Special Training Day: The Adept Lion vs. The Rookie Dragon! Time to see if my Older Apprentice Brother lives up to the hype!

Waiting patiently on top of one of the mountaintops of Dragon Mountains, Tannin awaited the arrival of two very important people scheduled to be here. One of them was supposed to be here by now as the learning student while the other was a visitor who happily volunteered to progress the learner's training.

Looking out into the distance, Tannin took note of the flying dragon and young man sitting on a flying cloud, compared to the dragon the young man looked to be miffed about something. Upon getting closer to landing distance, Michael hopped off Sirius to land alongside Bova.

"Ah, you two finally made it. I was beginning to think that you were lazing around the comfortable home of the Gremory Household." Tannin crossed his arms.

"Mmmrgh!" Michael grumbled under his breath as his cheeks were swollen red.

Taking notice of his anger, Tannin asked "What happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it…" Michael angrily whispered as he struggled to put aside all his traumatizing memories of Rias' constant scolding, Akeno's teasing, Rias getting mad because of Akeno's teasing, and Asia's jealous pinching.

There was only so much that he could take that by the next morning, he slipped out of bed without waking them up and took flight for the mountains without even looking back. He knew that he wouldn't survive the next fight which would arose in the morning since their last argument before he forced himself to bed would have led to them asking him about who's bento box was his favorite.

Along the way, he begrudgingly met up with Bova who loyally waited for him through the night. He would have chewed the dragon out for inputting that ridiculous, permanent name for his territory.

Yes, it was permanent, during his scolding from Rias, she told him that a low-class devil being given their own territory was honestly something that the Gremory family would allow, so it would in the servant's best interest not to give it an outrageous name, or else they would be forever stuck with it as a haunting reminder treating such a generous privilege as a joke.

"I see… So, I guess you didn't take the news of your territory's new name too well?" Tannin grimaced.

"What the-!? How did you know about that?" Michael gasped.

Tannin spared a glance towards Bova, who nervously looked away.

Following the old dragon's line of sight, Michael shouted, "Bova!"

"Yeah, Boss?" Bova whistled.

"Mind explaining why Gramps knows about "I Don't Care" Mountain?"

"Probably because I called and told him about it while you crashed at the Gremory Residence."

"Why!?" Michael's cried.

"I thought you didn't mind the name at the time, so I wanted to tell the Old Man how amazi-no, great your naming skills were." Bova slumped his head down.

Shaking his head, Michael screamed, "Oh no you don't! I do admit that I do have great naming skills, but you're not getting off the hook that easily, pal!"

"Yes, boss. Sorry, boss." Bova kept his head down and nodded.

"Because of you I had to suffer at the hands of Rias all day, yesterday! I-It was horrible!" Michael wept, "That was the second most painful experience of my life!"

"What are you talking about Boss? You told me on the way here that you were getting hounded at by Gremory-san because you-."

"No, no! Shut up, don't say anything else! Did I say I was done!?" Michael shouted.

"No, boss…sorry…" Bova sighed.

"Damn right you are… But despite the physical pain that I received; what you did by assuming that "I Don't Care" mountain would be one of the great names that I would come up with was the last freaking straw!" Michael growled,

Calming down with a cough, Michael said, "You barely used any of my favorite key words such as "Great" or "Gutsy" or even "Michael" and lets not forget the most important part: Hanamura! These are the perfect names that I would have used for the mountain!"

"I-I understand…" Bova was thrown out of the loop, but tried his best to understand.

"Y'see, you can't just give something a title without including yourself that would just be a waste. The people have to know that YOU own the land without having to ask who named it." Michael elaborated.

"I see… So, it's sort of like spray painting your name on the walls of your streets, so some enemy punks will steer away once they hear your name's apart of the land!" Bova snapped his clawed fingers upon his realization.

"Exactly!" Michael nodded.

"I get it, Boss, how clever! I promise not to make such a half-assed mistake again, but for future reference what naming tips do you have for me?" Bova asked.

"Well, I'm glad that you asked Bova because I have a list right here…"

"I'm quite taken surprised with how fast your mood has changed youngling, but …Wow, he actually did pull out a list…" Tannin wondered where the young man pulled out the list but instead listened intently to his long list of names that he crafted for what seemed to have been ages ago.

"Ahem! My first recommendation would have to be, including both Great or Hanamura in any title you make. But always! ALWAYS! Include Michael and Hanamura together or people will get confused about who's Michael or who's Hanamura." Michael coughed.

"But boss how will people know, who you are based on only the title of the "Great Hanamura" alone if you named you're territory? Wouldn't they still be confused about who you are?" Bova asked as he was writing down Michael's instructions on a strangely large notebook.

'Eh? Bova, where did you pull out that notebook? I didn't know that there were notebooks made to accommodate for dragons.' Tannin sweatdropped.

"Tch! Another stupid mistake, Bova…" Michael shook his head, "Isn't it obvious? It shouldn't be a surprise since people will obviously know about me since I always call myself that when I talk, duh!"

"…That's genius…" Bova looked at Michael, speechless.

"Thank you…" Michael bowed.

"Sometimes I can't tell whether you're enjoying your new friendship with Bova or not…" Tannin shook his head and pinched his temples.

"It varies sometimes, but now if you'll excuse me I'm about to go and start my meditation! I can't waste my chance by letting the Ero-Ossan's offer pass by!" Michael began running off before getting pulled back by Tannin's large tail.

"Ah, not so fast, youngling, don't you remember what I said before you left the other day?" Tannin asked as he lifted the entangled Michael to face the dragon's larger face.

"That I'm a clueless buffoon?" Michael asked.

"No."

"Then who did call me that then?"

[I did.] Ddraig chimed in.

"Oh yeah, I do remember you saying that… Hey, Ddraig?"

[Yeah?]

"You suck." Michael lightly growled, "So Gramps, what did you say so special for today?"

"I told you that you had special training planned for today because someone graciously took it out of their busy schedule to personally see to your progress." Tannin said.

"What!? Seriously, can't that wait after I finally figure out how to enter my mindscape?" Michael impatiently frowned.

"That can wait, and besides you could use the extra practice. I'm sure it will give you some more battle experience than what you've already earned from facing most of the dragons earlier this month." Tannin slightly smiled.

"Really?" Looking intrigued, Michael placed his worries about his deal with Azazel to the side to wonder about the training that Tannin offered, "Am I going to be facing a High-level dragon this time? Perhaps one of the dragons from your peerage? Or perhaps, you'll give me the chance to face off against you again, gramps."

"Hmph! Not even close, youngling, you're still not ready for that kind of challenge yet. No, you're going to be facing someone who isn't a dragon for today." Tannin shook his head.

"Someone who isn't a dragon? So that means that I'm going to be fighting a devil, but who?" Michael wondered and rubbed his chin.

"Don't worry, Boss, you're more than capable of facing any scrub my old man invited to fight you." Bova gave Michael a confident thumbs up.

"Yeah, I'd like to see it that way but if Gramps is going this far for something special today then it must be a tough opponent, but who is it…?" Michael grumbled in deep thought.

"THAT WOULD BE ME!"

Echoing from over the edge of the mountain cliff, a prideful voice was heard bounding toward the mountaintop.

"Who the hell was th-yikes!"

Curious, Michael rushed over to look for the voice's source, but was met with a powerful force of air created by a shadow who jumped over and landed valiantly behind him. The sheer speed of the individual surprised Michael to fall on his butt from getting taken off guard.

"Hahaha! It's nice to see you once again, Michael Hanamura!" Standing proudly over the knocked down young man, a grinning Sairaorg stood over him with his shadow casting over Michael's fallen form.

"No freaking way!" Still startled, Michael stood up and looked to Tannin, "You mean I get to fight…?"

Tannin nodded and gestured to Sairaorg,

"Youngling, meet your sparring partner for the day, Sairaorg Bael."

"Once I caught wind that you were being trained on the Dragon Mountains with Tannin as your instructor, I just had to take the chance to gauge the strength of my little apprentice brother." Sairaorg joyfully laughed.

'Apprentice brother? Right, he did call Shishou, well, Shishou during that meeting with the upper echelons of the devil society.' Michael remembered with a shocked expression.

"It's nice of you to finally come, Sairaorg, I trust that you had a pleasant trip over here?" Tannin bowed his head in respect.

"Yes, and excuse me if I came a little late. It's just that I haven't been in the wild for a while, so I decided to take my time and enjoy a regular hike through the mountains. I see that most of the inhabitants of Dragon Mountain are doing well?"

Tannin nodded, "There haven't been any severe conflicts over territory the last time you were here so don't worry. The Higher leveled dragons are comfortable with areas so barely any trouble occurs, but that doesn't excuse the-."

Tannin and Sairaorg got into a deep conversation leaving Michael alone to digest all of the new information that was thrown at him.

*Poink!* *Poink!*

"Whoa! Rael…?" Michael turned his head over to his shoulder to spot a small dragon perched on it. He swore that it was Asia's familiar, Rael, but taking a closer glance, he found it to be a different dragon with purple scales.

