A New Motivation: Chapter 12

I stretched my arms high above my hair, relieving the tension in my shoulders and back with a small grunt. Across from me, Kiba was going through his own preparations, limbering up for the upcoming spar as he cracked and flexed his fingers.

“So how are we doing this?” I called out to him, “Is this gonna be a regular spar or are we doing first to three hits?”

Kiba gave me an amused smile, “You’re feeling oddly confident today, aren’t you? You usually struggle to hit me a single time once we really get going.”

I smirked, holding my demonic hand up and manifesting my Devil Bringer for a moment and giving Kiba a wink, “I guess I'm just feeling lucky today. I'd stay on your toes if I were you.”

Kiba laughed lightly at my words, likely believing them to be a joke of some sort. Unfortunately for him, they weren't. Today wasn't going to be like the others where I struggled to keep up with him, I had a plan. Today, I was going to win.

Holding out an arm, Red Queen appeared in my hand in a flash of blue and I hefted the blade, resting it on my shoulder as I gave the Knight a grin, “Alright, Kiba, let’s get to sparring. I’m itching to get started! I’m taking you down today so you better try your best!”

Smiling lightly, Kiba held his hand out, light coalescing in his palm in the form of a long, curved sword that glinted in the light. He swung it experimentally, listening to the way it whistled as it sliced through the air, and nodded, “Alright, then I’ll try not to disappoint you.”

We both got ready, settling across from one another as we adjusted our grips on our respective weapons. We stared at each other intently, “Would you like a count or shall we just begin?” Kiba asked.

I just grinned, “I’m ready when you are.”

Kiba returned my grin with one of his own, “Alright then, I'll start us off.”

I tensed, bringing Red Queen in front of me as Kiba crouched down and immediately shot forward, closing the distance between us in an instant. His sword swiped at me in a flash of steel and I brought my own in front of me to block the attack, deflecting it off to the side.

I brought my sword up towards his unprotected middle in a repost, but his sword was already there, clanging against my own as he blocked my strike with little effort. I pressed forward, putting pressure on him and preventing him from getting away unless he wanted to risk me breaking through his guard.

We stayed like that for a moment, both of us pushing against our respective weapons as we tried to get an upper hand on one another, before I smirked and let go of my sword with one hand, leaving only my human limb to handle the full brunt of Kiba’s weight for just a moment.

My arm almost immediately began to give but I only needed a second and a second is what I got. I manifested my Devil Bringer at Kiba's unprotected side, swiping at him with the sharp claws. His eyes widened minutely and he immediately broke the blade lock, twisting around the attack and trying to slice the arm with his weapon. His blade skittered off of the side of the arm, not even scratching it as he backed away and took up a stance a few feet away from me.

I gave him a grin, flourishing my blade as I settled back into my own stance. There was a beat of silence as the two of us stared at one another, before we sprung forward at the same time to meet in battle again.

We exchanged blows again, with Kiba steadily increasing his speed as we fought. Thanks to our prior spars as well as my training with Koneko, I wasn't immediately forced on the defensive and was actually able to somewhat keep up, using both Red Queen and my Devil Bringer in conjunction with each other to both defend and attack as the two of us moved across the field.

“Your training is showing results, Nero.” Kiba commented as we locked blades once more, “You've been keeping up with me pretty well so far.”

“Thanks.” I grunted, adjusting my grip on Red Queen's hilt, “I think I've sort of gotten the hang of fighting you now. You're pretty fast, Kiba, but you're also kind of predictable.”

Kiba raised an eyebrow, his eyes gaining a spark of challenge, “Oh, am I?”

The Knight blurred in my vision as he cranked his speed up to the maximum. He broke our bladelock, disappearing from view with only the ruffling grass as indication that he was there in the first place.

Unfortunately for him, this was exactly what I was hoping for. I didn't panic, instead grinning slightly as I whirled around to meet Kiba's blade as it approached my back, smacking it upwards with Red Queen with all of my might and forcing his arm up as well.

I grinned at Kiba's wide eyes as he witnessed what I did, “Yeah. You kind of are.”

Pivoting on my heel, I brought Red Queen swinging around with a yell, aiming directly at his torso. He brought his own sword up to block, bracing the weapon with his arm. That was a mistake.

