What Yamada-san does not know...

Hinako breathed hard and sweat began trickling down her face. She wiped it off with the sleeve of her shirt. The last hint of red vanished in her hair. Hinako stared at the black spot on the opposite wall. She clicked her tongue and groaned in frustration.

“I don’t think this is worki-AAHH!”, Hinako started to complain but got hit in the face with a ball of water, before she could finish.

“Not bad kid.”, Kuro said from a few meters to the side.

He had watched Hinako cast her fireballs the whole time. Hinako stared at him with a dripping and disapproving face.

“What do you mean? My fireballs all felt and looked the same! There was no improvement at all!”, She protested.

“True. Your fireballs all were the same.”, Kuro agreed.

“Then why the fuck did you say, ‘not bad kid’, huh?! Just want to tease me?”

“Yes and no. Here look.”

Kuro held out his phone and showed her the screen.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”, She asked confused.

“What do you see on the screen?”, Kuro replied with a question.

Hinako blinked, looked at the screen and then back at Kuro.

“The purple-haired cat girl you like so much in a rather seductive pose.”, Hinako answered even more confused.

“Huh? Oh, shit, sorry.”, exclaimed Kuro shocked.

He quickly pulled his phone back, tapped on it and then held it out again.

“I meant this.”, He said a bit flustered.

“A stopwatch?”, Hinako inquired still confused.

“Yeah, and what does it show?”

“Twenty minutes and six seconds.”

“Exactly. And what do you think this time is?”

“I don’t fudging know! The time since you last dirty thought?”

“That’s way to long for that.”

“Then tell me!”

“The time since you threw your first fireball.”

Hinako stared at him, mouth open in disbelief.

“Wait… that means…that I…”, She began to stutter after putting two and two together.

“Yes. Today’s training may not have yielded visible improvements, but that doesn’t mean your training up to now didn’t.”, Kuro said with a faint grin on his face.

“So, casting barriers until I keel over did do something after all…”

“Mhm, it’s a good exercise since barriers take two things… Control and a lot of magical power… You have been building that up over the past week…”

“That’s… I… I didn’t even notice… You should have said what the training was for… I just thought you wanted to torment me and break my spirit.”

Kuro stayed silent and didn’t deny nor admitted that statement.

“Training hard I see?”, said Shinoha.

The old grandmaster had entered the training hall and came up to them.

“Yes! Kuro is making me stretch out my box, but he is no help at all! He just stands there doing nothing but occasionally throw in a stupid comment…”, Hinako complained.

Shinoha looked at Kuro and raised her eyebrow.

“Go and take a shower, kid… You smell all sweaty.”, Kuro said to Hinako.

“No, I don’t…”, She answered and sniffed her armpit, “Shit, I do…”

Hinako walked out of the trainings hall to the showers.

“I see you adopted your mother’s training style…”, Shinoha said to Kuro once they were alone.

“It’s the only one I know…”, He replied.

“What do you think of her?”

“The kid? Quite full of herself, stubborn… the type to shoot first and ask question later… quite unexperienced… but very motivated and she’s got potential… rather frightening potential, considering the progress she made in just a week… She’ll be a very powerful battlemage one day, she already has the eyes of one… ”

Shinoha began to laugh.

“What? Did I say something funny?”, Kuro asked confused.

“No… but the way you describe her… I know someone could have been described like that.”, Shinoha said through her laughter.

Kuro furrowed his brows.

“I wasn’t unexperienced… not when I was her age…”, He said somberly.

“I wouldn’t say that she is unexperienced… she just made different ones than you… But I heard you have one more trait in common.”, Shinoha replied.

“And that is?”

“Blatant disregard for property damage…I don’t know yet if our budget will survive you two together…”

“It was your choice to make her my partner…”

“I did and I’m pleased to see, that I haven’t seen her resignment yet. I have a good feeling about our bet.”

“We’ll see about that… It’s only been a bit over a week… But yeah… she has proven quite resilient…”

“You’re curious about her, huh?”

“A bit…”

Shinoha looked at him with a warm smile.

“You still haven’t gotten yourself a haircut…”, She suddenly remarked.

“Meh… It’s fine like it is…”, Kuro replied with a shrug.

“You would be such a fine young gentleman if you cared a little bit for yourself…”

“Then how about this… If you beat me in a sparring match, I’ll go and get myself a haircut.”

Kuro looked challenging at Shinoha.

“That s-,” began Shinoha but got interrupted by a small coughing fit. “That sounds enticing, but I’m afraid I have an appointment.”

After finishing her sentence, she quickly pulled out a handkerchief to cough into for the next fit.

“Everything okay with you?”, Kuro asked worried after it was over.

“Yeah… I’m just getting old.”, Shinoha replied with a weak smile.

“What? You getting old? But you’re just like what? Two hundred years?”

“Give or take…”

Both began to laugh and Shinoha had to cough again.

“Well, I better get going… take care of the young one.”, She said after calming down.

Kuro looked after her and sighed worried. A few moments later he went and waited in front of the women’s shower. He was halfway through an anime episode, when the door opened and Hinako came out.

“Wanna grab a beer and something to eat before we go home for the day?”, Kuro asked.

“Yeah sure, sounds good to me. I never say no to free food.”, Hinako replied with a smile.

Forty minutes later they entered the Izakaya bar, Kuro often frequented.

“Oh, you two are here early today! Not much going on at work? The usual?”, Emi said after noticing them.

“Yes, thank you, Emi.”, Kuro replied and sat at his usual spot.

Hinako followed and Emi brought like usual the beers first.

“Wait… aren’t we on standby and technically on duty? Yamada-san emphasized that very heavily…”, Hinako asked as she went to grab her beer.

“Then better not tell her… What Sa-… Yamada-san doesn’t know, won’t hurt her… or rather me…”, Kuro said with a weak smile and took a sip.

“What’s the deal with you and Yamada-san anyways? I get the feeling she doesn’t like you.”

“That’s a bit of an understatement… Well… Let’s just say, she and I go way back and now she hates me…”

Kuro sighed and took a big gulp.

“Were you two dating?”, Hinako asked straight out.

Kuro nearly choked.

“Oh? Who were you dating, Kuro?”, Emi asked, when she appeared to bring the food.

“Nobody!”, Kuro coughed.

“Ah, good.”

Like usual Emi had grabbed herself a beer and sat down next to Kuro. He scooted farther than usual from her.

“I might stink a bit… we had a bit of an incident at work…”, Kuro said quietly and flustered.

Emi looked at him for a moment and then leaned in. She sniffed at the side of his neck. He could feel her breath on his skin.

“Nah, I don’t notice anything. You smell lovely like usual.”, Emi said with a smile, after she pulled her head back again.

“I… o-okay… good…”, Kuro stuttered and started to get red.

Hinako watched the whole thing over the rim of her glass and said nothing. Then came their usual Otaku talk, where she was mostly silent as well. One beer and a lot of fried chicken later, they went home.