Having scoped out our combat prowess yesterday, our seniors will now be giving us the rundown on what our new training regiment will be like. But first, I’ll be walking from school with Yokie, Red and Haruhi-chan. Sunni was pnning on joining me, but Aunt Sofia needed her aid with something.

  “Kukukuku..”

  “What’s up, Red?”

  She suddenly begins to ugh haughtily as we leave the school-yard, she looks at me with a proud smirk.

  “There’s this group of girls who used to badmouth you and the others, you especially.”, she expins. “They used to say how you’re all shady, dangerous and that the only way you could get a girl is if you were to threaten her family. Now they have to see you walking with three beauties who look perfectly content.”

  Red continues to ugh at their supposed shock, but I can’t help but feel like they have a point.

  “Don’t tell me that you actually agree with them, Aniki.”

  No surprise, Yokie figured me out almost instantaneously. Red probably would’ve as well if she wasn’t caught up in her glee.

  “It’s not so much that I completely agree, but I definitely understand their sentiments.”

  Haruhi-chan nods, giving Yokie and Red a soft smile.

  “I see what you meant about him not having any confidence.”

  They’ve talked about things like that to the others, eh? Well, I don’t mind it at all, so it’s fine. And besides, it’s not like it’ll cause my feelings to change.

  “I think that you lot tend to forget that you’re outliers. Most people tend to think of me as someone to completely and utterly avoid interacting with, and that’s before they see my empty, dead eyes.”

  Dad and Mum often tell me about how when I was born, the doctor and nurses thought that I was blind initially until they tested me and discovered that I was 100% okay. Apparently Mum got really miffed when she heard someone called me an evil spirit.

  “So what if your eyes are different from everyone else’s?”, Yokie asks defensively. “Their inability to see your emotions in other ways sounds like a ck of skill to me.”

  “That's right!”, Red affirms. “And we can even tell how you feel by your eyes once in a while! It may be almost impossible, but we can do it!”

  No way these two just said that it’s a skill issue that 99.9999% of people can’t tell my emotions by looking into my eyes.

  “Well putting that aside, I think that the main reason is that most people, if not all of them, believe that the eyes are the window to the soul. Wouldn’t you agree with that sentiment?”

  None of them answer me, probably because they agree.

  “By that notion, I’m a person without a soul, without a ‘heart’. And st I checked, being called heartless isn’t a good thing.”, I mutter darkly. “It’s worse than being an animal, worse than being a monster.”

  I don’t think that I would change my eyes if I was given the option to, but there are times where I look into them and wonder if I am a soulless husk. I-

  I begin to think that Granddad gave up his life to save an empty shell, not a human being. That fact that I’m alive is already unforgivable, but if that was the case, then I might as well die here and now.

  “Daisuke-san?”

  “I-I’m sorry. My mind wandered off a little.”

  Haruhi-chan calls out to me, snapping me out of my reverie. Upon my return to earth, I can see that the three of them are giving me looks of solicitude.

  “Daisuke-nii, are you feeling unwell or something?”, Red asks gingerly. “Do you need to sit down for a while?”

  “Arianne said that you were acting simir to this on the name you ran into Kageyama-san.”, Yokie says worriedly. “It was as if something was haunting you.”

  “If you need to talk, we’re totes her for you, okay?”

  Great, my wallowing has them feeling uncomfortable. Aren’t I just a ray of sunshine?

  “It’s nothing, really. Putting aside our previous convo, what do you think our seniors have in store for us?”

  A brief silence passes before they graciously offer up their opinions, making my diversion successful.

  “If Yonaguni is in charge of it, it’ll end up being useless.”, Red says ruthlessly. “Other than that, I couldn’t give you an idea.”

  She’s as sweet on him as ever.

  “Most likely they’ve all come together with a thorough pn for us. And since Master has money on us, he’s likely to actually be of use this time.”

  “I still can’t believe that he did that.”, I remark.

