Chapter 5: Combat Practice.
They walked together for a few minutes before reaching a set of double doors. There was a guard at either side who opened the door for them to walk in. "Sir!" They shouted and saluted as the old guy walked past them. Haru entered behind him as the door then closed.
He looked around for a moment and felt slightly underwhelmed as he realized it was just a regular office. The old guy sat down at the desk and then gestured for Haru to sit in an empty chair across from him.
As Haru sat down, the old guy pulled out a stack of papers. "Let's see... Here, Haru Kitagawa?"
"That's me..." He said nervously as the old guy pulled out a single sheet of paper.
"Hmm... Oh? You were the one referred to us by Colonel Leon?"
Haru thought back to his birthday. 'So that was that guy's name?' He thought to himself.
"You know him?" he asked, feeling slightly relieved.
"I sure do. In fact, he fought with your father in the war along with my son Michael. I brought you here to apologize..." The old guy said, sounding sincere, but it was still confusing for Haru to hear him say that.
"Apologize for what?" Haru asked politely.
"The way I acted. I went against my own principles and thought you must be to blame just because you are an F rank student. So again, I'm sorry." He said once again, sounding sincere.
"Oh, don't worry about it. I understand what it must have looked like from your perspective." Haru looked at the wall behind the man. There were all sorts of trophies and military medals. 'This guy must be pretty high ranking,' Haru thought.
"Well, thanks for coming I just wanted to clear things up with you," He said whilst showing Haru out of the room.
"Oh, and your new teacher should already be in class. Here, give her this note when you get back." He handed him a folded sheet of paper.
As he walked to the classroom door, he heard loud voices from inside.
As Haru opened the door, the room fell silent.
"Do you need anything?" There was a woman who looked to be in her twenties standing at the front of the class. She had long black hair and purple eyes.
'I guess this must be the teacher,' Haru thought before handing her the note. She looked at it for a few seconds and then let out a sigh
"So you're the one who landed me with this job? I'm Chizu Fujima but you will call me Miss Fujima, okay? Now take a seat, please."
'Well, I guess she is more polite than that other teacher.' Haru thought before going back to his seat and made sure that he didn't trip this time.
As he walked past his classmates, he noticed a few of them stared at him as he walked past them.
'I guess they can't help it; that was probably the most combat they have ever seen.' Haru thought as he sat back in his seat, and then the teacher started to talk again.
"As I was saying. Can anyone tell me, what is the name of the main close range weapon that was used in the war?" Miss Fujima asked.
The rest of the students started to whisper among themselves until Jake almost jumped out of his seat with his hand raised.
"Yes, go ahead," Miss Fujima said whilst flipping through a page in a textbook.
"They used a device called Lux's," Jake shouted out.
"Correct. You can sit back down now." Miss Fujima said as she opened a drawer in the desk and pulled out a small black wristband and put it on.
"Okay class, this is a Lux. It allows you to channel your mana into a physical weapon."
Dim blue light surrounded her arm as a sword formed in the air in front of her. She then grabbed it and held it out towards the class.
"And this is a sword form, Lux. There are many variations on luxes, but the thing they all have in common is that their main use is to summon a handheld weapon to fight with." She explained to them.
Jake raised his hand for a second time.
"Yes?" Miss Fujima let out a sigh.
"But doesn't it deplete your mana capacity if you use a Lux?" He asked.
"Oh, you mean the government warning that you will die before you're fifty when all your mana is sucked dry? No, that's a blatant lie. It was meant to reduce crime. Although yes, Lux's do require mana, but that is only to activate its weapon form. But it is just like using regular magic. Your mana restores itself at a normal rate." She then reached into the drawer and pulled out a bunch more.
"Okay now come down and collect one. I will teach you how to activate them."
The whole class got up and went down to the front of the class to receive a Lux. Haru remained seated, and then he looked again and noticed that Mia was also still sitting down.
"You two. Why aren't you down here yet?" Miss Fujima called out.
