Hiona had enthusiastically taken the reluctant Yohiro out of the group base, walking around the city in her lack robe with Yohiro by her side. ‘’Where exactly are we going…?’’ He asked her, attempting to be positive, while harboring a bit of worry. ‘’The place where I trained the others, where else?’’ She responded, not answering his easy to answer question, making him suspicious. Though, there was something that Yohiro was beginning to realise that day: He had began to speak in a more forming pattern and was feeling more nimble despite his body not having changed at all. He felt a bit more alive and happy in the world.

‘’This is the place, Yohiro,’’ she stopped after not even ten minutes in front of a building with a glowing sign saying ‘’Yopparai,’’ with a slightly faded sign outside, depicting a woman holding a glass of alcohol. ‘’What’s this place used for?’’ He asked Hiona, looking up at her. ‘’Poot place used to be a sex house; now it’s kinda not. Let’s say I rent it from time to time when I come here with my friends from the city.’’ She once again didn’t give him too much information, entering the building. ‘’Master...really goes to a lot of old places,’’ he glanced at the sign once again before entering the building, catching up to Hiona with a few steps.

‘’For your info, we’ll be staying here for a week; you won’t be seeing the other failures for a bit,’’ she explained nonchalantly, yawning openly right afterwards before Yohiro had the time to process the sentence. ‘’Wh-- But why?! Why that long?!’’ He immediately shouted, stopping Hiona after taking a hop and taking a stand in front of her. ‘’That’s rude, you kn--’’ ‘’Please answer my question!’’ He yelled, his voice echoing through the stairway going downwards. ‘’I need to you to develop your muscles, and teach you how to swing a weapon for the time being,’’ she explained, fully convinced seven days would be enough for that purpose. ‘’You don’t trust me with that much, even after what I did to protect you?” She asked him in a low voice, shooting daggers at him with her eyes without him realising. ‘’That’s…’’ He stopped in discouragement. ‘’You poor soul,’’ she leaned forward, embracing him, ‘’...I made you frightened, didn’t I…?’’ She asked, whispering to him all of a sudden, confusing him completely. ‘’WELL TOUGH SHIT!!’’ She switched gears, shouting loudly in his ears, to the point of causing him to fall off his feet. ‘’You think fear means anything? I killed that man, and you’re the one that’s shook. See the problem here?!’’ She scolded him, opening his eyes wide. ‘’I’m gonna shape you into what I expect of a member of my group, which is to say less of a bitch than them,’’ she finished, starting to walk down the stairs again, leaving him shocked in place.

He wiped the frown off his face and grit his teeth as he stood up. ‘’FINE THEN!’’ He yelled at her, starting to run down the stairs, running past her in an instant as she was walking calmly. ‘’If a week is all you need, i’ll listen,’’ he continued,’’ but I don’t like it whatsoever!’’ His echoed loudly, causing a smile to appear on Hiona’s face. ‘’Dumbass… No one likes it at the start. Some don’t like it later on either, but that depends on him,’’ she thought as she picked up the pace.

Yohiro reached the ending of the stairs, finding a completely destroyed room at the end of it, faintly resembling a bar. Although it was completely run-down, the center of the room itself was completely clean, even flawlessly clean. ‘’Like it?’’ She asked, startling him from behind. ‘’It’s a shocker that they didn’t destroy this place, but it does for a good training room, but you probably figured that out already,’’ she smiled at him with anticipation, suddenly making him regret his agreement to the situation. ‘’I stored a few things for this kinda thing in the back. Sit there while I take them, muffin,’’ she ordered him as she hurried over to a door, no, not even a door, but an open hole in the wall, crouching and entering the dirty place as Yohiro found himself sitting down in the center of the room.

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‘’I wonder if Clous and Mr. Bernie are getting any better…?’’ He thought as he heard the clanking of metal to the right, making him feel uneasy. ‘’T-there’s also the problem of fo--’’ he tried to distract himself, hearing a loud thud from Hiona’s direction, making him shake slightly as he witnessed her push a long box out the hole, sending it strudding on the floor, the sound of metal against metal coming from inside it. Hiona followed suit, exiting in crawl, standing up and patting the dust off her clothes. ‘’Chop, cop, open the box now, before I get choppy myself,’’ she commanded, taking the black robe off and throwing it on the ground, proceeding to stretch her arms upwards in a grunt as Yohiro stood up, walking over to the box and opening it.

Inside it were rugged weapons of all kinds: swords, spears, gloves, a hammer, etcetera. ‘’You can pick one of those and i’ll use my hands. If you feel like you can’t use the weapon, switch to another until you feel comfortable, is that easy enough to understand?’’ She explained everything to him. ‘’I’ll have to hit you, master?!’’ He yelled as he stood up in a jump. ‘’Oh you’re gonna HAVE to, but it depends of the ‘can you’ here,’’ she said as she wagged her finger in front of his face, pointing at the box with a grim smile. He realised there was no other way out of this situation, so he got on one knee, shoving his hands inside the wooden crate-like box, grabbing the first thing he touched; a shortsword. He took it out immediately, confused at the sheer heaviness of it, concentrated on it so much that he didn’t realise Hiona had circled around him, standing at the other side of the room, tapping her foot by then.

‘’If you can swing it, come at me with all you’ve got!’’ She demanded from him, taking a stance slowly, extending her foot forward and placing her right hand behind her back, placing the left one forward, with her right leg sitting there neutrally. ‘’I-i don’t think I can do this, though…!’’ He said, his hand shaking as he held the sword, angering Hiona. ‘’Alright, I won’t force you to attack me,’’ she said, breaking her stance and standing straight-up, relieving Yohiro before parting her lips once more, ‘’I’ll be the one attacking, then!’’ She grinned ear-to-ear, leaping towards him immediately, shocking him as she lander her fist in his stomach, taking him down without breaking a sweat, and watching him hit the ground, beginning to grope his stomach as he gagged on his saliva.

‘’If you can’t attack me, you gotta learn to protect yourself. Those are the two parallels of fighting, or so I see it,’’ she explained as she watching him turn his head to her, looking up at her with a trace of utter hatred, lighting her eyes up. ‘’Come on, get up, we’re going for round two,’’ she grabbed his arm, pulling him up effortlessly and placing him on his two feet, her eyes widening as she noticed his poor attempt to swing at her, unable to make a full swing. ‘’Good, already trying to play dirty, that’s how it’s done around here!’’ She praised him, patting his head. ‘’Now, after what you, uh, didn’t manage to show me, i’ve determined a training program for someone like you. For the first step--’’ ‘’You...going too fast,’’ he interrupter her as he mumbled under his breath. ‘’Too fast? This isn’t turtle hermit training; I don’t have whole months to teach you how to swing a sword, after all!’’ She joked around, smiling cheerfully, but that smile looked like a sadist’s to Yohiro. ‘’In all seriousness, however...if I don’t wanna turn into a liar, i’ll have to whip into shape, and continue whipping on top of that to make you better,’’ she said seriously to him, watching him breath in and out. ‘’I promise to do my best…!’’