Chapter 5: Interrogation & Training a Friend

A/N:

" " : Dialogue,

' ' : Thought,

"Italicized text" : Telepathy,

[ ] : Spells, Techniques and Sacred Gear Casts.

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Haruki POV

Later in the evening, I go down to the training room and limber up, preparing for Issei's first training session. As I do so, my thoughts go back to my time interrogating Raynare and the information I had gotten from interrogating her.

*Flashback*

4:00am this morning.

I teleported into my pocket dimension, where Raynare is being held by binding magic. Walking up to her, I jolted her awake with a small bolt of electricity. She looked around, clearly wondering where she is, until she eventually landed her gaze on me.

Creating a chair from roots, I sat in front of her and began the interrogation. "I know that Azazel would get info about anywhere he sends any fallen, so I know that he knows that Kuoh is run by devils. So, who sent you here?" I said with a hand on her head and a cold look on my face. Her face scrunched up and she attempted to spit at me and mock me, but I shocked her by generating a substantial amount of lightning magic in my hand, causing her to scream in pain.

When she finally stopped twitching, I asked her again, which of the higher-ups of Grigori had sent her here while advising her to not lie to me. "Why the fuck...would I tell you?" She said defiantly. "Because unlike them, I have no qualms flaying you alive while ripping your wings off and applying molten steel on you." Her eyes shook as her defiant facade cracked under the threat of hellish torture.

But she grits her teeth and spits out more defiant words laced with venom. "If you wanna kill me, go ahead, but you aren't getting anything from me." I huffed at her stupidity in assuming I would kill her so quickly, then slashed her arm in half vertically, causing her to shriek in pain. "Don't worry, you won't die unless I allow it, so I'd advise you to speak the truth." I said as I fully healed her arm, causing her eyes to widen in shock as healing magic is unbelievably rare in this world.

"Make no mistake, Raynare. I'm not torturing you because this is the only way for me to get answers from you. I'm torturing you because you tried to kill Issei. Getting info from you is as easy as using mind magic." I told her, causing her to gulp in fear, as she understood that she was very much expendable to me.

"I'll talk." She said shakily. She would have pissed herself if I hadn't used my magic to stop it. "Azazel-sama sent me and 3 other fallen angels here to keep an eye out for people who carried Sacred Gears." I asked her who the other fallens were and she told me that they were Mittelt, Kalawarner and Dohnaseek. "I see. You're still an idiot, Raynare." I said and she looked at me, confused as to why I spoke like I'd known her before.

Sighing at her not recognizing me, I opened a small portal and put my hand through to bring out a small necklace pendant in the shape of a small fox that was curled up, that caused her eyes to widen. "Haruki?" "Yeah, it's me. So now, are you gonna tell me why exactly you attacked Issei?" She swallowed a glob of saliva and nodded.

"At first, we were here for a simple surveillance mission. Keeping an eye out for people who have Sacred Gears and reporting back to Azazel-sama. But then, Dohnaseek instigated us, telling us the power we could get if we extracted Sacred Gears from their holders and implanted them into ourselves." I continued to listen to her with my hand on her head, continuously keeping her from lying to me.

"Initially, we remained in the old church in the woods, staying out of sight with only the 3 of us. But eventually, Dohnaseek started to bring stray exorcists there, promising them power and the 'death of heretics' by their hands. For me and the girls, we were disillusioned by the prospect of more power, as we thought that would cause Azazel-sama to at least look at us with some level of lust. We didn't know that you were here at all." She said, which caused me to raise a brow, because they said that they hadn't even known that me or my family lives in Kuoh, which could only mean that they weren't here for that long, unlike in the canon.

I released her from the binding magic and told her that I would teleport her to Grigori, so that she could tell Azazel about Dohnaseek, who I know is taking orders from Kokabiel, who is trying to instigate another war among the three Abrahamic/Biblical factions. She nodded and apologized for what she and the others had done here in Kuoh. I asked her if she wanted me to notify Mittelt and Kalawarner of my presence here before I attack the church and she nodded. Acknowledgeing her request, I teleported her to the place I remembered Grigori's headquarters being.

