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Chapter 80: Innocence and Maturity

~Kunou's POV~

The cheering was loud enough to drown the last words of cheerful encouragement coming from her Niichan, but the blonde kitsune was in no need to hear his voice to know that he was going to cheer for her.

Smiling moderately at the public's grand reaction to her presence, the young Yokai felt glad to have finally decided to pick a new battle kimono for the occasion as she could feel herself better in that new set of clothes.

Her theme was still white and red like her miko dress, the major differences with the kimono being that she had some golden-black details by the small sections where her sleeves began and the very sleeves were halved as to offer more maneuvering space for her arms; her skirt was a little shorter than her haori but still falling beyond her knees.

As the girl started her descent through the staircase, her curious golden eyes blinked silently at the woman taking precedence by the stairs.

With long silver-white hairs and aqua-colored eyes, this individual looked as confident of her abilities as she was embarrassed of the current predicament she was supposed to deal with.

Rossweisse was a Valkyrie, her battle armor resembling well the standards imposed by the Norse profession.

Despite the class being compared much to Christian Angels, Valkyries were made by girls born in Asgard that ended up showing a grand propensity to fight and managed to pass through the various specialized schools designed for the role.

The requirements to be accepted within the order were still fairly high, much higher compared to other mythological orders of this kind and that was enough to put the young blonde in a careful guard about this curious situation.

A few moments passed and soon the two were staring at each other from the proper standing points of the arena, the countdown having yet to start and that very instance offered Kunou some more hints about her opponent's personality and current emotions.

Some nervousness was there to be picked from her expressive face, but it wasn't as extreme to warrant any false misunderstanding over this foe's capacity towards this battle.

Since Rossweisse had come to the event as the first one among the Norse Pantheon to be enlisted in the fighters' list, it was good to assume that her prowess was nothing to scoff at.

Blue eyes were failing to keep a straight look at the kitsune, more than enough to make the girl think that the older female was severely underestimating her with the way she looked this relaxed.

But instead of getting irritated at this possible discovery, the blonde merely let out a wide grin and nodded.

"May the best one win, Rossweisse-nee~," The young teen said chirpily, her voice seemingly drawing a surprised and even more embarrassed look from the Valkyrie.

And while the woman returned the kind words with a nod, within her mind Kunou couldn't help but giggle at how fun this early bit of the fight was going to be, endless possibilities of amusing escalations unfolding inside her head.

The countdown began, but instead of paying much attention to it, the girl decided to act just like her opponent thought her to be; a naive little girl that was mostly unaware of what was going on.

So when the horns rung again and the battle commenced, Rossweisse hesitated to move from her starting position, looking confused as to how she was supposed to deal with such a delicate situation.

Before her was a little yokai, with possibly little fighting experience and some magical knowledge thanks to her upbringing as the heiress to Kyoto's Yokai Faction.

Maybe there were more thoughts lurking within the white-haired young woman, but Kunou decided to not think about it and try to test the waters by merely taking a single step towards the battle-armored woman.

Blue-eyes widened as she tensed in minor surprise at the relaxed posture adopted by the younger girl, the sight of someone this young and inexperienced sure to bring some questionable morality-related issues about the matter.

Doubts were not besetting the mind of the Valkyrie and the kitsune was just basking in that endearing psychological warfare with a little grin.

She might have been truly innocent about some aspects of life, but some of the interesting aspects of exploiting her current adorable and childish self were presented as an idea by Kuroka.

The dark-haired Nekoshou quietly pointing out how both hers and Ko-chan's youthful appearances were some good means to bring some weakness to a moral-bound enemy.

This is why, despite the little amusement coming to the blonde from this curious development was quick to vanish at the need of capitalizing with the openings just obtained.

She had to press the advantage now before the woman could finally begin the match.

"Rossweisse-nee, can I ask something from you?" The question seemed to catch the Valkyrie off-guard, eyes wide open and blinking as her lips twitched tentatively.

"A-And that is?" The moment those words left her opponent's mouth, Kunou smiled widely as her body tensed up eagerly.

