Haru was done trying to make friends with Akira, at least for that day. After what happened at the orientation, he did not blame her for behaving the way she did; although, it wouldn’t have turned out that bad had she been a little more respectful of the lieutenant to begin with. Nevertheless, he was in no mood to lecture her. He was tired and just wanted to finish training as soon as possible so that he can go back to his room for a good night’s rest. Without uttering a word, he simply picked up the crashed target, placed it back where it originally was and left her vicinity. He walked to a clearing where he could no longer see or hear her. He was happy with the new technique he came up with and wished to master it before calling it a day.
Walking around the edge of the circular clearing, he picked up a fallen branch and used it to mark an ‘X’ on three trees roughly separated by a hundred and twenty degrees from each other. Once he was done marking, he made his way to the centre of the clearing and picked up a pebble. He threw the pebble high up in the air and slapped his palms together. Right before the pebble hit the ground, he pointed one palm towards the pebble and the other towards one of the three targets, and the pebble changed direction immediately, soaring towards the marked tree. However, it missed the tree by a few inches and flew past it. Haru picked up another pebble and repeated the process. This time, it hit the tree, but it was still far away from the mark. It took him at least a dozen tries before he could hit the mark precisely and consistently.
However, his training did not end there. He remembered Lieutenant Alice’s advice: ‘to think and act fast.’ So, he decided to train further, this time trying to hit all the three targets with the same pebble without ever letting it touch the ground. It was extremely hard. He not only had to react really fast to ensure the pebble did not drop after the first target, but also turn his other hand precisely by hundred and twenty degrees. After failing dozens of times for almost over an hour, he finally hit two targets, and missing the third by a mere inch. Completely drained, he fell onto the ground, breathing heavily and staring into the starry sky; it was a beautiful full moon night. Looking at the moon, Haru had his flashy visions again; with fire and screams like the one he had during the orientation. Fazed, he sat up with a start, holding his head. He was in half a mind to return to the room, but was not satisfied with training yet. And so, he started again.
After another twenty minutes, he finally managed to hit all three targets with one pebble without letting it touch the ground. Then, he realized something important. Throughout this evening, he had been doing this task while standing still. That was obviously not ideal, considering he would be making himself an easy target while casting the spell. He wondered how much more difficult it could be if he started moving, and found it to be more challenging than he expected. It took him a while before he mastered hitting the targets while also moving.
Next came dodging.
He planned on redirecting the pebble straight towards him, dodge it and then redirect it towards a target. This proved to be extremely difficult. And eventually, he was so tired that he failed to move in time and hit himself with right in the gut with the pebble. It hurt a lot more than he anticipated and he made a mental note to never do that to anyone else even as a joke. Lying down on the ground, holding his stomach, he thought about asking Akira for help. If they trained together, he could try dodging and deflecting her kunai while she tried hitting him. However, after remembering their last conversation, he decided against it.
Sitting under the moonlight in the middle of the clearing, he debated whether to continue or go home.
1226/1425