Prying myself out of the girls without alerting them will be an impossible task.

So, I could go full pervert and risk seeing if that works.

But no, more likely that will turn into a dangerous situation. Although the harem anime dream of a sevensome is ambitious, I'd literally need the endurance of a porn star to pull that off...

"Ah... you finished getting stronger again?" Aria suddenly raises her head and stares at me with a smile and lidded eyes. She looks kinda sleepy and cute.

"Mmm, I did." I nod at her. "The unravelling mostly increased Aeris' power though."

"Eh... ano... Aeris is stronger? Again?" The sword next to me exclaims.

"Nnn... eh? I am? I am!"

"Even your sword is confused by your weird power!" Aria snickers.

This conversation has brought the others to attention. I notice everyone is now looking up expectantly.

Seria rolls over and taps sword Aeris with a finger as her eyes glow slightly.

"Kyaaaa!" Aeris squeals cutely.

"Fufufu... so you too must have met that ancient spirit again. It truly has a strange degree of interest in this venture."

"Too? So, Thanatos also appeared for you, Seria?"

"Quite. Though mostly just observing me. I thought it a test." She nods.

"Well... it spoke to me. It appears to support the destruction of Cultivator. Something about his Void spirit's plans and hubris threatening the world."

"Really!?" Aria exclaims. "I don't know if that's a good thing..."

"Um... I know it probably sounds a dumb question... but Cultivator has his own void spirit... and it has plans? Do spirits have plans?" Kiku asks.

Actually... it’s probably not as dumb as it sounds. Especially when you look at Aeris (poor Aeris...).

Seria furrows her brows and ponders at this information though.

"I have started to think abnormal occurrences are actually just standard when the boy is involved. Then again, it -is- why I have come this far, fufufufu..."

"Michael has plans. I think." Rishya looks shifty eyed. "I... I don't understand them in the slightest, though. Well... except the one to get me with Elijah-sama." She blushes.

"Hence... it is a thing that more powerful or old spirits do, yes?" Kaede adds.

We stew on that for a second. Seems a likely hypothesis.

"All thinking. Less thinking!" Kali exclaims, balling her fists and jumping on the bed.

I laugh. She's right. The quote of a samurai exclaiming 'Too many mind!' appears in my head.

"Yeah, it’s probably not worth worrying about. So, there's a layer of plans in plans we can't begin to fathom. So what? At the end of the day, we just have a job to do, right?" I say.

"You're so carefree, Onii-chan." Aria snickers. "But that's another one of your charm points, right?"

The girls laugh.

...

...

...

"Shit! No fuckin' way! That's crap, Nii! You'll just die fighting that way!"

The training stick clatters to the ground, and I exhale harshly and rub my aching legs. Even with my increased endurance, Kiku's training is murderous. She pulls no punches, for sure.

Yes, Kiku is going through basics first, so I'm not even wielding Aeris at the moment. Aeris has readopted girl form and is sat on a barrel swinging her legs and snickering at me being beaten up.

For some reason, Aria and Seria decided to watch as well. Aria said something like 'I'm sure I can get tips from just watching Kiku!'. Seria... I have no idea. She is quietly reading a book whilst sat in a tall backed leather chair that looks horribly out of place in this gym-like space.

It seems that Aria, Seria and Rishya can't manifest their spirits non-object forms like Aeris can. It seems linked to the void for some reason. Seria did briefly manage in the circle, of course. But since we know Thanatos was involved in that, I suppose that explains things.

"Um... Nii... are you really paying attention?" Kiku looks at me under her eyes, smiling like the devil.

Scary!

"Y-yes ma'am!" I yelp.

"Hmm... that so?" She puts her hand to her head and runs it through a twin-tail. She still looks dissatisfied. Her brows crease as her big green eyes stare at me.

"It... it's not like you're lying... is it? Mmmmgh..." she puts a finger to her cheek and closes her one eye.

"Um... it's just... Nii... I hate to say Kali's right... but you think too much. In battle... you can't have any thoughts besides now. Now. You. The enemy."

"It... it doesn't matter how you fight. Why you fight. Who they are. What they did. When the sword is in your hand, all your thoughts are for the sword."

She smiles wistfully and shrugs.

"This is why Bladeswards are actually quite rare. Spells and spirits need you to think about them. Think about... well whatever it is you think about when you do spells. Um... I don't know what that is."

I guess she's right. You imagine thunder to get thunder magic. Things like that.

I nod.

"But to be good at a sword..." she pauses.

"I need to think about nothing else. Right."

She nods. But then she squints and looks upset again, looking at her feet and twiddling her thumbs. It’s sort of cute.

"Um... well... um... I guess that’s a lie though... at some point... your body becomes so attuned to your sword that suddenly you don't think about it at all. You gain a state... um... dad called it 'The Edge'. And then... only then... can you have space to think other things."

Right... Kiku's basically a master swordsman. I'm fairly sure the blade as an extension of the self is a big trait in that. A combat trance is another.

I wonder if I'm rather doomed in that regard then? Even though I say a lot that I shouldn't dwell on things, there's no denying the fact that I ponder all the time.

I wonder if I could ever switch that part of me off and...

Maybe I can. Whatever is this skill tree for if not that?

Let’s check it out!