An Assassin's Respite

Training Like Kazuna

Ms. Katsuchi heads to the door on their left and opens it. She takes a look inside, although there wasn't much to see as it was just a pitch-black room.

"He really is a creature of habit." Ms. Katsuchi says seemingly to herself.

"This room is called the darkroom. Its purpose is to train the members of our clan in fighting without their eyes." She explains as she closes the door and heads to the door on the back wall of the opening room.

This room seemed to be an obstacle course. First, there was a pit with numerous slim poles placed somewhat randomly along the bottom. Next, there was a thin pathway of rope. Last, was what seemed to be a normal wooden floor. Next to the door were multiple weighted clothing items. 

"This room doesn't have a name. Simply put, it's an obstacle course that focuses on improving your agility and making you lighter on your feet. The weights that are next to me are to be used once you successfully complete the course within a certain time requirement. Being able to do this obstacle course while weighing yourself down will make you lighter on your feet and increase your agility even more." Ms. Katsuchi states as she closes the door and heads to the last room that was on the right side of the opening room. 

She opens the last door to a normal-looking training room. There were dummies in the center of the room and at the backside of the room there seemed to be large blocks made of different types of metals. Most of them had multiple gashes in them. Only two were mostly unscathed. To the right of the door were multiple wooden swords.

"This last room is used for sword training. The blocks of metal at the back of the room are used to test how adept you are at wielding your sword. Being able to slice harder materials takes better swordsmanship over strength." Ms. Katsuchi states as she closes the final door and heads to the center of the opening room. 

"And this main room is for improving your powers. The walls are made of a special material that is extremely durable and proficient at withstanding powers. We probably won't be using this room too much since you all are already pretty adept at using your powers and I don't plan on having you all fighting so we will mostly focus on the other rooms. Kagura and Emiko, the two of you will be in the last room I just showed you for the first few days since it can benefit the two of you." Ms. Katsuchi says.

"Okay!" Emiko exclaims while Kagura just nods.

"Shiba and Chiyo, you two will be training in the darkroom." She continues.

"Right." Shiba replies.

"Sounds kinda scary." Chiyo states.

"The rest of you will be in the obstacle course room working on your agility. I want you all to aim to clear the course in under a minute." She states.

"Understood." They reply in unison. 

With that, Shiba and Chiyo head to the darkroom, Haruka, Haruna and, Ayanami go to the obstacle course and Kagura and Emiko head to the last room. Ms. Katsuchi follows Kagura and Emiko to their room since it will be the easiest to give them advice and tips.

"Emiko. it might be good for you to start by striking those blocks of metal at the back of the room. Start with the one farthest to the left since it's the least hard, then make your way to the right. This training should strengthen the blades on your arms." Ms. Katsuchi suggests.

Emiko nods as she begins slashing the first block.

Kagura heads to the wooden swords and runs her hand along the length of one of the blades. She could feel multiple kinks in the wood and could tell that Kazuna had been using this training sword recently. He must have been preparing himself for that day. She picks up the sword and is surprised by its weight.

"Heavy isn't it?" Ms. Katsuchi says as she approaches Kagura.

"Yes, why?" Kagura asks, agreeing to her statement.

"It's made from a special wood that comes from a tree that grows in the forest near our clan's mansion. It's much heavier than your standard oak or redwood. Being able to swing this sword effortlessly and without needing to exaggerate your swings will improve your ability to wield your own sword." Ms. Katsuchi explains.

Kagura strikes the dummy in front of her a couple of times and can already feel herself getting fatigued.

"Difficult isn't it. You think you'll be able to handle the weight?" Ms. Katsuchi asks as if challenging her.

Kagura looks at Ms. Katsuchi and then back to the wooden sword and tightens her grip on it and gets back to training. Ms. Katsuchi leaves the room, confident in the fact that they will make progress, and heads to the darkroom where Shiba and Chiyo were struggling to find one another. Shiba was walking around with outstretched arms searching for Chiyo.

"How are we supposed to spar with each other when we can't even find each other." He complains as he finally comes into contact with something.

"Oh, is that you Chiyo?" He asks.

"AHHH! Watch where you're touching!" Chiyo shouts as she blasts him away with water.

Ms. Katsuchi walks in as Shiba goes crashing into the wall. 

"I see you two have gotten off to a strong start." Ms. Katsuchi says sarcastically.

"What do you expect when Shiba uses it as a chance to feel me up." Chiyo shouts.

"It was an accident I can't even see anything." He says in defense.

"Now now let's calm down here. You all are going about this the wrong way. Shiba, you were trying to find Chiyo by touching her right?" Ms. Katsuchi asks.

