A New Motivation: Chapter 23

The sun rose the next day, just the same as before, but everyone could tell that something was distinctly different about it. The world itself hadn’t changed – the grass was still green and the morning fog still clung close to the ground as it waited for the heat to drive it away, but it was as if an oppressive weight that had been lingering in the background had been lifted, letting everyone breathe easier.

Akeno and I didn’t talk much in the field after our conversation, just basking in each other’s presence as a comfortable silence blanketed us on that grassy hill. We spent maybe an hour or two enjoying the night before we decided it was time to head inside. When we parted ways in the hallway, Akeno offered a soft squeeze of my hand as she disappeared towards her room, and I knew then that things were going to be different.

When I woke up the next morning, I felt oddly refreshed despite only having slept a few hours. The others were already gone, leaving the house empty, but I knew where they were going so I didn’t rush, doing my morning preparations and heading to the edge of the property.

As I suspected, they were all gathered together, warming up for the day ahead. Kiba and Koneko were engaged in a mock battle, a slow bout meant to get the blood flowing rather than act as any actual training, while Rias was off to the side, talking to Azazel about something or other. She glanced my way and smiled, and I thought about joining them, until my eyes found what I was really looking for.

Akeno was standing a little ways away from the rest of the group, facing towards a cluster of trees nearby. Several of the trees were sporting stripped bark or scorch marks, and the cause was clear as Akeno took a breath and lowered her hand, letting sparks dissipate harmlessly into the air. She had been preparing in her own way and more than that, something was different about her. There was a tang to her magic that wasn't there before, something uncomfortable that made my skin stand on end even this far away. She was using holy lightning.

I couldn't keep the smile off of my face as I walked over to join the group. Azazel spotted me and smirked, clapping his hands as he finished his conversation with Rias.

“And our last member finally joins us. Good to see you kid.” I nodded, taking my place beside Akeno who smiled down at me. If anyone noticed how close we were standing together, they didn't comment.

As we gathered into a group, Azazel stepped forward, addressing us like he was a camp councilor and we were his charges. “Alright little Devils, we only have a little while left before you have to drag yourselves back to the mortal world, so let's make it count. I wanna see how far you've come since I started whipping you into shape so…”

He waved a hand and a barrier of light burned into existence a few feet away. It was different from the ones he used while we were fighting, bright blue and hexagonal instead of a flat plane. Energy washed over it in patches, giving the impression that it was moving and I eyed it curiously as Azazel nodded at it.

“Go ahead and give this bad boy everything you've got.” He said, shoving his hands in his pockets.” Don't worry about breaking it either. This is how I'm going to gauge your power, so it's in your best interest to not hold anything back.”

So it’s like a magical punching machine. I mused, eying the barrier. I wondered how it would fare against Yamato if I pumped everything I had into it. I guess I'll find out.

Azazel looked between us all before locking eyes with the girl next to me. “You're up first.” He smirked at Akeno. “Try not to hold anything back this time.”

Everyone held their breath as Akeno narrowed her eyes at Azazel, expecting some sort of outburst. I didn’t even bat an eye, watching as Akeno took a deep breath to calm herself, before stepping forward with a determined expression on her face.

She walked up to the barrier, standing a few feet away with both it and Azazel in her sights. She glared at the Fallen Angel, before inhaling deeply and raising a single hand. Normally, the motion would be accompanied by the bright, erratic crackle of demonic magic, but now the air was quiet, almost anticipatory. As if nature itself was holding its breath.

One second passed, and then two, and then that breath was released.

BOOM

It felt like the ground was shaking underneath out feet as a bolt of holy lightning wider than a truck soared towards the barrier and consumed it completely. It washed over the barrier like water over a riverbed after a drought, completely obscuring it from sight and continuing past it like it wasn’t even there. We were all forced to shield our eyes from the bright light, and my skin tingled as the holy energy washed over it.

The lightning continued past the barrier and carved a trench into the ground behind it, sending plumes of dust and smoldering rock high into the sky. The shockwave hit us a second later, a physical wall of wind that rattled us and sent a cloud of dust rolling over the peerage before Akeno thankfully cut off her spell.

