Human World, Japan, Kyoto, Youkai Sub-Dimension.
"Now." James said, taking a step forward. "Let's get this show on the road."
As James stepped forward, the girls behind him took their fighting stances again. Once everyone was ready, James made the first move.
"Scatter, [Senbonzakura]."
Ochiru Sakura broke down into a thousand cherry blossom petal shaped blades. With a mental command, James sent the blades at the army of oni, targeting all those at intermediate-level, middle-rank and below. Although the oni did their best to defend, after a few minutes none were left standing. James, however, did not take any lives. He knew that it was not his place to administer the death penalty to any of the youkai present.
"Oh, yeah." James said as an afterthought. "No killing, if it can be avoided."
After that, James recalled [Senbonzakura]. Once the petal blades reconstructed Ochiru Sakura he calmly sheathed it. Then, he stepped back and stood guard over Kunou with the karasu tengu who informed them of the situation.
"Onii-Chan, that was so pretty." Kunou said with stars in her eyes.
Seeing Kunou's reaction, James could only hope that she was referring to the sight of a thousand cherry blossom petals fluttering through the air, and not the splashes of blood they caused. The karasu tengu, on the other hand, reacted the way someone seeing that level of wide scale destruction should.
"What was that?" the karasu tengu asked in fear.
"Oh, don't worry about it." James said nonchalantly. "That was just my bloodline ability."
Without going into any further details, James shifted his attention to the girls' battles that were just starting. All seven girls chose a foe that was close to them in rank. With Ayame's opponent being at ultimate-rank in the initial level like her. Rias took the next strongest oni on the battlefield who as at the advanced-level of the high-rank. Sona was paired up against an intermediate-level, high-ranked enemy, while Akeno and Tsubaki took care of an initial-level, high-rank opponent each. Meanwhile, Reya and Flora faced off against the two remaining middle-rank beings. Both of which were at the advanced-level.
*Clang!*
James turned his head in Flora's direction, as the sound of her gauntlets slamming together caught his attention.
"I'm getting at least one of those wishes." Flora said excitedly as she dashed toward her opponent.
"I think you're out of your depth little girl." the 6'7" (2 m) tall oni said with a sadistic grin.
"We'll see about that!" Sona shouted as she neared her foe.
Once she was in range, Flora began the fight with two swift jabs aimed at the oni's chin. Although the oni was able to tilt his head out of the way of the first, the second caught him squarely in the chin. After the jab slightly rocked the oni's head, Flora followed up with a straight, a left hook, an uppercut, and finished with a kick to the inner thigh just above the knee. Staggering a few steps back due to the flowing combination of attacks, the oni grew angry after taking damage from a frail woman.
"You damn bitch, I'll make you pay for that." The oni shouted in rage.
"Come on, let's see what you got, big boy." Flora said tauntingly as she curled her fingers, inviting the oni to attack.
"Gahh!"
Unleashing a battle cry, the oni dashed at Flora. With every step shaking the ground minutely, it was obvious how much power he could pack behind each punch. However, as Flora was disappointed to find out, he had no technique. Every punch was telegraphed thanks to a large windup. Flora dodged and countered easily. After slipping under a wide swing of the oni's arm, Flora converted her demonic power into thunder. Instead of firing it at the oni, however, she let it flow through her gauntlets and grieves. Then, she performed a low kick with her left leg and struck the oni's right calf. With the gauntlets charged with thunder, the oni's muscles in that leg were paralyzed for an instant. And an instant was all Flora needed.
Transitioning from the low kick, Flora stepped in and planted her left leg. Then, using all the power she could ring out of her body, she threw a right uppercut that slammed into the oni's jaw, lifting his heavy body off the ground. And due to the thunder flowing with the blow, his mind shut down for a moment. After that, Flora began working the airborne oni like a heavy bag. Jab, jab, straight, uppercut, hook, a high kick as her opponent was about to hit the ground again, hook, hook, uppercut, and a back heel kick to the jaw to finish.
When the oni hit the ground again, though he was still alive, anyone watching could tell that he would not be getting up again, any time soon, anyway. After admiring her work for a moment, Flora felt great. She had managed to win her first fight against something other than a stray devil. Then, she remembered the reward for the girls, and she turned to see some of the other girls had already finished their fights. None of them were undamaged, though.
"Oh yeah!" Flora exclaimed as she pumped a fist into the air. "One of those wishes are mine."
"Tch!"
Though she did not know who, Flora was certain that one of the girls next to James had just clicked her tongue in jealousy.
Meanwhile, Rias had also rushed toward her opponent. In her excitement, however, she did not notice the small knife flying toward her until it was too late.
*Swoosh!* *Slash!* *Thump!*
Evading at the last second, Rias was still cut on her upper arm. Shortly afterward, she heard the knife embedding itself into a solid surface. Though a small injury like that would not hinder her fighting capability in the least, she was now unqualified to receive both wishes. With her demonic power flaring due to her rage, Rias looked into the eyes of her attacker and spoke menacingly.
"You're going to pay for that." Rias said as she created a large ball of the [Power of Destruction] between her palms. "I just hope this doesn't kill you."
