Sorry this is overdue... I've got nothing to say about why so just enjoy this chapter.
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At this moment, I worry I might die from the headache Misha causes me over anything else.
Case in point... For some reason Misha had managed to get her hands on a sexy maid outfit, at least she said she'd only wear it in my house...
"Seriously Misha, would you please stop with this I've got somethings I need to do today." I said to the vampiress that was pressing her rear against my crotch after cornering me.
"Oh~" Misha asked coyly, "What do you have to do today?"
"For one, I really need to drop the bomb on Rias that she's... Pretty weak." I admitted.
That caused Misha to get off me, "Rias, weak?" Misha asked, "I dunno if you've heard, but she's known as the Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess, she has the Power of Destruction, take it's name literally."
"I'm level 25 already, Rias was level 50 last I saw." I deadpanned.
"Huh?" Misha asked dumbfounded, "You're already half of Rias's strength?"
"Yeah... It's a similar case with Muramasa's last user." I said holding up said katana, "Basically right now, Rias may be strong yes, but compared to other devils, I'm betting she's mostly a case of having an Infinite Rocket Launcher in any first person shooter. Don't bother getting anything else just point it in the enemies general direction and watch them go." At that moment I realized something, Kuroka's level wasn't all that much higher than Rias's comparatively, both weren't in the double digits and yet Kuroka is considered an S class criminal... Does Senjustu really give that much a power boost? Or was she weakened by something?
I shook my head free of those thoughts, now is not the time to deduce just how powerful Senjustu is right now.
"I... I just... Wow... Comparing The Power of Destruction to a cheap tool." Misha said stepping back, "Better be careful how you word it, when I meet with Rias every couple of days to make sure I'm not being a problem to Kouh, she was nice but... She seems to have a bad habit of taking things the wrong way."
"I figured." I muttered, Rias did have that bad habit admittedly, "Still, gonna have to be as blunt as a baseball bat about this to her. She's pretty weak, and honestly really just carrying a big weapon that she's gotten too reliant on."
[]
"So Vincent, what did you want to speak with me about?" Rias asked as she sat on the bench with me as I stared at the fountain.
"I've been talking with Yasaka about how strong I've been getting lately." I started, "According to her, if I keep up my constant training with her an Misha I'd reach your level of strength very soon."
Rias smiled, "That wonderful to hear Vincent." She said, no doubt thinking how much I would be able to screw over Riser in a fight if I reached her level of power.
"No Rias, Yasaka said that's a problem in more than one way." I said.
"Excuse me?" Rias asked as her eye twitched.
"Rias, for what I know, the Evil Pieces work with someone's power based on your own correct?" I asked.
"Yes, the more powerful someone is, or at least the more powerful their Sacred Gear, the more Piece's I'll need." Rias said with a smirk, which quickly became a frown, "Oh... I see."
"Rias... I'm going to have to be blunt with you." I said, "At the rate I've been growing, I don't think I'd be able to join your Peerage."
"Well then I guess I'll just have to get stronger then." Rias said proudly.
"Rias... What do you mean by getting stronger?" I asked, "Specifically speaking."
"I'm going to woke on my Power of Destruction, the power descendant from the Bael blood in my veins." Rias said, causing me to grimace.
"I was afraid you were going to say that." I said, causing Rias to blink.
"What do you mean?" Rias asked tilting her head.
"Rias, I'm just going to say it..." I said taking a breath, "Rias, you are weak."
"What!?" Rias shouted glaring at me.
"Don't take it as an insult Rias." I said quickly, "But how often have you actually gone and had a full training session with your Peerage?"
"Last month." Rias said, "We've been focusing more on our contracts to help increase our ranking's among Devils."
"Oi..." I muttered, "Rias... There is something bothering you, it's something that's plaguing you, I can see it in your eyes. You need to ask yourself, what is going to be the most likely thing to free you of this burden? A High Rank among devils, or the strength to overpower whatever comes in your way."
Rias looked down at the fountain, "I suppose I should have been taking our training seriously, but..." Rias said, "Most of what I believe is holding us back is our past. Akeno is a powerful queen but she refuses to let her heritage show, same with Koneko, and Kiba has his own issues."
"Rias." I said putting my hand on her shoulder, "Tell me, what is your most likely way to free you of your burden?"
Rias stared at the fountain some more, "Either someone takes my virginity... Or a Rating Game with the odds stacked against me." Rias said.
