Chapter Text
“MOVE IT!”
Captain Rose needed Usato to be better. He was no slouch, especially this far into the Training From Hell. His speed, strength, and healing abilities were all improving at an astounding rate. Even for a brat with as much of an attitude as he had. But she didn’t need “improved”, she didn’t need “astounding”. She needed the best. And somewhere in there, somewhere inside Usato, she thought she could see it.
And when Usato tripped over seemingly nothing for the fifth time in the last hour, she thought maybe she couldn’t see it just yet.
“Damn!” Usato didn’t miss a beat. On his feet as soon as he hit the ground. Whether it was fear of Rose and her punishments, determination to do his duty as a member of the Rescue Squad, or just wanting to stick it to her by meeting her challenge, he never gave up. And suddenly, watching him grit his teeth and get back to his run, she saw it again. Bare hints of the greatness she knew he could achieve.
Usato, for his part, had moved past any real resentment to the Captain. Was she a hardass? Yes. A sadist? Sure. Was he convinced that part of her training was genuinely just trying to kill him just to see if he survived? Absolutely. But she was doing all of it to make him better. Making him faster, stronger, smarter. And she wanted him to be better so he could help her save lives. That’s where his mind always went when he thought he couldn’t keep going. Saving lives. Not just Suzune and Kazuki, but everyone in the kingdom. No matter what else he thought or felt about her, she was trying to save lives.
After a few more hours of running, Rose held up a hand to stop him. Usato collapsed, but he had already healed his aching muscles. The collapsing was only really for the dramatics, which he knew Rose was annoyed by. A few months ago he would have considered it a suicide mission to try and get a rise out of the Captain. But after a fair amount of trial and error he had a pretty good idea where the line was with playfully annoying Rose. He saw her roll her eyes at him as he groaned and fell over, then tallied a point for himself in his mind.
“Your run today. It was…” Rose considered.
“Fantastic? The most amazing thing you’ve seen? Good enough to give me the rest of the day off?”
“You’re not funny.”
“I wasn’t joking,” he muttered to himself, “but okay.”
“You’re still improving, but slower than before.” She glared at him. He stood at attention immediately. “You can’t get complacent.”
“I know.”
“You have come a long way. But you have a longer way to go from here.”
“With all due respect, Rose…” She hit him with another glare. “… er, Captain. Sir. Ma’am.” He saluted. “All due respect, there’s only so much I can do.”
“What.
“I understand my mission here, what I’m training to do. And I’m not saying that I’m giving up or anything, but there’s a limit to what I can achieve.” She glared at him with the fire of the sun behind her yellow eyes. “I mean, I’m just some guy, y’know?”
As a response, she punched him in the arm. She waited a second before healing him, letting him feel the pain.
“OW! What did you-whoa!” Rose grabbed him by his collar and lifted him up. They were face to face, and she was staring daggers into his soul.
“I don’t ever want to hear you say something so stupid ever again, got it?”
“What did I even-”
“GOT IT!?”
“Y-Yes! I got it!” He tried to salute again. “Yes, captain! Can you put me down now, please?”
Rose growled, actually growled at him, before she dropped him onto the grass. She turned to walk away.
“Strength training. Thirty minutes.”
“Oh, I was hoping to shower before we-”
“Twenty.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Rose made her way to the Rescue Team house, fuming. She was sure she was right. In a way, she was most confident in him when he was acting that way. When she could see him holding himself back from his potential, deciding for himself that he can’t be what she needs. It seems like the only thing he brought with him from his old world is a sense of self-doubt. One so deeply ingrained that he refuses to believe in himself like she does. And she did believe in him.
She remembered his journey through the Darkness of Llinger. Before that, she wasn’t sure he would make it as her right hand man. But after watching him struggle, watching him nearly be killed by the snake, watching him fight with everything he had. That’s when she was sure. He was the one she had been waiting for. She could see it now, her vision for the future. Usato would become her equal. She was going to make that happen. Together they would help defeat the Demon Army once and for all. They would spend the rest of their days saving lives together. They would ensure the Kingdom of Llinger would never again suffer at the hands of monsters or demons.
She imagined Usato growing older. Stronger. Taller, hopefully. She turned to see him sitting under a tree, eating a lunch he had packed that morning. Yes, he would definitely need to get taller. He was already very strong. And despite his flippant attitude, he was even keeping up with the studies she assigned him. She meant what she said, he had a long way to go. But one day, sooner than Usato himself would believe, he would become perfect for her.
Rose stopped dead in her tracks. Her first instinct was to get mad at someone for saying something so ridiculous. But it was her own thoughts that upset her. She was training him to be her equal as a member of the Rescue Team, as a healer. Nothing more. She glanced up at him again.
“Nothing more.”
