One Day Before
Third Person P.O.V
After Rias and Sona left the Kuoh Central Hotel followed by their peerages, they both gave each other a nod.
"So we'll talk about it later?" Rias asked.
"Yes, there is something I need to take care of first, I will call you in a couple of hours." Sona responded before giving a brief farewell to her friend's nobility and leaving followed by her own.
"Well." Rias said softly before turning around to look at the members of her peerage. "This meeting was a little more exhausting than Sona and I anticipated, does anyone want to join me for something to eat? I know a nice place not far from here." She offered to everyone, and as if to respond to her proposal, a small drop of drool fell from the corner of Koneko's mouth, although she quickly cleaned it up, after all, she knew the place and the desserts there were delicious.
"I don't really feel like cooking today, so that would be fine." Kiba said.
"Ara, that sounds like a nice meeting, I'll join." Akeno added, leaving only one member of the Gremory group to respond.
"Ah." Issei said a little nervously when he noticed that everyone was looking at him, he was still not completely used to being part of a group so different from the one he had with his friends Matsuda and Motohama. "Yes, thank you, my mom didn't have time to cook today, so there were only leftovers from yesterday"
Rias smiled at him, and everyone moved forward with her leading the way until the voice of her newest servant caught their attention. "Um, president, is it okay to ask you something?"
"What's wrong Issei?"
"What was all that? What happened with that guy you talked to." He asked, not sure if he was asking about something he shouldn't.
"That's… a little complicated." Rias said, pausing to think about how to explain everything as simply as possible. "A few weeks ago, Kiba discovered that one of the humans who used our pamphlets was marked with a tracking spell by someone unknown, and a few days later, we suspect that those who did this were the same fallen who attacked you"
Issei tensed involuntarily when he heard this, and the face of a girl came to his memory, a beautiful girl who had smiled at him only to then stab him, his first and so far only "ex-girlfriend".
"Is he… is he like me?" He asked as he touched his hand and thought about his sacred gear.
"I highly doubt it, after all, we were attentive to the activities of the fallen, and they never approached him after that incident, but it seems that after interacting with Kiba, he developed some kind of ability"
Issei's eyes widened in surprise and turned to look at his blonde companion. "Can you awaken abilities in others?" He asked quite surprised.
The boy's enthusiasm and curiosity earned light giggles from not only Kiba but also Akeno and Rias, although Koneko simply raised an eyebrow.
"I'm sorry, but I really don't think I'm that special." Kiba apologized after a few seconds.
"Ugh, I don't understand how you can say something humble and sound so upset." Issei grimaced, which earned another small laugh from Kiba.
"Wait, if this pretty guy didn't was who awaken his ability, then how did the lightbulb guy awaken his ability?" He asked after thinking for a few seconds.
"That's the question we're all asking, Issei-kun." This time it was Akeno who answered. "Since we were sure that it was not Kiba-kun, we believed that it had been the fallen angels, but as we said before, none of them approached him, and if what he said was true, then he started training and that made him stronger"
"That sounds like a shonnen carácter." Issei said more to himself than to the others.
'I know, right?!' Rias screamed in her mind upon learning that someone else in her peerage thought like her.
"And after that, he had an encounter with the stray devil that you saw in the video, it attacked his teacher and hurt him badly last night"
"Stray devil? So that thing really was a demon like us?"
"Oh, right, we didn't tell you about them before, did we? I will explain all the basics to you while we eat, but a quick summary would be that no, they are not like us, just as we explained it to him, those are demons that rebelled against their master, that produced a mutation that uncontrolled their energy and becomes them monsters that sometimes attack humans, most of the time feeding on them"
"So one of those attacked them yesterday? But he didn't look hurt at all"
"And that adds another mystery to his person, you didn't see the full video, but that demon, although she was not especially strong, was not something that any common human could harm, much less resist her attacks, and he was hit, crashed against a column of concrete, cut in several sections of his arm, and lost an amount of blood that should have killed him, and yet, after a night of sleep he looks completely fine, what does that tell you Issei?"
"Eh? Well, does he have any way to heal quickly?"
"Exactly, and while we demons have the healing method that you already know, the humans don't have anything similar, they only have conventional healing spells, and these are not especially common or as effective unless you are someone with a talent remarkable magic, which he does not have, which leaves only 2 options"
"…" Issei racked his brain as best he could, but he only came up with another method, and it was only because it was one he had seen in some animes. "Accelerated regeneration?" He asked.
"Yes, and the other method is that he has some object that can heal him, but that would be very unlikely since he didn't seem to have a connection with anything supernatural before Kiba"
"So that's why he behaves like this with us?" Issei remembered the way he saw them, as if he distrusted all of them, ready to attack them, and now that he knew more about what had happened to him he couldn't blame him too much.
"He has fear." Koneko said.
