Himiko was walking towards the Research Clubroom with a smile, holding Raven’s hand. Behind the 2, Laura was walking, ready to pounce at her in a moment’s notice.

The coronation stuff ended with Himiko winning and no one wanted to fight her for Raven’s allegiance. As for why he gave up, it was simple. After watching her utterly dominate San and scare away Ivan, fighting her was the last thing on his list. Anyways, joining a Research Club didn’t sound so bad.

Stein had a large smile on his face. He supposedly wanted Raven to join the Research Club and get his hands on some weapons, which would in turn strengthen him. Remembering his conversation with Lulu, it seemed the case.

She dragged him into a room to the fourth floor and opened a door. The ones tailing them were left behind as Himiko closed the door.

What Raven saw inside was a high-tech lab. It was arranged in a neat manner with weapons lined one after another on the left side and a big window on the other side, with a metal sliding door next to it.

“This is our clubroom.” said Himiko as she ran inside and pointed and started naming them feverishly, finishing with “any one of the club members can use these sweeties.”

“That’s great, what’s this place for?” asked Raven as he looked through the thick glass. What was on the other side a large room with white metal making up its walls, ceiling and floor.

“That’s for target practice.” said Himiko as she pressed a button from one of the dozens on the control panel below the window.

As she pressed the small yellow button, the floor opened up and 4 scarecrow-like things appeared from it, the floor closed up below them.

Himiko pat his shoulder and handed him a big black rifle with one hand as if it was the normal thing to do. “Let’s see if you can hit them.”

*Nod*

Honestly, although Raven knew about guns and stuff, he was never some weapon freak so there was no way for him to know how to use a gun. Except that one time he killed someone with a pistol he stole from a policeman, or that time he killed some annoying Christian that blabbered on about what was wrong or right, or the time he hit a kid in the head with a M4A1 model.

When Himiko placed it on his hands and took away her hands, Raven noticed its weight. ‘Wow, these things might be heavier than Earth’s guns.’

Although heavy, his dragonman physique could still move it, but not to the point of using a normal sword. “That’s called Bakufu, it can release a big explosion but the recoil isn’t something that normal people should be messing with.” she smiled “but you can use qi, right?”

“I suppose. And can I ask something?” said Raven as dozens of thought ran across his mind.

“Sure, you’re my precious club member, after all.” said Himiko with a carefree tone. Raven got the impression that she was acting all innocent and stuff.

“How do these work?”

“You want me to reveal classified information?” asked Himiko with a mocking tone as she looked at him in a playful manner.

“Nah, I won’t force you if you don’t want to.” said Raven and turned to leave.

“Hey, wait up. I was just kidding.” she said and her expression turned to the time that she was explaining the weapons “The handles have mana absorbers that can intake energy, of which half is used to create the force to fire the remaining rest that is condensed into a mana ball. We like to call it ‘bullet’.” she said, puffing up her chest as if it was something great and all.

“Does it have some kind of mana crystal or something like that to do that?” asked Raven, now curious.

“Nope, it’s all mechanic. Once mana is input, it starts moving the gears inside and voila, you can shoot.” said Himiko as she did a hand gesture as if she was shooting.

“Interesting, let’s try it.” said Raven with an excited tone. He wanted to try this world’s firearms.

“Ok.” she said as she pressed a big green button. The door opened and Raven descended down stairs made of the same material as its surroundings.

Himiko had stayed upstairs and was watching him through the thick and probably bullet-proof window. “Ok, just let your mana flow into the handles and aim as much as you can.”

Raven then nodded and wore the glasses he was given just now. This was probably made of very hard material, and it was like sunglasses.

He willed his mana into the handle as she said and he heard something click. The rifle started heating up considerably and a giant beam of blue light shot through the air.

*Bang!!!*

The beam hit a wall and Raven hit his face with the gun because of the recoil. But what was left astonished even Himiko.

Raven was close to mastering the power output of the weapon, even closer than herself after years of practice, is what she thought. But in truth, it was all thanks to his qi-infused mana, not to mention the elemental affinities.

What he did just now was due to his Lightning Aura subconsciously being released instead of mana.

“Hey, kid, do you want to marry me?” asked Himiko with an amazed expression.

“Wait, what? Isn’t it too fast?” asked Raven with a calm look.

“It’s just that the empire might need you.” she answered as her face contorted to a perverse one “And you’re handsome anyways.”

At times like these, Raven could only curse Robert for teaching him qi. Although he couldn’t say that he wasn’t handsome before, it became apparent after the cleansing thingy. He could feel the entire room dropping a few degrees in temperature as she said that.

“Well, let’s get to the main point. In a scale from 1 to 10, how much do you think I’d measure in talent?” asked Raven as he noticed that Himiko was acting strange.

“It’d be hovering in the high thirties.” she said with a giggle and looked at him with playful eyes.

“Seriously? So I only need to learn how to aim?” asked Raven with a proud look.

“That’s only the first part. The great thing about weapons is that different kinds can do different things. Let’s take the Bakufu model you’re holding and the pistols I used during the previous fight. While your rifle offers explosive power but needs some time to charge and aim while my pistols can be fired almost instantly which needs nearly no time to charge.” she said knowingly.

“Oh, so that’s it. I was wondering why there are so many kinds.” said a male voice from behind Himiko. She responded by quickly spinning around and pointing her pistol at point blank range to the speaker’s head.

“If I remember right, you’re the one that fought the berserker girl. What are you doing here?” said Himiko with a serious tone.

“Well, I saw my best friend going in and thought I could learn something new. Anyways, I have blackmail material.” said Jet as he jiggled with the camera in his hand.

Raven only sighed and told Himiko “Sorry for his rudeness, he doesn’t care about the consequences of his actions.”

“Nah, whatever. Do you wanna join the club?” asked Himiko with stars in her eyes.

“Umm… What club?” asked Jet with a clueless face. Raven sighed again but Himiko started energetically introducing the club again.

“This is the Magic Weapon Research Club, which most people shorten to Research Club. We study magic weapons and how to use them, the models are mostly from The Rising Empire’s Sun and Moon Kingdoms. Currently there are 3 members in this club, so do you wanna join?”

“3? Isn’t that below the requirements for a club?” Jet asked extravagantly.

A vein started bulging on Himiko’s temple, but she was still smiling. “Yes, and if you join, we’ll become an official club and get funding from the school.”

“Wait a sec, does that mean these weapons weren’t bought with the school fund?” asked Raven, not believing his ears.

“Nope, and I can’t say I bought them. Someone I know sends me prototypes of the weapons monthly and these aren’t the complete versions.” said Himiko holding her head as if she was having a headache.

“That means these weapons are weaker?!” shouted Raven with wide eyes.

“Nope, some are too strong and use up more energy while some are flawed and might break easily.” she said, pointing to her back with her thumb “Those are the broken ones.”

Raven and Jet turned their eyes to the broken parts and were shocked senseless. Jet asked “I-Is it safe to use these?”

“Of course.” said Himiko with an overly sweet tone.