"It looks like my old man really went all out for you, boss. This looks like it will be a tough match for you but don't worry I believe that you can-!"

"Who are you?" Michael questioned.

"I-It's me, Bova." Bova muttered.

"Oh… So, you can turn yourself into an adorable Sprite Dragon at will? That's pretty cool." Michael smiled.

"I only used a transformation spell to reduce my size to that of a Sprite Dragon, I didn't really change species." Bova looked irritated with a scowl on his face.

"What's up?" Michael asked in question of the small dragon's alarm.

"I…can't stand this form." Bova growled, "People find me to look cu-cu-cuuuuu…!" Bova struggled to say the words.

"Cute?"

"Yes, that." Bova nodded, "Because of people seeing me that way, they started to get the idea that I was fine with getting patted on the head like a dog or get my cheeks pinched! Can you imagine the humiliation that I went through during my old man's special appearances in devil society?"

Michael noticed Bova tearing up and knew how prideful the dragon could be and can see how justifiably shamed he was to be put through that sort of embarrassment.

"Bova, I'm so sorry that you were put through that, no one should have to be forced to experience that form of pain… Ever…"

"Boss…" Bova admirably gazed at Michael.

"Remember, Bova, you may get on my nerves when you're thinking about my future and my well-being but I will always try to respect your privacy." Michael smiled.

"Thank you, Boss." Bova smirked.

"Now…" Michael raised his hand,

"Can I pinch your cheeks?"

"Huh, what? No!" Bova immediately denied.

"Aw, come on. Just one cheek pinch is all that I need. It doesn't even have to be a pinch, I can just poke you on the cheek; it will be completely harmless just trust me, okay?"

"Whatever happened to respecting my privacy?" Bova sweatdropped.

"I asked you instead of straight up doing it so that has to be a consolation, right?" Michael asked with a playful shrug but Bova was not amused with him twisting up his own words to use as his advantage.

"Poke? Poke? Pinch? Pinch?" Michael teased the small dragon by poking and pinching the air in front of him.

"No." Bova answered seriously.

"I see, if that's your decision then I understand. It's your body and you have no reason to accept my plea and I accept that." Michael solemnly smiled with his eyes closed.

"…Boss, put your hands down..." Bova didn't buy it as he felt the presence of Michaels almost touching his cheeks.

"So close…" Michael sighed before turning his attention to Sairaorg, "I know that Sairao-I mean, Aniki is a powerful guy from the Bael Clan, who was trained by Shishou but that's it. Just by sensing his energy signature I can tell he's going to be a really difficult guy to beat, but is there anything else that I don't know about him?"

"There's more to Sairaorg-san than that." Michael was taken aback by Bova's respectful usage of Sairaorg's name as the small dragon visibly began to sweat, "But out of all of the younger devil's he is considered to be the Strongest Youths of his generation."

"The strongest? Not even Buchou or the other masters can compete with him?" Michael gasped from that eye-opener of a fact.

"The reason that Sairaorg-san's the strongest is because he didn't follow the norms that devils were privileged to have; this makes him a serious threat to them because the path of hellishly training his body gives him more of an advantage against pure-blooded devils who solely rely on the power their bloodline gives to them."

Bova nodded.

"But wouldn't Aniki have his own bloodline powers to use? Does he not use them as a show of relying on his physical prowess rather than magic?" Michael asked.

"That's something you should ask Sairaorg-san, Boss. I don't believe I have any right to talk further about his past with you." Bova shook his head.

"You really have a lot of respect for him, huh?" Michael smiled.

Thinking that this was a bad thing, Bova said in alarm, "That's not it at all, Boss! I-I mean I do respect this guy's strength and all, but I still prefer to be loyal to you as Vassal until the end! In fact, I think you stand a chance against him even if he is stronger than you, faster than you and definitely experienced than you!"

"Chill out, I wasn't questioning your loyalty. I just figured that since he even has you respecting him than that must mean he really is something else." Michael crossed his arms and examined the flow of energy exuding from Sairaorg.

Just like at the Young Devil Meeting he still felt an exuberant amount of energy flow from his body like a rushing river and that was just the layer of power that he allows out of his body.

'Incredible.' Michael thought.

He couldn't help but smile for some reason, unlike his fights with Shirou and the countless high-leveled dragons on the mountain, he didn't feel as frustrated once the opportunity to spar with a powerful opponent such as Sairaorg was brought up.

Perhaps it was because he knew that Sairaorg's training originated from the same master. This instilled into Michael an eventual promise that he'll get as powerful as Sairaorg as he stays under Kai's tutelage.

At the time, his worries over rushing through the fight to focus mainly on his meditation were swept aside at the notion of fighting someone who was the perfect benchmark in power for his future.

"Oi, Aniki!"

Grabbing Sairaorg's attention, Michael smiled while crossing his arms in front of him before swinging them out in front of himself, "Osu! I'm grateful for the chance to spar with someone like you!"

"Nice vigor, I expect that from my fellow apprentice!" The well-built devil chuckled.

"So, are we going to be fighting until one of us gives up or what?" Michael excitedly turned to the massive dragon.

"The fight won't end until I deem it so try your best to hold out. Remember, winning isn't the objective so use this opportunity to learn from Sairaorg and better yourself. The experience might even help you with your meditation if you're observant enough."

"It can!?" Michael shook in anticipation, "Woohoo! Now this is a two for one battle that I just can't wait to have! Let's do this!"

"Hold your horses, youngling." Tannin picked Michael by the scruff of his collar and brought him up to his face.

"What now?" Michael said in a rushed fashion.

"I just wanted to remind you that we still haven't undone the seal on your Balance Breaker the other day due to the conversation that you and the Governor-General got into."

"Whoops, that was supposed to happen wasn't it…?"

[Dragon Booster!]

Michael sucked in his lips and summoned his Boosted Gear.

"So, do you wish to undo the seal and use your Balance Breaker during this fight?" Tannin asked.

"No thanks, I can wait once the fight is over."

"What?"

Swinging himself from Tannin's clawed finger, Michael lands on the ground with a grin on his face, "My training so far only required me to train without a Balance Breaker, so I want to test how far I've come with my base state alone for now."

Tannin was visibly wonderfully surprised by the boy's change in attitude; if this were the same Michael from 15 days ago he would have insisted on using Balance Breaker without hesitating.

"I mean if that's alright with you, Gramps." Michael asked.

"It's fine with me, youngling, I understand, and I sort of see the logic you're using for approaching this spar." Tannin nodded.

"Logic?"

"You wish to fight Sairaorg using your base form because you have yet to properly train in your Balance Breaker form yet which could lead to it severely hindering your ability to properly fight. That's a really insightful observation, youngling, I'm impressed."

Tannin praised the sweating Michael.

"Hahahaha, yes! That was completely my mindset from the start! I really am such a clever genius, aren't I? Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go face him now!"

Michael laughed before hastily walking to face Sairaorg with a distressed look on his face.

'What the hell? How did he get all of that from me denying to undo the seal? I just wanted to test my base state and see if it'll be a match for him so I can gauge whether using my Scale Mail would even things out! I didn't know that using my Balance Breaker right now would cause some trouble…'

Taking off into the air with Bova by his side, Tannin said, "I'll be watching from above so use this mountain to your hearts content and don't hold anything back you two."

"You've got this, Boss… I mean I hope you got this… Either way if you start to get your ass kicked just know that I'll still be rooting for you!" Bova exclaimed.

'Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence but I have to agree that Aniki seems to be on a whole other level than me.' After groaning, Michael began to get in his fighting stance,

'So, I'll have to throw everything at him while seeing what he can do!'

"Nngh! There we go…" Sairaorg grunted.

"Eh?"

Placing his attention on the stronger devil, he was taken aback by Sairaorg stretching his limbs out.

"Aren't you going to stretch too, Michael Hanamura?" Sairaorg exhaled after stretching out his arms, "Its crucial that before a fight you stretch so you can avoid cramping up. Wouldn't want to fight you with my muscles so tightened."

"A-Ah, right I guess I should do that." Feeling a little embarrassed for getting too excited, Michael heeded Sairaorg's advice and did some leg stretches.

Michael kept quiet expecting a long moment of silence as they stretched but was stirred by Sairaorg breaking the ice with a light conversation and the best part was that he wasn't even awkward about it at all.

"Although Tannin gave us the go to fight to our heart's content, I'm going to set a little condition for myself during this sparring match." Sairaorg finished stretching and raised a finger, "I will only attack when engaged so I'll allow you to take the initiative and throw the first hit and so on. Most of my moves will be reactive so things won't be too overwhelming for you this sparring match is for your benefit, so I won't get too proactive."

Grimacing at this, Michael started to feel a twinge in of dissatisfaction, 'So he's going to hold back…Fine, then I'll just have to make him get serious as the fight contin-?'

Dashing the boy's worries though, Sairaorg laughed, "But don't get me wrong I intend to take you fully seriously when you engage me so don't think I'll just let you get away with your usual tricks."

