The Red Hand

Chapter 201 – Brain Power!

Once Akagi stopped goofing around, she and Kana prepared for a bit of sparring. Kana had gotten a bit more comfortable wielding Himari, so Akagi wanted to give her a bit of practical training. Also smack her around a bit, since that was fun.

"Oh, are they going to practice?" Hishya said as she walked into the garden with a bag of chips in her hand. She'd begun living in a small apartment-sized room at the estate after her decision to move to Dumetor, and had taken well to life at the estate, though Kana noted that her laziness had gotten worse since she'd embraced her draconic nature completely.

"Yeah, I'm still surprised how fast Kana picked up swordplay. She got Himari only recently and can already swing it around like a pro." Naomi was still unable to do much with her magic, and Mika was similarly inept.

"Well, this is Kana we're talking about." Mika commented. "She's the Demon Princess with a magical Spirit sword, so getting the hang of using it isn't that crazy."

"Considering who her sister is, yeah you're probably right." Hishya chuckled. "Though I wonder..."

{Is Akagi going to try and teach Kana her special sword school? She is quite intelligent, but I don't think Kana can handle it.} (Hishya)

"Alright." Akagi snapped her fingers and swapped back to her usual appearance, as kitty combat was shot down by Kana. "Let's start out by having you show me what you've learned so far. Bring out Himari and try to strike me with her blade. You may start whenever you're ready, and don't hold back at all" She turned her back towards Kana and began whistling an anime opening.

"You know, you could at least try to take this seriously..." Kana sighed as she summoned Himari. "Give me a hand here, I want to bonk this sister of mine on the head for being such a pain."

"I can't guarantee anything, but we can try." Himari answered. "Just please don't break me..."

"I can't guarantee anything, but I'll try." Kana decided to repeat Himari's comment back to the sword, which caused Hishya to laugh.

“Nah, go ahead and break her in two. It will be a good lesson for my foolish sister of mine.” Momo laughed from within Naomi.

“Shut up, stick!” Himari, somehow, blew a raspberry.

"Alright enough of that. Let's go, Himari!" Kana ran forward towards her sister, swinging her blade from right to left.

Without looking, Akagi casually stepped out of the way, dodging the blade by inches. "Come on, let me see all that progress!" She laughed as she slide around Kana's blade and dodged her attacks with ease. The scene unfolding in the garden was farcical in nature, as Akagi deftly moved around Kana with minimal effort. Kana would always get close to hitting her sister, but her blade would never hit its mark. The Demon was more than content to play with her student, and was using her superior speed and skill to show Kana just how little power she really had.

"Stop moving, and let me hit you!" Kana cried out in frustration.

"Now where's the fun in that?" Akagi laughed as she spun around Kana's blade, grabbed her wrist, and slammed the palm of her hand into her sister's back causing her to lurch forward before falling to the ground with a thud.

"Getting aggravated at her won't help, Kana." Hishya shook her head from the sidelines. "Trust me, I've tried that."

{If being angry with Akagi made you get more powerful, then I'd be stronger than a Demon Lord by now.} (Hishya)

Ignoring the Dragon's comment, Kana got back up as she spit onto the ground. "Since when were you attacking back?" Her irritation levels were already rising, and Himari could tell she was getting sloppy.

"I never said I wouldn't, did I?" Akagi smiled, happy that her plan was working. "Come, let's go again. Unless that pathetic display is all you've got to show me?" She motioned for her sister to come again, and the arrogance and smarmy attitude on display by the Demon only served to boil Kana's blood.

{Man Akagi. You have no chill even for your sister. That's a really cold and petty trick you're using on her, and I find it funny as hell!} (Himari)

"You're going to regret those words when I have you on the ground begging for mercy!" Kana channeled her magic power, causing her eye to go orange, before zipping towards Akagi at much higher speeds.

{Nice, she's gotten better at controlling her magic. Though that comment...} (Hishya)

"Oh wow! You're a bit faster." Akagi smiled as she ducked below the incoming blade and twirled away from Kana with an overly dramatic flourish. "But still too slow to harm me." She laughed as Kana unleashed another flurry of strikes, all of which were much faster than before, but none of which managed to strike the Demon.

