The girl didn't respond immediately to my question and instead raised her hands and touched my skin, I felt her touch and felt her hand shook a little after she did that, she then let out a sharp cry while saying :
Ryuu-san, don't tell me you wish to withstand the attacks using only your bare body, that's crazy .
Sophia still sitting on the ground wondering what was going on and wondering perhaps why was Haruka hesitating, seemed to have finally understood what was going on and I heard her say :
I also agree with Haruka, doing this indeed was dangerous, you might get killed by her accidentally, at least use Prana to guard your vital organs .
The girl said this in a stern and heavy with concern tone, it wasn't unusual, but her using Haruka's name without any of her playful syllables, made me understand that she was indeed serious about this .
Seeing them reacting this severely, I finally understood what were they going on about and already thinking that a precious time was currently being wasted, I didn't waste no more time and directly said :
" Don't worry about it, just hit me with your full strength, I need some strong stimulation to be able to recall and resharpen those instincts of mine back .
Even if you said that, it was still very dangerous to be doing something like that without any safety measures, Sophie is right, at least use your Prana as a last line of defense, you would be still able to get the strong stimulation you wanted .
The other blonde girl didn't respond, but I was able to tell that she was probably nodding at the words of Haruka, seeing them like this, I understood that they won't be persuaded by words alone, so I decided not to waste my breath with convincing them that way and instead decided to do that through my actions directly .
I suddenly made a bit distance between me and Haruka, she was about to ask what was going on, but then midway her inquiry, I struck with my sword, not aiming at her neither aiming at the air but aiming at my other free arm, the two of them were shouting stop from top of their lungs almost instantly, probably turning everyone attention to be on us, the sword struck my hand and even though I felt its unwillingness to do this, I still forced it to continue cutting through my skin .
That process would have been less painful, if it were to have cooperated with me without much objection, but either way it still worked as I wanted it to, my body suddenly lost a limb, yet surprisingly I felt nothing, no to be more accurate, my mind felt nothing at this, it wasn't out of shock nor the absence of realization, but out of familiarity .
A lost sense of familiarity, it was only beginning to recall, my mind remembered getting accustomed to the pain, so the suffering was no more, even though this was completely attributed to the mindset I had in my previous life, both mind belonged to the same person and that was me .
Seeing me showing no emotions after severing one of my limbs, made the scene even more scary and I began hearing a few screams coming from the distance, some people were calling out for someone to call a medic or help me to get to the infirmary, I sensed three auras belongings to three different people suddenly swarming me into a hug while sobbing, noticing that things were getting out of hand, my eyes flashed green and I said :
" Why are guys crying and what's with the long faces, my arm is completely fine, see .
The sobbing voices subsided a bit, then the next thing I felt were the three people currently pounding me on the chest while some continued to cry and other were just shocked of what they just witnessed, I heard quite a few gaping voices and already understood how much of a shock what just happened to some of them was .
After a few seconds, the crying had subsided and the sound that came next was the sound of the captain coughing embarrassingly, he was embarrassed about what he was currently seeing, I was swarmed by three girls and taken into a tight hug, three strong pair of hands and bodies were fixing me in place, after hearing the coughing of the captain, only one of the three girls let go of me .
Tokiko and Sophia were still holding me and refusing to let go, the reason I was able to tell that only Momochi-senpai seemed to be the one to let go, was because of her petite figure, that was in no way comparable to the two .
" Will the two of you let go of me already, I'm already fine, we are making a scene .
The one to respond to me was Sophia saying that she will let go only if Tokiko let go of me first, which made the other say that this wasn't going to happen, leaving the two of them quarreling while holding me tightly in a hug, one that even though I felt blessed to have, I was also beginning to get sick of all the envious stares that were directed at me .
I was beginning to think of using Herculean Strength to make them break the embrace, but luckily that wasn't necessary, since I heard the stern voice of the captain, saying :
Stop what are you doing this instant and could someone explain what was going on here, Momochi ? .
The girls holding me finally let go in the exact same second after hearing the stern tone of the captain, while the other girl in question was startled at being asked to explain, she stuttered at first with her response, but in the end she let the captain on about all the details regarding what was going on here, after listening to what she had to say .
I felt that he shifted his glare target to me and said exasperatingly :
Can't you act like a normal person for one day, what were you thinking devising such a crazy training regime, did you lose your complete mind ? .
Not answering his question directly, I darted my head around, finding someone that seemed to have slipped away after giving the captain the information he wanted, my senses picked her up standing next to a girl with glasses, I looked in her direction and said :
" Momochi-senpai, I already told you what I needed help with and you agreed to help, then why did you give up when I showed you my resolve, don't you too want to get stronger .
At my question the whole bustling scene went quite and even the captain didn't seem to be about to say anything to refute me or berate me .
I, I, i .... .
" Do you not have the same resolve or you don't want to get stronger at all, please tell me your answer .
Harsh, I knew that my words sounded quite harsh, but they were very much necessary to help her finally overcome her troubles, she needed to truly say what she wanted to do out loud .
She suddenly yelled loudly after taking a few seconds to think in silence, she said :
I do want to get stronger, I also went to be able to help my friends better, I really do, but I also don't want you Ryuu-san or anyone else to achieve that, I'm sorry .
