Ruria Arc: Farida's Training

There was a system called Rental that let you lend a Garumon to someone.

Using it, you could lend one out under specified conditions:

• Can/cannot be used for wagers

• Can/cannot have sex

• Can/cannot battle

• Level setting for command authority

Absolute obedience / obeys battle-type commands / obeys sex-type commands / does not obey

… and so on. You could set fine-grained conditions and then lend the Garumon out.

Using this, I could have Ruria put Farida through training.

There's no time like the present, so I promptly got in touch with Ruria.

Ruria quickly cleared her schedule and met me.

"Naoto…!"

Ruria came flying happily into my chest.

She was holding Meifa's hand at the time, so the two of them ended up flying in together.

Meifa landed against my chest looking a little embarrassed.

"… Naoto, I'm so happy you got in touch."

Ruria looked up at me with moistened eyes.

… Drawn in by those eyes, I ended up giving Ruria a little chu, a kiss.

"Haa… Naoto…"

It had been an impulsive act, but Ruria looked delighted. Her affection level was already considerably high.

"… Naoto-sama, me too…"

Meifa was also looking at me with a slightly envious expression.

In that case, I gave Meifa a chu too.

Being able to savor both girls' soft, sweet lips felt blissful.

"Um, sorry to bother you when you're busy. I have a little favor to ask of Ruria…"

With that, I introduced Farida.

"Um, I think you've met her a few times… this is my comrade Farida.

She's currently LV17, so I think you'd be evenly matched.

Pure power-leveling doesn't build real ability, so…

Gehfun, gehfun.

Anyway, I was hoping she could train alongside Ruria.

Her abilities are specialized for support, so I think she'll mesh well with the two of you.

She shouldn't drag you down. Would you mind taking care of her?"

"U-um. I'm the newest among Naoto-san's Garumon comrades.

I might not exactly be a strong Garumon.

… But my desire to grow stronger isn't going to lose to anyone's.

Please, I'm in your hands."

Farida bowed deeply as she said it.

"Of course you're more than welcome! Pleased to meet you, Farida!"

Ruria accepted Farida with utter ease.

"One more thing. Farida gets busy sometimes and can't always battle freely, so please coordinate schedules with her."

"Understood. Leave it to me."

Meifa volunteered to handle this part.

Farida could manage her own scheduling, so this would work, right?

"All right, I'm counting on you. Do your best."

And so I lent Farida to Ruria.

 

*

 

"And so… I'll be working with you from now on, Farida."

"Yes, pleased to be working with you, Ruria-san."

"Pleased to be working with you."

"Yes, pleased to be working with you, Meifa-san."

The three beautiful girls greeted one another warmly. And then…

"Well then, let's head straight to D-Class battles!"

The three of them set out for the Eora D-Class battleground.

"… I'm sorry I'm so weak. In the last battle, Seika… one of my comrades, boosted me and raised my abilities.

I've leveled up since then and learned one more skill…

Naoto-san is happy and tells me I learned an amazing skill, but I don't really understand it myself."

"Interesting skill loadout…

Strike and Speed Reset are a bit hard to use. But the other four are all useful skills.

Indeed, Free Act is interesting."

"You can tell?"

"Yes, of course. Well then, I'm counting on you."

"… Yes!"

And so to the battleground.

A trio of peerless beautiful girls. And low-level on top of that.

… Naturally, every D-Class Master present grew flushed and excited.

If they could possibly get their hands on these beautiful girls… it wouldn't be strange if every single one of them challenged her to a battle.

Of course, no matter how many challenged her, Ruria could only accept one at a time.

And once she'd fought that one, she wouldn't need to fight the next battle for ten minutes.

So from the second battle onward, she could pick opponents who seemed easy to beat.

That made the first battle the important one. Who would challenge her was decided first-come, first-served.

A challenge from a lower-tier D-Class Master — fortunate for the still-low-level trio.

"Let's go, Meifa, Farida!"

"Yes!"

"Yes!"

Battle begin.

"Meifa, Leaf Dance, Shadow Clone! Farida, Free Act on the clone's Earth Barrier.