  “I did a bit of sneaking around yesterday, and I overheard them saying how they’re going to be one-on-one training with you guys.”

  Haruhi-chan reveals some major news. One-on-one training, eh? That’s interesting. Although, seeing as our seniors know how to use Detection, they probably knew she was there.

  “As expected from one of our Adjutants.”, I smile lighty. “We can be sure to always count on you two.”

  I pat Haruhi-chan on the head with gentle praise. I can’t get as pyful or as I do with the girls because we’re not that close, and I don’t want to make her uncomfortable. But to my surprise she accepts it happily.

  “Hihihi…”

  “Oi, Haruhi-chan, you’re my friend, right?”, Red asks.

  “Yeah, of course!”

  “Good, the feeling’s mutual! So please don’t do things that make me want to beat you up.”

  “Eh?”

  “She’s right.”, Yokie nods. “If we weren’t, you would be on your way to the nearest hospital.”

  “Eh? That’s mean, you two!”

  Mind you, they said such things to her with fond looks and warm smiles. So naturally, I flick on their noses.

  “Oww!”

  “Heeey, that hurt!”

  Oddly enough, Haruhi-chan seems to be more or less unbothered by what they said. Although, I guess that’s just how it is between good friends.

  At HQ, we find ourselves sitting in front of the ever familiar whiteboard that our seniors use when there’s some vital information they want to rey to us. Also, Ninomiya-senpai has recovered from his cold, so he’s joining us today. Gege and Haruhi-chan are with Sonoda-senpai dealing with Adjutant lessons, so it’s just us Combatants here now.

  “Now, before we tell you all about the training, we have to discuss something important. We’ll be addressing your Css Variants.”

  “Css Variants?”

  Sunni echoes Miyamura-senpai’s words thoughtfully. Naturally, the rest of us are curious as well, so we begin to offer up our own ideas as to what that could mean.

  “So what I said about Onii-chan being a Padin was accurate?”

  “Well, I’d be more of a Monk, actually.”, Akai corrects. “Seeing as I don't use heavy armour or weapons.”

  “That sounds about right. Yoko and Arianne are obviously a Ninja and Sorceress respectively, so that just leaves Akane, Govvy and myself.”

  “That’s easy. You’re a Warrior, I’m a Mage Swordsman, and Red’s a Berserker.”

  “Being a Berserker suits Akane quite well doesn’t it?”, Yokie sneers.

  “Do puppies even have Csses? I don’t think that’s the case, Yoko.”, Sunni says, giggling slightly.

  Red quickly sticks out her tongue at them and then returns her focus to the whiteboard.

  “Unfortunately, that’s something far different and far less important.”, Shirogane-senpai smiles. “Allow us to expin.”

  Ninomiya-senpai draws three rge circles on the whiteboard and writes a word in each of them. From right to left it goes: Resistors, Wildcards and Assaints.

  “These are the three main Csses that every Combatant falls under. Assaints are more suited to attacking and Resistors are the opposite, as they’re more suited towards defence.”

  After Miyamura-senpai expins two of the three, Ninomiya-senpai then draws two branches from each of them. For Assaints he’s written Pursuers and Hunters, and for Resistors he has Guardians and Punishers.

  “Starting with Pursuers, they’re all about rush-down, reckless assaults.”, Yonaguni mumbles, clearly uninterested. “All they care about is dealing damage to their target, even at the cost of their well-being.”

  “As you can imagine, they tend to end up needing the most medical attention after missions.”, Ninomiya says ftly.

  “So that’ll be our Warrior and Berserker.”, I observe. “If that’s the case we ought to give Red a weapon, seeing as her hand-to-hand skills are subpar. She’ll be able to deal more damage that way.”

  “If you say so, Leader!”, she simpers.

  “I don’t know if I like the idea of getting beat up on every mission, but what the hell.”

  Our seniors nod in agreement (Yonaguni not included) with my conclusion before carrying on with the presentation.