"GRRRRR" Kana grit her teeth in irritation as Akagi spun in place while laughing.

{Why am I getting so annoyed?!? I already know that beating her isn't happening. But dammit does her attitude piss me off! I want to smack that fucking grin off her face!} Kana moved forward again, but was likewise unable to land a single blow on Akagi.

{She's falling for it, and since she has no resistance or understanding of Akagi's technique, it's having an even greater effect. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Akagi would use it on her own sister, and I can't be mad since its probably good to give her some exposure.} (Hishya)

"Akagi's just playing around with her." Naomi commented. “She's not even taking this seriously...”

"Yeah. But why is she letting herself get so worked up? This is just practice." Mika asked.

"It's because of Akagi's technique." Hishya answered while sighing.

"Technique?" (Mika x Naomi)

Seeing that the two girls were unaware of what she was talking about, Hishya decided to explain while Kana and Akagi continued their practice. "You see, back during FWO, Akagi created her own school of swordsmanship, one that works with her own innate mental ability." She continued. “This one takes that ability and pushes it to its fullest potential, and I can attest that that its effective and dangerous.”

{I've been beaten by it more times then I care to admit. Not only does that girl have that stupid brain thing, but she can make it work in combat! Talk about bullshit! I bet that's how she always kicked my ass in Mech Warriors!} (Hishya)

"She created an entire sword school?" Naomi asked. "That's... how is that even possible?"

"By blending her prediction and calculation abilities with her style of fighting." Hishya explained as Kana was knocked to the ground, again. The girl shouted in anger, and Akagi continued to laugh at her as she got up. "What you're seeing here, Kana getting agitated, that's actually one of Akagi's techniques that she uses during combat."

"She's using magic on her?" Mika figured that's what was going on.

"Nope." Hishya answered. "She's not actually using magic, rather she's using her words and infusing them with..." She stopped for a moment. "Ok well, it's not actualy magic, but it's a kind of mental attack, I'm not sure how to classify it. However, the point is to undermine your opponent's concentration and cause them to slip."

"So she's basically just trying to make her opponent get angry and take advantage of her mistakes." Naomi surmised.

"Yes. Akagi coined the term, let me see if I can get this right, Dur Ma to describe this technique. Apparently, it means something akin to mental warfare in the Demon language." Hishya explained. "It's one of the most important aspects of the Thousand Branches School, second only to the ability to predict your opponent's next move." As she said this, Kana smacked against the ground, hard, and Akagi told her they were finished.

"You've got a lot to work on, your form is sloppy, and you're too easily riled up. If that small amount of teasing gets under your skin, you're in for a rude awakening in a real fight." Akagi shook her head in disappointment.

"Well, maybe you should just teach me whatever kind of style you use." Kana said sarcastically as Akagi helped her up.

"That's not possible." Akagi said.

"What? Why not? Are you afraid I'll be better than you? Or is it because you don't have a technique?" Kana smirked, she was still in a mood. "All you seem to do is flail about during combat, and I've never seen you take a stance. So I doubt you actually have anything like a technique."

Akagi shifted her jaw for a moment before calling out to Hishya. "Yo Dragon, you hear that?"

"Yes, I did." Hishya sighed as she walked over. "Kana isn't the first person to make that mistake, me included."

"What?" Kana tilted her head. "What are you talking about?"

"Akagi does have a technique, Kana. And as I just explained to those two, she is the founder of her own sword School." Hishya explained everything she just told Naomi and Mika.

"So you were doing something to me!" Kana glared at her sister. "I knew something was wrong, during that fight! I never get that irritated." She sighed. "But I still don't see what you're talking about. How is that a School? It's just messing with your opponent during combat, and she never uses proper techniques. All she does is move around and evade me."

"Well, you're wrong, again..." Hishya denied Kana's comment. "Akagi does have techniques, and you were fighting against one just now."

"The mental thing doesn't count." Kana quipped.

"No, I mean a fighting style, Kana." Hishya shook her head. "That relaxed and free-flowing movement IS how she fights and IS its own technique."

