Ayaka loved magic.
She had come to love her current life with a ferocity that sometimes scared her. It had become a delicate balance of two worlds, school in the morning with its mundane dramas and teenage worries, followed by conversations about the supernatural in the Occult Research Club.
where she spent her afternoons listening to Rias Gremory explain the complex, blood-soaked politics of devils and a whole lot of the supernatural world. like the Greek gods, the Norse gods, the angels and fallen angels, and even god damn dragons.
Can you believe that dragons still existed and were roaming around. She wanted to see a dragon, she wanted to meet a dragon, damn it.
She wasn't naive, though, she knew Rias wanted her in her peerage. The red-haired Heiress was kind, but she was also a devil, always looking for a chance to try to get Ayaka to join her. Of course, she had been subtle about it, no doubt because of her father.
Ayaka also knew her father would never approve of his daughter essentially becoming a "servant" to another household, to a devil of all creatures. Honestly, now that she could wield magic herself, she didn't want that life either.
She preferred her freedom, and looking back, it was a little foolish that she had nearly given that freedom away just for a chance to use magic. Still, she liked them. They were her friends, and they provided a window into a world her father usually kept behind a veil of "protection." Even the perverted monkey. Issei's ridiculous determination was somewhat inspiring, in a very twisted way.
But as much as she loved this life, there was one thing that almost made her regret it. the training.
Ayaka panted, sweat stinging her eyes and dripping down her chin as she glared at her opponent. Training with her father usually came in three distinct flavors of hell. The first was "Zombie Training," where he dropped her, Aoi, and their mother into a zombie-infested area. They were forced to fight waves of the undead until they physically collapsed.
He said it was to teach mana conservation and stamina management, to stop them from firing off their biggest, flashiest spells the moment they felt overwhelmed.
Ayaka remembered the first time she had emptied her entire mana pool in five minutes, panicked, and was the first to drop. Her father had focused his critique on her that night, and she had cried from the sheer frustration of being lectured and then pushed to her limits several times by him in battle just to teach her a lesson. Never again, she had promised herself.
The second type was individual refinement, hours spent shaping mana into things or holding a single flame steady while being pelted with pebbles, that type of stupid training. She had a feeling that one was just so he could have fun in the expanse.
And the third and the absolute worst was what they were doing right now, an all-out, three-on-one brawl against the man himself.
She watched Aoi create crude, jagged ice spears, her brow furrowed in intense concentration, and launch them toward their father in a rapid-fire barrage. Kenji lazily summoned a rotating ring of fire that vaporized the ice into thick steam before it could even get close.
Without looking, he tilted his head to the side by a fraction of an inch, his hand snapping up to catch Anastasia's wrist as she tried to strike from his blind spot with a mana-infused palm strike.
"Nice try," Kenji said, his voice as calm. He pulled his wife forward, used her momentum to flip her over his shoulder, and then hurled her toward Aoi to disrupt the girl's next spell.
This was the worst in their training because he just forced them to battle him as he beat the shit out of them. The fight had been going on for over an hour already, and she was running on empty already.
Ayaka forced herself up, her palms glowing with a hot, orange light. She summoned dozens of fireballs, but this time she was careful. She regulated the output, making sure not to waste a single drop of mana. She launched them in a controlled, pincer arc, sealing his escape angles, while Aoi reacted instantly by raising thick ice walls on his flanks to box him in.
This would have never worked if he had been using a fraction of his powers, but luckily in these spars he always kept his level to theirs.
Their mother didn't miss a beat. She accelerated, her feet blurring as she ran towards Kenji, punching straight at his chest. He crossed his arms to block, and for the first time that day, the impact actually sent him sliding. He hit the ice wall behind him with a heavy thud, and the frost immediately shifted, snaring his limbs and locking him in place.
"Good, good," Kenji said from inside his frozen prison. The genuine pride in his voice made Ayaka's chest puff out with giddy excitement.
"You've all gotten better," he said, looking entirely relaxed despite being trapped. "So, now that you've adjusted to this level... I'll go a little higher."
"Huh?" All three women paused, a collective sense of dread pooling in their stomachs.
The ice exploded.
Kenji was a blur of motion. Ayaka barely had time to blink before a fist buried itself in her stomach. The hit wasn't meant to injure her, she knew that, but it was enough to make her almost throw up her lunch.
The air left her lungs in a pathetic wheeze, and she was sent tumbling across the dirt. She watched through blurred vision as Aoi tried to retreat, only for Kenji to appear behind her, slamming her face-first into the ground.
Her mother Anastasia, however, didn't back down. She shifted her weight, dodging Kenji's next punch as she leaned back and delivered a stinging kick to his ribs. She followed through by grabbing the hand he threw and wrapping her legs around his waist, using her entire body weight to drag him down into a grappling lock.
Ayaka watched in awe. Her mother, in hand-to-hand combat, was like a demon, relentless and terrifying. But Kenji simply adjusted his footing, twisted his arm to reverse the hold, and flipped her hard enough to make her scream in surprise before releasing her and sending her skidding away.
After that were two hours straight. Two straight hours of receiving a one-sided lesson. Kenji barely breathed harder, his clothes barely wrinkled, while the three of them looked like they had been through an industrial blender.
