Sagittarius

Sagittarius: Chapter 22

With the virus spreading around, remember to stay safe and wash your hands and stuff, kiddos. Also dont be racist towards Asians.

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The next morning dawned stupidly bright and early.

The only one who seemed even a little bit awake was Gray, though it was hard to tell with her hood pulled over her face. She could be sleeping under there and no one would know since she was standing upright and silent.

Astolfo felt a bit sorry for Kirishima, Sero, Satou, Kaminari, and Ashido, but he also realized that it was their own faults that got them into the remedial lessons that went past midnight.

The morning of the first day of training started with Bakugou throwing a ball 709.6 meters. That had startled a lot of the others, considering how his record at the beginning of the year wasn't that much lower than the recorded score. Then they had met the other two in the Wild Wild Pussycats— Ragdoll and Tiger. With all four of the Wild Wild Pussycats assembled, they could start the training camp in its fullest.

He liked Ragdoll, her energy was giving him a lot of energy too.

"Looks intense," Astolfo commented to Aizawa, who grunted. No doubt the man was just as exhausted as the other students were.

The pink-haired Rider was taking a break from sparring with Gray as the girl sat in the dirt, arguing with Add about something or another. Add wanted to go visit a crypt of some sorts when camp was over in order to eat, Gray told him that visiting a crypt seemed like a very bad plan for the both of them. The Wild Wild Pussycats were aware of his and Gray's statuses as Heroic Spirits, so they were originally at a loss for what to do in regards to training them. Servants did't get stronger or weaker. They could develop new strategies but the ranks and 'stats' they were given upon materialization were the ones they were stuck with. Or at least, as far as Astolfo knew. Obviously, he could change Classes, and therefore his 'stats' but Gray was probably stuck as she was.

Probably.

Of course, just because they had all of their skills and abilities at their strongest didn't mean they couldn't improve on what they were given. That's why he and Gray had been fighting. Gray wanted to improve the speed in which she could go through Add's weapons while Astolfo wanted to focus on quick Class Changes. He was already pretty good at it (over a hundred years of practice did pay off), but he wanted to go faster and without draining himself of so much energy, he was rusty after all.

He turned, hearing footsteps approach as class 1-B walked up to them. He noticed the wide-eyed looks from the other students as Uraraka tumbled down the mountain again. Ayoma blasted another naval laser shot up into the sky as Kouda screamed at the top of the mountain. The noise was drowned out by Sero and Kaminari's screaming and Bakugou's yells as he blasted the sky. Iida sprinted past them, making a few blink before Astolfo grinned and picked his lance back up.

"Gray!" he called, "Ready for round, what, eight?" he asked.

The Assassin blinked, looking up before she got to her feet and activated Add's scythe form. "Yes!"

"I'm gonna paralyze you this time!" the Rider laughed maniacally before he rushed at her. She dodged the first strike before she spun around and aimed a kick as his head. He dodged that before the two locked weapons.

"One scratch from my lance and you'll be down for the count for a while!" Astolfo sang as he struck Gray's scythe again. She grunted, pushing him off before round-house kicking him in the side.

"Um, is she alright?" one of the class B kids asked as Astolfo landed on the ground, rolling and gazing up at the sky. Gray turned to them, sighing.

"Astolfo's tired, we've all been up since five-thirty," she said before she ducked under a swipe from Astolfo's lance.

"Thaaaaat's right!" Ragdoll said as she appeared out of nowhere. "Four kittens in the same litter!"

Mandalay appeared next to her with a smile. "With sparkling eyes, we rock on!" she said, posing as Ragdoll moved leaped behind her, leaning out.

"We've come to lend a helping paw!"

Tiger and Pixie-Bob also appeared.

"We're champions serving up justice, with our tails!"

"Purrr-fectly cute and cat-like heroes!"

Gray sweat as the four introduced themselves. Mandalay and Pixie-Bob were already a set of personalities, add in Ragdoll and Tiger...?

She didn't dislike them, but she was definitely getting whiplash with both Ragdoll and Tiger hovering near Astolfo and her as they sparred.

Tiger was intense.

She yelped as Astolfo threw his sword at her. It missed her by a hair and lodged in a tree but she didn't have time to dwell on it as the pink-haired Rider rushed at her with his lance again. She dodged and blocked each of his hits before retaliating with her own strikes.

She didn't have any time to stop paying attention to the hyperactively sleep-deprived Rider unless she wanted to get injured.

(x)

Astolfo seemed to have an overabundance of energy and thus Gray found herself lagging after the twelfth spar. The Rider had decided to stop for the day and go help (more likely annoy) the other students while Gray laid on her back in the dirt.

Of course, Aizawa had walked over and asked her what she was doing.

"Astolfo managed to nick my shoulder with his lance," she sighed, "And down I went."

"In other words, we're hanging out until it wears off," Add added and Aizawa raised a brow.

Gray just gave him a helpless smile.

"Astolfo's a bit over-enthusiastic today," she said, "Though it's only noon, so he might end up without any energy if he comes back down and crashes. He's going around checking everything else out right now too."

The dark-haired man nodded. "I see... Trap of Argalia, then?"

"Not the full Phantasm, he was pulling his punches a bit," she sighed, "But yes. 'Down with a Touch' the favored Jousting Lance of the knight Argalia."

"Well, as long as you're up by four, I don't care. You Servants are leagues ahead of these kids," the hero said flatly as he walked off. Gray sweat but smiled a bit.

"Leagues, huh..." she murmured as she gazed up at the sky. "You have a lot of faith in us..."

She closed her eyes for a moment, opening them again as a Bakugou screamed at the sky again.

For some reason, she had a strange sinking feeling in her stomach.

She hoped that it was just the fact that the students would be making dinner tonight and nothing else.

But deep down she had a feeling that something was just going to go wrong.

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Just a heads up, as fun as it would be to see the kidnapping of one King Explosion Murder, the next few chapters will be Chiron-centric again. Partially because uhhhhh suspense and partially because I just don't want to. There's some shit that goes down though.