"Don't hold be, okay?"

And with that, the blonde didn't wait to see the reaction on her foe's face, rather she rushed towards the eased guard of the woman and commenced to burn her defense. Literally.

Fists coated in fox-fire, the kitsune roared fiercely as she started to punch the woman's undefended chest, her first hit landing right onto her stomach.

Surprise turned in stunning pain on the Valkyrie's face as the young woman was unable to react properly at the initial beating, her mind failing to concentrate at the sudden suffering she was facing.

Some yelping ensued from her lips, bringing some more efforts from the younger enemy to continued with this assault.

Yet, despite the element of surprise and the magically-enchanted fire punches dealing more damage than with normal hits, her little stunt was rewarded with a quick blast of water reaching out from the blue lights forming on the woman's hands.

Retreating away as quickly as possible to avoid getting soaked by that attack, Kunou's eyes narrowed on the annoyed expression now present on the pained face of the silver-haired lady.

Ears twitching attentively, her golden eyes carefully studied if the water had somehow ended up drenching any of her clothes.

It wasn't about coverage of her modesty, her underclothes being capable of withstanding the liquid but the issue was if the outer bits had been turned wet.

Electricity-based spells weren't certainly something that the girl wanted to get acquaintance with just yet.

But while, much to her relief, her battle kimono hadn't been hit by the water and only her arms had been hit by the wet blast, Kunou's eyes fixed upon the approaching blue thunder zig-zagging towards her and soon she prepared to test out some of her training with Akeno.

The Himejima had been quite restrained with her abilities while teaching her, but after facing lighting several times in the last few spars was enough to bring some interest in developing a counter to this kind of magic.

And said counter was bestowed in the form of a little rule of magic that was so easily neglected by many practitioner of the arts.

Timing the approaching electric attack, the kitsune brought her enchanted hands up right as the magical spell was about to struck her and she carefully palmed the tip of the attack with precise speed before redirecting it back around to the user of said spell.

A stinging sensation spread through her her hands and arms, the magical input needed to impose such a difficult manipulation draining a little on the magical presence on her upper limbs.

But her difficult task was kindly rewarded when an awestruck Rossweisse managed to bring up a weak barrier to defend herself from her own attack before it hit her, the resulting explosion giving the blonde the time to plan out her next strategy.

Eyes blinking at the cloud of smoke originated from the impact, her golden orbs stared up as a swift gust of wind created by a now-irritated silver-haired Valkyrie, the woman rushing up in the air and conjuring numerous small- and medium-sized light spears by her sides.

Oh?

Panic surged the moment the girl saw all the bright projectiles rushing her way, forcing her to move away as quickly as possible and beginning to dodge the strafe fire coming from the infuriated woman.

With her opponent now away from her physical reach, Kunou had to switch her pace to maintain herself unscathed from the enraged barrage of magic directed all towards her.

At least she was now aware that her foe preferred magic over close encounters, something that mattered very little until she got close to her once more.

But how?

If it had been Ko-chan, she would have used her Devil Wings to even out the current disadvantage, but the kitsune didn't have much of a mean that could have given her the chance of having prolonged flights.

Her panic rising even more at the lack of quick answers, her mind went through any tidbits that she could use in that very moment, digging deep between sparring sessions and little lessons about fighting in unique circumstances.

Then something finally clicked in the form of a story her Niichan had told her back when they had yet to be involved with the Omega Foundation, back even before dealing with leaving Kuoh Academy the first time around.

About how Azazel had met him, how they had ended up recruiting the young man in Grigori and…

How he had beaten his winged opponent without having any means to fly.

Debris created by the attacks of his own opponent, large pieces of marble and stone being used to create platforms to launch a powerful and debilitating strike upon his enemy and, while there was anything big enough to truly launch at the distracted woman, there was something she would do with her Fox Dragon Mode.

The grand burst of energy filled her with renewed resolve, her speed and perception of the world heightened enough to allow her to dodge effortlessly the multiple small-spears as she began her little but possibly successful plan.