Clone, Earth Barrier!"

"Yes! Leaf Dance, Shadow Clone."

Meifa's clone appeared.

"Yes! Free Act!"

"Earth Barrier!"

The clone used the attack-drawing defense skill.

The clone and Meifa shared skill counts. But their HP was independent.

No matter how much damage the clone took, it wouldn't affect anything once the battle ended.

"W-waa, I can't see…!"

"Tch, what are you doing, Gaye!"

Gaye's blind attack missed.

Gasa, gasagasagasa…!

From there, the leaves rustled against each other and scattered noise everywhere.

"… Zaemi, Fireball! Burn the leaves!"

"Ice Needle!"

The noise interfered with the Master's instructions. If she couldn't hear, Zaemi could only take the action she'd originally decided on.

The ice needles, with imprecise aim, missed.

"Then, here I come… Continuous Flash… no. Iaijutsu!"

"Protection!"

Sensing the opponent Miif was raising a defense barrier, Ruria instantly switched her action.

The piercing attack cut through Miif.

About 1/3 damage.

"We can do this. Next turn we drop the Defender, Miif.

Farida, Free Act on my Iaijutsu!"

"Yes! Free Act!"

"Iaijutsu!"

Zan! Zan!

With a flowing two-strike combo, she dropped Miif in one turn beautifully.

As expected, the opponent's attack didn't miss two turns in a row, but they tanked it with the Earth-Barrier-raised clone.

"Leaf Shuriken!"

Meifa's attack stacked damage on Gaye and Zaemi.

"Now to wrap this up in one go! Continuous Flash!"

"Leaf Shuriken!"

"Fast Attack!"

Zaemi went down, and Gaye's HP was all that remained, barely.

"Gh… s-strong! Is this one of this year's rookie Masters? This one… reminds me of last year's Naoto Akai…"

"! … You've fought Naoto-sama?"

"O-oh yeah… Well, got tossed around pretty easily. I fought him a few times, and each time he was stronger.

Now he's an S-Class Master, they say. Pretty incredible, eh."

"… Fufufu."

Ruria smiled happily…

"From now on, please speak of me in the same breath! Haa!"

Zan!

The finishing blow on Gaye. The damage the clone had taken didn't matter. Having spent only skill counts, they broke through the first battle.

"We can do this. At this pace, today we'll go for five straight battles!"

"Ah, yes!"

Farida looked a little relieved.

"… Did you just feel relieved?"

"Ah, no… if it's five battles, even I think I can manage at our current pace.

If it were Naoto-san, in this kind of situation he'd name a number that would make me think 'huh, that's impossible!'…"

"… As expected of Naoto. Maybe I should be pushing harder too…"

Ruria thought for a moment, but…

"No, let's not overdo it. Getting carried away by someone with talent and breaking your own pace is the worst thing you can do.

Let's go at our own pace.

… However, when we level up and learn a new skill, we'll add one more battle."

"Yes!"

… And so, all three leveled up safely, and since Ruria learned one new skill, they added one more battle.

Their skill counts grew precarious, but they pulled off a splendid victory.

"All right, today's goal achieved!"

Pan!

The three of them clapped their hands together high.

"Let's head back to the inn and have a meal… We need a debrief on issues, too.

Farida, if you noticed anything, speak up about anything at all."

"… Yes."

Over this single day, Farida had grown deeply impressed with Ruria and Meifa's abilities and talent.

She regularly watched Naoto's high-level comrades in action. The movements themselves weren't beyond that.

But the fineness of their sense, their eyes that read ahead, the wit to outmaneuver their opponents — in Farida's eyes, the level was breathtaking.

If they kept growing like this, they seemed sure to reach a considerable level.

"(To have noticed Ruria-san's talent — truly, that's Naoto-san for you.

For me too, battling with Ruria-san and the others is incredible training.

I'll grow stronger together with Ruria-san… and have Naoto-san praise me lots!)"

The three of them got off to an excellent start.

And so they kept stacking up D-Class battles… aiming for two D-Class tournaments.