  “Hunters, they’re very patient and methodical with their attacks.”, Miyamura-senpai continues. “They wait for openings in their opponent’s moves and attack accordingly. They’re pretty scary, honestly. One misstep and you could be as good as dead.”

  No margin for error, eh? How comforting…

  “That sounds like it suits Yoko and I well enough.”

  Yoko nods in affirmation.

  “As a Kunoichi, stealth is of the utmost importance. So something along those lines suits me perfectly.”

  “Looks like we’re the ones out, Daisuke.”

  Akai, who’s sat next to me, gives me his trademark wry smile.

  Before I can reassure him, Shirogane-senpai does so in my stead.

  "Don’t worry, Akai-kun, this next Variant has your name written all over it! For Resistors, we have the Punishers. They’re all about taking damage with the intent of countering their opponent’s attack, much like how you did against Naoya-kun.”

  Akai noticeably brightens upon hearing the good news.

  “That’s great! It really does fit me!”, he says excitedly.

  “Yeah, yeah, good for you, Tiny. Now let’s move on.

  Yonaguni swiftly interrupts Akai’s enthusiasm, clearly he’s quite happy to be expining these vital details to us. How sweet of him..

  “Lastly we have Guardians.”, he continues impatiently. “Guardians are almost always really shitty at attacking, but they make up for it with their elite defence. They’re basically human shields, but useful. And that’s about it for the Variants.”

  Wait, what about me? So far none of them have suited my fighting style and all that’s left is-

  “Shut up, Nariki.”, Shirogane-senpai scowls. “Daisuke-kun, you’re a Wildcard.”

  “Well, what are they?”, I urge.

  “They’re annoying.”, Yonaguni snarls. “It suits you well, Inko.”

  “Wildcards are difficult to describe because they do things that are wholly unexpected in the heat of battle.”, Ninomiya-senpai expounds.

  “Like Nariki said, they’re annoying.”, Miyamura-senpai says, his expression taut. “And they’re by far the most dangerous ones to run into. Thankfully they’re uncommon because fighting like that isn’t something that’s taught, it comes to one naturally.”

  Huh, that’s interesting. I never would have thought that my unorthodox methods would be considered as such a dangerous thing to encounter.

  “Oi, Inko. That was Aikido you used the other day, right? Where the hell did you learn that?”

  “Yeah, it was Aikido. I learned it from a while back because Dad and Oji wanted us to learn some form of self-defence.”

  “And you picked the least dangerous one? What a softie you are. Whatever, here’s how we’ll be pairing up.”

  Without warning Red, who’s sitting behind me, tightly flings her arms around my neck and begins to bare her teeth and puts a full growl on at Yonaguni, causing him to shrink back hurriedly.

  Surely, this’ll get Sunni to stop calling her Ms.Puppy.

  “What’s the matter Akane-chan?”, Miyamura-senpai asks, clearly amused.

  “I am going to kill him if he’s the one training Daisuke-nii! All he’ll end up doing is bullying him, and I won’t stand for it!”

  By the sound of her voice, she hasn’t gone into R.S.P mode, she just has that much aggression toward that poor berk.

  “Oh, I see! Don’t fret, I’ll be training Daisuke-kun, so you can rest easy. Naoya-kun will be Nariki's student.”

  “WHAT?!?!”

  Naoya lets out a bellow that has a good chance of rousing the dead, but I can’t understand why. One month under the thumb of Yonaguni sounds like paradise..

  “Akai-kun, you’ll be with me.”, Shirogane-senpai waves.

  “I’m in your care, senpai.”

  “You’re with me, Chikara-chan.”, Ninomiya-senpai decres emotionlessly.

  “R-right!”

  Of course, Yokie and Sunni will be with each other, so that’s all settled.

  “Okay, be sure to get lots of rest! Tomorrow will be the beginning of the most gruelling month of your lives.”

  Oddly enough, I find myself looking forward to it. I’m guessing that all of the nonsense is starting to rub off on me. Brilliant.