A crying shame
Erina's empowered mock-spear wasn't as strong as a real god-arc, but it still could hurt and destroy the practice targets.
So what she was seeing right now shouldn't be possible. Sano stopped her attack with nothing more of the metal ball at the end of the mock-busters' hilt.
The exhaust was still blasting out of the mock spear, and Erina put all her strength into it.
Sano however did not budge. As the exhaust finished expelling from the spear, Erina planted her feet and continued to try and push him back.
Behind them, Kanon was weighing the scythe and hammer in either hand. As she looked back and forth she raised the hammer and put away the scythe. She raised the hammer for a practice swing as she did prior with the other weapons.
Most of the weight was at the top, but compared to the buster sword this felt better. After another practice swing, Kanon deemed it satisfactory and didn't give a second thought to the scythe. She was ready to move on from how awkward this all felt.
"Um, Sano I-I think I'm r-ready!" Kanon stammered to the inmate.
Sano turned his eyes to the girl, and as he voiced his response, Erina saw an opening. She brushed her spear around the hilt and took aim at Sano's shoulder.
BAM!
"We'll move to the next part then." Sano said to Kanon. He held the mock buster over Erina's head like a fly swatter. Her practice spear fell to the ground.
Erina shrieked as she knelt to the ground clutching her head and grinding her teeth.
HA! Ya little Knit!
"Shake a leg runt, warm-ups over." Sano said motioning for Kanon to come to them.
"Are you alright Erina?" Kanon asked, tightly clutching her hammer.
"Yeah! I'm fine!" Erina grunted, doing her best to endure as she stood.
"Still want to go?" Sano asked sarcastically throwing the buster blade into the rack and retrieving his god-arc.
"I can handle this!" Erina said defiantly, bearing her fists to ward off the pain.
"Kane?" Sano said.
"I guess...so?" Kanon said frowning at the hammer
"You think this is a waste of time and we should skip it don't you?" Sano asked, but more like state as a fact.
For today he told her not to bring her god-arc. Beyond that, he hadn't told her much else before they came here. She still didn't understand why she was the one using a melee weapon.
"I know I said I wanted you to take lead in my training and I'd follow no questions asked, but it's hard to understand the point of any of this. " Kanon said, sadly staring at the floor in guilt.
"I didn't forget, but the fact is you signed up for a long-term. One I thought I wouldn't have time to put in the effort. But as it is, I'm staying for a while, so pay attention! This is a pain in the ass to go over!" Sano commanded planting his god-arc on the floor.
Kanon stood firmly at attention, with a serious demeanor as her blue eyes met Sano's white-yellow pupils.
Erina shaking off her headache did the same.
"This is going to involve 3 phases. 1 is getting you physically capable, that's why I said don't bring your god-arc today, we're not shooting anything." Sano explained.
Kanon nodded in excitement, suddenly eager to whip out the hammer.
"2 & 3 will be for your god-arc and bullets, your progress will decide which goes first. If you don't understand that bit, get over it, I said no questions until after we're done. But you if stall again, I'm not going to answer anyway." Sano vengefully glowering at Kanon.
Kanon got a desperate look on her face.
"N-No, please, I'll get this and whatever we're doing! You've been so great ever since you've got here. I haven't shot a friend once in the whole past two days! You saved Erina and I even helped! I did help right!?" Kanon asked, beckoning Sano like a child.
"Ms.Daiba that's a question!" Erina shouted.
"OH!" Kanon quickly covered her mouth, afraid to say anything more.
Sano rolled his eyes, not sure if to shout, laugh, or cry. But he knew it was time to move on, so he steeled himself suppressing a snort.
"Yes, you did." Sano said.
Kanon pumped her fist in triumph. Then started humming to herself with a grin.
"(What is up with her?)" Sano thought all he said was she helped. But she looked like she had been told aragami went extinct.
"Get focused! You and Erina are gonna practice." Sano said, bring down his god-arc.
Kanon went back to being serious and faced Erina.
"You sure you want to use a hammer Ms.Daiba?" Erina said, thinking of another hammer user.
"Please Erina call me Kanon, and it'll be fine he explained what we're doing." Kanon said full of confidence.
"(But he still didn't explain what THIS is for though...)" Erina thought, a worrisome frown growing on her face.
"Anyway. Ready!?" Kanon said readying her hammer.
"Yeah..." Erina lamented not trying harder to sway her. She readied her spear and took one step forward.
She wouldn't get the chance to take another, before becoming engrossed in a feeling of overwhelming pressure.
The pressure was like a storm, no a tidal wave, perhaps a typhoon? The more the presence bearing down on her the harder it was to describe.
Erina couldn't fathom just when she moved, but Kanon was to the front of her holding the hammer in the same fashion Sano advised her to earlier and she could swear...she went color blind.
Kanon was laying down the hammer like death's scythe.
It was clear there would be no time to dodge or block. Up close Erina saw Kanon's pupils dilated as a clear sign of her derangement tendency.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!
Debris and smoke erupted between the girls, startling the workers in the observation deck and the impact could even be sensed on the floor below.
As the smoke cleared, it revealed Erina. Horror-struck, but in Sano's grasp unharmed. Kanon was also revealed as the dust settles, showing a crater the size of a wrecking ball. The mock hammer was in the center still smoldering while she clutched it. Under the hammer, the practice spear was in pieces. The drill was destroyed.
Sano held his god-arc in a reverse grip and studied the pink-haired girl. Had Erina been left to handle that on her own, it would've cost her torso, he thought.
Erina shivered watching Kanon stand in the crater, still holding her hammer silently.
With her back to them, Kanon finally moved her head around slowly. Erina was beginning to shriek expecting her deranged face.
"Um, did I do something bad? Oh, wait that was a question! Please don't be mad!" Kanon screamed, her usual self.
Sano admired the results. The ball at the end of the hammer was cracked, but the rocket was somewhat unharmed.
"To the contrary, with these results, you get to skip ahead to the next part. You were right to think that way." Sano said comforting Erina.
"AGH! REALLY!? FOR REAL!? I GET TO SKIP AHEAD!? YES!" Kanon cheered waving the damaged hammer around, scaring Erina.
"U-Um, Mr.Sano..." Erina stammered as she shivered in his arms.
"Yeah." Sano said.
"Do you know everything about Kanon?" she asked.
"She said something about a bad rep or something. I didn't care about the details." Sano said rubbing her head.
"The thing is...when Kanon fights she transforms, well not transform, but it's like something takes over..." Erina explained watching the pink-haired girl joyously skip around.
"Is that so?" Sano said, unfazed.
"We think she's possessed, by an aragami..." Erina said sticking her eyes to the floor, fearfully clutching onto Sano's arm.
"Is that right?" Sano said sounding intrigued by the query. Inspecting Kanon's demeanor was the last thing you'd expect. But when she started to attack Erina she was a force of nature, perhaps stronger.
Gen-1 god-eaters had no say in what god-arc they ended up with, you'd end up with a melee or ranged god-arc. No crazy modifications could be made back then, and since the selection process was compatibility based it wasn't likely you'd be able to switch if you asked.
Compatiblity came down to DNA, and if the god-arc liked you enough. Either could determine if you'd ever get a god-arc at all.
It was a crying shame Kanon was 1st generation and got saddled with a range gun god-arc.
Such devastating potential, thought Sano inspecting the hammer and the crater.
Yes, it was really a crying shame...