"Fear?" The brunette was confused. "It seemed to me as if he hated us"
"You're not completely wrong, but Koneko is more right in this case, being new he doesn't know much about the supernatural world, and he almost lost his life due to a devil, but if you looked at his posture you could tell that he was scared, although I don't know If it was more because of his situation or because of what he thought would happen to his teacher"
"Ah." Issei remembered how she looked at him when he accidentally scared the pink-haired woman. "So he's not a bad guy?"
"He doesn't seem like it to me." Rias replied. "He's scared, and that's why he reacts that way, he tries to cover up his fear with a tough attitude, but." She said with a sympathetic tone, although her next words were said with a serious tone. "If he were to attack and pose a threat, then he must be shot down immediately, I feel sorry for him, but if I had to choose between the safety of any of you or the life of a stranger, then the choice is obvious"
Issei almost took a step back at the tone his new master used, but when he processed the meaning he felt quite flattered by the fact that she cared so much about him.
"And about the fight you said he will have tomorrow? Who will be the one who will fight with him?" He asked curiously.
"Well, Sona and I haven't decided yet." Rias lied, after all, she had already decided who would be the one to fight tomorrow, and she had even already talked to him, out of the corner of her eye she gave Kiba a look, and he nodded.
She had explained to him that depending on Ryuichi's reaction to this meeting, he would be the one to fight, and since Ryuichi seemed to resent them somewhat, most likely because he attributed his entry into the supernatural world to them, then Kiba would be a good opponent for a lot of reasons.
First, she wanted Issei to get a favorable impression of Kiba, and the best way to do that would be to show him a show where the knight would not end everything quickly but would hold back long enough to show off in a showy fight.
And second, when Kiba won, regardless of Ryuichi's performance she would congratulate his efforts and together with Sona would "kindly" allow Kirisu Mafuyu to keep her memories, doing him a favor, and improving Ryuichi's point of view towards devils in general, which would make building a friendly relationship with him much easier and tension-free for both sides.
Was this something honest? Of course not.
But it was the most pleasant and beneficial path for everyone, and both Rias and Sona were demons at the end of the day, so lying a little to make things better was not something they would turn down.
######
Present
Third Person P.O.V
"Fight!"
His legs propelled him forward as ki covered his entire body, the distance between both opponents was crossed by Ryuichi in just under a second, surpassing any record set by ordinary humans.
But even so, he noticed how Kiba's eyes followed his movements from start to finish, his neck bent, evading the punch aimed at his nose with a fluid movement as he walked past Ryuichi swinging his sword with the intention of hitting the human's side.
A blow that in a real fight would be fatal, but that, under these conditions, with a dull sword, would be a painful but manageable blow, leaving his opponent in constant pain that would diminish his performance in battle a little.
*Tunk*
And yet, although Ryuichi received the blow, it was not in the desired place, his left arm, which was kept close to his torso, blocked the blow of the weapon with his forearm.
A grimace of pain graced Ryuichi's face for a moment before being quelled, the novice martial artist planted his foot on the ground with enough force to slow his advance and jump back to pursue the swordsman.
A leg moved in a fluid motion toward Kiba's temple, but it was the flat side of his sword that bore the blow, parrying it with a little more effort than anticipated.
The blonde used his weapon to push Ryuichi's leg, making him lose his balance for a moment, a moment that was more than enough for him to take a position, ducking and pushing himself while his sword moved so fast that any normal person would only see a blurry image.
The round tip hit Ryuichi's left shoulder and pectoral without him being able to do anything to stop or reduce the damage, being sent backward, falling to the ground, and rolling a couple of meters before ending up face down.
"1." Tsubaki started counting.
While the counting began in the distance the demons who were watching talked among themselves. "He surpassed the peak of the common human." Sona said with her arms crossed and a neutral expression.
"There is also the fact that he did it with only a few weeks of training, something quite striking." Rias complemented.
"In addition to that, there are also his movements and that posture that he used at the beginning, I don't know what type, and it is clear that he is not an expert, but he is using some type of martial art"
A few meters away from them, Issei listened curiously to the conversation and couldn't help but ask whoever was next to him. "Akeno-san, is it really that impressive? The pretty boy seems to be winning without much trouble." He said after watching how Ryuichi began to get up when Tsubaki reached 8.
"That's the point Issei-kun, at the time Kiba-kun first saw him less than a month ago, he was an ordinary human, and his change doesn't seem to have been caused by something extraordinary like a Sacred Gear, of all the people you know, can you think of someone who could surpass the human limit in a month?"
Issei shook his head as he watched Ryuichi slowly stand up. "But still." He said, seeing how the boy had a pained expression.
"Still it doesn't seem like a big deal against Kiba-kun, right? That's because as demons, or in our case, as reincarnated demons, we have already surpassed the common human peak by a wide margin, and since Kiba-kun's piece is a knight, he gains an exponential increase in his speed, so that is why he can avoid all those attacks and hit so fast." Akeno explained.
