Aika’s Interest

After making sure that Irina and Akeno would be alright, everyone left the room and moved to the conference room before activating the barrier that blocks most of the information from getting out.

The barrier's activation woke Kisuke up momentarily, but after figuring out that nothing was wrong, he closed his eyes once again. Since they'd activated it knowing that it was only him that could hear what they were going to talk about, Kisuke guessed that they didn't want him to hear any of it and he respected that, before immediately going back to his slumber.

"Is it necessary to activate the barrier?", Yoruichi asked as she sat down on her usual seat.

Serafall went to her own seat and answered, "It isn't. But I want to keep this between us for now. Having Kisuke hear what we're about to talk about won't do him any favors."

Judging from Serafall's tone, Yoruichi already had several guesses as to what she wanted to address, 'Should I say that 'As expected of her'? As someone who could see this group from the outside, it was only a matter of time before she noticed its biggest flaw. Since everyone already has enough ability to fend for themselves even without us, I guess this is truly a good time.'

Serafall was able to read Yoruichi's expression and sighed, 'Since she didn't say anything, I guess she's also aware how skewed this group is in depending on only one person who can do it all.'

All the while, the rest, except for Hestia, were still clueless about Serafall's intentions.

Once everyone got comfortable in their seats, except for Line since she thought that she didn't belong here, Sona asked Serafall, "What do you want to talk about Nee-sama? If it's important, shouldn't we wait for Irina and Akeno to wake up and Koneko and Kuroka to return?"

Serafall reclined to her seat and with an uncharacteristically serious voice, she answered, "It's very important, but I didn't gather all of you here to decide anything so relaying what will be said here to others would be enough."

She then looked around before continuing, "As it is now, the moment Ki-tan fails at something important, this group will follow with a collapse. I may not be an expert when it comes to romance, but even I can see that this isn't very healthy."

While Hestia and Yoruichi remained silent, the rest were having various degrees of reactions. However, none of them had any words of rebuttal.

At least, this kind of reaction gave Serafall a sigh of relief, because this signifies that they're aware of the problem, but chose to ignore it until now. Whether it's because of their unconditional trust in Kisuke or something else, this has caused them to only blindly see what lies in front of them.

But before Serafall could say anything further, discussions started popping up among everyone, talking about the real nature of the problem. While Serafall and Hestia were shocked seeing this, a small smile only blossomed on Yoruichi's face as she rested her head on her propped-up arm and thought, 'If you think they are just mindless followers, then you're seriously underestimating them. Insulting them even. The current state of affairs only came to be because they are too busy trying to catch up by following the easiest way for them. A path that had been laid in front of them.'

After a short while, they finally pinpointed the exact reason for Serafall's words. Aside from fighting, there's nothing else they can really do. With Kisuke doing anything from logistics to research and development. The moment he fails is the moment that everything will crash down on them.

"...I see... With our current set up, instead of lightening it up, we're only adding more to his burden even if all we want is to stand up by his side.", Sona muttered while pursing her lips.

"Without expanding our expertise, the burden that we're causing will only continue to increase.", added Aika while rubbing her chin.

Line hesitated for a moment before voice out her question while raising her hand, "...T-then what shall we do?" Although she didn't have any experiences with a conference like this where she could voice out her opinion even back in Loki Familia, she's not sure if she really needed to ask the obvious. Even then, she wanted to make a move forward and this was her first small step.

At her question, Artemis was the one who answered, "For starters, think of your own interests outside of fighting. Having an interest is very important if you want to go far with what you want to do. If you're only going to do it for the sake of lightening Kisuke's burden, then forget it since most likely, you'll only fail."

Yoruichi nodded at her statement and added, "Artemis-sama is right. Thinking about Kisuke's well-being is good, however, as that guy himself said, never center yourself around him."

Aika then suddenly raised her hand and stood up, "Here, here, here!"

"Go ahead."

"Since we're finally doing something different then I'd like to express my desire from long ago!", crossing her arms, Aika continued with a big smile, "Ever since I became a Shinigami and started learning various Kidou Arts, I've always been interested in the study of Souls!"

"Oh?" Yoruichi's brows raised and were aware that Aika was a fast learner when it comes to Kidou Arts even compared to the students of the Shinigami Academy, "How come I'm only hearing this for the first time today?"

Aika scratched her head in embarrassment, "Well... There's really no chance to tell you nor Kisuke. Besides, it's only my interest and I'm already swarmed with my swordsmanship and Kidou studies. Not to mention our regular dives into the Dungeon."

Serafall could finally see why their 'creativity' was being suppressed. It's simply because they don't have time for anything else with the threats always around them and they don't really want to be forever protected by the person they followed.

Yoruichi grinned and said, "I see... Then from now on, we'll stop your Kidou studies and replace it with basic Souls studies. And maybe in the near future, you'll be able to assist Kisuke with his own research." In the first place, the basic Souls studies should have come first before the Kidou Arts studies. But due to their circumstances, it would be better for Aika to be able to use spells that were unique to the Shinigamis.

No one really expected it, not even Kisuke nor Yoruichi, but in the future, where most of their problems were already resolved, Aika would become an advisor to the Shinigami Research and Development Institute of the Soul Society and even become an Honorary Vice-Captain of the 12th Division.