I sighed, "So first off, I'm not gonna fuck you Rias." I said bluntly, causing Rias to blush at the general thought, "Secondly, while I can't tell you to go fix your peerage's issues, as that is something that must happen in their own time. I can tell you that while they may be holding back their true power for whatever reason, they can still get stronger without needing to overcome these problems."
"How?" Rias said, her eyes starting to water, "Our group training sessions only get us so far, we can't train against each other and get much stronger when we already know what we can do."
I nodded at her logic, you can only get so much fighting experience fighting the same thing over and over again, "Well then... Tell me how you all fight, as a gamer I might be able to come up with something." I said, "I find that Video Games have caused me to look up a fair bit."
Rias nodded, "Akeno specializes in Electricity magic, it's her main offense and she holds sadistic qualities when casting it. Koneko as a Rook is incredibly strong and defensive, she fights with her fists as her weapons, going for strong punches. Kiba is a Knight, both in piece and how he fights, he uses mostly his speed to land quick blows to finish his enemies quickly, and he was trained by a master swordsman of an older Japan."
I nodded at all this, "And you? Do you have any special tactics or do you just span your Power of Destruction?" I asked with a grin of my face, one that Rias answered by pouting and turning away. "Okay so here's what I can come up with."
"Tell me." Rias all but pleaded.
"First, you need to work on using things OTHER than your Power of Destruction, you can't rely on just Kiba and Koneko if you fight something that effectively eats magic, I'd like to thank Shin Megami Tensei for teaching me that one." I said.
"Shin Megami Tensei?" Rias asked.
"Video Game series, JRPG by Atlus, revolves around demons and not afraid to kick you in the ass." I waved off, "Second, Akeno... See if Akeno can use her magic to amplify her physical abilities, I don't care who you are, lightning may hurt, but an electrical punch will definitely numb something."
"Magic... strengthen... body." Rias muttered writing this down on a notebook.
"For Koneko and Kiba..." I said turning to thoughts, "Hmm... Well with Koneko you an take a few routes. First there's the Berserker, train Koneko to basically just bum rush the enemy and pummel them with no regards to her safety."
"Not going to happen." Rias deadpanned as she crossed her arms.
"Figured as much, even I hate Berserkers, hate dealing with them hate working with them." I said chuckling, seriously save for a few very good berserkers I've seen in games I've found myself taking up the role of medic more often than I like cause they keep dying, "Next is making her a Juggernaut or Tank type fighter, bolster her strength and endurance to the point where, at the cost of high mobility, she can shrug off almost any physical attack and level the most durable of buildings with ease... Or you could just work on her speed to compensate for her defenses."
Rias thought about it for a while, "Maybe... Have you ever fought Tank's in your games?" Rias asked, "How effective were they?"
"A pain in the ass to fight, the guy I hide behind when it's an ally." I said chuckling, "Seriously though outside of magic there really isn't a good way to combat a Tank, I've had a whole team of allies get decimated by a single Tanking player, granted it took him forever to reach us but we really couldn't nickel and dime him to death very well."
"Nickel and dime?" Rias asked.
"Tiny amount's of damage built up over time in gaming terms." I said looking back at Rias, "Not the most effective way to fight admittedly, but sometimes you've got to work with what you can."
"And what about Kiba?" Rias asked.
"Well, what kind of sword does he use?" I asked, even though I already knew he could use whatever kind of sword he imagined.
"His Sacred Gear is Sword Birth, basically meaning he can create any kind of Demonic sword he can imagine." Rias said proudly.
I chuckled, "Well, never mind my suggestion of acquiring multiple swords..." However I knew one thing Kiba could work on that would subsequently bolster his strength, "What is the general size of the blade he uses?"
"An average Longsword general." Rias said, "Although his different elemented swords look differently they appear to weigh roughly the same."
"So one handed swords then, does he use a shield?" I asked.
"No." Rias answered shaking her head.
"So he uses one handed sword, no shield so he likely holds the sword double handedly or duel wields..." I said to myself, "Ask him to train using Bastard Sword's and Greatswords."
"What's the difference?" Rias asked even though she noted the suggestion down.
"Bastard Swords are bigger and heavier than a one handed sword, but smaller than a greatsword." I said, "Heck it was named the Bastard Sword because it couldn't fit into any other family of sword. Basically it can usually be wielded comfortably with one or two hands."
"Thank you Vincent." Rias said smiling and standing up, "You've given me a lot to think about next training session."
