HereComesTheSnow

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

@Crimmy

Luke Schwarz

"Well, now that I know about it, I'm fairly sure I am." I replied. "It actually sounds right up the alley of what I'm needing to work on."

Practical knowledge.

Understanding of tools.

Focus on usage.

While Language seemed to have somehow supplanted Math as my one saving grace in terms of grades, these qualities were what I should be looking for in my course selection process. Writing passably and shuffling numbers around, while still useful, more than likely took a back seat to knowing the ins-and-outs of the most common energy source and weaponry modification on the planet.

In purely pragmatic terms, it would make much more sense to enroll in it than one of those. I don't mean to become even less of an intellectual than my current sorry state, but there was no getting around the fact—

This is what I was here to learn.

And learn I needed to, with every bit of speed that my mind could muster.

"Although, I'd be stupid if I didn't ask this now: What level of prerequisite knowledge do I need?"

There was only so much a guy could retain from a six month cram session, compared to years of training and information one built up in a combat school or the like.

If I enrolled and set a course that could only lead in crashing and burning, I'd probably suffer everywhere else and become a complete lost cause. If there was one thing that needed constant maintenance, it was momentum.

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

Sand a cute.

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

same

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

meido in the butler cafe???

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

Luke Schwarz

!

Wait, hold on a second! I didn't see that on the registrar at all, what gives? That actually sounded like a really useful course to take!

Especially for me, too. The more I could understand how to properly utilize Dust, the more ground I could make up in my lost training time. I could get closer to actually being on-level with everyone else. I could say with certainty that it would have been close to the top of the list of classes to register for, at any rate.

Damn, now I really wanted to get to the bottom of that.

"Dust Apps... Is that a second-year level class, or something? I don't remember seeing it when I registered coming in."

Could I switch something out for it, maybe?

I was probably going to end up spending at least another week in Armory to get this Lucerne made...

Well, thinking about it like that was running before I walk, wasn't it? I was getting ahead of myself before she even answered me. Ugh. I know I have a problem with being overly cautious, but overcorrecting into leaping before I looked was probably even worse of a direction to take things.

Maybe I needed to see her as a counselor before trying to work my way into having her as a teacher. At this rate, I probably needed both sorts of help...

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

@Crimmy

Luke Schwarz

Miss Teàrlag...

I'm sorry, but your smiling needs a little work. You're still ticked off at me, aren't you? I'm really sorry, but you looked younger than I do! It wasn't as if she was a tiny as Cian or something, but still...

If a lot of people got it wrong, that had to grate on her. Like a rock in a stream, constantly getting worn down by annoyances and misjudgments. No matter how gracious you were, constantly having to correct people about something about you gets old...

Like my ahoge, huh?

"Must get annoying," I remarked. "In that case then, what class do you teach, Ma'am?"

I'm really sorry. I'll start taking you a little more seriously now.

However, if she was a teacher, that also meant my "goal" in talking to her fell through, as pathetic as it was to say. Being a tunnel vision, self-centered guy, I was unfortunately now at a bit of a loss with where to go from here. I hate to admit it, but for once I had a reason to be talking to someone beyond my own inability to shut up. And now that reason was rendered invalid.

I mean.

It certainly wasn't like I could ask her to take time away from her responsibilities as faculty to teach me about polearm usage...

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

Luke Schwarz

"......"

Eh? Teachers? We?

W-Was I being played with here? There was no way on earth someone who looked so young...

And yet, underneath the surly, serious gaze that almost was a glare, I found no hint of good humor or mischief. As somebody who regularly experiences the receiving end of such motivations, I knew what to look for, which only made things more disconcerting when I found none present at all.

She wasn't messing with me. I needed to find a way to reconcile this in my head, because that displeased reaction was way too earnest to be her acting.

Was this like a grad student situation? Could she maybe be a really youthful-looking upperclassman of mine? Wait, no, she'd still count under Family Day in that case!

She was at least a fully-fledged Huntress. Her not being a student in any capacity was why she couldn't call up her family to come see her. These were the immutable facts of the matter, based off of what she herself had just told me.

