Last night was the first night in weeks where I didn't have sex before falling asleep. I even took a bath alone. I'm not even annoyed by that. By the time I finished the journal entry I just went to bed and passed out, jealous that the others weren't as sore as me.

Though none of them got a good night's rest. Bisky stayed up and did the same thing she did for me when I was learning Ten and woke them up whenever they started dropping Ten. I slept through it all, but based on their expressions this morning, all of them had been woken several times.

Except for Uzume, who apparently kept hers up all night. She looked pretty smug about it too.

But before we could eat breakfast and get started with our day, Bisky made an announcement.

"Starting today, everyone will be doing mandatory exercise every morning," she said. "Roland has given us the ability to grow beyond our limits even without Aura, and even if you don't plan on fighting, it's worth spending an hour of your day getting stronger."

"Even me?" Matsu asked, face clearly showing that she didn't want to do this.

"Everyone," Bisky insisted. Matsu groaned, causing Kusano to reach up and pat her on the head consolingly. Bisky ignored her antics and went back to explaining. "Today will be about figuring out a baseline so I can create workout routines for all of you."

None of the others looked particularly enthusiastic, so I stepped in. "Thank you Bisky," I said. "While we don't all need to become super soldiers, building up some strength will keep all of us safer and give me one less thing to worry about."

I'm pretty sure half of them realized my words were deliberately chosen to prevent them from arguing against it, I wasn't exactly being subtle. But I didn't need to be subtle, because I was also being honest, and the truth could be a powerful tool when applied correctly.

So, without any further complaints, Bisky led us through some basic exercises. We started out by running laps around the perimeter of the training field. It was a little small for laps to be honest, but it was the best we had. Then Levy used her magic to make some weights in various shapes for us to use.

They were really interesting because, unlike most of what she had made so far, they were impermanent. Levy's magic can take on the properties of real materials and just exist as those materials for basically forever. But she can also make lots of other things that aren't permanent but require a constant magic upkeep.

Obviously when we were using her power for construction this wasn't a good idea. But what it did allow her to do was to make the word "WEIGHT" stretched and squashed into various shapes to make gym equipment that was heavier than any metal she knew how to produce, because magic was making up for that lack of knowledge.

And thanks to the boost in her magic from the Laws yesterday, she could easily make a bunch of weights for all of us and barely even notice the upkeep cost.

Bisky led us through all kinds of workouts, even more than what I remembered doing in highschool when we learned how to use workout equipment in gym class. There were plenty of muscles I felt for the first time thanks to the routines she put us through.

I was surprised at first that she knew so much about working out. But then I remembered what her true form looked like and it made much more sense.

An hour later, Bisky brought us to a stop. "I'll be coming up with a custom routine for all of you," she declared. "I think I managed to get a bead on how much the Talents help, so I should be able to push all of you enough that you keep growing stronger."

The reply to that was a chorus of tired groans, all of us exhausted. She shook her head, but she was smirking in amusement. "Now, now, don't be like that. Besides, we're not done yet. Now that all of you have a basic grasp on Ten, you need to learn the next step, Ren, which is when you release all of your aura. Roland, could you demonstrate?"

I nodded before facing the others and then pushing aura from my nodes, flooding the air around me with a raging storm. It didn't extend far, but it was powerful. I could feel the difference since the last time I had done this, which was yesterday before we unlocked the Nen of the others. Yesterday had been all about Gyo, so I hadn't had time for my normal Ren training.

The others all reacted with shock as they saw and sensed the change in my aura. They knew about my training, and I had explained roughly what I was doing, but this was the first time they had the ability to feel it for themselves.

"In this state, Roland is much stronger, but it burns through your reserves quickly," Bisky explained as I maintained Ren. "But like any muscle, the best way to improve it is to exercise it. So I'll be teaching you Ren today, and for the next several days you will all periodically exhaust yourself with Ren in order to increase your reserves."

The others nodded, looking more excited than before. Even Matsu was starting to look enthusiastic about it.

Of course, training was another matter. Bisky had me drop my Ren as the two of us focused on more Gyo training, leaving the others to try to achieve Ren on their own after a brief explanation. It was a process that took me a couple hours to figure out, so I was expecting something along the same lines for the rest of them.

That wasn't entirely the case though. Levy figured it out in just ten minutes, aura pulsing from her. She looked at the shocked Bisky and me with a grin and a shrug. "It's not that different from my magic," she admitted. "I have to push my magic from my magic container into the air, where I shape it. The tricky part was figuring out how to do it through specific parts of my body rather than just anywhere, but even that flowed pretty naturally."