When Usato finished eating, he made his way to the usual spot. A clearing in the woods nearby the house that he and Rose used for his strength training. Somewhere out of the way to avoid any collateral damage, but close enough that Usato couldn’t come up with any good excuses to not show up. She was waiting for him when he got there.
“Stretches.” She ordered.
Usato used to hate stretching before any kind of exercise. But Rose made sure he understood why she did what she did. Maybe not right away most of the time, but when she had him train without using any healing magic, he could definitely tell the difference when he did or didn’t stretch. Rose did the stretches with him, correcting his form when he wasn’t doing it right. Grabbing him by the wrist or the ankles to make sure he was in the correct position.
Usato hadn’t considered how he was so used to her touch. Granted, most of the time she touched him was hitting him. Or throwing him. Or healing him after she hit or threw him. But today she seemed to be more deliberate in how she corrected his posture. Holding onto him for bare moments longer than usual.
“Something wrong, Usato?” She said, pulling his arm a half inch further behind his back. “You’re whining.”
“That’s just what it sounds like when I’m in pain.” He said. “Figured you’d be familiar with the sound by now.”
“Not yet.” She said, then cleared her throat. “Don’t do it wrong next time and I won’t have to correct you.”
“Yes ma’am.” He groaned.
The “strength training” had moved past lifting traditional weights a long time ago. Nowadays it was entire logs and blocks of stone he would lift. He was still shocked at how easy it was to perform these normally superhuman feats of strength. Obviously, Rose’s training was working. He had no doubt of that. But when he saw her carrying a small mountain’s worth of stone blocks over only for him to struggle lifting two or three of them, the gulf between them seemed wider than ever before.
“You’re holding back.” She admonished him. “You’re being too careful with them.”
“I’m… really not…” his voice strained.
She examined his form. His strong legs and back. His muscles so clearly defined under his sweat-drenched clothes. She was far too disciplined to let the noises he was making take her thoughts anywhere inappropriate. But she didn’t exactly ignore the idea of those trains of thought. She shook her head as he dropped the blocks onto the dirt with a heavy thud. He healed himself, taking a deep breath and shaking out his arms and legs.
“I know you can do more.”
“Maybe at some point.” He said, still catching his breath. “I only worked up to this weight a few days ago.”
“Should I ask the Demon Army to wait for you to get stronger?” She leaned over him.
“That’s not-”
“You’re never done improving.” She swung a fist at him, but he ducked under it. “Could you have done that a month ago?”
“Probably not.” He said, taking a step back.
“And you can do it now.” She followed his movements, not letting him put any distance between them. “Why do you think that is?”
“I… uh…”
“Its not a trick question, Usato.” She rolled her eyes.
“Because… I trained?” She squinted her eye at him. “Because I trained.” He said, more sure of his answer.
“Exactly.” She walked back over to the pile of stone blocks. “Perfection is a direction, not a destination.” She grabbed one of the blocks, sliding it away from the large stack with one hand. “There is no goal for you to reach. All I ask of you is that you don’t-”
-CRACK-
“Rose!”
She was actually impressed with how fast Usato moved to her. Rose was too focused on him, she didn’t notice one of the blocks at the bottom of the pile was already cracked. It split in half when she started moving the stones, crumbling under the weight of the rest of the pile. Usato didn’t have time to move her out of the way. He knocked her onto the ground and stood over her. By the time she realized what was happening, looking up at him from the dirt, Usato was holding a block up over his head. Not just one block either. The entire stack that would have crushed her in an instant was being held up by Usato.
His face wasn’t red. His eyes weren’t squeezed shut with effort. Usato was laser focused. On her. Looking down at her, already checking to see if she was hurt. The stones were almost an afterthought to him. He wasn’t even shaking. She stared up at him for a moment before moving, if only to burn the image into her mind. She got to her feet, grabbed Usato in her arms, and moved them both away before the stone even started to fall. She shielded his body with her own as tiny shards of stone shrapnel flew by them.
When Rose finally got up off of Usato, his face was burning red. She only realized after the fact that by holding him and hunching over him, she had pressed his face into her chest. He lay still as the stone that was crumbling behind them, staring past her up at the sky. Rose dropped him and stood up before he could realize the bare hints of red showing on her cheeks as well.
“See?”
“I DIDN’T SEE ANYTHING.” He said, much too loudly. “I mean…” he looked back at the pile of stones. “How many was I carrying?”
“More than your supposed limit.” She said, still harsh and angry. “And you say you’re not holding back?”
“I only did it because you were in danger.” He got up to his feet, the redness still not faded away entirely. “I couldn’t just do that normally.”
“When you’re carrying dying soldiers back to the healing tents…” She walked towards him, making him back away again. “… two, three, four at a time. Do you think those people won’t be in danger?”
