A Routine Training Session (Dual Training = Cleo & Hiro)

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Cleo had been embracing her new found freedom after stumbling upon Telarossa-sama it was like her state of life in general just improved. She wasn't being beaten anymore could wear new clothes and most importantly her handler was reduced to having a minimal influence over her life. She was no longer caged in an inescapable prison now her situation was akin to a slave shackled with invisible chains. She knew exactly how far those invisible chains reached even if she could see them they were still there but unlike the cage she wasn't restricted and could move around a wider area.

One of such days would have her waiting for Hiroshima Denkou she had been lurking around hoping to run into him but he was no where in sight. Nonetheless whatever free time she had she used to swing by if she could as she was looking forward to sparring with him again or even just talking to him. Unlike Zaku his niceness didn't come from a combination of humor and pity, she valued her first friend make no mistake but she knew that while he was a good person Zaku was a monster most of the time just like the rest of Pandora. "Except Hiro, he's different." Cleo thought to herself scanning the area for a glimpse of him. She was getting a little worried though but understood that as a Silver Knight chances are he'd be at his Order base rather than lingering around the Land of Ash trying to look for an apprentice.

Hiro ran his fingers back through his onyx hair and let out an exhausted sigh as he made his way through the streets of Jigokugakure. Looking at the position of the sun it was easy to tell that evening was fast approaching, but it still felt like morning to the Denkou who had spent his entire day fulfilling his duties patrolling the outer walls of the village. In fact, he had not even seen the sun that day until he left that area, having been scouting the entire area around the village before the sun rose on the horizon. Moving about at those hours had become rather commonplace for Hiro these days, as he’s be getting stuck with a lot of these missions lately.

Shaking this morning’s activities from his mind, he would instead refocusing on what he had originally went on this walk through the village for, food. He was tired, hungry, and irritable, all of which could be remedied by grabbing a quick bite to eat and heading home. With that goal in mind the Denkou would begin thumbing through his mind, searching for a place to eat which would fulfill those interests. Most of the restaurants he frequented were out of the way, too much so for him to be interested in making that kind of detour. He also had zero interest in going through the process of cooking. At this moment in time, the more simple he could make this whole process the better.

Before he knew it however, he found himself in front of a popular dango store. It had been awhile since he had some dango, so he had decided to pay the shop a visit. Entering the shop, Hiro took a seat at the main counter with his arms folded as he read the menu.

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Cleo kept looking waiting for about twenty minutes in the training area before giving up and making her way of to maybe hang out with Zaku, on her way she would spot something red cross her vision before seeing that it was the very person she was looking for. She would cheer in her head though the fist pump was shown outward and after coughing to compose herself she would follow him into the dango shop. She would sit down next to him instead of tapping his shoulder or something because doing such a thing in Pandora could get you killed if they reacted badly. "Hiro it's nice to see you again, it's been a while hasn't it?" Cleo said hoping that he hadn't forgotten her, sure she did look different healthier and in new clothes even if they were in the same style as her old ones. If he didn't remember her she would be sad but wouldn't get offended he was a busy person and she was pretty much a nobody at the time, even now she only had status within her order due to her mentor being Telarossa-sama.

His tired eyes scanned the menu for something that would appeal to him, but due to the vast number of items on the menu he would just settle for something he was familiar with. “Can I have an order of bocchan dango and green tea, please?” Hiro said to the old man that was apparently waiting for his order. When the man had left to take care of his order, Hiro would let out a soft sigh and rubbed his temple. After he had provided his body with its first meal of the day, he would go home and have a nice long shower and then get some sleep, just the mere thought of him hitting the soft mattress and placing his head on his pillow caused him to doze off and if it wasn’t for someone calling out to him he probably would’ve fallen asleep in the shop. “Huh?” He muttered before turning his head to the direction where the person had been. “Oh! Hey Karliah, it has been awhile!” He said as his mood lightened up after seeing the girl he had been thinking about quite often. “You seem well.” In fact she seemed more than well, the last time he had seen her she was wearing a tattered dress, looked like she hadn’t been eating and looked to have crawled out a dumpster….No offense. His mind was telling him to hug her but he restrained himself, after all he didn’t know how she would react.

