A few days after the conflict with the church the incident with the illness was fully resolved, and everyone was once again on their way through the skies of Tortus to their next destination. They were currently stopped to rest for the previous night and were only awaiting for everyone to wake up before resuming their journey. During this time when even the sun had yet to rise there was a certain someone standing on the deck of Zenith with their katana raised in front of them as they focused on the dummy target roughly twenty feet ahead of them.
"Ha, haaa."
After taking a deep breath and letting it out, the person suddenly moved at speeds that most wouldn't have been able to keep up with as they slashed the air in front of them as if they intended to cut the target from that far away. Once her movement was finished Shizuku calmly sheathed her katana and started walking towards her target, already expecting the result of her attack. As she approached the training dummy she was unsurprised to see no signs of her blade having connected as she intended.
"I'll try again and again until I get it!" She declared to herself as she turned back to her starting point and unsheathed her katana once more while closing her eyes. She then imagined the scene she witnessed several days before when Alex used the same spatial magic they all acquired to redirect the high priests attack with what seemed to be portals. At first she figured she was incompatible with spatial magic since she was a sword fighter and not an actual magic user, but then during the following days she couldn't get the image of the way Alex use spatial magic out of her head until she suddenly arrived at a conclusion, wouldn't she be able to use that same magic to attack someone from a distance with her sword? She then became determine to "cut space" with her sword to be able to attack from a distance without projecting her attack. If she managed to utilize and perfect this method to attack then her attacks could come from any direct regardless of her actual position and would be nearly impossible to predict. She then opened her eyes once more and focused on her target ahead of her, but right as she was about to start moving there was suddenly a shout,
"HEY SHIZUKU! LOOK IM FLYING!" This nearly caused her to trip over herself as her concentration was suddenly broken by her best friend. She then turned and gave her a mock glare, but it was hard to do so since her lips couldn't help but curl up in a small grin at Kaori's antics. Kaori at that time was indeed flying around Zenith using her brand new Devils wings while Hajime followed along close by in case she fell. She then accidentally recalled the events leading up to her best friend making such a decision a few days prior, which led to her face turning Crimson as she instinctively hid herself with her ponytail when she recalled what else was discussed.
Apparently Kaori had been feeling intimidated by how everyone was seemingly more useful than her, and this led to her requesting Alex and the others to help her train as well. Instead Alex had suggested an alternative, becoming a devil. It was then explained that the main difference between her and the others was that as Devils things like chants for spells and so on were unneeded, while she had to prepare to use her magic. When Kaori showed interest at becoming a devil Alex then introduced her to someone in the place called Asora named Ravel, who then conducted what seemed to be like a job interview with her. Soon her friend was given a chess piece and she sprouted Devils wings right there in front of everyone, which Shizuku couldn't help find ironic considering Kaori was often referred to as an angel by others, but was now a devil. The part that had embarrassed Shizuku though was when she asked about becoming a devil herself, and was told that Ravel had used her last piece on Kaori and the ones who still had their 'Evil Pieces' were Rias, Alex, and a girl named Ingvild.
Rias had denied her since she already had her two Knights and wasn't looking use her pawn pieces on a third, meanwhile the girl named Ingvild apparently wanted to turn her peerage into performers as well as fighters, which Shizuku refused to do. And so Shizuku turned to Alex and asked if he could turn her into a devil in order to become stronger, which then led to him making a weird grin. This had confused her until she heard the girls start giggling slightly and she confusingly asked if she said anything funny before Hajime stepped forward and explained, Alex only used his 'Evil Pieces' on women that agreed to be his. In other words, Shizuku had essentially asked Alex to make her his lover. Luckily for her he didn't push the issue and understood she only asked out of ignorance, but that didn't stop him or the others from teasing her quite a bit about it.