“I…”
“I am training you to use these abilities in life or death situations. You will need to operate at 100% at all times, life threatening danger or not. Do you understand!?”
“Rose, I’m…” she was very clearly not in the mood for an apology. “Yes, ma’am.” He said with more attitude than he meant to. Instead of hitting him again, she just scoffed at him and stomped away.
“Clean up that mess.” She called as she walked away.
“What, the rocks!?” She didn’t answer him. Usato sighed and groaned as he started moving the rocks away from the patch of dirt.
- - - - -
“And she growled at you?” Kazuki passed a slice of pie to Usato. “Like… actually growled?”
“I know!” Usato shouted with his mouth full. “I don’t even know what I did!”
“You think she’s for real mad at you?” Suzune said, laying on her back and looking up at the darkening sky. “Or is it a training thing. Like negative reinforcement or something?”
“No idea.” Usato sighed.
There was less and less time to be spent with his friends from his home realm. The Chosen Heroes of Llinger were busy all day every day. Training and studying just like Usato. Well, maybe not just like Usato. But he was happy to see them no matter how often he was able to. They had all acclimated to this new world so quickly it was easy to forget they were normal kids for their whole lives. Usato had never even talked to either of them before that rainy day. But now they were his closest friends, and he couldn’t be happier.
“I wonder how long it took for her to get to where she is.” Kazuki said. “You’ve progressed incredibly fast. I wonder if that’s how it is for any healing magic user or if she’s just…”
“Built different.” Usato and Suzune said at the same time.
“Yeah.” Kazuki laughed. “She’s probably the only one who knows what this kind of training looks like.”
“Its like she wants me to be just like her.”
“What do you mean?” Kazuki started packing up the food.
“I get that I’m all fast and strong now.”
“And ripped.”
“Yes, Suzune, and ripped.” He scooted away just a bit. “But she’s on a whole other level. I could never get there.”
“Well have you even seen how ripped she is?”
“I… well, no.” He considered for a moment. “She always has her uniform on, and it covers her pretty completely. I’ve never seen what her actual physique is like.”
“Well I know one part of her physique that you can see through the clothes.” Suzune said, holding her hands out over her chest to emphasize her point.
“Suzune!” Kazuke reprimanded. “You should not be talking about her that way.”
“Well, she’s not wrong.” Usato said. “I mean, I’ve never really thought about it. Not really. I mean its not like I haven’t noticed or anything. But its not like I noticed noticed, y’know?” The two heroes were staring at him as he rambled. He really hadn’t considered what her body looked like under the uniform. He wasn’t really the type to think about any women that way. Even Suzune, despite her best efforts.
“Methinks the healer doth protest too much.” Suzune teased him.
“Hey, I’m not some creep.” He waved her away. “I’m not ogling her. But I spend pretty much all day with her.”
“Spending all day with a tall, mean, strong lady who is constantly bullying you until you get better.” Suzune leaned back and sighed dramatically. “And they say we are the chosen ones of this world.”
“She can’t be mean all the time.” Kazuke said, pausing as he brought a piece of bread to his mouth. “Can she?”
“No, of course not. Don’t be ridiculous.”
“So she does give praise?”
“Of course.”
“What kind of praise?”
“Suzune!” Kazuke tapped her on the top of the head.
“Do you get special rewards for doing a good job?”
“Kazuke, make her stop.” Usato was covering his face, not wanting her to see how red he was.
“You know where my off buton is, Usato. Or is it the on but- hey!”
“If you’re going to be a pervert, then you don’t get pie.” Kazuke carried it above his head so she couldn’t reach it.
“Kazuke!” She jumped for it, unable to reach. “This is so unfair! Come on, I’ll tone it down, I promise!”
Usato tried to come back to his senses, but the perverted hero had successfully infected him with the image of Captain Rose’s body. Its not like it was an evil thing to do. Especially for a teenage boy. It was completely normal to think about his teacher that way. His magic teacher from another world. The one who is training his mind and body to reach her standards of perfection.
He shook his head, trying to get Suzune out of it. Her and Kazuke were still fighting over the pie. Usato sat down and sighed, bringing both of their attention back to him.
“Suzune’s dirty mind aside.” Kazuke handed her plate back to her. “I’m sure that Captain Rose knows what she’s doing. Her methods have clearly been working so far. Your strength and speed alone already rival anything I’ve seen from the royal guard.”
“You might even give Siglis a run for his money.” Suzune chimed in, with her mouth full.
“You guys are just hyping me up.” He said. “Besides, even if any of that were true, I could never be like her.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Have you seen her move?” Usato held out his hand in the general direction of the Rescue Squad house. “I could never do any of that!”
