‘’Swing faster and with more vigor!’’ Hiona yelled at Yohiro, watching him charge at her, making a traceable swing from the side. Hiona twister her foot, grabbing Yohiro’s arm mid-swing, beginning to hold it in a strong grip, causing him to drop the shortsword in pain, squealing and trying to pull away. ‘’Five hours; it’s been five hours, Yohiro… Why can’t you swing?’’ She asked in a depressed tone, letting go of his arm and watching him immediately begin to rub it with his other hand, caressing the spot she was holding. ‘’It hurts, though! My hands have splinters from gripping it too much!’’ He tried to make an excuse, his body covered in bruises from getting thrown around by Hiona, while she was standing there, perfectly fine.

‘’Okay then, how about an ultimatum: Hit me by the end of the week and you get something from me, but if you don’t you’ll shove a lit cigarette in Clous’ eye!’’ She suggested in excitement, offering her hand for a hand shake. ‘’I can’t agree to that! You’re being too drastic, master!’’ He retaliated, pulling his own hand away as an addition. ‘’Fine, I was kidding anyway,’’ she said as she began walking towards the stairs, ‘’I’ll get you something to eat for now; I don’t want you to die from malnutrition among other things,’’ she told him, putting the robe back on after elegantly picking it off the ground, leaving him disappointed as he dropped down, his legs having given out, dropping the shortsword in a loud ding. ‘’No, no, the hell are you doing?’’ She stopped, turning around as she heard him sit down. ‘’You think you’re gonna become some couch potato ‘cause i’m gone? Are you retarded, Yohiro?’’ She smiled with clear mean spirited intentions, looking down on him, already knowing the answer.

She watched in delight as he got back up on his feet, taking the sword along. ‘’I’m sorry… I promise to continue practicing even when you’re gone,’’ he looked aside, flinching as he finished. ‘’Hah, that’s a good one. Sit your ass down and rest for now; I was just playing with you a little!’’ She laughed, speaking in an unnatural for her tone, watching as a wide smile appeared on his face in the blink of an eye. ‘’Thank you so much, master!’’ He jumped up, moving around in the slightly torn up shirt he had gotten from Bernie. ‘’Yeah, but if i’m not back in about an hour, get to doing some push-ups and the likes. At least ten,’’ she ordered once again, getting a nod in agreement as she began walking up the stairs in a quick turn, flipping the robe in the wind as she put the hood on.

Somehow, someway, she felt confused with herself as she climbed the stairs slowly, taking her time. She had fully intended to make him stay active even while she was away, but wasn’t able to force him after seeing that expression. ‘’The little guy’s getting under my skin, just like… Damn it!’’ She muttered under her breath, slamming her fist in the wall, cracking it a little. They used to say ‘Once bitten, twice shy’ back then. A long time before now, at least. Back when Hiona didn’t believe in the saying.

‘’...good morning, everyone…!’’ Bernie said as he entered the main room, yawning loudly as he did and scratching his belly with his hand, looking around and finding Clous and Rosa sitting around the coffee table nervous. ‘’What’s the matter with you two? Did someone die or something…?’’ He asked, playing around, still in a drowsy mood, walking up to Rosa and patting her shoulder, feeling her shoulder to be stiff. ‘’No one’s dead, but Yohiro might be dead by now, or something,’’ Rosa mumbled, following up with a quick and forced ‘’hehe,’’ shocking Bernie.

