บท 52: Want
While the events went down in City A, Hugo was still working his way towards learning archery. He was still in the gun part, but after a while, he only did it to improve his familiarity with the gun, not that he wasn't able to do it.
Kiter noticed but didn't stop him, claiming it was good exercise.
*Blam!* *Blam!*
Two gunshots rang out in succession towards different trees. The repeated exercise had improved his proficiency with guns. He could shoot more than once after a while of practising, though the recoil still hurt like hell.
"Alright, Kiter. I'm done with your task."
"Oh? Scoot a bit and let me see!" Kiter adjusted the position of his chair and peered at the two smoking holes.
"Nice, but I would have appreciated it if you didn't take so long feeling the gun,"
"Well, it's not my fault that it's so interesting to fiddle with,"
The tired Skydancer got up from his chair and even gave a subconscious nod at what Hugo said.
"You've completed the first training, now onto the second."
"Before we start, I'd like to tell you that Archery is the last thing you'll be learning here. We're going to cover the basics of marksmanship before you learn how to shoot some arrows. If you have any problem with that, speak up now."
"No, I'm cool."
"Good."
Saying that he grabbed the gun from Hugo and threw it to the ground.
"Gunnery is only one part of marksmanship, we have archery too, but as I said before, that is the last thing I'll be teaching you here. As a marksman, you need to be skilled with the use of various kinds of projectile weapons.
From here on out, you'll be improving your skill with those weapons like; Spears, Kunais, Shurikens, Darts, Chakrams and even more firearms like cannons, rifles, grenade launchers and so on."
"And I suppose it isn't legal for someone your age to wield large firearms, but it doesn't matter to me. After all, if they let you kill monsters and fight bad guys, this shouldn't matter much."
Kiter shrugged and picked out three sets of projectiles.
"Shuriken, Blowgun Dart and Rifle. Depending on the ways you use them, these weapons have similar purposes. Back in their eras, these weapons were tools of subterfuge and assassination. So, you will learn how to use them first."
'Subterfuge, assassination? That's not the way I fight at all!'
He soon realized he couldn't complete the task in a few hours and would take a few days or perhaps even a week to get the hang of it.
"But before you waste time on those weapons, I wish to ask you something," Kiter spoke as he retreated to his seat.
Without waiting for an answer, Kiter collapsed onto his chair and dished out a question
"What do you want?"
It was an existential crisis right off the bat. Hugo provided him with a reluctant answer, while he tried to remember.
"Right now, what I want is to learn archery."
Kiter shook his head and elaborated, "No, I mean, what do you want in life? What is your goal?"
"I... I-"
"Answer the question, Hugo. There is no need to think about it,"
"I... I want to rid the world of all evil, corruption and sin."
Kiter didn't ask him how he expected to do that, and instead just followed up.
"Why do you want to do so?"
His reply was smooth and concise, "Because of the vast injustice I'd suffered as a child and I don't want to see others suffer anymore from that kind of injustice."
"Then why did you become a Skydancer? What did you want to do as a Skydancer?"
But the smooth and concise answer wasn't enough to satisfy Kiter.
"I became a Skydancer to change the world, and the only way to do that is to reach the pinnacle of the world in terms of strength."
"Does your power not satisfy you? You already have enough to change the world."
That question stumped Hugo because Kiter was right. And then, he just did what Kiter said to.
'Remember, don't think!'
"I do, but I still feel the power isn't enough. With that amount of power, I'd be able to do things without fearing people. As it is now, I know people that could wipe me out in a flash, people like Ruki, Gaia and so on. There are even more people like that that I don't know about."
The string of questions stopped after that, and Kiter nodded with a bitter smile.
"You are right. There are tons of villains and Dancers more powerful than you, and even more, are smarter. It would be stupid to think you are strong enough just because of your God Grade Awakening. And besides, yours has far too much power and potential."
"If you stopped training now, there's no doubt your body will explode into little Black Matter Particles from all the internal collisions your body and power experience."
Hugo understood what Kiter was saying. This was the reason his parents had kept him locked up and in constant training for all those years, and they had forced him to understand it at an early age.
Kiter let out a small laugh and reclined the chair, making it stand only on the two hind legs.
"Well, it's such a shame. I pity you, boy. You're forced to train your body and increase your power otherwise you'd die, but in exchange, you become more and more empty inside, unable to feel threatened nor danger."
The recipient of his observations sighed in response, "I won't accept your pity, but I won't reject it either,"
Kiter cocked his head at the statement and laughed even harder.
"I don't expect you to. And I will let you in on a secret, you're not the only overly righteous nut job I've met. The ones I met before never had good endings. They always lacked one key factor, and it's up to you to figure it out."
Hugo frowned for a moment, then took up a neutral expression the next moment.
'I hate mystery and clues.'
"Now that we're done discussing, let's get back to work," Kiter pointed at the weapons and continued, "For each of those weapons, there'll be a primary exercise and a few secondary ones. You cannot move on to the secondary exercises before completing the primary ones,"
"The primary exercise for shuriken is precision throwing, and the secondary exercises might include accuracy, concealment and so all."
"I will only divulge that information for now," He smirked and shot a casual glance at the youth. "I will only give information on the other weapons until after you're through with the shurikens,"
Hugo nodded and picked up one of the blade-edged metal stars, observing its structure then throwing it at one tree.
*whoosh!*
The weapon spun through the air to reach the tree but fell flat upon coming into close contact with it. Hugo nodded and took a few more tests ending with the same results as the first one.
"There has to be some aerodynamics to this kind of weapon, I'll figure it out and try again."
He studied the curves and lines of the weapon for a while and took more tests with throwing vertically, horizontally, slanted, curved and even zig-zagged.
The last one proved stupid and dangerous, even for Kiter.
"Stop messing around and start throwing towards the trees, not me!"
Hugo snickered then put on a serious face, "Pfft, calm down. I'm only trying out some things, we're all analysts here so let's try our best to get along."
"Get along with a dumb boy 30 years younger than I am? Not a chance!"
"Age is just a number, Kiter!"
"Yeah, and Death is just a word. They mean nothing."
They continued their banter and this time around, there was a sense of familiarity between the two.
So Kiter was no longer idle while Hugo trained, he had to maintain a full focus on making up comebacks to use against Hugo.
"Better watch yourself, Hugo. Who knows, I might just decide to cancel archery of your training schedule."
"Your threats don't scare me, after I've learnt the rest of this stuff, I reckon archery will be easier to learn. Even if I still need a teacher after that, there'd be no need for an archery grandmaster."
Hugo's words were meant to be playful, and Kiter knew that. But, his last sentence woke something up in him.
'He's right. After the boy leaves, I'll probably lose my use for good. I don't want that to happen. But then again, what do I even want to do. Teaching isn't for me, I don't want to educate, I don't want to be the strongest and I don't want to eradicate all evil!'
'I know everything I don't want, yet I don't know what I want. And without want, there is no need. I guess with that train of thought, it makes sense that none of those civilians cared for me. What do I want and what do I need?'
The question bounced around his head and would not leave until he figured out his purpose.
****
Author's Note: We might not be able to reach 70 chapters before the end of the week, but we have made good progress and I still strive to reach at least Chapter 60 before the given time.
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