"Yes, and I wasn't trying to grope her." He responds.

"Did it ever occur to you to use your sense of smell to find the scent of her perfume maybe or hearing the sound of her footsteps to figure out where she was?" She asks.

Shiba pauses briefly before he answers. "No." He says in defeat.

"You don't fight with just your eyes our what you can feel, but with all of your senses. Use them." Ms. Katsuchi states as she leaves them to think about what she said and heads to the obstacle course training room.

There, Haruka, Haruna, and Ayanami weren't fairing much better than Chiyo and Shiba. 

"I didn't think it would be this difficult." Haruna states.

"I can't stand on any of them, I just lose my balance and fall into the pit." Haruka cries.

"It seems that you all are thinking about this the wrong way just like the other group. This is a test of agility, not balance. What you should be doing is jumping from one pole to another instead of trying to keep your balance and stand on one." Ms. Katsuchi states.

"Won't our foot just slip off before we can jump?" Ayanami says.

"That's why it's a test of agility. If you can jump off the pole your on before your foot starts to slip then you will be able to jump between them just fine." Ms. Katsuchi adds.

"Are you sure?" Haruka asks a bit unsure.

"Yes, I've seen Kazuna do this countless times. But try it out if you're still unsure." Ms. Katsuchi says.

The three look at her with a hesitant look but decide to try what she suggested and instantly they see improvement. Beforehand they would only make it past two or three poles and failing at the start, but now they were making it almost halfway. 

"Was something so small really holding us back that much?" Ayanami notes in astonishment.

"That is something that will be a constant in this training. Something small, seemingly irrelevant will be the difference between success and failure." Ms. Katsuchi states.

"Really makes me feel unsure of whether we can really save Kazuna." Ayanami says in a defeated tone.

"You should have more faith in yourself, all of you should. You all go to GA, the best school in producing remarkable special agents. You all are extremely intelligent and talented. I have faith that you all can do this. That's why I asked you all to save him because I know that you all can do it." Ms. Katsuchi says in encouragement.

"You're really good at these motivational speeches." Ayanami states.

"Well I do lead a clan and I have to keep them in good spirits. Now, I think I'll head to Ayame and Akeno and see how they're doing on their end." Ms. Katsuchi says as she leaves their training room.

She heads up the stairs from the basement training area and enters the living room where the two seemed to be deep in conversation.

"What have you two come up with so far?" Ms. Katsuchi asks as she takes a seat next to Akeno.

"Well, we figure that the base is about 200 hundred feet in width, 300 hundred fifty feet in length, and about eighty feet in height. There are guards placed in each tower on the corners of the base with one guard patrolling the ledge of each side. However, it's difficult to tell how fast they rotate or when they change shifts with still pictures." Akeno answers.

"Don't worry about that. I have someone working on that now. They should be back with the information by tomorrow." Ms. Katsuchi says.

"Perfect! That extra information will make it much easier to determine when and where we should enter from." Akeno says in excitement.

"Until then why don't you figure out what you can with what you have." Ms. Katsuchi suggests.

"Mhmm." Ayame mumbles with a nod.

She leaves them to their devices as well and heads up the stairs to the second floor. She enters Kazuna's room and takes a look around.

"Looks like he kept his room clean." She says as she sits on his bed and picks up a picture on his bedside. 

It was a picture of Kazuna and his grandfather. Ms. Katsuchi looks at the picture with a smile as it brings her back to a time where Kazuna was a lot happier. She sets the picture down and continues to tour his room. She heads to his closet and slides it open

Her eyes widen at what she sees. There was a picture of her father in the center and an assortment of papers, maps, and strings connecting those items. She takes a step back in surprise. 

"What... What is all this?" She mumbles.

"It is a theory that Kazuna has." Karma answers.

Ms. Katsuchi jumps at the sound of his voice. She was so engulfed in what she saw that she completely forgot about him.

"What is this theory?" She asks.

"Kazuna wanted to know about everyone that took place in the murder of his father. Zer was the one that intrigued him the most. He had little to no connection with the government or the clan, yet he was part of the assault. He began to dig into him and found that Zer had been obsessed with the legends that surround the clan. He figured that Zer must have been planning something dangerous involving the members of the clan so he started a full-on investigation only to find that the information surrounding Zer was almost as hard to find as information on us. He knew that there was something extremely dangerous about him and he couldn't let it go." Karma explains.

"I see. Well, he was right about him. He is planning something dangerous and this only furthers the need to rescue him." Ms. Katsuchi states as she closes the closet doors.