Chapter 12 Training

"So... You’re saying the Extermination Branch is located here??" Haru asked with a look of puzzlement towards her white-haired colleague.

Both of them were standing outside a medium-sized cafe just right along the busy evening sidewalk, the glass window displayed with the name "Lab Café."

"Yeppp~ Now, let's go Aiko-san is waiting," Shiro says with a nod.

Upon entering the store, Haru gets a full view of the minimalistic design within this cafe, with standard white color paint with lines of blue and red marking each section passing throughout the interior, not too dissimilar to an actual laboratory. Behind the counter where the beverage is being prepared, are cabinets full of ingredients stored in beakers and tubes, almost as if they are dangerous chemicals.

The cafe wasn’t too crowded for this time of day; mostly young adults and students were sitting down to enjoy a nice cup of coffee or finish up their work.

Before Haru’s eye wandered off towards the menu display, she was suddenly pulled from the back by Shiro and physically dragged across the store.

"We can try those later~ For now… let’s go~"

Haru was justifiably confused after being dragged into the small bathroom section located behind the cafe.

"Uh... Shiro? What are we doing here? "

"Taking you to our 'secret base', of course~"

"Excuse me, what?"

"First take out your Module~"

Any attempts to comment further wouldn’t result in anything worth of note, Haru decided to just follow her peers word as it’s obvious that Shiro knows more than her.

"Uh huh… Yea and?"

"Just hold it in front of the mirror and…"

"Kay… So-"

Before Haru could finish her words, the Module’s tips that display the Phantasm icon luminated in a blinding blue glow. As is the case for Shiro’s own module as well.

"W-what’s g-going on?!!" Haru panicked. In an instant, multiple rings of the same color start forming around both of the girls' bodies, locking them from moving a single inch.

"Shh… Just calm down, okay~?" Shiro whispers, advising Haru to not attract attention.

Haru took a quick deep breath before lowering her voice per Shiro’s suggestion. "U-uh, A-alright... But you really have to tell me what is going on???"

"It might feel weird at the start~ but you’ll get used to it~"

Before Haru can question this any further, a flash of light bursts into her visions and subsequently fills her thoughts, accompanied by horrific sensations akin to each piece of the body tearing up and melting into a liquid state.

Unable to feel nor act on anything, all Haru is able to do is methorpically bite her non-existent teeth together.

Fortunately, it was only for a few seconds that Haru had to deal with the uncanny feeling. Slowly regaining her footing both physically and mentally, the five senses of the human body start flooding back with the first thing she feels being the stream of sweat pouring down every crevice.

Her blurred vision was able to at least make out where she was; a familiar clear white hallway with blue energy laying across the sides, or the ‘Secret Base’ as Shiro would describe it.

"So~ how was it?" Shiro asks nonchalantly.

"Wh-hat… w-was that?!?!"

"Oh? It’s just Alternium teleportation, that’s all~"

"W-why didn’t you warn me about this?!?!"

"Hm… I don’t know~ forgot maybe?" Shiro shrugs with a smile.

"I’m not surprised at this point…"

After a few moments, Haru was able to catch up to her tense breathing and calm herself down. The two make their way towards the "Control Room" which in reality is a standard living room and kitchen with dangerous Alternium tools in hand’s reach.

"Oh there you are, finally here," Aiko greets the two as they walk in. "So it's just you two today, huh?"

"Mhm~ Lin and Riku are busy with student council stuff~" said Shiro.

"Um, where’s Nodokla-san today?" Haru asks after a quick glance around the workshop area.

"She’s busy modifying the bikes right now." Aiko walks toward the two with a tablet in hand. "So I’ll be guiding you through the training today, Haru."

"I-I’ll be in your care today!"

"Right then! Now follow me." Aiko proceeds to lead the two linkers to the room right next door.

A familiar door with a simple sign reading "Training Room".

But to Haru’s surprise, the room is completely empty with bright white paint present on all sides of the wall.

"Now hold on a little bit…" Aiko is able to read the confusion on Haru’s face. "And… it should be set up now…"

The room suddenly starts to morph in front of Haru’s eyes. From a blank white room, it quickly expands out; chunks of the ground start breaking up, forming a cityscape in just a few seconds.

"Woah! That’s awesome!" Haru starts running around the space, getting her hands on everything. "It’s exactly like outside!!"

"Someone’s definitely excited~" Shiro commented.

"Haha, in reality, the room didn’t change or expand like what you saw," Aiko explains. "Instead your perception of the environment just changes. For me, it’s still an empty white room."

Haru snaps back with fire in her eyes. "I’m ready for the training now!"

"Alright then! I’ll be seeing you two later" AIko then disappeared into thin air, but her voice was still there inside her mind. "And don’t worry, within this room you won’t use any Alternium at all, but the feelings will still be the same."