In an instant, I flipped the Red Queen around, twisting the hilt with a single motion of my wrist and activating the Exceed system. A powerful revving sound emerged from the sword before a jet of flame emerged from the engine on the back, propelling it forward at nearly twice the speed it was going before.

In front of Kiba’s wide eyes, Red Queen slammed into his sword and then cleaved straight through it, slicing it neatly in half with barely any effort at all. The Knight managed to jump away from the sword in time, preventing me from having to stop it manually in order to not cleave him in half.

I pressed my attack, flipping Red Queen back around as I lunged towards his retreating form. An excited smile formed on my face as I swung the sword again while at the same time directing my Devil Bringer towards his back in a pincer attack. He was down a weapon so that meant he couldn’t defend himself, much less from two places at once!

‘Got him!’ I thought triumphantly as he looked behind him at the spectral arm approaching and then back at me. There was a small grin on his face but I knew that there was no way he could dodge this one ,’I win this time, Kiba!’

Just as the blade reached him however, Kiba did something that I hadn't even considered as an option. He jumped up, leaping high into the air to dodge my blade, and then kept going as two pitch black wings erupted from his back, propelling him upwards and out of reach of my Devil Bringer. 

I skidded to a stop, staring up at him with wide eyes as my Devil Bringer floated back to its spot above my shoulder. Kiba continued to float further upwards on his wings, turning back to look down at me with a smile.

He laughed as he saw the way that I was looking at him, “You nearly got me, Nero. I guess you weren’t lying when you said you felt lucky today.”

My eye twitched at his words, “Hey! That’s not fair!” I shouted up at him angrily, “I can’t do that yet! Get back down here and fight me like a man!”

Kiba paused at that, gazing down at me curiously, “That's right, we never went over this aspect of being a Devil, did we?”

I shook my head, resting Red Queen on my shoulder, “No, I think it sort of got lost in all of the other stuff we were doing. Between telling you all about the future, planning for said future, learning magic, and other stuff, I honestly just forgot about it.”

Kiba nodded, a thinking expression coming to his face, “I see… Tell you what, how about we call an end to the spar here? Instead, I’ll teach you how to use your wings.”

“Oh I see how it is.” I grinned teasingly, “You knew you were about to lose and want to stop before that happens. You’re trying to con me out of my well-deserved win!”

Kiba just laughed at my accusations, “Well I wouldn’t say that, but if you’d like, we can continue this spar and leave flight for another day…” He led.

My eyes widened, “Now let's not be hasty!” I said, dismissing my Devil Bringer as well as Red Queen.

