Looking at the Sharpshooter, he notices that the sheath has a harness. He puts it on immediately, the harness stretching across his jacket and the tip of the weapon reaching his ankles. He awkwardly walks toward the rest, getting used to the weight of it on his back. Olya is busy putting on her new armor to test it, whilst Imino and Gearfried discuss the training plan for the day. Gearfried notices Agami walking towards them and covers his face in amusement. Noticing her brother's reaction, Imino turns around to face Agami and gives an unimpressed expression.

  She turns back to Gearfried and says, “Alright, I’m up,” and walks past Agami, simply telling him, “Follow me.” Listening to her, he follows without question. They walk for a short distance and stop in an empty field. She looks around and says, “This is good enough.”

  Agami holds the strap across his chest, waiting in anticipation. She relaxes her stance, crossing her arms. She then instructs him, “Okay, ready your weapon.”

  Following her commands, Agami grabs the hilt of the Sharpshooter and tries to pull it out of its sheath. Unfortunately, his arm isn’t long enough to unsheath it. Imino watches in silence as he tries various ways to ready it, but after several minutes, he stands exhausted.

  Having seen enough, she finally says, “First lesson: if you can’t draw your weapon fast enough, you are dead.” She then points to the weapon and says, “For a weapon like that, you only use the harness for travel and stabilization. The weapon is too long to be drawn reliably like that.”

  She walks toward him and sticks her right arm out, gesturing for Agami to hand it over to her. Heeding her instruction, he removes the harness and passes it to her. She takes the weapon from the hilt and unbuckles one side of the harness. After, she wraps the strap around her arm and tells him, “With this, you will have a better grip and won’t accidentally throw it. Also…” Without warning, she flicks the switch on the gun and swaps it to its rifle mode, her left hand on the bladed underbarrel, “It won’t get in the way when switching.”

  As she demonstrates how to handle the weapon, she can’t help but notice the worried look on Agami’s face. “Is something not clear?” She asks.

  “I don’t understand why I couldn’t get a sword and rifle separately,” he replies.

  “I see your concern,” she says as she lowers the weapon. “This weapon is highly impractical in many situations, but I believe it has potential.” She takes out and loads a cartridge into the chamber. Then, she slides the hilt back, and the Sharpshooter is a sword once again. Well, at least half of it is. She holds the sword up and says, “To become proficient with this weapon, we are going to train your arms, forearms, wrists, and instill trigger discipline in you. But right now, I believe you need a demonstration of its capabilities. Observe.”

  She turns to Gearfried and yells,“Give me a decoy over there!” Pointing at a spot in the distance. Nodding his head, Gearfried takes out a disc and throws it near where she pointed. Pressing a button, a balloon shaped like a man holding a gun pops up.

  The atmosphere around Imino becomes calm as she turns toward the target, the sword in her right hand.After a few seconds, she suddenly sprints at the decoy, readying the sword for a horizontal slash. Upon reaching it, she pulls the trigger, firing the rifle part of the gun. She uses the recoil to aid her motion and cut the decoy at a blinding speed.

  Still in motion, she shouts, “Two more!”

  Without wasting a moment, Gearfried throws two discs, one behind her and the other in front of her. Charging at the closest one, she makes a smooth motion as she swaps between the sword and rifle modes, effortlessly loading another cartridge into the chamber. She pivots the sword on her shoulder, the barrel facing slightly downward at an angle and jumps. In the air, she fires it, the bullet hitting the target behind her. But not wasting even the slightest of motions, the kick creates a cleaving motion as she twists in the air, cutting the remaining target in front of her in two. After the final strike, she lands gracefully, the Sharpshooter ready to strike.

  She looks at Agami and says, “Do you see the potential now?”

  Agami stands there for a few seconds, impressed by the show she put on. She takes off the strap and passes him the weapon, saying, “Hopefully, with a couple of years of training, you will surpass me.” The man could only nod his head as he accepted the weapon. While holding the weapon, Imino continues, “So first, contrary to conventional means, you will place your left hand on the grip and trigger, while your right hand will support the gun.”

  Agami heeds her instructions and holds the handle in his left hand, which feels unnatural. He asks, “Why is it contrary?”

  “When someone holds a gun, it's generally accepted that they hold the grip with their dominant hand. But in your case, your dominant hand is your only way of holding the gun and swapping between its modes without cutting your fingers.”

  Agami looks at his right hand, focusing on the armament, saying, “I see.”

  The rest of the morning is spent getting Agami used to firing with a rifle and using the sword with his left hand. At first, he would fall back with each shot fired; but eventually, he got the hang of withstanding the recoil. When they moved onto sword practice, he struggled to hold the sword with one hand due to its weight. For now, he needs both hands to wield it effectively, but after some more training, he should be able to get the hang of it. After Imino was satisfied with his progress, she ended the training, his arms trembling from the strain. On the drive home, Agami dozed off, exhausted from the training.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  After arriving at the hotel room, he walks into his room, tosses the Sharpshooter on his bed, undresses, and takes a shower. As the warm water runs over his body, he reflects on the day and what he learnt. As he thinks, he can feel a strange sensation pass through his right arm. It felt more sensitive to the environment. As if aware of something. He looks at it for a couple of seconds and notices a faint glow.

