Chapter 2: A Perfect Fit For Him
"By the way, why Banana King?" Haruka asked me after I stood up, is she talking about the name I thought of.
"That's the first food that appeared in my mind since I'm hungry, it's my favorite, isn't it cool?" I said with a thumbs up.
"Are you a monkey?" She sounds so exasperated. "Couldn't you have just put your own name?" Well, that's true but, isn't that kinda boring? The same as putting your own name on a video game. I'm in another world anyways, no one would care that much if I use a different one.
"If you think that monkeys only eat bananas, you should apologize to all the monkeys that exists right now."
"That's what you're angry about, still yeah, it's rude to call you a monkey, you're more of a gorilla than a monkey if you think about it." That's still a monkey and that's even more rude than the first one.
"Is it because I'm strong and brave, don't compliment me too much." I said while rubbing my nose.
"I'm not complimenting you, and I'm talking about your body and face." Man, that's harsh, even that'll hurt me if you say that in front of my face.
"You mean I look strong-willed and brave looking, don't compliment me too much, you'll make me blush."
"Fuck, this guy's not listening to me."
Knowing she can't win against me, she let out a sigh as a sign of giving up. The appraisal proceeded smoothly and after seeing what class everyone got, no one got a class than can top the Hero Class in terms of stats, I guess it isn't called the strongest class for nothing. I also asked the handler information about my class, he said that the Pyromancer Class excels in attacking from mid-range to long-range and is more suited in fighting on a plain battleground, can easily reduce large numbers of enemies and better in a group that wants to obliterate the enemies fast, in other words it's an assault class. To be honest I wanted a melee class because I practiced boxing before, but since this is what's given to me, I'll just do my best to support the vanguard. Although I think they'll prefer someone other than me, Pyromancer in a way is bad since it can't do anything but attack and only has one element, we'll be in a disadvantage if we fight against a water-type monster. Completely different from a normal mage that can use different elements and can even cast support and healing magic, information I got from the handler. I won't worry about fire when I'm cooking and the cold at nights, so I guess it pretty much works out.
He also added that any class can be defeated, every class has its own weakness, even if it's what you called the strongest. It all depends on leveling up and how you make use of the class you received, creating strategies, learning about advantages and disadvantages of fighting any kind of enemy, and teamwork. He also said the Hero Class isn't rare at all since every country has more than one hero, there's also apparently a country that has an army of thousand heroes.
Answering all of our questions one by one, he's a nice and earnest guy after all. His answers eases all of my worries, not that I'm worried... really, not at all.
After the appraisal and answering all of our questions, the handler told us to follow him, he said he'll lead us to the training grounds where he'll introduce us to the one who'll handle our battle training.
"Yes, it is better to put your own name since the name on your status screen will most likely be your official name, in an official setting like being called by the king or attending a ball, everyone will most likely call you by the name you're registered with, from now on." The handler answered Haruka's question about the names used in the status screen, while we're walking.
"See?" She faced me with a smug look, probably thinking how much of an idiot I am, how cute.
Even if it's an official name there's not much I can do since I already thought of it and it's already the name on my status screen, unless there's a way to undo it. Besides, our own resident classmate with a chuunibyou named herself [Dark Lord of the Everlasting Night, the Shadowless Raven]. If I'm the only one then I should be depressed right now but since there's two of us, I don't think I should be worried. It would be funny though if someone manage to say her name with a straight face, like those RPGs where I always put a name with a Dick on it and some NPC will say it if I talk to them.
"Can I ask a question?" The handler asked.
"Sure." Haruka tilted her head, telling him to go on.
"I've been meaning to ask and I'm curious, what's a banana?" They don't have that fruit here, this makes me sad.
"It's a yellow fruit from our world, if you peel the skin, the fruit inside looks like a pen-"
"Hey wait, Stop!!!" Haruka suddenly covered my mouth, why? "No, you're wrong, it has a crescent shape and..... a bundle of those looks like a curved hand." She hurriedly explain, why are you glaring at me?
Although our handler is not so dumb, he wouldn't know what I'm talking about.
"Yeah, I can slightly imagine what it looks like now." He nodded while blushing, convincing himself, that made the girls behind us go shrieking and whispering.
