Pay Like A Pro

-Archer-

It's been 2 weeks since his leader had gone to do some training, which confuses him, was he that bored? He is already powerful enough yet, he still wants to learn that breathing technique thing.

But again, it's not his choice. It's Blake's, after that teasing he was too tired to care for his leader, not that he needed care anyway.

For the rest of the week, I've done nothing but cook which he enjoys very much, the kitchen is his oasis so there is nothing wrong with it, aside from being a cook at their restaurant.

At night he's Batman.

No seriously, he is something similar since he had been hunting demons every night and catching some of them due to Echidna's request. It's quite a pain in the ass to catch a demon since killing them is basically easier than catching them.

But anyway, he still managed to catch them since they weren't stronger than him physically.

Today is the day of his weekly break. He is currently outside sightseeing, though he would rather stay in the kitchen than outside. Too bad the kitchen is currently occupied by a devil queen, while the kitchen is his territory, he refuses to walk into hell again.

He learned it the hard way, the devil is queen is making chocolate pancakes. He doesn't know why she was so obsessed with such food, but then again he doesn't care.

While walking, he saw a girl and an old man fighting about something. He usually ignores such things, then he saw something, they were arguing about the child who is tied up by a lead.

The girl is no older than 10, her hair was a mess, her clothes were made out of rags, her skin is malnourished.

Seeing this Archer couldn't help but scowl, while he killed millions, it doesn't mean he's heartless, at first he was manipulated, and by the time he realized, it was too late, then he was forced to kill and kill, a literal slaughtering machine by Alaya.

God, he regretted accepting that contract.

He couldn't ignore this scene that was right in front of him, while he no longer desired to be a hero, he was still a good person by heart…maybe?

Archer approached the old who was the one who was mostly complaining, as he got near the old man looked at him and couldn't help but feel afraid of him, the old man unconsciously took a step back.

"W-what are you lookin' at ya thin' tha' m' scared of ya lad?!" The old man pointed at him as he acted like he wasn't intimidated by Archer's presence.

Hearing the old man, his scowl deepens, this old man is pathetic, trying to save his dignity makes him more annoying.

Archer spoke, "What seems to be the problem here? Why are you making a ruckus early in the morning?"

"Why? Why ya ask?! It's because of tis' girlie her' wan' get tis slave from me, ya can't get er' fro' m if ya ain't paying!" The old man exclaimed for anyone to hear.

The people around started to murmur, no one tried to help because this wasn't an uncommon sight in the current timeline.

He couldn't stand this old man any longer, he decided. He took out a large number of bills from his kimono and slapped the entire stock of bills on the old man's face, and said. "Keep the change, next time don't show your face in front of me again."

He doesn't care if can't understand what he meant, he is taking this child away from this thing.

Swifty, he took the child away from the stunned old man, then by the time he realized, he didn't even care about the child and Archer as he was too busy taking the bills from the ground, "What are ya people lookin' at?! Tis money is mine!"

Archer was already far away from the scene, and then he stopped his tracks and looked at the child with a pitying gaze, the expression that this child is making reminds him a lot like him, an expression that has lost all hope.

Honestly, he wasn't good with children, he doesn't know what to say to her, then the girl that was arguing with the old man from before finally caught up with them, he stared at the girl and all of sudden something inside him clicked and thought, 'It's that demon slayer from weeks ago…'

It was Kocho Kanae, her gaze never left Archer and it made him quite uncomfortable, and then she said as bowed, "Thank you!"

Her action was a bit unexpected, but regardless he had to reply, "No need to thank me, it's a trivial matter you wanted to help this girl don't you? Take her."

Kanae scratches her cheeks a bit before saying, "Yeah…it's not just about this…also from weeks ago…it was you right? The one who saved my sister? Thank you really!"

Hearing that he couldn't help but twitch, he replied, "I don't know what you're talking about, miss, you got the wrong person."

"No! I'm sure it was you! There is no mistake, your voice is the same after all," Kanae's gaze filled with conviction.

What..? Lady, excuse me, I only spoke 2 sentences at most so how could you even remember that?!

Archer was conflicted, looking at Kanae's eyes lying won't do at all, it would be pointless because she was sure that it is really him that saved her sister that night.

He took a deep sigh and finally admitted it, "Fine, whatever, what do you want?"

"What do I want? Isn't it obvious? I want to repay you! Also, you look a bit younger than I expected…taller too..and handsome…" Kanae was inspecting his body like a police officer, her gaze alone is making him uncomfortable but not in a bad way, it's just weird.

All of sudden, the child's stomach growled in hunger, and both Archer and Kanae stared at her.

"Let's continue this later, first I'll have to feed this little girl," Archer said with a sigh.

"Agreed." Kanae nodded.

After that Archer went toward his restaurant to feed the little girl with the addition of Kanae.

Hunger is the enemy after all.

—

-Blake-

It's been a month since I and Jaune started training here with Akane, by luck I somehow managed to learn how to mix calmness and anger.

And because of this Akane couldn't help but look at me incredulously every time, not that I blame her for it.

After all, it took her decades to create it, yet a person of just a month of training managed to master it? Akane looked at me like my entire existence was bullshit.

Also, after I learned her Mad Breathing Style, she confessed that it wasn't her plan to teach me that technique, because it would have taken years to master it according to her, simply to say it's impossible to master her breathing style without experience, yet a guy like me managed to.

So when she showed this breathing technique, it was just a plan to mess with us, knowing that we wouldn't be able to learn it.

The reason why she did this is that she was kind of annoyed by how easily we mastered the total concentration technique, however, she never expected ME to actually master it within just a few weeks, so she's now kind of bitter about it.

At first, I thought she was kidding, but I realized she wasn't after seeing Jaune's progress, he has made no progress ever since Akane showed us the Mad Breathing Style.

Then I suddenly thought, 'Was secretly a genius all this time?'

Akane decided to stop her little joke, and taught Jaune a different breathing style he could actually learn because she's afraid that he might also master it too!

Goddammit, she wanted to save a bit of her dignity as their master!

After that Jaune started to learn another breathing style from Akane, she also created it on her own, and it was noticeably simpler than the Mad Breathing Style.

Though It's also weaker than the former, which made me realize that, 'Wait a minute, is the Mad Breathing Style the same level as the Sun Breathing?'

I couldn't confirm it because there was no one I could compare it to.

Anyway, the other breathing style that Jaune is currently learning is called Breath Of Pride.

It's actually a perfect fit for Jaune, cause he needs a bit of pride, get it?

Anyway, while Jaune is learning that breathing style. Akane trained me separately because what I need is muscles to reduce the strain of using the Mad Breathing Style as low as possible.

Thus my training continued.

(End-)

Okay, this is the last part of the training Arc.

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