"Impressive," Bisky complimented her. "Maintain that until you can't anymore and then come watch our training. And the rest of you," she addressed the ones that had stopped in their attempts when they felt Levy pull off Ren. "Keep trying. If you have experience with supernatural abilities, use that to your advantage."

Chiho frowned, the only one of the group that lacked any kind of ability like that, but they all dutifully followed her instructions. Levy watched as I worked on Gyo, and as I struggled to get it to work for the rest of my body as well as I could do it for my eyes.

I wonder if there is some kind of mental barrier there. In my mind, Gyo is used to improve your sight, because that was the only way I saw it used in the show. Though I saw plenty of the more advanced form, Ko, being used on things other than the eyes.

Still, I made progress, so it wasn't like I was stuck, it was just slower. And even then, that 'slower' speed was fast compared to your average Nen student thanks to my Talents.

One by one, the others managed to figure out Ren. After Levy was Kusano, then Uzume, then Matsu, and finally Chiho. She pouted a bit when she realized she was the last one to pull it off, but Uzume congratulated her and cheered her up.

"It was a bit of a long morning, but we're done for today," Bisky announced once Chiho exhausted herself with Ren. "Future morning workouts will be done much quicker, since you don't have to learn a new technique every morning. But I won't delay breakfast any longer, I'm sure all of you are hungry."

There were several enthusiastic nods and we all found the energy needed to rush back to the house to make a quick breakfast, though it was more of a lunch just based on where the sun was positioned in the sky. Thankfully, it was very easy as we were still sticking with fruit salad for breakfast. Eggs would be nice, but the hens were still getting used to their new coop and hadn't started laying any yet. But we did have the new melnanas which was a nice addition.

As we ate I went over the plans for the day, based on what me and Bisky had come up with. "For now, the goal for all of you is to maintain Ten at all times," I told them. "And also increasing your reserves using Ren. So, for most of you, you'll be doing your normal activities while using Ten and periodically taking a break for Ren. Kusano, that means you're taking care of the farm, Levy and Tinks are going to be crafting, Matsu is on Jinki duty, and Chiho you can help one of the others."

"Oh boy, another day staring at the psychic rock," Matsu muttered. I shot her a look of concern, but she had a grin on her face, so I took note of it, but honestly, a little frustration was to be expected. I'm definitely prioritizing Psychic Talent as my next purchase though. It'll help her figure it out and help with the development of the Sekirei's abilities.

"So since I mastered Ten, I'm going to be doing more Nen stuff?" Uzume asked, noticing she hadn't been listed.

"You, me, and Roland are going to get started on combat training," Bisky answered in my place. "Roland needs to learn how to fight, and you need to be able to maintain Ten while fighting."

Uzume's gaze shifted over to me, a teasing grin. "So me and Roland are going to get all sweaty as we smash our bodies together?"

"I'll give you a pounding you won't forget," I replied easily to her teasing, which had very little of an edge to it considering we did have the sex she was alluding to.

Matsu snickered while the others just smiled and shook their heads or rolled their eyes in exasperation.

Uzume laughed though, pleased at my reply. "I'll hold you to that!" she stated as she quickly finished her breakfast.

Ten minutes later we had finished up breakfast and we were back on the training field with Bisky. Uzume and I were naked, as usual, but for some reason Bisky was wearing a plain white t-shirt and bloomers of all things. I blamed Matsu. Or Uzume. One of those two put the idea in her head, I was sure of it.

"For now, we're not going to be doing anything fancy," Bisky explained to us after some quick stretches. "The two of you are just going to fight. No powers, no weapons, no anything. That means no cloth for you Uzume, and no Ren or Gyo for you Roland."

I raised an eyebrow. "We're just jumping straight to sparring? We're not gonna learn forms or practice our punches a thousand times or whatever?"

"Do I look like a martial artist to you?" Bisky asked with a raised eyebrow, her hands on her hips. "I know how to fight, and I know Nen. If you want fancy techniques you'll have to find a different teacher."

"No, no, this is fine," I quickly backtracked. "I just didn't think, I guess. This is faster, right?"

"In the short term, yes," Bisky. "In the long term, picking up some kind of martial arts or weapon will let you reach higher peaks. But for now, we can overcome that difference with pure strength and experience."

"What about Nen?" I asked, referring to the more advanced combat focused Nen techniques.

