Part 4 training, schooling, controlling

Sorry for going silent. IRL stuff happen

dxd is not mine

Night.

It is a time when most people finish their routine to rest and relax.

Some people would find the silence soothing, while others would find it unnerving.

And here I am sneaking out of the house to train.

I took my time walking, enjoying the silence, and paired it with the cool night breeze. It was strangely calming.

After a few minutes of strolling, I finally arrived at my destination: a clearing not that far from my house, where I would do some extra training after being beaten again by Masaomi.

Before beginning my training, I checked my mind for a charge, but it was still empty.

Then, I created a couple of shadow birds, let Rei out, and told them to check the surroundings.

After that, I started the real training by swinging my bamboo sword until it was sore while trying to remember what Masaomi does and how to counter it. Sure, I can't remember every single move Masaomi makes, but I can make one up, like appearing behind me, making acrobatic moves, or performing a sword beam.

After my arm shook from too much swinging, I stopped, sat down, and started practicing that orb within me.

I stretch out my hand and concentrate, tugging at that orb within me.

*Fzzsshhwowwm*

'Okay, so far, so good,' I thought, 'Let's see if I just do this...' and tugged at the orb more, but then...

'Oh shi-!' The sphere went unstable and flew towards me, and I immediately ducked my head as the destructive sphere flew past me, barely touching my hair. I turned to see it disintegrating a whole tree before disappearing.

Not to be discouraged, I tried again, and again, and again.

After what felt like hours and many failed attempts at trying something other than destroy, I decided to skip it altogether and moved on to the last one, umbrakinetic creature creation, or what I liked to call shadow creatures, which is an incredible power. Maybe not as groundbreaking as SOUL MANIPULATION, but it comes close.

My proficiency increased slightly with each training session, and I'm confident that if I train every day, I will soon create those human-shaped summons!

But after the first few months of training, I found some hard limitations, such as:

-stamina cost is the same at any size.

-For now, only animals can be created.

"Come on, just create it!" I said, sweat pouring from my body, trying to fill the container with what I wanted—a simple human-shaped summon.

I growled as my mind felt the effort. Pushing my powers could be exhausting. I felt my head scrambling to fill the container, but I pushed on anyway.

"Hoooooo!" I gasped as I felt my concentration break and fall on my butt. The halfway-created summon just broke cohesion and turned into my shadow again.

"Ugh, it's so close," I groan in my sweat puddle. Thankfully, the cold night helps cool down my body while I catch my breath.

"Hmmm, yes, shadow people summon," I murmur while laying on the ground, trying to imagine...

'Wait, what will I do when I can create shadow people?'

'Think me!'

'Uhhh, training buddies!'

'Help with cleaning!'

'Good enough!'

I returned to my house, exhausted but happy with the results, climbed the window, went to the corner of my room, and got some cooking books to get ideas for when I was allowed to cook. I started doing some housework but was not yet permitted to cook.

'Go to bed,' a part of my mind whispers in my head.

'why? It's still ten o'clock at most, I've still got an hour or two.' I shrug and look at the clock.

...

It's three in the morning.

Crap!

[Time forward]

It is now the middle of the day. The sun is shining. Masaomi and I are doing our weekly spar at the back of the church.

'I'm an idiot. I should've got myself an alarm clock when training,' I internally grumbled, forgetting that today was sparring day, struggling to keep my eyes open.

"Are you ready?" Masaomi calls out from some distance away.

My grip on the bamboo sword tightened, getting into a stance with my feet shoulder-width apart, weight balanced between my feet. My gaze was drawn to the person who was still a pain in my ass and nodded in response, eyes still glued to his deceivingly simple stance.

He made the first move, crossing the distance and with a thrust. I avoided it, but then I felt a light breeze on the side of my head, which made me immediately duck.

It was my turn to attack, and I started by thrusting at his leg and trying to hit his ankles, but he deflected it. With that failing, I backed up, trying to gain some distance. But he wasn't going to give me any breathing room and started faking his attacks and trying to push me into making a mistake.

