21

Chapter 21

"C-Can we rest for a bit?" Mei asked him as she could barely stand.

"Sure. At least when you are with me then you don't need to worry about going crazy and killing hundreds of thousands if not millions of people." Raynold of-handily mentioned the small detail which made the dark purple-haired girl get cold feet and forget about the burning muscles.

"On second thought… I am not tired anymore."

"Hmm…tell that to your shaking legs."

As he said that, he made her sit with a hand motion. He used his gravity.

"You should rest for now. Human bodies are extremely adaptive if you haven't noticed."

"?"

"You look confused, but didn't you notice that each day you have to do a bit more?"

Her eyes for a second widened as she realised that she is doing more each time!

"So you did. This is good. And I am fastening the process with my Ki. Your muscles adjust faster and you get stronger by the day."

"I… didn't know."

"Don't worry we are going to train your self-awareness as well."

"..."

After resting for five minutes Mei was able to stand up. Though her legs were still slightly twitching from tiredness.

"Now then, why don't we check out your affinity for weaponry? Do you have a preferred weapon choice?" He asked her while walking towards a small shed that looks like it holds tools.

"...Katana? I had an instructor before coming here."

"Oh, single-edge weapons. Basic, but deadly in the right hands. Very well."

As he opened the shed it was full of wooden weapons.

After digging for a bit he pulled out a bokken, a wooden Japanese sword.

"Your first objective is to hit me."

He threw the wooden sword which Mei barely caught.

"...W-We going to continue?"

"Each day more, remember? By the end of this, I will make you able to fight for the whole day. At least.

"..."

"Don't look shocked. The moment you have your core you can fight for days if not weeks. Once you have full control over your Honkai and Ki you can do even more crazy things."

"...But…"

"But what?"

"Nothing…"

She shook her head before taking a stance. For a second Raynold smiled. He hasn't seen a samurai stance in ages.

That moment Mei rushed at him and tried to hit but her eyes widened in shock for a second as she didn't expect him to just move his body a few inches to the side and simply dodge by an extremely small margin.

Though she proceeded to try to hit him by moving her bokken to the side! It's only a few inches but he was already away by that point.

This has made her annoyed and it only increased with each missed hit!

~~~

"Poor Mei," Kiana said with a fake sad tone. In truth, she enjoys seeing new people suffering. It makes her feel satisfaction that she has passed this point and can…sorta…a little bit challenge Raynold in a fight?

[Remembering your failures? It took you around a week to hit him. And once you did he simply started to parry which extended your suffering by another week.]

Sirin said to her as she materialised a few metres away from her and was just standing there with crossed hands.

Weirdly no one except her can see the Void Queen. According to Sirin, it's related to her powers…only someone else who has void-related powers could see her.

"I do. Though I was using fists. Mei has it easier."

[That weapon of hers can only stab and slash. A limited amount of patterns. This means you had it easier.]

"I-I didn't!"

Kiana quickly got defensive. She quickly started to think about ways to get out of this.

"If she has limited patterns this means Ray will have limited ways to dodge which she can predict!"

[He already does that. From the very beginning, just like he did with you. He makes sure one of his sides is slower so that she can capitalise on it.]

Kiana doesn't realise that the Void Queen is always paying extra attention to everything he says.

"Whatever…"

The pair returned to watch the short fight. Since it was the first time Mei was fighting after she started her training she quickly was out of breath and gave up after ten minutes of swinging her wooden sword.

She had no strength left.

Second, later she was on the ground breathing heavily with no energy to speak.

"Oh no!" Kiana realised what this means!

Sure enough, Raynold went over and picked the dark purple-haired up in his hands!

Mei of course started to blush and tried to struggle but he ignored her and simply started to take her to the house.

He even used his Life energy to relax her muscles and use his Ki to make sure her Stigmata doesn't act up.

All that made the girl in his hand embarrassed to the point that she wanted to find a hole to hide.

[It appears you will need to improve your game.]

Sirin said with narrowed eyes.

"Easy to say… I have no idea what to do."

*Hmph!*

[Then start using your 'genius' brains. Didn't you brag that you are good?]

After saying that the Herrscher turned into black and dark orange particles and disappeared.

The Void Queen's attitude made Kiana click her tongue. It's not the first time this annoying girl used her bragging against her! It's annoying!

'Whatever! Now I need to think about what to do!'

~~~

Raynold for a moment smiled to himself as he was thinking about the new stigmata he has seen on Raiden Mei.

He compared it with the one he learned from Seele.

When one does that he could see similarities all over the place.

'I should have known. It is all circular… The cores in general are gem shaped and have circular patterns as well.

Though with me researching her Stigmata I can start thinking of replicating my Gravity, Kitten's void.'

