Sandoshi

"Morning Satoshi, early morning again today?" A resident student greeted Satoshi as he was walking to Unsui's study.

"Good morning, yes, I'm actually a bit late today," Satoshi replied briefly.

"Awww don't be in a rush, stop and have breakfast with us first, we have sandwiches!"

"..."

Satoshi chose to ignore the student and continued on his walk. Only to get heckled by another student after just a few meters.

"Ey Satoshi, let's get lunch together later, how about a burger?" Another student said aloud.

"Come to my place for dinner, Sandoshi, we are going to make grilled cheese!" yet another one said.

Satoshi ignored all of these and quickened his pace. He didn't know how, but somehow the 'idiot sandwich' accident that happened just last night already made its round among the Palace Museum residents.

Now everyone was mocking Satoshi with different types of sandwiches. One even directly called him Sandoshi!

Satoshi swore in his heart that whoever spread the embarrassing incident would have to pay!

It actually didn't take long at all for Satoshi to find who spread the story. As soon as he got to Unsui's study, he was greeted by a man that definitely wouldn't make a good poker player.

"Eyyo...Sandoshi-ahem! Satoshi…what a wonderful morning, ey?"

It was obvious that Unsui tried to act as naturally as possible, he even tried to whistle, something he never did before, and failed miserably.

"Let's just get started with the study," Satoshi flatly responded.

"Oh? Are you not feeling particularly well this morning? Have you had breakfast? I have some egg sandwiches if you want some…"

Unsui was obviously doing this on purpose because when Satoshi looked at him, Unsi was struggling to hold back his laughter and he began to become teary-eyed.

Satososhi didn't want to respond to this and gave Unsui another reason to continue with his mockery, so he didn't say anything in retort. But contrary to Satoshi's expectation, Unsui became more and more creative and daring in his mockery.

He went on a 25 minutes rant about the different types of sandwich and their effect on the human body!

"I have an idea!" Satoshi suddenly shouted just when he could no longer take it.

"Oh? Is this a new sandwich idea?" Unsui asked.

"No. It's an idea about…an automaton."

Unsui looked a little bit disappointed when he heard that, but he was still curious anyway.

"Carry on…what this automaton do?"

"It's an automaton that can do…everything…"

"What do you mean 'everything'... a single automaton can't do everything!"

"It's possible for this one! Because it is equipped with different kinds of..uh..magical devices! One for every purpose!"

"Hooo..alright…but, how that would be a shit-ton amount of device, how would you fit it in?"

"I will fit it…in a..pocket? Yes! I will fit it in a pocket that has its own separate dimension."

"Hmmm…okay that sounds possible but I'm not sure…. What does this automaton look like?"

"Well, uhh..it should look like a cute animal, like a cat or a dog, so children wou-"

"A raccoon! It should look like a raccoon!" Unsui suddenly interjected excitedly.

"A raccoon??" Satoshi was unsure about the suggestion.

"Yes! It should look like a raccoon with a power button as the tail that can be used to turn it off!"

Satoshi was still surprised by the 'raccoon' suggestion, but now Unsui already seemed to go with his own wild thoughts.

"This raccoon should have its ears eaten by a mouse, and it should be painted..uhh..blue! Cause it's a boy!"

Unsui was very thrilled by the idea, he began slapping Satoshi on the shoulder.

"Hahaha! This is a genius idea! If could make this automaton I will absolutely reach the rank of Master!"

He looked at Satoshi with twinkling eyes.

"I was wrong about you, turns out you are a genius Sandoshi!"

—

There was an area within the complex of the Palace Museum that could only be accessed by a limited number of people. To access it, one must also gain a written permit from at least two out of three resident teachers. It wasn't anything like the room was a dangerous place or something like that, but because the room was really isolated from the rest of the complex.

If some freak accident were to happen to someone within the room, it would be very hard for anyone outside to notice and offer help. Thus, the precaution.

Today Satoshi was in this room with Tellrog. This room was supposed to be an underground bunker for royal refugees, so it was naturally very spacious and protected. The entire wall, floor, and ceiling of this underground room looked like it was carved out of a single colossal rock.

Tellrog stood in front of a weapon rack with various kinds of magical weapons. From today onward he would start having Satoshi familiarize himself with the different kinds of weapons.