"That will be the medium term," Bisky replied. "You'll need both experience with Nen and in combat before you can benefit much from that." I nodded, accepting that answer, so she continued. "I say sparring, but to start out, don't use your full strength, not directly on each other at least. Learning to take hits is important, but you'll need to get a feel for your own strength and the toughness of your partner before that.

"Instead, your goal is going to be to place your knuckles on your opponent's abdomen. Yes, a punch counts, but the amount of force doesn't matter. Focus on getting your fist into position, not the amount of force behind it. And no aiming for the head. Everything else is fair game. Understood?"

"Yes Sensei!" I replied enthusiastically.

Bisky looked at Uzume expectantly, who looked caught off guard, but copied me after a moment of hesitation. "Yes Sensei!"

She nodded in satisfaction. "Good. Now, take position and wait for my signal."

We went to the spots she indicated, both halfway between the center of the field and the outer walls, facing each other. My mind was racing as I got into position, trying to get into a fighting mindset, but I had no idea what that was like. The closest thing to an actual fight that I had gotten into was that incident where Karasuba ambushed us, and I was panicking too much to remember that.

But I put my fists up and focused on Uzume. "Start!" Bisky called, and I took a step forward to attack Uzume.

But she had already closed most of the distance by the time I made it two steps. I flinched as I started pulling back, my arms moving to try to protect my stomach as she got closer. Her fist hit my arm hard enough to kill the rest of my forward momentum, bringing me to a full stop.

My eyes met hers and she flashed me a grin before stepping forward with another punch. My eyes are drawn downward by a flash of movement that turned out to be her boobs, massive and bouncing because of her movements. I remember wondering how annoying that was, or if it was painful, and then I was stumbling back as Uzume's fist found my gut.

"Point to Uzume!" Bisky declared, sounding like she was having way too much fun. "But don't stop, keep going!"

Uzume and I exchanged glances, pausing for a moment before bursting into action. I jumped back, still trying to mentally catch up to what was happening. My arm was starting to feel sore from her first blow, and I knew I was just a few seconds away from my stomach following suit.

Though that was a background thought, as most of my mental processing power was focused on Uzume. Unfortunately, that focus wasn't as… well, focused, as I would have liked. I kept stepping backward, barely evading and blocking her attacks as my eyes were drawn to her body.

Uzume, like all Sekirei, was beautiful, and she was a fighter. She had a toned and lean figure, with wide hips and a big pair of bouncing boobs that I absolutely couldn't look away from.

She suddenly snapped her leg up in a kick, and my eyes zoomed in not on her foot, but on her crotch and how her pose was putting her pussy on clear display. And then her foot hit my upper arm and sent me stumbling sideways and onto the ground.

Before I could get up, Uzume was on top of me, straddling my stomach and looking down at me with a grin that spoke of triumph.

"Stop!" Bisky called out. Both of us looked over at her and saw the annoyed look on her face. "Roland, what do you think you're doing?"

"...my best?" I answered, unsure what she was talking about.

"So ogling your opponent and getting a boner is your best attempt at fighting?" Bisky asked with a raised eyebrow.

I blinked. "I have a boner?" I asked out loud.

Uzume twisted around to see behind her. "You sure do, bro."

Bisky sighed. "Okay, both of you go get dressed," she ordered us. "From now on, combat training requires clothes. I don't care what kind of clothes, so long as it covers up anything distracting. That means a top and bottom for you, Uzume."

"Roland should also have to wear a shirt," she insisted, placing a hand on my bare chest and lightly tracing the outlines of the muscles there. "If we want to avoid distractions that is."

"Top and bottom for both of you, then," Bisky agreed. "Just hurry up and get dressed so we can get started for real." Uzume and I nodded, but she didn't move. She instead continued to absentmindedly run her fingers over my chest. "That means get up, Uzume," Bisky said in exasperation.

"Huh? Oh! Right!" Uzume scrambled off of my, her ass brushing against my boner. I was only at half mast, but there was no doubt that my focus wasn't on the right thing. It was only then that I realized that though. In the moment there hadn't been room for thoughts, just actions and reactions.

We both jogged over to the house and entered the master bedroom. Thankfully, we had done a lot of clothes shopping over the past couple worlds, and workout gear was included in that. Uzume wore a sports bra that did a surprisingly good job reducing the apparent size of her boobs and keeping them still alongside a pair of shorts that barely reached halfway down her thigh.

