Internship 2

After meeting up, the pair made their way to the rented apartment where they would be staying for the duration of the internship.

"You get the couch." said Nagant as they entered the dingy apartment.

"Cool. But can I ask, why are we staying here?" asked Yuuichi as he plopped down onto the couch.

"Because it's cheap. And we're only staying here for two days." she said as she entered the bedroom and closed the door.

"So you're cheap. Interesting." said Yuuichi, causing Nagant to open the bedroom door.

"I'm frugal." she said before closing the door again.

"Frugal, cheap, same thing." he muttered, closing his eyes to rest while waiting for Nagant.

"Get changed, we're going." said Nagant now in her hero costume that consisted of a dark purple sleeveless bodysuit with armor plating on her breasts and around her waist with black pants.

"Alright, give me a sec." said Yuuichi as he grabbed his suitcase and went to go change in the restroom.

A few moments later, out came Yuuichi in his hero costume, at least his first iteration because he wasn't completely sure if he wanted to keep it forever.

"You like?" asked Yuuichi.

"No. Let's go." she said, not hesitating in saying no before walking out the door.

"Who are you to judge about hero costumes? You have random boob armor for no reason." said Yuuichi as he followed her.

"It's to protect my chest when I lay down to snipe." she said as she locked the door before walking off.

"Oh, that makes sense. I take back what I said then. Anyway, what are we doing first?"

"How many fights have you had with an actual person?" she asked as they started walking.

"A lot."

"With your life on the line?"

"Zero." said Yuuichi, even though he had kind of had one such experience in the Underground Fighting Ring which he clearly couldn't tell her about.

"When you fight villains, you have to fight like your life is on the line. And not just your life, but everyone's life. You have to fight as if your death means everyone around you will be killed as well." she said.

"Being a pro-hero sounds rough."

"It is. Sometimes you have to do what has to be done, even if you don't like it." she said, eyes hardened from the truth.

"Okay. So, we're going to spar first then?"

"Mm. I saw your performance at the Sports Festival, you're good."

"Thanks."

"But I want to test you myself. If I don't feel you have what it takes, we're done."

"Okay." he said nonchalantly, intriguing Nagant.

"You seem calm for a person who was just told they might be going home early." she said, side-eyeing him.

"I'm calm because I know I'll pass." he said while yawning.

~

Lady Nagant had led them to an empty warehouse, and the entire walk there was filled with silence, which both were fine with. Lady Nagant because she didn't like to talk unless necessary and Yuuichi because he didn't care either way.

"Creepy warehouse." said Yuuichi.

"Does the job." said Nagant as she unlocked the padlock and took off the chain wrapped around the handles.

As she opened the doors, a wave of dust billowed out.

"Cough, a little warning next time." said Yuuichi as he coughed from the dust.

"My bad." she said, insincerely, before walking in.

"So, what are the rules?" asked Yuuichi, following her in and checking the place out, not that there was much to check out since it was just an empty giant warehouse with catwalks hung from the ceiling.

"I try to kill you, you try to kill me." she said, fixing her hair.

"Seriously?" he asked, not sure if she was joking.

"Seriously." she said as her arm turned into a sniper, loading the bullet she had created when she was pretending to fix her hair, and firing at Yuuichi.

Yuuichi quickly constructed three barriers in front of him to block the bullet while also moving away from the bullet's trajectory.

And a good thing he did because the three barriers were easily broken by the bullet and hit the wall directly behind where Yuuichi was standing moments ago.

Seeing where the bullet hit, Yuuichi realized she was seriously trying to kill him.

"Why are you stopping?" she asked as she fired again causing Yuuichi to construct barriers and dodge once more.

"Villains aren't going to let you stop and think." she said firing twice in rapid succession, one where Yuuichi was and one where he would be.

Putting more energy into the barriers, Yuuichi successfully blocked the first bullet but was unable to block the second one.

"Why are you so passive? You have to fight." she said shooting three bullets while backing away from Yuuichi to give herself more room to snipe.

"Fine." he said before constructing a Solar Giant Armored Elephant that blocked the bullets but made the construct waver.

TRUMPET

As the elephant trumpeted, Yuuichi sent it charging at Nagant who calmly and quickly shot it over and over in the same spot until it broke.

But as she shot the elephant, Yuuichi constructed a giant Solar Dragon that rushed her and spat a fiery breath.

Nagant seeing the breath coming at her jumped to the side and shot right at Yuuichi who barely managed to dodge the bullet taking his arm clean off and settling with a graze which was enough to dispel the construct.

"Is that all it takes for you to lose focus? What happened to the calmness you boasted about earlier?" she asked, sounding disappointed.

"Tch." said Yuuichi, frustrated, and somewhat excited, at being on the back foot after so long.

"If you don't go all out right now, this next shot will kill you." she said as she pointed her sniper right at him and fired.