"Now repeat what I just said," Tellrog commanded.

"The different kinds of weapons act in the same manner as any other magical tools: to help its wielder more efficiently and effectively achieve its intended purpose. Thus they are made of different kinds of material and equipped with different degrees of enchantments according to their specified purpose. Depending on their difficulty, to wield a weapon, one is required not to only have the prerequisite mental and comprehension capacity but also the familiarity with said weapon's characteristics. Thus, it is more likely for a practitioner to stick with one kind of weapon and increase their familiarity instead of trying to master them all."

"At the peak of mastery, it is said that a weapon will conceive its own soul and would be able to form a strong bond with its owner, resulting in a huge leap of power output." Satoshi ended his repetition.

"Well done! I'm honestly amazed by how fast you are grasping this." Tellrog complimented Satoshi.

"Now, before we proceed, do you have any questions?"

"Yes, I actually do have a question. Are you a Martial Teacher?"

The reason for Satoshi's question was actually the weapon rack that Tellrog brought with him. It was really choked full of different kinds of weapons.

Staff, mage staff, clubs, chakrams, halberd, sword, greatsword, shortsword, curved sword, rapier, flail, daggers, knives, thrown knives, bow and arrows, spear, axe, mace, Warhammer, battle axe, shiv, whips, and many more that Satoshi couldn't name or wasn't familiar with.

"Oh no, I am what you would call a battle mage. Although I rely on my weapons a lot, the core of power still lies in my one spells and enchantment for those weapons."

"On the other hand, an actual Martial Teacher would imbue their weapons with life force energy to channel their power, and in effect making them an extension of their own limbs."

"This here is just my personal collection but, yeah, I got that question a lot, hahaha!"

Tellrog answered the question with such delight. He looked like he was quite happy to be mistaken as a Martial Teacher.

"Now, as you must have known, there are six main subjects in the Academia Scholastic Trials. What are they?"

"Numeracy, Alchemy, which together have their own subordinates subjects of inscriptions and formations, literature and history, philosophy, and applied studies," Satoshi answered.

"Right, these are the most basic branch of study before anyone goes further into the academia journey. In the applied studies section, we are going to with combat skills."

"Why combat skills?"

"Because Sepphira's illusion magic and Unsui's refinement technique are just too hard for you right now. And I happen to be the one among the three of us that is most suited for this, thus, combat magic." Tellrog explained.

Satoshi understood it fully. The simple reason why combat magic was chosen was that Satoshi was too stupid for any other options, so beggars can't be choosers.

The session proceeded with more practical experience. Tellrog would let Satoshi get himself familiarized with several types of weapons and ask him to make one or two choices of weapons to specialize in. He would also demonstrate the technique to perform the most basic movement of each weapon.

All this felt very strange for Satoshi, as long as he could remember he never wielded any kind of weapon in his life. The closest thing to a weapon he ever wielded was a utensil knife and fork, yet now he must try and get himself familiarized with these various weapons.

Satoshi was wielding a battle staff, Tellrog's favorite choice of weapon. Tellrog actually prepared this particular staff, and many of the other weapons, specifically to be used in Satoshi's training. This staff was a whole head taller than Satoshi and was very heavy.

The staff was riddled with inscriptions that would help the wielder to better control their flow of energy either when attacking or defending. This was actually the fundamental difference between martial weapons and magical weapons. In martial weapons, the wielder fully depended on their own skill to achieve this.

Although these magical weapons could be very helpful, without proper training they could also be harmless instead. If the wielder were not familiar with the weapon's characteristics and its enchantment, there would be a possibility of a 'blow-back', where the wielder's power was thrown back to themselves instead of the enemy, injuring them in the process.

After trying out the battle staff for several minutes Satoshi stopped practicing the basic staff movement. He was out of breath and was sweating loads. Although the battle staff was only the first weapon Satoshi tried, and he was just several minutes in, Satoshi knew this weapon doesn't suit him.

'It felt…un-natural to me. Well probably because it is heavy and I am not yet used to it, but it feels like…not suitable with my personality.'

Satoshi looked at the weapon rack to check all the other options. The sword was kind of mandatory Tellrog said, so he would have to learn it anyway, but he was looking for something that was more suited to his personality.