The now silver-haired Yokai rushed through the area and eyed her first step to victory, jumping up in the air as she avoided another barrage of magical projectiles; her feet tapping softly onto the little specks of dirt that had been propelled to the sky by the continuous explosive blasts raining onto the ground.

With a determined expression plastered on her face and her hands cupped to the side, she started to prepare the final blow.

"Kame-"

The blonde jumped away and onto the next, closer speck towards the still-irritated opponent, avoiding another flurry of bright lances, as she continued with her unbending will.

"-Hame-"

The familiar orb of energy formed, some little red-like magic energy fusing with the light-blue and slowly turning the usual orb into a purplish sphere.

In that moment, the realization of what was going on finally reached Rossweisse, the Valkyrie snapping away from her murderous ire and her eyes widening in surprise at the approaching white-haired and red-eyed girl.

Some panic was now present on her face, forming three strong bubble-like barriers all over her body as she continued with her attacks, hoping to dismiss this assault before it succeeded and got too close to her.

But it was too late for that as, just as the kitsune landed on the last 'platform' available, the girl promptly sprung up and above the light-gray projectiles and above the surprised Valkyrie.

"-HA!"

Before the silver-haired lady could do anything about it, Kunou released the concentration of energy in her hands, a dense magical beam diving right onto her opponent's barriers and promptly pushing her down towards the floor.

The first two barriers collapsed almost instantly much to the Norse girl's expectations, her last defense holding well against the powerful blast but failing to keep up with being slammed so suddenly onto the floor.

The following explosion cracked it, Rossweisse yelping as felt her whole body hurting as it was forcefully pressed on the ground, her vision growing blurry momentarily as dust rose from the floor.

Moments of silence ensued, the public lessening their yells of encouragement as they waited for the resulting outcome of that skirmish.

Was it over already? Or maybe the Valkyrie was biding her time and-

"Gotcha~!" The dust was wiped out as the now normal Kunou landed softly on her chest, blue eyes widened at mirthful yellow ones. "I think I have you beat, Rossweisse-nee."

A giggle left the yokai's lips while the older female huffed and pouted at that statement.

"I'm not defeated yet and-" Before she could end with her protest, the girl proceeded to dig her index fingers on the woman's sides, causing her to jump in surprise. "E-Eep! S-Stop!"

"Yield!" The kitsune childishly demanded, a little smug smile plastered on her face. "Or I will tickle you~!"

Irritation replaced surprised, but the Valkyrie was offered little means to leave that powerful hold without getting hurt and defeated in the process.

But what a humiliating defeat! To a child of all people, no matter her upbringing and teachers.

She was Odin's bodyguard, someone that was trained by Brynhildr herself! She couldn't just give up for so little and-

Then little fingers began tickling her sides, twitches echoing in her throat as she tried and failed to keep within herself the sudden need to burst out laughing.

Her efforts were futile, giggles preceding a full blown array of chuckles and laughs while the blonde continued restlessly with her ministrations.

Kunou giggled herself because of the red-faced smiling face on the lady, moments later cheering as the woman finally conceded defeat at that horrible 'torture'.

With her victory assured, she decided to wait for her opponent to get up to lead her back to the seats while holding her hand, gaining some loud 'Aww's from the spectators of her match.

"Ladies and gentleman, sportsmanship at its finest!"

But while the kitsune nodded at those words, an embarrassed Rossweisse groaned in her free hands but didn't let go of the younger female's hand until they had gone back to the competitors' section.

Another Valkyrie with long-blue hair, this one a little older than the silver-haired lady, rushed towards the two but before the young woman could have said anything, she found herself pulled in a tight embrace.

Blue eyes went wide as she caught her teacher sighing tiredly at her. "Brat, you did well."

The comment made her even more surprised, confused that someone as usually strict as Brynhildr could be this much forgiving of what has just happened in that match.

"B-But I lost-"

"Against someone much stronger thank yourself," The mentor interrupted, lessening the hug to show a proud expression to the younger Valkyrie. "You fared well and Lord Odin did praise your efforts."

