Chapter 297: Head office.

Over the course of a week, Haru had gone along with General Ainsworth's request and headed to the head office to fill in the remaining paperwork and get sized up for his uniform. While he was there, they had him go over a few of the basic requirements for soldiers, such as marching and saluting, before taking him down to the shooting range.

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Haru had an advantage over the regular soldiers being that he spent over twenty years in the military, fighting in the last war. Still, no one else knew that, but they were surprised by how natural his actions were. But when it came to shooting, they were a little dissatisfied.

For someone who came from a military school, his accuracy was almost non-existent, but that was Haru's choice. He didn't want to show off his skills too much since, on paper, he was still an F ranked mage. It would be reasonable if he lacked skill. But they still had no problem with it since they were sure that Kazuo was supporting him in secret.

But on the other hand, Haru felt a little bit dissatisfied. They weren't doing their job very well by trying to push him to do better. Instead, they just let him do as he pleased and treated him as an equal, which was unlike anything he experienced in his past life. But he put it down to them not being engaged in war. It was only natural that they took the time to relax.

After testing his abilities, they took him back inside to get a military ID printed to prove that he was a soldier and then began to pack all of his belongings into bags for him. As Haru sat there waiting for them to finish, he was approached by a group of soldiers.

"Say, you look like you have nothing to lose. You don't have the slightest regret of signing up, do you?" A man in a black military dress uniform asked Haru before handing him his military ID.

"Not really. I don't really have anything holding me back. And to be honest, the only reason I signed up was to get away from my mothers constant nagging." Haru said with a blank expression. The exercises they made him do had made him mentally exhausted, so his lack of enthusiasm was mistaken for him trying to keep a straight face.

"Haha, In that case, I bet you are eager to get going to the base in Okinawa, aren't you?" The man in the black suit laughed after thinking Haru was trying to make a joke, but that wasn't the case.

"I mean, yeah, I would like to leave Tokyo as soon as possible. How long do you think it will be until you send me out there?" Haru asked casually while looking around the room to see a few soldiers talking to each other with looks of confusion on their faces as they stared at him.

"Well, that's the thing. We don't have anyone else who is going to be stationed at the Okinawa branch. You could either wait until we send supplies down there, and we can put you in the truck with the driver. We could send you there on a commercial airline. Or you could make your own way there. It's up to you what you want to do, really." The man said while scratching the back of his head.

He felt a little bit lost since usually people would have to wait until they sent a new unit to the base. But Haru's case was a little different since they wanted to please Kazuo. If they made Haru wait, they thought he would tell Kazuo, and they would have hell to pay for keeping him from getting to Okinawa, but there was really nothing else they could do since it was on the other side of the country.

"Hmm. Well, in that case, I can make my own way there. I don't feel like being crammed in on a plane, and it will probably be quicker if I make my own arrangements. But are you really sure it's okay? Isn't there some protocol that you have to take?

I didn't think that new soldiers were given this much freedom to do what they want." Haru said, finally addressing the elephant in the room.

"Well, we don't usually do this. But I think it's fine. Everyone who needs to know already knows. I will have to call the base to let them know that you are on your way. But once we have all your belongings packed up, you are free to go." The man smiled and then raised his hand in a motion to say that he wanted them to move faster while processing the things that they were packing into bags for Haru.

"Oh, and before I forget. There was also something else that I wanted to give you. I see that you don't have a lux on your wrist, so you can take your pick of one of ours. Sergeant Kawako. Bring the Luxes." The man turned and commanded one of the soldiers by the door.

"Yes, sir," Sergeant Kawako stumbled over his words as he was busy talking to one of the other soldiers in the room and then quickly grabbed a small black box from the desk and walked over to both Haru and the man in the black dress uniform before opening the box to reveal three black bracelets inside.

"Chose whichever you want. The one on the left is a spear and rifle combination lux, the one in the middle is a rifle and grenade launcher combination, and the final one is a sword and a handgun." The man said before taking the box from sergeant Kawko's hands and presenting them to Haru himself.

'I wonder if I can combine sword techniques with a Lux and enhance them with magic? That's something I haven't tried yet, but I don't see why that wouldn't be possible.' Haru thought as he reached out and picked up the Lux with the sword inside.

"You know that's the one with a sword, right? If you chose that, then the only weapon you have to defend yourself is for close-quarters combat." The man explained with a confused expression.

"Wait, they said you were a body enhancing mage, didn't they? Well, that explains your performance during the shooting practice earlier. I guess your speciality is fighting up close and personal." The man quickly remembered and then voiced his opinion of Haru's shooting ability.

"Yup, I'm not really good at anything else." Haru laughed slightly while clipping the Lux around his wrist, knowing that he was lying to their faces, but for them, it just seemed like a nervous laugh since he was admitting to not being able to do anything else.

"Is that so? Well, we should have tested you on that, too, then. But I will take your word for it. Once your belongings are packed up, you can feel free to head to the base whenever you want to. I will make a call to them later tonight to let them know you're on your way." The man said and then looked back at the men soldiers who were packing the bags.

"Sir, we've finished." One of them announced as he zipped up an army green duffel bag and a black backpack.

"Would you look at that? Our conversation ended just in time. You can take them and go now." The man said with a smile before holding out his arm while pointing them towards the bags on the table.

"Then I will be going. I will set off right away, so tell them to expect me soon." Haru announced as he walked to the table, lifted both bags, and carried them by his side before walking out of the building and out into the street.

As soon as he got out of view from the soldier's watchful eyes, he put the bags into his storage and pulled out his phone to use as a map once again. He was getting tired of not knowing where to go, but there was really nothing he could do about it if he hadn't been there before.

As soon as he knew the base's location in Okinawa, he flew up into the air and soared through the sky. Tokyo was a busy place, so as he flew up into the atmosphere above the city, he continuously had to dodge planes and mages that were also flying.

It wasn't too strange for someone to be flying in Tokyo, but as the mages looked at him and saw that he wasn't using any spell to fly, they couldn't help but get curious. But Haru made sure that he flew fast enough that no one would be able to catch up to him.

He flew for hours until the sun began to set before seeing the sea in the distance. That was the sign he was looking for. The sea meant that no one would be able to see him as he flew, so as soon as he got away from the coast, he flew as fast as he could, creating a sonic boom as his body exceeded the sound barrier.

Haru flew as fast as a fighter jet past the coast of Tanabe across the ocean and used the beaches of Miyazaki as a landmark to line himself up with Okinawa.

It took him half an hour at full speed to reach Okinawa and land on the beach so as not to raise suspicion. He figured that even with the mages working at the bases in Okinawa, the locals still weren't used to seeing people flying, given the fact that they were a small fishing island.

Haru walked the rest of the way to the base on the outskirts of Naha and pulled out his bags before approaching the gates that blocked the entrance.

"Stop there!" A spotlight shone down upon his head as two soldiers aimed guns at him as he approached them.