I began to charge, and his blade collided with mine. I could feel my sword being pushed, and he started hammering on my defense, pushing me back. In the middle of his flurry of attacks, I briefly saw his legs and shot my arm out to guard my sides, which was the correct thing to do because a split second later, he stopped attacking with the sword, and I felt my sides being repeatedly kicked.

My arm vibrated from the power behind it, but I held on and immediately tried to grab his leg while attacking his torso. But at the last second, he backed away from it before it could connect, somehow successfully hitting me on the head.

"Tsk!" I clicked my tongue while patting my head to see if a bump was forming.

"Hmm? Is that all?" He smirked at me, carelessly waving his sword, intentionally open to attack, trying to provoke me. I could still feel his intent to hurt me on full blast, the pressure making me falter briefly.

"As if!" I scoffed, attempting to ignore the pressure as best I could and charge at him.

[A couple of minutes later]

"Oh no, you have been disarmed. The course of action will be-" the words Masaomi wanted to say stop at the sound of bamboo straining.

"Really? using fist? " He backs away. "You-" he backed away, "know that you're never going to reach me with your short arm, right?" He leans away from my flurry of attacks.

"WELL, I'M STILL TRYING ANYWAY," I shout, sending a flurry of punches he either blocked or sidestepped away. The lack of sleep makes me easily irritable and easy to predict.

[one more loss later]

"All right, that's it. You know what the problem is? " He squats near my bruised body, blocking the sun's rays from assaulting my eyes.

"Yes, I got a thin skin when I got trash talked," I drawled, earning me a light bonk on the head from him.

"Good, that brain of yours is still working." He then stops talking as if thinking about something, "Okay, if you can ruffle my clothes, you can borrow my sword."

"Really?" I look at him and start seeing him in a new light, my voice hopeful.

His face scrunched up as if he remembered something. "I just remembered your little stunt last week," Masaomi finally said. "You can't discipline your tiny little hands, and I don't want to see you disassembling my sword because you can't keep it in your hands."

"But it's a laser sword, ouch!" My attempt to reason with him got smacked again before I could finish my sentence.

"It's a holy armament of a real exorcist to deal with an actual threat," he reprimands.

"Mou! But Father Touji said I could, and I swear I won't dismantle it! " I promised.

"Haaaaaah... okay," YES! "If you can beat me in a spar, I'll give you a reward." Nevermind, I'm just going to steal the sword.

"Oh yeah, where is Father Touji? I didn't see him watching us. "

"He's around," Masaomi looked at the church, "probably worried about raising a child."

"Aww, that's nice."

"Yeah... it is," I heard him whisper the last part, and with that, it fell into a comfortable silence, his eyes still staring at the church.

And then I start asking, "So... is the old testament thing true?"

"Do you ever fight Yokai?"

"What about vampires?"

"Is there a vampire?"

"Can you stop doing the pressure thing? It's getting annoying."

"what about wrestling? Is Jacob wrestling an angel can be taught?"

"Okay!" he stops me before I can ask more. "First off, the Bible is also very much not literal. It's called being poetic in their descriptions. No, I've not fought a Yokai. Yes, vampires are real. Yes, I've fought them. It's called a "killing intent," and it stays on during spar and unfortunately, Jacob wrestling style is not a curriculum."

"Aww..."

"Shouldn't you go home?" He asks, "I thought you said we had to finish training early because you were going to do school stuff." Is that an excuse not to be thoroughly trained? " He waves the bamboo sword menacingly.

"I forgot!" My stamina miraculously returned, and I ran like the wind.

When I got home, I fell asleep while waiting for Mom.

Mom gently shook me. I woke up, yawned, changed my clothes, and prepared myself for the appointment in the education office.

Mom does most of the registration, taking me only because I had to be there for the interview and determine which school I would be in.

After a short answer and ask session, I was congratulated on getting into school.

All in all, it went well.

We then went home to take Natsuko and Issei and went shopping for school supplies.