"Which had better be the next chance you all don't have something to do." I said firmly, "Training on your own at your own pace can only get so far, you and your peerage need to train as often as possible, because right now it's four against potentially a full team of sixteen, you need to be able to endure a lot of punishing attacks over a long time, to last long enough to avoid damage without running out of stamina."
"Ah... I'll talk to my Peerage about training more often." Rais said sweating a slight bit.
"And one more thing Rias." I said standing up myself, "Double check things you want to give as a reward, you gave me the freaking Muramasa sword when we first met, be glad I don't draw it too often."
Rias's face turned into a frown, "I'm so sorry about that, when we pulled it from the body it didn't react to us in any way so we never suspected it was the cursed sword." Rias then looked me in the eyes, "If there is anything I can do for you, please let me know."
I thought about it for a moment... There were several things I could ask for. I could ask for her to track down a Relic Fragment, I could ask for her to get me something from the Underworld, but right now I think I'll do the best with just holding a favor over Rias.
"I'll let you know when I come up with something." I said, "Until then... I'm gonna see with a few contact's I've made around here, see if I can find that perverted witch again so I can see about some magically enhanced equipment for you and your peerage."
"T-That's really not necessary Vincent." Rias stammered taking a step back.
"Listen Rias." I said flatly, "You and Akeno, from what I've deduced, use obscene amounts of magic in large bursts, good against one big enemy, not so much against a team. Kiba can conjure weapons, but he'll need some armor to help him with his more fragile state... And Koneko has nothing but her bare hands to fight with, leather fighting gloves with a metal plate can only go so far really."
"I better be going now." Rias said abruptly, "Thank you Vincent, but there are some things I need to figure out on my own as well... And I've got to set up a training schedule." And thus she left though a Magic Circle."
"Man... Point's to honor and kindness and all, but she needs to work on her her long term planning skills." I muttered.
"Yep." Rouge said standing next to me, "She needed that, you did good."
"Thanks Rou- ROUGE!" I shouted jumping in surprise, "When did you get here!?"
"Uncle Jack's gotten some things that he said might interest you." Rouge said, "Apparently some retired exorcist in town decided to sell off everything to Uncle Jack for some reason, Jack's willing to sell it to you and see if you can salvage anything from it."
"Let's go then." I said as we headed to Jack's shop.
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"Here ya go Vincent." Jack said setting a cardboard box on the desk, several things in it rattling as he did.
"And here's the 600 Yen you wanted." I said handing over the cash and walking into the back room Jack was willing to let me use to sort through the box.
The first thing I pulled from the box was a gun.
[Broken Light Pistol]
[An Exorcist's Light Gun, but most of the internal mechanisms have broken down over time. No real value other than scrap, you might be able to salvage something from it though, or you could always pistol whip someone with it.]
"Damn." I muttered putting the gun aside, "Would have been nice to have something to repel those stray's with." Next I pulled out a sword hilt.
[Broken Light Sword]
[Aside from something George Lucas would file a lawsuit over, this is an Exorcist's Light sword, however several mechanism's inside have broken down over time, making it dangerous to the user. No real value other than scrap, there might be something you can still salvage from it though.]
"Jeez, the guy must have stopped caring for these." I muttered, "Or gotten them from slain exorcists." Next I pulled out a small sheet of paper.
[Holy Water Recipe]
[The method on creating Holy Water, a common devil deterrent. There's a lot you can do with a few bottles of this stuff.]
"Dang... That'll be useful to have." I muttered pulling out the next item, two plates of metal that look like they wrap around a hand, this caused me to blink, "No way." I muttered.
[Void's Grasp Gauntlet Fragment]
[A part of the Void's Grasp Gauntlet Relic. You now have two out of three parts of this Relic, one more and this Gauntlet will allow you to touch anything with it without pain to you.]
"I can't believe that guy sold something like..." I then noticed a quarter of a (Possibly) medallion in the box, "Are you serious?" I asked picking up the medallion piece.
[Medallion of the Wolf Fragment]
[One of five parts of the Medallion of the Wolf Relic. You now have two parts of this relic.]
"Man this exorcist did NOT know what he was selling off did he?" I muttered, picking out a few bits and bobs out of the box, nothing special though. Still I've already gotten a lot of good stuff from it.
Ah well, better get home and take apart these Exorcist weapons.
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Well folks, that's the chapter you.
Now I need to go to bed, I've been up until two for the past couple of night's writing this and I really need sleep.