A little time passed, and it was March. Elementary school graduation was yesterday, and in about ten more days I'd officially be a middle schooler.
"Hyah!"
Early morning, practicing with my Sacred Gear in the usual woods. Slashing at trees, kicking them, backing up and throwing my blades.
By the way, I'm not using touki right now. When I woke up in Mil-tan's room after that fallen angel incident, I somehow felt this psychological—no, fundamental—truth about becoming one with the world, and my senjutsu skills shot up... which honestly sucks.
If I used touki while slashing now, I'd probably cut down trees even without proper technique.
That's just environmental destruction... Though I guess improving my basic abilities is good. If there's enough of a power gap, you can overcome compatibility issues.
I stopped sword practice and started working on karate forms while channeling touki.
...The next second, I was tackled from behind.
"Gah!"
No way! I was constantly scanning this whole area with senjutsu!
"Don't move."
A woman's voice, pressing something sharp against my neck.
"Geez, I came to scout ahead since they're supposed to arrive here soon, but I didn't expect to find someone like you. Answer me—where did you learn that senjutsu? What faction's backing you?"
She's seriously misunderstanding something here!
"Look, I'm not affiliated with any faction."
"Don't lie to me. There's no way a regular human like you could master senjutsu without a teacher. You better start talking if you know what's good for you."
Right! Senjutsu's a rare and unique power even in this world's supernatural side. It's natural to assume I had a teacher, and anyone skilled enough in senjutsu would normally belong to some faction!
"I get why you'd think that, but I really taught myself this power. I can't prove it, but I can't give you any other answer either. What would it take for you to believe me?"
What should I do about this situation? Talking it out would be great, but I don't have the smooth talking skills to BS my way through this. Getting out of this hold would require using Ittou Shura. Self-Destruct? Never heard of it~
After about ten seconds of silence, I heard her sigh.
"...Fine. I don't sense any evil ki from you, and your energy flow doesn't feel like you're lying. I'll trust you for now."
She got off my back.
Since she mentioned ki flow, she's probably a senjutsu user too. A higher-level one—that would explain how she slipped past my detection and got behind me so easily.
I was getting all cocky about my senjutsu improving, and now I feel like I got slapped back down to earth.
Thinking that, I stood up and turned around.
"...Oh."
I knew that face.
A disheveled black kimono, black hair tied up with cat ears, golden eyes—an absolutely gorgeous girl... A high-level nekomata, an SS-rank stray devil: Kuroka.
"Nya? You're spacing out—what's wrong nya?"
My brain wasn't working properly and words just slipped out.
"Ah... well, you're cute and... beautiful..."
"Nya?"
Now she was the one spacing out—and then after a moment:
"...Pfft... Nyahahahaha♪"
She burst out laughing.
"It's been a while since someone complimented my looks so honestly nya. Yeah, that doesn't feel bad. But saying something like that in this situation? Are you actually kind of a dummy nya?"
...Looks like I didn't make a bad impression, but dummy really stings. I just realized how inexperienced I am recently, and thinking back on what I just said is embarrassing as hell. I can feel my face turning red.
"Nya? Nyanyanyanya? Your face is all red—what's wrong nya? Tell big sister about it nya~♪"
Damn it! I can't handle this woman! Even if I try to cover it up, she'll just keep pressing. Fine! I'll own it!
"I said you're cute and beautiful!"
Meeting a super-level beauty and original character for the first time in either life must have gotten me all worked up, because I shouted with everything I had.
Even she was caught off guard by that, blushing slightly while saying, "Nyahaha, maybe I teased you a little too much?" Hearing that finally got my brain working again.
First, it's absolutely certain that after we part ways, I'll be clutching my head and rolling around in embarrassment—honestly, I'm already super embarrassed right now.
Second, what she said earlier about "coming to scout ahead since they're supposed to arrive here soon" has to be about her sister Koneko and the Gremory peerage.
They're becoming the managers of Kuoh Town to coincide with the spring entrance ceremony. They probably won't move in the day before, so I should expect them within a few days.
She chose to become a stray devil for her sister's sake. Even after Gremory took in her sister, it wouldn't be weird for her to keep tabs on the situation. No matter how affectionate the Gremory family is supposed to be, she couldn't just accept it without question. She'd definitely need to verify things for herself.
Finally, the reason she was wary of senjutsu users is probably also for her sister's sake.
Right now, Toujou Koneko believes her sister Kuroka went berserk with senjutsu, killed her master, became a stray devil, and abandoned her to escape.
With her current aversion to senjutsu, if Koneko tried to use it carelessly, she could destroy herself.
But senjutsu's always been a rare power. This scouting trip was probably just a "just in case" thing for Kuroka. And then she caught me perfectly... If that's the case, I can guess what she'll ask of me.
"...You can't teach that power to anyone else."
She looked at me with sharp eyes, different from before.
"Is that... because they can't control it and evil ki gets into their body?"
"Exactly. Good, you understand... You're self-taught, right? If you carelessly teach senjutsu to someone, that person will be destroyed."
"Yeah. I was hoping I could find someone to learn from properly, but I don't have any connections... Could you possibly introduce me to someone?"
I asked hopefully, but she shook her head.
"Sorry, but I can't introduce you to anyone."
"...I see."
When I looked a bit dejected, she made an unexpected proposal.
"Hey, how about I help supervise your training?"
"That's... very generous, but what do you mean?"
"Two reasons nya. First, I still can't completely trust you, so I want to keep an eye on you. Second, I need a base in this town and want your cooperation nya—in exchange for that, I could help with your training."
I see. Not trusting someone you just met is perfectly natural. But the second reason...
"I understand your reasons. The surveillance is fine. But I'm just a regular person by birth. I don't have money or power—when you talk about securing a base, that's difficult..."
"Your room is fine nya♪"
This cat-eared beauty just said something outrageous!
"No! That's not fine at all!"
"Hmm? What are you imagining nya~? Well, it's no problem nya. You could fight back if I attacked you in your sleep, and the only worry is that I might accidentally kil—er, use too much force if I'm half-asleep nya♪"
That's a huge problem! And you totally almost said kill just now, didn't you?!
"No, I'd develop insomnia way before that!"
But whether she was listening to my protests or not, she kept moving the conversation along.
"Well then, show me the way nya♪ Oh, and you don't need the awkward formal speech—it's stiff and your pronouns keep changing anyway."
"Wait! Seriously?!"
I mean, it had been over ten years since I used polite speech...
"Oh right, we haven't introduced ourselves yet. I'm Kuroka, nice to meet you nya♪"
"...Arima Ikki. Nice to meet you too, Kuroka-san."
"For-mal speech!—And you don't need the -san either. It makes my shoulders tense... I'll call you 'Ikki' nya♪"
"Fine, got it, Kuroka."
Middle school's gonna be a wild year... I thought as I headed home.