I own nothing but my OC(s).

Chapter 3: Training begins

Kyoto, Japan, Yasaka's Palace, Training grounds

Keith definitely didn't think everything through. He sure as hell must've died and was sent to Hell, there's no other explanation.

"Oi brat! After you finish the 50 push-ups I gave you, I want you to come here!" A baritone, yet stern voice yelled out. "We are just beginning."

No…Hell would've been a better place.

"What did I do to deserve this…" He muttered under his breath.

Anyway…his nightmare begun this morning…

Flashback

After waking up and being picked up by Kunou at 8 AM, who was very eager for some reason, Keith followed her towards Yasaka's meeting room once again. He would've lied if he said that he wasn't nervous about today…He was starting his training after all.

"Kunou-san, do you know who is going to train me ?" He decided to give it a try and be the one to start a conversation today.

"Mm!" She nodded, seeing as he was going to ask something else, she continued. "But I am not telling you, I want it to be a surprise." She giggled in mirth.

Keith for his part just sighed and didn't ask anything anymore. He'd cross the bridge when he got there.

"So…are you ready?" She asked.

"As ready as I'll ever be." He shrugged. It's not like he has ever trained before, so this would be a first.

"From my own experience, the most important thing you can do is to keep pushing, to never give up." She advised. "While it's true that you are human and fairly weaker than us or other supernatural races, do not let this discourage you."

He gave her a small smile in return.

"I do not plan to run with the tail between my legs." He said resolutely. While it was true that he was a lazy bum most of the times, he knew the gravity of the situation he found himself in. These Youkai offered him to join them and to even help him, so the least thing he could do is accept their offer and work hard.

"I am pleased to hear it." Kunou told him, a beaming smile plastered yet again on her face.

After the small conversation, the two arrived at their destination. Opening the doors, Kunou and Keith were met with Yasaka, Kuroka and a tall, slim and muscular man with long silver hair kept in a man-bun, dressed in a dark blue kimono with wolf patterns on its torso and hands. He has two long grey wolf ears which twitched ever so slightly, along with a long grey and bushy wolf tail which was freely moving right and left slowly.

"Ah, you are here." Yasaka began. "Good morning you two."

"Good morning Kunou-chan, Keith-kun nya." Kuroka greeted them as well.

"Good morning!" The ever so cheerful Kunou exclaimed.

"Ugh, good morning." Keith on the other hand wasn't so thrilled.

The wolf man snorted. "So this is the brat you want me to train, Yasaka-sama?"

"Yes Hokori-san." Yasaka said.

The wolf Youkai nodded slowly and started to examine the young man critically.

"Very well, from now until I am told otherwise, I shall be your teacher and you shall call me Hokori-sensei." The wolf said. "Are we clear, brat?"

Keith gulped and nodded.

"I didn't hear you." He took a menacing step forward, towards Keith, who in turn took a step back.

"Y-Yes Hokori-sensei!" He screamed.

'Of all the Youkai…it had to be a wolf.' He lamented in his mind. From what he knew about wolves, they are proud, territorial and strong creatures…and something tells him that this Hokori was not different. Hell, his name translates as 'proud'!

"Good." He nodded. "Now, come let us not waste any more precious time."

Keith sighed and followed after his new sensei.

'It's going to be a long day.' He didn't know how right he would be.

Back to the present

After finishing his warm-up session, which consisted of marches on the spot, heel digs, knee lifts, shoulder and arm rolls and lastly knee bends, Hokori made him do the generic work out exercises such as lunges, push-ups, squats and finishing with burpees.

He made him do all of this because it would help his muscles 'wake up' as he put it and feel less tense.

Then the fun began: training with the Sacred Gear.

"Alright, now summon the Spear." He told Keith who reached his arm forward.

Appearing in an instant in his hand was the Spear of Destiny itself, in all its glory.

"Before we begin brat, did you undergo any training in weapons at all?" The wolf Youkai asked, not at all phased by the mighty Spear.

"No Hokori-sensei."

