Taking a firm hold of the blunted katana in his hands Soma smiled slightly, the weapon was very far from his ideal but just having that weight in his hands, the sensation of a sword in his arms, it was enough to make Soma smile slightly.

Holding it tight Soma gave some experimental swings and nodded, adapting quickly to its center of gravity, size, weight, and everything else he should pay attention to in regards to the sword. ​​

Genyo observed this and nodded his head, being thankful that he would at least not have to face a complete amateur who only knew how to blast magic every which way or someone who could not hold a sword properly and instead used other weapons. Whenever he faced someone like that it would always annoy him considerably.

As the two moved to the sparing ring the other members of the gang stopped to watch as they wanted to see their boss’ dominance. It was always a spectacle for them since their boss was a considerably powerful swordsman in the Black Market and there were even rumors that if he used his full power and was given a good sword he would be able to slay even an adult dragon.

As for Soma, no one knew anything about him so they just thought of him as a joke since there was no way their boss would so easily lose.

“Ready, boy?” Genyo asked, his sword stance being set as he prepared himself for this fight. Soma was slightly surprised by the stance seeing how there were no holes to take advantage of. This man was clearly experienced and Soma was slightly excited to test Genyo’s technique… and steal it.

“Ready when you are.” Soma said as he took his own stance, or lack there off. His shoulders were relaxed, his stance was more filled with openings than otherwise, and he did not look to have a single care about his position.

Genyo looks at his stance and thinks it rather unique, but does not comment upon it. This was a large world and Genyo could tell Soma had some understanding of the sword, this stance must have some trick in Genyo’s opinion.

Taking a step forward Genyo approached Soma, his eyes traced at Soma’s form without missing a beat as he got closer and closer. Soma didn’t move even as Genyo got close enough and started attacking him, instead of attacking back Soma was entirely on the defensive and would most times dodge an attack instead of even pairing it.

Genyo’s sword got progressively faster, his strikes harder as he started putting more energy into his body to increase his physical capabilities. He was going from normal human speed, to one that one could expect from an Olympics athlete, to one that one could only see on the supernatural races. However, no matter how much his sword was swung around and how fast or precise the strikes, Soma continued to favor evasion or paring instead of attacking back.

Most of the spectators were rather divided. The newbies were mostly looking down at the fight with a minority even openly mocking Soma since he was only defending, they all were saying things like he was on the ropes and was barely hanging on, that he should just give up already if he couldn’t even try to fight back. Meanwhile, the more senior members of the Ringa family were looking at the fight with serious eyes while noting the attitude of the newbies and deciding they had to be more strict in the training, if their newbies were this useless to not even understand what was going on.

After a point, both Soma and Genyo were little more than blurs as Genyo reached the limit of energy he could use for the spar, his sword swings generating air slashes that had to be dodged by the goons that quickly started vacating the training area in a hurry. Soma was forced more and more in deflecting the strikes instead of attacking back, but he never once attacked and only stared intensely at Genyo’s movements.

However, suddenly Genyo stopped the fight and jumped back and away from Soma despite having just managed to get a single light cut on him. The Yakuza boss’ eyes were sharp as he looked at Soma and spoke.

“About your request, how much cash can you pay?”

“I have 50 thousand yen in hand and can get a lot more if given a week or so. I also can trade away 10 sets of basic exorcist weapons, pistol and light swords.” Soma said and Genyo nodded his head.

“I understand, what you have is far too little for most of what you are requesting and in the amounts you want, but we can make a deal. I will sell you all you need, give us the money you have and what is left from the money needed for the purchase you can work in exchange later. Would that be acceptable?” Genyo asked and Soma nodded.

“Sure, that works well enough for me, but I need to know what the jobs would be and you can’t force me to take a job that I refuse for good reasons. Besides, even after I finish paying the debt I generate I probably wouldn’t mind doing business with you guys and if I can pay for it with work it works well enough for me.” Soma said and Genyo nodded.

“I will send you the items and a magic contract to ensure things are crystal clear. I should have it prepared by the weekend at the latest. Keep the Katana as a gift.” Genyo said and then turned to one of the goons to lead Soma away. The gang members grumbled a bit since the fight was too short and ended abruptly just like that, but they could only lower their heads and accept it before moving along.

After Soma left Genyo also left the training ground. After he left the goons started talking of the boss’s kindness to give such good terms to this ‘new guy’ just like that. Not that this explanation would mollify everyone since, as soon as Genyo turned a corner, he saw his wife and daughter standing there.

“… So? Why the hell did you stop the match at that point?” Rio Ringa, the wife of Genyo, asked. She knew her husband well enough, he should have a reason for suddenly deciding to just stop the match like that.

“Simple, with the years I’ve had of life and my many experiences I’ve learned one thing, and that is when to cut my losses. That young man was evading my strikes before I even launched them, he could have ended that spar much sooner but instead he didn’t. Not because of some weird reason or because he wanted to give me face, he was examining every single one of my strikes and I have no doubt he can replicate them already. If we kept on fighting he would just learn even more of our family’s style and I would have little to show for it, better to end things now instead of prolonging the fight and make us weaker.” Genyo said and his wife’s eyes widened while his daughter showed a slight smirk.

