Sparring, A Chat, and A Job

Ducking under a slash, I smirked up at Yuuto who was covered in sweat, "Too predictable, Yuuto!" I roared before twisting my body around and slamming my heel into his chest. Or into the sword that he'd lifted to block the hit.

He flew back, his feet skidding across the ground while trying to stop him from continuing backward.

Feeling the air vibrate behind me, I dodged to the side and Koneko flew past me, her face shocked. But she recovered quick enough and spun to meet me, her little fists raised. Smiling, I conjured some fire at the bottom of my feet before blasting at her. It was a technique I'd figured out when I went up against quicker opponents - it was a good way to raise my explosive power, really.

But right now, I wasn't using it because Koneko was quicker than me, but before she needed to be pressured. Why? Because she was hiding something.

Focusing my flames around my arm, I burst forth and started sending some simple combos her way.

Jabs, straights, hooks, a few uppercuts here and there. I wanted to put her on the ropes. Mainly so I can teach her how to fight properly.

Right now, she reminds me too much of how I used to be. Sloppy. Just throwing my strength around and hoping for the best. Well, that won't cut it. Especially if she's up against someone stronger than her. Hell, even someone weaker than her could outmaneuver her if they had enough skill.

When she wasn't expecting it, I let out a feint, pretending to send a right hook at her face. She fell for it and raised her arms to block the left side of her face.

Only for a fire-engulfed fist to slam into the right side of her face blasting her away.

"There's more power in you, Koneko," I said, waving away the fire that had collected around us, or rather me. I walked over to her and she was lying on the ground holding her cheek and glaring up at me, as if to say 'mind your own business'. But I ignored that. "You need to stop running from it," I sat down next to her and summoned a flame above my palm. It was a fire made of orange and red, yet burned hotter and harder than most fires I'd ever came across, "I used to be scared of using this fire. It comes from my heritage but it was scary how dangerous it was, you know?" I said, smiling at the loli sitting there.

I'd been here for a week or two and well, it was nice. Relaxing, even. I'd taken it upon myself to train up Yuuto and Koneko after having fought them. They had potential, yet they were slightly squandering it.

Shaking my head from those thoughts, I carried on, "But the fact is, unless you learn how to control a power, it will always scare you. You need to take that risk," I shrugged, knowing how she felt. She was obviously scared of using that power otherwise she'd have used it in one of our spars by now.

"You don't know what you're talking about," she sharply said before standing up and turning away from me. But seeing her shoulders shaking slightly, I grabbed the bottom of her skirt to stop her and she stopped.

Sighing, I realized there was only one way to help her, "I lost control of these powers once," I started, and Koneko looked back at me with curious eyes, "Some people did something unforgivable to me. They...That thing they did made me so unbelievably angry that I couldn't control the fire anymore. It just burst out...and it ended up killing those people alongside dozens of other innocent people," I said and Koneko's eyes widened in shock. I laughed in a self-deprecating way as I looked down at my lap, "Even now, what they did hurts me but the fact is...you need to rise above your pain and resolve yourself to not let it happen again. My lack of control ended up killing innocent people, so please, if you'll take anything away from this conversation, take that fact away. A lack of control is always worse than confronting your fears," I smiled up at her, my smile feeling weak and uneven, and my voice feeling choked up and crackly.

But I tried to smile, nonetheless.

Koneko just looked at me for a few more seconds, complex emotions flooding and flickering in and out of her eyes. Obviously, whatever was scaring her, was similar in ways to what I went through.

But she didn't say anything and just walked off. I let go of her skirt and went back to staring at the ceiling. Yuuto was still here but he wasn't a dense idiot who couldn't read the room, so he'd backed off a bit to give us some privacy. Smiling, I stood up and shouted over at Yuuto.

"Looks like it's just you and me, Yuuto! Let's work on that Sacred Gear of yours!"

I grinned, my battle lust swallowing up all the emotions I had just been feeling.