Feeling the power from the attack Rias was preparing, the 8'2" (2.5 m) tall oni went on high alert. Asthe density of the ball of [Destruction] reached a level that Rias was satisfied with, she began splitting offsmall chunks and fired them in the oni's direction. Fortunately for the oni, those balls did not move at a speed he was unable to dode. As time went on, more and more [Destruction] balls were fired. Unfortunately, the oni was too busy dodging to notice that there were no sounds of impact from the balls he evaded. After the onslaught had come to an end, the oni was completely uninjured.
"Is that it?" the oni said mockingly. "With all that build up, you couldn't hit me even once."
"Why don't you take a look around." Rias said with her right hand open and stretched forward while she swept her left hand through her hair.
When the oni did as she said, he was terrified to see he was surrounded by over a hundred weak balls of the [Power of Destruction] positioned around him in a hemisphere. He instinctively knew he would be done for if he was hit by all of them.
"Oh, shit..." the oni muttered to himself after realizing the situation he was in.
"Indeed." Rias replied with a nod. "Now, goodbye. [Hellzone Destruction]."
After calling out the name of her technique, Rias closed the fingers on her outstretched right hand. As she did, the small balls of [Destruction] moved toward the center of the hemisphere. Unfortunately for the oni, he was that centerpoint. After a few seconds of being hit by Rias' attack, A bloodied oni could be seen laying in a shallow crater.
After checking the oni's status, Rias quickly turned to see there was already a woman standing next to James. Though she looked to be unable to stand on her own.
"Damn it!" Rias exclaimed as she stomped her foot then slowly walked over to stand next to James.
On another battlefield, Tsubaki approached her foe with her naginata ready to strike. Waiting for her was a beautiful 6'7" (2 m) tall female oni wearing a lose black kimono with her shoulders and a large part of her breasts exposed. Without wasting any words, Tsubaki thrust her naginata at the woman as soon as she was in range. Carrying a sheathed katana in her left hand, the oni woman partially unsheathed it to deflect Tsubaki's attack. Using the counterforce from the deflection, she spun the polearm and struck the oni woman in the side of the head with the butt end of her naginata.
After receiving the blow, the oni woman was more than a little displeased. After being forced back by the blow, she regained her footing and charged at Tsubaki. Lowering the hand holding the sheath, she drew the sword in an upward slash at Tsubaki's face. Tsubaki blocked the strike with the shaft of her naginata. After which, she drove the katana downward. Using the momentumrom Tsubaki pushing her weapon down, the oni woman switched her grip on her sword to a reverse grip and drove her blade through Tsubaki's thigh.
Gritting her teeth from the pain, Tsubaki released her left hand from her weapon and used it to grab the oni woman's wrist that held the katana. Then, like lightning, she lunged toward at her foe and thrust the blade of her naginata through the oni woman's right chest and nailed her to the ground. Now laying on top of the oni, Tsubaki gathered her demonic power in her right fist and...
*Bang!*
Punched her in the face hard enough to render her unconscious. After that, before she could react, she was lifted off the oni woman and supported to stand.
"Great job, Tsubaki." James said while supporting Tsubaki's injured body. "It looks like I'm gonna be granting you a wish later. "You're the first to win, though not without injury."
Tsubaki, pale from pain, asked an especially important question.
"Do you know any healing spells?" Tsubaki asked with a pale complexion. "If we can't take care of this injury before we go back, we'll have to do some large-scale memory wiping."
"Don't worry about it." James said casually. "Although you won't be healed completely, it will only look like a little muscle strain to those who don't know, when I'm done with you."
With that, Tsubaki sighed in relief. James then brought the two back to Kunou and the karasu tengue after removing Tsubaki's naginata from the oni woman's chest. After that, James removed the blade from Tsubaki's leg and quickly began using the healing [Kido] he had been working on. Though his is not exactly the same as it is in the Bleach series. It works more like the healing ninjutsu from Naruto, as it enhances the natural regeneration of the body. By the time Rias and Flora were done with their fights, Tsubaki's injury had stopped bleeding.
"I really thought I'd be first." Rias said with a pout. "I only needed one attack to finish my opponent, too."
"Yeah, but you used an attack that takes a long time to set up." James countered. "Plus, you were too overconfident going into the fight. Otherwise, you wouldn't have received that."
As James finished, he pointed a finger at the tear in Rias' uniform, which was stained red due to the cut hidden underneath.
"Yeah, yeah, I know." Rias said disappointedly.
"Flora on the other hand, you did a great job." James said, turning his attention to the new arrival. "I never thought I'd see an air juggle outside of a video game."
"Hehe, I thought you'd get a kick out of that." Flora said with a giggle. "Since you were watching, I thought I'd put on a show. Only after I knew I could win without getting hurt, that is."
"Hearing that, Rias pouted even harder as she knew Flora was referring to her.
"Anyway, it looks like the other fights will be over soon, too." Tsubaki said, adjusting her glasses as she watched the other girls battle their opponents."
"Yeah, I wonder who will finish next." Flora said curiously.
"Well, we'll just have to stay tuned to see." James said with a smile.
"Why does it sound like you're promoting a web novel or a TV series?" Rias asked teasingly.
"Shut up!"