Chapter 154: A Weirdo’s Way of Thinking (1/2)

When Reina was desperately fighting the mock battles, Kanae peeked at Akira’s information terminal to see the details of the adjustment and lightly smiled.

“Akira-boy, isn’t that too much?”

“Is that so? But I think she’s doing pretty well, you know”

“That’s because of the equipment that Ane-san especially prepared for her. What about you? Can you win with those handicaps?”

“…It’s not about winning or losing, it’s about whether it’s a good training or not.”

Akira did not think that he had a good winning chance with all those handicaps, he would have to perform some reckless moves in order to win. But for some reason, he did not feel like saying that, so he just came up with a different excuse.

Kanae lightly laughed, she did not expect Akira would give such a childish reply.

“Well, that’s true. But if you use that level of difficulty as the base indicator, you’ll need to do some reckless stuff to be able to win. And once you get used to doing something like that, you might also do some reckless stuff out of reaction during a real fight. Personally speaking, I recommend doing an easier training where you can more or less maintain a 100% winning rate.”

Akira looked surprised. He never expected that someone who looked so reckless as Kanae would say something that prioritized safety.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

Akira looked away from Kanae, Shiori seemed to be moderately amused by that exchange.

“…Well, that doesn’t really matter. By the way, Akira-boy, are you free? Want to have a light spar with me?”

“No.”

“Now, now, don’t say that. This is also a training, something like an equal exchange.”

“Equal exchange?”

“Yes, you can’t do mock battles when Milady is doing mock battles, it can even be said that Milady is taking your chance to do training. So to compensate for that, you can have a CQC training with me. I bet even if you can have shooting training with them, you can’t do CQC training with them, right? I’ll be sure to properly train you, you can get training for free when you would normally need money to get this kind of training, you know. So, what do you think? This is a good chance for you, you know?”

Kanae’s argument sounded reasonable and unreasonable at the same time that it threw Akira off for a loop. It was true that Akira did not get much chance to have CQC training. While his training with Alpha using his augmented suit was basically him fighting an incorporeal body, so there was a limit on how far it could go. Indeed it was a good chance for him to get more experience without having to go through a real CQC fight, now, if only his training opponent was not Kanae.

After thinking for a bit, Akira then carefully asked a question.

“So basically, you’ll help me train, right? Since it’s training for me, I’ll have you follow my wish regarding the training. For example, I might ask you to go easy on me. And also no aiming for my head even if it’s just a feint. If you’re okay with that, then sure, I don’t mind either.”

“Of course!! I’m really glad I asked! Let’s start right away!”

Kanae excitedly jumped off from the observation point.

Shiori did not expect that answer from Akira.

“Akira-sama, are you sure?”

“Well, it seems that she’s being serious about teaching me, and it’s true that it’s important to have a training opponent against whom I don’t need to hold back at all.”

They could easily kill someone if they were not careful when they were having a CQC fight with their augmented suits. But fighting without an augmented suit was also dangerous. So it was true that it was important to have a training opponent that Akira could fight using his augmented suit without holding back too much.

“Just to be safe, if something were to happen, I’ll help you.”

“Ah, right. I’ll be counting on you if something happens.”

Akira lightly bowed to Shiori.

Akira and Kanae readied themselves while facing each other, Kanae was smiling in excitement.

“I’ll hold back just like you asked me to, but you can go ahead and seriously aim to kill me. Come now, I’m ready when you are!”

Akira took a deep breath to calm his nerves. Although it was only training, it did not change the fact that his opponent was stronger than him. He could not afford to be careless.

“Akira, how much support do you want?

“It’s training, I don’t plan to do anything reckless, so don’t give me any support unless you really have to.  Like if it’s getting dangerous or in case of emergencies.”

“Okay, give your best there.”

“Yeah.”

Akira slowly closed the distance to Kanae.

Kanae originally planned to gauge Akira’s strength using training as a pretext, but her plan immediately went awry. After all, she was obviously way too strong for Akira.

Akira got his feet swept clean off the ground, got grabbed and slammed into the ground, or received straight punches and kicks that stopped him on his track. While on the other hand, Kanae could easily deflect, block, and evade Akira’s attacks before countering back. His strength was nothing worth noting.

Kanae looked excited at the beginning, but it did not take long before she looked disappointed. She was so disappointed in Akira that she looked rather bored while being his training partner.

[…This is really disappointing. Is this his full strength? It doesn’t seem like he’s holding back either. Back then when I heard a slum boy fought and defeated 8 attackers all alone when they tried to rob a relic shop in the slum city, I thought that it might be him. But I guess this means it’s someone else, huh?]

The children who were taking a break there were surprised and felt a bit hopeless seeing how Akira kept getting beaten by Kanae. There was no reason for Akira to pretend to be weak. Judging from his reaction and how the other children reacted to that, Kanae realised that Akira’s real skill only amounted to that much and felt greatly dispirited by it.

When she saw Reina return back, Kanae decided to stop the training.

“Akira boy, Milady has returned too, so let’s stop here.”

Akira was trying to even out his breathing as he said.

“Thank you very much.”

“You’re welcome. Well, you’re not that bad, so it depends on how much you train yourself in the future.”

Kanae returned back to Shiori who was welcoming Reina back and confusedly asked Shiori a question.

“Ane-san, did you really have a hard time fighting against him? If that’s true, that’s a little bit… You know…”

Shiori did not seem bothered by that at all and casually said.

