Long way to go

Kanon stood exhausted, sweat rolling down her face. Letting out ragged breaths as she clung to her gun by her fingertips.

The better half of the training room was covered in soot and ash. Any traces of left of the metallic Ogretails were longs gone.

The room was covered in armored plating and bulletproof material. Yet, with enough force, even these walls suffered wear and tear.

Licca Kusonoki and the engineers were sprawled over the consoles and terminals. With no shortness of relief in their breaths, they shut down the oracle re-fill system in the room.

Haruomi was using a railing as leverage to keep himself up. Kanon's assault never made its way to the deck window, but somehow she emitted shockwaves that could be felt beyond the room.

Sano stood behind her, scanning her form. Though she was exhausted Kanon held on to her gun tightly enough. There were no visible signs of the weight affecting her.

If the engineers hadn't stopped the auto re-fill built in the room, Kanon could've kept on firing.

Further inspecting the streaks on the floor, Sano looked at Kanon's feet. The drag marks extending 2ft or less. Sano made sure to make a mental note of this.

Suddenly though, Kanon's knees began to wobble. Despite this though she managed to turn around to Sano with a guilty look on her face.

"I did something wrong, didn't I? I know I did. I'm sorry! I can try again! What was I doing!?" Kanon asked frantically, in between breaths.

"You did it." Sano said, looking over the scorched floor, looking for any trace of the metallic Ogretails.

"Are you sure? Really? I did it!? Yay!" Kanon said, happy as she raised her god-arc in relief.

Before Sano could say more, Kanon began to drop down to her knees. The best she could do was wiggle her calves on the way down to keep from falling.

This did not however keep her from smiling victoriously.

This put the inmate off a great deal and they debated on what to do next. Kanon looked so fulfilled.

Even on her knees, she held her god-arc up in triumph.

"So, what's next?" Kanon asked eagerly.

As the inmate thought, Kanon attempted to regain her balance but found herself stuck.

Sano knew at that moment they had to end there. He had planned for more, but this moment of stress relief would have to do for today.

"We're done." he said. Plucking out his god-arc,

he scooped up Kanon off the metal floor with his sword and propped her over his shoulder.

"OH. Okay." Kanon unsure of what else to say, accepted his decision as he carried her to the exit.

Getting a glimpse of this from the observation deck, Haru hurried to the intercom.

"HEY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING DOWN THERE!?" he yelled, startling Licca and the engineers.

Haru was having none of this, he thought.

Hearing her Captain, Kanon looked up to his shrilling face.

"Hi, Captain! Getting some early training in, we're taking a break now though." Kanon said, giving no thought to the position she was in.

She happily waved as Haru was shrilling to the point his ears boiled red.

Upon hearing Haru Sano stopped short of exiting the door. After a brief pause, he turned back to look at Haruomi.

Loosening his grip on Kanon slightly, he extended his index finger. With a blank face, Sano pointed it at Kanon's lower half.

Then with a mischievous smile, he mouthed to Haru, "Mine", and proceeded out the exit.

This horrified Haruomi to the point he could make inaudible gasps.

"Licca, I have to go! MY SUBORDINATES' INNOCENCE IS AT STAKE!" Haruomi declared as he rushed out leaving Licca no time to respond.

It then clicked to Licca. "Oh, HEY WAIT! I NEED TO INSPECT THAT GOD-ARC!" she screamed and ran right after Haruomi to find the inmate.

As the two went through a series of ups and downs to find their way to the elevator. The inmate was already there, carefully setting Kanon on her feet.

Of course, she couldn't stand on her own, so she put her hands around his as Sano propped up his god-arc in the elevator.

As the inmate supported Kanon, he looked at her legs. Aside from her usual green dress, Kanon wore a pair of white boots and black thigh-high stockings.

At a glance, her legs looked stable enough, but that was only because his god-arc was supporting her weight.

"(I didn't think she would be weak in the knees. Her arms were barely fatigued after all that firing.)" Sano thought as he noted she was still in a cheery mood.

After arriving at the reception floor, he picked her up again and took her downstairs. Hibari was in the middle of a call, and could only visually react to what she was seeing.

When her job was done, she was getting to the bottom of this.

Sano plopped her on the couch and put his god-arc in a reverse grip.

"After you've rested, go drink something. " he said bluntly turning towards Hibari's desk.

"Aye-Aye, partner!" Kanon said with a salute, laying on her belly.

Sano could only cringe.

"(Maybe disciple would've been better after all...)" he thought.

Hibari was in full Operator Mode, from the looks of it managing 2 missions simultaneously. Maybe more.

Unwilling to disturb her, Sano opted to wait on the couch with Kanon and put his god-arc next to her.

"So can we train some more when we get back?" Kanon asked eagerly.

"We'll see." Sano said, facing the ceiling. In the corner of his eye, he glimpsed at the clock. It was a roman numeral clock, with full functioning clock hands, towering over the balcony.

"(A relic?)" he thought, intrigued by the craft.

Kanon noticed his gaze shifted and looked over. Beyond the clock, she couldn't imagine what else Sano could be stuck on.

"Do they not have clocks in prison?" Kanon asked.

"No. Not in mine." Sano said, without looking at her.

"So you never know what time it is? I mean I guess you'd just look at the sky, right?" Kanon asked, innocently.

"Not in mine." Sano said, keeping his eyes on the clock.

"Oh..." Kanon murmured, letting awkward silence set in.

...

Lasting a whole minute, Kanon tried to start the conversation back up again.

"What prison are you from?" Kanon asked, like a child.

"...Mine doesn't really have a name. We don't get to know what time it is until the guards say lights out. We don't get daylight until were sent out on missions, and even when we do it's the bare minimum. If my prison has a name I don't know what it is." Sano said, laying his head back on the couch.

Kanon was taken aback by the revelation, but before she could ask for more, Hibari cleared her throat.

They both looked over to see busy Hibari, almost without a care in the world.

Woman's damn good at her job.

"Kanon, what happened?" Hibari waved with a not-so-sweet smile.

"Oh, I went hard training today. Not sure what happened, but I did good! Sano was crazy! He went nuts and you won't believe this, WITH HIS-BARE-HANDS! By the end, I couldn't stand up though, but once I'm rested, I'll be Mission-Ready!" Kanon declared.

Sano immediately glowered at Kanon, breaking his blank face. Turning to Hibari he tried to rebuttal Kanon's words, but to his aggravation, he found 2 more people next to Hibari.

Another red-head pointing an accusing finger at the inmate. Donning a yellow bandana, with a yellow shirt with a black tank-top underneath. Over that, he wore a white coat with orange trousers and black shoes.

Behind him, a smaller figure was crouching keeping herself partially hidden. But, you could still see her sailor cap, and tan sweater vest.

"W-W-WHA? WHAT!? WHAT THE-!? KANON!?" the redhead stammered, taken in by Kanon's earlier statement.

"Captain, what did I just hear?" the young girl behind him said. She was so taken aback, her face turned red.

Hibari was holding her hand over her mouth, keeping her hounding laughter at bay.

Seeing this Sano knew Hibari had already figured out Kanon's misused words. She's had experience with this before...

Dammit all to hell! And don't laugh with her!

I guess we're in for a long day.