"I-it wasn't much-"

"But it was still enough for someone of your current level of power," The blue-haired woman continued with a nod. "Don't be ashamed of having tried and failed against the inevitable."

But despite the encouraging and meaningful words, Rossweisse still felt like she could have done much more and… decided to quietly take her seat back beside her mentor, ready to see who was next now.

~Hoitsu's POV~

I have to admit that I've been quite tense when the battle began.

My expectations of Rossweisse having been fairly high, the woman supposedly a master magician in this current stage of her life and her prowess with rapid-firing multiple small-grade spells without showing any issue was a deign display of this ability.

Even her attempt to induce an electrocution, which failed thanks to Kunou's quick-thinking, had been something worth of some consideration as her mastery of elemental magic was nothing to scoff at.

But just as I prepared for the little blonde-haired missile to land onto me, giving me the tightest of hugs, I found my attention taken away from the happy-looking girl and back to the large window over the stadium's arena.

With the kitsune's loud and boisterous retelling of the fight, I was unable to hear what was the next fighters for the match, hoping that it wasn't me and… I was graced with quite the match-up the moment I was granted some sight over the scene.

Two individuals, both men, were standing one staring at the other in the official standpoints.

The first one was middle-aged and had gelled hair, the color a mixture of red and blue; Heterochromic eyes, one blue and the other red. He was wearing a purple scarf over his formal looking jacket, dress black pants and a pair of formal shoes.

At first I couldn't understand whom I was looking at, then rethinking about his appearance some red flags were quick to rise up at the sight of this important figure.

Mephisto Pheles was the current leader of the Grauzauberer, a large Magician organization that worked as a neutral faction for Mages of all kind.

Similar to Grigori in terms of neutrality, the organization accepted the outcasts of Hell's, Heaven's and even Earth's societies.

The man was also the very Devil that contracted Johann Georg Faust, a renowned German alchemist, scientist and magician from the 15th century, giving him the knowledge that made the man famous for centuries.

Decades of wisdom, power and incredible experience all held within a single mind.

A dangerous threat to deal for sure, but one I would mind to share some words with in the future once this tournament was done.

But despite the impressive background behind this legendary man, I couldn't help but be more inclined to believe that the winner of this fight would end up being the one he was facing against.

Sairaorg looked incredibly calm for someone going against someone like Mephisto, the calm violet eyes fixed on the elder giving off a sense of determination and confidence, enough to put me in a state of utter certainty over whom was going to win that battle.

Kunou adjusted herself on my lap as she turned her focus right where I was looking at and her golden eyes widened as she leaned on my chest.

"Niichan, isn't that Sairaorg-san?"

I nodded at her question, preferring to keep quiet as I wanted to see this match unfold quietly and without any distractions.

The girl seemed to understand my little state of mind, merely keeping sight over the fight herself as she was curious of whom this individual truly was, to have urged a tournament like this to exist.

The countdown began, urging both contenders to prepare their stances at the approaching start of this battle and…

They both sprung to action when the horns rung once more, both becoming blurs as they started to exchange blows.

The leader of the Grauzauberer was surprisingly fast with his pace, keeping up well with the peak performance exerted by this 'relaxed' Sairaorg, something that got me suddenly curious as I also noticed his spell-casting with immensely quick for even a Devil.

Spitting whispers so suddenly and almost making no sense, the magician was throwing a lot against the heir of the Bael Clan, the bulky young man tanking most of the attacks without showing major stress of discomfort.

Rather it seemed like the brawler was facing some irritation for another unidentified reason, something that got up to not lower his guard even once even as there was little damage coming from the base offensive spells.

I continued to stare fixedly at Mephisto, the old man looking cautious and incredibly-focused as he continued to 'distract' his opponent more and more.

Nothing was being done by the magician to actually try to 'hurt' his foe and that actually got me confused as to why.

The elder sure had more in his repertoire than this little 'firework show', something going missing from the scene that I couldn't just confirm from the current situation unfolding.

Even the kitsune looked confused, a hum building in her throat as she tried to understand herself why both were stalling each other.