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He remembered and a pleased smile would break out on her face as she nodded in agreement with his observation. "Indeed I was lucky enough to get a mentor his name is Telarossa Alonne of the INCO Order. He's taken me under his wing and now I'm able to learn what I want medicine and do research." Cleo gushed before remembering that she had wanted to know what Hiro had been up to since the last time she saw him. "I was looking for you, I thought youmight have forgotten about our training sessions, you know for swordsmanship. But what have you been up to if you don't mind me asking." she would motion to Hiro when she got a glimpse of the person making his order to indicate that she wanted the same thing. She even got a small allowance for food, well no it wasn't for food but for other things but she typically just scavenged and saved her Xel for buying food.

It was interesting that her mentor was one of the first Gold Knights in the Pandora Empire. He had heard a lot of things about Telarossa, including the fact that he was pretty manic but it seemed as if he was taking pretty good care of her. “I’m glad to hear that Karliah.” He said with a warm smile. Hiro was glad that she was now able to practice what she was actually interested in and she was no longer restricted in what she could learn. “I haven’t forgotten my promise to you, it’s just that I’ve been swamped with work since my promotion to Silver Knight, that and I’ve learning about the orders in Pandora since I’m now eligible to join one.” He mentioned before the man brought their orders to the counter. Starving Hiro would stuff the dango in his mouth and began wolfing it down. “Hehe, sorry I haven’t eaten in days…” He said after remembering he was in the presence of company.

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"Congratulations on your promotion, what order do you think your going to go with? I'm probably going to join INCO when I get to Silver Knight especially since my mentor doesn't seem interested in becoming a God of Pandora." Cleo said not minding that he tore into the food as when her food arrived she would end up doing the same. Hers wasn't because of hunger but more along the lines of having to learn how to eat very quickly lest others steal her food from her, being a cypher was hard most thought they didn't have to eat but that wasn't the case. It just so happened that they didn't suffer from starvation as badly as humans or nova did but they were still alive and did need sustenance even if it only was meant for recovering from injuries. She would pay attention to what she ate even now she had the habit of pausing every now and then to savor a new flavor, ever since she got an allowance she had been determined to eat things that she had wanted to try but never had the opportunity to get due to a lack of money as well as retry those things that she had fished out of a dumpster or gone stale with time. In comparison to back then she was living a luxurious life, clothes, food, baths not "showers" with a hose and now having a conversation with a friend at a restaurant with food she bought with her own money.

“Well since Xan-sensei had basically told me that joining the TLAH Order was not an option, I’ve decided that the HUIT Order would be the one that was best suited for me as it complimented my fighting style.” He was a swordsman after all so joining the order that specialized in combat made sense as he would be able to put his skills to good use. Stuffing the last piece of dango in his mouth, a sigh of satisfaction would escape his lips as he leaned back into the chair he was sitting on. Though it didn’t fill the void that was in his stomach, his body was grateful for the nourishment and he had at least gotten the energy to move about and probably do some training. “Oh right. I have a gift for you!” Hiro said recalling the item he had picked up on his travel to Samuai. Sadly he didn’t have it on his person at the moment so they had to go pick it up at his place. “It’s over at my house wanna take a walk with me?” He said with a smile before he started drinking his tea.

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If Cleo could blush she would have done so, unfortunately she couldn't but she had been practicing her chakra control to reflexively flood her cheeks with it anytime she was embarrassed. It was an advanced form of chakra control she wanted to learn in preparation for a medical technique she deemed quite useful, and if it was successful and Hiro had chakra vision that is he would be able to see the faint sheen of chakra flood her face when he mentioned gift. "A g-gift? For me, you shouldn't have I-I thank you I would love to, no one has given me a gift before.." Cleo said stuttering a bit due to her mixture of nervousness and excitement, having finished eating her food at roughly the same time as him. She would thank the stall owner with a incline of her head and then get up out and wait for Hiro to do the same all the while wondering what sort of gift it was.

He wasn’t sure if she would like it but the moment he had gotten it, he had thought of giving it to her as a gift. Perhaps it would’ve been best to give her flowers or candy as a first gift but it was too late to turn back now. Finishing his cup of green tea, Hiro would dip into his pocket, pulling out enough xel to pay for the meal and then got up from around the counter. “Let’s go Karliah-chan.” He said with a smile and after thanking the store owner for the lovely food he would exit the building with the girl.