In hindsight, that certainly explained her getup...

"Er... Sorry."

I didn't know what else to say.

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

Schwarzes and Such

"Ah," they say in stereo after a short pause, carrying the somewhat worrisome implication that they hadn't considered the idea of people not being able to figure out on their own, or were mislead to believe that such things would otherwise be outside of their jurisdiction of responsibility.

Whichever of such fears arose in their audience, however, they were quickly allayed by their follow-up exchange.

"See," April said, nudging a grimacing Dawn with her elbow. "I told you he was overselling the whole 'Beacon people have a hair obsession' thing."

"Don't rub it in, nee-san." came the reply out of the shorter sister's half-pouting mouth. Fishing a couple of 25-lien notes out of her wallet, safely contained within the obi sash of her traditional dress, she grumbled out a half-hearted defense. "I thought it was one of those things where it was too stupid to be made up."

"You and I both know that we should never underestimate Luke." the fighter reminded the archer, gleefully accepting her payout on the wager.

"Anyways, yeah, we're Luke's little sisters, if you know him."

"Oh, don't gripe."

"M'not griping." Dawn griped, staring a hole through a nearby bush.

Tanner was a veteran Hunter, and knew not to mistake his surrogate niece glaring off at the world as him being caught. His camouflage skills are superb for a man who wears a garish Aloha shirt on a daily basis.

Or perhaps, they are so because of it.

---

"Likewise, Teàrlag,"

I made sure not to forget the pronunciation on that A in there. While I'm not the most worldly guy by any means, the combination of that name and the burr to her words told me that this girl was from the Valic Highlands. It's not as ridiculously overplayed as it was on pop culture pieces like Samurai Jack, or Limmy's Show, but it was distinct enough for me to recognize.

Hopefully her dialect didn't involve a lot of slang, though. That was where I checked out on regionalisms...

"Your parents making the trip up here, today?"

It was an innocent enough question. Just so long as I could keep the conversation flowing while I worked, it would probably make both easier. The human brain is strange like that sometimes.

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

Schwarzes and Such

April's answer to that question came in the form of another question.

"Depends! Dawn, you got all that?"

"Rifle with Bayonets, LMG, and Sniper. Yep, those are the three! Just one thing I'd ask is what the maximum effective range is on the Sniper form, I suppose." she said thoughtfully, tapping the eraser end of the pencil to her chin.

"Can you actually use it properly?" asked a new, flat, and practically bored voice that nonetheless managed to carry into the conversation easily, even in spite of the ambient training ground noises.

"That's another good one, gotta be honest."

"I mean, we'd hope that's the case though, right?"

There was a rare note of concern in April's voice, as the normally carefree girl frowned at the obvious implication of Cian not knowing what she was doing. Seriously, how did you get into Beacon Academy if you couldn't at least understand how to use a gun?

Then again, Saeva-sensei had been saying for a while now that the entrance requirements were all jacked up...

What's more, this woman's tone, as faint as it was, couldn't help but suggest that there was backstory to that question of hers.

"Hey sis," April murmured idly to the notepad-wielding member of the pair, as both watched the emergent back-and-forth between Galla and her newly arrived elder sister. "Y'don't think we overprepared nii-chan for this school, did we?"

"Well, I look at it like this," Dawn's calm, sagely reply began. "If we did, that means he's either doing just fine with all the work everyone put him through, or he's made up for lost time after the whole 'cancelling combat school' thing, right?"

April's brow furrowed and her face mixed up into an adorably unsure expression.

"I guess..."

"And if we didn't, he's certainly better off than if we just let him go in blind, that's for sure."

"Oh, yeah. De-fin-ite-ly!"

This time the taller girl's nod is vigorous. That's easily the most agreeable and plainly true way of looking at things, from any perspective. Even their brother would be forced to agree with that.

And to speak of their brother, Galla's numeric rating system sparks some interest in Dawn.

"You have a grading scale for straight-manning, Galla? We've got to introduce you to our brother when he shows up!"

He, being a lazy young adult with a habit of procrastination, was almost definitely slacking off.

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

MONOLOGUE FIGHT