Scarlet 21

Scarlet 21

…

Commissioned by Sivantic

Wordcount: 2500

…

While I appreciated the various benefits of my new powers, I did miss the versatility of my previous powers.

My control over bugs allowed me to make protective armor for myself, do reconnaissance, and allowed me to disengage from fights with relative ease. Not only that, but it also allowed me to attack opponents at greater ranges, and decrease my chances of becoming injured.

Though Ddraig allowed me to take on foes directly, to the point where normal humans and small arms weapons had negligible effect against me even without Scale Mail, that merely put me on par with the most common Angels and Devils. In battles against them, I was likely to be wounded and hurt. The possibility of death was also high, and so was the chance that I’d get crippled due to some terrible blow.

So, naturally, I sometimes missed my previous set of powers in this world.

But that didn’t mean I was just going to lament my situation and leave it at that.

If I learned anything from my previous life, it was the fact that imagination and creativity played an immense part in every battle. That was why I used weapons that allowed me to use the full extent of my newfound strength, such as my sledgehammer, and looked for ways for ways to decrease my number of weaknesses in battle.

I thought that magic was going to be my answer to my lack of ranged options, but after a few lessons in magic, I learned that wasn’t the case.

Courtesy of Ddraig.

…

It’s not my fault. Most magic is just too weak. That’s all.

Ddraig refused to take any responsibility whatsoever, as I looked at the outcome of the test before me.

Sitri had come forward with the experiment, after I verified that my training with magic was completed. I needed to place a drop of my blood in vials of reagents with pieces of magical beasts who had strong connections to elements. If I had an affinity for an element, then the small piece of the magical beast would activate, thus clarifying that I was innately disposed towards that creature’s form of magic.

The result of the experiment was that my blood didn’t activate the pieces and parts of demonic beast, but instead caused the tissue samples to spasm erratically, shatter the vials it was in, and burn out on the table.

Much like Ddraig, I was only suited for raw, destructive power when it came to magic… and without ramping up I didn’t have enough power to launch ranged attacks. Therefore, my original plans to acquire ranged attacks so that I could fight from afar and initiate ambushes was no longer possible, because there was no way I could conceal my Boosts.

Bah. If you want to ambush anyone, you should do it by flying high and diving at them. Crush a few of their friends, let loose some firepower, and then beat anyone left standing. That’s an ambush.

A terrible one that I had no choice but to risk getting injured for, and would be horrifically difficult to escape from if something went wrong.

But still an ambush!

Technically… yes.

Only because humans are weak. If you were a Dragon, then it’d be the perfect ambush!

I decided to ignore Ddraig and turn to Sitri. The short-haired, bespectacled Devil watched her Familiars clean the mess I made with a frown.

“I had suspected this would be the case for you, since you showed your initial aptitude with magic, but I’d thought with better control and testing methods we’d discover more information.” Sitri pushed up her glasses and sighed, but recovered after a moment. She looked really good, but I was able to restrain my body’s urges thanks to discipline, willpower, and the fact that Rias lived in my house now. Yes. This body’s libido would have Lisa running for the hills in a heartbeat. “But all is not lost. You simply need truly exceptional amounts of practice so that you can shape your raw magic into defensive and offensive applications… though I must wonder if your time is not better spent learning Touki instead.”

The word was unfamiliar to both me and Ddraig.

Sitri noticed immediately.

“Ah. My apologies. Allow me to explain.” Crossing her arms, Sitri placed herself between me and the maids bending over to clean up the glass shards. I felt shame at the fact she noticed, but I felt more disappointed that I didn’t see more. “Touki is the invocation of one’s soul to strengthen one’s body. Given your excessive training, focus, and practice in martial arts, it’s probably more prudent that you specialize further by seeking out someone who uses Touki through Senjutsu… but with your willpower, training, and innate power… you might not need it.”

Sitri’s statements made me wary, as she eyed me and evaluated me. I felt like a horse being evaluated by an experienced trainer.

Which was kinda hot, but I had a lifetime’s worth of being dragged along and being used, so I managed to repress my libido successfully.

So, your entire, previous life’s trauma’s can kill your boner in certain situations. Useful.

Shut up, Ddraig.

“One of my cousins, Bael, has managed to invoke Touki through years of training, effort, and battle. His explanations on the matter are incredibly flawed, since he’s an idiot, but I believe the two of you have a similar drive.” Sitri levelled a finger my way. “You both refuse to lose, to be beaten down, and wish to win even if it wins driving yourselves to the brink of death. Both of you hold your lives in your hands and wield them like swords against your foes… so I believe you are only lacking in one regard, and that is the fact you have not fought with your life on the line as much as he has.”

I had a little difficulty understanding the explanation, until Ddraig popped up.

The “will to survive” isn’t just a thought in this world, Taylor. It’s a physical thing. You call on your soul, your everything, and use it to strengthen your body. It gives you greater strength, the ability to touch and overwhelm magic, and become far more powerful. You’ve felt it before, in your past life, and you still remember it now… so just take it!

Ddraig’s explanation made my heart race and teeth grit, because he called upon old, painful memories as he spoke. Everything I experienced in my past life was still in the back of my mind. I made peace with a lot of it, how couldn’t I when I had another life, but there were plenty of moments that I were ingrained into my memory that I wanted to forget.

Fights where I lost my friends.

Battles where victory teetered on a knife’s edge.

Everyone was relying on me.

How I desperately survived Winslow.

I couldn’t get rid of them. Even though I could barely remember the faces of my friends and family from that past life those experiences remained.

But Ddraig didn’t show them to me so that I would feel pain.
He showed them to me to remind me of my feelings when that happened.

Past the despair, the anguish, and the anger… there is the will to survive, to do everything to survive, to grit my teeth, and to keep moving forward.

