I took the stance Akisame had taught me.
I watched Miu carefully.
I knew I was going to lose.
But I wouldn’t go down easily!
Or not.
Miu gave me a beautiful, sunny smile.
Which stunned me for half a second.
Then she disappeared in a flicker of motion.
I didn’t see her.
But I felt the air pressure shift as she approached.
I lowered my body, sank my weight toward the ground, and tried to deflect her charge as I moved out of the way.
It didn’t work.
I definitely caught her, though.
I felt that much.
Judging by her surprised yelp, she had not expected even that.
Then I was suddenly flying across the field.
Oh.
I crashed into the ground.
Lights out.
— [Spar Complete.] Result: Defeat.
Time Survived: 11 seconds.
Achievement: You Did Not Cry.
Skill Progress: Basic Footwork +0.02% Pain Tolerance +1 Humility +3 — Ah.
The System.
Your screens mock me so.
I sat up with a grunt.
Ignoring the System’s protests.
It became more sentient the more I talked to it.
Maybe it was growing more real alongside me?
It was nice to have another friend though.
I am quite lonely when I’m not training or with Koneko at lunch.
As weird as talking to such a thing is.
My thoughts were cut short by Miu tackling me with a hug.
“Sorry for throwing you!
I didn’t think you’d touch me!” I broke away from her unprompted physical affection and gave a cough.
I had never been that close to someone before.
Scary.
[You are embarrassed.
Not scared.] Anyways, Miu was panicking with a blush.
“I don’t know whether to be proud I managed to do it, or be offended you underestimated me so much.” I laughed.
“But I suppose it makes sense.” I stood up and stretched.
I surprisingly didn’t feel sore anymore.
“How long was I out?” I hesitantly asked as Miu began to show me out of the clinic in which I was sleeping.
Which apparently was inside of this dojo.
I don’t like that.
“About 3 seconds.
I ran you in here and you woke up as soon as I put you down,” she said, embarrassed.
Frankly, I was embarrassed that she had to carry me at all.
“Thanks for worrying about me.” “Well, I lasted 11 seconds, so the ratio of time isn’t so bad.” “I have to get a lot stronger.” Miu warmly smiled.
“Work hard then!” — The days passed in a blur.
Before I knew it, a couple of months had passed.
After training daily at Ryozanpaku, I began to sense auras better.
I figured my body was better adapting to the energy in it, now that it was stronger and healthier.
I hadn’t learned any techniques yet, but my senses were sharper.
I say this because the Boosted Gear was going to awaken any day now.
I could see Ddraig’s power pulsing off of Issei.
It harmlessly bounced around the room off of what I guessed were some sort of isolation ward.
The moment he went out though…
I didn’t think Ddraig wanted me to interfere with him, either.
I felt kind of bad, because Issei was technically being manipulated by fate and by Rias.
Although she didn’t realize she was doing that.
I wondered what would happen today.