That what I wanted to hear from her, that was why I was pressing her so much, I wanted her to blatantly answer and tell the others why she wanted to get stronger, a lesson for both her and them, at her saying this, they all spouted her name with tenderness but were at loss of what to say in response, but I gave them no chance to do so, I said :
" Well, if you are scared of injuring someone, then it just so happened that I can help all my injuries and all the injuries of others, including you as well, so what do you think about having a go at it again, but this time leave the safety of us both to me, what do you say .
Her response was to activate her Prana and stand in the middle of the training field and stood in position directly, using Paradox, I followed suit and directly appeard in front of her, I thought that we might have some audience, but instead I saw that there were a few sounds of cheering, coming from the direction where we were just at .
But this cheering was a motivational one, these guys were cheering themselves to train and not to be left behind by Momochi, I really wanted to look at her current expression, is she still embarrassed, or was she bathing in pride of what she did, just as I was thinking of that, I heard her soft voice sounding behind my ears as if it was air who whispered it to me, she said :
Thank you, Ryuu-san .
Even though, I didn't have the intention to attribute her success in breaking out of her shell to my plan and actions, she seemed to be aware of me doing all this, just so that I can help her, so she thanked me for it, I seeing that we have already wasted more than enough precious time that we could have used in training, nodded at her and got ready .
Even though, I pressed her for lacking in motivation before, the girl in front of me was the most motivated to get stronger out of all the people here including me, what made me reach that conclusion was quite a simple reason actually, it was out of experiencing the attack she made before and what happened just now .
Knowing that I was be depending on my other senses, like hearing, she was able to conjure a clone and make confuse me into thinking that it was her, while in fact, the real her would be hiding her presence to get close enough to me and finish me in one blow, that girl line of thought was nothing to scoff at, she might be quite a genius in the field of quick attacks .
Not to mention that it seemed that this wasn't the only use of it, the whispers I just had heard in my ears were a proof of that, the girl in front of me, was able to shift her consciousness between the original body and the clone of her, making her quite the intelligence corp on the battlefield on her own, looking at Momochi, I found myself thinking of a quite a funny thought, I began to think that I might've unintentionally created a monster .
But now was not the time to dwell much on this, I got in position and began heightening my senses and alertness, then I sensed her disappeared and a fraction of a second later, I sensed danger coming at me from my right side, I hurriedly sidestepped to the left and with a swoosh sound, I got a cut in my arm, it was not enough to make me bleed, she did that intentionally .
Even though, I parried to the left, she was already waiting for me there, I didn't felt bad about being unable to parry that attack, if anything, I felt that there was a fire beginning to burn inside me, that fire was my fighting intent, currently though, this fire seem to be quite dim and only beginning to flare up .
" Good job .
I said this in appreciation of what she did and she only responded with ummm from across the room, she slipped and I wouldn't let go of that chance, locking into where the voice came from, I instantly ejected myself to that place and struck, but after all, the girl was using her Prana to enhance her speed, while I was mainly running at a bit more quicker speed than normal, so I wasn't able to catch her in time .
But not only she slipped away, but a second later, I felt the bells of alarm ring in my head and already took a few step backwards while standing on guard, with another swoosh sound, I had another scratch on my back, I directly swung my sword and turned but there was nothing where I struck at, but once again I felt alarmed and this time I directly swung my sword forward and heard the sound of swords clanking .
My sword was almost blown away of my hand, I couldn't help but be reminded by the first time we had sparred against one another, the circumstances was now almost the same back then, but just almost, not exactly the same, my sword kept parrying sword strikes from all angles, using a method of removing the strength through precision, striking with meager effort, actually allowed me to force the tyrannical strength in my opponent sword to subside .
But me being able to do it now, didn't mean that I was able to do it over and over, suddenly I felt a threat coming from behind me, even though I was indulging in fight with Momochi in front of me, so she must be trying to trick me, but then I shouldn't have felt such an imminent threat from it, but since I did, it could only mean that at some point in time the attacker from the front will become a feint and the actual attack will be from behind .
I suddenly bent down and swept the ground with my leg and felt my leg hit someone body, it momentarily stunned Momochi and made her unable to react, so I decided to go for the win, but it took a second for me to get back up and another fraction of a second to strike at her, only to hit her afterimage, I hurriedly put my sword behind my back, already aware of where the next attack will come from, the moment our sword clashed, I let go of my sword .
For only a fraction of a second and then I turned and caught it back in a horizontal position midair, discarding the force from the first impact affecting me and allowing me to attack with a sweeping manner, I slashed at her and once again, all I ended up slashing was the air, then the barrage of attacks continued, but as more and more time passed, the amount of cuts that were being inflicted on me were decreasing .
Until I was no longer getting cuts as before, I was able to deal with every slash, thrust, she throw at me, not facing it head-on, but I kept deflecting and throwing her attacks center of balance, I kept turning around, no longer distinguishing between clone, afterimage or Momochi herself, she was also kept being repelled by me time after time .
My swordsmanship was getting elevated by the second, we had already been sparring for over 15 minutes, after the first 5 minutes, I had more easy time, she was no longer able to touch me, the fire inside of me began to burn inside me like crazy, my whole body was heating up, I felt like my dosage of adrenaline were being boosted by at least a dozen of times, allowing me to tap into powers that I had thought forget all about .
I was also beginning to recall something, a name that kept repeating itself on my mind, the name that I had given to this sword of mine, LUMINOUS .