*Flashback end*

A few more minutes pass and 6:30 hits, and shortly after, Issei is teleported into the training room with a tracksuit on. "Good to see you took my warning somewhat seriously." He looks confused, until I point to the pocket of his tracksuit where one of his porn mags is stuffed. Snapping my fingers before he could touch it, it flew out of his pocket and was engulfed in blue flames, turning to ashes in an instant.

Before he could even start mourning the loss of the magazine, he felt his body become a lot heavier than normal, causing him to fall to his knees. "You're here for training to survive the chaos that will inevitably come into your life, not to fuck around, Issei. Take this seriously." I tell him while preparing weights with an adjustable gravity spell on them.

Pushing himself up, he manages to stand, and he looks at me with a much more serious face. Noticing that his body has mostly gotten used to being upright while stationary, under the influence of about 1.2 times the gravity of Earth, I tell him to start jogging around the room to familiarize himself with moving with greater weight on himself.

He is able to do so, for about 10 minutes, until he eventually collapses from the exertion. Walking up to his sprawled out body, I channel a small bolt of electricity from my foot to his head, causing him to jolt upwards. As he sits up, I keep his body held up, then lift up his shirt to reveal his back, upon which I begin inscribing a complex magic circle, after shutting off his sense of pain.

This magic circle was created by compounding multiple magic circles with different functions. Its functions were to detect Issei's physical state, and if he was fatigued, it would replenish his stamina by converting nutrients from his food directly into energy for his body's use, and if he was wounded or if he was in a state like he is now, where a great deal of his muscles were torn, it would absorb a great amount of nature energy and magical energy to drastically speed up his regenerative capabilities.

Slapping my hand on his back, I activate the magic circle, causing him to stand up, surprised that he was feeling energetic despite the exertion that he had put himself through. I explained the function of the magic circle and its limitations, such as the fatigue recovery requiring him to have eaten in the first place, meaning his diet would have to change, then I told him the reason which caused him to back away from me with slight fear in his eyes. "I mainly did that so I could properly train you without needing breaks between sessions, except for you needing to sleep from mental fatigue."

Sighing in resignation, he continues running, and eventually starts panting in exhaustion after only 15 minutes, but before he could try resting, his body gets energized once more, causing him to pick up speed again. "What is this even meant to do for me now? Make me run away from fights faster?" He asks, making a good point. "It's for you to get used to multiple types of exhaustion faster. After you've reached a satisfactory level, then we'll switch to exercises to train your pain tolerance." He practically skids to a stop upon hearing to that.

"What, did you think that it's just going to be gym-bro workouts and taking protein powder? If you did, then you've really not opened your eyes to observe the truth in front of you. You're now a part of the supernatural world, whether you like it or not, Issei. That means you could get attacked with blades, fists, energy attacks and even conceptual attacks, so while building up your durability up a good plan, it's much better to increase your pain tolerance first, so that you can keep fighting if you're ever hit, instead of being put out of commission by a single stab." Despite the fear reaching him, the realization didn't as he said this in response: "Why the hell would I even need to fight? All I want to do is live safely with my family and have a harem of beautiful girls. I'm not fighting anyone of stepping on their toes."

"Cool. The only problem with that is that the supernatural world is unpredictable and you could very well step on someone's toes without intending to. Not to mention, there are those that'll happily try to fuck up your or your family's lives for shits and giggles. It's better you have the preparation without such an event occurring than for you to not have it and the event comes to pass." I say, shutting him up.

"Now get back to running. I already asked my mom to prepare some food for you so we can continue your training. Now, move it!" Grumbling, he turns back to run, but this time hurdles have been added to the trail, making it so he has to jump. During all this time, I've been saturating the air with my energy, trying to stimulate Ddraig to awaken while also trying to help Issei's body get used to natural energy quickly so that he could awaken touki.

Another 20 minutes pass, and in that time, the food that he would need after the training has been sent her by Mom, Issei has been re-energized once, and I've been training myself to recreate a particularly powerful martial art, the Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist used by Bang from One Punch Man. I already had real life experience with Tai Chi, and my body has been trained for considerable enough amount of time and it has also been enhanced, so emulating feats at the same level as Bang within the period in which I'll be training Issei for won't be farfetched. Not to mention, I also have eidetic kinesthesia as well as the ability to manipulate vectors, meaning I could theoretically get to the initial strength of Cosmic Garou if I become strong enough.

