Kisuke wondered what they needed help with and followed them inside.
The moment Kisuke entered the living room, he was greeted by a bunch of books related to Magic Engineering and Artifact Manufacturing tossed randomly on the table, couches, and floor. However, what caught his attention first was that the 'late teenager' Ophis and Lilith had already changed back to their appearance of when they first reappeared in this era and patted the seat in the middle of them while looking at Kisuke.
Kisuke smiled and sat down with the 'twins' and promptly took a leg for each of them.
Thanks to their constant contact with society, Ophis and Lilith knew that following Claire and the others' appearance wouldn't allow them to sit on his lap so whenever Kisuke was around and they were in private, they'd always return to their previous appearance.
Kisuke pampered them as they wanted and both of them took out one banana each from their shared inventory to enjoy. A few years ago, when they discovered that they could buy bananas with their allowance, it became a problem for everyone and her education because she would only buy bananas with her money. As such, they were limited to only a few hands of banana each week and they would only eat it when there was a special occasion.
That way, there would be no danger to the global supply and price of bananas, even if they started earning tons of money.
After settling them on his lap, Kisuke's eyes then caught Flanna laying flat on the other couch, sleeping away. Ever since she discovered the idea of sleeping, she has been a fan and would at least close her eyes for at least 14 hours a day and would sometimes snooze away for days or weeks at a time.
But because they don't really work nor listen to just anyone, and that she's not bothering anyone when she's sleeping, nobody really tried to fix this problem, since it isn't a problem in the first place.
Aside from that, she had already graduated from her strange fashion sense, albeit she would still dress weirdly from time to time. Even then, she still kept her greatsword and dual pistols that she'd affectionately named the 'Bonehead Sword' and 'Pew Pew Pistols' due to how they looked and sounded. Many tried to dissuade her from using those names but they only got angry stomping in response that would destroy the floor or ground without any exceptions.
'It's amazing how nobody else has discovered her identity yet. Maybe being stupidly simple helped her a lot even before Shiva, Indra, and Ajuka's intelligence agents.' Kisuke thought while looking at the True Dragon that everyone thought had died and disappeared, snoring her life away.
A few minutes later, Claire brought Kisuke a small wooden box and opened it in front of him. In it was a silver necklace with a blue gem embedded in it, "This is?" Kisuke asked them while carefully picking up the necklace and inspecting it.
Claire sat beside them and said, "This is my classmate's necklace. She said it is a keepsake from her late grandmother... But now it's broken."
While listening, Kisuke figured out a few things about the necklace, 'It was made based on old technology, and from the looks of it, its creator was just on the level of a hobbyist. Its main functions were a small Magic Amplification and Memory Storage Module. From the looks of it, the runes were burned from a displaced Magic Power flow.'
From then, Claire started telling her story. It all started with their annual competition for combat-related classes to rank the students for their combat effectiveness regardless of the course they are taking.
Claire, Tanis, and Kunou were effectively fixed on first, second, and third positions respectively. As they were also all members of the Student Council of the most prestigious but controversial school in the world, they were getting a lot of attention and not just a few challenges every day. Aside from that, they were also veiled in mystery to the eyes of the public as aside from their races, no one knew their affiliations since it was deliberately hidden.
The owner of the necklace was the fourth place and also a member of the Student Council named Maria. However, the attention she was getting was quite different from those on top of her as she's the strongest Human student of the Ouroboros Academy and also became the hope of the normal people in the Human World.
If not for the unconventional monsters that were trained using unconventional methods since their childhood, which they also didn't find strange, she would've taken the top spot.
In this year's competition, Maria challenged Claire, the Student Council President, and used everything she had to defeat the latter. And one of the things she used was the necklace which ended up broken in Claire's retaliation. While Maria was able to show great results, she still wasn't able to win. Not by a long shot.
"Hold it." Kisuke interrupted her with a frown, "This isn't your fault then? Why are you the one fixing it?"
Claire smiled wryly and said, "I know that. And even after apologizing to her, Maria-chan strongly denied any fault in me."
"Then why?" Kisuke still couldn't understand. The fact that they were here means they intended to ask Aika to help them, but after seeing that she was too busy, they decided to go out of their way to study Magic Engineering on their own accord instead of just returning the necklace.
