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Chapter 11: Sword Girl
Tsuna continued his training session with Bell. After the grueling sparring match, Bell desperately clung to Tsuna, pushing himself to the absolute limit, but he was completely unable to force Tsuna to take a single step backward.
"Phew..."
Currently, Tsuna was back at the church practicing his Koine writing, while Bell was dead asleep on the sofa. After their training, Bell's exhaustion had peaked, forcing them to return home so he could rest.
Using magic consumed an energy known as Mind. If an adventurer pushed themselves too far and depleted their Mind entirely, they would suffer a forced loss of consciousness known as Mind Down. While Bell hadn't suffered a Mind Down during their sparring, he had still expended a massive amount of Mind casting Firebolt, placing a severe strain on his body.
"I'm home~."
"Ah, welcome back, Hestia."
"Oh, you guys are back early. How did your first trip to the Dungeon go?"
"Yeah. We made it down to the 9th Floor, but..."
"The 9th Floor!?"
Tsuna casually answered her question, but hearing that they had reached the 9th Floor on his very first day caused Hestia to shriek in disbelief.
"W-What were you thinking!? Going all the way down to the 9th Floor on your first dive!?"
"Hestia, keep your voice down! You'll wake Bell!"
"S-Sorry about that..."
Realizing Bell was asleep on the sofa, Hestia frantically lowered her voice to a whisper. Fortunately, Bell didn't stir, and both of them breathed a sigh of relief.
"Wait, what happened to him? He looks completely exhausted... Did something happen in the Dungeon?"
"No. I was the only one fighting in the Dungeon, so nothing happened there. But..."
"I feel like you just casually dropped a completely terrifying piece of information, but we'll shelve that for now... If nothing happened in the Dungeon, then what happened to him?"
"He asked me to train him."
"Train him?"
"Yeah. We sparred for a while, but he completely wore himself out and fell asleep as soon as we got back."
"I see... So, what's your assessment? How does Bell-kun look to you?"
"I think he'll definitely get stronger as he gains more experience. But right now, it seems like more of a mental block."
"A mental block?"
"Yeah. It looked like he was terrified of something. That fear is holding him back and preventing him from bringing out his true potential. If he can overcome whatever is scaring him, I don't think he'll have any problems in a fight."
"Is that so..."
Something about Tsuna's observation seemed to strike a chord with Hestia. Her expression grew somber as she looked down at the sleeping boy.
"Well, I'm just glad nothing bad happened in the Dungeon. But don't let your guard down, okay? Just because you're strong doesn't mean you should get cocky."
"Yeah, I know. That's exactly why I decided to turn back at the 9th Floor."
"R-Right..."
It was practically unheard of for a rookie adventurer to reach the 9th Floor on their first day. Normally, adventurers started on the 1st Floor and slowly, painstakingly worked their way down over weeks or months. Hestia was slightly taken aback by how casually Tsuna treated the achievement.
He said he "decided" to turn back at the 9th Floor... Does that mean he could have kept going deeper if he wanted to...? Just how ridiculously strong are you, Tsunayoshi-kun...?
The sheer, nonsensical scale of Tsuna's power left Hestia utterly speechless.
"Ah, right. Here's our cut of the reward from today..."
Tsuna picked up the leather pouch he had left on the table, untied the string, and dumped the golden coins out onto the wood.
"We earned 70,000 Valis total, and I split it evenly with Lili, so our share is 35,000 Valis."
"THIRTY-FIVE THOUSAND VALISSSS!?"
"Hestia!! Your voice!! Your voice!!"
Hearing the massive sum, Hestia let out her loudest, most ungodly shriek yet.
Once Bell finally woke up, they used their newly acquired wealth to treat themselves to a massive, luxurious dinner.
.....
The next day.
"I'm heading out to train..."
"R-Right..."
After Hestia left for her part-time job, Bell trudged out of the church, his face practically pale with exhaustion. Tsuna watched him go with a deeply concerned expression.
Is he really going to be okay...?
Anyone with eyes could see that Bell was pushing himself way too hard.
I should go check on him...
Curious to see exactly what kind of grueling training Bell was subjecting himself to, Tsuna decided to secretly follow him.
.....
Tsuna slipped out of the church and quietly tailed Bell from a safe distance, making sure to stay out of sight.
This route...