"Then, that means we have quite a bit of work to do." He sighed. "First, hold the Spear with both of your hands."

Keith grabbed it, holding it so the bladed tip is in front, while the butt of the spear is under his right armpit at a small distance.

"Good." Hokori got closer to examine his posture. "Right shoulder more relaxed, do not put it through unnecessary stress." Keith relaxed his right shoulder, feeling now that the Spear is more comfortable to hold.

"Left foot first, right foot behind it, hold your weight on it." He followed the steps. He could feel his left foot become lighter than the right.

"Good, now thrust!" He yelled out.

Keith thrusted forward with all of his force.

"A bit sloppy, but all in all, decent enough." The wolf nodded. It wasn't much, but it was a start. "Now repeat the action until I tell you to stop."

Keith paled, repeat it?! Ah…

He couldn't go against his sense, now could he? So he started to repeat the action, Hokori watching him intently, analysing his every thrust and barking out mistakes whenever he made one, no matter how small.

After one hour, he finally told Keith to stop, who was more than thankful to do so.

"Hmm." The wolf rubbed his chin in thought. "It seems you are not that bad after all."

"Huh? What do you mean, Hokori-sensei?"

"While your thrusts are not perfect by any means, you improved with each move, even for a little." He praised.

"Really?" He was confused. Keith didn't feel as if he improved at all.

"Yes." The sensei said. "Tell me kid, do you know why I told you to keep on thrusting for so long?"

Keith thought about it hard. Why would Hokori torture him in such a way…

"You wanted me to get familiar with the action, as well as with the feeling of holding a spear in my hands, right?"

"Correct." The Youkai nodded. "Seeing as you have no experience in wielding a spear whatsoever, I wanted to see if you had any hopes at all."

"Uhm…and?" The human asked nervously.

"A match made in Heaven kid, you and that Spear." He let a small grin appear on his face. "It seems you have a knack for spearmanship."

"What?" He asked incredulously. "But you said that my thrusts were not perfect by any means and that I was sloppy."

"Indeed, however knowing when to inhale and exhale, as well as how to utilize your strength in order to not get tired as fast as one would without doing it, that all are enough to account on my belief that you will become a skilled spear wielder with enough practice and no slacking off." He said the last part sternly, his face hardening.

"Uh…r-right…" Keith said.

"Anyway, this was only the first step in your training." The Youkai stated. "Next I am going to show you different moves which you will have to repeat."

The young man was confused as he didn't see his sensei having any weapon on him, let alone a spear, however his confusion quickly turned into awe when he saw his weapon.

"Come to me, Gae Buidhe!" In an instant, in his outstretched hand appears a golden spear whose rod was covered in a purple cloth reaching the start of its tip.

Seeing the wide eyes expression on his disciple's face, the wolf let a prideful smirk appear on his face.

"This is Gae Buidhe, a cursed Spear whose attacks inflict wounds which are incapable of being healed naturally or with magic." He explained.

"Is it a Sacred Gear like mine?" Keith asked, emphasising his question by raising True Longinus.

"No." The wolf shook his head. "It was a gift given to me by Goibhniu, God of weapon-makers and blacksmiths."

The Longinus wielder just blinked.

"So…he just gave it to you?"

Hokori chuckled at his disciple's tone.

"No brat." He started. "Long story short: I helped them with a very important war against the werewolves of Ossory who rebelled against the royalty."

"Huh, and here I thought you were only a wolf Youkai." Keith muttered under his breath, unaware that Hokori heard him.

The wolf snorted. "I haven't introduce myself properly to you, have I?"

Keith shook his head. The Youkai came closer and all of a sudden…another 9 tails appeared near the one he already had. The young man gasped and took a few steps back.

"I am Hokori, the 10 tailed-wolf." He said, pride emanating in his voice. "One of the strongest Youkai to ever exist."

Keith's awed face turned into confusion, however.

"But then…shouldn't you be the leader of the Youkai instead of Yasaka-san?"

"As bad as it hurts to admit it…" He began his pride hurt a bit. "Yasaka-sama is far stronger than I am."

