Chapter 107 - Training For the Rating Game

Arriving on the training ground, all three of them heard a wail of despair, "Forgive me!!! Yoruichi-sama!!!"

Akeno finally understood that she still underestimating how hard Aika's training is. She thought that she only had to run while under Yoruichi's pressure, but the sight in front of her made him shudder in fear even though she should be a bit of a sadist.

Aika is now enduring a heavier pressure but instead of running and dodging at the same time, Aika only needs to dodge this time. But even Koneko who is watched all of Aika's training is shaking in fear at this new regimen.

Aika's 'playing field' is 30x30 meters of flat ground. At each side of it are machines that resemble an automatic baseball pitcher that you can see in a batting center, but instead of 'soft' baseball, it throws iron balls of the same size.

These machines are side by side and around Aika that she has to dodge or a broken bone would be the least of her worries. At first, Aika got hit multiple times that Yoruichi has to her to the Regenerating Hot Spring to recover. This repeated so many times that Aika just wanted to faint, but she can't due to the pressure that Yoruichi is emitting. She became so allergic to the iron balls that she would never get near one even if it is break time, "WHO INVENTED THIS DODGEBALL OF DEATH!"

Kisuke raised his hand at her question and answered energetically, "Me~."

Aika turned to his direction like a vengeful ghost and threw one of the two dull gray daggers she is holding, "Then die!"

Currently, Aika can't transform into a Shinigami on her own due to most of her Reiryoku (Spiritual Power) are dormant and can only strengthen her body for a bit. She can temporarily activate it if Kisuke infuses his own Reiryoku to wake up the dormant power. But this, in turn, will put a huge burden on her body and could even cause her death if it's used for a long time.

The two daggers in her hand is the original appearance of her Sacred Gear, but in Kisuke's eyes, it already lost its spirit, although it managed to retain some of its abilities and one of those is when Aika threw the dagger, it missed Kisuke but instead of hitting the rock behind him, it teleported to her hand.

"Tch!" Aika then continues dodging the death balls with relative ease because she already got used to it. She's now properly utilizing her detection skills and it's improving in real-time.

Akeno knew that her physical attributes are stronger than Aika's based on her movements, but she could never move the way she is doing that looks like she knows everything that is happening within a meter of her, 'Is this the result of her training? She became a lot weaker than yesterday, but I assume that's only because it's her initial transformation, but even then, how can a normal human improve to this degree in such a short amount of time?'

Kisuke's sudden clap woke Akeno up from her deep contemplation and he started speaking, "Koneko-chan you can find a place to start your training. You'll be doing the same thing, gathering natural Ki and melding it with your own Ki without it influencing you, but this time, you'll be doing it for three days straight."

"Three days straight? Without sleep?"

"Without doing anything else, including food or any kind of breaks."

"Not even toilet breaks?"

Kisuke nodded agreement.

Obviously, someone would react at his arrangement, and that isn't Koneko, "Hey! That's too much!"

Kisuke looks at her and said, "This is just a bit of hardship compared to what is she doing." He then pointed to Aika who is now dodging twice the number of balls.

She is getting hit, but she wasn't buckling up. Kisuke and Yoruichi are already pretty sure that something is influencing her personality, maybe her Sacred Gear/Zanpakuto. She became so resilient that even though Yoruichi kept pushing and pushing the training to an absurd level that it's just torture to see where exactly is her breaking point, but she just never buckled up, which surprised both of them greatly. Yoruichi is even starting to enjoy training her because whatever you threw at her, she'll take it. Although Kisuke stops her from time to time and always reminds her not to go overboard and actually kill Aika.

"You think just sitting and gathering energy for three whole days is easier than dodging balls that can come at you at multiple directions and easily break your bones if you're not careful?" Kisuke appreciates her worries over Koneko, but he didn't like how overprotective she is to the point that it's shackling Koneko's development, 'Is this how they do it? If that's the case, then they have no chance of winning against that Riser guy even if you give them three months of training much less, just ten days.'

Akeno wanted to say something, but she couldn't think of anything to refute him.

Seeing this, Kisuke continued speaking, "If you want to get strong fast enough, you first have to change that conservative thinking of yours."

"What are you..." Akeno didn't know how to reply to his words.

"What I'm trying to say is that the way you are now and the way you're going, you lot wouldn't stand a chance against that Fried Chicken," Kisuke said it straight to her face and before she could say anything back, he left her to her own devices and used Flash Step to instantly arrive at the lodging to prepare some things.

Akeno is stuttering when Koneko grabbed the hem of her clothes, "I don't know what Kisuke-senpai and Yoruichi-san went through in the past, but I can tell that it became common sense for them to gain strength even if it means risking their lives."

"But then, that doesn't mean that we have to be like them! They're just crazy!" Akeno exclaimed.

"That's what I thought too at the start, but maybe, they started to influence me too that I don't think their line of thinking is strange. In this world where strength is the basis, something as nice as freedom life can be easily taken away by the simple whims of someone strong."

"Strength doesn't constitute of only personal power but also influence. We have Gremory Household behind our backs, we don't have to worry about it."

"I also said that to senpai, and you know what he said?"

"...What?"

"Why would you leave your fate to somebody else? Even if you're lovers you shouldn't depend entirely on someone else. What you should do is walk beside him, not behind."

"..." Akeno was speechless because it also makes sense to her.

"I'm very grateful to Rias-buchou and Gremory Household, but after staying with him for a while, I too wanted to stand up on my own and not depend too much on Buchou and her family. I may be currently depending on senpai, but I at least want to learn how to become independent of him."

"..." Akeno looked down and bit her lips.

"And one more thing, I was reminded, Rias-buchou doesn't want her to be treated as a connection to the Gremory family. You know that well, Akeno-senpai. So please stop saying that we have the Gremory family behind us."

"That's!... " These words of Koneko has shaken Akeno, 'That's right, Rias wants others to see for who she is and not her family... What am I doing?' After being silent and remorseful for a few minutes, she apologized to Koneko... and Rias in her heart.

Seeing that her senpai already understood where she went wrong, she immediately made her preparations for three-day meditation.