Spear Devil - 019

Chapter 019 – Black Dragon of Kuoh Academy

[April – 2008]

Slowly releasing a breath she hadn't known she had held in, Katase stopped the recording of her phone with almost trembling hands, still quite shaken by what she had just witnessed as her gaze was fixed on the tattooed black-haired teen with the dangerous charm.

She had pulled out her phone to film the fight more out of a hunch, not expecting to be so thoroughly blown away by the sheer skill and strength of the fighters.

She had never seen something even remotely comparable, their fight having been a dangerous dance of controlled violence. It had been awe-inspiring to watch.

Seeing Akira pick up the broken parts of the spear before moving towards his shirt and shoes, Katase couldn't help but swallow nervously, his bare upper body causing her to rub her thighs together to suppress the tingling sensation she felt.

Akira was incredibly attractive, and she couldn't help but blush fiercely as her eyes ran over his bare muscles, his tattoo making him only more mysterious and charming.

"Akira-kun, I- … Y-you are hurt …  Do you- … C-can I … L-let me help you take care of your wound.", Murayama suddenly appeared by Akira's side, carrying a first-aid kit in her hands, as she offered to help him stammeringly, a deep red blush on her face as she kept glancing at his exposed muscles.

Deciding that she should help her friend, Katase herself didn't hesitate to open up the chatgroup of her class and directly posted the recording, before rushing over to Murayama's and Akira's side.

Thankfully finding the perfect title for the video had been easy.

'The Prince of the Academy battles the newest addition of the student body: The Black Dragon of Kuoh Academy is born!'

…

[Congratulations you have finished a task. You are rewarded with 1 Free Attribute Point.]

Walking through the corridors of the school after leaving behind the crowd of giggling and blushing teenage girls, I ripped off the small bandaid on my cheek and read through the messages from the System I had received after the fight.

A minor cut like that would also heal in a few minutes, doubly so if I used my Dragon Aura to enhance my bodily functions.

The reward for finishing the task brought a small smile to my face, as I still felt this overwhelming draconic pride at having bested my opponent. The Free Attribute Point was also nothing to scoff at, as I understood its value very well.

Especially after I gained my Soul Fortress skill. It made me understand that skills and affinities might be more worth investing in than my Physique and Energy Attributes, not to mention that the gains from simple training were still rather ample.

There was another message though and that one was a lot more shocking.

[Congratulations! Through your fighting spirit alone you managed to awaken the latent potential of your spirit. You have awakened Life Energy(Touki). Your Life Energy has increased by 0.2 points.]

I knew about Touki, of course. It was a sub-power of Senjutsu, which was the energy system most Youkai trained in.

And even though not every Youkai could use Senjutsu, which was the ability to control and read the flow of life energy, though spirit energy would be more fitting since it was a power that originated from the spirit and mind, Touki was one of the most basic applications of Senjutsu.

Senjutsu was about controlling all life energy, manipulating it outside and inside the physical body, as such, it could be used on oneself or others.

Touki on the other hand was the ability to use one's life/spirit energy to strengthen one's own physical body and enhance its performance in all categories. In rare cases, for those that were especially talented and had reached great mastery of Touki, it could also be used to form an aura around one's body and even be imbued in weapons.

And while Senjutsu was a power exclusive to Youkai, Touki was something other races could learn, though it required incredible talent and dedication.

I only knew of one character from the show that had actually done so though, who was a Devil with the name Sairaorg Bael. He was a Devil heir who didn't inherit his Clan Trait, the Power of Destruction, which wasn't too uncommon amongst Devils, but even worse, he was born with only meager amounts of demonic power.

Through intense training he had forged his body into a weapon and managed to awaken Touki, having used it to win back his position as Clan heir, which was rather impressive as hardly any Devil had such dedication and focus. I didn't know how much of that had happened yet in this timeline, but I would certainly love to meet him in the future.

Still, I was rather shocked to see that I seemed to have a talent for Touki as well, though I immediately abandoned any thoughts of trying to learn and master this new energy for the moment. I had enough on my plate just advancing my control and power with my Dragon Aura for the time being.

Not to mention that I planned to do some serious physical training, as I needed a strong foundation if I wanted to use Power Multiplication to its greatest effects. Without a strong body to endure the stress, I wouldn't be able to 'boost' myself for long periods of time, while the upper limit of this self-enhancement would also be affected.

Of course, I would eventually get around to training in Touki, but I simply had different priorities for the time being.

Thinking about it some more, I realized though that awakening Touki might not have been a thing of talent, but willpower and passion.

While having fought Kiba, I had noticed a succinct difference between myself and him when it came to the way we fought.

Kiba was undoubtedly a talented swordsman and very skilled for someone his age, but he didn't love the sword. For him his blades were just tools to be used to achieve his goals, he had no passion or obsession when it came to swords.

On the contrary, he hated them. He hated the Holy Swords and saw them as the cause of his friends and family's death. His hate ran so deep that he was obsessed with destroying Excalibur, and someone like that couldn't love swords.

It was also why I won our spar. I loved the spear, and the moment I had clashed with Kiba, I had known that it would break, the years of neglect having left the training spear in too bad of a condition.

I had felt it when the shaft broke, the spear's pain having reverberated inside my heart. It's why I hadn't been surprised and had been able to use the moment where Kiba had been distracted to my advantage.

It's also why I knew that I would never lose to Kiba in a fight of pure weapon mastery.

He wielded the sword solely for its potential to kill, hoping it would give him the power necessary to avenge his friends. And I knew he would never truly 'master' the sword, not like I was going to master the spear. I could see that clearly.

Setting aside those thoughts as I neared the student council office, I instead began to wonder how far from canon I was exactly. With Issei out of the picture, it was hard to gauge the timeline, though if I remembered correctly then Sona gained a new peerage member around the same time that Rias did, a guy named Genshirou Saji.

Considering that every one of Sona's peerage members was part of the student council, it should be easy to find out if Saji had already become a Devil.

On the other hand, without Issei, if there were still Fallen Angels in town, they might target him instead of the breast-obsessed pervert, so that was something to keep in mind, as Saji's Sacred Gear was part of a larger set that the Grigori would undoubtedly be interested in considering that they had the other three pieces.

[A task has been generated.]

[You are suspecting that Genshirou Saji will be assaulted by Fallen Angels and robbed of his Sacred Gear, Absorption Line. Make sure that doesn't happen. Directly or indirectly protect Genshirou Saji from the Fallen Angels. Reward: Spear of Resistance(Blank)(Uncommon).]

The sudden arrival of a task had me stop in my tracks, as its contents made it clear that without my intervention Saji would be attacked, and more importantly that the Fallen Angels were indeed in Kuoh, which also meant that Asia was bound to appear in this town too. And like Saji, she would almost certainly die at the hands of the Fallen after they stole her Sacred Gear.

[A task has been generated.]

[You are suspecting that Asia Argento will be assaulted by Fallen Angels and robbed of her Sacred Gear Twilight Healing. Make sure that doesn't happen. Directly or indirectly protect Asia Argento from the Fallen Angels. Reward: Durable Spear(Uncommon).]

Well, things just got more interesting, and complicated.