She gave me a wink as she finished changing and I realized I had spent the entire time watching her get dressed and not doing so myself. You would think having giant orgies every night and waking up more often than not to someone doing something nice to my dick would get all that lust out of my system, but if anything it was just making me more lustful.

I threw on a pair of loose basketball shorts and an athletic shirt made of some elastic polymer or something that clung tightly to my chest before quickly following after Uzume and heading back to the training field.

"Alright, get back in position," Bisky ordered us. Once we were, she continued. "Now that Roland won't be too distracted, continue on my mark with the same rules as before. Ready?"

Uzume and I both nodded as I shifted back into a fighting mental state. Bisky said go, we rushed at each other, and there was no thinking after that, just desperate dodging and blocking as Uzume's fist tried to find my chest. There wasn't any chance to counter attack because it was all I could do to not get hit. Each moment felt like it could be the last, that I was just seconds away from failure, even as I somehow kept evading her.

Until I didn't. She reared her arm back, clearly aiming to punch me in the face, and I flinched, holding my arms up to protect myself. I remembered that we weren't allowed to go for the face an instant before I felt her fist impact my chest.

"Gah!" I cried out involuntarily as I stumbled back.

"Attack, Roland!" Bisky ordered me. "Don't just dodge."

I grumbled but had to dodge to the side as Uzume kept coming at me. I didn't feel like I had any room to attack, but I put my mind towards finding an opening. As we continued, seeing her attacks and reacting to them became easier, and in hindsight that was probably largely the Talents at play. But every time the flow shifted enough for me to consider attacking her, she'd step it up another notch.

Finally, I found a gap, a pause in her rhythm as I twisted my body out of the way of one of her punches. It wasn't long, and even as I noticed it she was twisting out of the way, but she was in a bad position and she'd be too slow to move out of the way. Time felt like it slowed down as I focused on it and, without even thinking, my fist rocketed towards her open side.

And then it was pushed away by her other hand and all I got for my troubles was a knee in the gut that sent me stumbling backward.

"Don't get tunnel vision, you have to be aware of your opponent's entire body at all times!" Bisky instructed.

I growled in annoyance, to which Uzume just smirked at me, and we continued our fight.

I'd love to say that my skills improved at a lightning pace, outstripping Uzume and I was able to turn the tables on her by the end of it. But that would be a big fat lie.

I did improve by leaps and bounds, my Talents pushing me quickly through this live fire training. But every time I got close to matching Uzume, she revealed that she was still holding back and kicked things up a notch.

And by the end of it, when I felt like my skills had improved to the point where I could reliably block or dodge her blows, I was too tired to do so. My chest and arms were heavy and dull from all the blows they had taken, and what felt like all of my muscles were on fire from me pushing them in a fight for hours on end.

But we didn't stop until Bisky told us to, at which point we collapsed on the ground, limbs shaking and chests heaving as we caught our breath. "Well, you didn't manage to land a single hit on Uzume," she said. "But you did a good job keeping up with her that long, and she didn't get as many hits on you as I was expecting, so congratulations on that."

I grunted, too tired and focused on catching my breath to respond in a more articulate way.

Bisky smirked and then turned to Uzume. "Sorry you had to hold back, but Roland has improved a lot, so starting tomorrow you'll be able to go all out."

If Uzume replied, I didn't hear it, so maybe she just nodded or something. Either way, Bisky seemed satisfied. "Now, you two rest up a bit, I'm going to go help Kusano with dinner. See if we can't find some way of making it interesting."

I barely paid attention as she left, just relieved to be able to relax for a moment. It was what I was hoping for when I bought her, but the weak part of me hated how harsh of a trainer she was. The smarter part of me told that other part to shut up, so it settled for just griping.

I wasn't sure how much longer, but as I felt my consciousness start to slip away, I was brought back by Uzume's voice. "I wasn't, by the end, you know."

I blinked in confusion. "What?"

"Holding back," she clarified. "I was too tired to hold back, and you were keeping up anyway."

"...huh," was my very articulate reply. I couldn't recall the sparring we had done very well, it was just a big blur of exhaustion and aching pain. "Then you were too tired to go all out either."

"True," she admitted. "...we're going to keep doing this, right?"

"Of course," I replied. "Unless you don't want to?"

"No!" she protested, sitting up. I blinked at her in surprise as she entered my field of vision, and I spotted the flash of panic on her face that appeared before she forced it down with a grimace. "I mean, no, I do want to. I just…" she trailed off and looked away.