Seeing as Keith was going to say something else, the wolf raised his hand.

"Look, if you have questions…ask Yasaka-sama." He groaned. "I am sure she is going to be more than happy to…educate you on the Supernatural."

Hokori grabbed his spear, which was stuck in the ground, and held it in a stance.

"Now…enough with the talking." He said sternly. "We are here to make you, a snot-nosed brat, become efficient with the spear."

Keith sighed, but nodded nonetheless and got in a stance as well.

"Look closely at what I do and after I finish, you do it as well."

Without wasting time, the wolf thrusted his spear faster than Keith by a big margin, then cleaved forward, before ending with jump backwards.

"This is one of the simplest moves." He stated. "Even a noob like you will probably manage to do it in the first few tries." He snickered. "Now, do what I did."

Keith nodded and began by thrusting forward with lower speed, cleaving forward very awkwardly and then almost tripping when he jumped back.

"Hmph." He heard Hokori snort. "If an award with the worst performance with a spear was a thing, you would be its holder."

Keith's eye started to twitch. Was insulting and talking like someone who didn't see him as anything but an ant training as well? He doubted it…very much.

"Again." Hokori barked out. Keith repeated the moves for a couple of times before finally…he managed to get it right, although very slowly…well from a Youkai's point of view.

"While you are not perfect, hell not even good, you have picked it up fast enough." The wolf nodded and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "With enough repetition, you will get there eventually."

One hour was spent with Keith repeating the moves shown to him by Hokori over and over again, with the latter once again point out the mistakes he was making them, telling him, no…ordering him to be better next time.

After he managed to get it almost 100% right, Hokori told him that it was enough, making Keith fall to the ground on his back, panting hard, as if air was limited edition. Letting him rest for 10 minutes, the wolf began to speak.

"Once you are done with resting, I will show you a small parrying trick."

Keith only nodded. After 10 minutes have passed, he got up and held the Spear in his hands again.

"To parry an attack with a spear, you can either use the tip, the butt or the whole spear." Hokori said. "I will show you how to parry using the whole spear, as it is the easiest way." He picked up Gae Buidhe and held it in both hands. "You want to hold it horizontally, your grip being as tight as possible on the spear." He tightened his hands on his spear's rod. "Then you put all your strength into your arms and legs."

He looked at Keith expectantly. Receiving the message, he held the True Longinus horizontally and tightened his grip on the rod and did as Hokori said: to push all the strength into arms and legs.

"Good." The wolf nodded. "Now, think fast!" As the words left his mouth, he snapped his fingers and instantly, a small log appeared out of thin air, flying towards Keith. The young man held his Spear resolutely, only for him to be thrown back on his ass when the log made contact with the rod of the Spear.

Keith groaned as he got back on his feet.

"Not bad…but next time try to remain on your feet." For the next hour, Keith struggled to hold his defence against flying logs. For the last 30 minutes he began to learn and to send the logs back flying, for the first 30 minutes however…he was sent in every direction.

"I expected you to look worse kid." The Youkai admitted. Keith had a busted lip and some bumps here and there, which was impressive enough seeing as this was his first time defending himself with a spear.

Keith slumped on the ground, his back feeling the grass.

"After you rest for a bit, we will end today's training session with you running 3 laps around the palace." Keith almost wanted to cry. Everything hurt and this sadist was making him do more!

"But-" The young man tried to say something.

"Did I stutter, boy?" But he was interrupted even before he could form the next words.

Seeing the stern and narrowed eyes of his sensei, Keith slumped his head back on the ground, questioning what god cursed him this bad. He was looking at the blue sky until his vision was obscured by silver hair, wolf ears and an impassive face.

"It's time, get up brat." With a groan, Keith rose and began his damned laps, Hokori hot on his tail to make sure he didn't slack off.

After he took a very needed and long bath in the thermal and got dressed, Keith breathed out in relaxation. It felt good to not have the wolf barking out to him. He slumped on his bed, enjoying the soft mattress, as well as the divine pillows.

