Chat 149 (We will make it far kid!)

“This…..Is…….Absurd!” Ayase huffed out between labored breaths as she was taking slow step after slow step up the hill. If the hill was the only issue here she would not be having an issue but I was messing with her gravity.

“We don’t have time for the slow and proper way to do things oh student of mine,”I spoke out beside her as he took another massive breath. “ You outclass Ikki in regards to Mana which is good but that is an accomplishment that even fellow F-ranks can enjoy there is a reason he is known as the Worst One. The guy quite literally has the worst Mana capacity ever recorded.” I reiterated the words that have been thrown at her for the past couple of days.

Even under the immense physical strain, I could see that she still had enough fight in her to be annoyed at those particular words.

“I…..Know..” She spoke out with a grimace on her face. Despite her protests about how hard the training I was putting her through was she was determined to see it through.

“Good, 'cause while you outclass him in Mana he absolutely crushes you in every other aspect. How dare you think of revenge when your physique is only at D+? Hell, I could excuse that if you had a semblance of control over you Mana but that is a puny D rank as well.” I reprimanded her as she crested the hill we were working on.

The relife that came from reaching the goal was crushed by the harsh words I was throwing at her but she only lowered her head. She may not want to admit it but those words really struck the heart of the issue.

While Ikki was tearing himself apart to be the very best that he could possibly be Ayase was wallowing in her pain. Well, that not exactly fair her Father being in this position was recent. So she did not have that fierce drive that should have pushed her well beyond where she was.

Ikki had always known that he was the worst and he used that fact to push himself harder and harder. Ayase on the other hand was living a rather idyllic life until Kuraudo came along and drove her Father into a Coma.

Still, even with the rather recent nature of her vendetta, she should have still been in better shape than this. The issue was she was almost obsessive about honing her swordplay. She spent almost all of her time trying to desperately reach the pinnacle that she saw from her Father. She was basically chasing his shadow with everything she had but it was just no good enough.

Not only because his sword style did not fit her body type but because she would have been better off exploring and honing her Blazer ability.

As she was looking at the ground with a frown on her face I reached over and tapped her. Removing the Gravity effect on her so she could focus on recovering. Feeling the weight quite literally being taken off of her shoulders the girl almost collapsed on the ground as she closed her eyes.

She then started to emit a blood-red energy as she furrowed her brows and focused. This was also a part of her training, as I could have simply put her in a state of recovery using my own device but that would not teach her how to handle her ability.

Her Blazer Ability was quite literally Wound Manipulation and when you exercised you were basically breaking down a tower to make a stronger foundation. That process was a wound and since she could affect those she could heal herself and ensure she kept the increase in physique.

There were other factors of course. Like the massive amount of food she needed to consume to support this sort of absurd training but that was not something that was really upsetting. That was not really the major drawback here it had more to do with the pain.

Breaking your body down like that is not going to be the most pleasant experience especially since they were pushing well beyond what was acceptable. Beyond the process healing her wounds was incredibly painful as well.

She was quite literally tearing herself apart and stitching herself back up to make an improvement to her physique. You could see why she said all of this was absurd even if she was going to follow along to it.

I looked over at her grimacing face and felt a certain sense of pride that I only felt with Petunia. Teaching others was rather enjoyable and while this was not my preferred subject seeing her boundless effort was inspiring. 

At the rate she was going, she should be able to raise her physical stat to A rank rivaling Ikki. Getting the same level of control was out of the cards as that was something that took years of practice and that was not something she had.

So instead she was going to have to rely on her absurd ability.

“Are you good to talk or do you need a moment to collect yourself?” I asked as I sat down on the ground near her. She opened her eyes and gave me a flat look even if she was still grimacing.

I looked over at her with a bland smile that only had her gritting her teeth and let out a sigh.

“I would rather focus on healing right now but I can multitask.” She eventually admitted even if it was clear she would rather just focus in on stopping the pain.

“If we had time I would be all for that as well but you want to win fairly right? You can see your strength improving at a vast rate already but you are still a far distance from taking out Ikki as you are. Don’t get me wrong with your improvement you could crush almost anyone else but Ikki is a special case.” I spoke out with a wry smile on my face.

Ayase listened to my words and gritted her teeth but remained silent waiting for me to say something else. She knew that I was 100% right but that did not mean she had to be happy about it.

