Sweat beaded Kiba's brow as he focused intensely on the process of finalizing the katana. Kiba had made plenty of magic swords before, but he'd never made one out of legitimate magical materials. It was taking a large amount of effort for him to keep every detail in mind while adding it into his Sword Birth. Finally, after a few minutes of effort, he felt it click in place and relaxed.
After taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out, Kiba looked up at Junichiro, "That was intense, do you go through that every time?"
Junichiro shook his head, "Nah, when I do it, it takes longer and more effort since I put even far more detail into the swords creation. I go through the entire process of making the sword in every detail, step by step."
Kiba shook his head and climbed to his feet, "That almost seems like too much work. Still..."
He held his hand up and focused. With a flash of golden light, a light red colored katana in the shape of a ring appeared on his index finger. He gasped and sagged a little, "Oh, that really takes it out of you. That took at least ten times as much demonic power as summoning any of my other swords!"
Junichiro smirked, "That's the Hihi'irokane. Using magical materials in the creation of the sword makes the process harder and the final product more magically draining. It's entirely worth it though. Swords made from magical materials are more durable and their magical effects are more potent."
Kiba nodded, "That was always something that... bothered me about Sword Birth, how fragile the blades were. I never thought too deeply on it though since it was so easy just to summon another copy."
Junichiro grinned and started walking away a few paces, "Since you've got a new toy, we should test it out and see how well it works for you."
As he finished talking, he held his hand out and summoned a sword with a flash of golden light that revealed a Hihi'irokane katana. He turned to face Kiba while feeding some magical power into his blade. The edge of the sword started to glow red before it ignited into raging flames, "Since you made something to handle flames, I'll obviously send some flames at you."
Kiba smiled and nodded, though he summoned one of his previously created weapons, Flame Delete. It seemed like a good idea to have some extra protection. Seeing that Kiba was ready, Junichiro lifted his sword up and performed a textbook downward slash. The flames along the edge of his blade roared as they were launched at Kiba in a crimson arc.
Kiba, perfectly capable of dealing with such a simple straightforward attack, held his sword in his left hand while holding up his right hand to intercept the arc of fire. As the flames approached him, the girls on the sidelines witnessed the same phenomena that they'd seen during their fight against Junichiro. The flames heading for Kiba were visibly shrinking and quickly vanished before they reached Kiba.
Rias clapped excitedly at the display, even cheering Kiba on for his success and drawing a small flush of embarrassment from him. Akeno chuckled and gave a polite clap while Koneko just munched on a cookie.
"Good job Kiba." Junichiro dismissed his sword, "Did it work completely?"
Kiba dismissed his swords as well and nodded, "It did. I don't think I got as much energy out of the attack as you put into it, but I did recover some of my demonic power."
"Excellent. Now all you have to do is make another one for each and every energetic element you can think of, like lighting. I, uh, wouldn't suggest trying to use the same technique against more solid attacks. It's a completely different beast to try and absorb a magical attack made of ice or a giant stone. It's not impossible, but those kinds of attacks are just more solid and take a lot longer to drain."
From there, Junichiro explained some more of his thought process on making magical sword shaped jewelry to enhance the user's abilities. Junichiro had other tricks, and did mention that he did, but didn't go into details on them. He just encouraged Kiba to question his definition of 'sword' and try various things out. He was willing to teach, not give away all of his personal tricks.
After the teaching session was finished and Kiba was left with a lot to think about, Junichiro spoke up, "Now that that's out of the way, how about a friendly spar? I don't often get to practice with people around my strength. Not to mention, you're better than me at handling a sword so I could definitely use the learning experience."
Kiba smiled and nodded in acceptance, "It would be my pleasure."
Both of them held out their hands and summoned swords in mutual flashes of white light. As expected, Kiba did have a blunt training sword just as Junichiro did. The only difference was Kiba's preference for western swords while Junichiro stuck to eastern blades. This time Junichiro summoned a straight bladed ninjato, a simple one handed sword popular among ninjas in media.
The two eyed each other until they both moved at the same time. Without his magical ring-swords to enhance his base abilities, it was instantly clear that Kiba had the absolute edge on him in every way. Kiba was faster, stronger, and more competent in the use of a sword. It brought a smile to his face as Junichiro was forced to fight at the very limit of his strength and speed just to keep up with Kiba.
Thankfully Kiba wasn't really the vindictive sort, anger issues with a certain sword aside, so he was kind enough to keep his speed and strength limited to just above Junichiro's.
Their swords clashed repeatedly as Kiba probed Junichiro's defenses, pointing out holes for Junichiro to cover properly. While Junichiro was using the opportunity to improve his swordsmanship some, Kiba was using the time to learn about his skill level. Though he would never admit it aloud, Kiba was slightly disappointed with the skill level that Junichiro was showing. It was clear he had some training, but it clearly wasn't as much or from very highly skilled teachers.
Of course, not everyone could be taught by a legendary Japanese swordsman that happened to be in the peerage of their Master's older brother. Junichiro would do a lot to have an opportunity to learn the sword from Okita Souji the legendary member of the Shinsengumi.
The spar lasted for a good fifteen minutes before Kiba decided to end it. In the blink of an eye, Kiba's blade sliced through the air aiming for Junichiro's chest in a diagonal slash. Junichiro moved to intercept but the slash turned into a feint. With his sword out of position, Kiba's blade passed through his open defenses and came to a stop at his throat.
Kiba had a polite smile as he said, "Not bad Arai-san. You did very well."