CHAPTER 53
School and club activities ended half an hour ago and the majority of the student body returned to their homes.
However, the Student Council, the Occult Research club and the recently added Raynare, who wore a set of black tracksuit, a black short-sleeved T-shirt over a black sports bra and black sneakers, were at the gym.
On a side note, all the Devils mimicked Raynare's attire, albeit with the Academy's tracksuits.
Of course, Issei wasn't excepted from this.
Speaking of the Sekiryuutei, he was standing in front of the rest with his arms crossed against his chest, facing them with a serious gaze, making most of them uncomfortable.
Well, that is, mostly Sona's group of Devils, aside from the King herself and her Queen.
"Alright. Now that you're all here, I'm gonna explain what all of you are going to train on for the forseeable future." Issei announced suddenly, his serious voice making the supernatural girls and boys stand up a bit straighter.
After a moment, he continued. "Yesterday, I noticed something that, unless trained properly, it's gonna be a serious problem in the future for all of you."
His words made them confused. Rias and Asia were the only ones that knew -more or less- what he was talking about.
Sona opened her mouth to ask, but Issei spoke again, cutting her off.
"Instead of outright explaining, I'll show you first. Explanation later." the Sekiryuutei said firmly, before he locked eyes with his contractor of a Devil. "Rias, have you brought the ribbons like I told you this morning?" even if it sounded like a question, it was more of a polite attempt to demand something than anything else.
The redhead nodded and took out a pair of black ribbons from her pocket, showing them to their trainer.
"Good." Issei nodded in satisfaction, before he addressed his swordsman friend. "Yuuto-kun, take the ribbons and come here." he all but ordered.
The perpetually smiling Knight did as told. Then, Issei took one of the ribbons and promptly used it as a blindfold on himself, motioning to his friend to put the other one away for the time being.
Kiba immediately gained an idea as to what this training would be about and felt himself tremble in a combination of anticipation and trepidation. The latter because of the duo's public spar a little while ago.
The people that had been present at the afforementioned event widened their eyes slightly in surprise, getting an idea as to what they would be trained in as well.
"Now, Yuuto-kun, you're gonna attack me with everything you have. However, you'll keep your speed at human's level so that everyone can see what I want to demonstrate." Issei instructed in a lecturing tone. "For the first minute, I'll just be on the defensive. Afterwards, for another minute, I'll counterattack as well, but just enough to tire you out; not outright hurt you." he added in the same tone.
That's reassuring... Yuuto and the Devils that had seen what Issei was capable of thought to themselves with a tiny bit of sarcasm.
Using his Sacred Gear, Yuuto produced a sword. Not even a second later, he started attacking his friend with it. As instructed, he didn't hold anything back.
For the next minute, everyone watched in mostly fascination -and a bit of frustration in Yuuto's case- as an essentially blind Issei just avoided being cut with the minimum amount of movements; sidestepping, leaning backwards or to either side, ducking and/or lightly jumping over Kiba's sword.
Abruptly, just as the minute he had promised ended, Issei started blocking the sword by its flat side with his palms and used his feet to lightly kick Yuuto on the ribs or his feet to stop his momentum.
At first, the reicarnated Devil was caught off guard, but quickly adapted in the spar's change of pace.
Then, just as suddenly the spar started, Issei caught Yuuto's blade in-between his palms and connected his right leg on the Knight's left ribs with no power behind his kick.
"And stop." Issei announced firmly.
Kiba and the rest blinked in surprise, with everyone but the Knight feeling a little disappointed that this demonstration ended so quickly. Mostly because the blindfolded teen didn't emit a scary feeling throughout it.
The brunet took a moment to return to his previous position and take off the ribbon from his eyes. While this happened, Yuuto dismissed his sword and, like everyone else, looked at Issei expectantly for an explanation. That is, after the Knight returned to his King's side.
The Sekiryuutei took a slow breath in to gather his thoughts and words properly, before letting it out just as slowly. Then, he faced the group with a serious expression, his hands, this time, in his pockets instead of crossing them against his chest.
"Ddraig told me that all supernatural species, including the Dragons, have insticts." Issei started his explanation with a vague statement, albeit one that everyone before him knew about. "Basic insticts; like Devils knowing when an Angel or a Fallen is before them and vice-versa. Survival insticts that kick in when one knows that their opponent is stronger than them and try to flee before they're dead meat. There are several others, but we're only going to focus on one aspect that probably none of you know about and most certainly have never trained in."
He paused for a moment and took in their confused expressions as they looked at one another in uncertainty.