“You may say whatever you want.”

Kanae looked closely and carefully at Shiori, but Shiori hardly showed any reaction at all.

“What is it? It seems that Milady also had her fill, so let’s return the equipment back and head back home.”

“Ane-san, you don’t believe that was Akira-boy’s real strength, right? And you have an idea what to do to make him fight seriously, right?”

Shiori seemed slightly annoyed, Kanae did not let that go as she smiled amusedly.

“So, what should I do to get him to fight me seriously?”

“I have no plans to get dragged to your mess.”

“Geez, it’s fine, isn’t it? It’s thanks to me who spotted Akira-boy’s vehicle and suggested to come here that Milady got a good training here, so isn’t it fine to help me for a bit? Not to mention, Milady is having a hard time finding a training partner since she got kicked out of Katsuya’s faction. Coming here was beneficial to Milady, you know.”

“It’s our job to be useful to Milady in the first place.”

“That’s not exactly true for me though? I’m here as Milady’s bodyguard and just helping out with the training while I’m on it. I don’t mind stopping anytime, you know?”

Shiori sighed. It was difficult for her to say no when Kanae brought up Reina’s training. But she honestly did not want to just help Kanae out. So she decided to pick another option.

“In that case, I’ll go and discuss it with Akira. So give me 1,000,000 Aurum.”

“Y-You’re going to make me pay?”

“Of course, we’re helping each other when it’s out of our job description, right? I don’t mind if you want to stop here.”

“Ahhh, alright, I’ll be leaving it to you then.”

Judging from Shiori’s character, it was unlikely that she would keep that money for herself. And more than that, Kanae was interested in Akira’s real strength. So after a short consideration, she decided that she did not mind paying that much money.

“We have a deal then, I’ll deduct it from your wage. You won’t get your money back even if I fail, okay?”

“Ehhh? That’s unfair!”

Shiori just left complaining Kanae behind to have a talk with Akira. Although it was originally a half-joke to make Kanae forget about it, not that they had a deal, she only had one job now. She smiled at Akira and made a request to him.

“Akira-sama, can you please do another round with Kanae? Consider it as a request for Akira-sama.”

Akira frowned.

“One more time? I believe that we did enough just now though?”

“No, this is a little bit different. It’s not Kanae helping you train, it’s more of Akira-sama helping Kanae train. The reward will be 500,000 Aurum. It’ll be paid in full upfront. The request will be completed once Akira-sama works hard enough to earn that 500,000 Aurum. That will be all, will you accept it?”

Akira slightly frowned since he felt like Shiori was able to see through him. He then started considering whether to take that request or not. That was when Shiori suddenly said.

“If I may, it might be not good for Akira-sama to wrap up the training with Akira-sama’s complete defeat.”

As Shiori said so, she glanced in Erio’s direction. Akira followed suit and looked at Erio and the other children. It was true that he looked rather pathetic there. For some reason, after seeing how they looked at him, Akira thought that some of them might think that they have a chance to win if they try to challenge him in CQC.

After Shiori gave that slight nudge on Akira, she then continued.

“If I may add my personal opinion, I believe that Milady started to work hard since she’s aiming to be as strong as Akira-sama who was able to fight side by side with the other Hunters. If I may, I wish that Milady’s goal would stay somewhere high.”

Akira glanced at Reina. Reina seemed rather conflicted and slightly disappointed.

“She’s already using pretty expensive equipment there, combat power-wise, I think she’s already above me though?”

“Is that so? At the least, I don’t believe so. Moreover, strength is not only about pure firepower, it’s not decided solely based on the quality of equipments.”

At first, Akira took some time to think about it, he then made an expression as if he just gave up.

“Alright. But I’ll be the one to decide when the request ends and I won’t take any objection, okay?”

“Very well, thank you very much.”

Shiori lightly bowed and paid 500,000 Aurum to Akira. That was just to be safe in case Akira wanted to get cash instead of a bank transfer. Akira received that, returned back to his vehicle, took out some medicines from his rucksack, and swallowed them.

“Akira, are you sure you’re okay taking that request?”

“Well, I do want to test your support too, not to mention that I don’t want Erio and the other children to misunderstand something here. Moreover…”

“Moreover?”

“Moreover, I don’t like the fact that I kept getting beaten up one-sidedly.”

Akira said so as he smiled smugly, Alpha smiled back confidently at him.

“That’s true, so then, how much level of recklessness is okay?”

“At least enough to be suitable for that reward. It’s a request after all.”

“Very well. Not to mention, it seems you’re willing to go as far as to take some medicines beforehand, let’s change the setting of your augmented suit a bit. If she already has her guard down, we can use that to defeat her quickly and show her your strength.”

Akira smiled seeing that it seemed Alpha was raring to go too.

Akira and Kanae were facing each other again. Akira had a serious face just like last time, but that was not the case for Kanae, she seemed half-convinced and was still suspicious.

“I’m ready when you are. Also, it’s my training this time, so it would be great if you can give your full power.”

“Honestly speaking, I wasn’t holding back my punch at all though.”

“I guess that doesn’t really matter now. Come now, I don’t mind if you want to aim for my head, you know.”

“Roger that.”

Just like last time, Akira slowly closed the distance. Looking at that, Kanae thought that her guess was indeed correct. Her expression slightly turned disappointed for a split second, right at that moment, Akira used the full power of his augmented suit to propel his body forward and closed the distance in one quick and fluid motion.