It had not taken the trio to get from the back gates of the school to the entrance of the Training Course. They were all a little okay with the training session. Well, all except Sei. He had other things on his mind, from the moment that he heard their objective location was the beach. As they entered the Course, they were greeting by Professor Moriko. Hitoshi had a bit of a nervous look on his face. As he saw her eying him, along with the rest, he remembered the deal he'd just made between the two of them. He liked Professor Moriko plenty, but she'd gone along with what he said a little too well. He feared for what she would have him doing.

Moriko raised an eyebrow as she saw the three of them coming in. She was surprised to see Hitoshi again so soon, let alone being accompanied by Tarou and Sei. “Well, well, look what we have here – the slacker, the ladies-man, and the bookworm! Have you three wandered off and gotten lost? I hardly ever see the three of you out here of your own free will, let alone all of you at once...” The three of them looked at each other and then back at Moriko. They were a little nervous at what she was saying, but were soon somewhat comforted when she smiled and changed her tone. “Ah, you know I'm just yanking your chain. So, what are you boys up to today? You come by for some training?”

Tarou, being the wisest of the three, stepped forward and discussed that very idea to the other two. “You know, it may be prudent to take Ms. Moriko up on her offer. A little bit of training will definitely aid us in preparation of what might lie ahead for us.” Sei nodded after hearing Tarou's wise words. “That's true. Alright, I'm game for this. What did ya have in mind, Miss?”

Moriko kept up her smile as she quickly thought of a task for the three of them to handle. Today was definitely a good day for her. Hitoshi had come by earlier and collected seeds for her, and now she could have his two friends join him in another task for her. “It just so happens that I have something, something that would be perfect for you three. Now, listen up! The monsters that dwell out here are normally harmless, but have amazing fecundity.” She paused for a moment as she closed her eyes.

“Lately, however, I've been noticing a considerable drop in the numbers of those monsters.” Re-opening her eyes, she got a frown and worried look on her face. “I think it's possible that some stray creature from the nearby wilderness could have found its way in here and has been preying on them. This is, of course, not good for my curriculum. I want you three to take a look around, find out what or who is preying on the monsters here, and deal with them accordingly. Any questions?”

Hitoshi spoke up, providing with a question, leading to a rather basic explanation of what she'd just told them, a smile on his face, as always. “So, basically, you want us to hunt this thing down and give it a nice thrashing? Hey, no problem! Just leave it to us.” Moriko raised her eyebrow again and spoke up to them. “Just don't you go get yourself maimed and/or disfigured. I do not feel like doing all that paperwork. Now, begin!” With that final statement, she rose her chin up and watched the trio as they set off into the course, to find this thing.

As they set off, they used a path opposite that Hitoshi had used in his earlier trip. After getting past the first patch of forest, they passed up the rope and crossed across the creek instead. Hitoshi and Sei passed it no problem. As Tarou was getting ready to jump however, a Mandragora jumped towards him. He yelped and began to fall into the creek. Hitoshi, seeing it coming, had jumped out to the rock on the creek. Grabbing Tarou by the belly section of his robes, he pulled him up onto the rock with him. The two took a few deep breaths before jumping across, leaving the Mandragora behind on the other side.

As the three of them made their way around two corners of forest, the normal monsters of the area showed themselves. Three showed up; one rivercrab, one Mandragora, and a pile of goo called a Goopy. Looking at one another, they nodded, noticing the match ahead of them. It was three-on-three, a good match for them to start with. Hitoshi took the lead, leaping into the air and landing on the crab, launching it across the Course with a quick Double-Cut.

Sei took his turn as the Mandragora was charging towards him. Taking a jump backwards about 10 feet, he turned his arm and launched his sword at the enemy, yelling out his own personal Technique, Toss. The sword quickly made short work of the Mandragora, splitting it in half before boomeranging in the air, creating a whistling sound and returning to his hand, just as he landed on the ground. He returned it to its holster as he smiled and looked towards Tarou, who was handling the Goopy.

Tarou was holding his hands out in front of him and staring straight at the Goopy, which was slowly jumping towards him. He started chanting as it approached and the area around them began to to become darker. The Goopy stopped and looked up to see a dark storm cloud quickly forming above all four of them. It's mouth opened up and, before it could do anything else, Tarou called out “THUNDER!”

Within moments, a huge, red catalyst appeared on the ground around Tarou and a bolt of thunder rained down from the heavens, burning the Goopy to a crisp. All three of them took a moment to reclaim their breath before turning around the corner and continuing down, towards the creek again...