Target Practice

"I'm sorry, what?!" Ruiko stated in surprise.

"Don't worry, the projectiles you'll be utilizing are specifically designed to be non-lethal." Hina stated, "Just don't go too overboard, and he'll be fine. Probably."

'You're really not raising anyone's confidence here!!' Sekai cast a glance over at Ruiko, who was wringing her hands nervously and had an uneasy look on her face.

"Anyway, Sekai - while Ruiko will be trying to hit you, I need you to try and manifest your ability to block the projectiles she throws at you." Hina ordered, and Sekai sighed.

'Sounds simple...but I don't have any notion of how to actually use...' Sekai paused upon realizing he had no name for his ability. 'Well regardless, during the fights with the Witch hunters, I was mostly just reacting instinctually without any conscious control over my ability...'

He inhaled deeply, it seemed like he'd just have to roll with the blows. Literally.

"Any questions?" Hina asked,

Sekai was almost tempted to ask if they could leave but decided against it. Despite the glass being one-way and not allowing Ruiko and Sekai to see the other side, Sekai was sure Hina had a smug grin on her face.

"Alright then! Begin!"

Ruiko and Sekai looked at each other hesitantly, before Ruiko walked to the other end of the room and extended her hand towards the soft projectiles.

Finally, one of them began to levitate and weakly flew at Sekai, bouncing to the ground in front of him.

"...Oh come on Ruiko~! You can do it harder than that!" Hina pouted over the intercom.

Ruiko groaned in frustration, this time, lifting up a trio of the projectiles, she made a large throwing motion.

'Alright, let's see if I can-' Sekai extended his hand, only for the trio to suddenly rush past his head without giving him an opportunity to react and even proceeded to hit the padded wall behind him with enough force to dent and embed themselves within it.

"That's more like it!" Hina cheered, and Sekai looked mortified.

"Are you trying to kill me?!" Sekai said in shock,

"S-sorry!!!" Ruiko called back, "M-my powers get hard to control...!"

"Don't be shy! Keep going!" Hina goaded,

Ruiko nodded, and Sekai rolled out of the way to dodge another one of the projectiles.

Meanwhile, Ruiko used her telekinetic powers to retrieve the other spheres, restocking her ammunition and prolonging the experience.

'Dang it!' Sekai prided himself on being "above-average" in many things, but physical activity wasn't one of them. If anything, he was decidedly below average.

'Stupid Hina! Stupid ability!' Sekai thought to himself in frustration, only noticing too little and too late the sphere hurtling towards his head, knocking him off balance and tossing him against the wall.

Ruiko temporarily stopped, "Are you okay!?" She called out,

Sekai was about to complain, but saw Ruiko's extremely guilty face, and couldn't bring himself to make her sad, and only gave her a small thumbs up.

"He's alright! Keep pushing him!" Hina shouted, and Ruiko tentatively nodded, forcing Sekai on the defensive once again.

"Sekai! Use your ability to block!" Hina shouted as another one of the training spheres hit him dead in the chest.

'You say that but you're not the one down here!' Sekai thought to himself, getting clocked in the head by another training sphere.

Despite this, Sekai barely managed to stand up, seeing Ruiko flinging another sphere towards him, he desperately closed his eyes and extended his hand out to block it from hitting him.

Without warning, a rapid freezing sound was heard in front of him as the sphere bounced off a white crystal substance.

Sekai slowly cracked his eyes open and saw the glistening white crystal structure in front of him,

"Did I...do that?" He wondered, looking up, he realized that the structure had come from his hand and had extended upward and downward to form a wall.

"Alright!" Hina cheered, "Now - keep going!"

"You enjoy this far too much...!" Sekai muttered under his breath, continuing to hide behind the crystal wall he had managed to conjure.

Sekai stared down at his hand, 'What did I do to make this...?' He wondered to himself,

"Maybe it's just the threat of having something flung at my head...?" Sekai asked of no one in particular,

"Alright! Let's do this!" Sekai flung himself out from his cover and extended his right arm forward in a blocking motion.

'Bring it on-' Sekai's thoughts were promptly cut off as a training sphere struck him directly in the face, sending him spiraling into darkness.

⸻

A few hours (or was it seconds? Sekai wasn't sure.) later, Sekai managed to finally begin to come awake to the sound of a voice calling out his name.

"S----i!"

"S--k-i!"

"Sekai!"

Sekai managed to force his eyes open, groaning as his head throbbed in pain.

"Are you alright?! I didn't hit you too hard did I!?" Ruiko barraged him with questions about his well-being, placing her dainty hands on his face and forehead as if checking for a fever.

Sekai sat up, clutching his head. "...I'm sorry...I'm not that good at controlling my power..." Ruiko apologized, a clear liquid gathering at the corner of her eyes.

Seeing this Sekai quickly shook his head, "H-hey don't worry about it so much...!" He said rapidly, "I finally managed to manifest my ability again, and I couldn't have done it without you."

Ruiko looked up at him with a guilty expression and Sekai suddenly became very aware of just how cute Ruiko could be sometimes, turning his head away as he covered his blush with his hand.

Thankfully, Hina arrived in time to prevent any further awkwardness on their part.

"Sheesh...you couldn't do any better?" She asked him,

"This isn't something that comes naturally you know..." Sekai grumbled in response, rising to his feet.

"I suppose you are right," Hina admitted, albeit with a hint of disappointment in her tone, before pulling out a notepad and quickly scribbling something down on it.

"Well, I suppose there is no use in rushing things. Ruiko, you can return to your room, I need to take Sekai for some testing."

Sekai gulped, given the experience he had just been put through, he wasn't sure if he would make it through more of her testing...