Even if I was a bit annoyed that my win was taken from me, the prospect of actually being able to fly more than made up for it.

~~~

“This is awesome!” I shouted with glee as I soared high above the ground, “I can't believe I forgot we could do this! This is so freaking cool!”

Flying was so much more amazing than I ever thought it would be, and I already thought it would be pretty amazing. The feeling of the wind rushing under my clothes and through my hair made me feel so alive!

I angled my wings, swooping into a barrel roll with a loud shout of excitement as I dove low, skimming the tops of the trees below me as I approached the clearing that Kiba and I had been fighting in.

Down below, I spied Kiba. The Knight was standing in the middle of the field, his arms crossed over his chest as he stared up at me enjoying my flight. I gave him a wave, an excited laugh escaping my through as I angled my wings down and fell into an even deeper dive, swooping down at an incredible speed that was only just short of a free fall.

KIba’s eyes widened as I approached him, taking a step back as I cleared the distance between us near-instantly. Just before I reached him, I flared my wings wide, turning around him and arresting my momentum only a few feet above the ground. Even so, I still landed with quite a bit of force, enough to make my shoes sink into the ground several inches 

I turned to Kiba and gave the teen a giddy grin, my face flushed with excitement and adrenaline, “That was just as amazing as I hoped it would be!” I cheered, practically shaking with joy, “I’ve never even been on a plane before, but feeling the wind rush over me as I soared above the ground and the view from up there… It was better than I could have ever imagined!”

“You certainly looked like you were enjoying yourself.” Kiba commented, “Flying can be quite something, can't it?”

And more. I was already itching to get back up there, to see how fast and high I could truly soar. This was going to be addicting, I could already tell.

As I nodded, Kiba looked up at the sky, humming at what he saw, “It's getting a bit late. I think I'm going to head home for now. You're more than welcome to stay and continue enjoying yourself if you'd like.”

I followed his gaze, noting the sun's position in the sky, “Nah, I'll probably join you. I've got an essay that needs to be done in a few days so I should probably get started on it now. I can fly some other time.”

I looked back at my wings, moving them up and down, “So uh, how do I put these things away?”

“It should be the reverse of how you brought them out. Instead of thinking of manifesting them while channeling your magic, think about putting them away.” Kiba explained, “I myself imagine what I look like with and without wings to make the transition a bit simpler and I’m pretty sure Rias does something similar.”

Nodding at his words, I closed my eyes and concentrated on my magic, remembering what it felt like to not have the weight on my back as I focused on my magic,

A moment later, there was a loud wump, like the sound of leather being folded extremely fast, and the weight from my back immediately disappeared. I opened my eyes and looked behind me, grinning as I saw that my wings were gone again.

“I’m a pretty fast learner, huh?” I couldn’t help but brag as I looked back at Kiba. He didn’t respond, just staring at me with wide eyes, his mouth slightly open in shock as he stared at something on my right. I raised an eyebrow before following his gaze, wondering what could be so interesting-

I froze, my own mouth falling agape at what I saw. Slowly, I brought my right arm up, taking in the pink skin where there had once been rough, scaly flesh. My demonic arm was gone, replaced by a human arm once more and though I could still feel its power hidden just below the surface as if it was waiting to be called on, for all intents and purposes my arm was normal again.

As I stared at my arm in disbelief, Kiba broke out of his own shock, a smile sliding across his face, “Well I suppose congratulations are in order.” Kiba said, gesturing to my normal limb, “Looks like you've got your arm back. I guess you won't need to learn advanced magic in order to disguise it after all.”

His words broke me out of my own shock, but unlike him, I wasn't exactly thrilled with this sudden development, though not for reasons one might think.

“OH, THAT'S SO STUPID!” I shouted as I flexed my human fingers, an odd amount of anger filling me as I took in my now-normal limb, “ALL I HAD TO DO WAS CONCENTRATE REALLY HARD!? THAT'S IT!? REALLY!?”

Kiba chuckled at my anger, “You mean to say that you haven't attempted that yet? I thought it would have been the first thing you tried.”

“I didn't think about it, okay!? Where I'm from, things don't just happen because you think them really hard!” I practically snarled at him. 

He winced at my shout and I immediately lowered my voice, somewhat apologetic, “Sorry, I'm just… frustrated, I guess.” I sighed, rubbing my left hand, “I’ve been trying to think of a way to fix this since I got here. Finding out that all I had to do was think about it a little harder than normal is super freaking annoying.”

Kiba nodded, accepting my apology, “It’s alright, I understand your frustration. Still, look on the bright side. Now you have something that you use to surprise Akeno with. Perhaps you can get her back for all of her teasing.”

I snapped my eyes up to look at him, a bit startled at his words, “Wait, how did you…?” I trailed off.

He smiled, “Akeno’s never been one for subtlety. She’s teased all of us, but she seems to be paying a special sort of attention to you specifically. This could be a good way to get a bit of revenge on our senpai for flustering you all the time.”

I was filled with mortification at his words, my face glowing bright pink at the knowledge that my fellow peerage members had at least some idea of what was going on between Akeno and I. For a moment, I couldn’t help but wonder if they also knew what happened when she helped me in the mornings, or even that that was a regular occurrence.

The only thing I knew for certain was that I definitely wasn’t going to ask Kiba that. I was pretty sure I’d die of embarrassment.

…Still, he was right though, wasn’t he? Akeno had always been the one making her flustered and hot under the collar, and though I admittedly enjoyed it, it would be nice to return the favor for once. Maybe I could surprise her with it, offer her a massage or something as a reward for helping me with my magic, citing it as the perfect chance to get used to having a normal hand again.

And if Akeno actually took me up on my offer, well it wasn’t exactly a loss, now was it?

Looking back down at my arm, I concentrated on it and my magic. With a flash of blue, the scales and bright glow reappeared as it was reverted back to the appearance it had maintained since I had arrived in Kuoh. I stared at my once-again demonic arm and flexed my fingers, a grin coming over my face as I thought of how Akeno and the rest of the peerage would react to this sudden development.

“You know what, Kiba?” I said, concentrating on the limb again. Another flash and it was right back to its normal, fleshy appearance and my grin widened as I took it in, “I think you might be onto something.”