I used to hate fighting but if there's one thing that could be seen as bad about becoming a Devilman, it's that a Demon's instincts start to effect you. Mainly by making you follow your own instincts more, but also because it makes you similar to a Demon in that you enjoy fighting and other kinds of debauchery.

Oh well, at least I have a sparring partner that doesn't want to kill me unlike during the war...

. . .

Walking out of the training room, I wiped myself down with a towel, while speaking to Yuuto, "You're getting much better already, Yuuto. Remember, speed is good and all but if the opponent knows what you're about to do, they can dodge or block the attack most of the time. Make your attacks unpredictable," I said this and Yuuto smiled, nodded, and bowed in thanks to my teaching or whatever before he said goodbye and walked off.

Waving goodbye to the blond teen, I turned around only to see Rias leaning on the wall, her arms cross and looking at me with a smile, "Thank you for training them, Akira. It means a lot to me," she stopped leaning on the wall before stepping toward me with a smile.

Smiling in return, I just shrugged, "It's okay, Rias. It's the least I can do after staying in your house for the last two weeks without doing anything in return," I went to go past her, but Rias stepped in front of me, her smile looking slightly...hopeful? I don't know why, but it definitely looked like that was the case. "What? Do you need something, Rias?" I asked, genuinely confused at what she was doing.

She outstretched her arms up to my head before bringing my head down and resting it on her massive bust, "I heard your conversation with Koneko, and I thought you might need some comforting, Akira~" she said, her voice seemingly happy.

Pulling my head back a little, I looked up at her, "And who exactly is this comforting for? Me or you?" I smiled wryly, full-well knowing how Rias acted after living with her for a few weeks.

"Fufufu~" she laughed slightly, her smile stretching further, "Why of course, it's for you, Akira~" she said, her eyes squinting into crescents as she hugged my head a bit tighter into her breasts.

I grit my teeth, not because I was annoyed or anything - her bust was incredibly soft and comfortable. Plus, I'm a straight teenager, why would I complain about laying my head on a beautiful girls breasts?

Then why was I gritting my teeth? Simple. I was gritting my teeth because I was stopping myself from getting turned on. Why would I need do that? Because a Demon's sexual appetite has also been passed onto me and let me tell you, it's definitely leagues above even the finest of humans. It also means that whenever I get turned on, it's incredibly hard for me to calm down again.

And I'd rather avoid that kind of thing right now.

Pulling my head away from her chest, I pulled her into a hug, squeezing her tightly. She was a tall girl, around 5'8" but I was taller. I was taller back when I was 16 let alone now after 2 years of growth. So it was easy enough to give her a taste of her own medicine and pull her into my chest. But how could it be so simple?

Her arms snaked around me and she buried her head in my chest, shaking it back and forth like she was trying to dig into me or something.

Seeing my plan backfire, I separated from her and looked down at her with a slight smile, "Has that satisfied your urge to hug yet, Rias? If so, I'm heading off for a shower," I walked passed her stopped as she called my name. Turning around I saw a slightly red, pouting Rias who looked at me with indignant eyes.

"I have a job for you, Akira," she said, sounding like she was sulking somewhat. I gestured for her to carry on and with a huff, she did, "I need you to go and run some reconnaissance on a Fallen Angel who's been snooping around Kuoh Academy. This will also be the time when you enter Kuoh Academy, so make sure to set your alarms, otherwise I'll be really mad!" she huffed once more before stamping off.

Seeing her like this, I realized my assumption that she had a princess complex was right, and just smiled and shrugged before walking off to go and have a shower.

. . .

"Hello, my name is Akira Fudo with the Kanji for 'Light' and 'Immovable' making up my name. I hope we can get along," I bowed to my new classmates before being told where to sit. Which was coincidentally next to Rias.

Shocker.

Sitting down next to her, I didn't miss the slightly smug smile on her face. Akeno, who was sitting behind Rias, gave me an apologetic smile, as if to say 'sorry about Rias being a child'.

I gave her a nod and a smile back, to say that it was fine before I turned back to the front.