Among the rows of swords just next to the short-sword Satoshi saw a dagger. The blade was just a little shorter than his forearm and it was single-edged.

'This looks more like it, with this I could hide it somewhere and use a sneak attack to stab someone!'

Satoshi began imagining the different possibilities he would have using the dagger. Just as he was about to go and ask Tellrog about the basic movements of a dagger, he noticed something at the bottom part of the weapon rack.

It was a small item and a cloth of fabric, a spear was put on top of them, most probably accidentally. Satoshi took both items and instinctively asked Tellrog.

"What is this?"

Tellrog looked over and said, "Ohh, there it is, I was looking for it!"

Satoshi looked at the curved piece of the blade with a metal loop at the end of its handle. The curve of the blade was very aggressive, almost like that of a beast's claw.

"That's a knife I got from one of my friends. He found it in some ruins on the north-western part of Istindi. He doesn't know what it is but I have seen something like this back in Sulu so he sent it to me to check." Tellrog answered.

"And this?" Satoshi held up the piece of cloth.

"That's just a piece of cloth I use to polish the knife. Must be one of the hand wraps from one of my bracers."

"Handwraps?"

"Yes. You need to use hand wraps when you wear bracers, otherwise, you are in for a bad time. Some warrior monks of Asira and warrior tribes of Sulu would even go as far as only wearing the hand wraps without the bracers."

Satoshi felt like he just found something that might actually fit him. He asked Tellrog whether it would be possible for him to try the bracers next time. He also asked if it would be possible to learn the techniques for the curved knife.

"Hm…let me look around a bit, I might be able to come up with something for that…Are you going to use the knife?" Tellrog asked.

"I think so, it suits me better than those big weapons."

"And the bracers?" Tellrog asked again curiously

"I might need Unsui's help with that later." Satoshi simply said.

—

Unsui had told Sepphira that he would be unable to continue assisting with Satoshi's preparation. He cited his reason as a 'paramount invention of unprecedented proportion', something that if he were to succeed, would turn the entirety of the automaton and construct study, upon its head.

Only Satoshi knew that he was busy making the raccoon robot. Thus, he had no concern about disturbing Unsui whatsoever.

"I need your help," Satoshi said as soon as he entered Unsui's study. He didn't even bother knocking.

Unsui's room was now much more cluttered than it was before. It was already messy before, but somehow he managed to make it even more chaotic. When Satoshi entered, Unsui was hunched over a skeleton frame that looked to be made from some kind of metal.

"I need your help!" Satoshi shouted out because Unsui didn't even seem to notice him before.

"Huh? What is it Sandoshi, go away I am busy." Unsui replied, didn't even bother to look up.

"I have an idea for an invention, I need your help."

"Are you blind? I'm working on something very important right now, I can't bother with your silly ideas!"

Unsui barked harshly, he seemed to already forget that it was Satoshi that gave him the idea for his 'paramount invention of unprecedented proportion'.

"This idea will definitely match up in proportion, if not greater than the one you are working on right now." Satoshi persuaded.

"...yea I doubt that very much, this thing will be able to do anything when it is finished, and I mean anything!"

Satoshi was startled, he didn't think Unsui would take that idea of his that seriously. He started to regret selling Unsui that ridiculous idea about the raccoon automaton. Now that he needed Unsui's help for real, he need to come up with an equally tall tale.

"This invention…will enable you to grasp…the entire world in the palm of your hand!"

Satoshi was going to say to grasp something else initially but he refrained since it would be too preposterous.

"Hmm? And how would it supposed to do that?" Unsui started to get curious.

"Here, let me tell you…" Satoshi drew closer and whispered his idea to Unsui.

"Hmm? Okay, I get where you are going with this…"

"I see…but why would you nee-ahhh..yes, yes, yes…"

"Ho ho ho, that's true that's true…"

Unsui got more and more intrigued by what Satoshi whispered into his ear, it could be seen in his eyes as they glowed brighter and brighter. Suddenly, he seemed to understand something and abruptly jumped from his seat.

"Wait! That can't be right! Even if it will have the ability to control the elements, how could you use it to grasp the world?!"

Satoshi was surprised by Unsui's abrupt animated reaction.

"Instead of grasping the world…you should use it to grasp something else, something…with heft!"