Thankfully his place wasn’t too far away from the dango shop and in about 30 minutes of walking they had arrived. “Welcome to my humble abode! Make yourself comfortable.” Hiro said after opening the front door. In truth his house quite…. Crappy. Not only was it a poorly constructed shack that was situated literally the back of village, the entire structure was made of dried wood, so it could collapse at any given moment. Inside however was pretty clean and he had Mary to thank for that. “I’m going to miss the place.” He said out loud as he looked around the small shack. He had recently purchased a house near the HUIT order as he will be living in that vicinity from now on, so this little shack will be abandoned for quite some time. Until he visits the village again that is. Making his way to the makeshift armory Mary had made to keep his weapons, he would take a great sword from off the rack. “Like I said I never forgot my promise to you. I got this from a pirate that attacked my escort and myself while we were heading to Samuigakure. I was thinking that we could someone recreate this into a weapon you prefer like n uchigatana. In truth I have no idea what it can do since I have no chakra but I’m pretty sure it’s cool. ”

Gift:

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Cleo would follow along though she noticed something glinting in the distance and move over to pick it up, scrap metal yet it looked like a broken blade of some sort still it was useful so she took it with her. She would get back to following up until they got to a shack with her entering and looking around as the interior was nice even though the outside wasn't too pretty, but she didn't mind she knew the importance of shelter and having a roof over your head was better than not having one at all. When Hiro showed her the sword though she would take it from him reverently and brush her fingers against it marveling in the craftsmanship even if it was really heavy. "It's perfect Hiro-kun...It's heavy but it's well balanced but if you know a blacksmith I just know it would make a wonderful sword for me." Cleo would take a step back swinging it slowly but avoiding breaking anything in his house just to get a feel for the weapon and then attempting to channel chakra into it and finding that her chakra scalpel flowed into it almost effortlessly.

With that she would gasp and a smile would blossom on her face causing her to set it down on a nearby table gently and rush over to hug him tightly. "Thank you, thank you so much. This is the first time anyone's given me a gift since my family were executed, and it's such a useful one." she whispered realizing that she had probably hugged him without his permission but hoping he wasn't bothered by it. She would release him after lingering in the hug for a while especially if he hugged her back and would take a step or two back looking away nervously with the chakra flow blush trick coming back full force.

Spoiler:

“Well I do know a blacksmith, so I’m pretty sure that we’ll be able to create the perfect weapon for you to use.” He said with a smile as he was glad that she had actually liked his gift. He would probably send Jake-san a message asking if he could possibly customize the weapon to suit her needs, he was pretty sure he was capable of making uchigatanas and the weapons he had created for Hiro was pretty dope so he knew that the end result would be amazing.

Her sudden hug had caught him off guard but it was more than welcomed. Unable to control himself, Hiro would wrap his arms around Karliah and held her tight. She felt so delicate in his arms and if it was up to him he would’ve never let her go, but of course if he kept ahold of her that would’ve made things awkward so he had no choice but to let her go. “So umm… how about we go train now?” He said with a nervous chuckle.

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"Y-Your right, we should train. I can't wait to test this sword out, even if it is heavy it's too well made to not at least try to use it. But if that blacksmith of yours can make it into an Uchigatana I would be able to utilize Iaido with it, I've been gathering materials because I was hoping to see if I could pay to have my current weapon reforged but it would be better if I used them for this." Cleo would pick up the cleaver sword once more and place it on her back using chakra to stick it there since it didn't seem to have a sheathe in sight. She would wait for him to lead the way, so that he could get whatever gear he needed for the spar, she was looking forward to training with him as well since she had been adhering to the exercises that he had set for her.

“Well let’s get going then!” Hiro said with a smile before heading for the exit. He already had all his equipment on his person already so they could get right into the training. Around the back of his hut, there was an open area that was about a few yards long that he would use to spar with Kagura. Ever since Mary had joined up with them however, he was thinking about turning this area in a makeshift ranch to house the animals she would tame in the near future and possible pets and mounts for them, until they’ve worked up enough money to get a real ranch which was expensive as hell. Once Karliah had arrived, Hiro would ensure that there was distance between the two of them before drawing his custom made katana. “So no ranged attacks?” He asked as he was curious if she was still uncomfortable with him using his ranged attacks against her since she was unable to defend against them.