His moment of tranquillity didn't last long as a knock on the door made him groan in the pillow.

"Keith-kun, are you there?" Kunou's voice was heard over the other side of the door.

"Yeah." He said.

"Great!" She exclaimed, opening the door.

"Oi, you don't open the door to someone's room without consent." He told her, his eyes half lidded.

Kunou just pouted.

"But I haven't talked to you all morning!"

It was currently 3 PM. He left the training ground at 1 PM, but took his time in the hot springs which totally helped him regain some of his energy. That basta -ahem- sensei of his made him work to the bone, stating that it is his own fault it took them this long. Yes, it took them 5 hours to get Keith warmed up, to show him the basics and to teach him some moves, plus the 3 laps he had to do, which took around 30 to 45 minutes each. Hokoti said that with time, their training sessions would become shorter and shorter, which Keith could barely wait to happen.

"So?" He cocked an eyebrow at her. "It's not like I am the only person you can talk to." He said.

Her pout intensified.

"Ugh, never mind!" She said. "Now, come my mom wants to talk to you."

He sighed, but got up nonetheless and started following her out of the room.

"How did the training go?" She asked excitedly. "I am sure you learned something."

It took Keith all his willpower not to curse Hokori, or gods forbid he may hear it.

"It went…well." He said cryptically.

"Aaaaand?" Kunou was adamant on knowing more.

Keith sighed, knowing that she would keep asking him questions if he didn't give her a satisfying answer.

"I began by warming up and doing basic exercises, then Hokori-sense told me to summon the True Longinus and showed me some moves."

"Oh, so he showed you his spear?"

For some reason, Keith didn't like how that sounded.

"He…did." He definitely didn't like the sound of it.

"Gae Buidhe is a very strong and ancient spear." Kunou stated. "Did he tell you how he got it?"

"He told me a very summarised version." He responded. "He also showed me his 10 tails."

"Mm! He is very strong." Kunou said. "Stronger than me at least."

Before Keith could ask something, they reached Yasaka's meeting room. Kunou opened the door, not even bothering to knock. Once in the room, both Yasaka and Kuroka were present, the latter lazing around on a couch.

"Ara, good to see you two." Yasaka was the first to greet then.

"Keith-kun, you look half dead nya." Kuroka looked at him, an amused smile plastered on her face. "Did the old man do a number on you nya?"

"You have no idea." He muttered, but everyone heard him.

"Hokori-san can be a bit…" Yasaka began, but thought of the right words.

"Sadistic, rude ,a pain in the ass and extremely stern?" Keith deadpanned.

"I would have gone with strict, but I cannot argue against you there." Yasaka giggled.

"So that's how you see me, huh?" Keith paled at the voice. Out of the shadows appeared no one other than his favourite sensei. He narrowed his eyes at the young man, making him sweat bullets.

"Please, don't blame Keith-kun, Hokori-san." Yasaka chided in. "You can be demanding when you train someone."

The wolf sighed, but knew it was true.

"Whatever." He looked at Yasaka. "I came to report Yasaka-sama."

"Go ahead."

"The brat, while slow and inexperienced, had shown great skill in spearmanship." Hokori said, making Yasaka and the others excited at the young man. He did not only hold the most powerful Sacred Gear in the world, which funny enough was a spear, but he also showed talent of using it.

"That's great to hear." Kunou said, beaming with excitement and giving Keith a big hug, the latter suffocating in the kitsune's ample bosom. No seriously, he was beginning to turn blue.

"Kunou-chan, you may want to let go of him or else he is going to pop nya." Kuroka said, mirth dancing in her eyes.

Kunou looked at the Longinus wielder in her arms and blushed seeing him between her boobs.

"S-Sorry!" She exclaimed, pulling him back and starting to dust him off. Keith too was embarrassed, a tiny blush spotted on his cheeks.

"Ahem!" Hokori coughed in his fist. "As I was saying, while he showed a quick learning, he is still green."

"That is great to hear nonetheless, Hokori-san." Yasaka said, a smile on her face, her tails waggling ever so slightly.