"I…if I try hard, I could also be as fast as that pretty boy?" Issei asked, watching Kiba dodge more blows from the now-standing Ryuichi.
"Fufufu, I am sure you can, but that's something you should talk to our president about, I have the feeling that if I tell you, she might get a little upset with me." Akeno answered, after all, she was sure that Issei, as a pawn, could properly take advantage of the attributes of all the pieces with the "promotion" if he tried hard enough.
######
Ryuichi P.O.V
'This really couldn't be more discouraging'
I grimaced when another of my blows didn't connect and gritted my teeth, mentally preparing myself a second before another stab-type attack hit me, this time in the abdomen, knocking the wind out of me and sending me to one knee.
I resisted the urge to vomit and moved one leg in a sweep at the swordsman's feet, but he avoided the attack by jumping and moving away a little.
'He's playing with me, landing painful but not decisive blows and dodging my attacks by such a short margin that it's infuriating.' I thought as he tried to regulate my heavy breathing.
From the first exchange, I noticed that I was outmatched, but I didn't expect the difference to be so much, I had to finish devising a plan because, at this rate, I was going to exhaust all my energy in a short time or the accumulated damage was going to catch up with me.
I had a few ideas, but none with enough chance of winning, not without checking a few more things, so he would have to use a simple plan that would probably fail to get more information.
Another high kick was avoided by the width of a finger, and this time, my leg received a blow to the thigh, making me lose balance, and from the corner of my eye, I saw how the tip of the sword pointed at my chest.
The only thing I could do was jump back in an attempt to evade, but all I managed to do was lessen the power of the attack that still managed to hit me, unbalancing me even more and sending me to the ground.
"Urgh." I grunted as my back was scraped by friction as I fell backward by the combined power of my jump and hit, until I was able to do a clumsy backflip, ending up with one knee on the ground and the other leg stretched out.
It didn't matter when I tried, I couldn't help but wince at the burning all over the skin on my back, I was sure it must be full of scratches, but I didn't have time to continue complaining, because directly towards me, and from the front, the blonde advanced with a speed that was intentionally slow enough for me to perceive him.
But this was the perfect moment, my hands moved quickly in front of my face with fingers spread, and I screamed. "Taiyoken!"
The light shone, and although I couldn't see him for a second, I ran forward directly to where I felt his ki ready to punch him in the face, my fist clenched with all the strength I could put into it, and it moved at full speed to hit his nose.
*Tunk*
But instead of its initial target, my fist hit the flat side of his sword, his arms recoiled a few inches, but in the end, he stopped my blow.
"Ahhh!" I screamed as I moved my other fist to hit him in the chest, but I couldn't touch him because the second my fist had gone halfway, his sword had already moved, placing the tip in front of my chest while an accumulation of air seemed to gather there.
And when I was just a couple of centimeters away from landing the blow, the sphere-shaped accumulation of air at the tip of the sword "exploded" in my direction.
I felt enormous pressure on my chest as I flew backward, and the tips of my feet dragged along the ground leaving a trail of dust.
I couldn't stop, and everything was pain when I reached the other end of the field, leaving the earthy part of this place and with my back hitting the trunk of a tree.
My consciousness wavered, and my vision was out of focus, I felt like I was about to throw up what I ate for lunch while the pain in my back throbbed like a second heart.
And for a moment, the idea of just giving up and falling unconscious sounded like the most tempting thing in the world.
My teeth closed tightly drawing blood from the now injured lip, the soft but electrifying sensation of pain took me away from the darkness, and in the distance, I thought I heard the voice of Touji and Kirisu-sensei.
I would not betray the responsibility that I had accepted, I would not let fear and pessimism dominate me like that night with the spider woman.
I didn't have all the information I would have liked, but I was going to do the best I could with what I had.
I had studied every move he had made, the way he moved his hand when he threw a "slash" whether horizontal, vertical, or a stab, the way his feet moved, the inhalation he took before each powerful attack.
If I really wanted to have even a slight chance of victory I would have to take a risk.
It was time to play my last bet.
X-X-X-X
Well, as expected, there is a clear difference between Kiba, a trained and experienced demon, and Ryuichi, a human with only some training.
So this battle can't be won with raw power, Ryuichi figured that out from the start and now he's going to use some of the most important things a warrior must have, creativity, versatility, and ingenuity, or put in a way that people who like Versus can easily identify, Battle IQ.
Will this be enough to win? We'll find out in the next chapter.
Also, Rias and Sona set a little trap for Ryuichi to make him feel grateful towards them, and from their point of view it makes sense, they don't want any trouble with Ryuichi, a person who could turn hostile if things get too tense, so making him grateful towards them is the "kindest" way of manipulating him that they can use.
It's a shame that even if they don't erase Mafuyu's memory the chat will do it since that's the penalty if he loses this fight.
Remember that if you like this story, you can leave a comment, review, and a power stone, that will inspire me to write more, see you in the next chapter.