Sairaorg grinned once he noticed the look of surprise on Michael's face, "I make a habit of never underestimating my opponents especially those who take advantage of being underestimated because they more than anyone else can change the tides of battle. Your bout with Riser Phenex is a perfect example of that."

"You know about that?" Michael asked.

"Of course, I just asked for permission from Uncle and Aunt to watch the recordings of Rias' first Rating Game. Each of you equally fulfilled your parts and made up for what the other lacked in combat, but what really helped Rias win that Rating Game was your unpredictability against Riser and his servants. The opposing side was arrogant and had assumed that victory was in their hands but by using that you forced them out of their comfort zone and knocked them flat."

Sairaorg said, "You're a tricky one, Michael Hanamura and I intend to keep a rather close eye on you, so I don't miss something interesting and above all else caught up in your clever ploys to catch me off guard."

"…" Michael was speechless as a rush of emotions conflicted inside him, he was of course happy that a High-class Devil like Sairaorg was acknowledging his strength but that only emphasizes how much of a threat Sairaorg was to him in a fight.

'It looks this guy really is the worst kind of opponent for me to face right now.' He remembered the Rating Game Tournament and Ddraig's warning after he fought with Shirou.

[Because you are weak against opponents who have trained and practiced using their power, the type that fight all out and won't underestimate anything you do. They won't be pushing you around or toying with you, in fact, they may actually be seeing you as a threat to defeat or to kill.]

'This will be one hardest fights I've been in since my time on the mountains, save for Gramps, but I'm not going down so easily!' Michael encouraged himself and continued stretching before stopping himself to think,

'Wait… Ddraig did you just repeat what you told me back then in my head?'

[Considering that I'm trapped in your empty skull then, yes, I did repeat that.]

'Why?'

[Because unlike you I don't like hearing my voice replay itself in your head. If you want to recollect about something I said, then just ask me.]

'Alright…' Michael shrugged, 'Hey Ddraig remember that one time when you said that one thing to Typhon when he brought up Tiamat the Bitch dragon?'

-[Of course, all the memories that I had when I was alive became blurry when I was sealed inside the sacred gear. She attacked us last time and I couldn't understand what she was saying!]-

[Michael, I swear that I will choke you in your sleep with your own arm if you continue to-! Wait, hold on... How did you know about that conversation? Weren't you unconscious when Natsuru kidnapped you?]

'…You see, Ddraig, I kind of…' Michael gulped before smiling, 'Have to focus on the fight so this conversation is over."

[You slippery, son of a bitch! You were already gaining consciousness and pretended to be knocked out just to hear our talk didn't you!?]

'This conversation is OVER!'

[No its no-!]

"So Aniki!"

Michael immediately cut Ddraig off to snatch Sairaorg's attention for the moment. He didn't have a good opinion on High-class devils like Riser or the old devils that he met in that important meeting, but he could tell that Sairaorg was vastly different from them considering that he isn't as condescending and arrogant as they are. Including that he was trained by the same master as him, he wanted to know more about his senior apprentice.

"After this is over do you mind if we talk afterwards?"

"Hmm…" Sairaorg rubbed his chin while looking gravely seriously, "I did say that I wanted to talk with you later, but…we don't have any tea or snacks, especially the snacks…"

"Snacks?" A question mark popped up over Michael's head as watched the muscular devil contemplate his thoughts.

"What kind of example would I set for my younger apprentice brother if I can't even share a conversation without providing any refreshments?" Sairaorg clenched his fist in vexation before snapping his fingers upon realization,

"I've got it! After our spar, why don't we go hunting for the wild Rage Boars outside of the mountains and use them as sustenance while we talk?"

'He's really keen on eating, huh?' Michael could somewhat relate to the man.

"Sure, I don't mind going out for a little hunt." Michael forced himself to make a bitter smile.

"Great! Now that we've got our meal plan sorted out we can finally get things underway!" Sairaorg looked up and gave Tannin a thumbs up.

"If both fighters are ready then I'll commence the fight in 3…!"

'Time to see what Shishou taught this guy, he barely trained me any more than I needed because he was too busy but if this guy's been with him longer then maybe I could get to know a bit of his techniques.'

Michael slowly entered in stance again and examined Sairaorg doing the same although his had less form and looked less tense than Michael's.

"2…!"

'Going all out at the start will only make me tired, I just need to go with the flow and see what he's capable of.' All of this intensive thinking stressed out the Pawn and the fight hadn't even started yet.

"1…"

Michael slowly began taking creeping steps and tensed his arms.

"BEGIN!"

Immediately taking off, Michael rushed Sairaorg with a rather normal pace before engaging the older man in hand to hand combat. Throwing the first hit, Michael swung his leg for immediate contact with Sairaorg's right torso; only for it to be swiftly guarded by Sairaorg's forearm before getting the ankle of his leg grasped by the man.

"…!"

Using the posture that Sairaorg forced him into, Michael leaned in and used the opposite arm to his blocked kick to throw a punch to Sairaorg's face, but that only resulted in Sairaorg blocking the fist with an open palm before latching onto it with a tight grip.

Realizing how dangerous it was to stay locked in Sairaorg's grip, Michael leaned his body back to slam the heel of his foot against Sairaorg's jaw.

"Hmm?" Sairaorg noticed the boy subtly enhancing his free leg with touki, "Sorry, but I'm not going to let you do that."

"What the-!?" Sensing something build up in the palms of Sairaorg's hands, Michael felt something strange in his caught fist and leg before he was suddenly propelled back from Sairaorg's grasp.

'How did he-?' Michael gasped as he prepared for impact on the ground below and managed to stop his tumbling momentarily to catch his second wind, 'Okay, after getting knocked back like that I can finally get some space to thi-!'

"I've yet to properly retaliate yet, so don't let your mind wander off!"

*BAAAAAM!*

*CRASH!*

"Gaaagh!" Getting an elbow to the face, Michael was sent flying and crashing into the mountain wall. Coughing up a fit as he wiped his bleeding nose, he glared at Sairaorg, who was comfortably cracking his knuckles with a smile on his face. That attack hurt almost as much as Vali's if not more in comparison to the former.

"I remember telling you that I would reciprocate your attacks with my own. Just because I'm mainly blocking your blows doesn't mean that I wouldn't throw one your way now and then."

Sairaorg grinned as he noticed Michael get up with a determined look in his eyes to go all out. This form of excitement is hard for him to come by save for his past battles with Seekvaira's [Queen] so to further goad the boy on he made a taunting gesture and said,

"Well, I'm waiting."

'Taking things too slow isn't going to work after all, I need to take things up a notch.' Michael exhaled as he cloaked his body with touki to enhance his speed and attacks.

"Impressive, I knew that attack earlier meant that you knew how to do it, too." Sairaorg crossed his arms.

'I'm not surprised that he can do it, too…' Michael groaned, he knew that Shishou was a slave driver when it came to training, so this was a requirement of the results that he would want for his students.

Kicking off the ground, Michael used the full force of his touki to launch himself at Sairaorg and throw an unrelenting barrage of punches his way. Just like before, Sairaorg continued to be reactive when blocking and redirecting each of his hits with the palms of his hands.

"Nice, I see that Shishou properly taught you the basic uses of Touki, and the amount you have along with the fine control is impressive. My only issue with your usage of it is: Why are you unnecessarily wasting so much of your energy with such redundant moves? Throwing the same punches over and over again won't change a thing." Sairaorg cheerfully praised and questioned the young man.

"Rrrgh!" Throwing one last punch, Michael missed Sairaorg's face.

"If you continue to use the same move repetitiously it will be easier to dodge, you know." Sairaorg smiled and cocked back his fist.

"Heh!"

*SLAAAAAAAM!*

Michael wore a grin as he used his thrown fist's arm and cloaked it with Touki as he immediately hammered his forearm down upon Sairaorg's neck and indirectly the hard earth below from the blow's impact.

"Nice trick, your simple attacks before were simply a proxy to get the best of me, but I'd still have to say that the drawn out punches pretty much made it a bit too obvious." Sairaorg responded from below Michael's swung arm as he prepared his punch,

"Not to mention, you left yourself open by doing an upper body attack."

"Crap!"

*WHAAAAAAAAM!*

"Goooough!" Michael coughed up a mouthful of blood as he skidded back from the force of Sairaorg's single punch alone, 'Damn, this guy's punches are devastating…!'

Angrily stomping his feet on the ground, Michael stopped skidding and tried to catch his breath and devise a plan.

Sairaorg simply stood and smiled as he watched Michael walk around him in search of a weak point.

"I'm ready anytime you are, Michael Hanamura. I've yet to sustain any damage." Sairaorg reminded.

"I know that already geez! I'm just thinking is all!" Michael angrily exclaimed.

"Looks like someone is getting worked up." Sairaorg laughed at the boy's honest response.

'I don't get it, he's so relaxed in his stance, but I can't seem to find any openings. Just what in the heck did Shishou teach to make this guy be this unbelievably strong?' Michael clicked his tongue in frustration. He needed to think of a way to catch the Bael clan member off guard to at least land a good hit on him.