We went to a local flea market, and with mom looking for clothes and school uniforms, which consisted of school hats, shoes, tracksuits, and backpacks, three of us were busy looking at toys.

One very intense haggling session later, mom finally got all of it at a very low price for each of us, which made her very happy.

Because we have some leftover money, three of us are allowed to buy something from the market, with Natsuko and Issei immediately using it to buy toys. I think I put the money to good use by buying a toolbox from an old man. He didn't even stand a chance.

While walking home, I saw Father Touji carrying a bag full of diapers with his wife, cooing and trying to calm a baby.

When the mothers looked at each other, they stopped walking to greet each other and started gossiping, much to Natsuko's chagrin, tugging at her shirt and making cute little irritated noises.

We continue to walk home, now together with the Touji. When I got home, I started opening the toolbox and showing Mom that I knew what I was doing; after a brief demonstration, I was given free rein to fix some things around the house.

[Time forward]

It is the first day of school. I went to school accompanied by Mom, Dad, Issei, and Natsuko. They wanted to see me go on my first day.

When we arrived at the primary school building, mom started embarrassing me and acting dramatic and crying about how she would never see me again and how her big boy had grown and left her with a bunch of troublemakers.

I just sighed and drew Mom into a hug to get her to stop. Mom then handed Issei to Dad and hugged me like a teddy bear. I was powerless. I turned to Dad for some help, but he just whistled and looked away, pretending to be busy with Issei.

When I saw this, an idea came to me. "Mom, dad is teaching issei to be a pervert," I joked.

Mom snapped from the hug and stared at Dad with a murderous expression. Dad still looked away, but I could see he was beginning to sweat.

I gently pushed Mom to Dad and said, "Bye!" While running into the building, I heard them say goodbye to me.

After that, I went to my class and took a random seat, and when I looked out the window, I saw mom pinching dad's ear as they walked home.

More students began to arrive for class. I looked around to see if I recognized anyone from the playground.

Soon, a teacher entered the room, looked through the students, and nodded when she saw that everyone was present. She introduced herself and then requested that the students do the same.

When my turn came, I got up, smiled, and said, "Hello! My name is Hyoudou Seiji. Hope we can be friends!" Then I sat down. The teacher gave me small praise but left it at that.

After the introduction, she explained some of the school's rules, and the classes continued. We even play with origami!

I spent lunch with an older group who showed me the cool parts of the school, and we talked about cartoons. We talked for a while, but when they brought up the card game, I quickly lost what they were talking about and just listened.

The rest of the day went by in a flash, and after school was over and I got home, I heard a familiar voice from the entrance, but I couldn't remember who...

Then I heard what the voice said, confirming what I thought. Grandpa is visiting.

"Ass or Tits? This is a question for you young'uns to think about. We humans are constantly searching for an answer to the ultimate question. Some people use their brains to advance their philosophies by inventing things like golden ratios and the like, but allow this old man to impart this wisdom: Boobs are awesome. Like shoes, they come in various shapes and sizes, making each pair unique. There are small boobs, large boobs, saggy boobs, and perky boobs. You get the picture. " He nodded to himself. "Alas, the only way to change boobs you don't like is to undergo an expensive procedure, though I fully support women who make the investment. " Maybe I could sneak to the stairs?

"Ah little Seiji!" Whoops, he sees me.

"Come here! You almost missed the story of the heavenly breast! " he said, patting the space beside issei.

Hyoudou Jūzō, or pervert as I called him, is well... a pervert. He's Dad's Dad but somehow more open in his perversion.

"My issue with boobs is that they can be deceiving," he continues. "Girls without boobs will do various things to compensate for their lack of them. They spent more money on special bras and proceeded to deceive people ," he sighs sadly before continuing in his tirade.

He told us many things that were supposed to be adult topics. But, instead of beating him up, Grandma became exasperated and just shook her head, so, in the name of duty, it was decided that I had to take the burden of beating an old man even if its family.