Finally, he clapped his hands. "That's enough for today, I think." All three women collapsed onto the grass in unison. "You guys have improved so much. You're already approaching high-Low class."
Well, the girls at least, he thought as he glanced at his wife, she, on the other hand, was already at low-mid class.
"For normal supernatural standards, that's absurdly impressive growth," he told them.
It was true. Compared to him, it was slow, sure, but in the context of the wider world, they were prodigies. "Go rest," he told them. His daughters just groaned from the dirt, while Anastasia sat up, wiping sweat from her brow with a tired but satisfied smile.
Ren came running from the sidelines where Kenji had told him to watch. His eyes were sparkling like diamonds. The kid was always like this when they trained, and Kenji knew exactly what he was about to ask. "That was amazing! Please teach me too!"
Without fail, his youngest asked that after every single session. Usually, the answer was a firm "no," but today, Kenji turned to the boy with a teasing hum. "Hmmmm..." He watched Ren's face drop, the boy expecting the usual rejection. Then, Kenji smiled. "Sure. Okay."
The boy paused, his brain struggling to process the reality of the situation. Then, a scream of joy erupted as he started running in literal circles around the field.
"So you're finally going to train him?" Anastasia asked, approaching Kenji and wrapping her arms around his waist.
"Yes," he told her. "I didn't do it before because I didn't have a way of preventing him from going to school and showing off magic to his friends. I could just see him deciding his teachers needed to be set on fire for giving him extra homework."
Anastasia giggled, leaning her head on his shoulder. She had no doubt a child would do something like that, hell, she as a kid may have set her math teacher on fire if she had magic at the time. "I can imagine that. But now you have a solution?"
"Now I do." He pulled a deep blue bracelet from his inventory. "I've finally gotten my Enchantment skill high enough to make this."
"What is it exactly?"
"It acts as both a seal and a protection," Kenji explained. "I can use this to seal away his magic when he's not at home, so he won't accidentally trigger anything. But if he's attacked, the bracelet generates a high-tier barrier and can even teleport him directly to us or back home if things get serious."
Anastasia nodded, her eyes softening. She looked at her daughters, who were still catching their breath. "That would be useful for the girls, too. They're getting stronger, but they still attract attention."
"I'll makemore for them to replace the ones I'd already given them," Kenji promised. He rubbed Ren's head as the boy finally stopped spinning. "We'll start your first lesson after I get back."
"Where are you going, Dad?" Aoi asked, finally sitting up.
"Kyoto. I have some matters to deal with."
Anastasia raised a brow. "You're going to see Yasaka?" Kenji nodded as he brought them out of the ID. "Well, give her my greetings. And try not to cause too much trouble while you're there." She kissed his cheek before leading Ren with her.
"Who's Yasaka?" Aoi asked.
"Oh! I know this one!" Ayaka chirped eagerly. "She's the Kitsune leader of Kyoto, right? Rias told me about her when I was asking about the different factions."
Kenji fought hard to keep a neutral face. Hearing that his daughter was learning about the supernatural from rias and spending time with the devils really didnt sit well with him but he was not about to tell her what and who she can or cant hang out with that would only make things harder, after all no matter how much he disliked the three factions he knew that his kids were already drawn to them and it wont really change much even if he told them to stay away, so as long as none of them tried anything he'd leave thing be....for now.
After that, Aoi asked a few more questions the girls also went to clean up.
After cleaning up, Kenji drew Yamato. He had grown comfortable enough with the blade to tear open precise rifts in reality, a far more efficient method than his earlier, cruder attempts at teleportation with it. When he first got the blade, there was a reason he hardly used it before, but now things will change.
He stepped through the jagged blue tear and emerged in the heart of Kyoto. He wandered the streets for a while, soaking in the atmosphere before heading toward the palace.
The moment he approached the gates, the Inugami guards recognized him. To them, he was the "Honored Guest" they had come to know after all.
An Inugami servant bowed deeply, smiling widely as she led him toward the inner sanctum. She knocked on the heavy wooden doors of the main office and ushered him in.
Yasaka was there, looking as radiant as ever, her nine golden tails swaying in a happy, welcoming rhythm when she saw him. "Lord Kenji, I am glad you could come."
But she wasn't alone. Seated across from her was a woman who practically radiated the heat of a summer noon. She had long, flowing black hair and eyes that looked like molten gold. Kenji activated Observation.
[Amaterasu – Supreme Deity of the Sun]
"And this is Lady Amaterasu," Yasaka said when she noticed his gaze on the woman.
"You must be the Kenji Takahashi I've heard so much about," the woman said. Her voice was musical but carried an unmistakable edge of divine arrogance that gods were known for. She studied him with intensity.
Kenji met her golden gaze, keeping his expression neutral despite the sudden tenseness in the room. "I hope the stories weren't too exaggerated, Lady Amaterasu."
The Sun Goddess leaned back, her lips curling into a tiny smirk as she looked at him. "We shall see, won't we."
———————————————————
If you want to read ahead and access 40 advanced chapters, check the patreon. $4 Dollars
Link:patreon/Phantomking785