Magnanimous (Blue Exorcist ~ Yukio Okumura)

Chapter 21

At the end of the school day, I gathered my stuff up quickly and headed out of my last class to meet up with Yukio just outside the Cram School entrance. As I  walked up to the door, the boy was already waiting there, his hands hidden in the pockets of his long black jacket. 

"Hey, you ready?" The boy asked as he turned to me, smiling

"Yeah. Where is this place we're going?"

"It's kind of like the basement of the school," he explained as he turned his Master Key in the keyhole of the door, "It's called the training dormitory. Don't tell Rin this yet, but it's also where I plan on helping him learn to control his abilities."

I nodded, following Yukio through the hall and down a set of stairs. He used another key to open a metal gate-door that allowed anyone from the outside to see in the room. He gestured me inside with a polite nod of his head, then followed me inside. 

Grey cement covered the hard floor that led throughout the wide room. Against one side of the wall were cages- almost like animal cages, but much larger with floor-to-ceiling grating. Black cylindrical devices were bolted to the walls inside the cages, and there were sparring dummies on the side opposite of the cages. 

"Wow," I breathed out quietly. 

Yukio chuckled softly, walking past me. "It can be a little intimidating at first, but don't worry, you'll get used to it. Come on over here." 

The boy led me to the gate on the very far end of the room, opening the door to lead me in. The cylindrical funnels at the other end of the cage seemed to stare back at me, holes covering it in a radial pattern. 

"These machines are used for shooting practice. Of course, a still target would be more practical, but moving targets provide better practice, considering your target out in the field usually won't be completely still."

I nodded. "Of course."

Yukio nodded to the left end of the cage, the bricks on the back wall of the training dormitory. "You stand to that side for now, I will go with something easy so I can show you how this works. Then, we can start you from the first level and go from there."

I nodded, leaning against the wall. Yukio began calibrating something on the exceedingly large piece of black metal that took up the entire end of the other side of the cage. After removing his jacket and rolling his white sleeves up his arms, he leaned over to a white fold-down table against the grate opposite side that I stood to pick up two black gun clips from the cluttered row of ammunition. He then pressed them into his two handguns. 

"You've selected Intermediate Mode," a woman's robotic voice sounded. "Begin."

Immediately, two white palm-sized balls shot out from the metal wall. Yukio shot them down immediately. More came, and he unhesitatingly shot them down. They came from several angles at different speeds, coming close enough to hit him in the head if he didn't shoot them. 

The gunshots banged and echoed in my ears. Yukio's face contorted in determination as his clip emptied, and he reached down to claim another from the table. The gunshots continued to bang and hit the balls square in the centre, disintegrating them. 

The balls suddenly stopped shooting out from the metal device. "You have completed Intermediate Mode," the voice called. 

Yukio turned to me. "See? Fairly simple, just be sure not to break your focus."

I nodded, pulling my silver handgun from my backpack. I checked the clip was full, and stood in the centre of the cage. 

"You won't be able to use that gun as a certified exorcist until it's been approved by True Cross," Yukio explained first, "There are certain certifications that firearms must hold in order be legally usable in the field."