But it's like they have a beating a pervert's sense. The second they saw me walk up to him, they stopped me and made me listen!

"Overall, I will have to go with BUTT as my favourite. With all the deception that some boobs entail, I prefer to keep shit real. So you see, little hyoudous, a woman is the perfect being; otherwise, how do you think Julius person can be seduced Hmm? "

At least issei is in rapt attention. Good for you.

"Little Seiji," He grabbed my shoulder and locked his gaze on me. It was the first time I heard him speak seriously. " You see, we Hyoudous are a connoisseur, You may not be my son's offspring, but you are now family. in short, go for a harem and make the most of your youth."

And in a blink, that serious tone disappeared, back to his wacky tone while facing Issei. "Now, which body part is for you, little issei? Bah, don't tell me... Yes yes, of course, boobs indeed, now Seiji-Kun, which body part?"

"Hips, I guess?"

"Ah, you want a large family. still acceptable, now!" He clapped his hands. "What was I doing? Ah! In the beginning, before humanity invented lingerie, we people..." and began another anatomy review/history.

I hope this does not become a problem in the future.

[Skip to midnight]

'one hundred, one hundred one, one hundred twooo?' I stumbled at my swings and felt a familiar feeling in my head.

I immediately stopped what I was doing, checked on it, and found that I had not one, not two, but three charges!

And all of them waiting eagerly to be used.

Shadow creatures are a must, maybe soul manipulations as well... should I upgrade all three?

Of course I should dummy!

[Umbrakinetic Creature Creation 3/5

Intuitive Aptitude 3/5

Soul manipulation 3/5]

And a set of knowledge crammed into my head, and I felt something new click for me.

'Record of Seiji Hyoudou' I could sense it saying.

I inspected it and saw...

"Congratulations, it's a boy!"

"C-can I?…"

"Of course miss grayfia. Here".

The moment I was born, I could practically feel the silver-haired lady's sheer happiness while looking at me...

Before...

"Nope, not going there," I said, furiously shaking my head before that train of thought could continue.

Nudge

"Eek!" I jumped from where I was sitting when I felt something poking my back—turning to see Rei looking at me with a curious expression. I didn't even feel her get back.

I sighed and patted her head to calm my heart.

"So, I can read souls?" I told her while scratching her head. She rests her head on the ground, letting me scratch her ears and pet her big, fluffy head while she occasionally sniffs at the air.

Maybe I should try to read that stray soul piece that Rei managed to get somehow...

I wonder how deep it goes...

I hope my practice of soul manipulation didn't mess it up.

Well, here goes!

...

'Oh, it's really fragmented,' is the first thought that comes to mind as I tried to inspect the soul fragment more thoroughly, slowly as I carefully read the fragmented soul piece, trying to find a memory connected to being a devil and how they live day to day.

And what I found is not that much really. I found mention of being high class. It's the most often repeated word I could find next to rating games, peerage, and king.

When I tried to gauge the emotion connected to being reincarnated into a devil, I could feel only resentment and regret. Scratch that, Huge resentment with a capital H.

I tried to find the source of resentment. And I found that it's connected to the word "king," followed by a sense of satisfaction and even gratification, the "Haha get fucked" kind.

There's magic too, I guess.

Wait, magic?

'Gimme!' I tried to read the stray's memory regarding magic deeper and found my vision spinning.

"-So you see," I heard a voice say. As I tried to reorient myself and focus on where the sound came from, I could only see a fragmented silhouette in front of me. "Devil magic is far superior to humans," the silhouette stepped closer, "For when human magicians use mathematical formula to gain an imitation of what we naturally use, we devils only have to-," but before the voice could explain more, everything stopped.

Have what?

What? Why does it cut off?!

That can't be it... please...

...

NOOOOO!

Wait a sec... stray devil, priest, exorcist, Masaomi!

I can ask him about magic!

'OUT!' As I exited the memory, I felt the world invert and warp, and the headache came with a vengeance.