~~~ Elsewhere ~~~

“...and she asked me for help, Azazel! ME! I can’t remember the last time Rias asked for her big brother’s help all on her own! I’m so happy I could cry”

Azazel leaned back in his plush chair, a bemused smile crossing his face as he listened to the Satan ramble happily about how happy he was that his sister had asked him for help, “Did she say the reason for the sudden need to get stronger? I was led to believe your sister wasn't exactly one for intense training.”

“Where everything else has seemingly come from recently.” Sirzechs chuckled, “It seems that reicarnating that girl was beneficial in more ways than one.”

Azazel perked up in interest, “Is that so? You know, I think I'd very much like to meet this girl that has given us so much information practically free of charge. You know, pick her brain about some things that I've been working on.”

“Your research?”

“Among other things.” Azazel hummed, “Truthfully, what I'm most curious about are her own weapons, not to mention that arm of hers. A completely novel form of energy held by a teenager from another universe… it makes the scientist in me shudder with excitement.”

“You don't plan to hurt her, do you?” Sirzechs asked seriously. Azazel chuckled at the man's concern for his sister's peerage.

“Of course not. I just want to ask her some questions and maybe run some non-invasive tests. Nothing that would harm her, I assure you.”

Sirzechs hummed, “I suppose I can run the idea by Rias, though she'd probably leave the decision up to Nero. Truthfully, I have yet to meet her as well but I've heard she's fitting in rather well with the rest of the peerage. She's growing quickly too. Last I heard, she's nearly caught up to both Rias's Rook and her Knight.”

“Impressive, especially for one so recently reincarnated.” Azazel said, “Hopefully she'll keep up the trend. They've got a lot to prepare for in the future. We won't be able to protect them from everything.”

“Indeed.” Sirzechs agreed seriously, “Speaking of which, how are things on your end, Azazel? Did you manage to capture Kokabiel and his Fallen traitors?”

A frown crossed the Cadre’s face, “Unfortunately, most of them jumped ship before we could get to them and disappeared into the wind. We managed to grab a few of them, including two of the ones that were going to be sent to Kuoh, Kalawarner and Mittelt, but they knew next to nothing. Raynare, Dohnaseek, and their little pet exorcist, along with a bunch of other Low-class Fallen seemed to have decided to join Kokabiel on his mad crusade. The fools ” 

Azazel sighed, rubbing his face as he thought of all the trouble that lay ahead, “With everything else going on, it's going to be a pain to find them all.”

“Do you think they ran off to join this Khaos Brigade?” Sirzechs asked, his worry leaving through into his voice.

Azazel thought for a moment, “It’s a possibility but… no, I don't think so. Kokabiel is prideful enough that he barely accepted my own leadership and you saw how that went. He's the definition of a loose canon and a powerful one at that. I doubt they'd even attempt to recruit him. I especially doubt he'd join if that Devil you were talking about really has a hand in all of this.”

“Rizevim… Of all people, I didn't expect him to have a hand on all of this.”

“I assume you guys aren't exactly friends?”

Sirzechs laughed softly though there was no humor in it, “No, not exactly. I doubt he holds me in very high regard at all but I haven't exactly had the chance to ask.”

“Oh? Why not?”

“We didn't know where he was. We still don't, truthfully. He went into hiding during the civil war with his son and hasn't been heard from.” Sirzechs sighed, “We knew they were alive, but that was about it. We had no idea he was doing something like this. To think he might manage to cause so much trouble in the future… it's troubling.”

Azazel nodded silently, completely in agreement. Someone as powerful as Rizevim Lucifer managing to gain control over so many powerful beings was bad news, and that wasn't even mentioning his business reviving the Evil Dragons. Even if they didn't have the forewarning that Nero had given them, it was easy to see that trouble was brewing.

“We'll just have to keep an eye out for any sudden developments while making our own preparations.” The Cadre said, looking out his window at the night beyond.

“That's all we can do for now.”