~•Kajiu no. 8 x Reader•~

~Chapter 3~

Second Exam screening grounds...

{<~•~>}
Reno's pov

I was about to charge into the field when my senior shouted from behind and stopped me in my tracks.

"We're heading out too! Stick close to me, Ichikawa!!"

"That should've been my line!"

I looked back as he dragged the heavy gun on the ground helplessly, having a hard time to hold it up properly when the exam had just begun

"Without the suit's help, this equipment is heavy as hell! That's something only those who're in tune with zero would know"

"Quit trying to be coo-"

I was cut-off when a shot rung out and a bullet flew pass my head and shot the ground near senior's foot causing him to jump back in fright while I turned back to see where the shot came from when a voice shouted

"Whoops! Sorry for that, I thought I saw something out of the ordinary here, but seems to me it's just a bunch of idiots playing around"

Reader's pov (yeah, I might just change it into Y/n's pov later on)

I lowered my gun and slung it on my back before jumping down from my spot and landing in front of Reno with my right hand on my hip and giving him a cheeky grin

"You cheeky brat, learn to respect your elders"

The man behind Reno shouted towards me while huffing with anger and pointing an accussing finger at me since I did almost hit him. Putting both my hands up beside my head, I put on an apologetic front

"Ah, sorry, old man"

"You!-"

Just then, our ear pieces buzzed simultaneously as Vice-Captain Hashino's voice came in.

"Oh, right, I almost forgot to mention. Captain Mina Ashiro will be proctoring the final exam as well. Make sure you put on a good show for her!"

A glint then flashed in both our eyes as we shifted to being serious

'She's watching!'

"Ichikawa. Don't you think it's weird that the proctors assigned..."

I zoned out their conversation as I focused on my own task. I adjusted the scope on my gun to my liking and checked my pistol for bullets and stashing it back into its holster

"Hey, you in?"

"Huh?"

I looked back to see the both of them looking at me for an answer when I wasn't even listening to whatever they were saying but from the looks of it, they had something good in mind so I decided to go with them then ditching if needed

"Hm, sure!"

Kafka got ahold of his pistol while Reno stood behind him and often looking back to check on me

"We stick to providing back up!"

From in front of us, we caught sight of the others struggling to neutralize a single yoju. We run past them and checked the yoju's situation from the side

While assessing, Kafka grabbed hold of his stun grenade and proceeded to pull the pin and chuck it towards the yoju's head, this caused it to roar in pain and momentarily giving us a chance to attack it while it was disoriented.

Kafka shouted orders left and right about the yoju, having found its weakness on the belly. Before the others could shoot their guns, I aimed and shot the yoju in the stomach with all my power

The smoke cleared and the yoju's body lay defeated on the ground while both men in front of me stared at my huffing figure

"Thanks for the info, I had to get it before the others could, it's in my nature heh"

Reno offered a hand to me which I took, he lifted me up to my feet, I reluctantly let go of his hand and patted myself down, he turned his back to me and turned back to check on Kafka

I looked down at my hand and felt a blush rising, it was rare for me to hold a guy's hand and having felt his bigger hand envelope mine got to me, though I snapped out of my thoughts when a yoju emerged from a wall and tried to grab a hold of Kafka

"Sir!"

However, due to it having hooves rather than a claw like structure it only managed to push Kafka far away. Reno stood stunned from his spot, Kafka tried his best to get to his feet, However, the Yoju was closing in to him at a very fast speed.

Before I could pull the trigger of my gun, a bang rung out and the yoju's head was blown into shreds right before it could get Kafka, leaving us stunned from the power of that blow.

"That's three times now I've made a fool of you, Kafka Hibino. No casualties or dropouts allowed."

Kikoru had luckily shown up to save Kafka from danger and from getting dropped from the exam. Kikoru then ran off after having finished her talk with Kafka and headed to the direction of where the Honju was located.

"Reno, stay here with Kafka"

I ran after Kikoru the best I could and with the help of the suit's power, not wanting to be left behind on the skills, a few others seemed to have the same thing in mind as they also ran after her.

From the corner of my eye, I saw another yoju approaching nearby behind Iharu, I skid to a stop and aimed for it and shooting a few rounds towards its weakspot, successfully neutralizing it.

However, it resulted in me having a big distance away from Kikoru, but this didn't stop me from getting to her. I cocked my gun and let the empty shells fall to the ground, killing yoju's left and right.

I jumped over a few debris and sliding under little arches made from the remains of a building. Seeing as Kikoru was already taking care of the Honju with ease right ahead, I stopped from my tracks and provided support by throwing in a stun grenade

'Tsk, this is a lot harder than it seemed like in the games'

Not too long, Kikoru managed to neutralize the Honju and land near me

"Hm, not bad being a support"

I looked at her as she tried to converse with me, I wiped the sweat dripping down my face and fixed my composure.

"Yeah, I don't usually do support. I did it in hopes of maybe getting extra credits heh"

"The final test it over!!"

Everyone stopped in their tracks and let out a defeated sigh as others had only little action time and the exam was already over.

I looked towards Kikoru though the first thing I noticed was a figure coming out from amidst the cloud of dust appearing behind Kikoru

"Huh? What's that thing?"

"Kikoru, watch ou-"

A blast came out as soon as the humanoid kaiju lifted its finger that pointed towards Kikoru and managing to shoot her in the chest.