"Ugh, my head," I groaned, clutching at my head and scrunching my eyes as I strained to reorient myself and feeling exhausted, but it felt worse because it's the head stuff that's affected, and I can't just ignore it.

"C'mere buddy, I need a pillow," I called out to Rei. When I felt her, I collapse on her while still nursing my pounding headache.

"Mmm, comfy," I mumble, rolling over and trying to circle my arm on the giant fluffy pillow. I was just too comfortable. I could sleep all day.

Then I remembered it was not a pillow and groggily looked up, seeing Rei looking at me. Her white eyes didn't show any emotion.

Then...

Lick

It took me a second to process what exactly happened.

She licked me!

"Grrr! Youuuuuu-" I tried to flail about, but my still pounding headache, combined with the exhaustion from training, caused me to wiggle from the comfort, falling face first into the ground.

As I tried to get up, I felt something heavy climb on my back.

"Wha—hurkk! Noooo pthu! Whyyy?! bleh! pueh!" I tried to ask as dirt went into my mouth.

'Wait! I've upgraded my shadow creatures! Maybe I can finally make those summons and make them roll her over!' I think critically for once and fill the container with what I want. Instead of feeling a building headache, I could feel it going through, and I felt a connection forming in the back of my mind, a wildly different feeling than getting a charge.

Gaining a charge gives me a sense of urgency as if it wanted—no, begged to be used, but this? It felt like it was waiting for orders and would treat them as absolutes, even if it meant detriment to itself.

..It's so over the top. I love it!

Absolute orders? Even if it means a detriment to itself?! It's so noble! so knightly!

Wait, it is totally a knight! Even if it isn't, I'm going to make it knight-shaped!

I could feel that I could take over my summon and control it myself, and when I did, my vision blacked out.

And I opened my eyes to see I was looking down at a snoring green dog.

'Woah... Is this how it felt to be tall?' I marveled at the feeling. The ability to see in the dark carried over, and I felt I could see more because of the height.

I looked at my(Summon's) arm, opening and closing it. There was no sense of discomfort. It felt like it was my hand, but there was an obvious feeling that I was just controlling it and could relinquish control at anytime.

Then I take a walk.

'One step'

'Two steps'

'This is so cool!' I screamed in my head, making my summon jump giddily.

For a while, I did a thorough movement test, and as the amazement faded away, I remembered what I was supposed to do and turned around to see a big green ball of fur where my body was supposed to be, just sleeping, as if there isn't a body under it.

"Okay buddy," I tried to speak while glaring at the big sleeping dog, but no voice came out from where the mouth was supposed to be.

'Well, I guess I can't speak through my summon,' I shrug while still controlling the summon and then try to push her off my body.

My body had been half asleep by the time it succeeded, and I had groggily told my summon to carry me back home to my room silently and hope it interpreted it as I hoped it would.

picture of Rei: Guilty gear Rei(Giovanni's dog)

Im still not sure what this fic tone gonna be, so I just use his pov where it's still positive all around. Who knows, maybe he'll grow out of it.

I don't want to be overly descriptive about his life, so I will do several timeskip. He'll be dipping his feet for a couple of chapters before taking the plunge into the supernaturals. Hopefully me writing his childhood stops before getting into a double-digit chapter, and I can start choking butterflies.

If Seiji didn't use the Japanese "-chan" or "-Kun" its because it is his pov and the devil language ability. A supernatural creature probably will bypass it

1 for a new chapter

1 for the first day at school

1 for 2k words

Unspent : 0

power :

Umbrakinetic Creature Creation/shadow creature 3/5

Can use user imagination, can be autonomous, humanoid summon proficiency on X is based on user's own skill, user can share senses with summons if hurt must come back to user's shadow to heal. (Active)

Intuitive Aptitude 3/5

Gained Stronger Intuition, Faster learning speed, implement and adapt teachings at a faster rate than human, and can know how mundane things works if have the Time. (passive)

Soul Manipulation 3/5

Gained soul read, no risk attribute manipulation now can edit the existing attribute of others(to a certain extent) (Active/touch only)