What were you doing, were you eavesdropping on them ? .
" What, I just happened to be her, I was heading to the Training Arena, when suddenly saw them arguing about something .
It seemed that they have noticed us, so why not go up and join them ? .
" It seem that they're taking about something serious, so it's better not to intrude on them .
She looked at me up and down for a few seconds, then pointed in their direction and said :
Would it be still called an intrusion, if they were the ones that were inviting us to join them .
I looked at where she was pointing and saw that she was indeed right, Haimura was currently waving at us, so in the end, I decided to get along with her suggestion and began heading their way .
As we reached their side, I noticed that the quite berserk Satsuki seemed to calm down a little, but the aggravated expression on her face hadn't changed one bit, she seemed she was about to cry, but she was holding back her tears, I wanted to know what exactly was going on her and why she was acting like that, but I thought that it might seem a bit rude for me to do so .
So I left this mission to someone who was already known for her bluntness, Shizuno without even needing to ask someone permission, she directly came in between the two and said :
What is going on Satsuki-san, why are you bothering Moroha .
The girl bluntness once again stunned me, she said that with a straight face uncaring if what she said was right or wrong .
The girl that was asked this question, looked at the ground and appeared to be quite embarrassed, she looked at me with an expression that seem to be her asking for my help, but I not knowing anything about what was going on, I couldn't do much to help, but I still looked at Haimura and asked him to explain what was going on .
Shizuno was about to continue saying something, but I cut her off and continued to listen attentively to what that guy was about to say .
Huh, that was my first reaction after I heard what all of this was about, bewilderment, that what I was truly feeling, the reason the two were yelling at each other, with so simple and childish one as well .
The girl wanted her big brother to go on and go to play with her, but the guy who still hadn't even touched the training ground that belonged to the Strikers, was telling her that he really needed to go to the Training Arena, as he already was told about being part of the upcoming mission, he was telling her that he will make it up for her later .
But the girl hearing him saying this started to throw a tantrum and even began saying that he liked the accompany of Urushibara more than to be with her and all kind of insults were soon followed, in the end the guy didn't have any other choice but berate her more harshly and him doing that was what led to her current expression .
Shizuno being silenced before, but now after understanding the full situation was no longer able to calm down and she said :
Satsuki-san, you are quite selfish, our meeting today will decide the strategy that we be using to fight monstrous entities, that might be able to kill all of us and Moroha needed to join the other Strikers and introduce himself to them, not to mention that he also needed to test and refine his movements before the next mission, you really want him to throw all the cautious away and discarding of all those things, so that he can play with you, are you this self-centered really .
Even though her words weren't wrong, it was her tone that sounded quite offensive, the petite girl who already had her head lowered, now was nervously shaking and she said a few words then directly ran into the distance, she said :
I only wanted to spend some time with him .
After she said that she started crying and vanished from our vision, she ran off directly after she finished saying these words, leaving both me and Moroha standing there quite flabbergasted, but soon due to him being involved in the problem, he seemed to have regained his clarity and he was about to go after the girl but he first turned to look at Shizuno and said :
You should really be a bit considerate about what might your words do to others .
Then he directly went after the girl that was running, I wanted to remind him to not forget about the meeting, but before I say anything about this, he told me to tell the captain that he will be present no matter what happens .
Afrer he left, I couldn't help but wanting to know what kind of expression was on the face of the blunt girl and even though, I hadn't known for quite long time, I was still able to tell that she was happy with what she was able to achieve .
Noticing me staring at her, she directly asked what I was looking at, I told her what I was having in mind and she just blushed and said that I was imagining it .
I told her that I understood her intentions just now, she didn't want to be hurtful or anything like that, she just want to ease some of the pressure Satsuki was under, by forcing Haimura to go and comfort her, she was actually trying to help her, she was even good with making this move, even though it might make her lose some of the liking that Moroha might have for her .
Her reaction to my words, actually confirmed that this was indeed the case, but thinking about wha might have led Satsuki to be this much pressured, so I couldn't help but ask Shizuno .
Hmm, how to put it, Satsuki-san tried to convince captain Isuragi that she too should be recruited to the Strikers, after he came to invite Moroha to join, but the captain refused and said that she still didn't pass the requirements needed for her to join, which almost made her go berserk, but she was able to calm herself down, but then she heard that I too was a reserve member and she went berserk this time, cried then hooped away .
She was now trying to do her best to join the corps, which put her under a lot of pressure, I believe you should get going ? .
Hearing all of this, I couldn't help but became once again certain that the girl in front of me heart, might be quite pure and kind as well, but hearing that she told me to go ahead and head to the Training Arena, I asked if she wasn't coming and she just said that she will wait for Moroha .
I nodded my head and teased her a bit, it seemed that it become a bit of a habit to keep doing this every time, being threatened to get frozen to death had also become part of our interaction, I headed towards my destination while thinking about how the girl seemed to have become more and more cheerful lately, even though she wasn't showing any sign of this on her face, I'm still able to tell that this was indeed the case with her .