I never felt that in this world until now… and now that I did… I was able to take hold of it.

Sitri stumbled back in surprise and gave a shout of alarm as I called upon my “Touki” and used it to cover myself, to protect myself, and strengthen myself. I felt warmer and safer while holding on to it, as I used my past memories as a trigger to call upon my survival instinct. It was strange. Even though I recalled my past, my mistakes, and my traumas… I felt stronger… like I was using them to give myself power now.

That’s because you are. You’re taking you past, all the terrible things you felt, as a reminder to why you need to fight hard now. You fight so that you don’t lose, so that you don’t let those things happen again, and become strong.

I wasn’t able to respond to Ddraig, as I suddenly felt a deep tiredness welling up within me. A hollowness built up and began to expand from the center of my gut and began to spread through my entire body, until I released a breath and pushed down my past.

The moment the “Touki” faded from my body I fell forward… and Sitri caught me before I fell face-first onto the ground.

She said something along the lines of being irresponsible and foolish, but I didn’t hear her as fatigue overtook me.

Whatever Touki was, I was going to train with it until I could use it in battle.

I was sure that with Ddraig’s power amplifying its effects, I had a little less to worry about when I entered battle again.

Though I wasn’t going to give up on getting ranged weapons.

…

Baseball was surprisingly popular in Japan. I hadn’t expected most schools to offer it as a club, let alone the fact that there was a national tournament for those clubs arranged by officials from all 47 prefectures. Japan had been sunk by Leviathan back in my old life, so there wasn’t much talk about the nation.

Most countries didn’t want their people to know that the world’s second-largest economy was destroyed by an Endbringer, so they probably suppressed information regards to its culture, too.

But I’m digressing from the point I intended to make.

No. Keep going. The monologue was interesting. Kinda like an intro to a new arc in an LN that’s a completely bullshit explanation why the MC is strong. I like it.

I was going to learn how to pitch, so that I could have some ranged options in combat.

Boo.

The human body was well-suited towards throwing objects, and I made use of that fact when I fought against the Fallen Angels. With the strength and speed given to me by Ddraig, I was able to turn my surroundings into very lethal projectiles, especially if they had sufficient amounts of weight behind it.

However, with the reaction times and speed of Devils and Fallen Angels, it wasn’t a very effective method of attack. More powerful creatures expected to encounter magic. They trained to avoid or defend against it; thus, a speeding rock was well within the expectations of most.

If an attack is expected, then it’s likely to fail.

However, with a bit of training and a few tricks, I could give my projectiles a bit of oomph to capitalize on the element of surprise. Curveballs, change-ups, sliders… it all sounded odd to me still, but every throw and every moment of practice also lent itself towards controlling my strength.

Yeah, even if you don’t master any of the fancy shit, you’re still learning how to throw well and control your body better. Your regular exercise is good, but the more you use your body in different ways the better. At this rate, you’ll be getting to the tenth Boost soon.

That was right.

I had a strong body thanks to my foreknowledge and Ddraig’s instructions as a child. We’d gone out of our way to build something that can withstand his power and it was showing the fruits of its labor as I kept growing stronger. The issue with my routine was that I was slowly seeing less and less effect from it. Body-weight exercise barely did a thing for me, and the weights I’d need now would be obscene, so now it was about maintenance, getting more knowledge on limits, and exploring new forms of exercise for the sake of growing stronger.

With that in mind, I took a breath… and threw the lead ball I held in my hand right into the face of a mountain.

The dull ball transformed into a blur as it left my hands and it covered the distance between me and the mountain in an instant, as though it was a regular ball being pitched and not fifteen-to-twenty kilos of cheap metal.

The result was the same as my last dozen pitches.

The ball embedded itself in the stone, while shards and dust flew off the surface.

It was my last ball, and the sun was setting, so I let loose a breath before heading towards the rock with a dozen embedded spheres and thirty others that had bounced.

It’s not bad for two weeks of training. If you’re getting that with only what you have, you’re going to do better while using my power.

Ddraig was correct, of course. The fruits of my training looked terrible now, but the results were magnified when I used his power. My focus on form, on technique, and ingraining that to my body ensured that I would be able to the same without ripping my body apart in the future. The speed and strength I achieved with my lead spheres at this moment wasn’t going to come close to what I could do with Ddraig’s Boosts.

Yeah, that’s right… and when you master this you should totally call them Steel Balls.

Ddraig, why can’t you ever stay serious for more than a few minutes?

Because being trapped for centuries in stupid humans made me really, really bored, and now I have Jump and a whole lot of other things to make up for it. I don’t give you shit for your libido, so let me have this.

You do give me shit for my libido, though!

No, I don’t! I encourage you to use it! To get out there and sate your hunger like a real Dragon! I’m not wrong! You humans and your silly traditions are wrong! The strong do what they want while the weak become strong or bow!

Humans might be wrong, but you don’t see dragons writing manga or coming up with stories. What do you say about that, huh? Don’t you think Araki’ll feel bad if you tell him that he’s weak and should just do whatever morons tell him to do?

T-that’s not what I said, Taylor! You’re putting words in my mouth!

Uh-huh, sure.

I didn’t insult Araki!

I ignored Ddraig while he struggled with his conscience, and moved to fetch my training equipment… when I suddenly felt a presence nearby.

As I turned around, I barely managed to catch sight of the side of a massive sword swinging my direction and moved to get out of its way.

Ah. It looks like you need to buy that collector’s edition for me, Taylor. I win the bet.

I cursed under my breath as I summoned my Sacred Gear to my hand.

Quarta stood before me wielding a different sword from the one she used before, while clad in her strange armor.

I didn’t know why I bet against Ddraig when he offered the bet that she’d betray us.

Maybe, after all these years in this world, I was getting too naïve.