The lessons passed by pretty quickly and before I knew it lunch had arrived. I had planned to fit in and get some lunch from the canteen but before I could do that, a bunch of girls appeared in front of me, making me smile wryly as I remembered the past when this happened the day after my transformation into a Devilman.

"Fudo-kun, is that make-up around your eyes? It looks super good!"

"Fudo-kun, do you want a tour around the school? I can give you a really quick one and then maybe we could go to lunch together?"

"Fudo-kun..."

"Fudo-kun..."

Etc, etc, really. I always forget how much my appearance had been boosted by m merging with Amon. I was already a pretty cute kid, but after the transformation I became the handsome bad boy of every girl's dreams or whatever Miki called it. It probably got even better as I grew up as well...but isn't this reaction a bit exaggerated?

(A/N - Poor guy doesn't know he's in a Harem/Ecchi Universe where stuff like this is the usual status quo. Poor guy.)

When I smilingly went to answer them, an obviously fake cough came from the side of me. I looked to the side, and so did most of the girls from the class who'd came over to me. The girls paled a little when they saw who it was and I just rolled my eyes.

A jealous-looking Rias was standing there, with her arms crossed, tapping her foot on the ground while biting her lip in her frustrations, "Akira, didn't you say you'd be having lunch with me?" she smiled but it didn't reach her eyes. Standing up, I shrugged before smiling at the jealous redhead in front of me.

"No, I don't remember saying that," I went into a thinking pose as a joke but seeing Rias getting more and more annoyed, I didn't want her to blow up into a princess tantrum, so I rolled my eyes and dropped the joke, "But if you want to have lunch with me, Rias, then I'll have lunch with you."

As soon as I said that, the imaginary red aura around Rias seemed to disappear and she smiled joyfully before grabbing my arm and dragging me out of the classroom.

She's really a handful. But's she's the King of the Peerage I'm in, and she's also a really beautiful girl, so I guess I can humor her, right?

But even then, I did look down on her as she dragged me, a slight frown developing on my face, "Wasn't my mission to look out for that Fallen Angel and see what they were doing? Won't they be suspicious if they see me together with the Gremory Clan's Heiress? Seems like a negative thing to do, honestly," I shrugged and Rias came to a stop, her energy deflating all of a sudden.

"You're right, Akira..." she pouted before looking up at me with hopeful blue eyes, "But I still have to tell you about the Fallen Angels details, don't I? We can do that over lunch, right?" she looked up at me with such pleading eyes that I just nodded my head.

Her energetic demeanor and optimism reminded me of someone and that made it pretty hard for me to deny her. I fucking hate my regrets, at times...

We left the main school building and quickly arrived at the old school building where Rias' base was set and where the Occult Research Club was based. We entered the slightly decrepit building and entered the room where I'd woken up after I'd had that eventful meeting with Amon after an even more eventful first meeting with Rias and the others.

Akeno was already in the room and I had no idea how she got here before us before a single word popped into my head - magic.

That's probably the weirdest thing about this new world. There was such a thing as magic. I had abilities that were like magic, my Pyrokinesis being the main example, but it wasn't magic. It was just an inborn ability of Amon's that was passed onto me when he possessed me. Though one thing that was good, was that inborn abilities like my Pyrokinesis were stronger and more versatile than Magic of the same type. So someone using Fire Magic wouldn't be able to do the same stuff as me, or with the same amount of strength as me.

"Rias, Akira-kun," Akeno smiled her usual teasing smile before she did a mock curtsy, "All the foods ready, so please dig in," she gestured her hand across the coffee table in the middle of the room and a magic circle appeared, teleporting all the food onto it.

...Though I can't do that with my Pyrokinesis. That's why it's such a shame that I have no talent for magic. Guess I'll have to stick to being a brute, huh?

Both Rias and I thanked Akeno before we sat down. Before I dug into the banquet in front of me, I looked into Rias' eyes with a serious gaze, "So, who am I looking for, Rias?"