"???" Kana still didn't understand.

"The Thousand Branches School revolves around predicting an opponent's next move." Akagi opted to explain. "Thus, maintaining a loose stance is important as it allows me to rapidly react to an opening I find in my enemy. To you what seemed like me just messing around was actually a key part of my fighting style. Think something like the Drunken Fist style you see in movies. The practitioner isn't actually a fool, but their style helps get people off their guard, and their strange movements trip people up." That was her best explanation.

"Ok, so why can't you teach me it?" Kana asked.

"Because you lack the brain power to do it." Akagi gave a blunt answer.

Kana didn't know how to react at first. "We both know that I'm smarter than you."

"This is a different kind of intelligence, Kana." Hishya said. "I tried to learn this before, and I could only barely get it working. And even once I did, I was still limited to a few milliseconds of prediction. It wasn't workable for me, and while you are miles ahead of me in raw intelligence, you lack the calculation power of our resident Demon." She pointed to Akagi. "That crazy mind of hers processes information at a scary fast speed, and that technique was created for her own use. It's not something others can use."

"Exactly." Akagi nodded.

"We won't know till we try!" Kana wasn't backing down.

"Fine, but don't blame me when you get a massive headache." Akagi shrugged. Akagi then explained the basics of how to use the technique and the mental steps required, and while Kana understood the technical side, she quickly found out that it was too advanced for her to replicate. The splitting headache she got after attempting even low-level calculations only served to hammer home the impossibility of reproducing the Demon's ability.

"I feel like my head is going to pop..." Kana said as she lay on the couch. "How the hell do you do something like that? My brain felt like it would turn to mush after just a second." She'd been overloaded with too much information and was feeling ill.

"It gets a bit better after some practice." Hishya gave a wry smile. "But yeah, opening up your mind like that, even for just a single moment, is crazy. It's a wonder Akagi was able to do that as a human."

"It wasn't perfect back then, and my ability was much more limited." Akagi said as she brought Kana some headache medication. "The problem comes from the physical brain itself."

"I assume it's because it just can't handle that much information?" Naomi said.

"Yes, that's part of it." Akagi nodded. "The human brain is not meant for that much information to come flooding in every second, and on top of that, the time delay due to biological signals being passed around makes it slow." Neurons could fire off signals at around 275mph, but that was still too slow for Akagi's needs. This left her hard-capped on the amount of prediction she could do until her body was converted into an incorporeal shadow.

"If you have that much brainpower, why didn't you get better grades in school?" Kana asked as she lay on the couch in pain.

"Because this ability is not linked to mundane things like memory recall. It's independent of it, and while it can be used to brute force something like a math problem, it's not able to suddenly make me better at grammar." Akagi laughed.

"I wonder why you were born with that ability." Mika questioned the reason.

"I have no clue where it came from, and it's not a product of my status as a Demon Lord." Akagi shrugged. "But no matter why, I'm glad to have it."

"Yeah, as I saw myself, even fighting you at a severe power advantage doesn't mean anything when you know what I'm going to do." Hishya sighed. She didn't think Akagi's ability would make their earlier fight as one-sided as it was.

"Well, I don't know what you are going to do." Akagi corrected her. "I predict your moves based on all available data and logic. I do not have precognition, as that would be even more powerful." She wanted to point out the difference.

"At this point, does it really matter?" Hishya said. "You basically know everything that's about to happen no matter what term you use to describe it."

"It does matter, because someone with precog is going to be a very tricky opponent, even for me, because they can literally see what's going to happen next, and it's not exactly easy to fight someone like that." Akagi said.

"Yeah, but no one has that power." Hishya said as she took a sip of her water.

"No one we've met." Akagi corrected her. "I don't doubt they exist, somewhere anyway."

"Well, if they do, then perhaps they can free us from the tyranny of the Demon Lord." Naomi laughed.

"Seeing the future and being able to do anything about it are two very different thing, Naomi." Akagi chuckled. “They first have to be capable of beating me for such knowledge to be anything more than a self inflicted horror.”