“I suddenly started asserting myself, so the group’s been split, but I knew from the start that it would turn out like this. I’ll do something about it myself.”
“I see… Well, keep it in moderation. If you get too worked up, it’ll hurt.”
Since she’s already decided, he had no right to interfere.
That’s why he just told her to take care not to overly invest herself and lose heart half-way through.
“I will,” she courteously and happily replied.
“But just what is it that you want to overcome anyway?”
When they went back to the original topic, a wry smile appeared on the girl’s face.
“Umm, actually I’ve been training since then, but I’ve yet to make any progress with my interpersonal combat skills. I-I understand I’m being impolite, but c-could you please give me some pointers?”
—After all, you’re someone who was able to suppress so many people alone!
That’s what those eyes of hers seemed to be saying when she took Shinichi’s hand.
Before Shinichi knew it, the girl had taken his free hand – the one not holding any envelopes – and had taken a pleading posture.
Shinichi couldn’t understand why the girl was blushing, but he still enjoyed her hands that were soft despite her training.
“Pointers, huh.”
It’s a little troubling if that’s what she wants. She may not have seen everything, but she still saw him fighting.
She was the only student who has personally experienced his strength. That’s why there’s no point in hiding his strength from her.
But her believing that ‘he could give her pointers’ seemed like it would be something very troublesome.
To be more precise, this situation felt just like a certain woman who kept coming back to him every morning for advice on her relationship with her older brother.
“I-Is it not possible? I promise I won’t tell anyone!”
She held his hand tighter and looked at him anxiously as she pleaded for his help once more.
At first glance, her actions might appear sly and even the way she worded that sounded like she was trying to strike a deal, but she definitely wasn’t doing that on purpose. She was too pure for that.
Although, the fact that this was her natural self was plenty scary in and of itself.
“Well, whatever.”
Shinichi stopped hesitating and relaxed himself.
He could just consider this as compensation for the help she gave him during that incident.
When he agreed to give her pointers, the girl’s countenance immediately dazzled.
In truth, Shinichi knew she would be this happy, which is why he agreed, but that was his secret.
“First, tell me exactly how you’re bad at interpersonal combat. Do you hesitate when attacking other people? Or do you simply find interpersonal combat difficult?”
“Ah, umm… I-I’d say I’m more of the latter. I have a high rank in Mind, so I specialize in consecutively casting advanced skills to wipe out my enemies. But in a one-on-one battle, those skills’ area-of-effect are too big, so they’re hard to use. So at most, all I can do is to fight with a weapon I have like this, but I can only go so far before…”
The girl explained by gesturing with her hands to show herself swinging something, and then wryly smiled.
Did she change her mind or was she driven to a corner even in her imagination?
“Before you resort to your skill which takes both you and your opponent out, right?”
“Y-Yes, unfortunately. My rank at Resistance isn’t very high, so I figured that might be the problem…”
“Well, it’s true that you could fight like that too if your Resistance was high. What do you usually use as a weapon?”
Without that much information, even Shinichi couldn’t possibly give her advice.
He has seen plenty of their drills and training, but when it comes to spars between students, the only one he was really able to watch was that spar during his first day. Other than that every other spar he saw was just happenstance.
That’s why he didn’t know what weapon this girl used despite her popularity.
“I don’t have a specific weapon, actually. It’s unfortunate, but I’m basically a jack of all trades master of none. I could use all weapons to some extent, but I’m no match for people who specialize in just one thing. And sometimes when the weapon type used is the same…”
“Let me guess, you get all flustered when your opponent drives you into a corner so suddenly, and then you blow up.”
“Yes,” the girl nodded beet red. She was probably ashamed to have her immaturity exposed.
But with this, Shinichi now had enough information.
This was a complete coincidence, but this was actually something that once troubled Shinichi.
The reason is completely different, but Shinichi himself is a jack of all trades.
In the girl’s case, she had a talent for everything, but in Shinichi’s case, he had no talent at all, and all he had was his exceptional rank in Skill.
Because of that he already had an answer, an answer he came up with a long time ago.
“One suggestion I could give you that would solve your problem now is to use a complex weapon. I’ve never actually used it myself, but you guys have that Swiss-knife-like weapon, right?”
The weapons of the students are generally sourced from one of two places. Either they themselves provide it or the school provides it.
Grasping the ability of the former is a bit difficult, but as for the latter, all information on them has been revealed.
Of those weapons, there is a special weapon that combines the function of different weapons.
From the side, it looks like a rectangular box, but it could change its form and change itself into any weapon.
It could become a sword, a spear, a cannon, a sniper rifle, it could even become a blunt weapon.
“Umm… Ah, there is one. It’s not very popular, so I’d already forgotten about it until you mentioned it.”
The girl looked through her memories, and she was indeed able to confirm the existence of such a weapon, but immediately after, she frowned.
The reason no one used that weapon was because it was ‘too complicated’.
“I’ve used it before during my training before enrollment, but if you don’t know the pattern of its transformations, you’ll just end up holding it in a weird way.”
For example, if one doesn’t let go of the handle when transforming it from its sword form, one will end up holding a gun from its muzzle.
Things like that were common, and the weapon just ended up impeding the movement of its wielder.
Unfortunately, that trait was necessary in order to allow the weapon to possess all the functions it possessed.
“Huh, that sounds like a really interesting weapon. I want to try it! Ah, but now isn’t really the time for that. We were talking about your weapon, right? Sorry.”
For a moment, Shinichi’s face seemed like it was about to sparkle, but he immediately controlled himself and apologized.
The girl made a strange face when she saw that, but Shinichi ignored her.
“In that case, you have no choice but to just have all your weapons with you. Normally, that would be impossible, but fortunately, the weapons around here can make that possible.”
Since the fosters can store things to a certain degree, carrying things and performing maintenance wasn’t a problem.
It’s also because of that that it’s possible to ‘carry multiple weapons’.
“Since I can’t specialize in just one weapon, I should just take them all with me! I see! So this is the concept of thinking with open defiance!”
“No, no. It’s the concept of how thinking in reverse can help you find a solution.”
For some reason, when the girl smiled, Shinichi couldn’t help but throw a tsukkomi at her.
Absorbing knowledge was good and all, but she should really pick a better person to learn from.
Nothing good could possibly come out of her absorbing knowledge from Shinichi, or at least that’s what Shinichi thinks.
But of course, as far as the girl is concerned, it’s precisely because it’s Shinichi that she’s trying to learn so much.
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