The Contract

Chapter 17

Show me how you fight these", Joyce said and moved her hand in a small circle. Suddenly, there were three small demons in shape of really big crows standing in front of me, with a distance of not more than two meters. With another movement of Joyce's, they rushed towards me and attacked me, so I swung my scythe – and hit the ground. I hit the ground. What the heck was that?! I let go of the scythe and held off the demon crows with my feet until Joyce made them vanish.

„That's gonna be a problem", she said. I sighed.

„Could you please be more precise? Like, tell me what is gonna be the problem?", I asked. Joyce seemed deep i thoughts, staring at the ground, then looking up at me.

„Your servant doesn't seem to trust you", she said after a while. I couldn't avoid moaning.

„Of course not, how could he?", I asked. Joyce just shook her head in total disbelief.

„You may be strong, but incredibly stupid. You can't fight when your demon doesn't have any faith in you – you saw what happens. How are you going to kill Hajime like this?", she scolded me. Gosh.

„So you're telling me to go make up with Dante, aren't you?", I asked. Joyce snorted and buried her face in her hands.

„What a drag. Yes, go make up with that stupid guy! I can't believe he sulks over such a incompetent girl", she murmured and gave me a sign to go. If it was that easy, I would have made up with Dante immediately.

„Isn't there any other way? Like, teaching me to use an ordinary weapon?", I asked, my voice not more than a mere whisper. I was so ashamed of myself for being so difficult I could have died. Joyce looked at me like I had just made a joke.

„I hope you know that means you'll fight a fight without your scythe against one of the mightiest vampires alive", she warned me. I nodded. It was obvious I couldn't make up with Dante as long as there was still the bargain with Shayde – one more problem to solve.

„Okay, then, choose weapons you will use. Even though I don't think you will survive the fight without a demon weapon."

The following three months were a pure torture. Joyce made me use swords, kunais, various guns, ordinary scythes, twin blades, a variety of knives and even fans. Fans. And she trained me so hard that I was aching when I went to sleep and even worse when I got up. My life turned into a fighting game, every day I did nothing but defend demons with different weapons and armor, eat and sleep. Dante had distanced himself from me completely and as a cause, it became also clearer I would probably never be able to use Kira. The demons got stronger every day and I had to remember a few weak magical spells that would guard me a little bit, I was supposed to forge swords and knives by myself and Joyce explained every weakness of a vampire to me. She seemed to want me to survive, though I knew she disliked me. Maybe the reason for it was that she was pretty close to Reiji who had brought me here, and after I had been training at her dojo for months, I till didn't know anything about their relationship. But I had things to focus on, such as surviving the torment caused by Joyce's determination to keep me alive. Maybe she also had a grudge against this Hajime-guy and wanted me to kill him, but then... she was so much stronger than me, why not do it herself?

One day, she ordered me to sleep and eat well before practice. I was confused, because she usually never thought about my physical strength. Also, she seemed to be a bit nervous, but I didn't ask. Asking Joyce things about her behavior was always a bad idea – I had experienced this many times the last months. So I sat in the living room, ate some meat from yesterday and freshly cooked rice and then got ready. When I left the dojo and stepped outside to where we were practicing, there wasn't Joyce standing there. It was Reiji, smiling at me with a face that gave me the creeps.