As the dust settled, Akeno lowered her hand. She was staring at her own palm, her chest heaving slightly. Smoke curled from her fingertips. She looked equal parts terrified and awed by what she had just released.

“Well would you look at that.” Azazel’s lazy voice drawled as he looked at the devastation she had wrought. The barrier was still there, but now it was hovering a foot above the ground instead of only a few inches thanks to the trench Akeno had accidentally dug. I was wondering when you’d stop fighting yourself with one arm tied behind your back.”

He examined the barrier, keen eyes seeing something else that none of us could. “Yes… very impressive. Though I’d appreciate it if next time, you could control yourself enough to send all that wild energy where it's supposed to go. My barrier barely absorbed any of that, so I can’t exactly get an accurate reading.”

The Akeno from yesterday probably would have spat a venomous retort or just glared at him like she wanted him to burst into flames, but our talk was clearly having good effects as she took a slow breath, smoothing down the front of her shrine maiden outfit. She didn’t smile, and she didn’t look particularly happy, but the burning hatred for Azazel and all things Fallen wasn’t radiating off her in waves anymore.

“I’d be more than happy to give you a better look, Governor.” She said cooly, “But I’m afraid I followed your instructions and put my all into that attack, so you’ll have to wait a little bit to get whats coming to you.”

Azazel smirked, though his eyes held a small amount of surprise at her strangely genial response. “I don’t think that’s necessary.” He said. “What little I managed to absorb cleared your previous attempts by a good amount. Just goes to show what you can do when you give it your all.”

With his piece said, he turned away from her, leaving her to stew in that as he looked at the rest of us. “Alright, who’s next?”

As Rias strode forward to take her Queen’s place, Akeno turned and headed back towards me, letting out a long, shuddering sigh as she reached me, her shoulders slumping just a fraction.

I looked at her, keeping my voice low. “You okay?”

She looked at me, and the coolmask melted away, replaced by a tired but genuine warmth. “I… yes. I’m afraid I’m just not used to using that part of me.” She clenched her fist, sparks of the hybrid lightning dancing between her fingers. “It feels a bit strange. Like it’s not completely mine.”

“It looked incredible.,” I said honestly. “I don’t think I’d be able to do anything against it if you used it against me.”

A tiny smile played on her lips. “Well then I guess it's a good thing that I currently have no plans to use it on you.”

“Currently, huh?” I giggled, “Well I guess I better not give you a reason to then.”

Her smile shifted, and something stirred in my chest as she gazed at me tenderly. “Somehow, I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that.”

We turned to watch Rias try her luck. To everyone’s surprise, her Power of Destruction didn’t seem to have any effect on the barrier, though Azazel seemed impressed regardless. My desire to test its durability only went up even higher. Azazel must have made that thing extremely durable, probably more than anything I had come up against so far. I wanted to cut it.

As my King finished her turn, I decided to step up to bat before anyone else could. I held a hand out, summoning Yamato, already unsheathed, and Azazel raised an eyebrow at the sword’s appearance.

“You’re using that? This should be interesting.” He said, stroking his goatee. Clearly, he knew exactly what this blade was capable of, but I had no intention of backing down.

“That’s what I’m hoping for.” I said as I sidled up to the barrier, standing only a couple feet away from its fluctuating blue surface. Yamato felt different as I held it in both hands, a sense of shared anticipation flowing between sword and wielder for the act I was about to perform. It was just as eager as I was to test itself against a shield formed by someone so powerful.

I took a deep breath and my eyes drifted shut as I focused on the legendary sword, shutting out all outside distractions. The Yamato was the ultimate cutting tool, so powerful that it was said to have been used to literally sever the link between the human and demon worlds in its original reality. I doubted I could harness a fraction of that power, but I was eager to try my luck regardless.

The air around me grew heavy as I poured my power into the blade. Yamato hummed in my hands, begging me to release the latent power that I had never been able to before, and something inside of me quivered in anticipation.

An eternity later, my eyes snapped open and I raised the blade above my head, before bringing it down in a single stroke of ringing steel.