Mia stood up and held out her arm to reveal her Lux, a white wristband.
"I have my own Miss." She stood up and said.
"Very well and you?" She asked and directed her gaze towards Haru.
Haru held up his hand to show her his Lux.
"Okay then. Now that everyone is prepared, we are going to the training field. Follow me, please." She said and then opened the door.
Haru got up from his seat and followed behind Jake. Jake turned to Haru with a huge grin
"I kind of wondered where you pulled that gun from." Jake said and then looked back down at his wrist and started playing with his Lux. Haru thought it would be a good idea to look at a bit more of the code from his own lux.
He scrolled through until he found something interesting [Audio Command].
'So basically, if I say the form I want it to take, then it turns into that form?' Haru wondered.
'This sound like it could be quite useful.' He thought to himself as he reached the rest of the class who were gathered in the training ground.
Miss Fujima then started addressing the class, "When you want to activate your lux you have to channel mana inside it. If you think of the lux as a part of your body, it is easy to direct mana towards it." As she finished speaking, one after another, Haru's classmates started to activate their luxes.
The luxes that were given to them were only average in quality. They were all just a standard edition rank D sword type lux.
"I'm sure you already guessed, but I called you all out here to start your combat training. Now get into pairs and start fighting already." She shouted as she brought a whistle up to her mouth.
Haru looked back at Jake, but as he walked towards him, Jake grabbed someone in front of him. It was a short girl with short brown hair and was also wearing glasses.
"Sorry Haru, I promised I would be her partner already," Jake said and then smiled.
The girl began to speak "Wait when di...." Jake quickly put his hand over her mouth as soon as she spoke.
Haru stood off to the side and watched as everyone got into pairs except Him.
"I will be your partner." A voice called out from behind him. Haru turned around to see Mia standing there, looking at him with her hair blowing in the wind.
He looked back at Jake, who winked at him and gave him a thumbs up.
'Oh, so that was his plan? I think we need to have a conversation about him pimping me out.' Haru thought before sighing.
"Ok sure." He replied to Mia. He barely had time to move before she rushed at him with a sword. As the blade skimmed past his face, he realised that she also had an S rank lux.
"Sword form," Haru said quietly, as he brought out a sword of his own just as her second attack came down, striking the blade in front of him. He looked around for a second and noticed everyone had stopped what they were doing and were now watching them fight.
"Don't get distracted!" Mia shouted as she followed with an attack towards his face and to his legs. Haru lost his balance and as he started to fall Mia quickly followed up with another attack towards his neck.
Haru jumped as high as he could into the air whilst flipping backwards to avoid the attack.
"Gun form," He said as his sword turned into its gun form almost instantly. He aimed at the blade of her sword and let out 2 shots.
The force of the gun knocked the sword from her hands and he took the opportunity to rush in as fast as he could and shoved the barrel of the gun into her lower back.
Mia slowly put her hands above her head. "You win." She said whilst breathing heavily. It seemed like she was going all out from the beginning.
"Listen up! If you can fight like that by the time you graduate, I just might get a pay rise. Now, what are you waiting for? Get back to training!" Miss Fujima shouted at everyone who was just standing in silence.
"Ahn!.." Haru turned back to Mia, who was now clutching her wrist.
"Oh, sorry about that. Here let me have a look." Haru said whilst holding out his hand.
She timidly gave him her hand. As he grabbed her hand, she blushed slightly. He then cast an Inspection spell and a healing spell, both at the same time.
"It looks like it's broken," Haru said to himself as the healing spell activated. About ten seconds went by until the spell stopped.
"It should be fine now," Haru said before he let go of her hand.
Mia flexed her hand a few times before realising it was fine now.
"Th-Thank you." She hesitated a little before turning around and walking back inside. The class had already ended so Haru returned to his room to inspect his lux a little more.
"I wonder what other secrets you have," He said as he was scrolling through code until he came across [Storage space=False].
'So not only did it have two forms it also has a storage space? Just where did this thing come from?' He thought to himself before going to sleep.