Capítulo 21: Chapter 21:
{Author here, I know some might be upset that the MC has agreed to help. But he's going to do it in his own way. That's why I've released this bonus chapter to show his own way sooner to you all. Enjoy.}
Their training sucked. If they were working on fundamentals, fine, I could let it slide. But they weren't.
The first day passed, and they weren't even tired. The second day came, and I had hoped things would be different. They weren't. I already knew their chances of winning were low.
So, like I said I would, I stepped in, starting with the weakest, Asia.
We walked away from Issei as I asked her to follow me. She was silent the whole way.
"He'll be fine," I said, trying to snap her out of whatever slump she was in. She had that look, one who realized how pitifully weak they were.
"Listen, you just started training. This kind of training, not whatever they had you do in the Church. There's no need to worry about being useful yet." That didn't seem to help. She started staring away from me.
"Logically, you're the most important member of the team." Now she was looking at me.
"If there's a healer in a fight, the enemy will always try to get rid of them first. No healer means no one can come back from near death." She was listening now, but I could still see doubt in her eyes. I knelt down and looked her dead in the eyes.
"Say it. Say you're important," I demanded. Her eyes widened, but she didn't respond.
"Say you're important!" I shouted. Startled, she whispered, "I-I'm important."
"That's not enough. Louder!"
"I'm imp-important."
"With more confidence!"
"I'm important!"
"One more time! I'm important to Issei!"
"I'm important to Issei!" she shouted, freezing as she realized what she'd just said. Her face turned bright red, and she started stuttering incoherently.
"There's no need to deny it, Asia. While I don't think this is the best time to confess, it's okay to have those feelings. Love is a powerful emotion, almost like a type of magic that can strengthen someone or even themselves." I stood up.
"You were doubting your worth, which affected your training. Don't doubt yourself. Accept who you are. Now go, bring Issei over here for me, okay?"
She nodded and ran off. Once she was out of sight, I frowned. 'I need to visit the Blood River again. I'll do that when this training trip is over. Hopefully, Azazel is still at that warehouse.'
After a while, Issei appeared, a little tired but fine.
"Everything okay, Ryou-san?" he asked.
How should I approach this? Easy or tough? Maybe a mix of both.
"I thought I'd start with the second weakest in the group," I said, causing him to stop walking and frown.
"Remember that Church incident? I was hired by the same people who sent them, to kill you all. They also promised to heal my dying brother."
Without giving him time to process, I blitzed toward him, drawing Muramasa. I slammed the blunt end of Muramasa into his gut, folding him over like a towel. He flew through several trees before slamming into the last one and collapsing. I walked toward him, continuing to lie.
"After you, I'll go for the blonde, Yuuto. Then the little one, Koneko. I'll just stomp on her head until it pops."
Issei twitched at that, and the Boosted Gear glowed faintly. Still needs more.
"Then I'll get nice and close to Akeno and tell her I found something for her, maybe show a piece of Koneko. And then I'll gut her and watch her bleed out."
He started to stand, so I stopped walking, keeping a distance of about ten feet.
"Y-you bastard…" I heard it.
"BOOST" He charged at me, but he needed more of a push.
"Once I'm done, I'll go to Rias and tell her dinner's ready. As she turns her back, I'll stab her through the chest. Quick and simple, like the blonde."
He swung at me, but I dodged and tripped him up with a foot.
"BOOST" He's almost there.
"Oh, I know what would be better. I'll cut your legs off, then scream for Asia to come help you. As she rushes over, I'll grab her and force her down while you watch m—"
"BOOST BOOST BOOST"
Before I could react, Issei sent me flying through trees. Damn, he hit hard. Wasn't the cooldown supposed to be ten seconds? Must've pissed him off good.
I stood, my ribs screaming in pain. 'Must've broken a few.' I couldn't dwell on it long, Issei was coming for me.
"You think that's enough to stop me?! I won't just stop with the peerage now. Once I'm done with you, I'll go after your pare—"
I didn't finish. Issei was charging.
'He's probably thirty-two times stronger now, low-high class, maybe? I really need to figure out how to gauge my own strength and others.'
I dodged his punch. 'I'll stick to fists then.'
Sheathing Muramasa, I blitzed in front of him and kicked his leg. He buckled like paper. As I moved to knock him out, he grabbed me, hugging my waist, and suplexed me through another tree.
I stood, ready to continue, but then I heard a thud. I looked over to see Issei lying on the ground, breathing heavily but still conscious.
I walked toward him.
"How did that feel?" I asked him as I picked him up and threw him over my shoulder, heading toward where Asia was.
"Y-you bastard... I-I'll k-kill you," he stammered through the pain.
I snorted at that. "Yeah? Well, at the moment, you can't really do anything, not until Asia-san heals you up."
I could feel his anger rising. "D-don't touch her!"
I could see Asia now, she was where we originally started. "Asia-san, over here!" I called. She immediately started worrying over Issei and me.
"We're fine. Issei went overboard with the boosts." I dropped him beside her and walked off, leaving those two to sort it out.
Now for Redhead. I wasn't interested in helping everyone else with their problems, they had nothing to do with me. But as I watched her train, I took a moment to look at myself. A bruise from where Issei punched me throbbed slightly. 'Hmm. Redhead cares deeply for her servants. But she also hates being seen as just a Gremory.'
I walked over to her, making sure my footsteps were loud enough to catch her attention. She turned around and smiled. "Oh, Ryou-kun, how are you today?"
'Better now that I get to do this.'
"I'm doing okay, Lady Gremory." Her smile instantly faded into a frown.
"You don't need to call me that, Ryou-kun. Just Rias is fine."
I gave her the best smile I could manage. "I'm afraid I can't, Lady Gremory. You see, I've been paid by Lord Lucifer to help you as best as possible."
She frowned even harder—any more, and it'd be permanent. "Onii-sama? Ryou-kun, even if that's the case, we've known each other long enough, haven't we?"
"Are you ordering me to, Lady Gremory? If so, I would oblige." I still wouldn't, even if ordered to.
"No! I would never do that to you!" Tears started welling up in her eyes. 'Mark that off my list of things to do.'
Time for the finale. "But you did for Issei, no? Lady Gremory."
She flinched. Even if she says she treats her servants like family, she's still their master, and they're still her servants. That's how it is.
"I haven't even gotten to apologize to him yet."
'If apologies fixed everything, Mura would still be with me.'
"He's now being forced to fight for your marriage as your servant."
She dropped to her knees, crying. My chest tightened a bit. 'No. I refuse to believe it's anything but the pain from Issei's punch.'
Deciding to finish this now, I kneeled in front of her broken form. "The only way to fix this is to become strong. You hold this pride as a devil, as a Gremory, but have you taken the time to think about what that means? Who you are? You aren't some replacement for your brother, you are yourself. The same goes for your magic. You're called the Ruin Princess, right?"
Apparently, my body chose that exact moment to react to the pain Issei's punch had actually caused. Something felt like it had ruptured, as I struggled to get back up. Redhead must have thought I was offering comfort because she jumped into my arms.
I fell to the ground with her sobbing form on top of me.
'Great. Just great.'
I couldn't even muster up a protest; her arms were wrapped around my waist, right where the bruise was.
'This hurts so much. Thank God it can't get worse than this.'
"Ara~ what do we have here?"
'Right. God's dead.'
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