Helping the Peerage Train

"97...!"

The rest of the night was peaceful and the day after that was fine apart from the Fallen flying around above the place we lived. Right now, it was a few days after I'd saved Asia and I was currently training.

"98...!"

Right now, I was doing some simple bench pressing. I'd done it before back during the war but...nothing could really help my strength grow when it came to training. All I could train was fighting technique against other Devilmen. Why couldn't I train my body? Everything was too light.

"99...!"

Whether I tried to bench 200lbs or 2000lbs, it didn't matter. By the time I'd started training my body had grown through all the fighting and wasn't easy to train through conventional means. But in this world, filled with magic and mystical materials? It was a matter of resources when it came to training myself.

And with the Gremory Family backing me, how could I not have enough resources?

"100...! Haah~!" I gave a relaxed sigh as I rested the bar on the stand before sitting up and looking around the room. I saw Yuuto running on a treadmill, his body covered in body weights and from the sweat covering him, the weights must weigh quite a bit. Next to me was Koneko who was doing the same kind of workout as me, just with slightly lighter weights.

Looking at the weight I'd just been benching, I smirked - I was definitely stronger than I had been a few weeks ago.

"Akira-kun!" I heard a light, almost angelic voice come from the entrance of the room before hearing rapid footsteps heading my way. Turning to the voice I saw Asia running to me with a towel in her hands. She looked a bit red at my half-nakedness, but pushed past it and thrust the towel in her hands at me.

Smiling, I took the towel, "Thank you, Asia," I said before standing up and wiping myself down. I wasn't pouring with sweat but I'd worked up enough of a sweat that a light sheen of perspiration was covering me.

While I was doing this, Asia was looking at the weights I'd been lifting with a curious gaze. She even tried to lift up one end, her face going red with exertion - it was pretty cute, honestly.

In the end, she turned to me and asked, "Akira-kun...how much does this weigh?" she tilted her head a little.

Looking at the bar, I pointed to slightly technological screen on the side of the fixed weight.

Taking the gesture for what it meant, Asia looked where I was pointing and read the numbers before giving out an exclamation, "7500?! Is that in pounds?!" she looked to me with shock overflowing from her eyes.

Laughing a little, I shook my head while smiling at her cute reaction, "No, that's kilograms," I saw her shock getting even deeper so I burst out laughing before speaking after seeing her shock become confusion at my laughter, "That's only a light workout, Asia. There's plenty of people with brute strength like that in the supernatural world. Just look at Koneko," I pointed over to the white-haired loli still lifting next to me. The numbers on her weights read '4600' and it was obviously in kilograms. Though unlike me, this was a little more serious of a workout for her.

Asia seemed a bit stumped and surprised before she smiled widely, "Well...it wouldn't be interesting and fun if everything was how I thought, would it? Though, to think you're so strong, Akira-kun..." she stared over my body and I just smiled before moving and breaking her gaze away from me as I went and put on a simple black tank-top.

Looking back to the slightly red Asia and giving her a once over, I looked over at Yuuto who'd just come off the treadmill and was removing his body weights.

Seems me being so much stronger than him has spurred him on, huh? Good. You can never be too strong. There's always someone stronger, after all.

"Though, I'd have to thank Demonic Power for being so...receptive to my desires," I said to no one in particular but Asia picked up on it and looked at me with a confused face. Seeing her confusion, I carried on, "Well, what I mean is that like Sacred Gears, Demonic Power replies to the desires of the person it inhabits. If you desire strength enough, it will help you get stronger. There seems to be some kind of connection between a Devil's conscious and subconscious desires and their Demonic Power...Not that I understand it too much - I just know that my desire for strength is how I'm gaining so much so quickly," I shrugged before looking to Asia with realization on my face, "You have a Sacred Gear, don't you, Asia? Well next time you try to use it, try and desire for it to become stronger. It might not work but if you keep at it, you might make the Sacred Gear stronger."

I shrugged as I spoke but I saw Yuuto perk up at the mention of Sacred Gears and making them stronger. Asia went into a thoughtful pose before beaming a smile at me and thanking me. I took the smile and returned one before looking toward Yuuto who was walking over with his usual gentlemanly smile.

"Akira," he said in greeting before looking to me with hopeful eyes, "Would you possibly be able to help me with some combat training?"

Not surprised to hear this, I just nodded, "Yeah, sure--" I was stopped by a hand tugging on the back of my tank-top.

"Akira-senpai," I turned my head to see Koneko's near-emotionless face and yellow eyes boring holes into my own, "I wanna fight as well," she said--well, no, it sounded more like she was demanding to fight. But in front of my cute underclassmen, how could I say no?

"Sure, sure, we can fight," I said with a helpless smile before looking to Asia, "I know you don't have any obligation to, but could you come and monitor the spar? Having someone who has a healing Sacred Gear on hand would be really useful."

"Yes, I can do it! You can count on me, Akira-kun!" Asia enthusiastically answered with a firm nod and her hands bunched up against her chest.

Huh, she looks pretty pumped up about helping, doesn't she?

Nodding at her enthusiasm, I smiled and gestured for the others to follow me as I turned to walk further into the training room to where the sparring usually happened. The room was massive and have been brought into existence when I asked if Rias could use her brothers connections to get us a training room - purely because she and her peerage needed to train. It also didn't help that it would also let me get stronger as well.

[They seem quite enthusiastic, don't they?] I heard Amon say in my head, using our connection to speak directly to my mind, [They remind me a little of you, Akira.]

(A/N - ' ' will be used to signify when Akira is talking to Amon in his mind.)

'Yeah...I was thinking the same. That's why I'm helping them so much. Both of them reek of vengeance and I don't want them to go down the path I did - going after vengeance no matter the cost,' I sighed silently as I said this to Amon, trying not to draw the attention of the others.

