Much time later.

"So...do you come here often?" Rudabaugh asked Outsider. He was trying to stave off Henry's boredom by starting some small talk on his request as they waited for Nozomi and Yoshino to arrive near the abandoned building's entrance. Rudabaugh arrived carrying a backpack and a duffle bag containing everything he would use for today's training. He got there ten minutes before the agreed time, with Outsider arriving soon after a few minutes.

"Hmm, I guess?" Outsider raised a hand to where his chin would be in the mask he wore. "This is the second time I've been here," Outsider said. His tampered voice made him sound completely neutral and unrecognizable from a human's voice but still perfectly understandable for Rudabaugh.

"Uh, would you mind telling me why you were here the first time?" Rudabaugh casually asked without Henry's input, hiding the underlying curiosity he felt from the individual who was Outsider. In his mind, Rudabaugh could feel Henry also wondered the same thing.

Outsider shook his head. "Not at all. As for how I found my way here... I was on patrol, looking out for any darkspawns. I saw what looked like a regular person, jumping from building to building with ease. Needless to say, that was enough for me to find it suspicious and want to follow it from a distance. Which proved to be the right call as they were, in fact, a darkspawn, who had its sights on Yoshino and Nozomi."

Rudabaugh slowly nodded. Although Outsider had left out HOW he had found himself in a situation where he would reliably see Judai jumping from building to building... Rudabaugh and Henry figured it wasn't impossible that Outsider was also on top of a building when he saw Judai.

Judai's attitude of wanting to get the job done as fast as possible, which Henry had witnessed yesterday, helped to justify why Judai chose to traverse the city by jumping from building to building instead of walking alongside the crowd on the ground where he wouldn't be spotted. In Judai's mind, it would be the fastest and more effective way to achieve his mission.

"By the way, how long have Henry and Yoshino's family known each other?" Outsider asked, but not before turning his head to the side, observing the nearby trees as a current of air blew its leaves.

Rudabaugh raised a hand to his chin. "Hmm, I guess it would be a decade since Henry has been working with Kurai. But as for Yoshino herself knowing... maybe nine years? Give or take a few months."

Outsider slowly nodded in response before Henry prompted Rudabaugh to ask a question. "By the way, not complaining about the extra help, greatly appreciated I might even say, but... how did you find yourself in this situation? I mean, it's not every day that a human gets tangled with the supernatural, or at least... lives long enough to tell the tale."

That seemed to have hit a sore spot for Outsider as he looked down at the ground, staying silent for a few seconds before answering. "I... would rather not talk about it."

"I see..." Rudabaugh slowly nodded. "Sorry for asking." Rudabaugh apologized on behalf of himself and, unknowingly to Outsider, Henry, who soon got slapped on the back of the head and called an Idiot by Tom for asking such a delicate question without tact.

"It's okay," Outsider replied before an awkward silence reigned the atmosphere between the two again, but thankfully for Rudabaugh, it didn't last long.

"Hey!" Yoshino called for their attention as she casually waved at Rudabaugh and Outsider. Nozomi and Seiza were not too far behind her.

"So you're Rudabaugh..." Yoshino trailed off before her eyes widened in realization. She gave Rudabaugh a small bow. "I'll be in your care, Rudabaugh-sensei."

Nozomi soon followed suit, slightly flustered by her delay. "M-me too, please be patient with me!"

Rudabaugh couldn't help but laugh a little in amusement at how formal Yoshino and Nozomi acted. "Now, now, no need to be so formal. Even though this is the first time I've personally met you both, I've known about you Yoshino since Henry laid eyes on you thanks to the mental link we share. So please, raise your heads." Rudabaugh's eyes soon widened in realization as he remembered something. "Oh, also, I don't mind if you guys call me just Rudabaugh, but if you two insist on being formal... address me as a professor, not sensei, Professor Rudabaugh." Rudabaugh clarified as he said 'Professor' in English for the two Japanese girls.

Yoshino and Nozomi looked unsure between Rudabaugh and each other before the former addressed Rudabaugh. "Um, okay, Professor Rudabaugh."

"Good, now..." Rudabaugh nodded smiling before turning his head to the abandoned building that reminded him and Judai of Kurai's ruined castle, but without any of the charm that would justify keeping it in a decrepit state. "I'll say, this is quite the..." A loose piece of concrete on the left side of the building fell on the ground. Thankfully, nowhere near them, but the loud sound that came with the fall was enough for Yoshino and Nozomi to recoil a bit. After a few seconds, Rudabaugh resumed where he left off. "Peculiar place you choose to meet Yoshino..."

Yoshino looked away from Rudabaugh flustered. "It's... certainly seen better days..." Yoshino sighed. "It was the only place I could think of where we could start training that wouldn't be too far away from home while also being a place no one would be around."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Rudabaugh crossed his arms in thought for a few seconds before nodding. "If it's like that I guess it can't be helped and... it IS better than the place me and Henry had in mind," Rudabaugh said as he raised a hand to his chin.

"That place being...?" Nozomi tilted her head as she asked for elaboration.

"It's not important, don't worry about it," Rudabaugh brushed Nozomi's question off, as he figured that revealing to them that the place he was referring to was the sewers wouldn't do him and Henry any favors.

"Okay, so, about our training?" Yoshino asked in an attempt to get the conversation back on track.

"Yeah, I mean, how exactly will we do this? Are you guys going to take turns teaching us or..." Nozomi trailed off as she waited for either Outsider or Rudabaugh to answer her question.

Although Rudabaugh did not do it in front of the girls to not look incompetent, he felt Henry facepalming himself as neither of them hadn't thought of that. Rudabaugh and Henry focused the entire time they had before the meeting instead, on thinking of ways to teach Yoshino even if her potential was so small.

