While Shikaku was lost in his ridiculous thoughts, Hatoshi made his way to the mission center to meet his students. As he approached, he was taken aback to find them waiting for him, determination shining brightly in their eyes. This was a new sight for him, one that sparked curiosity and a flicker of pride in his chest. They seemed eager, almost ready to take on the world.
"Are you ready for your mission?" he asked, a hint of amusement in his voice. Their enthusiastic, synchronized response of "Yes!" was filled with such conviction that it sent a wave of warmth through him. He couldn't help but smile; their resolve was infectious.
"We're ready to show what we can do, Sensei!" Nora exclaimed, her eyes sparkling with excitement.
"Yeah! Let's make this mission the best one yet!" Baskin added, bouncing on his toes.
We gathered to discuss the details of our mission, which turned out to be a garden weeding task. As usual, we headed to the client's property. Upon arrival, the client showed us the official document detailing the job and led us to the overgrown garden. He provided us with the tools we would need, but as we inspected them, our faces fell. The tools were worn and rusted, making the task significantly more challenging than anticipated.
"Ugh, these tools look like they've been through a war," I muttered, running a hand over a particularly rusty shovel.
Sensi noticed our grim expressions and offered us the option to buy new tools from him. A wave of skepticism washed over me. Did he choose this mission solely to sell us tools? The thought lingered for a moment, but I quickly dismissed it. After all, he had presented us with various options when we selected this mission, and it was a collective decision to proceed with the garden weeding.
"Are you sure those new tools are worth it?" I asked, glancing at Sensi. "They look like they might fall apart at any moment."
"Trust me, you don't want to struggle with those old ones," he replied with a chuckle. "You'll thank me later."
Still, we decided to purchase the new tools from him, especially since he mentioned that we would be receiving these types of missions regularly. Buying new tools seemed like a good option, although I had a nagging suspicion they would be more expensive than what we could find in the market. I chose to keep my thoughts to myself. After all, it was either that or struggle with the old tools, which seemed like a worse fate. With the new tools in hand, our mission became much more manageable, and we were able to finish ahead of schedule, leaving me feeling somewhat satisfied.
We returned to the mission center at 2 PM, our spirits high from completing the task efficiently. Sensi submitted our report, and when it came time to distribute the rewards, all the money went straight to him since we had purchased tools from his stock. We had agreed to pay him using our mission rewards, a decision he seemed quite pleased with.
As I watched him tally up the earnings, I couldn't help but chuckle at the sheer absurdity of it all. It was hard to ignore how he seemed to profit from every situation. I wondered, deep down, if this was also part of his teaching method.
"You know, Sensei, you could start a side business selling tools," I joked, crossing my arms. "You might make a fortune!"
He grinned. "You'd be surprised how much business comes my way. It's all part of the game."
Afterward, we dove straight into training, eager to hone our skills. As usual, it was grueling. We pushed ourselves to our limits, and one by one, we passed out from exhaustion, only to regain consciousness later, groggy and disoriented. Hatoshi, ever the diligent mentor, was ready with energy bars and drinks, which we gratefully accepted.
"Next time, let's not push ourselves so hard we lose consciousness," Baskin said, laughing weakly as he munched on an energy bar.
"Deal! But I'm still going to beat you in shuriken practice!" Nora shot back playfully.
Once we recovered, we jumped back into training, which consisted of physical workouts, shuriken practice, and sparring. We followed the routine Sensi had laid out for us, but he never commented on our performance. Instead, he often watched us with a look of confusion etched on his face, leaving us to wonder about the thoughts running through his mind. Was he satisfied with our efforts, or was he silently critiquing our techniques?
I glanced at Nora and Baskin, both of whom seemed equally puzzled. We exchanged looks that spoke volumes—a silent agreement that we would need to discuss our training methods later. Despite the challenges, I felt a sense of camaraderie building among us. We were in this together, and together, we would grow stronger.
The next day started just like the first—tough, exhausting, and relentless. We pushed through the morning exercises, each of us feeling the strain but determined to keep up. The weight training was brutal, the shuriken practice left our arms sore, and the sparring had us gasping for breath. Every time we thought we'd hit our limit, Sensei would push us just a little further. It was as if he had a sixth sense for when we were on the verge of collapse, but he never let up, and we all knew better than to complain.
"I think I'm going to need a new pair of arms after this," I joked, trying to lighten the mood as I wiped the sweat from my forehead.
"Same! At this rate, I'll be a walking muscle cramp!" Nora replied, chuckling through his exhaustion.
By the end of the day, as the sun began to dip behind the trees, we were barely standing, ready to call it quits and crawl home. We had all passed out at least once during the afternoon, only to wake up, eat a quick energy bar, and dive right back into training. I could see the exhaustion in Nora and Baskin's faces, and I'm sure mine didn't look any better.
But just as we were about to pack up and leave, Sensei caught us off guard with an unexpected question.
"So, do you want to decrease the amount of training?" he asked, his tone so casual it was almost as if he didn't care what our answer would be.
We froze. I blinked, unsure if I had heard him right. Did he just ask if we wanted to reduce our training? The idea seemed absurd after everything we had been through. My body was screaming at me to take him up on the offer, but my mind was conflicted. I glanced at Nora and Baskin, both looking just as confused as I was. We had gone through so much already—was Sensei really giving us an easy way out?
Before I could gather my thoughts, Nora and Baskin straightened up. Their expressions, filled with exhaustion, also held a spark of defiance.
"No need! We'll do our best!" they both said, their voices firm and resolute.
"Well, well," he muttered, almost to himself, "didn't expect that." Then he looked up at us and said, "Good. Then see you all tomorrow at the mission center."
With that, he flickered away, disappearing as quickly as he had asked the question.
As we slowly gathered our things, Baskin rubbed the back of his neck and groaned, "I can't believe I said that."
Nora chuckled, "Yeah, same. What were we thinking?"
I laughed, despite my exhaustion. "Guess we're in it for the long haul now."
Baskin nodded, a grin breaking through his fatigue. "If we can survive this, we can survive anything!"
We all shared a tired grin, knowing that tomorrow would bring another round of intense training. But for some reason, the idea didn't seem as daunting as it had before. We had made it this far, and now, there was no turning back.