"Maria-chan asked everyone she knew to not even fix it but to retrieve the stored memories. However, no one seems to want to take on the job as they said it was very tricky."
'Of course, it is. It was made by a hobbyist using an old technology so asking for fail-safes and redundancies in case of damage and corruption is too much. If they tried fixing this and made a single mistake, they may end up losing everything permanently instead.'
"She asked everyone, including our teachers but none could fix her problem. She asked me too, but the only one I know who could fix it is Aika-neesan but she's also very busy with the more important stuff."
Claire paused for a few seconds before continuing with a bitter face, "But I saw her secretly crying... Although I can't really imagine the pressure she has on her shoulders since I've been very lucky, I also just can't ignore her after seeing that so I offered my help and told her that I know someone who may be able to fix it. We came here in hopes that we'll be able to ask Aika-neesan to fix it but she hasn't come out since a week ago and we've been coming here every day to borrow her library."
"Maria-chan is amazing, you know!?" Tanis chimed in, "She was able to push Claire-chan back multiple times and even wounded her! And she's not yet a Soul Gear owner so she did all of that using her Magic and Martial skills!"
Kisuke finally understood where Claire was coming from, but was also a bit shocked by Tanis' words, "Even though you're holding back, she still managed to do that much to you without any Soul Gear?"
At Kisuke's question, Claire started panicking and began swinging her arms defensively, "E-eh? Holding back? I'm not really holding back though!"
"Who are you kidding? Aside from Issei-kun, Vali-kun, and Cao Cao-kun, you three are stronger than the so-called Golden Generation when they were at your age."
==================
AN: (03/19/2023)
Thank you for waiting for this delayed release. I just finished Volume 15 and while reviewing my outlines for Volume 16, I found numerous holes that I have to scrap many parts and re-outline various things.
Due to that, you may see more delays until I could settle the whole plot for Vol 16.
AN (03/19/2023):
If you like my work, consider visiting my pat reon for advance chapters
pat reon. com/ goyya00
And although mostly quite, I still announce when I'm releasing the chapter or if there's any delay in discord.
discord .gg / cczgMZ8t5h
Thank you very much for your support~!
Editors:
28th00: Ah, memories. Yeah, that’s important. That kid is a contender for the Strongest Human if she’s able to fight that well without any advantages at all against Claire. I see that the Infinity Twins have discovered Bananas are life, and that they gotta go Loli to get headpats and lap seats. While Red is just… Sleeping.
In a world where the enemies are forced to wait at the front door and no big conflict is happening anywhere, one could say that those at the top have become stagnant to a certain degree with the period of extended peace.
But amidst that, one group continued going higher and higher without anyone noticing. Maybe because there were no conflicts and therefore there was no stage for them to display their complete capabilities, they went under everyone's radar, including the factions where they came from.
"I don't know how you can elude everyone's eyes, but who do you think keeps fixing the underground training grounds after you leave?", Kisuke asked while grinning. This was the only reason why Kisuke could track their real progress. As for their mode of training? A 3 vs 3 sparring with Claire, Tanis, and Kunou on one team and Ophis, Lilith, and Flanna on the other side.
It's a ridiculously unbalanced match-up, but somehow, they managed to make it work.
While the first team was trying to damage the comically durable transcendents with everything they had, the Dragons were learning the basics of combat to better control their powers.
"...Eh? ...It doesn't have an automatic repair function?" Tanis asked back, but Claire and Kunou knew that asking would mean admitting it and sighed.
"It does. But you kept destroying the place so much that after the 50th time, I stopped restoring its normal functions."
Claire and Kunou were dumbfounded because they didn't notice anything different. They'd already memorized everything in the training grounds, even the placement of the rocks, and there were no changes to it in the past six years that they've been using it, so they thought it was an automatic repair function kicking in so they'd always go wild without care for anything.
Kisuke had always wanted to train Ophis, Lilith, and Flanna to not just control their powers, but to also use them effectively when needed but he didn't know how to go about it exactly and even if they were listening to him, it'd be hard to make them follow exactly what he wanted to happen. In addition to his busy schedule, he wouldn't be able to give them the attention they needed.
