Since everyone else is still working on the test, I guess that means lessons are done for the day. After a brief walk around SIT, I decide to take the train home early and see Kyte.

  Upon boarding the train, I see a few familiar people. Those being a tall expressionless blue-haired girl, and a pin-looking bck-haired guy.

  I'm sorry, Jabez! I don't mean any offense! You just do look really pin when standing next to Alice!

  "Hi Jabez. Hi Alice."

  "Good afternoon." Jabez returns my greetings. Alice simply nods at me in acknowledgement.

  "You finished the test early too?" I ask.

  "It would be difficult not too." Jabez responds, breaking into a small smile. "I can't imagine waiting the whole three hours on a test like that one. Besides, we wanted to leave early, before everyone else finished. I'm gd we got the gun test out the way early, though. Now I can get a gun licence and bring some ranged weapons when on hero duty."

  "Hero duty?"

  "Yes. Both of us are in the same hero squad. Since we didn't have any gun lisence, though, we couldn't use most forms of ranged weaponry. Do you know how many different pieces of standard equipment are cssified as guns? Even shackle unchers count as guns, because the shackle counts as a projectile."

  Shackle unchers fire handcuff-like projectiles to bind enemies during combat. Though the fact those count as guns isn't what I'm surprised at.

  "You're both part of a hero squad already?"

  Thinking back, Jabez had already told me that he and Alice were part of a hero squad. However, due to my confusion at the time, my brain didn't process how impressive that actually was. Being part of a hero squad in the first year of SIT is pretty amazing. Usually, you would do some internship with the police in second year, then only in your third year would you be expected to join a hero squad.

  "Actually, we met each other in a hero squad before we came to SIT. When I first came to SIT, I was quite surprised when I found out that we were in the same css." Jabez ughs.

  They were in a hero squad before coming to SIT?

  That was even more amazing! Actually, We've only been attending SIT for about eight weeks, so it's only eight weeks more amazing. Nevertheless, more amazing is more amazing.

  The train soon arrives at Trigon beach, and I head on home.

  "I'm back. How's it going?"

  I open the door to my apartment, only to find the living room shrouded in darkness. The lights were off, and all curtains are closed.

  As I walk into the apartment, I hear incoherent mumbling from somewhere nearby.

  "Kyte?"

  "A-Argus?"

  "You okay?"

  A Shadow fshes up from behind the sofa, and Kyte drops down from the ceiling in front of me.

  He grabs my shoulders and stares at me, face illuminated by the light coming through the door. He opens his mouth, and whispers in a hoarse voice.

  "It's finished. My masterpiece. Hahaha."

  Then he coughs.

  "Ehem, ehem. Sorry about that. I think I need some water."

  He moves over to the curtains and opens them. After taking off my shoes, I move to open the curtains over on the other side of the room.

  "Why were the curtains closed?"

  "Sorry, I was just getting some sleep. What time is it now?" Kyte yawns while speaking. "I spend all st night working on the program, so I thought I'd rest for a bit while I tested it."

  Over the past few days, Kyte has been setting up his program to complete his task. I thought he looked tired this morning, but I didn't realise it was because he stayed up all night working on the program.

  "It's probably around 2-ish. I came back early today."

  "Oh? Why is that."

  I fill him in on the events that happened today.

  "Ah! I can't believe I missed something that might actually be useful!" Kyte ments. "Oh well. I'll just get it next year, so it's fine."

  "So you say you managed to get the program working?" I ask Kyte.

  He nods.

  "I've done several runs today already. From what I've seen so far, it works one hundred percent of the time."

  Kyte goes to show me the bots automate the raid event.

  I lean over the back of the sofa, only to see the swarm of fifty bots stuck in the corner of a map, unable to find the loading zone for the next part of the event.

  "Ah, I guess it's not as bug-free as I thought."

  The next day arrives.

  Because of the program error yesterday, Kyte decides to stay at home and watch over the machine.