Just as Rudabaugh was about to bite the bullet and admit to the girls, Outsider, thankfully, stepped in. "Rudabaugh and I have discussed and decided that, for today at least, we will take turns teaching each of you. Right now, I'll be teaching Yoshino, and Rudabaugh will be teaching Nozomi. Then, after let's say... forty-five minutes, we switch. What do you two think?" Outsider asked Nozomi and Yoshino.

The two teenage girls looked at each other briefly before nodding. "Yes, I suppose that could work," Yoshino agreed.

"Yeah, it seems doable," Nozomi followed.

Taking the opportunity granted by Outsider, Rudabaugh clapped once, getting everyone's attention. "Great, so with that decided..." Rudabaugh walks a couple of meters away from the group. "To give space for your friend to train, how about we do it here Nozomi?"

Nozomi's eyes widened, before nodding. "Yes, Professor." Nozomi said before she walked to Rudabaugh, standing a couple of feet facing him.

With a glance, Rudabaugh saw how Outsider didn't waste time to start training Yoshino. Seiza, who had been watching the exchange between everyone moved to where he would be more or less in the middle between Nozomi and Yoshino, so if any of them needed help, he wouldn't be too far from them.

When Rudabaugh turned his attention to Nozomi, who had a nervous but still determined expression on her face, after mentally checking if Henry was ready, the latter giving him a thumbs up, Rudabaugh finally addressed Nozomi. "Okay, to begin our training, could you transform for me?"

Nozomi nodded with a smile before she raised one of her hands in the air. "By the power of the constellations, transform!"

The pendant that she was holding disappeared, turning into a bronze tiara with two small horns on the sides with a white gem in between them that was now on her head.

As she finished saying those words, Rudabaugh was forced to cover his eyes, the light that shone from Nozomi's transformation was too bright for his liking. Thankfully, just as fast as it had appeared, the light disappeared. Revealing Nozomi, who now had her hair, eyes, and clothes colored all white silver. The pendant that she was holding disappeared, turning into a bronze tiara with two small horns on the sides with a white gem in the center between them, that was now on her head. Her eyes, specifically, seemed to go with a sparkling silver for the irises and a bright white for the pupils. But what most caught Rudabaugh's attention was how Nozomi's short hair that reached her chin seemed to grow to the point it easily reached her waist in the time her transformation took.

Seeing Nozomi transformed like this as she faced Rudabaugh with those eyes, he couldn't help but tense up a bit. If he had to guess from Henry's silence... Rudabaugh wasn't the only one.

Rudabaugh took a deep breath and internally told himself that Nozomi wasn't THAT person, even if Nozomi looked similar enough to them.

"Professor?" Nozomi asked as she tilted her head. Her expression changed from determined to one of worry.

Rudabaugh pushed through how Nozomi's worried expression threw him for a loop as he fake coughed with his free hand. "Sorry, I got distracted with some useless thoughts. In any case, tell me, how do you fight?" Rudabaugh asked before crouching down to one knee, so he could take what he needed from his backpack and duffle bag.

Nozomi awkwardly scratched the back of her neck as she struggled to find an answer. "Well... would shooting magic out of my fingers be enough?" Nozomi asked unsure about her answer.

Rudabaugh thought for a moment. The answer was obviously 'no'. He would be lying if he said if he wasn't tempted to say something along the lines of 'Yes, you should do it every time!'. But in the end, he decided not to joke around for the sake of teaching his students. "That depends... how has that worked out for you?"

Nozomi hesitated to answer, fiddling with her thumbs for a few seconds. She looked away from Rudabaugh before she confessed. "It... could be better." Nozomi sighed. "I managed to get by with it... but every time I did was more out of a crutch to compensate for my lack of fighting experience."

Nozomi raised her left hand and stared at her open palm. Her index finger soon glowed a bright light, making Rudabaugh recoil. "Most of the time I've relied upon my magic, I ended up hurting myself and others or simply, don't get the chance to use it due to the enemy closing the distance on me. Before I know it, I'm being thrown through a wall. So yeah, like I said, could be better." As she finished her explanation, Nozomi's glowing index finger dimmed its brightness until her finger returned to normal.

Hearing Nozomi's explanation, Rudabaugh slowly nodded. "I see... I suppose it makes sense you relied on them to pull through in your fights, even if barely... But, you're correct in thinking that you cannot rely upon them forever, if not for the lack of options, for the glaring weaknesses of being incapable of doing much in case an enemy closes the gap between them and you. And for that, I think I may have a solution for it..."

Nozomi perked up at that. "Really?"

Rudabaugh nodded. "Yes, it's a solution that, although lacks the capability of harming and killing darkspawns as your magic does, can still be used for you to not be completely defenseless in close quarters.

"Well... what is it?" Nozomi asked.

"Martial arts, more specifically, Henry and I will teach you a martial art that was once, believed or not, banned in my country for its brutality and prohibited by Youya from ever being taught to Kurai and Yoshino, due to his... questionable biases." Rudabaugh rolled his eyes at that last part. Youya was usually a nice enough guy to hang out with, but the things he had hang-ups with could range from bizarre to nonsensical in Henry and Rudabaugh's eyes.

Nozomi's eyes widened as she opened her mouth in awe at Rudabaugh's description. Her eyes seemingly grew brighter in excitement.

"Wait, you mean..." Yoshino trailed off, as she overheard the conversation between Nozomi and Rudabaugh.

Rudabaugh nodded in agreement. "Yes." Rudabaugh pulled a pair of red boxing gloves from his backpack before announcing with an excited smile. "I'm going to teach her mixed martial arts!"