‘’Did someone find out his identity?! Is he kidnapped?!’’ Bernie began barraging them with question, beginning to foot around the room uncontrollably. ‘’It’s worse; master took him somewhere and...it’s been more than three hours. You know what that means with master, right?’’ Rosa turned to him with a genuinely worried expression, getting met with an equally fearful look from Bernie. ‘’He’s being trained by her, you mean?! Master hasn’t trained anyone in years, though!’’ Bernie tried to feed his growing feeling of disbelief. ‘’She wouldn’t have a reason to train anyone. Well, uh, didn’t have a reason until now. She trained each of us, after all.’’ Rosa responded, trying to give him a reality check, causing a frown to appear on his face. ‘’He’s either gonna get murdered accidentally by her, or by some miracle, he’ll return as something more than a sack of organs,’’ Clous jumped in, speaking in a raspy voice, doing his best to force the words out. ‘’B-but, master’s nice to Yohiro; she won’t kill hi--’’ ‘’Master doesn’t give two shits about who it is, remember?!’’ Clous cut him off rudely. ‘’Think back a bit,’’ he told them, ‘’The only reason I got through it was from pure luck and stamina, for Rosa it was because she cheated by using magic and created a short-lived grudge with master. For Bernie it was his big size. My point is, not one of us has beaten her seven day training program, dumbasses; we all survived, but that’s about it.’’ He enlightened them, almost feeling bad about what he was saying. ‘’So what you’re saying is… the kid won’t make it…’’ Rosa said in frustration, ‘’We even got him recently from The Tree, too,’’ she added.

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‘’No, you two never listen, do you?! I’m implying he can survive whatever she’s gonna throw at him, but it’s a slim chance.’’ He finished, coughing loudly right afterwards. ‘’When did you start acting so cool, haa?’’ Rosa asked him, beginning to laugh at him. ‘’Want a piece of me, bitch?!’’ He tried to raise his voice, resulting in a failure. ‘’He still has a chance, though, right…?’’ Bernie muttered to himself, beginning to ignore their increasingly loud bickering.

‘’Ki~~~d, i’m back!’’ Hiona yelled as she walked down the stairs, a large bag in her hands. As she approached the ‘training room’’ she heard loud, childish yells coming from downstairs, causing her to pick up her pace, beginning to run down the stairs. As she reached the room, she, her eyes immediately stopped at Yohiro, swinging the sword over and over again, sweating to the point of having his clothes soaked in it. His hand gave out, leaving him to drop the sword quickly. ‘’Hang up, hang the hell up! It’s been less than twenty minutes, what are you pulling here?!’’ She yelled at him, scolding him as she pulled an apple out of the bag, throwing it at him and pushing him off balance and leaving him to hit the floor without remorse.

‘’Your muscles are gonna get tense, especially considering your posture and body structure,’’ she explained to him as she leaned over him, looking at his tired, sad expression from above. ‘’But I...can’t rely on adrenaline if I rest and don’t keep moving… Is that how that works?’’ Yohiro asked, smiling, looking both happy and in misery as he did. ‘’A sword’s too much for a wimp like you at the moment, or so you’ve shown me so far. We’ll try something more simple,’’ she explained, taking the apple she threw at him off the floor. ‘’Simple, how?’’ He asked as he managed to get up, struggling for a few long seconds. ‘’Battle gloves, what else?’’ She declared, placing the bag on the ground. ‘’You’ve overexerted yourself. You’ll be sleeping for the rest of today, and we’ll try a new weapon each day. That’s the program. Whichever weapon you manage to at least glaze me with, is the one you’ll use until you start getting strong enough to use magic. Understood?’’ She spoke quickly, not caring if he was able to process her quick way of speech. ‘’Yeah! I understand!’’ He raised his voice, along with his clenched fist, pointing it upwards with happiness. ‘’I’ve brought the food, so eat anything from inside and start sleeping on the floor. I’ll be going outside. You’re not allowed to leave this place until we’re done, that’s final,’’ she looked at him with menacing yes, as if freezing him in place, ‘’If i’m spending my time training you, i’m doing it as I like, when I like, and you’ll be feeling pain as I like.’’ She gave her final words, watching as Yohiro dropped back on his back laughing. ‘’I’ll do it, then! I promise i’ll be able to do it!’’ He shouted loudly, raising his arm towards the ceiling, smiling happily, not seeing Hiona’s grim smile as time continued to pass.