Then, something even more curious happened as the Bael went for a strong jab, aiming right at Mephisto's head.

The old man didn't seem to even flinch at the incoming powerful blow, easily ducking and drawing some long distance from his opponent… in a single step.

I blinked, then again as I tried to made sense of what had just happened in mere seconds.

One moment the magician had been standing still in his position, then once the first blow was thrown at him, he avoided it with millimetric precision before side-stepping several meters away from his opponent.

Sairaorg himself stopped his approaching to look at his foe with unveiled confusion and curiosity, the young man trying to see what was going on with the now-smiling magician.

"Is he using magic to enchant his body?" The blonde commented quietly.

I sighed. "I don't think so, there is no presence of energy coating his body or reinforcing his physical attributes," I replied with the same calm tone. "I think the explanation is a little more complex than that."

Just as I said this, I noticed the magician prepare several more energy blasts while he took hold in his hands of something that was glimmering from afar.

The Imperial Purpure's eyes widened in surprise as he started to dodge numerous knives thrown at him at some neck-breaking speed.

A quick look at the disposed blades made it clear why the young Devil feared those as I perceived a soft undertone of holy energy coming from the daggers.

Mephisto started to move once again and… it was a weird spectacle of blurs, the man appeared to be running all around the confused Sairaorg while continuing to throw knives at him.

The young man managed to avoid all of the dangerous metals tried to stab onto him, his violet eyes now showing some major anger at the usage of holy weaponry, something that was unusual as the attacker was a Devil himself.

It was with this little deadly circus that I started to finally see something familiar coating over Mephisto, a kind of magic that wasn't there to enchant his body… it was doing something completely different than that.

The speed… it wasn't just speed. It was the entire body and mind acting together with magic to attain this absurd pace and… it just couldn't be any enchantment.

But it was a glimpse of his form that actually gave me a theory, a moment in time where the man stopped being a blur and appeared in a somewhat familiar pose.

It was Jojo-esque, there was no doubt about it, yet the new hint barely offered any other ramifications of what this could mean.

Sure, there were many Jojo fans among Devils, as the show had managed to get many individuals endeared by how wacky it was and how well aesthetically it was too look at.

But still… there had to be something I was genuinely missing from this picture and-

Then I realized what it all meant.

The surreal speed, the lack of magical boosting behind such a situation and… wasn't Mephisto intrigued by the human studies over natural physics?

It wouldn't be completely surreal to think that, despite the lack of Stands, one of the strongest abilities was being used here with the use of some scientific basis coupled with magic.

The reason why I felt like I had seen this kind of magic before wasn't truly unfounded as I had been close to someone specialized in this kind of magic.

I glanced to the side, my eyes trying to find someone in particular and my eyes landed right on a certain redhead.

Mio looked confused herself at the scene and possibly feeling a connection to what was happening before her eyes and what she was used so regularly.

Do you believe in Gravity?

Oh? So you finally speak?

'We were having a discussion, nothing to worry about-'

For now. Let's just say that Apophis felt someone familiar among the contestants.

What?

'As I've said, nothing to be concerned about. He can't be here, not with so much security employed.'

What the heck were those two referring about?

…

Anyway, the comment forwarded by Shiranai was correct.

Mephisto was taking major inspiration from Enrico Pucci, specifically the Time Acceleration ability that only [C-Moon] and [Made in Heaven] were known for.

Instead of using Gravity itself to accelerate everything but the user, it was the user himself that was being accelerated within time.

And how was he doing all of this without having Gravity-type magic coating his body? Well, the secret was that he wasn't accelerating his body but his proximity by making use of a bubble-like radius for the self-sustaining spell.

Fascinating to the sight, confusing to bystanders that weren't aware of the specifics behind the theory of relativity and incredibly infuriating for anyone that was facing this kind of threat.

Sairaorg wasn't going to lose because of this, but it was sure going to stretch the time for a long period before Mephisto truly drained.

This theory, which now looked to be a genuinely good possibility, would explain why the elder was keeping some distance off from his opponent and why he couldn't make use of any high-tier spells against his foe.