It can't be helped, since our handler is what you call a pretty boy. A guy with an androgynous face and short white hair, wearing a glasses and has a pretty pale complexion. He's also very thin, I guess he's not physically strong, if you look at him from far away, there's a chance you would mistake him for a girl. He speaks in a manly way but his voice hasn't matured enough, that's why somehow it sounds feminine, if I close my eyes I can't even tell if it's a boy or a girl speaking. Even the way he moves and acts is feminine, he walks while holding his book to his chest and glancing at me while blushing... but if you look at him closely, it's not that visible but he has an Adam's apple.
I guess, the weak pretty boy that makes you want to protect him is the hot topic right now for the girls, I mean I would too if I wasn't a guy... not bad, pretty boy.
"Right, it's a perfect fit for him." What is? The dick or the banana? Wait, that sounds kinda gay.
Still how long will this girl hold my mouth? I need to perform an emergency tactic to avoid a suffocating death.
"..."
"Hyaahh!"
∆•∆•∆•∆•∆
I can't believe a training grounds four times larger than a normal soccer stadium is inside a castle, isn't this castle too big? There's even grass here.
"One more time." Souma said to the knight that will be our instructor.
After we arrived here, a knight gave all of us a wooden sword to test if anyone of us have a little battle experience. As soon as we got the sword, the test starts and my classmates fight the knight one by one, although not a single one of them has a single hit landed. The other classes is also here along with their own instructors.
"He won't give up." The handler said while looking at the fight between Souma and the knight.
"He's just usually like that, he might not look like it but he practiced kendo from time to time." His priority is basketball though.
"Kendo?"
"Swordsmanship, he practices sometimes, is it because of stats or simply a difference in skills and senses... but I think the match is pretty clear, there's no point in doing it several times... unless you're a masochist that wants to be clobbered many times." He would be fine since the knight said there's a healer on standby, he can request for a rematch until he's satisfied but I doubt the results will change.
"That's why you would never beat Souma, even if he knows he's outmatched, he still wants to learn how his skills can fare in another world, in other words it's practice." Haruka with her smug look face me, then it goes back to a face full of hostility after a second.
"Are you still mad?"
"Yeah, I mean who in their right mind would lick someone's hand aside from you."
"You're choking me, what do you want me to do? What if I die then it's gonna be your fault... couldn't you control your strength better?"
"Now that you said it, I think it's because of the skills given to us, I've gotten stronger by several times... still that is that and this is this, licking a maiden's hand is out of the question." She sniffs, why are you acting like you're crying?
"Yeah, yeah, my bad, anyways your hand is delicious."
"Grrr..."
Ignoring Haruka's fake crying and emotional instability, Souma is kneeling on the ground for the sixth time, it seems he's out of energy.
"Practice huh? I don't think he's gonna learn anything like that."
"Yeah." The handler agreed with me.
"Eh? Why?" Haruka asked.
"How did it feel fighting him, Haruka? Did you use skills? Did you sustain any injury?"
"It feels pretty normal, I used my only skill but he's too fast I couldn't hit him at all, but it didn't hurt when he hit me. I didn't even need a healer, is it because of my class?" She flexed her muscles.
"Not really, the knight is just good at holding back."
"Being high level is different, it's not fair."
In this world, apparently appraisal can only be use to anything that has lower total stats than you, appraising someone stronger is impossible, that's why we can't see the knight's status screen but that's not the problem. They can't see our instructor is already stepping down to our level. He can obliterate us with his speed and ending the battle as soon as possible but he chose to lower it down to a speed a normal human can handle, even I can see how slow his tempo is. He doesn't use skills, doesn't use much force in hitting, and doesn't use complex moves. He only uses simple movements that even I can read but why can't anyone hit him? I don't understand, is this some kind of magic. He usually defeats us in two ways, the first one is by flinging the sword out of our hand and the second is tiring us out but from my perspective it seems so simple to dodge his attacks but why can't they do that, I'm confused.
Practice in itself, is a way to improve by repeating movements and learning what mistakes you made. Souma is repeating the same moves since earlier but at the same time and the same point, he's always defeated, even if he tried to changes his approach. That's why he's frustrated, he doesn't know how he's losing and he's not learning anything from the enemy. It's fine if he's overwhelmed but that wasn't the case, he was defeated with the same simple moves. Same with Haruka earlier, she said that the enemy is fast and couldn't hit him at all but in my eye, he's dodging her in a normal speed and he just hit her sword normally to get it out of her hand. I don't know what you call this but this isn't practice at all, a one-sided beatdown... no, a predetermined future, no matter what path you chose, the future will end up the same.
