A little over a week had passed since Rikuo had started his training and he was already dying. His lungs felt like they were constantly on fire from all the stamina building exercises.
His limbs weren't any better for they felt like they wanted to fall off of his body.
'Whoever enjoys exercising is a masochist. '
The blond grumbled under his breath as he finally finished running the last of the 40 laps. He had tripped once during the hand to hand training and Irina, the sadist, had doubled the number of the laps he had to run. He wheezed for breath and greedily gulped down the bottle Shuuji handed him.
Rikuo nodded towards the ravenette gratefully. Shuuji dipped his head in acknowledgment and both focused on Irina who patiently waited for them to finish up. The brown haired woman looked up from her phone to see the boys done so she put it away and addressed the teenagers.
"I take it you're done?" At their nod, their teacher grinned. "Good. Riku brat, how would you say you are now, compared to earlier this week?"
The blond paused. He didn't think to pay attention to that. Rikuo hummed, thinking.
If he was to be honest, if Rikuo from Monday was to run 40 laps around the clearing then that version of him would surely have died. He had barely been able to finish 5 laps then.
But during the week, he had progressively gotten better to the point he was able to run 40 laps without much problems if bit exhausted and out of breath. So, if the teen was to judge himself-
"I feel that I got stronger? No, not stronger but more durable. If it had been me from before , I wouldn't have been able to finish 40 laps after sparring with you, Teacher."
Irina nodded in acknowledgment. Her grin widened just a tiny bit.
"It means you have been following my exact instructions. When human body awakens reiki, it has to play catch up in terms of stamina and strength to keep up with the amount and purity of the reiki. So as to make that happen sooner, the reiki lends a hand to the body and basically buffs it constantly until the body is caught up."
"And the higher the purity of reiki is, the greater buff it gives. Did I get that right, Teacher?"
"Indeed. I see someone has been studying with Shuuji."
Rikuo scratched his hair sheepishly. He nodded towards the amused ravenette who watched them with folded arms.
"Yeah, Shuuji has been lending me his books and teaching me what I need to know about Midnight Realm." He grinned.
Irina smiled at them approvingly.
"Good job you two, keep that up and you'd be ready to go on missions soon enough. Now, let's move on to your reiki lessons. Shuuji be a dear and show him the coating exercise."
The ravenette agreed with a slight grumble and picked up a few leaves from the bush. He held one in his hand. Irina stood beside Rikuo, placing her hands on his shoulder, the blue eyed woman murmured.
"Watch carefully. You can start, brat"
The blonde focused on the leaf and sure enough, it started emitting a faint blue glow.
Shuuji gave the leaf an experimental twirl then threw it towards the bottle placed on the trunk. Right in front of Rikuo's disbelieving turquoise eyes the leaf cut the bottle in two before the glow of reiki faded and it fell down.
"Right, I forgot to tell you that coating makes the item sharper and stronger than normal?" He heard Irina chuckle. The blonde shook his head mutely, still staring at the bottle in amazement.
"Of course, only coating it won't do. If you don't coat the item with enough reiki, though still dangerous to onryo, it would just be a normal item. And if you coat it with too much reiki, well~ Oi, Brat, show him what overloading does." She called out to Shuuji. The ravenette nodded.
"Step away" he then started pouring mana into another leaf.
The leaf glowed brighter and brighter by the seconds, looking like it was some kind of disco ball. Suddenly, Shuuji threw it into the air and Rikuo watched as the leaf blew up with a small boom, splintering into millions of tiny pieces.
"It blows up. Of course high purity reiki poured into the object in the same amount as average reiki will do the same and as everyone has different levels of purity, they all have different limits when it comes to coating."
Irina placed a marble sized foam ball in Rikuo's hand. She instructed her very serious student.
"I want you to pour a very small amount of reiki into it. Because of how pure your reiki is, anything more than 5/100 of your full reiki would blow up the ball."
The blonde nodded. Taking a deep breath, he slowly reached for his reiki and pulled out as little reiki as he could then gently guided it towards the ball. He poured the little particle into the foam.
"Good, now try to make the reiki coat the surface of the ba-"
"Pop!!"
The ball practically disintegrated into dust. Irina sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. 'This is gonna take a long time' she thought. Pouring and coating like this would help Rikuo control his reiki when the pool eventually grows. So it was necessary for him to learn how to coat and then shape his reiki.
"I should have guessed." The brown haired woman shook her head when Rikuo grinned at her guiltily.
"How about this? If you can pour reiki into the rubber ball without blowing them up by the end of the day, I'd take you and Shuuji out on an official mission." She offered.
The look she got from her brats screamed determination. Irina saw them exchange a silent conversation with a look and then they hurriedly moved away from her with the bag of foam balls that had been on the stool.
Giving a fond grin, the older exorcist pulled out her phone again.
She scrolled down the messages until she came across the mission offered to her. Opening it, Irina typed in her reply.
"I accept! I'd be bringing along my disciples."
The brown haired woman stretched then put away her phone without bothering to read the reply. The mission she had accepted was not something low ranked as her students could take but with her there, they would be safe enough and she could use it as a learning experience.
Shuuji had battle experience and could take solo, low level missions with her permission. The ravenette had awakened rather young due to an outside interference. He was the reason the awakening ceremony was made necessary.
Rikuo however had none of that. He had been a normal, disabled child before the blonde happened to sign the contract. They also didn't know just what kind of conditions God had given the boy.
Then there were matters of his still unawakened blessings. Irina was, however, sure that one of the blessings the kid received was physical, what with the monstrous rate the kid improved in the past week. Even with her regime and his reiki supporting, it was impossible for someone to improve at the speed the kid did.
When God signed a contract with humans, they imparted some sort of power in exchange for their services. This was called a blessing and most champions had two. One passive ability to assist them in their life and another active blessing.
Irina herself had a physical ability increase as a passive blessing. It gave her a huge boost and advantage in her chosen field. If she had to rate her powers right at the moment, Irina could take on a small army of 70 exorcists with her passive ability alone.
Shuuji's passive blessing was how his abilities were buffed when under the sunlight. And Kousuke had an ability to sense everything within a 50 meter radius of himself that he couldn't turn off.
Active blessings were always kept secret. They were registered, however no one but the owner could see them, as well as in case of emergency, the council. It served as both a weapon and weakness for champions.
Irina sat down on the ground to watch her students train. She wondered if they would manage it in the short time they have been given. They only had 3 hours left until the training ended after all. "Well~"
"Even if they fail, I'd still take them along anyway." The teacher mused.
That was probably why the brunette was so surprised when Rikuo managed to succeed.
An hour before their day ended, Shuuji had called Irina over with the excuse of asking for some advice.
The woman had shrugged then headed towards their way, only to pause when she saw her blond brat holding a small ball glowing in stable silver. 'Hard type then…' she identified, looking over the way Reiki had small needle-like edges in it.
The brunette had to bite back a smile knowing that the kids had succeeded but then they surprised her even more by throwing the ball towards one of the wooden posts and splitting it in two. Irina Rostavich felt proud. Her brats had worked together to succeed in her training.
Now she was driving back to the apartment Shuuji owned. The sun was almost done setting and behind her in the back seat sat her two students. Fast sleep against each other. For goodness's sake, she had two beasts as disciples.
'The world better watch out. Those two will surely shake it down to its core in a few years time.'