Looking around himself for anything to use, Michael spots a huge boulder thrice his size not too far and immediately rushes over to it, 'This could work!'

Using all of the strength his legs and back could muster, Michael lifted the boulder over his shoulder and faced Sairaorg. He gritted his teeth due to how heavy the object was but had not issue when throwing it directly at the man, who stayed complacent. Doing what would be common sense, Sairaorg cocked his fist back and prepared to smash the boulder to pieces.

*SUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!*

"!" Sairaorg gasped once he noticed the boulder shattering before he could smash it.

"Dragon Blaze!"

*DOOOOON!* *FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!*

Decimating the boulder, a brilliant red stream of flames emerged and threatened to engulf Sairaorg's body along with the portion of the mountainside he stood on. Rather than be surprised by the fake out, Sairaorg relaxed his body and tensed his arm before simply throwing a single punch.

*FWOOOOOOM!*

With the force of his attack, he was able to create a pressurized blast of air that quickly extinguished the wave of flames. Upon removing the flames, Sairaorg noticed that Michael was no longer standing before him.

"…" Waiting patiently, he suddenly heard rushing footsteps coming at him from behind.

"Crushing Dragon Fi-!"

*THUUUUUUUUUUUN!* *CLUTCH…*

Before coming in contact with his face, Sairaorg caught the wrist of a fist imbued with dragon energy and touki. The sheer power placed inside of it caused a visible disruption in the air as steam flowed from between Sairaorg's fingers.

"Dammit…!" Michael cursed as he tried to release himself from Sairaorg's grasps yet again.

"That was quite a cunning plan to fake me out not only once but twice before attacking me from behind." Although he was complimenting the young man's tact, the devil from the Bael family wore a confused expression,

"But again, you waste too much of your energy on needless movement. I'm beginning to wonder if you really do know the basics on properly applying touki in battle because your control over it seems to be too straightforward."

"I was only trained to the point of gaining the ability to use it along with increasing the capacity of how much I can use. Anything besides that was what I had to learn on my own because Shishou wasn't always there to train me." Michael panted heavily as he tried to force his fist through Sairaorg's tight grip.

"That actually answers a lot of my questions." Sairaorg sweatdropped and remembered how fickle Kai was as a teacher, he would usually pop up whenever he wanted to and train him before getting swept away on business or personal interests.

"But…" Michael grinned as a red line shone through the fingers of his fist.

"Huh?" Sairaorg watched as the boy's fist opened to reveal a compacted sphere of dragon energy.

"I've been managing to get out of tight spots by following my own way of doing things! Dragon Shot!"

*DOOOOOOOOON!*

"In hindsight, you should take into account whether to fire your attack when in your opponent's hold, but nice try." Sairaorg simply moved Michael's hand away from his face to avoid taking the point blank blast.

"Oh, come on!" Michael screamed in frustration as he receives another brutal punch to the stomach and a heel kick to face. Skidding back again, he was now forced back to square one as he gets over his momentary disorientation from the kick.

'This is going nowhere!' Michael angrily screamed in his head, 'I can't even hit him without getting read like a book! How can just block all of my moves like that while looking so natural and relaxed?'

[Probably because he has a calm mind, Partner. Settle your nerves and try to come up with another strategy.]

'…Okay…' Michael heeded Ddraig's advice and tried to analyze Sairaorg's posture, his stance, his attitude and none them left an inkling of an opening, 'Dammit, I still can't find an opening anywhere…'

[You're opponent is more experienced than you so finding any weaknesses will obviously be difficult. However, he's only strong since he's in a comfortable condition to properly exercise all of his strength.]

'Comfortable…? Wait, I think I get where you're going, Ddraig. So, if he's comfortable standing in place to react to my attacks then I should use that against him!' Michael grinned, 'Since the opponent doesn't have any showable openings then I'll just have to make one!'

[I see that you've finally got the gist of it. Now go! Use what you learned on the mountains to your advantage!]

"Osu!" Michael excitedly yelled as he charged at Sairaorg with reckless abandon.

Waiting for the attack, Sairaorg prepared to anticipate the pawn's attack with his own, but stopped himself once Michael ran through and phased through him. Standing up right, Sairaorg laughed to himself upon realizing Michael's ploy,

"The Afterimage technique? I'm quite shocked that you're able to use it this freely already, Michael Hanamura! It took me a while to get that technique down and you're already this proficient with it!"

A large circle filled with images of Michael provocatively making fun of Sairaorg emerged around the stronger devil.

'These past 15 days required a lot of running away from the dragons around here, so I could devise good ideas to take them down. This technique was a shoo-in when using Scale Mail but really tough to use without.' Michael thought in between the intervals of his images as he waited for the perfect moment to strike.

"Try to attack me at any angle, I won't hold back! And just a warning, this technique is fairly easy once you reveal yourself to strike so put everything you have into it or else it won't damage me at all!" Sairaorg crossed his arms.

"That's the plaaaaan!" Rushing out from one of the afterimages that were behind Sairaorg, Michael cocked back his fist and threw it.

"Toh!"

*WHOOOOOSH!*

Almost instantaneously, Sairaorg threw a powerful punch which created an air pressured force which tore into Michael's body.

*Zwoooooosh~!*

Fortunately, it was an afterimage that sustained the attack rather than the original.

"*Whistle!* Using an afterimage as a cop out, nice course of action, hahahaha!" Sairaorg chuckled.

'WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?' Michael's jaw dropped once he saw his afterimage get split in half, 'Was he trying to kill me just then!?'

[That's what you get for over pursuing.]

'Excuse me for trying to start things, man, I think I almost saw my life pass before my eyes when I saw him raise his fist like that… I really need to get out of Kuoh town more.' Michael thought before resuming with his plans.

"Aniki!" Jumping from out of one of his afterimages, Michael locked his hands together and swung them down.

"Hmmph!"

*WHOOOOOOOOOSH!*

*Zwoooooosh~!*

"Another one? Huh?" Sairaorg unleashed another powerful punch which went through a phasing Michael before subtly noticing something move quickly behind him.

"Toh!" Throwing another punch, Sairaorg punched another afterimage of Michael sticking his tongue out at him.

'This is getting repetitive.' Sairaorg sighed as he looked around himself and entered a familiar series of afterimages while waiting for the real Michael to strike. The process was tedious but Sairaorg wasn't letting up in the slightest since each of his punches only grew to be stronger as time passed on.

Immediately sensing a drastic change this time, Sairaorg spotted the real Michael charge in with after images dispersing around him. His fist had collected a massive amount of touki and draconic energy as he appeared to be throwing an actual punch this time around.

"Here I come, Aniki!" Michael screamed.

"Come!" Sairaorg cocked back his fist with a battle maniac smile.

"I already told you that I was! Aaaaaaaaaaah!" Michael roared as he prepared to face the built-up power that Sairaorg was trying to use on his afterimages. Met with this awesome power overwhelming him, he immediately smirked and stopped a few feet from Sairaorg.

"Psyche!"

*SMAAAAAAAAASH!* *DOOOOOOOOOOOOON!*

Michael immediately knelt down to punch the rock-hard ground of the mountainside with all of the built-up power in his fist. The force of the punch caused a third of the cliffside to shatter into pieces and fall to the ground along with the two devils that were free falling with it.

'Perfect! Now he can't get a good ground when taking my next attack! I can exploit the falling to my advantage and since we're rapidly dropping to the ground, he can't risk using his devil wings to escape or else he'll be blown away by the upcoming winds or crash into large rocks falling with us.'

Michael prepared to charge two spheres of draconic energy in his hands and used the falling debris to his advantage by kicking any near chunks of rock Sairaorg's way. Sadly, they don't do much to stall the man since he's able to shatter them with ease but with a little trouble when dealing with his lack of mobility.

"I admit that this plan of yours is working to limit my moves, but that doesn't excuse the fact that you're in the same boat as me!" Sairaorg shouted.

"We'll see about that…" Michael snickered as he placed both of his hands behind his back and used the spheres of energy to release blasts that propelled him towards Sairaorg.

"I stand corrected."

Sairaorg scratched his head as he immediately blocks Michael's incoming knee to the face before countering each of his constant blows by pushing back to the falling debris around them. Unfortunately for Sairaorg, he unintentionally gives Michael some proper footing to aim himself properly at Sairaorg.

'I'm finally getting him on the ropes! All he can do is manage with the limited space around him!' Intending to quicken things, he decided to land his first major hit upon the Bael clan member.

"There!" Sairaorg punched the air towards Michael and threw a blast of pressurized air which misses and shatters a chunk of rock behind the teenager.

"You're a slippery one, aren't you?" Sairaorg said.

"I prefer to call myself a Smooth Criminal!" Michael grinned.

[Ugh…!] Ddraig groaned at the terrible use of the reference.

Using the two spheres of energy to propel himself out of the way, Michael aimed himself directly at his opponent and wildly propelled himself towards Sairaorg with the two spheres of energy clenched tightly in both of his fists.