  He finishes up in the shower and dries himself off.

  Sitting on his bed in pajamas, he asks, “Did it always glow like this?”

  He waits in silence for a moment, expecting Tenmei to appear and answer his question, but alas, he did not appear. “Tenmei?” He says, but still no response.

  He is probably outside.

  Lying down, he plans to turn in early, his body exhausted from today's training. He looks to his side and notices the Sharpshooter next to him. He placed it there without a thought when he entered. He groans loudly as he takes the weapon and puts it on the floor beside his bed, making sure it's on a spot where it won't get stepped on. It makes a loud thud as it's placed, the ammunition shaking.

  Returning to his bed, he lies down again, staring at the ceiling. His mind wanders in various directions. First to the Sharpshooter, still inspired by Iminos finesse. After, he thought about the benefactors. He couldn’t help but feel anxious about the Ascension ceremony. He continues like this for a few minutes before his mind lands on Rosa. Rosa… I wonder if I can remember anything else.

  He focuses on her memory, trying to remember some of his past. He gets blurry visions and jumbled words. At one point, his mind approaches something…familiar.

  As it becomes clearer, his body remembers the icy needles going through his veins and his mind…burning?

  He can remember himself screaming.

  The pain.

  The anger.

  The desperation.

  Unable to take it anymore, he sits up, gasping for air as if his fight or flight instinct had kicked in. He feels a tear form in his eyes. He quickly wipes it and notices it isn’t a teardrop. It is blood.

  Disturbed by this, he quickly wipes his eyes and flushes the tissue down the toilet, hiding the evidence. I can’t afford to have people worry about me…Especially not now. Rattled, Agami decides it's best to eat something and calm his nerves.

  Leaving his room, he walks out of the hallway and into the kitchen. Looking in the cupboards, he finds the shelf containing snacks. Although he declined the offer, Sora was insistent and purchased snacks for him. Grateful for Sora’s persistence, Agami grabs a pack of licorice and opens it. He looks at the lounge and notices Gearfried intensely focused on his laptop, while Tenmei speaks to Olya and Imino.

  Before he could take his first bite, the door swings open as Sora walks in, his jacket covered in blood.

  Imino looks at him, and before she can say anything, Sora says, “I know, I know. I’m taking a shower.”

  “Thank you, but I was curious about Maria and Vito,” She calmly answers.

  He looks back and replies, “Oh, them? They are on their way with Danzo and some guests. Thought it would build some character if they helped with their luggage.” He heads into the hallway after answering.

  Imino looks up in surprise as she asks, “Guests?”

  Sora returns with a plastic bag and picks up his shoes by the door, throwing them into the bag. “Turns out Kenken can only do so much running before the nutjobs could catch up.”

  Sora removes his shirt and jacket, revealing his muscular, toned body covered in scars and silver dog tag. He balls up the rest of his clothes and places them in the bag. He hears loud footsteps and looks to the door as the twins run in with three large suitcases. Vito carelessly throws it on the floor and says, “Come on, I am half your age and carrying this stuff, and I still beat you! How lame can you guys be?”

  Danzo walks in with a tired expression, complaining, “This day can’t get worse.”

  Behind Danzo, Ken enters with three people following him. The first is a girl with pink highlights and fashionable clothing, wearing a smug smirk. Her eyes checked out the room in excitement.

  Next to her is a girl with dark hair and rather gloomy-looking clothes. She seems to be more focused on Danzo than the room and its inhabitants.

  The last person to walk is a muscular guy with yellow hair; he looks behind him as he enters and immediately closes the door. From his posture, he was still feeling the adrenaline run through his body.

  Confused, Agami looks at Gearfried, who gestures for him to come over to his corner. As they observe the crowd talking among themselves, Agami stands beside him.

  “What's happening?” Agami asks.

  “Hm, from what Sora told me, the Ascenders were on Kens tail, but luckily Sora and Danzo were free,” Gearfried responds.

  “So are they going to stay with us?”

  “For the next three nights, it looks like we will have to get comfortable,” Gearfried grunts as he stands up. “I’m going to take a nap in your room. Get what you need for the next seven hours before I crash.”

  Agami looks at him, complaining, “Whu- Why my room?!”

  “Maria and Vitos are dirty. Olya is a girl. Danzo will be working in his. And I am not going into Sora and Imino’s even if my life depends on it.”

  Agami looks back at the group as he follows Gearfried, feeling a pang of worry about the living arrangements.