As I regained consciousness once again, I noticed that my door was wide open and people had piled into my room.
Well, shit.
"My lord!! What were you thinking?"
I wasn't, but no way I'm telling Tiche that.
"Tiche, it's fine; I was just trying to pass the time practicing with my energy."
Tiche narrows her eyes as she doesn't quite believe me.
As I watch her expression change, I audibly gulp.
"I-I won't do it again."
"Good, now get some rest, my lord."
Several days later
The last few days have been a different kind of hell. Between watching TV and trying to play games, I had Tiche hovering over my shoulder.
Momo and Yusa had also come over a few times; when they saw me, I swear I saw a flicker of disappointment on their faces...
But an unexpected visitor that I never would've guessed was Koneko; she visited every day but wasn't much for conversation. Instead, she just sat next to me and either watched TV or played video games. To be honest, out of both Peerages, Koneko is the one I had the least amount of contact with, so this was definitely weird...
As the days passed by, I could see the effects of my healing factor's work. My side was nearly completely healed by day three, and my shoulder on day five.
Day six is when I got permission from Tiche to start practicing my abilities. As I was getting ready to head out to practice my abilities, I noticed that some of my shirts were missing. Didn't we just do laundry yesterday? Putting the missing shirts out of my mind, I got ready and headed towards the school.
It was already late in the day, so regular students were no longer there. As I walked, I noticed a familiar guard stationed at the entrance. We gave each other a look before I entered the school grounds.
It seems that guy learned his lesson. Good for him, good for him.
As I make my way toward the girl's regular training, I spot an unfamiliar blond also heading the same way.
He seemed to notice me a few seconds after I noticed him. We gave each other an appraising look before his eyes widened with realization and hostility.
"You!"
Me?!?! My confusion seems to give him some confidence as he rushes towards me with speed that isn't human.
I'll admit, my guard was completely down, and him closing in was probably a smart move.
His fist makes contact with my face, causing me to stumble backward; the pain from the punch shocks me out of my confusion as I swap out my Lightning Breath ability for my new Exoskeleton ability.
Seeing me not immediately retaliate, the blond decided to talk. "I can't believe it's you, Senior. I bet the rest don't know what you are."
???
What does he mean? No, wait, who does he mean?
As I see him continue the attack, I activate my exoskeleton ability for the first time. I was planning to do this in front of a mirror so I could see what I looked like, but here we are in a combat test.
His momentary confusion doesn't have him relent in his attack, but he seems much slower now, which makes sense. I'm now combat-ready, and whatever boost the exoskeleton gives me seems to make this level of opponent quite easy.
I catch his fist without the use of holy energy; he seems surprised at it.
"Damn it! I won't lose! I'll expose you to everyone even if it's the last thing I do!"
He is really misunderstanding something right now, and honestly? I don't even know who he is.
As he struggles to pull his fist out, my other hand shoots out and grabs him by the neck.
As I let him struggle against my grip, I think a bit. He obviously knew something and possessed power beyond humans. My first instinct is maybe a fallen angel. But none of them were this weak.
Testing a theory I let holy power flow into my hand, which immediately has him groan in pain. So not a fallen angel but a devil, the people he probably wants to 'expose' are the girls and Yuuto.
"Hmph, with this little power, you want to expose me? Laughable." For the fuck of it, I decide to play along; once the misunderstanding is resolved, it'll be something to tease the new guy about.
"I-I knew it! You've tricked them all, damn it! If only I were stronger!"
I use all of my strength to throw the blond toward the gymnasium where we were originally heading.
As the blond hits the ground, he rolls a few more feet before coming to a stop. He's not that injured, just rattled. Honestly, if it wasn't for testing the holy power, that punch from him would have been the most damaging thing to either of us.
As he got up, he looked between me and the gymnasium. "Just you wait!" He yells as he sprints off towards the gymnasium.
I deactivate my ability as I take note of several things.
I initially thought my Holy Power was my energy pool, but it isn't; the moderate drain from the Exoskeleton ability didn't drain a drop, and thinking back on it, neither did Lightning Claws during training.
So I own two energy pools; I'll need to do yet more testing...
*Sigh,* is this what they meant by 'suffering from success'?
As I got closer to the gymnasium, I heard the blonde's yelling. "I'm telling you! Barnes is a devil hunter, and he's heading here now! He tossed me around like I was a paper bag, so we have to work together!"
Getting even closer, I saw all the girls of the Sitri Peerage (except the president and VP) trying to keep straight faces.
Dashing at a superhuman speed, I appear behind the blonde. "You know, bragging about being tossed around isn't exactly impressive."
My tease actively causes Momo to giggle, while Yusa has an amused smile as she looks between me and the blonde. The other three try to maintain their faces to not make the blonde more humiliated.
The blonde spins around to face me. "Y-you!"
I point to myself as I respond, "I have a name, Sam Barnes; how about you, Blondie?"
My question leaves him confused as Momo steps up. "Genshirou, Sam is an ally of the peerage. He's teasing you."
She then turns to me and says, "And Sam, did you have to embarrass our new member?"
Giving Momo a gentle smile as I responded, "I believe he did that himself when he threw the first punch, which he landed, by the way, so congrats to him."
As I mentioned who threw the first punch, several of the girls give Genshirou a weird look, while Yusa looks impressed as she comments, "Impressive, Genshirou. Even if we consider Sam injured, landing a hit at your level is something that does deserve praise."
I wonder when Yusa got that impressed with me...
Genshirou looks embarrassed by the praise but quickly recovers. "Wait! You guys already knew?"
At that, everyone present looked at him as if he was an idiot... Wait, no, he is an idiot.
Nimura Ruruko was the one to respond to him. "Idiot, we've known about Sam since he transferred in."
"W-wait, why didn't I know?"
She snorted as she replied, "Cause you're new!"
Her answer caused everyone else to laugh.
Genshirou looks at everyone laughing and gives a tired sigh. "Alright, that's fair."
As everyone calms down, Kusaka Reya turns to me and asks, "Sam, weren't you recovering?"
I thump my chest as I give my answer: "I'm all healed up now; I just have to take it easy with physical training for a bit longer."
"What are you here for, then?"
"Training, specifically my abilities, my near-death experience seemed to awaken some new abilities."
At that, Yusa perks up and responds, "Does that mean you're stronger now?"
"I'm pretty sure that it does; I just need to get an idea of how much."
"Can I watch?" And at that question, all the girls lean in as if to ask the same question.
"I don't mind."