  "When you come back, can you pick up some stuff from the store? We're running low." Kyte asks.

  "Sure."

  He quickly scribbles down a list of items we need and hands it to me. I leave, bid farewell and good luck to Kyte, then head to SIT. Upon arriving, I see Vorsichtiger waiting at the main hall in SIT. Once all the heroics trainees arrive, he speaks.

  "Congratutions. All but one of you passed. You are now legally allowed to carry guns around wherever you go. Well, certain guns. I'll repeat what I said yesterday: this isn't a full gun licence, only half of one. Don't go buying proper guns without checking that you can actually use them."

  Someone failed that test? Wasn't it basically impossible to fail that test?

  Vorsichtiger holds up a test paper in front of him.

  "In order to pass, you had to get at least ninety percent, meaning you could get a total of two questions wrong and still pass. I understand why many of you thought the answer to question ten was 'B' or 'C', instead of 'A', However, the person who failed got two more questions wrong."

  Question 10 was the cat-in-a-box question, wasn't it? Maybe some people thought that Vorsichtiger made the test, so took that into account when trying to answer the question.

  "The answer to question thirteen, 'Somebody says your face is ugly, what do you do?' was not in fact 'B: Shoot them', but 'D: None of the above'. Simirly, the answer to question 14, 'Somebody punches you in the face, what do you do?' was not 'A: Shoot them', but 'D: None of the above.'"

  I hear someone among the trainees screaming. I have a vague suspicion I know who failed the test.

  Vorsichtiger called all the heroics students who passed down to the b. The one who failed was given a chance to re-sit. Upon entering the b, Vorsichtiger congratutes everyone on passing.

  "To celebrate everybody's newly aquired half-licence, we're going to be making our own guns! These particur types of guns shoot small spherical pellets. The best thing is, those pellets can be almost anything! Everything you need is in these carboard boxes, here." Vorsichtiger guestures to the rge number of boxes at the front of the room. "The instructions are on the table. Work alone or work in groups."

  I sit down in a group of five other heroics trainees from my css, and read the instructions.

  Hmm? Isn't this surprisingly easy to make? All the pieces have been printed out, so we just need to attach them all together.

  Surprisingly, our table finishes the pellet guns early. On seeing this, Vorsichtiger asks us to help him move a few crates from a storage room into here.

  We're lead to another b with three rge, wooden boxes. Two of us take a box each.

  While carrying the boxes, I hear a thud from in front of me.

  "Hey, be careful with that! It's dangerous to move it so haphazardly." Vorsichtiger shouts, with a rare look of worry on his face.

  "What's Inside?" someone asks.

  "A lot of gunpowder."

  Gunpowder? That box is as big as I am! Why do you need to much! And why is it stored in a wooden box with no warning bel except a 'store this way up' sign?

  "It's for the harvest festival." Vorsichtiger expins.

  You're going to blow up the entire beach with this much!

  Upon seeing our worried expression, Vorsichtiger expins further.

  "For fireworks! They're being unched from SIT ter today!"

  I leave SIT with the small paper bag containing my newly acquired pellet gun. Vorsichtiger was kind enough to hand out several boxes of non-harmful pellets. Kyte wanted me to pick up some stuff for him, so I head to a small convenience store that's en route to my apartment. However, as I walk along the street leading to the store, I see a police car.

  On the road by the junction of the street were three police men, hiding behind a rge grey delivery truck. Two of them were focused on the inside of the convenience store, while the third was talking through a wristwatch.

  I approach them cautiously, trying to listen in to know what's happening. I hear the man talking to the wristwatch sigh, then ask his colleagues about the situation.

  "Any movements in the store yet?"

  "No. Targets still have several more customers to go through first. Any heroes nearby avaible to help?" One of the other two responded.

  "Everyone's off. It even took several minutes for H.Q. to pick up the call."

  The policeman with the wristwatch notices me.

