"Let's train!"

Not a single second remained wasted as Rei instantly hissed out a reply even when huffing with exhaustion, veins still popping all around her physical body and her training clothes stuck over the curves of her body. With her hands finding support on her bent knees, Rei looked at Nik with an expectant look while panting.

"Train? No, sit down, Rei."

Nik remained seated and pointed at the area in front of him, pulling a look of disapproval from Rei. But her inner reproach did not muddle the clear facts that Nik was stronger, and probably, experienced in few things that she did not know. And, after training with Shinobu for such a long time, Rei had grown a bit mature to not judge everything at its face value.

Walking up to the position with quivering knees, taking a seat happened to be more stressful than exercising since Rei committed her hardest to not just fall on her butt like the last time and when she finally took a seat, a wave of exhaustion threatened to temporarily close her consciousness.

"Listen to me closely, Rei. Focus on my voice."

Nik spoke casually, yet there remained an undeniable hint of magnetism in his voice. His words seemingly pulling Rei's barely collapsing consciousness towards them and ignoring the pain and lassitude wreaking havoc within her body.

"W-we should train."

Managing a reply, Rei's eyes still remained firm. Her gaze matching Nik's as she slowly controlled her breath.

"No, you have to rest now. Loosen yourself a little."

Nik continued calmly, his [Pheromone Illusion] slowly controlling the surrounding and turning the entire hall into a domain of illusion and lust that worked wonders on Rei's exhausted body. If the flush on her face had been due to the strenuous activity of controlling her breath for a long time while jogging then now, that very crimson tinge had a whole new meaning.

"B-but—"

"I understand." Nik continued with a hint of a smile on his lips, "You wish to get stronger. So do others... but, if a human becomes obsessive to strength, how is he any different from demons?

So relax. 

Let your exhaustion pass out of your body through your breathing."

Slowly, under Nik's observant gaze, the tense veins over Rei's exposed skin slowly retracted, her frame grew smaller by an extremely slight margin and finally, the agitated look on her face morphed into that of serenity.

"Good. Now, think back. Remember the pain of your lungs almost bursting during the jogging." Ignoring the soft frown on Rei's face, Nik continued, "Never ever forget the pain that you had to go through to get stronger."

Of course, Nik didn't truly believe in his words. Even during his own training, Nik had felt the same pain, but he would rather forget his own hardships after achieving his goals. 

Meanwhile, Rei nodded and recalled the most recent jogging and the feeling of her body being pushed to its very limits.

"Aannnnddd—"

Snap

Nik snapped his fingers, bringing Rei out of her dazed state and to her disbelief, she wasn't feeling pain anymore. This was one of the techniques Nik wished to practice and from the look on Rei's face, Nik concluded his experiment a success, bringing a wide grin to his face.

"How are you feeling?"

Rei looked at Nik, her eyes finally able to concentrate on his face instead of remaining unfocused due to pain and finally, recalled the intimate contact between Shinobu and Nik in the backyard.

"F-fine!"

Stammering, Rei tried standing only to fall back down but the expected stinging feeling never came back, making her frown.

"It's a little trick." Nik smiled, "Even though you are not feeling pain, that doesn't mean that your muscles aren't exhausted. Just lie down, I'll help you sleep quickly."

Nik patted his thighs and suck closer to the crimson Rei.

"No, i-it's fine." Rei shook her head, which, to her relief, did make Nik's action stop, but just for a moment as he finally sat near Rei's head and helped her head up over to his right thigh.

"You know, just a denial in the form of a polite gesture is hardly convincing."

Rei is a beautiful, hardworking young woman with a beautiful personality and Nik... well, he is an incubus. There was no way that Nik wouldn't try and take advantage of Rei and not sweet-talk her and from the sweet expression on her face, Nik reckoned that she probably liked feeling treated in such a special manner.

"So? What's your story, Rei? Nik gently played with Rei's orange hair, his thoughts also drifting back to Pavāka's and Virya's soft, silky hair. He really missed them. A soft sigh escaped both, Rei's and Nik's lips as the lady in question spoke up softly.

"My family was killed by demons... my whole village."

Even though Nik had expected a similar story, he still felt a little sad. Even Saeko and Shizuka were orphaned due to demons at a young age. But without letting his own emotions transpire on his face and dampen the lady's expression, Nik skillfully scratched the top of Rei's head, making her expression a little soft while responding in a whisper, "Your parents... they must have been very proud..."

"I would rather want them to be alive."

Rei stated sincerely, without any ripple in her voice. She had lived long enough to understand that obsessing with her parent's death and recalling them was different, extremely so. 

"Yeah."

Nii continued playing with her hair without giving any response. Soon, as Rei kept getting Nik's attention while Saya and Aoi would continuously observe the duo whenever they crossed the backyard during the jogging. Soon, exhaustion finally caught up and Rei's soft snore echoed within the hall. 

"Well, this isn't so bad... maybe, I should also give my training a rest..."

Nik softly massaged Rei's forehead just because of the fact that he didn't have anything else to do. After a few minutes, a beaten up Aoi struggled to enter the dojo and Nik quickly used his Pheromone Domain to help ease Aoi's tension as she finally reached towards Nik.

"Come on."

Nik smiled broadly patted his left thigh, only for Aoi to gaze at him darkly and snorting in return... before copying Rei and lying opposite to Rei with her head resting on Nik's left thigh.

Once again, the surrounding turned peaceful with Nik's hand attending to both of the heads simultaneously without losing the technique. But it was only until Zenitsu's loud shout disrupted the surrounding as the blonde youth rushed into the hall with a loud shout and tears in his eyes only to meet a terrifying Nik gazing at him with a look of pure menace, making Zenitsu choke on his words and quickly rush back to the adversary that made him cry in the first place.

It wasn't until the late afternoon that Nik finally took his leave as Rei finally woke up and looked after the sleeping Aoi and Saya with a perceptible blush on her face.

***

Alternate Title: Zenitsu— Imma go back to Inosuke now.