"Anything else you need me for, Yasaka-sama?" Hokori asked dutifully.

"No, you are free to go." With a nod, he disappeared in the shadows. Yasaka then looked at Keith. "It pleases me to hear that you already started to make progress."

The Spear user scratched the back of his head.

"I still have a long way to go."

"But, you are on the right track nya." Kuroka chided in. "It is very hard to hear praises from Hokori, especially in the first run."

"Mm!" Kunou joined in. "Also, I dare say he enjoyed teaching you, if only a little."

Keith snorted, of course he enjoyed making his life miserable. He then looked at Yasaka.

"Did you need me for something, Yasaka?"

"Yes." She nodded. "I wanted to tell you that tomorrow someone very important will show up." She said seriously, her playfulness from earlier gone. "She contacted me while you were training and told me that she'd like to meet the wielder of the Spear of Destiny."

"I see…" He said. "May, I know who it is?"

"Sorry, she said she wants it to be a surprise."

"Right…" He said, massaging his temples.

'I had more surprises in these three days than I ever had before…'

"Oh and one more thing." Yasaka said. "From tomorrow, after your training with Hokori-san, you are going to learn about the Supernatural world."

"I see." Keith wasn't bother by that.

"I thought you would dramatize about it, as I have seen you do nya." Kuroka teased, her eyes gaining a mischievous glint.

Keith rolled his eyes at her remark.

"First of all, I do not dramatize." He began. "I am just extremely indifferent about things, and second: I do not mind learning about the Supernatural, on the contrary, I am very curious."

"Good to hear." Yasaka said. "Now, go and enjoy the rest of your day, I am sure you need it."

'You have no idea.' It was only his first day and he could already sleep for the rest of his life. He left the room and made his way to the canteen to eat something.

"I am coming too!" Kunou said, following him eagerly. For some reason unknown to her, she enjoyed talking to him.

Yasaka giggled and looked at the closed door with gentle eyes.

"I believe we got really lucky this time."

"You mean with him joining us or with him being the wielder of the Spear nya?" Kuroka asked.

"To be perfectly honest…both." Yasaka said. Indeed, they were fortunate enough that the Holy Spear was in the hands of someone like him. Were it someone else…nobody knew what could happen. Past wielders, while rare, were very adamant on changing the world, without caring what others might say or suffer.

"Everything is going to be fine nya." Kuroka said, a sure look in her eyes. "From what I could sense out of him, he is not a bad person."

"Mhm! Just as he said 'extremely indifferent'." The fox laughed. "And we couldn't be more thankful for it."

After eating, Kunou dragged Keith back to his own room, with the latter protesting weakly. After they arrived, Keith once again slumped on his bed, Kunou sitting at the end of it, an amused smile on her face.

"So tell me Keith-kun, what do you think of all of this?"

"Hn." He got up in a sitting position. "You mean everything that happened to far?"

Kunou nodded and looked at him.

"I mean, you are calmer now, more so than when I showed you the other Youkai."

He rubbed his chin in thought.

"I think I just accepted it?"

"So fast?" She asked, raising an elegant eyebrow. "It has been only three days."

"I know, but…" He averted his eyes from her. "It may sound strange, but I honestly do not find you, or the others scary, well not anymore."

"How so?"

"I believe that I began to realise that you are…not that different from me, or any other humans."

Kunou widened her eyes slightly. She did not expect this answer.

"Don't get me wrong, I am aware that any of you could break me like a twig if you wanted to, but from what I have seen…you just live your lives." He said. "Just like us, humans."

She scooted closer to him and wrapped her arms around him, giving him a gentle hug.

"Thank you…for seeing it that way." She said, her voice lower.

"I think it would have done more bad than good in being scared of you, now wouldn't it?"

Kunou unwrapped herself from him and giggled.

"Yes, it would have."

The two continued to talk about mundane things, well Kunou did while Keith would only grunt or nod in acknowledgement and say something when he was asked. Until Keith asked her a bit about the Supernatural.