"With all that being said… Let’s first begin with basic combat and coordination procedure within an open environment" right after Aiko announcement, a burst of Phantom energy appeared right next to the two linkers.

A large pale viel shaped like a giant dome, the "Rift" that Phantom resides in.

"Let's do this, Shiro!" Haru loads her pistols with the module.

"PHANTASM SET!"

"Mhm~" Shiro follows suit, loading her module into the sides of her sniper rifle.

"PHANTASM SET!"

They both fire their weapons in sync. A singular high-energy bullet flies forwards before curving back to its linker, transforming into their combat forms.

"Your objective is to eliminate all Phantoms in the area," Aiko chimes in. "And be sure to cover each other's backs. Stay safe!"

"Haru, you take the ground and I'll deal with the air while providing cover fire~" Shiro speaks as she zips up towards a building.

"Got it!" Haru wastes no time and rushes towards each Phantom. With her handgun and knife, she swiftly eliminates each one of them.

Even when the Phantom starts to group up for an ambush attack, their chance is completely squandered by the sharpshooter from above.

It wasn't long until the duo turned all the phantoms in the area into thin air. The rift quickly dissipated.

"Phew! That was simple enough!" Haru exclaimed.

"Great work girls! But don't rest easy just yet; the rift simulation will only get more and more difficult from here"

"Bring it on! I'm ready for it!"

Several hours pass by. Haru, with the last bit of her strength, pushes her first right through the last remaining Phantom.

"And… that's the last fight for this session! Great work, both of you!" Aiko chimes back in as the simulation starts to disappear, returning the girls back to the empty white room.

"We've got some refreshment and snacks prepared for you in the control room." Nodoka voices enter the feeds as well.

"That… was… quite…" Haru said, while panting heavily, her body covered from head to toe in sweat.

"Great work today~" Shiro was basically in the same state as Haru.

"Well… Guess we could use some refreshment right now…"

The two linkers head toward the control room per Nodoka's suggestion. They then settle down on the lounging sofa to relax their tense bodies.

"I saw part of your first time training. That was impressive Haru. And Shiro too. Your planning was on point." Nodoka, who looks visibly tired judging from the oil stains all throughout her blue engineer suit, she brought over a plate of cookies of various shapes and colors for the girls.

"Thank you, Nodoka-san," Haru said before digging into several pieces at once.

"Nodoka-san~ anything cool for Shiro's bike~?" Shiro asks, all the while slowly nibbling on one of the cookies.

"Oh, I just did a quick maintenance on it, including optimizing the auto drive feature so that it's easier to perform combat while at high speed," Nodoka boasts.

"Woah… that’s aaaawesome~" Shiro exclaimed with heightened excitement. "Can Shiro stand on the bike and do the shooting too~?"

"I-I still wouldn't advise it but…"

"Who knows what kind of Phantom we'll face in the future so better be prepared for it" Nodoka also chills down on the couch alongside the girls before giving herself a much needed stretch. "Phantoms are so… unpredictable nowadays…"

Haru jumps up from the couches, seemingly completely rejuvenated by a few sugary treats.

"Don’t worry, Nodoka-san! Whatever they throw at us, I’ll turn 'em all into dust!"

"I agree~" For once, the two found something they could agree on.

"You girls... Welp, I guess I could ease my worry just a tiny bit then" Nodoka then lets her body sink into the couch, both arms behind her head and her eyes about to close up until...

"Hey gir- NODOKA!!!!" Aiko screeches the moment she returns to the control room.

"W-wha… Aiko! You don’t need to be that loud! I’m literally right here!!"

"What did I… SAY ABOUT SITTING ON THE COUCHES AFTER MAINTENANCE WORK!!" Aiko ran up towards her colleague, tugging her up and away from the comfiness.

"OH RIGHT… Eh I’ll just build a robot to clean it up later." Nodoka then falls right back onto the couches.

"Last time you said that...The bot exploded and made an even bigger mess!!!!" Aiko complains.

"Look, it was YOUR cleaning solution formula that interfered with my machine, alright!?"

"Then why didn’t YOU design it to be compatible with it!?"

While the scientist and engineer are at war with each other, the two students both slowly but surely head towards the door.

"Uh… Thanks for today, Aiko-san, Nodoka-san…" Haru wasn’t sure if that registered in their brains; she was only sure that getting out of here was a good idea.

"Bye~ Bye~"

Even walking through the hallways, Haru could still hear the argument that was raging there. All the while, Shiro is completely nonchalant about it, almost as if it’s a somewhat common occurrence for the 7th Atomos Extermination Branch.

Another thing to add to Haru's growing list of things she needs to get used to as a Linker.