“Well I never thought I could use light magic.” Kazuki said, standing up. “Or learn to use a sword. Or speak on behalf of a king.”
“Me either.” Suzune chimed in. “Although I always hoped.” She stood as well. She finished her pie and held out her hand to Usato, helping him up. She held onto his hand for a moment longer. “This world is amazing, Usato. Why shouldn’t we be amazing along with it?”
Usato said goodnight to them both, but he couldn’t stop thinking about what they said the entire way back to his bed. Not just what Suzune said, damn her, but how they had grown so confident in themselves. If he had been told a year ago that he would be a magic user with superhuman strength and speed, he never would have believed it. Of course the Captain knows what she’s doing, or else he wouldn’t be where he is. It was late and there were no candles lit inside the house, so Usato decided to apologize to Rose tomorrow.
“Oh well.” He yawned. “Time to shower and head to bed, then.” He said, grabbing a towel and dropping his shirt off on the floor as he headed towards the bathroom. Usato was so tired that he didn’t notice the door opening as he reached for the handle. The door knocked into his head and he fell onto the floor, already healing the bump on his forehead. “Hey! Will you watch where you’re…”
Usato looked up to see he had been scolding the Captain. He froze with fear, and she looked down at him on the floor like he was a worthless insect. He stood up as quick as he could.
“Captain, I didn’t know it was you!”
“Clearly.” She crossed her arms.
With the fear starting to subside, Usato finally processed the fact that Rose was coming out of the showers. And she was wearing nothing but a towel. A towel that was just a bit too small to be worn casually by a woman of Rose’s… caliber. Usato had never faced a test of will so difficult as keeping eye contact with the Captain right now. Her skin was still wet, but he didn’t look. The towel was being pulled just a bit from her crossing her arms, but still he didn’t look. After he was done not looking he her chest, he looked up at her eye. Usato was ready to accept his imminent and arguably well-deserved death. But she didn’t do anything.
“Um. S-Sorry.”
“For what.” She demanded.
“For, um…” He cleared his throat. “For upsetting you earlier. After my run this morning. And during the strength training.” He wanted to apologize as soon as he could. Plus he hoped changing the subject would give him some leeway from gawking at her cleavage. “I think I understand why you were upset with me now.”
“Is that so?” She leaned her shoulder against the doorway into the bathroom.
“I shouldn’t have doubted you. Your ability to teach me, to train me. You’ve already taught me so much. And I want you to know, Captain, that I trust you no matter what. Your training methods are…”
“Are?”
“Well, you do call it Training From Hell.” He said, rubbing the back of his head. “But I should trust that you know what you’re doing. I do trust that you know what you’re doing. And that you can make me into something greater than what I am now.” He bowed his head. “I’m sorry, Captain.”
He kept his head down for a moment. And another. And yet another. Waiting for any kind of response. Usato felt like he should have expected her to reply with another punch, this time to the back of his head, sending him to the floor a second time.
“You idiot.” Rose said. “I wasn’t upset that you doubted me. I was upset that you were doubting yourself.”
“What?”
“Get up!” He got up. “I’m not here to mold you into something greater, Usato. I’m here to help you mold yourself into something greater.”
“Captain, I-” Rose grabbed him by both shoulders and pushed him back against the wall. “Captain!” Usato yelped. He’d never seen her face so close up before. She was…
“Listen to me!” She shouted, shaking him by the shoulders. “I don’t know who or what you were before you came here, and I honestly don’t care. But if you are going to have any chance at reaching the potential that I know you can reach in this world, then you need to choose it for yourself.” She was looking him in the eye. “Not for the kingdom, not for your friends, and not…” She looked away from him for just a moment. “… not for me. For yourself, Usato.” She let him go. “Do you understand?”
“I understand, Captain.” He nodded. Then he bowed again. “Thank you, Captain.” She stepped aside to let him into the showers. He walked past her, turning back when he was past the doorway. “Also, I’m… sorry for… for looking.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Huh?”
“I said, we have more important things to worry about.”
“Right.” He shook his head. “Sorry. Right. Goodnight.” He closed the door and took a deep breath. And another. “Oh my god.” He mumbled to himself, considering his near-death experience. He’d never been more upset that Suzune was right about something. He made sure not to use any hot water at all during his shower.
Rose made her way to her room and changed into her sleeping clothes as fast as possible. She didn’t want to risk Usato walking in on her wearing any less clothes than she already was. She was, for the first time in many years, not entirely sure that her discipline would win out if he did. She laid down on her back, her arms placed firmly at her sides. She figured as long as she made sure her hands stayed still, there was probably nothing wrong with remembering how Usato looked holding up the stone blocks. Or standing in front of her with no shirt on. Or the way his pupils dilated when he looked at her cleavage.
“Damn.”