There was a flash of blue, and the air in front of me wavered like someone had disturbed the very fabric of reality. Yamato sliced through Azazel’s barrier like it wasn’t even there, cutting through centuries of carefully curated power as though the magic itself was made of cheap styrofoam, and it didn’t end there.

I watched, completely stunned as the slash continued to tear through space, carving a large slash in the ground that was so clean, it didn’t even disturb the grass around it. The strike flew for several yards before it began to waver and lose power, ultimately dispersing against a thick tree around fifteen yards away from where I was standing.

The tree groaned, before falling to the ground in two separate pieces, the only sound in the yard as the entire peerage stared at what I had accomplished. I slowly slid out of my stance, staring at the result with a dropped jaw. That… was unexpected.

“Well now…” Azazel’s voice was first to cut through the silence. He stared at my sword with a glint in his eye that I had never seen before, and an intrigued smile played at his lips as I slid out of my stance. “I guess it’s a good thing I wasn’t standing behind that. I’m not sure that would have ended well for me.”

He stepped forward to examine the area where the barrier had been. A thin line, just a bit larger than the width of Yamato’s blade, stretched all the way from where it had been floating to the forest at the edge of the yard. There wasn’t a break or gap in it as far as I could see, though a few rocks were peeking out from underneath the ground, also cut cleanly in two.

“An impressive result.” Azazel said, “ I can’t say I expected any of you to actually break my barrier. I made it especially durable for Sirzech’s little sister, but you went and completely shattered my expectations. I’d say those lessons with Sirzech’s Knight did you some good, but I think we both know that wasn’t what that was. That sword is pretty powerful, kid. I’d almost call it cheating.”

“Hey, you wanted us to try our best, right?” I grinned as the result finally caught up with me. “Asking me not to bring out Yamato would be like asking Koneko to keep her tails tucked away. I’m just using the best tool for the job.”

“Ha! True enough.” Azazel reformed the barrier with a snap, though this time it seemed to shine a bit more, as if he put more power into the spell or changed its properties altogether.

I kind of wanted to go again, but my turn was up so I walked back to Akeno’s side, my fingers still buzzing with residual power and my mind whirling with accomplishment. I never would have been able to do anything close to that before this trip. I knew my training had been having results, but this was tangible proof that I had exceeded even my own expectations.