  "Now's a bad time to come to shop here, I'm afraid. Maybe you should come back in an hour's time." He says.

  I look inside the convenience store. Through the windows, I see several men in bck trenchcoats. On their faces are red domino masks, each in the same style of a pair of wings. The center of the mask extends downwards past the nose, in the shape of a curved beak.

  There seem to be five of them. Two of them guard the door, and three others are speaking to the shoppers.

  "What are they doing in there?" I ask.

  "It's a robbery. They're going through the customers' possessions one by one."

  I look around at the shoppers inside. Sure enough, it seems that customers are being called up one-by-one to be inspected. Given the time of day, most of the customers in the store are either children or the elderly. Amongst them I see a familiar old dy, with an easily identifiable bright pink handbag.

  Mrs Grace!

  While we aren't actually reted, Mrs Grace feels like an aunt to me. The fact that she's in there means that this is now a personal matter.

  "They're part of a gang known as the Red Hawks. Protocol states we need to wait for backup from a hero before taking them head on." One of the men say.

  It might seem like a cowardly thing, but police nowadays don't frequently get into fights. They'll handle some small fights like drunken brawls, but they mostly do the detective side of things.

  If I had to summarise a case from beginning to end, it would be like this: The police get a call from a citizen. They then arrive on the scene as soon as possible.

  After arriving, the police will unch an investigation, interrogating everyone and collecting as much data as possible. Of course, in situations like this, an interrogation isn't necessary, because it's happening right in front of their eyes.

  After the investigation, they submit what they find to court, and then the judges and wyers take over. If at any point the police or judges decide extra help is needed in maintaining security or order, they then request the assistance of heroes. Most of the time, this is to catch people resisting arrest, but it can also be for security during a court case, or for anything else that involves a need for manpower.

  [The Super Viliny System would like to convey the phrase 'I told you so' to the host.]

  Eh? Whats that for?

  [The host previously stated that this system had an overactive imagination to think someone would use the harvest festival as a cover to commit nefarious deeds.]

  Okay. I was wrong. I guess some people do pn stuff like this after all. Are you happy?

  [Not quite. The Super Viliny System would also like you to learn from these seniors of yours.]

  And what can I learn from them, exactly?

  [For example, pay special attention to the trenchcoats they wear. The Super Viliny system believes the host cks understanding on professional asthetic.]

  No, not this conversation again! Go away, Beachball, shoo!

  Fortunately, the conversation with beachball is interrupted by the sighing of one of the police officers.

  "Something like this would usually be resolved instantly by a hero. But everyone's preparing for the harvest festival. Even in the police force, most members have the day off today, and those that are on duty are stationed around the beach for security."

  "Hey, I'm a heroics trainee. I'm down for helping out." I say, feeling inspired as I remember my conversation with Jabez and Alice yesterday.

  "Really?" The policeman with the wristwatch says, eyes sparkling. "They're armed with guns, though."

  "That's Ok! I got quite a high score on my st tenacity test. I should be able to take one or two hits." I say.

  He nods, and starts thinking.

  "In that case, how about this: You go through the front door and make a distraction. It doesn't matter what you do, as long as you can hold them for five minutes. During that time, we'll sneak 'round to the back entrance. Then we'll jump 'em!"

  He expins his pn to me.

  "Sounds good." I say.

  "Ready?" The policeman asks.

  "You just need a distraction, right? Got it."

  I take out the pellet gun from my bag, then I poke two holes for eyes in the bag and put it on my head. Loading the gun with some of the pellets Vorsichtiger had given out, I run out from the cover of the grey truck and burst into the store with the gun pointed at one of the masked men.

  "Everyone freeze! This is a robbery!"

  I look around at the people in the store. It appears I have everyone's attention.

  Well, duh! Of course I have everyone's attention after pulling a stunt like that!

  I exhale slowly. Silence pervades the room as a drop of sweat runs down my bag-covered face.

  What am I doing?