To aid my mastery of the Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist, I tried utilizing another martial art, which instead of using flow, used spirals, the Kagyu family martial arts. Its concept is a bit esoteric, but not impossible to get down. Its user is meant to be able to manipulate their muscles to release force in the shape of a spiral when they attack, so when they hit something, on top of the penetrative force, the spiral force would also affect their target.

About 20 more minutes pass and Issei collapses again, but this time he doesn't instantly recover from his fatigue, showing that he has exhausted the nutrients from the food he had eaten during the day. I walk up to him and carry him to the food my mom sent here, and despite his exhaustion, he wolfs the food down quite quickly, and once he finishes with the food, he promptly falls asleep.

I walk to the locker that we built into the walls of the training room and take out one of the enchanted items that my mom had made during her time in Grauzeberer, the Somnus Necklace , a necklace that she made to optimize sleep for energy distribution and time management, so its wearer will sleep adequately with only a fifth of the time they would normally sleep for, regardless of the level of comfort the place they sleep in providss, and place it on him. And Issei here, normally sleeps for about 7 hours, if I remember correctly, so he'll be ready to get back to work in about 1 hour and 24 minutes. While he sleeps, I continue training my version of the Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist.

Time passes and he eventually wakes up. He checks his body and notices that he is suspiciously well rested. "Hey, Ruki. How long was I asleep for?" "One hour and 24 minutes." Hearing my response surprises him, then he looks at his body and notices that he is looking ever so slightly, more muscular than when he came in, showing that the training is definitely having results. I saw him contemplating the effects of the training, as just an hour had improved him this much, so how much more could he improve in a month or more.

"You know, Ruki, I've been thinking. If the power levels of the supernatural were divided into ranks, what rank am I at?" He asks hopefully. Too bad. "You're at the lowest point of Low Rank." I could very well hear his hopes shatter. "In case you're wondering, Raynare, the fallen angel that attacked you is at the peak of Low Rank, not too far from reaching the Middle Rank herself."

Thinking now was as good a time as any, I explained the levels of power that currently exist within our world and the standard capabilities of beings at each respective rank, shocking him as he learns how weak he truly is right now. "How strong are you guys?" "Mom is at the peak of High Rank while Dad is is a high-High Rank being. As for me, I'm at the mid point of the Ultimate rank, the youngest one in the world." He looks at me like I'm something from another world, which he wouldn't be wrong about, but there's no need to tell him that.

"If that's the case, then what about Rias-san, Souna-seikotaichou and the others?" Thinking about it for a few seconds, I tell him that almost everyone in the ORC and the Student Council are within the Middle Rank, with varying levels of power. I also tell him the fact that Akeno is pretty much the most powerful of all of them, being at the peak of Middle Rank.

"Moving past that, you should get back to work since you've only got about an hour and a half to go before I send you back home." I tell him, hinting at the fact that the training sessions will last for 4 hours. He nods and breaks into a sprint. Seeing that he is moving more freely under 1.5 times the Earth's gravity, I increase the gravity to 2 times, causing him to stumble and slow down to modest jog.

I keep training my martial art and Issei keeps running and eventually 90 minutes pass by, and as if on cue Issei drops to the ground panting, with sweat dripping from him like water from a faulty faucet. "Please tell me that the time's up." He says in between pants. "Yeah, today's session is over." I say as I toss him a towel to dry himself off and he thanks me.

"So what now?" "Now, you go home and fix yourself up. That means getting rid of your porn, h-games and porn mags. If you can't bring yourself to destroy them, then give them to Matsuda and Motohama or someone who's jobless enough for it, or better yet, try to sell them off, at least that'll bring some profit to you." As I say it, he tries protesting but stops himself.

"In the supernatural world, if you work on yourself and are strong enough, you'll have enough girls coming to you to keep you from ever going back to porn, so there's no need for it. It'll only serve as a distraction." I tell him, causing him to widen his eyes, as if receiving an epiphany. Before he says anything else, I snap my fingers, teleporting him out of the training room to the front door of the house. "Now to get ready for the Italian priestess."

Chapter End.

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