Chapter 34 Life Force

Two weeks has passed.

Issei Hyoudou became a reincarnated devil under Rias Gremory after he was killed by the fallen angel in disguise.

They just let him do the odd job that their familiars do to let him gain experience.

Issei also had some encounters with other fallen angels and almost got killed again if not for the Gremory peerage. But Kisuke thinks that it wouldn’t happen in the first place if they do regular check up on the town’s state of affairs.

Koneko moved in a few days after welcoming their new member and carried on her training.

Koneko’s hand-to-hand combat techniques improved continuously due to Yoruichi’s close and proper guidance. Just with half of her total strength and speed, she could defeat Yuuto Kiba in a spar.

Meanwhile, Kisuke discovered something impressive while researching about Senjutsu with Koneko.

The life force, which is the main driving force of Senjutsu is somewhat similar to reiryoku(Spiritual Power).

Kisuke discovered that life force was derived from the physical body and everything alive from the surrounding. While reiryoku is derived from the soul body and everything with a soul from the surrounding.

Kisuke and Yoruichi’s bodies have a life force of course, but they couldn’t really control it and it is relatively unknown to them of how they can use or take advantage of the life force.

However, a new door opened for them when Koneko showed them how her body can naturally manipulate life force.

Kisuke hypothesized that maybe it’s due to her race being a nekomata and have a natural attunement to life force like how soul reapers like him and Yoruichi were attuned to reiryoku naturally. But then again, further research is needed.

That didn’t stop Yoruichi from developing Shinigami Arts based on life force though and she manages to make a Flash Step based on it.

Only Koneko can use it currently as Kisuke and Yoruichi’s power source is still the mana-soul hybrid. They planned to change it to life-soul hybrid as it looks like more compatible with their skill sets due to the similar properties of both life force and reiryoku. Although they wouldn’t entirely discard mana as magic is a very versatile skill to use.

Koneko’s Flash Step is more or less has the same effectiveness as the magic counterpart. But do take note that this Magic based Flash Step was developed and perfected over the years by both Yoruichi and Kisuke. Senjutsu based Flash Step, however, only had less than two weeks of development time and only in its initial state.

Even after taking into consideration the experience of both the former Soul Reapers in converting the skill, it’s still incredibly fast due to its compatibility with the energy source.

Koneko also learned it easier than the magic counterpart.

Kisuke is also developing a training regiment for both him and Yoruichi to use Senjutsu in preparation to switch life-soul power. He also started redeveloping Kidou to accommodate the change.

If someone were to know what they are planning to do, they might say that they just wasted a few years of their life by discarding their current power and developing a new one. What’s important for both Yoruichi and Kisuke isn’t the time as they are destined to live a long life and just a few years are incredibly cheap to them, but potential. The potential height that they could reach increased significantly by only sacrificing a few years of hard work.

Kisuke’s mother, Sakura, also returned a few days ago. She was obviously shocked when she heard and saw that Koneko, a cute high school girl, is living with her son.

Sakura looked at her son weirdly and said, “I just left for a few weeks and your strike zone broadens. You even brought her home to live with you. You didn’t kidnap her, did you? Let’s return her, okay? I’ll apologize together with you and maybe they won’t put you to jail.”

Kisuke, of course, had to frantically explain it to her before she can calm down. While this is all happening, Koneko who is sitting beside him all this time is trying to stop her laugh causing her body to tremble, which in turn, worsen the misunderstanding.

After an hour of ‘war’ with her mother, she finally accepted his explanation, “So you’re Misha-san’s granddaughter. You’re also very quiet like her, did you inherit that?”

“That’s rude, mom.”

Misha is the granny Gigai with a basic mod soul that tends the store when Kisuke is not around. Misha supposedly didn’t feel well in just sitting around and was asked to manage the store.

And like that, the issue was resolved, except for Sakura suggesting to Koneko to become her daughter-in-law every now and then.

Kisuke looked at his mom carefully and sigh. There are also mysteries regarding her mother. Sakura has a faint trace of demonic power. It’s not a result of a spell as he already checked it. It’s coming from her body, more specifically, her heritage.

He also checked his body multiple times for a trace of demonic power but didn’t find any. He is sure that they are biological mother and son so Kisuke thinks that the blood of a devil entirely disappeared in his generation. He also doesn’t know who is his father, but he didn’t confront her about it as he didn’t really care about it.

Kisuke also wanted to cast some protective spells for his mother but decided against it as it might just draw more attention to her.

Late at night. Sakura is already asleep and she together with Koneko. Sakura decided that she should sleep with her in her room so the two of them could have a girl’s night.

Yoruichi entered Kisuke’s room through the window in her cat form.

“How is it?” Kisuke asked while he’s laying on his bed.

Yoruichi jumped down to his chest and yawned before giving her report, “Several crows and few bats.”

Yoruichi stretched her paws before continuing, “It’s still the same group of crows that killed Issei. As for the bats, they’re newcomers. When one of them used magic, I saw the insignia of the Astaroth Family.”

“Astaroth? What are they doing here?” Kisuke looked at Yoruichi.

“They seem to be watching the movements of the group of stray exorcist under the crows.”

“The Gremorys’ can probably deal with them. How about those fuzzy presences?”

Yoruichi furrowed her face in contemplation, ” I’m not sure. If not for our ability to sense the soul directly I might not be able to notice them. If I were to base it on physical features and aura, they seem to be Grim Reapers.”

“Grim Reapers? And you almost missed them? Now that’s interesting. Let’s go on a night date tomorrow.” Kisuke patted Yoruichi’s head.