Shizuku shook her head as if to push the embarrassing memories away and turned her attention back towards the target in front of her. She knew that to use spatial magic it would require her to chant, but she was currently trying to find a way around this so that she wouldn't advertise her attacks to her opponents. Before she could regain the focus she lost though, a voice asked,
"Working hard Shizuku?" Which nearly caused her to stumble once more, not from being interrupted, but because of who the owner of the voice was. With a blush on her cheeks she turned to face Alex and said,
"I'm trying to utilize Spatial Magic in my sword techniques." Alex nodded in understanding and held out his hand while asking,
"Mind if I try?" Shizuku felt a bad premonition, but she handed over her katana to Alex who then casually swung it to the side. As he swung it the air around the katana seemed to warp slightly before there was a sudden clatter a ways away. They both turned to see the target dummy cut in half thanks to Alex's attack, which caused Shizuku to feel bitter inside. He then turned towards her and said,
"The problem is that you aren't able to use such magic while applying it to your usual movements as easily as us. As you are now you need to either find a way to incorporate chants into your fighting, or have your equipment enchanted beforehand to act as a medium like a staff or scroll." The bitter feeling only grew as Alex explained what she needed to do to improve as she already understood that. However she already concluded that chanting would be next to impossible, while she was hesitating to ask Alex to make her weapons capable to apply spatial magic. The reason was because ever since she started traveling with them she had seen time and again how "inferior" she was to everyone else, and that she had to rely on Alex seemingly constantly. That was why she wanted to try and figure this out herself, not only to become more capable in combat, but so that she wouldn't owe him even more. However in the face of all the facts, she was once again unable to refuse when Alex offered to add applications for Spatial Magic to the weapons he gave her. Though was nice to be around someone that was more reliable, she didn't like feeling so powerless compared to those around him. Feeling defeated as she handed over her weapons, Shizuku then took a wooden practice sword and resumed her usual sword practice, determined to catch up to those around her.
***
About a day later the endless sea of desert gave way to an even more endless sea of blue as they finally reached the ocean. Seeing the expanse of water Alex directed Zenith downwards until with a gentle crash they started sailing across the water instead of in the air. Though everyone was excited to be at the ocean, there was one person in particular who was literally hopping around with joy.
"The ocean! It's the ocean papa!" Myuu cried out as she ran around excitedly. Everyone either smiled or started giggling at her behavior, but no one made a comment since they were aware that Myuu was excited to almost be home, and to see her mother again soon. Asia in particular seemed effected by Myuu's mood as she walked up to her and asked,
"By the way Myuu, what's Erisen like?" Myuu puffed up her chest and happily said,
"My home is awesome! It floats on the water and everyone there is super nice to me and mama, especially all of the uncles!" At these words everyone developed more strained smiles, as they understood that Myuu's father died before she was born and her mother was probably fairly young and good looking basing her off of Myuu herself, so it was kinda obvious why all those uncles were nice to them. Asia though was still talking eagerly with Myuu and asking her more about her home while also walking away slightly to divert the topic. Valerie(who was now dressed in a sailing cosplay outfit along with Gasper) then approached Alex and asked,
"Do you think we could go swimming now that we're sailing in actual water?" Alex thought for a moment and answered,
"I would wait until we stop Zenith for the night so that you won't have to try and keep up with us, it'll also make it easier to deal with any sea monsters that might want a bit of a snack." Valerie and Gasper paled slightly when Alex mentioned potential monsters looking for a snack, which then led to a discussion about Kuroka erecting a large barrier to repel any hungry monsters. They then spent the next couple days sailing across the ocean while everyone like they were on a pleasure cruise now more than ever as they spent the days swimming, tanning, and just generally playing around in bikinis. The vacation attitude came to an end however when most of them sensed several approaching presences, right before a shout came from the water outside the barrier.
"In the name of Erisen and the Heiligh Kingdom, surrender yourselves for holding and questioning for suspicious activities on an unknown vessel in the territory of Erisen! Failure to comply will be taken as a criminal offense and we will show no mercy!"