63 Nailed It!

Underworld, Gremory Territory, Gremory Estate.

The next morning, James woke up bright and early like he usually does. On his left and right, Flora and Akeno were sleeping peacefully. Feeling that it was about time to get up, James slipped out from between them, trying not to wake the sleeping girls. Unfortunately, as they were both middle-rank beings, they were a lot more sensitive to their surroundings.

"*Yawn* Good morning." Flora said after a long yawn.

"Good morning," Akeno said as she rubbed her eyes.

"Good morning." James replied to the girls' greetings. "It's okay if you sleep a little longer, you know."

"We have to train." Flora said stubbornly.

"Yeah, what she said." Akeno said lethargically without a hint of her usual elegance.

"Whatever you say, I'm gonna take a shower, alone." James said, emphasizing the word, "alone."

"Why?" Akeno asked in a whiny tone. She was looking forward to bathing with him again, like they did in Martinique.

"Because, I know you're trying to have another bath like we did in Martinique," James said, seeing through Akeno's thoughts easily.

Akeno could only pout at James' rejection. Flora on the other hand was filled with curiosity.

"What happened in the bathroom on Martinique?" Flora asked, expecting a good story.

Ignoring Flora's question, James leaned over and pecked the girls on the lips. Then he turned and headed for the bathroom adjoined to his bedroom. After half an hour, James had showered and brushed his teeth. Dressing in some light clothes to train in, James stepped back into the bedroom. When he arrived, Akeno and Flora were gone.

"Well, let's get the day started." James said to himself.

After that, James made his way through the Gremory mansion toward the training ground. On his way, the maids all blushed when they looked at him. Tilting his head in confusion, James continued on his way. Until he saw Grayfia. Rounding a corner, James noticed that he and Grayfia were going in the same direction, at least for a little while, so he decided to speak.

"Hey, Big Sis Grayfia." James said energetically. "Good morning."

Hearing James' greeting, Grayfia stopped. As James caught up, Grayfia began walking again.

"Good morning, James." Grayfia returned the greeting with a nod.

After a few steps, James asked the question that was bothering him.

"As the head maid, do you have any idea why all the maids are looking at me funny?" James asked, genuinely confused.

Uncharacteristically, Grayfia blushed when she heard James' question. Though, her expression did not change in the slightest. As Sirzechs does not live in the Gremory Estate and Grayfia takes her duties as a maid far too seriously, Grayfia lives in the servant quarters. She knows the truth behind the maids' blushing faces and awkward glances. It's remarkably simple, actually. The guest rooms and the servant quarters are in the same wing of the mansion. Also, Akeno and Flora's voices carried quite well last night. So, it just so happens that everyone in the servant quarters, including Grayfia, heard James, Akeno, and Flora's sexual escapades.

"You should remember to put up a silencing barrier next time." Grayfia said while blushing.

'He's only sixteen, could he really be that good?' Grayfia asked herself while remembering the moans that reverberated through the entire wing of the estate. 'I don't think I've ever screamed like those girls did. Wait, what am I thinking'

Grayfia had to shake her head to drive those thoughts out. She knew she should not be comparing her sex life with Sirzechs to what she heard last night. Without breaking stride, James and Grayfia walked through the mansion's corridors. Eventually they parted ways. While James headed to the training grounds, Grayfia went about her own duties. When James made it to the training grounds, Rias, Koneko, Yuuto, and Gasper were already there.

"You're late." Rias said with her hands resting on her hips. "And where are Akeno and Flora."

"Actually, James is right on time." Koneko said quietly.

"Those two will be a little late, they're not too steady on their feet right now." James said with a proud smile.

Hearing his response and seeing that smile, told everyone exactly why Akeno and Flora would be late. And after it sunk in, the four of them reacted differently. Rias was burning in jealousy, Koneko lowered her head with her cheeks having turned slightly red, Yuuto smiled wryly, and Gasper was so embarrassed that he panicked.

"If Akeno had that much energy left after training last night, I guess that means we need to raise the intensity from now on." Rias said with a fierce glint in her eyes.

'I get the feeling if that happens, Akeno will make her way to my room again tonight.' James thought after hearing Rias' declaration. 'And that will lead them into a downward spiral. Until I leave the day after tomorrow, anyway.'

Fifteen minutes later, Akeno and Flora showed up at the training ground. And like James said, their legs were a bit weak. As they entered, they both glared at James.

"You two shouldn't look at me like that." James said with the proud smile returning to his face. "You loved it last night."

After James spoke, Akeno and Flora adopted sloppy smiles while they thought about what happened last night. Seeing their reactions, Rias pouted while Koneko looked at the two older girls curiously.

*Clap!*

"Alright, we're burning daylight." James said after clapping his hands to bring everyone back to the here and now. "Kiba, you're with me. Everyone else do your thing."

With that, everyone separated to work on their training schedules for the day. Flora and Koneko went off and began sparring in hand-to-hand combat. Meanwhile, Rias, Akeno, and Gasper went in three different directions so they could experiment and improve their magical and racial abilities.

James and Yuuto also moved away from everyone else. James drew Ochiru Sakura while Yuuto conjured a demonic sword using [Sword Birth].

"You're on offense today." James said as he readied his stance.

After a moment, Yuuto charged forward.