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Cleo would look around at the terrain smiling as she decided that she could work with such a place, it was open and she could move though she was grateful that Hiro had remembered her weakness against ranged techniques. If he were a ninjutsu user she could of attempted to fight him and rely on the superiority of Iaido but that was not the case, he was a swordsman first and a magician second and she knew they didn't need hand seals to control the elements they just wreathed them. "Yes, thank you. It would be pretty one-sided if you did use them, sorry." Cleo said with another chakra blush, she would then get serious and slip into the stance for Iaido. She would make no move this time she wanted him to be the one to make the first move so she could see how he attacked and try her best to defend against it and turn the tide to her favor.

Though he was bit disappointed that he was unable to use any of his ranged senjutsu based techniques, he understood that she had no means of coping with them, just like he did with genjutsu. God he hated genjutsu users and succubi. Snapping out of that irrelevant train of thought, Hiro would draw his katana and pointed it at the young girl. “Here I come.”

Kicking off the ground, Hiro would run towards the girl at crashing ground speeds and when he gotten close enough he would attempt to deliver a diagonal slash to her mid-section, however during mid swing, he would release the katana allowing it to fall to his free hand and would this time deliver an upward slash, hoping that the feint would catch her off guard.

Spoiler:

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Cleo would take an odd stance, her right hand bent over her shoulder elbow pointing forward while obscuring her mouth, while her left hand was on the hilt of her Uchigatana which was being stuck to her hip via chakra. She could easily track his movement in regards to vision just lacking the speed to follow through with dodging that is until she opened the Eight Gates. Then everything would become clearer allowing her to lean back from the first slash and draw her Uchigatana to block to follow up slash that he had done with a small part of the blade unable to fully draw it due to their close proximity. Cleo would then thrust her right elbow forward like a jab at A-rank speeds though not with her full strength instead she would utilize around C-rank strength mainly because she wanted to hit is forehead and stun him a bit.

This was instead a feint as if he leaned back then she would utilize Chakra Scalpel causing it to emerge from her elblow, except it wasn't the normal chakra scalpel it was one boosted by the power of her eight gates after being refined with Extension. "Dissection Blade: Lotus Petal" she said while directing it through chakra flow to slice through the muscles in Hiro's arm that she had parried his strike with. The coloration was different than normal light blue into a deeper more vibrant navy blue due to the potency of her chakra as it flowed out from her open gates. This was because when blocking his upward swing with her Uchigatana she would press down with A-rank strength to essentially make him unable to lift it. Her positioning was so that one leg was more forward than the other essentially to keep her footing stable while at the same time to give her more leverage in case she needed to capitalize if her attack was successful with a follow up.

Spoiler:

His grey hues would immediately turn to crimson the moment his feint had failed. In truth he wasn’t surprised that she was able to see through his feint, in fact he was anticipating it. Hiro’s feet would shift as he took the Blood Moon stance as his free hand wrapped around the handle of his Wakizshi. Thanks to Sayo Heritage, he would able to react to her attack and he would do so by ducking under elbow. Hiro would immediately draw the Wakizashi that was attached to his hip with his free hand and delivered a crescent shape slash towards her stomach at samurai blinding light speeds. He wasn’t aiming to give her a deep wound as he would ensure that the damage she would receive by the swing would be equivalent to C rank physical damage, follow up however wouldn’t be as delicate as Cleo would launch back +50 feet as a crescent would be released from his blade, crashing into her stomach.

Spoiler:

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He had ducked, it wasn't the preferred thing but it would work and she would still cause a chakra scalpel to emerge from her elbow deciding to trade attack for attack. She would get hit by his strike being too slow to dodge it but would also have her chakra scalpel slice the muscles in his right shoulder so she could at least cripple him a bit during this fight and reduce his fighting ability. She had made a precise enough cut to it wouldn't leave any lasting damage, but it would take a medical technique to patch him up so it couldn't possibly fix it during their spar. The strike to her stomach would cause her to clench her teeth as she was knocked flying backward but she would try and lash out with a follow up as she flew back using her right hand to swing her newly gifted weapon at vacuum release speeds.