"This is it, Aniki! For REAL this time!" Michael exclaimed as he cocked his left fist back shining with the sphere of dragon energy in its palm.

"Good, now show me the full power to your resolve!" Sairaorg tensed his arm's muscles to throw one more deciding punch.

"Guh!" Michael could feel the sheer pressure from the future Bael successor's arm alone as he noticed touki being subtly poured into the fist that was ready to fire itself out at any time.

'I have to be quick! Can't hesitate now or I'm literally finished!' Michael stared at Sairaorg dead on while Sairaorg did the same with an excitable smile on his face from the thrill of being in a heart pounding fight.

"MICHAEL HANAMURA!" Sairaorg bellowed as he threw his punch.

"Huaaaaaaaaaaah!" Michael screamed but to a lesser extent than Sairaorg as he swung his fist as well.

*DWOON!*

*BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM!*

In that instant, everything was blown away due to a single punch. All of the falling debris was obliterated and the increased air pressure from Sairaorg's blow smashed into a nearby mountain and created a massive crater that was almost about Tannin's size.

"Guuuuaaack!" Michael coughed up an unbelievable amount of blood after taking a hit like that up close.

"Incredible! Absolutely astounding you managed to withstand my attack!" Sairaorg laughed but noticed that about half of Michael's torso was crushed from the force of Sairaorg's punch.

"That's not true… I faked you out with that punch and used the sphere in my hand to push me a bit to the side, so I wouldn't take the whole blow." Michael's voice trembled as he tried to breath through the immense pain, "*COUGH!* *SPEEEW!* *COUGH!* I can barely breathe by just taking half of the impact; if I got hit by the whole thing then I wouldn't be conscious enough to do this…"

*FWOOOOOOOOOSH!*

"…!" Sairaorg looked at Michael's other arm to see a brilliant red fist covered in a mixture of red dragon energy and an intense blaze of blue flames swirling creating a large mass of condensed power.

*Grip…!*

Weakly grasping onto Sairaorg's collar, Michael coughed, "I'm not that good with any other elemental magic besides fire so I honed it and found a way to amp up the heat! Blazing Dragon Magnum!"

*WHAAAAAAAAAAM!* *FWOOOOOOOOOOSH!* *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!*

"Gchk!" Sairaorg gritted his teeth as bits of blood spurted out of his mouth, the punch was thrown at a close distance so when he suddenly tried to cloak himself with touki it only nullified half of the damage due to poor timing. However, that was all the expanding flames that engulfed him did because of the superior defensive qualities of his white aura protected him any major burns, save for his clothes getting a bit singed.

"What an intense attack, he really had his heart set on blowing me away with that hit." Sairaorg looked through the smoke and found that Michael was tiredly talking to himself in frustration.

"Dammit…even after all of that, you still managed to react and defend so quickly… How are you able to…" Losing consciousness, Michael slowly went limp and fell through the huge smoke cloud quickly than Sairaorg.

At the rate that he was falling, he would crash into the ground at any moment.

"If he falls from a height like this he'll die!" Sairaorg gasped and tensed the muscles of his legs before kicking the air and propelling himself towards the unconscious pawn. Despite the gap between them, Sairaorg managed to close it by jumping off of the air itself to reach out and grab the Pawn by the scruff of his collar.

"Got you." Sairaorg wrapped Michael's arm around his shoulder and kept kicking the air below him to slow down the descent of their fall to the ground. Looking over at his younger apprentice brother, Sairaorg smiled proudly,

"That was a stunning battle, Michael Hanamura, your last punch took me by complete surprise. I can't wait to see how far you'll progress from here on out, Apprentice Brother." Sairaorg lightly praised the young man once more as they landed on the ground.

"Boss!" Immediately leaving Tannin's side, Bova flew down to the mountain's base.

'You've used your training well, youngling and despite losing you now have the chance to learn much more than before.' Tannin thought as he opened his eyes, 'Now…'

"Since Michael Hanamura is no longer able to fight, the victor is Sairaorg Bael!"

With Tannin's loud declaration, the sparring match ended and each of the combatants were getting their injuries mended (to a lesser extent for Sairaorg and a greater extent for Michael) as things began to wrap up.

XXX

Awakening from his unconscious slumber, Michael wakes up to the smoky smell of a campfire. Looking around, he noticed that he wasn't in the mountains anymore but in fact one of the forests that surrounded it. It was night and the cool winds complimented the warm flames residing in the fire pit in front of him.

"How did I get here?" Michael winced in pain as he noticed his bandaged torso.

"Ah, I see that you've finally awakened."

"Whoa!" Fully awake, Michael took notice of Sairaorg sitting on the other side of the campfire with what looked to be a couple of dead boar carcasses behind him.

"Hehe, sorry for startling you. Here." Pulling up a skewer from the firepit, Sairaorg held out a piece of succulent, fresh boar meat.

"…" Michael silently looked at the shank of meat with hesitation; not out of fear but because he was completely left out of the loop of what was happening.

Understanding the pawn's confusion, Sairaorg said, "What's wrong? I did promise you that we would talk over a fine meal after our battle so eat up."

Realization dawning upon him, Michael bitterly remembered the events which took place before ending up this way. The sullen sting of defeat was evident since he had more bandages wrapped around his body than Sairaorg's single bandaged cheek.

Still trying to cheer himself up Michael put on a worn-out smile and took the skewered meat, "Thanks."

'…Even after all of that, I still utterly lost…' Michael felt a mixture of bitterness and excitement from his loss. The bitterness obviously originates from his loss, but his strange excitement still came from the future experience that he'll gain by continuing to train under Kai.

"Michael Hanamura, do you mind if I just call you Michael?" Sairaorg broke the silence.

"Not at all but if you want you can call me the Michael the Gutsy if you want." Michael tiredly joked.

"Okay then Michael the Gutsy!" Sairaorg grinned and gave Michael a thumbs up.

"…! In fact, just call me Michael!"

"Are you sure? You sounded like you wanted me to call you that other title."

"Yes, I'm sure! Ahem, thanks but you sort of taken me off guard by saying that…" Michael was visibly surprised by Sairaorg's acceptance over the latter name and expected him to ignore it like everyone else does.

"Alright then, Michael, I just want to properly express my gratitude for that splendid battle we shared. It was a thrilling experience and the most fun I've had in ages." Sairaorg bowed his head.

"N-No, I should be the one to thank you for even offering to spar with me." Michael shook his head before bowing his head in gratitude, "I finally got to use half of my training here to practice while learning more about the many possibilities of my training under Shishou by seeing how you fight."

"So, in a way, we both attained something from that fight. Wonderful, a perfect example on how an exchange of fists can help two fighters communicate and understand each other!" Sairaorg pounded his fist to his chest and took a bite out of his own slab of meat.

"Yeah…" Michael looked down before saying, "Say Aniki I've been wondering about something during our fight. How were you able to-?"

"Read your moves and blow you away with minimal movement?" Sairaorg beat him to the chase as Michael nodded.

"Well, that's because I already mastered the basics of what Shishou taught me about Touki and how to bring out the full potential on how its properly used and dull out its common flaws. You see in that sparring match, you used touki as an overall enhancer for your body without realizing the effects it can have on the little things in a fight. For instance, when you tried to use a double fake out and attack me from behind, I heard your rapid footsteps without having to pay too much attention."

"You did?" Michael blinked as he looked at his feet.

"Because your speed was enhanced, your footsteps naturally get louder which make it easy to predict where your coming from based on sound alone." Sairaorg nodded, "That also accounts for your over pursuit when throwing your punches, the extra speed and power make them a force to be reckoned with but leave you wide open when you try to throw the finishing blow."

Raising a finger, Sairaorg seriously lectured Michael, "This was what I was referring to as your redundant moves. You place too much effort into your moves and that wastes energy and creates openings for your opponents to take. That is why you need to use effective ways of movement that require less energy and take heed of your actions while using touki as full body enhancer."

"My redundant moves?" Michael looked at his hands and looked up at the man, "I don't get it. How am I supposed to do all of that?"

"Oh…" Sairaorg remembered something, "I do remember you saying that Shishou taught you how to only unlock your touki and increase its volume, so I'll do my best to explain the basics before delving in on that."

"Okay." Michael nodded and watched as Sairaorg walked over to a tree.

"A demonstration." Sairaorg placed his hand on the tree's trunk, "Now pay close attention."

Squinting his eyes, Michael gave Sairaorg a strained stare.

"You don't have to focus that much…" Sairaorg sweatdropped but went on to demonstrate his example. Taking a deep breath, he exhaled and tensed his muscles for mere seconds before breaking the tree in half.

"The hell?" Michael gasped as he stood up, "How did you do that?"

"Why don't you tell me what happened?" Sairaorg asked.

"Uh…way to put me on the spot, Aniki…damn, I guess you used your physical strength to push the tree back?" Michael shrugged.

"Nice guess but that's incorrect. You should remember that I did something similar to you when I had you arms and legs in a hold."

"That's right! You didn't even move an inch, yet you pushed me back with an insane amount of power. How'd you do that?" Michael asked.