"I'm glad you're doing this," she said in a quieter voice, barely audible due to her facing the opposite direction. "Chiho… I want her to be safe too. I want her to be able to protect herself. But I know she's not a fighter, she just doesn't have it in her. And that's fine, because I can protect her. But I don't know if I can protect both of you at the same time. So I'm glad you're learning how to fight, so you can protect yourself."

I let her words hang in the air as I mulled over them. On the surface, Uzume hadn't really changed since officially becoming part of my harem. The only difference I had noted was a lack of any defensiveness or jealousy when it came to how I interacted with her or Chiho.

So her saying something like this caught me off guard a bit. "Are you saying you worry about me as much as you do Chiho?" I asked, a little dumbly. Because, duh, that's what Binding her to me did.

"I guess I am," she admitted. Uzume never was one for tsundere-like responses, denying her feelings to avoid embarrassment. "Maybe not quite as much, but… I don't think there's any doubt that you're the second most important person to me."

"You're not supposed to rank your lovers, you know?" I joked, trying to keep the mood light, if only because I wasn't sure how to respond to a direct statement of love like that.

"Oh please, we all know Levy is your favorite," Uzume joked back. But I couldn't let that slide.

"No," I insisted in a harsh tone, causing her to turn back to look at me in surprise. "Levy was here first, and I admit, there's something special about that. But all of you have something of your own that makes you special to me, and there's not a single one of you I'd put above the others."

Uzume searched my face for a moment before smiling. "I see. That's a pretty good answer." She adjusted her position, throwing one of her legs over me to straddle me. I felt her weight settle on mine, what should be a familiar feeling made strange by the presence of our clothes, but it was still pleasant.

"But maybe I could convince you to change your mind?" She continued in a teasing tone. She started rocking up and down, grinding her crotch against mine. "If I make you feel good, could I become 'best girl', as Matsu puts it?"

"Hmm," I pretended to consider it as I lifted my hands, my arms having had a bit of time to recover and rest, up to her hips. "You can certainly try," I jokingly encouraged her.

Her grin widened and she leaned down to kiss me. I felt myself started to harden rapidly as Uzume's mouth opened, her tongue darting forward to meet mine.

And then we froze as we heard someone clear their throat. We broke our kiss and looked up to see Bisky standing there, in Zetsu so as to not be noticed, looking at us with a raised eyebrow that was unable to completely cover the amusement tugging at her lips.

"Having fun?" she asked.

"...yes?" I hesitantly answered.

She snorted. "Well, I hate to interrupt without joining, but dinner is ready and I bet the two of you are pretty hungry."

As if they were waiting for it, our stomachs both growled at the same time. A little chagrined, Uzume got off of me so I could get up and we could go to the dining room to eat dinner with everyone. Uzume and I got extra large portions but still managed to finish eating before anyone else as we practically vacuumed it down.

Of course, eating such a large meal after exhausting myself caused me to be very drowsy afterward, but I couldn't go to bed without washing myself and writing this entry. But as I've been writing, we've also been huddled around Matsu's laptop, not having a larger screen, watching the Hunter x Hunter DvDs we picked up a couple worlds ago.

I'm not going to liveblog everyone's reactions, but they seem to be liking it so far. We didn't get far in, but Gon is already a favorite, and Bisky especially seems interested in learning about the early days of her former student's career.

But we're done watching for the night now, which is convenient timing since this is a good stopping point for the journal. Not sure I'll be writing tomorrow's, since Bisky has already informed me that we'll be doing the same thing. But I'll update again soon.

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AN: I know I've been complaining about work a lot in my AN's lately but boy is it only getting worse. We have a lot of big projects we've started that are not only taking up a lot of my time, but are leaving me utterly exhausted. I'm probably going to be pretty inconsistent with my writing speeds for the next few months. The timetables for these projects are a complete shit show and our plan is being decided on the fly, so I don't know what days will be hellishly busy and what days I'll have time to write. Apologies in advance for that, I guess.

Rewards and Lobbying says it can "grant Talents or Perks which you already possess". Now, this is a very broad definition, since pretty much everything in the catalog is a 'perk', outside of the Waifus at least. So, for the purposes of this fic, I've made it explicit about what it does and does not cover, keeping it at a level that I think is fair. It covers Lures and their Expansions, normal Talents, Sexual and Fertility Calibrations, and Added Potential. It does not cover the other Meta-Talents(TS, Inexhaustible, etc), Controls, Heritage purchases, or any other perk. Most of the rest don't really make sense to apply like that anyway.