SXD: A Lighthearted Training Match

Beacon training room.

The Beacon training room was quiet in the late afternoon save for the couple preparing for their fight. 

Weiss stood at the center of the training ring, Myrtenaster poised elegantly in her grip, the rapier gleaming as the light caused its edge to shine. Her breath puffed lightly in the crisp air as she squared her stance, eyes narrowing at the figure across from her.

Issei Hyoudou was casually stretching, like they weren’t about to duel. He rolled his shoulders, cracked his neck, and leaned back with his hands tucked lazily behind his head.

“Are you sure about this, Weiss?” He asked with that trademark grin of his. “I mean, I don’t want to hurt or embarrass you.”

Weiss’s eye twitched. “The only one that’s going to be humiliated today will be you. And don’t you dare hold back.”

He lifted his left arm, where the crimson gauntlet of the Boosted Gear usually manifested, then dropped it back down. “Yeah, well I won’t be using my gauntlet. It's just going to be me, my body, and some good old-fashioned dodging. Gotta make this fair, right?”

She scoffed. “Fair? You’re going to regret underestimating me.”

With a flick of her wrist, glyphs bloomed into existence around her, scattering motes of light across the field. She lunged, her rapier thrusting forward with lightning precision. Dust cartridges rotated in Myrtenaster’s chamber with a click, the blade igniting in elemental bursts—ice, fire, lightning—each strike a dance of power and elegance.

And Issei?

He just… dodged.

Every thrust. Every slash. Every carefully orchestrated Dust-infused strike.

Weiss’s blade cut through air as he sidestepped, leaned back, hopped over her sweeps. His movements weren’t graceful in the traditional sense. Issei simply moved by using his instinct, allowing his body to respond without him thinking about any of the complicated maneuvers Weiss performed.

Both Issei and Weiss know that he only needed one punch to completely shatter her aura.

“Stand still!” She snapped, her rapier whistling past his shoulder by a hair’s breadth.

“Why?” Issei grinned, stepping back with his hands still laced behind his head, as if mocking her on purpose. “I’m winning just fine like this!”

Her face burned, both from exertion and irritation. “You’re insufferable!”

Glyphs flared around her feet, boosting her forward in a burst of speed. Finally—finally—she landed a strike, the flat of her rapier smacking across his chest with enough force to stagger him back.

Issei gasped dramatically, clutching his heart as he stumbled two steps before collapsing to the ground like he’d been mortally wounded.

“Ugh! My pride! Ohhh it hurts! Ohhh the pain!” He groaned, sprawling across the dirt. “So cruel, Princess… I thought we had something special!”

Weiss stood over him, panting but still composed, Myrtenaster gleaming in her hand. Her shadow fell across him as she arched a brow. “Pathetic. Get up, you drama queen.”

He peeked up at her from one squinted eye, grin creeping across his face. “Can I at least get a kiss as a consolation prize?”

Her cheeks heated, but she didn’t falter. Instead, she lightly smacked him across the head with the flat of her rapier.

“Earn it first.”

Issei laughed, rolling onto his back to look up at her, utterly unbothered by defeat. “Fair enough. Guess I’ll just have to keep challenging you until I do.”

Weiss sighed, twirling her rapier back into its resting sheath with a flourish, but the corners of her mouth betrayed the tiniest of smiles.

“Idiot,” She muttered, though the word came softer this time.