Seeing the lack of a response I decided to continue.”So we have been working on your physique so far and while that is going great you are going to need an extra edge. So I figured we should talk about your ability and how you have been basically wasting it for years.” I spoke out with a wry smile but the glare I received was well deserved.

What I was telling her was not exactly something you wanted to hear after all.

“I don’t think my Device is anything special.” She eventually said sullenly. She was not arguing against wasting her time as she had long since accepted that. She could see how she was crippling herself by chasing the shadow of her Father but that did not mean she had to like that fact.

I flicked her forehead and the blood-red energy that was radiating from her fluctuated and she went back to closing her eyes and gritting her teeth to get herself under control again.

I rubbed the back of my head awkwardly as I did not expect that to happen but I wanted to get her to stop degrading her ability. I guess I was not helping her self-esteem but raining on her parade all the time but those were words she needed to hear.

“Look, in this school I would place your Device within the top five of the students,” I spoke out seriously once she appeared to get the Mana back under control. She glared at me and let out a huff.

“That’s not really a ringing endorsement.” She spoke out slowly with that frown emerging on her face. I let out a sigh and resided the urge to flick her forehead again.

“I just think you don’t understand the peers you are up against. You have me with Probability Manipulation, Followed by Utakata’s Event Manipulation, Then it’s Stella with her Manipulation of the Dragon Concept, You with Wound Manipulation, and finally I would place Najime with his Duplicate.” I listed who I thought were the most impressive.

In all honesty, when I found out Utakata had Event Manipulation I was worried about the guy far more but apparently he was weak. He could not affect things that would have a 0% outcome from his perspective. So in a fight, he could not picture beating his enemy as he could not picture that reality.

It reminds me of that quote from Frieren. Magic is a game of visualization and it does not matter if it makes sense as long as you can picture it and believe it firmly with your heart it will be true.

So the absurd ability of Event Manipulation was degraded by the guy’s own sickly physique and he lack of faith in himself. Truly a shame but no one seemed to think to help the absurd kid get over his issues. He was a gem that could certainly win the tournament and that was something the school should be going crazy for considering their constant losses lately.

But they wasted all of that which was odd….maybe it was a decision from the association instead of the Academy. Blazers like that were a large risk to 

“Wait, wait, that makes no sense Touka-Senpai is not on the list and she is the strongest student,” Ayase spoke out with a confused frown on her face that increased in confusion when I scoffed at her words. Seeing her confused look I let out a sigh.

“Look she is strong I won’t deny that but I would rate her ability as pretty mediocre,” I spoke out with a frown and it looked like she wanted to cut in again so I continued. “As far as Elemental Control goes she is at the very top but as far as I was concerned Elemental Control is not a true game changer.” I finished with a frown on my face as I bemoaned the stupid focus on elemental control here.

“You really just say whatever you want. Elemental Interferance is not at the Conceptual Interferance level but it still out class most Devices my included.” She spoke out like that should have been obvious from the very start. I let out a sigh at her not quite understanding it.

“Wrong, while it might seem that way it’s just because Elemental Interferance is the easiest to master. You throw out the element you have control over and manipulate it as you please. Not exactly rocket science but the really strong ones have more abstract and terrifying abilities. Like the Word Clock, she messes with Time. Hell, the God of War himself uses Sound Manipulation. Would you dare call him weaker than someone else?” I tried to get my point across by using powerful people should be familiar with.

She took in my words and did not immediately dismiss them which was good. Still, she was frowning up a storm as if trying to figure something out.

“But everyone knows Elemental Interferance is strong.” She spoke out as if not believing her own words but needing them to be heard.

“Right, it’s because finding out what your Device is truly capable of is difficult. You for example don’t actually have a good handle on your Device. Did you ever think to heal wounds with it? How about manipulating things that still fall in the range of wounds but are not physical like emotional or mental wounds? How about storing wounds and dishing them out to others? How about wounding something that is not human-like concept? Just thinking about the absurd things you could get up to drives me crazy.” I rambled out with a fevered glance as I looked over at my student.   

She looked absolutely stunned but at least she did not look disbelieving. She looked more like she was seeing the world for the first time as her mouth hung open in surprise. Seeing that I let out a crackle. Don’t worry student of mine, Ikki will find himself dealing with something far beyond his comprehension.

When I am done with you that chump Kuraudo will become a distant memory instead of the constant nightmare in your heart.