After thinking for a bit he ended up sitting in his favourite spot in front of the television. The remote floated to his side before he turned the TV on and went to sports channels.

He rolled his eyes when he saw a Pool tournament. Using a stick to push a ball into holes on the table is considered…sport? Are they for real?

Regardless he turned to the next channel. He felt relieved when he saw it was football.

'Ah…much better…at least running and kicking a ball is more sport-ish than the last one.'

Though his watching experience soon was interrupted when the ball of white hair ended up sitting on his lap and hugging him.

"What is it, Kitten?"

*Hmph!*

"I can't be here?" She asked him with a pouty tone. Now she is just pretending and trying to hog all of his attention. While it looks cute now it's going to be a killer move when she is older and practises her acting for a bit.

"You can, though you usually play games at this time."

"Well, I want to spend some time with you." As she said that she snuggled more.

Raynold just sighed for a bit before realising that this would be a good time to practise something.

"Alright, since you are here we can try out something."

"Try out?"

For a moment she blushed like a tomato! What is he planning!? Isn't it too early for naughty stuff!?

Before she could say something, he started to explain it to her.

"Call forth your Ki and then we are going to merge it. Our Ki energies are mixed with our Honkai, which carries attributes of our core powers.

If we expose each other to those we should, technically, be able to learn powers from each other."

For a second she was sad, but then she agreed.

"...Oh…okay…"

Without much hassle, she called for her Ki, which she is certain that it's just altered Honkai's energy, but if Raynold calls it Ki she does it too.

[H-Hold it! If you do that… he might be able to see me!!!]

Before Kiana could say anything she felt a pull. At that moment their Ki energies merged.

She was certain he used something more than just a simple mix of energies as soon enough she was standing in a white plane of some sort.

Next to her was Sirin who was looking around as well.

"I said to wait! Why are you so brash?"

"Shut up. Ray asked so I did. You would have done the same."

"..."

"What do we have here? Are you still around?"

Sirin's whole body turned stiff. Her heartbeat accelerated, and she instantly started to fiddle around.

She was not ready for this!

Kiana looked at the front and she could see Raynold standing in front of her.

They were alone in whatever place this was.

"This…well…since the core was mine originally my consciousness remains with it." Herrscher explained with a soft and quite passive tone. She has no willpower or attitude to look almighty in front of him.

Something Kiana noticed immediately.

"I see… Well, as long as you don't annoy my Kitten—"

"There is no point in doing that. We are one being."

"I see…so that's how it is… Very interesting… and my body is itching to murder a few of those cultists," Raynold said while he finally put the pieces together. He got a general idea of what is his Kitten and what is her 'purpose'.

"While it's good to know that we are that important to you. What is this place?" Sirin, who had red cheeks swiftly changed the theme of the conversation. She didn't want to hear more of his protective speech. The Herrscher is certain she would turn into a gooey mess. By the end of it.

"Hmm… to my understanding we merged at the 'consciousness' level with the help of the Ki.

If you would try spreading out your senses. You should be able to sense our Ki merging right above us."

As he said that he looked up and looked at what looked like a whirlpool of energies…

Black, white, red, blue, dark orange…all of the different colours of energies were creating this whirlpool.

"Oh… It looks beautiful…"

"..."

"Yes. It does, the best part is I can sense the 'flavour' of your energy."

"Indeed. I can sense it too… Though yours is more…complex… I assume it's because you have two types of powers." Sirin said with a small frown. She can try recreating the feeling of this energy with her energy.

"Hmm, I could help with focusing on specific power. I assume you want Gravity."

The Void Queen nodded at him. Her void with gravity would make her several times more powerful.

Kiana just looked at the pair with annoyance. It appears even her other half is trying to get between her and Raynold!

Soon enough the red and blue energy nearly ceased to exist, only white and blackish grey remained. This made Sirin smile for a bit. This should make things easier.

"it appears it has worked. Now then, let's start."

Raynold said that as he motioned for the pair of white-haired girls to follow his lead. He is going to instruct them on how to change their energy's 'flavour' . It should be the very first step in trying to grasp each other's concepts.

~~~

While at the subconscious level, the trio was doing their thing trying to grasp each other's concepts outside it looked quite different.

After several hours Mei finally woke up and went downstairs to get some water.

What she saw in the living room made her frown.

She saw Raynold and Kiana sleeping. The White haired girl was sitting on his lap sideways while using his shoulder as a pillow while his head was leaning on hers.

They looked…super close to each other!

This only made her feel annoyed rising in her stomach.

Realising this she shook her head.

'What is wrong with me? I have only known him for less than a week!!!'

Through his care, his training, his massages, his words… All of that is making her feel strange…

Soon enough she realised that this was bad… His training alone made her all puffy and cuddly inside!