"It's called battle insticts." Issei announced seriously and took his hands out of his pockets as he gained their attention once more. Though, this time, most of the Devils and Raynare had an expression of epiphany on their faces. "As you all know, I'm just an empowered human. Not a Devil, Fallen, Angel, or anything else. You all saw what I did in the spar against Yuuto-kun. While I do have a power that allows me to detect an attack and avoid it easily without even looking, I can do the same thing with just my insticts." he explained in the same tone.
This time, Sona got speak. "How so, Hyoudou-kun?" she asked critically with a slightly narrowed gaze behind her glasses.
It was a question that all of the others had as well.
That, and the two Kings filed in a question about the power he just mentioned, since it took their interest, which was the reason for Sona's narrowed eyes.
"From my understanding, supernatural species have enhanced senses. Some more than others, but the point still stands." at everyone's nod of confirmation, he continued his analysis. "Aside from experienced fighters, everyone relies mostly to their sight and forget about their ears until it's too late. I've seen it first hand with the ORC, but it just became apparent yesterday. I've even seen it in movies, but I don't want to go there."
"So you say that, by using just our hearing, we'll become better fighters?" Raynare asked skeptically with a slight tilt of her head to the left.
Her sentiment was shared by almost everyone there. Only Kiba and Koneko looked even more interested than before. Although, with the small girl's perpetually expressionless facade it was difficult to detect, unless one could read her eyes.
"Something like that." Issei nodded in confirmation, before he explained the consept he was talking about thoroughly in a serious manner as he crossed his arms against his chest. "Ridding you of your sight will make all of your other senses to go haywire. Especially hearing. Once you focus on it, you'll detect the smallest of sounds in a close proximity. By training it, you'll be able to detect sounds from father distances. In essence, you'll be aware of your surroundings and your potential enemies and/or opponents will be none the wiser. Instead of you being ambushed, you're gonna be the one to ambush them. What makes this better, though, is that it kick starts your survival insticts. In case someone attacks you from afar, your body will react and avoid said attack even before your brain sends the order to do so."
"All this sounds interesting, Ise-kun." Akeno said thoughtfully with a finger on her chin to indicate she was still processing everything she heard. "You make it sound and seem easy, what with your earlier demonstration, but I believe that I speak for all of us here that I doupt that's the case."
"Very true." Issei admitted shamelessly with a nod of his head, making most Devils grimace. "Unless, of course, you're just a human and not a supernatural entity, while also being unwilling to hone your abilities and solely rely on your talents." he pointed out with a hint of sarcasm.
"Are you saying that supernatural species have a higher chance to improve due to our origins?" Rias questioned in a pondering manner, inwardly screaming in frustration at her instructors and brother for not saying anything of this nature to her earlier.
Sona shared the redhead's sentiments and did the same thing in her mind, albeit mostly towards her sister, who spent more time glomping her than actually teaching her something worthwhile.
"Yes." Issei replied simply. "Every single one of you excel in something. Power, support, speed, magic or anything else in-between. Some of you are good in more than one aspects. However, if someone stronger than you appears before you and you haven't put in an effort to train in anything to make yourselves better in some way or other, you're gonna lose in a horrible fashion." he added nonchalantly.
Apart from Raynare and Asia, everyone else looked at the now scowling Kiba at the reminder of their infamous spar. It was just a simple example, but not one that most of them wanted to even remember, regardless of the outcome afterwards.
Also, Rias and Akeno thought to their own spar the day before, which was the most recent example of what Issei was talking about, and couldn't help but agree with his assessment.
Then again, Akeno wasn't stronger than Rias per se, what with the redhead being the King. But when the latter was robbed of her sight, she might as well have been a helpless human against the former's assault.
"So," Issei broke the contemplative silence that had befallen the gym with a serious tone. "I'm gonna train you in your battle insticts. Once all of you start showing some level of improvement, I'll tell you to start honing it on your own."
Everyone there nodded in understanding. Rias, Sona, Tsubaki, Koneko, Akeno and Raynare were already thinking of potential ways and partners to better themselves in the aspect he just mentioned, with Kiba being the only one contemplating to ask his friend to help him afterwards as well.
Asia didn't even ask why she was included in this training. Naive and innocent as she was, the ex-nun was smart enough to know that such an ability would be quite useful for a non-combatant/support character like herself. She didn't like hurting anyone, nor others getting hurt just to protect her. So, she was determined to start the training and, then, get help from everyone else in the Peerage and even Issei.
On a side note, all the Devils were aware that this ability was going to be useful in the future, since both Rias and Sona were bount to participate in Rating Games at some point.
Just then, Sona's mind caught up to a detail that the rest simply didn't have the intellect to detect. While, yes, the ability was useful and the Sekiryuutei mentioned that he noticed the lack of such skill just the day before, in her mind it seemed that the brunet was adamant to start as soon as possible. "Hyoudou-kun." she called out in her usual strict tone, breaking the silence and drawing the attention on her person. At his acknowledging hum as he faced her with a raised eyebrow, she spoke. "Why do you seem like you want all of us to start training immediately?" she basically demanded.