After all, the only training that Kisuke knew was for those with the same physiological makeup as him and not those with Ophis' that could be shaped in any way. Not to mention the special characteristics that make up their identities. Essentially, only they would be able to know how to control their abilities.
When Kisuke first discovered that these girls would use the training grounds to practice what they learned and with such an unbalanced team, he felt conflicted on whether to let it go or stop them since it was too dangerous. A small mistake from Ophis' team could result in something disastrous.
But Kisuke, as usual, let his curiosity take over and gave them a silent pass while watching carefully for any accidents that might occur.
When they started, there were indeed some accidents, but Kisuke was surprised that he have to didn't do anything and Claire's team was able to deal with the problems that came their way. At that time, Kisuke realized how much he and the others were underestimating them.
Every week, these girls would secretly come to the underground hideout using Ophis' ability and would spend a few hours sparring. But if other people could see what they were doing, they would be appalled and horrified because the only 'sparring' that they knew, was the kind of sparring that Kisuke's group did. No rules and just avoid getting fatally injured. So out of necessity, everyone from Claire's team learned their own Healing Magic, be it through Magic, Ki, or Youjutsu.
And while Kisuke was watching them during their regular sparring, he made a few incredible discoveries.
In the first stages of their unsupervised training, Claire's team was facing true monsters. Even if Ophis' team tried to hold back, they didn't know how to do such a thing in the first place. So they sometimes ended up releasing power way beyond what they intended, especially Flanna, who could just go from poking softly to poking a hole through your stomach the moment she accidentally drops her pistols.
In other words, Claire's team was facing very real threats that actually pushed them to adapt and evolve, just like how the 'Golden Generation' thrived through the repeated conflicts of their time.
But what's the most surprising thing was that Ophis, Lilith, and Flanna were developing in ways that Kisuke never expected. Because Claire's team was incredibly weak, they were forced to learn how to hold back properly, but because Claire's team was also improving at a remarkable rate, the Dragons were forced to keep adjusting, making them develop their own combat styles that only suited them and that no one else could teach them.
What Kisuke thought was an imbalanced team, turned out to be the perfect matchup that pushed each side to compensate for each other's shortcomings, 'I wonder if they did that on purpose?' Kisuke asked himself after the 200th time that they'd 'sparred'.
Though their development could be said to be incredibly slow compared to the Golden Generation, it was a completely steady incremental increase, such that they'd even almost caught up to today's top fighters all by themselves. It was a miracle that Kisuke was the only one who'd been able to notice it.
Claire sighed, "I really thought we were able to hide it from everyone... I didn't think Kisuke-niisan would be peeping on us."
"Oi, oi, oi. Those words are going to get me killed, you know?"
Claire stuck out her tongue at him, "It's true though."
Ignoring Claire's teasing, Kunou was curious about something and asked, "Kisuke-niisama, is it true that we're stronger than the Golden Generation when they were our age? How is that possible?"
"I'm not lying." Kisuke turned to Kunou after giving Claire a forehead flick that made her roll on the floor in agony, "You lot just don't know how strong you've become thanks to all those years of sparring by yourselves, because none of you have actually revealed to anyone what you're capable of. Trust me when I say that if others were to see you fight for real, they'd have the same opinion."
However, Tanis had a much more simple comparison, "But the training ground... If we really got as strong as you said, the training ground will probably go."
Claire stood up and agreed with Tanis' words, "That's right. We thought we hadn't been improving our firepower because the damage had remained the same."
Kisuke looked at the three of them with disbelieving eyes, "You seriously didn't notice? Compared to the first time you used the space, it has been strengthened countless times. Do you know how many headaches it caused me just to adapt to the power you guys were releasing? At the end of it, I got tired and just extended a bit of the Global Isolation Barrier over the training ground or else you'd disintegrate the whole place and disappear into the sea of Dimensional Gap."
Claire, Tanis, and Kunou stared at him with dumbfounded expressions.
Finally, Kisuke added, "Didn't you think there's a reason why Ophis, Lilith, and Flanna started dodging your attacks? Because they actually hurt them now."
Editors:
28th00: A side benefit is that the Divine Trio learnt to fucking dodge.