"Touki can be more than just a body enhancer it can also enhance spells along with the force of wind one's punch can make. As you can see, I tensed my muscles for a moment and release a burst of touki into the palm of my hand. Control is key and you already have that down so all you need to do is learn how to gauge how strong your bursts are because going over the top by accident may slow you down in a fight."

Sairaorg began to walk a bit far from the fire pit and near the open space by it.

'So, I can already do that part? Nice…I guess Shishou's training with the spirit cuffs really helped.' Michael smiled.

"Using bursts of Touki can minimize the chance of using redundant moves but its not the only one though." Sairaorg took of his shoes and socks to stretch out his naked feet.

"What else is there to learn about?" Michael asked.

"Just watch." Sairaorg excitedly chuckled as he squatted down and jumped into the air multiple times by using the air itself to propel him higher into the sky.

"Oooh my MAOU! Y-You're flying without your wing!? No, you're freaking jumping on air, Aniki!" Michael's eyes literally popped out of his skulls as he watched the spectacular sight.

"Sure am!" Sairaorg nonchalantly uses one of his legs to hop on the air and keep in place as he looked down at the amazed pawn.

"H-How are you doing that?" Michael excitedly asked.

"Like how I smashed that tree by using bursts of touki on my palms, I'm using touki on the soles of my feet to stay in the air with little bursts." Sairaorg took it upon himself to demonstrate the full capabilities of the technique as he bounded through the air like an acrobat,

"Using your wings in a fight is great and all but they don't have as much mobility in the for quick reactions most of the time so using your legs can expedite better dodging and movement in mid-air when used well!"

"Amazing." Michael watched as Sairaorg jumps through the air once more before landing.

"The drawback is still the same as before, you have to pay attention to the bursts released through your feet or you'll find yourself shot into the air and falling to your possible death." Sairaorg warned.

"Right." Michael gulped, "But wait a minute…if you could do that then wouldn't that mean you could have dodged my attacks during that freefall with the debris in the air?"

"I could have but the sparring was for your benefit and I didn't want to make to take too much of the initiative." Sairaorg explained.

"No, its cool… I just wondered why things were running suspiciously running smoothly back then." Michael rubbed his chin.

"Now that we've gotten those two out of the way, I'll tell you the last technique that I used during your sparring match which actually requires no Touki at all." Sairaorg said.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. The next technique is an ability which helps a person naturally fight without any thoughts placed in their movements and attacks. Only experienced Martial Artists can master this form of fighting after years of training and this ability is called Mushin." Sairaorg stated.

"Mushin? Isn't that Japanese for "No mind", Aniki?" Michael asked.

Sairaorg confirmed it with a smile,

"Yes, you see over years of rigorous training, those who wish to attain this state of mind try casting aside their anger, fear and ego during combat to eliminate all sense of judgement. Without judgement and those other distractions, fighters are able to totally move their bodies freely in a fight with no thought placed in their actions. By using your intuition, you're no longer bound to use wasteful moves; only efficient ones that body will automatically make in the heat of the moment."

"Whoa… This sounds like it can make anyone invincible." Michael said in awe.

"Invincible? No, it just makes you react better in battle. Those who use Mushin can still be overwhelmed if a stronger opponent comes along with superior skills and power. However, Mushin can counteract this by helping you evade their attacks but limits your own attacks since you're forming thoughts to harm your opponent rather than clearing your mind." Sairaorg explained the common misconceptions with the technique.

"You know… I think I remember Shishou training me to do something like this along with increasing my touki volume and control." Michael scratched his head, "Yeah, before the conference with the three factions, he wanted to teach me how to rely on my senses and clear my mind while dodging his brat's attacks."

"Ah, so I guess he did try to teach you something advanced during his short time training you." Sairaorg chuckled.

"Yeah, but I was mostly doing that to fight my rival, Vali and I didn't really have the chance to use it because he rushed the sequence of our fight. Since then I haven't really tried to do it again." Michael frowned.

"Don't worry about getting rusty or possibly forgetting how you did it. If you've been in constant battles, then you're not going to lose your edge. You may struggle when using it now but know that fighting strong opponents while attempting to clear your mind increases your proficiency with Mushin. Plus, don't feel bad about not being able to use it well since I've been training for years and still have yet to master it." Sairaorg crossed his arms.

"Really? You?" Michael looked at Sairaorg in disbelief.

"I've been through countless fights but have yet to manage to use it to its full potential by losing my composure. When you attacked me with that last punch, I immediately broke out of that state by throwing my own punch while unintentionally letting my mind get filled with unnecessary thoughts that lowered my guard." Sairaorg coughed as he admitted to his past blunder.

"Wow…this really sounds hard to work with…" Michael nervously scratched his head.

"If it were easy then anyone would be able to do it. I personally enjoy the long process needed to master this state of mind, I'm in no rush to conclude my training anytime soon." Sairaorg sat near the firepit and looked to the star filled sky.

Sitting by him, Michael asked, "Say Aniki, I've been meaning to ask you something."

"Go ahead." Sairaorg smiled.

"Well, I don't mean to pry but how come you didn't use any demonic power during our sparring match? Were you holding yourself back that much?"

Shaking his head, Sairaorg said, "Of course not, it was never my intention to hold back any of my punches, but using demonic energy would be…a struggle for me."

"I get where your coming from." Michael nodded, "Until now I've been good with fire magic and that's all. I mean, I have some other moves that are cool but not at a grand scale like Buchou and Akeno-senpai. But hey us guys who can't properly use demonic powers ought to stay together!"

Laughing at Michael's attempt at cheering him up, Sairaorg said, "Thank you for cheering me up, but my situation runs a bit deeper than not being able to control it because I wasn't born with the innate ability to use demonic power."

"Oh…" Michael blinked in surprised and frowned, 'So that's why Bova didn't want to openly talk about this.'

"I don't want to unload my full history to you, so I'll only tell you the specifics. In the Bael household, its important for the heir to retain its trademark ability called the Power of Destruction."

"*GASP!* That's the same power that Ria-I mean Buchou has!"

"Yup, she and Sirzechs inherited that ability from my Aunt Venelana, who married from the Bael clan to the Gremory family. The Bael clan is widely known devil family in the Underworld but it's a rather difficult family to deal with compared to the rest since they're more old fashioned with devil traditions."

"Ugh…I think I know where this is going." Michael rolled his eyes as Sairaorg chuckled at the boy's suspicions.

"Demonic abilities help them determine the worth of devils while those who didn't have good demonic abilities or at least have amazing amounts of demonic energy would be viewed at as…trash. Now this doesn't exclude family members since I was also regarded as trash for not being born with the Power of Destruction, so after getting replaced with my younger half-brother who did earn the power, I was swiftly discarded with my mother who created a defected product to one of the poor Bael countryside territories."

"That's awful… How come your entire clan proposed something that terrible to you and your mother like that?" Michael growled.

"The entire clan may have a say when it comes to decisions like this, but they weren't the ones who can execute a decision by themselves, it was actually the Clan's head, my father who accepted the proposition and even brought it up." Sairaorg explained.

"Are you for real, your flipping dad just casted you and his wife to the wayside!?" Michael angrily shouted.

"It was needed to save face before word got out that there was a useless Bael heir who couldn't use the clan's special ability. In the end, I guess the Bael family needed some time to maintain its important position in the Underworld at the time." Sairaorg shrugged with a small smile on his face.

"How can you be so calm about this? Aren't you pissed that they just threw you away like garbage?" Michael exclaimed.

"To be honest, I was back then and now I still hold some grudges that resulted from being placed in a poor living condition…" Sairaorg sadly looked down before breathing in and grinning, "But…had I not been exiled there then I would not have met Shishou and get this strong to take back my place as the Bael's heir."

Michael was surprised by Sairaorg's optimism as he continued to voice his thoughts on his fateful encounter with Kai.

"Shishou showed me that getting stronger isn't a linear progression that can only be gained through my bloodline. He showed me that true strength can be achieved through hard work and determination; that it can blow away any obstacle I come across without being over reliant on "gifted" abilities that are attained from my parents."

Sairaorg clenched his fist, "That is why I'm never going to let my anger power my small grudge because I don't want to fully think of that experience as a bad thing but a wonderful experience that led me to where I am now…even if there are some things that I can't fix with strength alone."

'That's a really nice way of thinking about it, I guess, but I can tell that something drastic must have happened during his time in that countryside territory.' Michael thought.

"So…I've been meaning to ask you about Shishou? What are you're thought about him?" Michael asked.

"My thoughts? Well, he's a powerful and influential man that I've come to respect during my time under his wing. He's fairly kind and a great teacher, but he has his faults when it comes to his sense of morality, his hunger for battle and some of his training methods." Sairaorg nervously laughed and rubbed the back of his head.

"Let me guess he almost got you killed during one of your training sessions, didn't he?" Michael bitterly remembered how Kai informed Tiamat about his appearance in the Forest of Familiars.

"I can safely say…" Sairaorg recollected a past memory from over 11 years ago.