Issei and the others were surprised by the sudden question, with the former managing to hide it completely, although it reminded him that Sona matched him in intellect. As for everyone else, they looked at him expectantly for an answer.
That said, he couldn't outright tell them that a Cadre-Class Fallen Angel had his sights on Kuoh. Or, more specifically, the two heiresses; Rias and Sona. Nor the fact that he knew such a thing from the Governor General of the Grigori, Azazel himself.
Sona's gaze narrowed in suspicion as the brunet's silence proved that he wanted to train them for a purpose that everyone was out of the loop, while the others just became a little wary.
On a final note, Issei hated lying. However, that didn't mean he would tell them the truth either, since it would cause all kinds of trouble. "I can't tell you, Sona-san." he said seriously, much to the shock of almost everyone there that there was indeed a hidden reason behind their imminent training. "Just know that it's for your own good and I have the best intentions as Rias' and your contracted magician."
Suddenly, there was tension in the air as Sona was joined by almost everyone there in glaring at him in a mixture of anger and frustration for his answer.
Understandable, since, as he pointed out, Issei was the two heiresses' contracted magician. So, in that sense, he should trust them with the true answer.
Only Raynare and Asia didn't join in glaring at him, the two being the only ones knowing about his connection to the defacto Leader of the Fallen Angels. They also knew that he couldn't tell the Devils anything about it, because there would be... repercussions, to say the least.
The Fallen Angel and the italian girl shared a quick, worried glance, before nodding to one another as if they had silently agreed on something.
Which they had.
When the two would get the chance, they would ask their love interest about what he was hiding from them and the rest of the Devils and, hopefully, they would get the true answer out of his lips.
Begrudgingly, the training began with one person at a time so as for everyone else to listen to Issei's instructions.
Curiously enough, Saji Genshirou, one of Sona's Pawns, volunteered to be the first, beating Koneko for it in the process.
The training was simple. The defender would be blindfolded and would have to rely on the smallest of sounds to defend themselves, while the crowd around remained completely still and silent so as to not distract the defender.
With Issei acting as the offender, of course. Although, the brunet refrained from using actual force behind his strikes, but made sure to make enough noise for the defender to actually defend themselves.
While the training itself was interesting for everyone present -Issei secretly had fun throughout it-, it didn't mean that it wasn't boring for the crowd to watch and hear the same thing over and over again for three hours straight.
Yet, even after everything was said and done, Rias and Sona were adamant that the Devils returned to their duties and perform their contracts or do whatever their Kings asigned them to.
So, that left Issei and Raynare the odd ones out.
The female Fallen Angel returned to their home, while the brunet chose to go for a walk around town in order to enjoy some peace and quiet.
Suddenly, however, one of his tenants made a suggestion.
"Why don't you go see the Governor of the Fallen Angels, partner?"
It was Ddraig.
Without breaking his leisure stride, Issei spoke aloud since he was all alone. "Why?" he asked simply.
"To see if he has any news on the situation with Kokabiel, of course. After all, as my rival's host pointed out, you're free to do as you please. Especially now that your contract with the two Devil girls allows you more movement than the previous one." the Dragon responded airily.
"Hmm..." the brunet hummed thoughtfully for a moment. "You know, Ddraig, you're absolutely right." he agreed easily, turning around to walk towards his new destination.
The Dragon in the Boosted Gear just grunted in acknowledgement, before going back to sleep.
Issei, on the other hand, just wished that the Fallen Angel he was about to meet was alone. More specifically, without Vali around.
A tingle at the back of his head told him that he shouldn't do that again, otherwise fate would do the opposite just to mess with him.
He mentally cursed his luck as he approached Azazel's modest house, picking up Vali's scent already, even at the distance he was.
That said, he picked up another scent as well, although this one distinctly more feminine in nature, but strong enough to hide her species.
So, knowing that Vali and an unknown -to him- person was with Azazel, Issei's muscles tensed subtlely as he raised his right hand to knock on the door.
Hopefully, there wouldn't be any unnecessary fights tonight.
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Author's note.
3 more chapters before this story goes on HIATUS. Unless, of course, I find the time and motivation to write a chapter in the meantime.
This means that mid-to-late March, this story will stop for the forseeable future.
That said, I'm considering a re-write. Yes, the support from most of you is awesome, but some readers have pointed out some mistakes I've made -for them, anyways-. I don't care how selfish and vain this seems to all of you, but I don't want mistakes in my story; that's why I consider a re-write.
Anyway, see you all some time next week. Probably on March 2nd, or 3rd.