Constructing an extra thick Solar Buckler to block and/or deflect the bullet, Yuuichi felt his senses go off not from the front but from his right side.

Quickly turning his head, he saw the bullet right in front of him and then time slowed down.

'Damn, she curved it. I wanted to win without relying on whatever this time slow thing is.' thought Yuuichi, moving away from the trajectory of the bullet before constructing one of his ultimate moves.

A 3-meter-tall three-faced, six-armed asura with each hand holding a different weapon, a sword, a bo staff, an axe, a cudgel, a hammer, and a chain, was constructed with Yuuichi at its center, piloting it like a mech.

'Have to end it quick, can't do this for long.' thought Yuuichi as he closed his eyes, putting his entire focus on keeping the construct stable.

And even though it had taken a while to describe what happened, it had only been less than a second thanks to Yuuichi's eyes.

BANG

"You dodged it?" said Nagant surprised to see that her curved bullet had hit the wall and Yuuichi was now clad in a giant construct.

Not responding so as to not waste time, Yuuichi dispelled all the weapons except for the chain which appeared in all six hands before he rushed Nagant, who seeing the rush started a run-and-shoot tactic.

Yuuichi then threw one of the chains at her to try and bind her, but she jumped up to dodge, all while still shooting at the center of the construct where Yuuichi was.

Seeing her jump up to dodge, Yuuichi controlled the thrown chain, turned it into a snake, moved it to coil around her, and placed its fangs at her throat.

"You lose." said Yuuichi, not yet dispelling the Solar Asura, just in case she had something up her sleeve.

"Yes, I do." she said as her arm returned to normal, not even fazed by the fact that a snake was about to bite into her throat.

Hearing her concede, Yuuichi undid all the constructs and touched down on the ground before starting to breathe heavily and rubbing his temple.

"Ahh, I hate using that." he said.

"You didn't use that in the Sports Festival." said Nagant as she walked up to him.

"I used a smaller version that's easier for me to control." said Yuuichi.

"You didn't use your blue constructs either."

"Force of habit."

"Of hiding them."

"Yes."

"It's always good to keep a card up your sleeve. Even from fellow heroes." she said, going silent for a few moments.

"Sounds like you have a story to tell."

"No, I don't."

"Okay then. Now what?" he said, not wanting to pressure her if she didn't want to talk.

"Rest for now. We'll patrol later." she said before walking out of the warehouse.

'Seems like she has some mistrust of heroes. And with the way she said you put your life on the line when fighting, it makes me think she might have taken a life before. Maybe she moonlights as a vigilante. As long as she picks up the bullets and leaves no evidence, it should theoretically work. Interesting.' thought Yuuichi as he closed his eyes to rest.

~

While Yuuichi was resting after the life-or-death fight, Nagant was making a phone call.

"So?" said a man.

"Inconclusive." she said.

"Are you sure?" said the man, feeling like she may be lying.

"Yes. I'll have to test him some more."

"Fine. But you better get the job done. That's an order." he said before hanging up.

"Fuck." she said, crushing the phone with her hands before throwing the pieces away.

~

"Wake up." she said, poking him in the stomach with her sniper.

"Are we moving on?" asked Yuuichi, who was now feeling much better after a short nap, as he stood up to stretch.

"Not yet. Performance review first."

"Okay, lay it on me." said Yuuichi, paying attention.

"First, you need to work on your focus some more. A small graze like that shouldn't knock your concentration off." she said.

"You could tell my constructs require focus to keep them active?" asked Yuuichi.

"Mm. I've met other construct users before and their powers work similarly. Though none of them can create constructs as detailed as you can. Anyway, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up to you being off your game from being in a real life-or-death situation.

Even though I did notice you lost your focus during the Sports Festival when you were fighting that Oni kid."

"Noted."

"Secondly, you are a gifted close combatant and yet you did not attempt to rush me, a ranged combatant, until the end. Whether it was because you were off your game or not, that is a rookie mistake."

"Mm."

"Thirdly, your move set is too diverse to the point where you don't know what to use and when. The unpredictability of your move set is good, but it can also be detrimental. Practice a certain amount of moves to perfection and mainly use that. Only use other things when you have to or want to catch someone off guard."

"Smart."

"And lastly, your eyes."

"My eyes?" asked Yuuichi, confused about what she was referring to.

"You don't know?"

"No, what about my eyes?"

"Your eyes change when you're in life-threatening danger. It happened when I first met you and it happened during the fight. And from what I can tell, it boosts your reaction time by a large amount."

"So my eyes change during that? What do they change into?" asked Yuuichi.

"A blossoming lotus."

"Cool."

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AN

I saw that this novel had a sudden influx of collections for whatever reason and I wanted to put out an extra chapter as a token of my appreciation, but that writer's block hit hard. I'll try for two chapters this upcoming week, but no promises.

Also, his outfit is temporary since I couldn't find anything that I liked.