It was a retaliatory strike, and she had been practicing as it was a textbook downward swing just like what he had taught her, except it was backed with her Chakra Scalpel which thanks to not only extension and Lotus Blade would allow her to deliver a strike from 10 ft away. Which she would attempt to do before she was too far away to reply and prevent him from chasing after her flying body to finish her. That is if her A-rank strength didn't allow her to halt her knock-back her legs gouging into the ground as she stopped her movement just far enough for him to still be within her range. It was a strike just like the last except aimed at his left shoulder, she knew she couldn't compete with him with raw speed but if she could keep counter-slicing him then she might have a chance at victory even if her body got messed up in the process. "Amazing, if only it was an Uchigatana my Iaido would have an extremely far reach and that's without even factoring in my displacement aura which I could use to further increase the range of my kenjutsu. The chakra drain, it's really efficient it only costed the initial amount to infuse it, unlike normally where I have to constantly pay chakra." Cleo thought to herself marveling at the gift Hiro gave her and it's use in combat.

Spoiler:

Hiro would grimace the moment the chakra scalpel had somehow managed to pierce his skin. Pushing the pain to the back of his head, Hiro would prepare for his counter attack however his attempt to lift his right arm was futile. “What the hell?” He muttered to himself as he tried moving his limp arm to no avail. Holding his composure, he would sheathe the Wakizashi he held in his left hand and picked up the fallen katana from off the ground. His current state would seriously hamper his fighting style but he had to make due with only using one weapon.

Kicking off the ground, Hiro would make his way towards Cleo with the intent of finishing what he had started. He would be able to predict her actions thanks to a combination of his dojutsu and Muscle Tension, thus he would use Hoho: Bound to hop 25 feet within the air at S rank speeds to avoid her attack. While in midair, he would “jump” at S+ rank to close the gap between them and when he was close enough, he would attempt to deliver a lightning charged horizontal slash to her mid-section.

Spoiler:

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Cleo would notice how Hiro managed to dodge her counter attack, though he would vanish once more to her vision causing her to panick and open the Gate of Pain while using her new gift to conceal her body. Just in time as well, seeing as he would swing at her mid section which thankfully due to the size of the cleaver and the chakra scalpel coursing through it she would be able to survive his strike without getting cut in half. She knew she was completely forced on the defensive though seeing as he was faster than her and she still couldn't track his movement. She was still happy though, she had managed to cut him, even though their skill was far apart she had managed to cut him and she was content with that, even if he could easily read her attacks and would soon beat her in a couple of moments. Especially since the lightning coated Katana was slowly but surely cutting through her new gift much to her horror since she had just got it. That is unless Hiro didn't just read her block and cut her from a different direction, as he was more than capable of doing.

Spoiler:

Cleo’s attempt to block was commendable, however, he was able to predict her actions thus her attempt was futile. The moment Hiro closed in on her he would use his bushin technique to create an afterimage to throw her off. The real Hiro would use bound to maneuver himself around Cleo at blinding light so he could deliver the finishing blow, a horizontal slash to her right shoulder. He was careful to hack her entire arm off though since this was just a training session, but he was keen on providing her with a similar injury to the one that she had given him. But he had to commend her, she was quite scary whenever she was fighting seriously and her ability to cripple his shoulder without any external wounds was amazing, imagine if she had lightning release to go with such a technique, scary.

Spoiler:

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"S-so fast." Cleo thought to herself as what she thought she had been blocking would turn out to merely be an afterimage and she would jerk a bit forward from the impact to her shoulder. Turning, she would see that Hiro was behind her and smile while raising her other hand in surrender and cutting the chakra flow to Cleaver-chan once Hiro removed his sword from her body. "Somehow, you sticking a sword in me is turning into a habit each time we spar. E-er I mean a sword blade because last time you stabbed me and now you cut me, not that you have a 'sword in me' because that would imp- I'm going to shut up now and heal you." Cleo would blush while rambling after catching the innuendo behind her words, if there was one thing she understood it was innuendos just by living in the Tenshi Clan as an Alchemist. Sure there weren't many Artificers who would "sully" themselves by laying with an alchemist but it didn't mean that the handlers didn't make comments with heavy sexual undertones especially if you were reasonably attractive like Cleo was.