The young Bael was still confused and was surely going to end up unaware even after the match about the logic behind such situation.

No blow would ever land, at least until Mephisto deemed so and if he didn't want to surrender once his reserves were low enough to call for his own defeat.

The match continued as expected, Sairaorg continuing to have some minor difficulty with his opponent and then the old magician decided to surrender after dispensing enough flashy spells around to make the match somewhat endearing to look at.

But just as the two contenders returned up to the competitors' stands, I decided to approach the two with Kunou on tow.

The violet-eyed brunet was quick to greet us. "Hoitsu, Kunou. It's good to see you today."

We nodded both at the greeting.

"It's good to see you too, Sairaorg, and I've to say that this match sure was bizarre to look at," I commented carefully, my use of that specific word seemingly causing the old man to freeze for a moment and look at my way with a curious look.

"Indeed, it's impressive that Mephisto-san to keep up with my balanced pace," The young man replied back, but my eyes were already on the magician himself.

"It's more about magic and science," I explained quietly, drawing a confused frown out of the brawler. "It was Gravity."

…

"What?"

But before I could answer that question, the leader of Grauzauberer decided to intercede.

"I created a gravitational bubble to accelerate the time around me," The elder admitted with a huff. "A very taxing move, but one that makes me happy to use so smoothly."

I blinked. "Your favorite character is Pucci?"

"A complex man driven by the consciousness of creating a better universe?" Mephisto mused back. "Everyone's a villain until the reason behind their 'duties' are shown to a reader or a spectator. Pucci was flawed, but his growth was admirable."

I nodded at that explanation and I couldn't fault him to praise one of the main villains written by Araki.

There was just a degree of humanity in each of them that renders it all… sad when they die at the end of the various parts.

Except for Diavolo, the man deserved his punishment.

I felt Kunou tugging at my sleeve in that very moment and I looked at her and her curious face.

"What are you two talking about?" She inquired quietly, drawing some curious expression from the old Devil, the man unaware of what would follow next.

I blinked and smiled. "It's one of the non-animated parts of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Part 6 to be exact."

The girl's eyes lit at the mentioning of Jojo, the kitsune then glancing at the elder. "That means you are a Jojo's fan too, Mephisto-san?"

The magician was surprised and stomped by the questions, eyes moving from the girl right to look at me, to which I replied with a simple shrug.

Finally he glanced back down to the blonde and nodded.

"I am, yes," He admitted happily. "And it's nice to know that you are fan yourself, Kunou-san."

The girl giggled at the kind tone and returned the nod.

Meanwhile Sairaorg was giving me the most confused expression. "'Jojo'?"

As I opened my mouth, someone else decided to jump in.

"It's one of the animes I recommended you to watch, Sai," A familiar feminine voice answered on my stead, causing all of us to look at the origin of the reply and- "But I guess you were busy training because of the tournament."

A small smile was on her face, her ahoge twitching just once as the redhead showed just some nervousness at the situation.

"Hoitsu-san, Kunou-san," Rias greeted with an uneasy but polite tone.

I blinked. "Rias-san," I greeted back, while Kunou merely sidestepped behind me, keeping quiet as I glanced at Sairaorg and nodded.

"Well, I guess we will see what kind of next fights will await us, Sairaorg. Hopefully, the match-up will give us the chance of sparring like I've promised you."

He gave a calm sigh and a defeated nod. "I think 'luck' will favor that kind of battle, Hoitsu."

After this closure, I silently retreated back to my post, Kunou settling on my lap as she silently looked away from the young Bael and Gremory.

Rias looked saddened by the lack of formal gesture to salute her, but she merely accepted it with a tiny grimace.

Hopefully Asia hadn't seen that one scene happening.

But before I could find some rest over the matter, I couldn't help but notice the screen now calling a new match, a groan building from within my throat as that was a nightmare of a match-up.

Vali Lucifer vs. Diehauser Belial

AN

I think I've waited for too long to show Part 3 to the cast.

Once the tournament arc is done and folded, I will give it 'main priority'.

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