Tracking Bell through the city streets, Tsuna noticed that they were heading toward a very familiar location. Because it was so early in the morning, there was barely anyone around.
I knew it... this is...
They had arrived at the same city wall where he and Bell had sparred the day before. Tsuna hid behind a nearby building and watched as Bell began climbing the long stone staircase leading up to the ramparts.
Does he just want a place where no one will bother him...?
There was absolutely nothing on top of the wall. If Bell just wanted a place to train alone, there were certainly better spots than this. Tsuna figured Bell chose this secluded location specifically to avoid any interruptions.
Making sure his footsteps were completely silent, Tsuna slowly crept up the stairs. He paused just a few steps from the top, keeping his head below the edge of the wall.
"I'm sorry, Ais-san. Did I keep you waiting?"
"Don't worry about it. I just got here myself."
A woman's voice...?
From his hiding spot on the stairs, Tsuna heard Bell talking to a woman he had never heard before. Curious, Tsuna crouched down low and carefully peeked over the top step.
"Are you alright? You look incredibly exhausted," the woman noted.
"Actually, someone new joined my Familia recently, and I've been training with him too..."
"I see. What do you want to do? Should we take today off?"
"No, I'm fine! There are things I can only learn from you, Ais-san!"
"Alright... But tell me if it gets to be too much. We'll make sure to take proper breaks."
"Yes!!"
Standing next to Bell was a beautiful young woman with long, flowing golden hair, a finely crafted sword resting at her hip. This was the woman Bell had called "Ais."
I've never seen her before...
Wondering who this mysterious woman was, Tsuna stared at her intently from his hiding spot.
But then—
"Who's there!?"
Crap!! She noticed me!?
Sensing Tsuna's gaze, Ais instantly dropped her hips, gripping her scabbard with her left hand and the hilt of her sword with her right, shifting seamlessly into a flawless combat stance. Panicking, Tsuna quickly ducked down completely, curling into a tight ball on the stairs and clamping both hands over his mouth.
"Come out quietly. Do so, and I won't harm you."
"W-What's wrong, Ais-san...!?"
"There's someone hiding there..."
"Eh!?"
"This could be bad... If someone finds out we've been meeting like this..."
"W-What should we do!?"
"If they refuse to come out, I'll have no choice but to knock them out and erase their memories..."
"No, wait!! You can't do that!!"
Why did this suddenly turn into a violent hostage situation!?
He hadn't even done anything wrong, yet this woman was casually suggesting giving him a concussion to induce amnesia. Tsuna was absolutely terrified.
"W-Wait! It's me!"
Deciding that coming out with his hands up was vastly preferable to getting brain damage, Tsuna hurriedly scrambled up the remaining stairs and revealed himself.
"Tsuna!? Why are you here!?"
"An acquaintance of yours?" Ais asked, her grip on her sword loosening slightly.
"Yes. This is the new Familia member I was just telling you about."
"So this is the boy..."
Knowing he was Bell's ally, Ais quietly relaxed her stance and took her hand off her hilt.
"But... why are you here, Tsuna?"
"Ah... well... I was just worried about you, Bell... I wanted to see what kind of crazy training you were doing..."
I can't believe this... I was so focused on getting stronger that I ended up making Tsuna worry about me...
Realizing his reckless desperation was causing his friends genuine distress, Bell felt a sharp pang of guilt.
"Umm... So you're having her train you?" Tsuna asked, gesturing to Ais.
"Y-Yeah... that's right..."
"Is there a problem with that?"
Tsuna hadn't asked a particularly weird question, but Bell was visibly hesitating to answer. Tsuna immediately sensed there were complicated circumstances at play.
"You... you must have arrived in Orario very recently," Ais said, stepping in to explain.
"Eh? W-Well, yeah..."
"Familias are strictly forbidden from meddling too deeply in the affairs of other Familias."
"Meddling deeply?"
"Yes. If rival factions form overly intimate connections, it can lead to massive conflicts of interest and factional disputes. That's why deep fraternization between different Familias is taboo."
"And I," she continued, "am a member of the Loki Familia. If my Familia finds out I've been secretly training an adventurer from another faction, it will cause a massive incident."
"Then... why are you doing it?"
"Because I caused this boy a great deal of trouble recently. I'm teaching him how to fight for a limited time as an apology."
"I see..."
"So please, I'm asking you to keep this a secret. Please."
"I-I'm begging you too, Tsuna!!"