“So, he is good with a blade?” Sayuki Ringa, Genyo’s daughter asked. She was a 14 years old girl, much like Aya and also a student of the last year of middle school, but, unlike Aya, she was rather tall with a lean but athletic figure, straight long black hair and sharp black eyes. A sword on her side that she already had her hand on and Genyo noted this before answering.

“Yes, even if I didn’t see him swing his bade once I can tell he is at the absolute least as skilled as me in my prime. The only other person who ever gave me a similar type of impression with a blade before would be our Lord.” Genyo said and he was not surprised when Rio had to stretch her arm to hold on to Sayuki who tried to run right in Soma’s direction to challenge him.

Truly, Sayuki was far too much of a swordsmanship maniac at times.

As Rio was holding onto her daughter she turned to her husband.

“Dear, if you think that young man so dangerous why did you let him go like that? You know that, inside these walls with our bounded fields active, even most Ultimate Class Devils would be no match for us.”

“Why I let him go and want to start a relationship with him? Of course, because it would be beneficial. Someone like that with such talent and skill with the sword, someone like that would surely be useful in many ways and our Lord loves people like that. People like that can either be the greatest ally or the most dangerous enemy. He could be of help to us and if our lord recruits him due to us indicating him then we will get even more recognition and benefits.” Genyo said and smirked. Rio just sighed, her husband did love his little political games sometimes.

Deciding not to question her husband further, Rio simply dragged her daughter away. With some talking to, her baby girl’s fighting lust would subside and everything should be fine-ish. Rio has no idea how things would be when in school, but that would depend on just how much she could make it so her daughter didn’t make a scene.

///—///

Returning home after paying with what money he had Soma felt satisfied. Thankfully the ingredients for the potions he would be making were already in hand and he took them right away, the rest would probably take some more time but Soma could by then at least be happy his body would be perfectly healthy and he could start his physical training properly.

Passing by Aya’s door he saw it was still locked and he sighed, he would only force some interaction with her if she didn’t get out of the room by the end of the day. She was in a fragile state of mind and needed time to vent and calm down, but that doesn’t mean Soma would let her simply hide away in the room for who knows how long.

“… Maybe I should make something for her. I AM already making some potions to recover the body’s strength and physical fitness, she would probably find that useful.” Soma thought as he went to his workshop in the basement. Using his alchemy Soma made a pot suitable for potion making by carving several runes inside to let him control the temperature inside the pot. With the equipment prepared Soma started the process.

It was honestly quite simple as far as Soma was concerned, the whole thing taking about half an hour to complete and by the end, he had a green juice with some yellow mixed in. It didn’t look appetizing at all but Soma didn’t care.

Using reinforcement he pulled up the pot from the ground and started drinking up the liquid inside in large gulps as if a barbarian, some of the liquid running down the sides of his mouth even. The thing had a weird fruity scent to it but was overall not too bad. Well, considering he spent a long time eating all sorts of weird concoctions with questionable ingredients to help test the effects of potions and alchemic products for some of the Heroes in the Throne his capacity to know what was, and wasn’t, edible is questionable at best.

But that wasn’t the most important thing. As the liquid entered his body he could almost feel the vitality entering his body. His sickly and thin look was changing at a visible rate, energy filling his every cell as he could feel his body’s improvements.

It was an intoxicating feeling, he could feel the small imperfections created from having been in a coma for so long were vanishing and he felt it. That feeling of finally getting rid of the shackles that were otherwise locking him down. It was purely magnificent.

When he was finally done with that he smirked before looking at the rest of the potion. There was not a lot left, but he could do something with the rest to give it a good taste before giving it to Aya. Thinking for a bit he took out some of the metal he had collected from the disassembled exorcist guns and used alchemy and some runes to make a little something for the girl.

Moving to the kitchen Soma noted that it was about 3 PM now and Aya had yet to leave the room. Thinking it weird he figured she would probably not have had any lunch. Thinking for but a moment he began to prepare a quick but satisfying meal and after around half an hour he was done with it and he had also made the modifications necessary to the potion so that Aya could drink it and actually like it.

Feeling satisfied with what he got Soma prepared two servings of food and took them to the room Aya was at.

KNOCK

KNOCK

“Aya, it is me Soma. Open the door please.”

There was some shuffling on the other side of the door and Soma could clearly hear Aya approaching the door due to her footsteps, but when she was right in front she stopped and didn’t open the door.

“Come on, Aya. Just open the door, I made some lunch and I don’t want it to get cold.”

After a few seconds, the door was unlocked and Soma could see Aya inside the room.

The sight of her honestly broke Soma a bit, she looked so small and so very pitiful with marks of crying on her face, her hair disheveled and the bags under her eyes even darker than before.

Moving into the room Soma put the two plates of food down and clapped his hands together.

“Itadakimasu.” He said and started eating. He didn’t say anything to Aya but he made sure she could see there was a second plate ready right in front of his, clearly intended for her.