"So…Hokori-san told me that Yasaka is stronger than him."

Kunou nodded.

"Yes, she is the strongest kitsune, or Kyuubi if you want, to date."

Keith was surprised to hear this, but after all, she is the Youkai Faction's leader.

"How strong would you say she is?" He was curious now.

Kunou took a thinking pose. "I couldn't really tell you in words." She said. "But believe me when I tell you that she is far stronger than the Stray Devil you encountered."

Keith supressed a shiver.

'How far stronger does she mean?!' He would find out sooner or later.

"What about you?" He recalled that she killed the scorpion bitch without even trying.

Kunou puffed her chest in pride, making her big tits bounce.

"I am quite powerful myself too!"

"Right…and you are not going to tell me how powerful, right?" He asked dryly.

"Nope! ~ " She stuck his stone at him playfully. "You will find out tomorrow."

'Oi! I won't be able to sleep at night now, my mind is going to be thinking about this non-stop!' His eye began to twitch.

"Aha…" He looked at her, his eyes half-lidden.

"Anyway, I better get going, it's getting late." She said, pointing to the clock, It showed 9 PM. They left the canteen when it was 5 PM…They talked for 4 hours.

Kunou got up and stretched, her tails swaying.

"I will see you tomorrow, Keith-kun!" She smiled at him.

"Yeah, see you tomorrow." He said.

"Mm! Good night." Keith told her a 'good night' and she left. He then changed into his pyjamas and set his alarm for tomorrow morning.

'Another session with Mr. Prideful.' He thought. 'Joy.'

He got comfortable and let the realm of dreams drag him in.

A/N: Hello people! Exiled here with another chapter. Oh boy, I had to think a bit for this one since the previous two were easier to write as they were just the "introduction" if you may. So Keith finally started the training, huh? As you can see, he is a natural with the spear, a plus point for him! He also found out that someone wants to meet him, who might that be though? Of course wait and you'll see!

Now, going in for the comments.

lucinziel: Thank you for the kind words mate! I really appreciate it. Also I will keep writing whenever I find the time, be sure of that.

Nehef: I always had this likeness towards kitsune so where better place to start other than Kyoto, am I right? Yeah I feel a lot of fanfics out there use the "mc dies and becomes a devil" trope a bit too much, so I decided to change that a bit. Of course Keith will meet the Devils soon enough, but not the ones in Kuoh ( he will meet them a bit later). Also I feel like the True Longinus is not used as nearly as it could be. I find it quite interesting and badass so yeah, that's that.

mrwinterdk: Thank you! Glad you enjoyed.

ArguableReader: Thank you a bunch dude! You helped me more than you'd think lol. I understand now how I am supposed to bring characters from other anime correctly. I really appreciate it. Also you are absolutely right about the Lemon part.

sanjiv121606: It seems someone guessed what I wanted to use hehe. Yup! I was thinking to give Gae Bolg to Cao Cao, don't know about the other one though, don't think I've heard of it. But yeah, you guessed.

Now! About the harem…I've been thinking about it and got to the end of it.

HAREM: Kunou, Yasaka, Kuroka, Roygun Belphegor, Serafall Leviathan, Gabriel, Tiamat and Rossweisse.

The order doesn't mean anything.

I chose these women because they are not really used in fanfictions….well most of them…If you would like me to give reasons why I chose them, I will do so in the next A/N, so let me know in the reviews.

Also, I am sorry if there are any grammatical mistakes or anything, I try my best!

Fun fact: Hokori means "pride" in Japanse (according to google translate), hence "Mr. Prideful" at the end :P

I think this is it…If I forgot something I am sorry, but I will probably remember it in the next A/N.

Anyway, thank you all for reviewing, favouring and following! I encourage you to leave me reviews so that I know if what I am writing makes sense and if you like it. Also, I am absolutely flabbergasted about the amount of follows and favourings I've been getting lately. I honestly didn't expect people to like my "words scrambled on people" if I am being honest lol.

Thank you once again, stay safe & sound!