[Well, you're doing a good job of training 'em. The part about turning them away from vengeance, however...that isn't gonna be so easy, Akira,] Amon solemnly spoke in my head before he huffed and carried on, [But nevermind that. You need to try and reach this Balance Breaker I've told you about. Something is on the horizon, I can just feel it.]

Nodding, I gave an affirmative before he cut the line between us and went back to sleep.

Balance Breaker. The ultimate version of a Sacred Gear. Boosted Gear had one called Scale Mail where the user would be covered in an armor which would increase their physical power, Demonic Power (or whatever energy they used), and the destructive potential of whatever abilities they had that relied on either physical power or Demonic Power.

Why do I need to awaken this? Because according to Amon, when he was merged with Ddraig - the Dragon sealed in the Boosted Gear - my Devilman Transformation was merged with the Scale Mail of the Boosted Gear. Meaning, if I wanted to gain back a transformation like that for when the going gets tough, I need to unlock my Balance Breaker. Which is a lot easier said than done, honestly. Desire fuels the Sacred Gear, but to unlock a Balance Breaker needs either strong emotions or to be pushed into a corner during a fight.

And I've had neither. None of the strong emotions I've felt have been channeled into unlocking the Balance Breaker because who thinks about that kind of stuff when they're angry or sad? And I haven't met an opponent who can go toe-to-toe with me yet, let along someone who can push me into a corner.

...Nevermind. I shouldn't really be thinking or wanting anything like that to happen. But I'll still keep up my physical training in the hopes that it will help me unlock it.

Coming to the sparring ground, I turned to Koneko and Yuuto before smirking and flashing to the other side of the area. They both looked at each other, Yuuto giving a wry smile while Koneko was as emotionless and indifferent as always.

Then they started playing rock-paper-scissors.

This was how they'd started coming up with who got to fight me first. Usually they'd come at me together but in the mind of giving them more intense 'teaching' I started doing one-on-one battles where I'd fight them and coach them a little. It wasn't too bad, either. Quite fun, actually.

In the end, Yuuto won and walked toward me with a polite smile as he held up a hand, a sword materializing in his hand. It was a simple-looking sword but if one looked closely enough, it was slightly transparent and seeing the sword made me chuckle.

"So, you finally made it, huh? Well, don't disappoint me too much, Yuuto!" I gave a shout before entering my partial transformation. I generated some flames in my hand before slashing my claws outward, sending a slash of flame through the air hurtling toward Yuuto. He didn't seem worried about the slash of flame, and I knew why, but I was just testing his swords capabilities.

Yuuto slashed the flame and his sword seemed to extinguish the flame before it could even touch him.

Flame Delete. A sword Yuuto and I had been trying to develop with his Sacred Gear. As the name implies, it deletes flames by extinguishing them as soon as it comes into contact with them.

This is how Yuuto's Sacred Gear works - he can create Demonic Swords however he wants, with whatever sizes and shapes he wants, and whatever special attributes he wants. After our first few spars going terribly for him, he'd been experimenting more and more and his control over it has exploded upward.

But I didn't admire his Sacred Gear for too long as I charged at him just as the flame slash has gone out, fire coming from my bare feet and exploding me forward in tandem with my strength.

I got in front of him within no time and sent a low kick directly at his thigh, my shin splitting through the air with a whistling. When my knee was about to go past his thigh, I extended my leg fully, the power of my kick building up even more. Unlucky for me, my leg hit a sword that popped up from the ground. The sword was destroyed almost instantly but that second allowed Yuuto to charge away from the kick and get on the side of me.

He'd switched out his sword to a genuinely normal looking western sword with a black hilt, golden guard and a silver blade.

He sent a slash at me and I just summoned my Boosted Gear gauntlets, blocking the slash and sending a counter punch. I wasn't trying to win. Far from it, I was planning to keep this as a draw. Why? One, so I don't crush his confidence and affect his Sacred Gear (seeing as it depends on the users mentality) and two, so I can push him just enough that he's on the ropes but not beaten. This way he'll get the most improvement.

Used to dodging my fast counters, Yuuto dodged under it almost by instinct and brought his sword sliding across my gauntlet, sparks flying off of it as the metals scratched against one another. He did a twist and held his sword in a reverse grip before slashing at my stomach.

Smirking, I lowered a hand and slammed it against the incoming hilt, stopping the slash. Again I sent a counter punch. But this time a shield of swords appeared in front of the fist. 3 layers of thick Claymores squashed against each other in a madman's version of a kite shield. My gauntlet-covered hand made contact with a massive thud as it rang throughout the room.

"You're getting really good with these shields made out of swords, Yuuto," I complimented as I felt the sturdiness of the shield.

Yuuto laughed before his polite reply came, "Well I had to because you kept hitting through everything else I tried to do...Ha!" he gave a short short as he thrust a pitch black rapier at me, aiming for my chest. I just smirked before grabbing the rapier and stopping the thrust entirely. I squeezed the rapier until it shattered completely and I pushed against the 'shield'. Before long and before Yuuto could react, my fist fired through the 'shield' and landed on Yuuto's cheek sending him into the floor with a crack as he slid away a few meters.

I turned to Asia and called her over before turning back to Yuuto to speak, "You're a technique-type fighter, Yuuto. You'd do best to not come to blows with me and yes, that also means blocking my attacks. You should dodge, dodge, and dodge some more. Keep dodging until I show an opening or something," I said to the slowly getting up Yuuto who was smiling helplessly as he wiped away the blood at his lips.

Asia got over and started to heal up Yuuto and I felt Koneko behind me, ready to fight. But before we could, Rias appeared.

I knew why she was here:

We just got the go-ahead to take out the Fallen Angels.