An hour later, Yuuto was using one of his demonic swords to support himself. While trying to regulate his breathing, he listened as James told him where his flaws were and how he could improve them. After coaching Yuuto for about thirty minutes, James asked a question.

"So, have you thought of any new swords you could create?"

"Unfortunately, no." Yuuto said with a shake of his head.

"Have you ever thought of combining two attributes in order to strengthen your offense, defense, or support abilities?" James asked with a smile.

"What do you mean?" Yuuto asked with interest shining in his eyes.

"For example, you could make a sword with the properties of fire and wind." James said, gesticulating with his hands. "No matter how hard you try, you can only make the fire so hot, right?"

Yuuto nodded in agreement.

"Well, if you add the property of wind, the flames the sword produces will strengthen on their own." James said, finishing his explanation.

At that, Yuuto's eyes lit up. Clearly. He was eager to experiment.

"Or, what if you made a sword with two blades?" James asked, thinking of a samurai from Marvel comics. "If the two blades are close enough together, and they run parallel to each other and your attack connects, it would make stitching up the wound near impossible."

Yuuto shuddered at how vicious that weapon would be. Even still, he could not help but imagine the damage it could do.

"Another would be to make one that has the property of wind." James said as he thought about a version of Excalibur from another universe. "If you wrapped the sword in enough wind to bend the light around it, you could make your sword invisible to your opponent. I'm not exactly sure how that works scientifically, though."

For the next forty-five minutes, James bounced ideas off of Yuuto, hoping that something would stick. Eventually, James brought this topic to an end. He then put on a more solemn expression.

"Kiba, have you given up on your revenge yet?" James asked while looking Yuuto straight in the eyes.

"No!" Yuuto exclaimed while gritting his teeth.

Nodding his head, James did not try to dissuade the younger boy. Instead, he asked.

"I've heard your story from Riri, but Would you mind letting me hear it from your point of view?" James asked in genuine curiosity.

Taking a deep breath, Yuuto got his emotions in check. Then, he nodded, agreeing to tell James his story. Before he was reincarnated, Yuuto was a human raised by the church named Isaiah. An orphan taken in by the church, he was eventually brought in to participate in an experiment. An experiment to create artificial holy sword wielders. Artificial Excalibur wielders, to be precise. With other children of about the same age, Isaiah, like them were unaware of what would happen to them. As none of them fell during the experiments, they got along just fine. With their faith in the Biblical God, they sang hymns to keep their spirits high. Eventually, the experiment was dubbed a failure. Because of that, the man running the experiment decided to eliminate all the test subjects. Flooding the experiment sight with poisonous gas, the children began to fall one by one. However, they worked together to give one of their young comrades a chance to escape. They chose the most talented of their group, Isaiah. Eventually, the boy made it out of the facility. Unfortunately, he had inhaled too much of the poison, dying shortly after his escape. Shortly after, he was resurrected as a devil and given the name Kiba Yuuto by Rias Gremory and became her [Knight].

By the time Yuuto finished his story, He was gritting his teeth with tears streaming down his face.

"Fuck the church." James said in disgust.

"Yeah..." Yuuto said with depression in his tone. "But I heard that the father who was conducting those experiments was excommunicated shortly after the experiment failed."

"If he hadn't been, I would label heaven just as evil as the original Satans." James said with a smirk. "Anyway, I can understand why you burn with revenge. The question is, why do you want to destroy the fragments of Excalibur for your revenge? That, I really don't understand. I mean, the swords didn't actually do anything to you, right?"

Although it may sound unbelievable, Excalibur was broken into seven pieces in a war centuries ago. After collecting all the pieces, or fragments, the church tasked its alchemists to reforge the fragments into seven swords. Each of which bore the name "Excalibur."

"It's because of those swords that my friends and I were disposed of like that." Yuuto said, his words leaking venom.

"No, Kiba." James said with a firm tone. "It's because of the father who ran that facility that you and your friends were disposed of. Don't confuse the issue."

"What do you know!" Kiba roared in rage.

Without warning, Yuuto found himself slammed into the ground with his left arm twisted and locked behind his back. As he struggled to free himself, the one who put him in this position, James, spoke.

"My father, Cassiel Alaverus, was created when Hades was experimenting to create super devils." James said calmly with wrath in his eyes. "When he was deemed a failure, Hades decided to have him disposed of. Luckily, my father managed to escape."

As James told his story, Yuuto calmed down and listened closely.

"Now, based on your logic." James said while he released Yuuto from his joint lock. "Since I want to take revenge for what my father went through, I should go and kill Sirzechs and Ajuka, right?"

Yuuto froze. After hearing a story that was similar to his own, he was able to see another perspective.

Before he could answer James, though, James helped him to his feet and dusted off his clothes with a smile. Then, when everything looked good, James smiled again like before and spoke.

"Now don't get me wrong, Kiba." James said, pausing briefly before he continued. "I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm not saying I'm right either. What I am saying is, you have to keep a cool head and think things through. Look at problems from multiple angles. If you do that, you'll find the best option for you."

With that, James turned away. Before he went too far, though, he spoke once again.

"Well, I think that's enough for today." James said as he waved his hand, going for that setting off into the sunset vibe. "I'll go check on Riri, there are some ideas I wanted to run past her. She may be able to work some of them into her move set. Well see ya later, work hard."

As he walked away, nothing interfered with his exit. Elated by that fact, James thought to himself.

'Nailed it!'