XXX

(11 years ago)

XXX

*SCREEEEEEEEEEEECH!*

*SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!*

*SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!*

*SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!*

"Urh…Shishou? What are we doing here again?" A young Sairaorg worriedly looked at the massive lake holding 9 frenzied Hydras heads attacking each other.

"We're here to train, Sairaorg, we're here to train." Kai breathed in and out, "Ah, you smell that, Sairaorg?"

"You mean the smell of rotting dead animals?" Sairaorg pinched his nose and pointed at the many rows of animals carcasses that surrounded the lake. They must have been victims to the hydras while trying to take a drink from out of the lake.

"No, the smell of nature…and its ruthless laws of Darwinism!" Kai chuckled.

"So basically the dead animals, Shishou?" Sairaorg sweatdropped.

"Hydras are a dangerous race of monsters who spew deadly poisonous gases and regrow their heads and multiply them for each one lost. They're extremely violent and even attack their own heads when there isn't a common prey before them." Kai smiled as he approached Sairaorg from behind.

"Is today's lesson about learning about these monsters?" Sairaorg asked but got picked up by the scruff of his collar.

"Nope, you're going to fight it." Kai swung Sairaorg back with a grin.

"E-Eh!? N-No way! You can't be serious! I can't face a thing like that with my fists alone!" Sairaorg panicked.

"Oh my…are you disobeying MY lesson for today, Sairaorg?" Kai emitted a dangerous aura around himself while wearing his smile.

"No way, I would never do that but how am I supposed to fight a hydra and its 9 heads? It'll just grow them back after I cut off one of them!" Sairaorg panicked.

"Then don't cut off their heads. Do something else that deals with them because the heads also have a staggering weakness along with its strength." Kai hinted.

"What do you me-?"

"Now! Go BEYOND AND SURPASS YOUR LIMITS!"

"Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

*Sploooosh!*

*HIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSS!*

Upon getting thrown into the middle of the lake, Sairaorg was immediately assaulted by the hydra and its nine heads dunking into the pool trying to tear him limb from limb.

"Aaaaaaaaaah! Help me!" Sairaorg screamed.

"Sai, make sure not to panic too much, they actually enjoy their prey fighting back!" Kai warned.

"O-Okay…"

*ROOOOOOOAR!*

*CHOMP!*

"Yeeeeeowch!"

"Oh, I forgot to mention that they start to chomp into their prey when they stop moving, so don't play dead either, okay!?" Kai snickered.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaah! I'm going to die!" Sairaorg wailed as he splashed around in the monster infested lake amidst the frenzied hydra heads.

"Well, if you keep up having that attitude then it's a probability. Now fight better or else you'll end up as Hydra chow." Kai scolded.

XXX

(Present)

XXX

"Oh my maou…" Michael blinked in surprise.

"Don't worry, I managed to defeat it by tricking it to fight its own heads together before chopping all of their necks off at once and cauterizing the neck stumps." Sairaorg shrugged, "It was no easy task, but it was still doable."

"I-I'm so sorry that you had to be put through something that terrifying." Michael exaggeratedly cried as he sympathized with Sairaorg, the guy was just a kid back then and he couldn't imagine the stress and pain he had to go through.

"Don't be, looking back at the experience I'm glad that I was pushed that far in my training. I find it to be one of the highlights of being one of Shishou's disciples."

*Shiiiiiine~!*

"Hm?" Receiving a call via a small magic circle to the ear, Sairaorg said, "Excuse me…"

Standing up he answered the call and replied with "yes" multiple times before saying, "I see then I'm on my way back then."

Ending the call, Sairaorg said, "Sorry for suddenly leaving like this but I have some matters to attend to back home that can't be ignored."

"No, its fine I actually felt satisfied with our little talk. Thanks for sparing and talking to me, Aniki." Michael stuck out his hand.

"Anytime, Michael, if you want to fight and test your strength once more then I'll be willing to accept the challenge. Or if you're in need of some advice, ask Rias for help to contact me, I'm your Older Apprentice Brother so I'm always willing to help you advance whether it be as a fighter or as an upright person." Sairaorg shook Michael's hand rather strongly.

"Ouch…" Michael held his hand in pain.

"Sorry, I forgot that you're still a little injured from before." Sairaorg patted Michael's shoulder and began walking past him before stopping, "Michael, you once proclaimed that your dream is to become a Maou, right?"

"Yes…?"

"Well if you're aiming to be one then what kind of Maou would you be and represent?" Sairaorg asked.

"Actually I… Huh… I never thought about it like that…" Michael blinked upon realizing how vague his goal was, usually he'd grasp onto Rias giving him the goal in the first place but nothing deeper than that.

"As a fellow who wishes to become Maou as well, I suggest you think more about which position you want and the symbol you wish to represent to the population. I aim to become a Maou holding the Lucifer position, it's the most highly regarded seat amongst the four seats. I want to represent that even devils who don't have flashy or over the top demonic powers can reach the same incredible heights that high-class devils do."

Sairaorg said, "Now before I leave I just want you to ask yourself about what you wish to accomplish and represent as a Maou."

"…" Troubled by that question, Michael stayed silent.

"You don't need an immediate answer keep thinking and it will come to you." Sairaorg waved goodbye, "I'll see you around and I wish you and Rias luck against Sona Sitri next month."

Using touki in his feet, Sairaorg took off and jumped through the air at incredible speeds as he already disappeared through the dark, starry skies.

Conflicted about Sairaorg's last comment, Michael repeated, "What kind of Maou do I want to be…? Is there even a position I like. Wait, what does each position do again?"

Finding himself completely uninformed and confused, Michael resolved himself to figure out his current conundrum as soon as possible. But not before putting out the flames of the firepit and returning back to the Dragon Mountains to rest from his rough long day.

Entering one of the spare caves that Tannin lent to him, Michael crawled in his sleeping bag and said, "Wow, Aniki's an amazing guy, he went through a lot of crud but still looks so positive. He even has the same dream as me but actually has an idea for what he wants to do, I have to figure out more about what my dream should technically be about."

Yawning, he said, "But that can wait for tomorrow, I still need to practice that Mushin ability and touki bursts…"

Closing his weary eyes, Michael finally fell into the sweet embrace of slumber.

XXX

(In Michael's mindscape)

XXX

"I'm back here again?" Michael once again found himself in the sweltering heat of the hot wasteland known as his mindscape. Although he was vigilant after experiencing that horrifying nightmare, he still couldn't help but wonder about whether he could accomplish his main task of contacting his predecessor through a method besides direct meditation.

"It might be a long shot since Ddraig said that I had to come here myself, but I did sort of did that by falling asleep by totally staying calm so that has to count for something, right, right?"

In the middle of searching for a plausible loophole for getting there, he was met with the loud sounds of footsteps echoing through the huge vastness of the wasteland. Immediately tensing up, he prepared himself for the worst but as soon as he saw the source of the footsteps walk out from behind one of the rock formations all of his tension dropped.

"Hey? You…wouldn't happen to be my senior, would you?" Stumbling upon that conclusion, Michael tried to get a better look at what appeared to be a man. The distance between them was far too great for him to make out the man's full appearance save for what appeared to be some sort of cap and a pipe…?

"…" Slightly looking back at Michael, the man returned to looking forward and took a leisurely pace moving forward.

"H-Hey, wait!" The Pawn immediately rushed after the man, "Who are you? I-If you're really the old user of the Boosted Gear who acknowledged me then at least say something to me!"

Getting closer and closer, Michael was mere miles away from catching up until he could clearly see the back of the man's black coat.

"Wait, I need to get Welsh Drive so hold u-up?" Michael winced in pain as he gained a throbbing headache that would have been acknowledged had he not been focused on the man before him.

"Almost there!"

As he was only inches away from grabbing onto the shoulder of the man, he found himself grabbing nothing but air as the man ended up vanishing though a shroud of darkness.

"Where'd he run off to? Wait a minute…where'd I run off to?"

Distressed, Michael realized that amidst his running, he was no longer in the wasteland.

"No, no, no, no, no! How did I even get back here!" Michael screamed in fear.

The torn courtyard, the damaged equipment and the many craters that ruined the once well-maintained campus of Kuoh Academy has appeared once again and Michael was not too pleased to return to his mind's version of school.

"I have to get out before something crazy happens!" Michael kept his guard up as he frantically looked around for the Red Scale Mail that impaled him during his last visit. During his overwrought search for danger, he noticed something disturbing about the courtyard.

"Where did the gym go?"

A huge crater where the gym was supposed to be gave rise to some of Michael's concern as he started to notice how different the damaged courtyard was when compared to his last appearance here. The ground had more deep scars than craters and there were remnants of broken steel littered all over the floor from multiple blades.

Picking up one of the shards, Michael flinched back and held his burning hand, "Gah! That stung as much as the light spears that the Fallen Angels had. Hey, wait, it does sting like that! What's going on he-!"

Looking up, Michael's eyes locked onto something that caused him more distressed then his pained hand,

"Asia!"