Ais bowed her head deeply, asking him to keep their secret. Seeing her bow, Bell frantically bowed his head as well.
"Hey, it's fine. I was just worried about Bell. I have absolutely no intention of telling anyone."
"Tsuna..."
Hearing that Tsuna would keep his mouth shut, Bell let out a sigh of relief and smiled brightly.
"Thank you. Your name is Tsuna, right?"
"My real name is Sawada Tsunayoshi, but pretty much everyone calls me Tsuna, so that's fine."
"I see. I am Ais Wallenstein. You can just call me Ais."
Equally relieved, Ais formally introduced herself.
With the misunderstanding cleared up, Bell and Ais began their training session. Since he was already there, Tsuna decided to sit on the edge of the wall and observe.
However—
"Gah...!?"
Within minutes, Tsuna watched in horror as Ais delivered a brutal kick directly to Bell's stomach, instantly knocking him completely unconscious.
"O-One hit..."
Tsuna was dumbfounded. She had literally knocked him out cold with a single, devastating blow.
Ais gently rested the unconscious Bell's head on her lap.
"I'm sorry..." she muttered, looking up at Tsuna with a deeply apologetic expression. "I'm really bad at holding back... It always ends up like this..."
"Bell mentioned yesterday that you were training him too. How do you do it?"
"Basically, I just let Bell attack me, and I focus entirely on defending. Since I don't know the first thing about swordsmanship, my goal is to just force him to figure out how to get stronger through the clash itself."
"I'm not very good at teaching either, so my method is pretty similar to yours. But since I'm actively attacking, I always end up knocking him out. Maybe I shouldn't attack him either?"
"I don't think what you're doing is wrong, Ais. And the fact that you actually feel bad about it makes you infinitely better than my teacher. Reborn would never, ever feel an ounce of guilt..."
"Reborn?"
"My home tutor. That guy doesn't know the meaning of the phrase 'holding back,' and he certainly doesn't feel sorry about almost killing me. Do you have any idea how many times I've almost died since he showed up...?"
"Is it really that bad?"
"'Bad' doesn't even begin to cover it. I've had assassins targeting my life on a daily basis. He blew me up with dynamite whenever I got a math problem wrong. I've almost died from eating literal poison cooking. I caught an incurable skull disease. I was almost crushed by a giant turtle. I was thrown into the ocean with man-eating sharks. I was used as a human punching bag. He told me to infiltrate an enemy mafia base by myself. I was electrocuted underwater. He threw me onto a mountain where only 1 in 100 people survive, left me stranded, and then the mountain caught on fire. I had to climb a sheer cliff face without a safety rope, fell off multiple times, and got crushed under massive boulders..."
"I'm pretty sure... a normal person would have died from any one of those things..."
As Tsuna numbly listed off the endless litany of life-threatening abuse he had suffered under Reborn, Ais stared at him, genuinely bewildered as to how he was still drawing breath.
A few minutes later, Bell finally regained consciousness. He scrambled to his feet, and the sparring resumed. But the outcome was entirely identical. Bell and Ais would clash for a few seconds, Bell would get knocked out, he would wake up, they would clash again, and he would get knocked out again. It was an endless, brutal cycle.
"Haa... haa..."
After nearly an hour of getting repeatedly concussed, Bell was sprawled flat on his back, gasping for air. Having reached his absolute physical limit, they were forced to take a proper break. Ais, on the other hand, wasn't even breathing heavily. She looked like she was merely out for a stroll.
"What about you?" she asked, turning to Tsuna.
"Eh?"
"You're going into the Dungeon too, right? Don't you need to train?"
"A-Ah, I'm fine..."
"I don't mind teaching you since you're keeping our secret."
"N-No, really... I'm good..."
"The Dungeon is full of unpredictable dangers. It never hurts to be prepared."
"Umm..."
"It'll be fine. We're just going to spar. It's not difficult."
W-Why is she being so aggressively pushy about this!?
For some reason, Ais seemed entirely dead-set on fighting him. Tsuna was completely bewildered by her intense persistence.
Wait... looking closely, her face practically screams 'I want to teach you!'
Despite her usual blank, emotionless expression, Tsuna's intuition picked up on her subtle excitement. As a high-ranking veteran, she clearly possessed a deep, burning desire to act as a mentor to the struggling rookies.
"A-Alright... Please take care of me..."
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