And I can only go up from here. I thought, catching Akeno’s glance and returning it with a big grin.

~~~

The final days of the training camp flew by in a blur of exhaustion and soreness. To maximize the results of our training, we didn’t slow down as we reached the final hurdle, continuing to push out bodies to the limit to get just that little bit stronger during the day, while at night, we continued working on things that were arguably just as important. School work.

During the last few days of the trip, the spacious living room was transformed into a makeshift study room, with textbooks, papers, and pencil shavings covering the coffee table which didn’t even groan at the weight.

I was lounging on one of the sofas right next to Akeno who was sitting so close to me that we might as well have been glued together. Since that talk, we had become a lot less shy about gestures of affection and just general closeness. If we seemed like good friends before, there was no denying that something more had been added to that dynamic, even in the eyes of the most oblivious outsider.

“Nero,” She murmured, her voice a low purr in my ear. She leaned over my shoulder to look at my notebook, her hair ticking my cheek, and I stopped writing to withhold the violent shudder that tried to emerge at the close contact. “You’re good at math, right? Would you mind helping me with this problem really quick?”

“S-sure.” I said, somewhat distracted by her proximity and the warmth radiating from her. She held out her notebook, filled with equations and problems that she was having issues with, and I immediately spotted several mistakes which I pointed out to her before taking the next couple minutes to help her work through the ones she was having trouble with.

As she thanked me and returned to her own work, I felt a gaze on us and looked up. Rias was sitting in an armchair across the room, a book open in her lap. She wasn’t looking at it though, gazing at us with a smile on her face. There was no confusion or reprimand in her expression, just a soft, knowing smile. She caught my eye, gave a tiny wink, before going back to reading.

My face glowed. That had been happening a lot more recently. It was clear that the peerage was picking up on the shifting vibes between Akeno and I. Even Kiba seemed to be in on it. Whenever he walked by to grab more tea, he gave us a wide berth, ensuring no one interrupted our little bubble. They knew. They hadn't said a word, but they recognized what was going on, which was honestly even more embarrassing.

That said, it was also nice. Their knowing expressions filled me with almost as much warmth as Akeno herself did. Acknowledgement and acceptance. They approved, and that made me strangely happy.

The trip finally came to a close less than a week later. The bags were packed, the house was cleaned, and early tomorrow morning, we would be teleporting back to civilization. It felt a bit strange, I’ll be honest. It felt like we had been here for an eternity, so to have our training trip actually end felt like a bit of a dream.

The house was quiet. Most of the others had gone to bed early to prepare for our return back home, leaving the living room dim and cozy. We spent the afternoon just hanging out instead of training, eating junk food and watching a few more of the movies I brought over from my world. It was a lot of fun, and I knew I wasn’t the only one who was going to try to make it happen even after we were back in Kuoh.

I was cleaning up behind them, making sure everything was nice and tidy so we wouldn’t have to do anything tomorrow, when footsteps approached from behind.

“Are you staying up late?”

I turned to see Akeno standing there. She had changed out of her uniform into a simple silk nightgown and her hair was down, framing her face in a curtain of ebony. She was clearly ready for bed.

“I’m just cleaning up a bit.” I said, sending my playstation away in a flash of blue. “If I don’t do it now, I’m definitely gonna forget something tomorrow.”

Akeno hummed, stepping closer until she was standing right in front of me. There was a playfulness in her eyes, but it was backed by something softer. More intimate. My breath hitched as she leaned down, grabbing my hand and clutching it gently.

“Thank you.” She said softly.

I swallowed. “For helping you study? You’re the one who kept correcting my math.”

She shook her head, rubbing the back of my hand “You know that’s not what I mean. That talk we had… Thank you for not leaving when I told you to.”

I clutched her hand back. Her skin was warm, and I could feel her pulse under my thumb. “I care for you, Akeno. I’m not going anywhere.”

“I know. And I’m so thankful for that.” She looked down at our joined hands, and her voice became lower. “You told me to take a few days. To think about things and see how I felt when the emotions weren’t so raw.”

My heart hammered against my ribs. The silence in the room seemed to stretch, heavy with anticipation. “I did.”

Akeno looked up, and the intensity in her violet eyes stole the breath from my lungs. “I’ve done my thinking, Nero, and I know what I want.”

She took a step closer, eliminating the final inch of space between us. Her body heat radiated through her thin gown, pressing against me. “You’re the first person to push past my barriers and actually try to help me. Even Rias couldn’t do that. She tried but she couldn’t manage it, and I’m starting to suspect I know why.”

“Akeno…”

“I want to make this official.” She said, her voice no longer playful so nothing could be misconstrued. She looked deep into my eyes, baring her soul. “I want you to be mine, Nero. Not just physically, but in every way that matters.”

A grin broke across my face, one I couldn’t have stopped if I tried. “I think I’ve been yours for a while now, honestly.”

Akeno’s smile mirrored mine, radiant and genuine, a sight that made the moon outside look dim in comparison. She rose on her tiptoes, her hands sliding up to cup my face. I met her halfway.

The kiss wasn’t like the one before. It was slow, deliberate, and full of a promise that went deeper than words. Her lips tasted like static and mint, and felt like pillowy clouds as they moved against mine with a tenderness that made me feel like I was melting and burning all at the same time. My hands came down to wrap around her waist and I tilted my head, deepening it as I fell into the pit of emotions roiling inside of me.

When we finally parted for air, she rested her forehead against mine. Her eyes were half-lidded, dark with an emotion that made my blood run hot.

“So…” She murmured, her voice dropping to that sultry purr that always sent shivers down my spine, though this time, the intent behind it was purely for me. “The others are all asleep.”

“They are.” I agreed, my voice coming out a little rougher than intended as I panted.

She pulled back away, taking my hand and tugging me toward the hallway leading to the stairs. Her eyes danced with mischief and a hunger that matched my own.

“Then why don’t we take this upstairs?” She suggested, pulling me onwards with a devious grin. “I believe I still owe you a proper punishment for teasing me that night.”

Her words sent shivers up my spine, an anticipation of what awaited me up those stairs. “I believe you do.”