I arrived at the training ground and saw that almost all the members were here if we excluded Moroha and Shizuno, I greeted the people in front of me, some responded, some didn't and some even glared at me as if I had done something wrong by simply greeting them .
Soon the captain came and asked me about where was Haimura and my sister, I told them that they will be arriving here any scend now, but I really didn't have a definitive answer to that kind of question, but he seemed to have accepted that and he then directly began lecturing us about the info regarding the next mission, he said that it will be in some forest .
This piece of information to the girls and some of the boys as well, was something akin to a bolt of lightning suddenly hit them, the sound of gasps began to be heard all around me, the captain hadn't even got the chance to finish telling us about the mission yet and there were already people who was asking if they can stay behind this time .
Most of them were girls, even though the captain seemed to have already expected this, he still asked those that wanted to stay behind about their circumstances in wanting to do so, some said the bugs, some said that the forest unsettled them, but then the captain refused all those lame excuses and asked all those who wanted to stay behind to give up on being promoted .
Saying that this mission might be the only mission that they were be able to do in those two weeks period, so staying behind in this mission will be the last thing being written on their reports, his words made those who were thinking about staying behind to become silent, the atmosphere was a bit desperate, but I had already expected things to go that way .
None of the guys here wanted to lag behind others, especially not in rank, not to mention that no sane person would refuse to get some more gains and better status, so even though some of them were still quite worried, they still bit the bullet and decided to stay silent .
The captain then began to tell us about what Metaphysical we will be going after, a horned boa, that was our target for this mission, from the intelligence that was given to the captain, it seemed that this boa was now attacking the villages close to the forest, not only that, but it seemed that it had the ability to drill through the ground, what made this boa a threat, was that it was not only able to drill tunnels for itself to move underground .
But the fact that there were a few signs of it appearing in cities, horrifying people and causing severe damages, the higher-ups originally set the dangerous level of this mission as C, but due to the crafty use of those tunnels it drilled, many teams were being sent after it but to no avail .
They either never returned or they did lost a few members or a few limbs, without being able to even reach its residence, the higher-ups had raised the threat level of this mission to B+, this horned boa will be our target, those of you who had questions can say them now, or I will start explaining what our plan of action going to be, any questions ?
After he finished explaining the target of our mission, he began to spread a few printed pictures of how our target looked like, a white horned boa that looked quite huge, bigger than the Metaphysical I fought back in the mall by a few times, its body wasn't completely showed on the picture, so it might even be bigger than what I had imagined, weird enough, even though I was only looking at its piercing red eyes through the picture in hand, I still felt a bit unsettling .
The feeling was fleeing but it was there nonetheless, even though it was weird, I decided to not give it that much of mind, I had no doubt that I will be able to skin it alive, but for some reason that thought gave me a bit uneasy feeling as if I shouldn't be doing something like that .
But even though I didn't dwell on it much or on what might this mean, my calm reaction was a complete contrast to what was going on the scene around me, I saw that there were a few guys stricken with fear, they were 5 in numbers and among them was the guy who called himself the great Kamekichi, that guy was shaking even more than any of the other 4 .
I was beginning to wonder if he would even try to find another excuse to not go now, but even though those 5 guys were the ones who were clearly stimulated by the apperance of the snake and the words of the captain, that didn't mean that the other were calm as they tried to show, I was able to see that most of the other guys had uneasy expressions, some had their mouth wide opened, some were raising their eyebrows at this .
But as there were those who seemed to be worried, there were also not so few guys that were quite confident in completing this mission without that much of a problem, including me, we were ten, excluding the captain and the other guys who had unsettled expressions, I was surprised to find that the odds between those who were unsettled and those who were confident, were actually even .
It came to me as a bit of surprise, but then I remembered that those guys were dealing with Metaphysical before I joined them already and everything suddenly made sense to me, the captain noticing the worried expression on some of the faces in front of him and directly began telling them that he wouldn't throw them in the danger's way, so they shouldn't be worried .
I heard some whispers circling behind me confirming that the Captain's personality was indeed sensible enough not to throw his team in the danger's way, so he must have gotten some plan to make everything go well .
Now, any questions ? .
Seeing that the scene had to some extent returned normal, the captain once again asked if someone had any questions for him, seeing that no one seemed to be asking about the strengths and the weaknesses of that boa, I decided to do it myself, I asked the captain to tell us about the horned boa strengths .
That's a very good question, the strengths that we should be aware of is that this boa can spit venom that not only was heavily poisonous, but was also highly corrosive, meaning if even a drop fell on your body, it might be able to do some serious damage .
Her skin is also as you saw in the picture, covered with scales,the last reports mentioned that its scales were so strong that it was able to withstand the encirclement and bombardment of many Saviors without even having a scratch, Dark Arts of tire 2 and above were effective against it, but tire 1 dark art only leave scratches on its scales, so you should keep that in mind when you target it .
As for its weaknesses, for now we only know that it can't see quite well and the recent reports were talking about they noticed that it was getting slower than before, so that should work in our favor quite well, that's all we currently know .
SO, any more questions ? .