which yet."

He wasn't sure what to say to that, so he decided to just stay silent, only tightened his grip around her shoulders a little bit.

They stayed like that for a few moments and he just enjoyed being close to the girl.

"By the way…shouldn't you get bandaged up or something, you're kind of littered in cuts from that funky sword of Irina-chan's." Yanagi commented after a small period of silence.

It was a blatant topic change, but one he was glad for.

"It'll be fine, I told you before right? I double all my body's physical abilities with my Sacred Gear, and I've got them active still right now," he informed her, "That includes my body's recovery rate. With a good meal and some sleep, these will be healed by morning."

"Mmm, it works like that too huh?" Yanagi mused, "Interesting." and said nothing else on it.

"Yeah, it's totally great for when I push myself training." he agreed. He was really glad for the subject change.

"Not what I meant dumbass." Yanagi snorted, then stepped forward and forced him to let go, "Now get out of my way while I cook, if you want to feel me up that badly you can do it later."

"…Okay?" Kaito agreed.

"You can grope me if you want!" Irina piped up, looking to him with a bright grin as he made his way over towards her.

Apparently she had been listening.

Granted, not that she could have avoided that in the first place without plugging her ears considering how small his apartment was.

Kaito again wasn't sure what to say to that. He just stared at the twin tailed girl. Like, yes he would love to grope her and he knew she was serious. But…he was pretty sure Yanagi was just teasing him there like she always did.

Yanagi spoke up before he could gather his wits to respond, "If you start making out with her and feeling her vastly inferior tits while I'm making us dinner, I'm going to torque your balls in opposite directions with my gravity powers."

…Well, okay lesson learned.

Kaito froze there like a statue and did not say a word. Like a rabbit that played dead in the face of a predator.

"Hey, my boobs aren't inferior!" Irina shot back.

"Whatever you say self-proclaimed church girl." Yanagi snorted.