["Asia!"]

Not even acknowledging that he shouted in sync with another voice like his own, Michael rushed over to a fallen Asia's side as she laid upon the floor covered in dirt and deep cuts and multiple bruises.

"Asia, hey, Asia! What happened to you? Wake up!" Michael knelt by her side and cradled her head into his arms, "Come on, you're okay, aren't you? Aren't you, Asia!"

["There's no escape for you here bastard!"]

*CRAAAAAAASH!*

Crashing not too far from them into a crater, laid the body of a battered and bloody Kokabiel who looked up into the air with a cold and furious glare.

"That bastard…! Did he-!?" Michael held Asia close to him as he was torn between leaving Asia's side or attacking Kokabiel.

["T-That's right those eyes they look exactly like that c-creature's eyes…"] Kokabiel muttered through pained breaths.

["Crushing Dragon-!]

["The Hunter"]

["FIIIIST!"]

*BAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!*

"Whoooooooooa!" Holding onto Asia tightly, Michael was sent tumbling back as a massive attack from above created a powerful shockwave which pushed him back.

"W-Was that me fighting Kokabiel just now!?" Michael gulped as he did his best to see through the dust cloud.

*GLEAM!*

The heavy metallic sound of footsteps was heard approaching from the dust cloud as a pair of familiar red eyes now set their sights on him.

"Oh, shit! That was ME fighting Kokabiel! We gotta g-!"

["Dragon Shot!"]

*DOOOOOOOOOON!* *RIP!*

"…!" Michael didn't have enough time to blink as a blast of red energy zoomed out of the dust cloud directly at him. Flinching in anticipation to receive the brunt of the attack, he realized that he didn't suffer any damage but that only served to worsen his horror once he opened his eyes.

"*COUGH!* U-U-Urchk…" Wide eyed and stiff in Michael's arm, all of the life that once filled Asia was draining as her enter chest was carved out and hemorrhaging a terrifying amount of blood.

"A-Asia…?" Michael was breathless at the sight as his voice almost cracked.

"M-Michael-sa-?"

*DOON!*

Before she could even speak what was her last words, a much smaller beam penetrated her forehead and killed the girl instantly.

*CLANK!* *CLANK!*

Finally emerging from the dust cloud, the familiar Red Dragon Emperor Scale Mail intimidatingly glared at Michael while holding its steaming hand up. The intense malice which was exuded from its armor was outrageous but Michael wasn't paying attention to none of that.

All he could do was focus all of his attention on Asia.

Her dirtied, mangled body.

Her cold skin that was once full of warmth.

Her carved out chest.

Her penetrated forehead.

Her green terrified eyes now lifeless…

Her beautiful golden hair now tainted by crimson red…!

Her face tainted by CRIMSON RED…!

Everything went red from there…

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

*SWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!*

Immediately dropping Asia's body in a fit of unholy rage, Michael formed a colossal volume of red-black aura with almost if not the same amount of malice as the Scale mail.

Hatred.

Self-loathing.

Regret.

Anguish.

Revenge.

Those were the emotions that swelled up in Michael at that moment, no other thoughts of the once vibrant young man were left as he was reduced to a howling savage.

*BAAANG!*

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Propelling himself at the Scale Mail with all of the strength that his legs could give him, Michael prepared to decimate the thing with a single aura-clad punch filled with tons of malignant energy.

In response to the attack, the Scale Mail simply raised its hands; not as a preemptive attack but almost like a signal…

*GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!* *GRAB!*

"Get the FUCK off me! Let me GOOOOO!" Too blinded by rage, Michael failed to notice the insurmountable number of arms holding him back from a red-black portal that was formed behind him. The arms seemed to have come from various men and women from all ages even the hands of children were holding him back.

[Use it…]

[If you want to cast everything aside then use THAT solution…]

[Yes, indulge in your desires and destroy everything!]

Eerie voices whispered into Michael's ears as the arms began to drag him into the portal beneath him much to his charging as he tried to struggle free and face the Scale Mail looking down at him with that infuriating look in its eyes.

"LET ME GOOOOOO! DAMMIT!" Michael roared as each time ripped free from one hand's grasp another 4 more would pull him back, "You bastard! Y-You killed Asia! I-I'll! I-I'll-!"

*Sniff~!* *Sniff!~*

"I-I'll n-never forgive you!" Michael's rage soon became replaced with sorrow as tears streamed down from his face, "I-I'll kick your ass and-and-!"

The malignant aura that Michael exuded was decreasing while the Scale Mail's aura increased, vice-versa.

["And?"] For once the Scale Mail said something with a voice emanating from it sounding completely different than Michael's voice as it was a fairly soft voice with an ominous, dark tone.

"…A-And…" Michael pitifully squeaked, completely choked up in his tears to properly put any effort into thinking or saying anything.

[Use it…]

[You can erase everything by just giving in… One solution is all you need.]

[You want to know how to use the solution, right? Right?]

Getting pulled deeper and deeper into the portal, Michael was close to being enveloped by the arms dragging him back.

[Just chant for it. Chant for Juggernaug-!]

"ENOUGH WITH THE NEGATIVE CHATTER, YA NARKS!"

*CLASP!*

Feeling a strong hand grasp onto his hands, Michael stirred himself up to notice the image of a shadowed-out man wearing a paper boy cap.

"Looks like you got duped into following this thing's plan, Nancy boy." The man's voice sounded very serious yet strangely jovial for some reason. Was he some sort of Englishman?

Michael couldn't understand it, but he began to strangely feel relief after hearing that voice.

"Too bad that your face is so naff. Next time, I expect you to come here on your own volition with a face befitting a man." The hand grasping Michael enveloped him in a bright light as the immediately released Michael and hissed at his savior.

[You-!]

[Why hold off the inevitable-!]

[Juggernaut drive is the best solution!]

"Shove it you bunch of spastic bastard! You already claimed the possessor before him, so it wouldn't kill all of your remaining souls to just let this one kid live a little longer!" The man's hand struggled to pull Michael out of the portal as the young man was emerging from the red abyss below and into the light.

XXX

*GAAAASP!* *PANT!* *PANT!*

Waking up in a startle, Michael looked around to find himself alone in his cave a sweaty mess.

"I'm back?" Michael looked at his shivering hands in distraught before clenching them in a vain attempt to calm himself down. They just wouldn't stop shaking no matter what he tried because even if it was all fake, he could still feel Asia's lifeless body and blood in his ha-!

*SMASH!* *SMASH!*

Recklessly smashing his hands into the hard ground below, Michael tried to use pain to calm his nerves as his body was still wracked with unnerving shivering despite the blood that oozed out from his bandaged arms.

"What the hell was that…? Who was it that saved me? Was it actually my predecessor? What was that Juggernaut thing that I heard about and-? Why did Asia die in my dream?" Michael asked himself too many questions that he didn't have the answer to.

All that he could do was wait until all the stress and anxiety that he went through disappear and finally let him go back to sleep. He was reluctant at first since there was a possibility of going back to his mindscape but couldn't deal with the incessant questions and irritation that he was going through when awake.

It's been already 16 days and his training has been met with a major mental roadblock that seems to be growing severe by each nightmare(?).

XXX

(In Michael's mindscape)

XXX

"Fucking hell…" The silhouette of a man leaning a long metal pine against his shoulder gawked at the once bright side of the sunny wasteland covered in sheer dark nothingness.

[It happened again didn't it?] Ddraig's silhouette appeared behind the man.

"Shouldn't you be checking up on your current, possessor?" The man asked.

[I wish to, but this takes pressing matters first. I came as soon as I felt something odd encroaching in Michael's mindscape. It seemed minimal at first since it somehow laid low and away from my detection, but after taking up this much space in here, I was finally able to get something to sense.]

"So how much space has it taken?" The man sat down beside the dragon and intently looked forward.

[About 25%.]

"That's a fourth of the kid's mindscape…" The man rubbed his chin, "I have yet to determine what this thing's deal is. At first, it tried to break the kid down mentally before handing him to the negative influence of the Boosted Gear's other past possessors. Then, when I showed up, it just let me break Michael out without any resistance."

[Should we try and suppress it and see if it works?]

"…No, I'm not sure what really is yet and I don't feel like messing with it right now will solve anything. It'd be best to create a projection here and block this portion of the mindscape off should he ever get here on his own will." Belzard shook his head.

[I'll get on that right now.]

The mighty dragon spread it wings out and surrounded the regular half of Michael's mindscape with a red transparent barrier which camouflaged the black abyss side of it. As the barrier slowly grew, the man looking ahead still kept his eyes on the silhouette on the abyss side, who had gleaming, menacing red eyes and trident like hair.

Chapter 74: Special Training Day: The Adept Lion vs. The Rookie Dragon! Time to see if my Older Apprentice Brother lives up to the hype!

CREATORS' THOUGHTS
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Chapter 74: Special Training Day: The Adept Lion vs. The Rookie Dragon! Time to see if my Older Apprentice Brother lives up to the hype!

CREATORS' THOUGHTS Retribrutus

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