Sitting down she too said ‘Itadakimasu’ and started eating. After the first bite, her eyes widened and she began eating with greater voracity than before.

“This ish sho goood.” Aya said with her mouth full as if a chipmunk and Soma released a short laugh before answering.

“Good to know, I did it myself. If you want I can make the lunch for you as well for school.” Soma said and Aya’s eyes widened.

“School?! I completely forgot, I missed classes today.”

“Don’t worry, one day shouldn’t really warrant much of a response anyway so there should be no issue. Besides, there are things more important than school and your health clearly should be one of those. Now eat up, this food is better when hot.”

Aya lowered her head and continued eating the food, by the time they ended the food Soma unceremoniously laid down on the floor and burped which made Aya slightly shocked. Soma was way more ‘bombastic’ of a person than she was used to, by a long shot at that.

She was used to long silences, cold stares, fake smiles when appropriate, and people only expressing themselves more when it was a moment to do things she preferred not to think about, even if those thoughts never truly leave her head. But Soma was unlike anything she has seen before, almost a completely alien existence for her.

Brash, direct, loud, a bad loser, kind, gentle at times, scary, not polite, abrasive, and all sorts of other things all at once. He was just too unlike those she has met before and Aya feared this. Most of today, after realizing she went to him after what happened during the previous night, she feared exactly this.

That she would end up being swallowed up by Soma’s presence, that she would end up giving herself to someone as crazy as this who she felt she could trust and rely on, and feared exactly the thought of trusting and relying on.

“Hey, Aya.” Soma spoke, making the contemplating girl jump slightly.

“Y-Yes?”

“No need to be afraid, I don’t bite you know?” Soma then saw the embarrassed face she was making and chuckled. “You are not too easy to read, but few people can hope to hide anything from me when I want to know what is going on.”

Aya’s eyes widened, her back covering in a cold sweat at the thought of Soma finding out what was happening, of seeing the shameful life she was living. Soma, meanwhile, just shook his head.

“Look, I promise you I won’t intervene in whatever is happening with you unless you ask for my help or if I feel your life is in danger in any way. I may not look like it but I can be quite the reliable one, so if you ever need someone to speak with or need help with something just talk to me.”

Aya looked down and closed her hands firmly before speaking.

“… Why?”

“‘Why’ what? Please be specific, if you want to ask why my hair looks so shiny then it is good genetics.” Soma joked to lighten the mood slightly and Aya shook her head.

“Why do you want to do so much for me? We don’t even know one another, so why?”

“Because I felt like it. I trust my guts and I felt in my guts that I can trust you and that we could be friends. One good friend is worth their weight in gold, that is what I believe.”

“I am not worth that much, not at all.” Aya said sadly and Soma just shrugged.

“Depends on who you are asking. You may not think so, the rest of the world may not think so, but I think that you are worth a lot, and I trust myself. If it is complicated then just think of this as me being noisy or something, I don’t really mind. Just remember, if you ever want to talk then just say the word.” Soma said before taking out something from his pocket and giving it to Aya. It looked like a simple bracelet made of metal with the word ‘Hope’ inside in a cursive language inside it and what looked like engraved flowers on the outside. The thing was rather well made but nothing too grand, it looked like a simple accessory and as Aya held onto it she clutched it tight.

She could not remember the last time she received a gift from anyone, even her exact date of her birthday was something she could barely remember anymore.

“Consider this a gift, I bought it earlier today when I had to go out to get some shopping done.” Which was not a lie at all in Soma’s opinion. “I think it would be good for you to have it. Do you like it?”

“Uhm, I do. I like this, very, very much. Thank you, thank you.” She said as she clutched the bracelet in her hand and smiled brightly.

Soma smiled as well and got up.

“Good to know. You can stay at my house for as long as you want, and you can come back here whenever you want as well. So, if you are not too busy what would you say of you going to take a bath and then follow me to the back for some basic exercises? You know what they say, a healthy mind starts with a healthy body.”

Aya nodded her head and only as she was about to go to the bath did she realize she didn’t go to the bathroom once today and she really needed to go.

Quickly leaving the room to get to the bathroom Aya left Soma in the room who chuckled a bit at her rather cute reactions.

Going to his own room Soma selected the training clothes he had prepared beforehand for when he could start his training. He had sewed several runes on them that would help increase the pressure as well as increase the recovery speed of his body, always putting his body at the absolute limit of what it could take and maintaining the body on the limit of what it could take.

That, added to the training regimen he had planned out should help him get the physical condition that he felt necessary. Feeling some excitement over what he was about to do Soma put on his training clothes and looked himself in the mirror. Smirking a bit as he much rather this swimmer physique with defined muscle mass instead of the skeletal state his body was at just a short while back.

He felt like these physical changes were a bit extreme, but few people knew the state he was in before so he didn’t think any devil would notice his physical changes seeing as he only went to school once since he woke up, and even then his physique was not completely bad yesterday when he first went to class so there was little chance they would connect the dots.

Satisfied Soma clenched his fists and said to himself.

“Okay, time to start training hard!”