Once Hiro removed his sword she would hold out her hand which glowed with medical chakra so she could use it to heal the muscle injury to his shoulder. "Sorry about that, it is part of my Dissection Blade fighting style, I've managed to alter and weaponize the chakra scalpel technique both for different types of surgery and combat purpo- Aaagh!!" she said finishing Hiro's medical treatment with her newly learned medical technique, the Mystical Healing Palm, before her gates deactivated causing her to cry out in pain and then collapse yet again. Physical & Chakra exhaustion along with rippled muscle fibers causing intense physical pain, and she didn't have enough chakra to heal herself seeing as she had prioritized his well being over her own. This time however she actually would faint from the pain, she had been too caught up in enjoying the spar to conserve chakra to heal her body from the drawbacks of the Eight Gates so now she was going to pay the price for it.

Spoiler:

Training Topic:

A soft sigh escaped his lips as the spar was now over. It felt as if he had to put too much effort into fighting people who were below his current skill level but this was Pandora after all so if he made a mistake, like what had happened today, he’d pay the price. Removing the sword from her shoulder, Hiro would sheathe his weapon and waited for her to finish healing him up knowing that if he had said even a word he would probably end making things a lot worse, though the thought of them doing that did cause him to blush, but they were too young to even be contemplating such a thing, I mean they haven’t even gone on a date as yet! “Thanks for patching me up Karliah.” He said with a smile as he was now able to move his arm freely once more. “That’s a pretty cool technique, Karliah-chan maybe you should teach it to m-” Before he could finish his sentence the sound of Karliah screaming in pain had caught his attention. As she fell to the ground, Hiro would move towards her and caught her. “That was close…” He muttered to himself before he placed his arms around her and lifted her up. Luckily for them, his house was just a few feet away.

Arriving at his home, Hiro would take Karliah to his room and placed her down gently on his bed. Luckily he had recently purchased new mattress so she’d be rather comfortable. Though he wasn’t the one passed out on the bed, Hiro himself wasn’t in the best of conditions as he had been up for two days straight patrolling the walls of the village so he was quite fatigued after all of that sparring. Letting out a pain-filled grunt he would remove the armor he wore and tossed them in the corner of the room. In truth, he wanted to make his way to the living room so he could get a quick nap but his body only allowed him to go as far as the bed in the room. Thankfully Karliah was on the other side of the bed so he avoided falling on her but they were laying pretty close to each considering the bed was only made for one person.

Trained:

Guest

-8 hours later-

Cleo would wake up, confused her body still ached but she could feel that she had managed to replenish her chakra which could of only happened through resting, she'd turn a bit only to immediately get a sight of her topless sparring partner. Unfortunately or fortunately she was too injured to scream in embarrassment or hit him out of reflex then again she wasn't a tsundere so the latter outcome was very unlikely. Instead she would concentrate medical chakra to her palms while they remained pressed to her sides so she could begin to heal the damage her gate use had wrought on her body. At the very least surface injuries so she could go to a hospital after to fully repair her body, but the basic healing she could do would ease her pain back down to manageable levels. She decided to cut her losses and just enjoy this unexpected development after all it wasn't often that she got to stare shamelessly at a boy with a nicely developed physique, it made her feel a bit self-conscious seeing as she wasn't nearly as toned as he was. "Am I fat? Wait would he even care that I am. Wait Cleo what are you thinking about why do you care if he cares if your fat don't over think this just enjoy it." she would panic internally before shrugging it off to instead focus on another pressing issue. Why were they in bed together, was this planned or was he just tired and she took up his bed, if that was the case she felt bad for taking up his sleeping space. She regained enough movement that she could lift her left arm and move her fingers enough to tentatively reach out to poke his abdomen, she just had to check how solid it was.

» Under the Bloody Rule {Dual Training Zero and Hiro}
» One Master, One Apprentice. (Dual Training Xan & Zaku) [Closed Except to Hiro]
» Preparations [Hiro, Cleo, Amamiya, Suzume]
» Armen's Training Session: What a Day
» Eat, Sleep, Train Some More: Summer, Armenezra, and Himiko Training Session

Road Trip

With the first round of classes complete and the students already acclimated to life at the academy. The school has organized a field trip in order to give the students a taste of what …

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