If Satoshi didn't understand what Unsui meant by 'something with heft' then Satoshi would be an irredeemable idiot. He was going to use this 'something with heft' to convince Unsui initially but refrained from it, but now Unsui came to that conclusion by himself.

"HAHAHA! This is indeed a marvelous idea! Satoshi, I knew you are a genius, but I didn't know that you are a peerless genius!" Unsui excitedly complimented Satoshi.

"But you need to get your priority in order," he continued, "To confuse the ultimate capability of this invention with something else…looks like you still have a long way to go!"

"Rest assured though, I will definitely make this one my utmost top priority, you just wait!"

Satoshi couldn't be more delighted to hear that. Turn out the most effective way in dealing with Unsui was to feed on his perversion.

—

Inside Sepphira's study.

Sepphira was relaxing in her room, tea and biscuits were served on top of her round coffee table. She wasn't wearing her usual outer robe but instead was wearing a colorful low dress. Even if she wasn't young anymore by any means, the skin on her exposed shoulder and neck still look silky smooth. Especially with her calm mood at the moment, she looked resplendent.

Since Unsui suddenly bailed out on her Sepphira thought that she will be much busier than before with teaching Satoshi. Instead, she became more relaxed since Satoshi proactively suggested that he will use the time to read on his own. Right now she was just supervising him on that.

Satoshi was standing in front of a particular bookshelf in Sepphira's study, his hand was hanging in the air as if he was about to reach for a book on one of the shelves. He had been sustaining this position for quite some time, and it seemed he would stay like this for even longer.

Since last time, Satoshi had figured out the required conditions for his reading technique to work. It would only work if he had enough precursor knowledge about the subject. If the books were too advanced then there wouldn't be a close enough reality in which Satoshi would have understood it.

The content of this particular bookshelf had been curated by Sepphira to match Satoshi's current ability and what he would need to learn in order to pass the Academia Scholastic Trials. This way they could build up foundational knowledge before getting into the more complex things.

Sepphira watched Satoshi stand still as if frozen and her mind still couldn't believe what she was seeing.

'It's been more than two hours now, and it doesn't look like he's going to stop anytime soon,' Sepphira thought to herself.

After he was done being yelled at for finishing the entire series of 'Parry Hotter', Satoshi clearly explained to Sepphira and the other teachers what he was doing. It came as a shock to Sepphira since she knew well the difficulty involved to be doing such a thing.

The theory behind the method wasn't the one that caused Sepphira to be shocked, it was after all a very simple application of prediction. Sepphira herself was able to come up with this method and was even depending on it in her earlier study, so it didn't come as a surprise that someone else might come up with the same method.

It was Satoshi's speed in grasping the concept and familiarization that caused her surprise! Even more so, it was the length of time he could sustain the state of perpetual premonition!

The reason Sepphira no longer utilized the same method later on, was because of the amount of mental stress it incurred on its user. At a certain point, as her study progressed and the required mental capacity increased along with the complexity of the study, it no longer become possible to maintain a perpetual state of premonition. In the end, it would make more sense to just read normally.

The same limitation didn't seem to apply to Satoshi, that was what had been puzzling Sepphira. Sure, the required power of premonition to see a future where one had finished reading a book was not as great as one would need when looking into a distant future, but it was not small either.

Even more surprising when considering the fact that Satoshi was doing it en masse, reading multiple different realities at the same time. Instead of getting tired, he seemed to become more and more proficient at it.

Considering all of these things, Sepphira couldn't help but wonder.

'If he were to receive proper training, would he be able to see to that point where he stands on that mountain?'

At the same time Sepphira was wondering the question, Satoshi was inside his mind realm, attentively watching the multitudes of different visions whistling past him as they became streams of information that would be received by his brain.

A strange feeling arose in him ever so slowly, and it became more apparent by the minutes. Satoshi had never felt like this before when he was in a state of premonition, but he had experienced this sensation in different moments of his life. It was that creeping realization that someone was watching you.

As the feeling became more and more apparent, Satoshi was able to pinpoint the location where this was coming from inside his mind, amidst the jumbled abstracts and concepts. Satoshi focused all his intention on the general direction where the feeling was coming from and was shocked when he found what it was.

For the first time since Satoshi was able to enter the state of premonition, he saw himself amidst the vision. And as he watched the other him, 'he' was looking back at him.

______