บท 19: A Deal
It was strange.
The water I was within was both comfortably warm and relatively cold. It was also both scalding hot and freezing cold. I could feel it massaging and relaxing my muscles, yet also burrowing deep and tearing them apart.
For many hours I laid there, enduring it all.
Only for it to suddenly stop.
Opening my eyes slowly, I looked up at the wooden roof of the room I was in. My breathing was steady and carefully I placed my feet against the bottom of the pool, no longer floating upon the top of the water. As my upper body came out of the water, I stood there, arms rising out of the water and slowly clenched them.
My body felt different.
The muscles and bones of my body, tougher, denser and stronger, yet only slightly. But the most noticeable was the rush that seemed to travel throughout the body.
'Is this magic?' I wondered to myself, clenching my hands tightly.
Walking out of the pool, I grabbed a towel that had been hung on the side, using it to dry myself off. Then, paused momentarily before taking the kimono that was also prepared for me.
The house was empty, or at least appeared to be. Yet there was something about it, something hidden inside that put me on edge, like I was being watched. It also reminded me of the tales of cannibalistic men and women hiding in the walls, if so, I really hoped not because that was just creepy.
Feeling a breeze coming down the corridor, I made my way down towards where it came from, eventually coming across a sliding door left open that led out onto a patio. I moved out onto it, seeing the sun beginning to rise in the east.
There, stood within the centre of a small opening, a place untouched by the forest around us, was Saeko. She was focused, her mind blanks and her form moving upon instinct as it practised her sword techniques. It was a level of concentration that I recognised, I myself had experienced it many times. When the mind shut down and the body moved, the height of martial arts where one didn't need to think in order to act.
Those seconds spent thinking about what to do next were costly in a fight. One couldn't afford to think and so, the techniques had to be ingrained within the body so that it could move without the need to think. The body needs to be trained in order to know what move was best in a sequence without the mind telling it.
But reaching such a state would take decades of training.
As much as I admired her movements, I couldn't deny that the thing that made her most attractive, was her form and the clothing she wore. She was curvaceous and busty, athletic and toned clad in nothing more than a sports bra and biker shorts.
She was beautiful.
After the last few swings of her shinhai, Saeko came to a stop, it held in both hands and pointed upwards. Then a few moments passed by before she opened her eyes, releasing a long breath as she did.
"I see you're awake." She said and I smiled.
"I am," I replied. "Tell me, has it worked?"
Saeko lowered her arms, holding the shinhai loosely in one hand as she studied me carefully. "It has." She nodded her head. "Though your magic is quite minimal. But that's common after a procedure like that, or so my grandfather's notes say anyway."
"How so?" I asked, the smile on my face slightly dipping at the news.
Saeko shrugged. "Didn't read much into it, though I guess it's because your magic has been bottled up and therefore not given time to grow. Like I said, didn't read much into it, didn't think I'd lose."
"No one ever does. When I lost in the finals of the Kengan Annihilation Tournament, I expected to win just like I had done in all my previous fights. It's just the way things are." I shrugged, Saeko saying nothing as she moved towards me, sitting down on the patio. "So, what do we do now?"
"For now, I'll give you a few books on how to use magic. You'll have to learn it on your own though." Saeko explained. "We have...an agreement with the other rulers of Kouh, right now I'm the biggest threat to two of them and they won't like me taking an apprentice, especially not you."
"Why not me?" I asked amused, already knowing the answer.
The look Saeko gave me told me that she knew, I knew the reasoning. After all, me suddenly arriving and getting close to Issei would earn attention, especially if the Devils were aware of his Sacred Gear. It would be seen as highly unlikely to be just a coincidence.
"Okay, I see," I responded. "You can't openly give me help, but there's nothing about me receiving subtle help. And I suppose those books you give me, don't exist."
Saeko nodded her head.
Did it bother me that she couldn't help me fully? A little bit, yes. However, I quite liked doing things on my own, it made success that much more fulfilling and satisfying.
-X- Line Break -X-
Sleep avoided her, a strange thing for her in recent years. When she had been his toy, sleep was a prized commodity and at times, only afforded during the day when he let sleep claim him. It was one time, when an opening presented itself to her, that she fled.
By the time he awoke, she was long gone.
Yet she was forever looking over her shoulder until she arrived here, in Kouh. There was something here, something stronger than the Tohsaka, Matou and Busujima families, something that kept him from pursuing her.
The interest of the Devils perhaps?
Ingrid couldn't say for sure.
But what it allowed her to do was settle down, forget all the things she had to endure and live a normal life. She went to bed like every normal person, awoke like every normal person, did everything they would do.
Yet as she sat at the kitchen table, Ingrid couldn't sleep at all. Her nails rapped against the wooden table, her foot tapping anxiously against the ground as she watched the clock tick by. It was almost three in the morning now and Mikoto had yet to return home and she was worried why.
Had he been taken captive, tortured to learn what he knew? Or was he working with them to hunt and kill her? If so, were they coming here to kill her?
And then the door opened.
Ingrid looked and watched as Mikoto stepped through. "Where have you been?"
Mikoto paused upon seeing her, moving the books in his arms just out of view. "You're still up?" He questioned, Ingrid rising to her feet.
"Where have you been?" She pressed once more.
-X- Line Break -X-
When I came back, this wasn't what I expected. There was a dangerous look about Ingrid, one I hadn't seen from her ever. She was willing to kill me, that much was very clear.
"I've been busy," I replied calmly. "Why are you still up?"
Ingrid said nothing.
"If you must know, I've been visiting an old friend. We chatted a little bit, shared stories about what we've been up to." The more we spoke, the more tense Ingrid became. "You know, we shared a very interesting conversation."
That bit made Ingrid rush forwards, closing the distance between us at speeds I couldn't track. Her clawed hand wrapped around my neck as she pinned me against the wall.
"There it is." I chuckled, looking into the glowing red eyes with their slitted black pupil glaring murderously at me. "The monster you tried so desperately to suppress. Go on, do it, kill me."
"Don't tempt me!" Ingrid snarled dangerously and I smirked.
"You can't do it, can you?" I laughed at that. "How pitiful. You want to protect your secret so badly, but you love this family too much to kill me. Not after they've just got me back."
Ingrid pulled me away from the wall and slammed me back into it. "What did you tell them?"
"Oh, we had just an interesting conversation about the Devils of Kouh." Ingrid stalled at that. "You never even came up."
"W-what?"
I smirked, one hand prying her fingers from around my neck. "You seem surprised? Did you really think that I'd tell everyone about you? I'm an asshole, but not that much of one. I've done things I regret, but I don't need to add to them, nor make an enemy out of you."
"You didn't tell them, then?" I rolled my eyes at Ingrid's question.
"No, I didn't."
"Why?"
"Why?" I repeated, looking amused. "I know you're a Vampire and you're stronger than me. But I also imagine that you know magic, don't you."
Realisation began to dawn on Ingrid. "I help you learn magic in return, you keep my secret."
"Yes."
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