Friendly Fire

Rinna Bane - (39) Shooting Range

Felix gestured to a series of weapons ranging from blades to guns.

I didn't really understand why we kept the blades for our fights anymore now that we had plenty of firearms and ammunition to go around.

My fingers brushed over the bodies of the guns available to me. Assault rifles, sniper rifles, large machine guns, small machine guns, shotguns, and pistols, my personal favourite.

"You okay?" Felix spoke up from behind me as he grabbed one of the assault rifles. An M4. He pointed the barrel towards an old target made from wood. "God, it's been a while since I held one of these..."

I gave him a nod but frowned at his little mumble. "Then... you should know you're way too close to the target- you need to be at least 500 meters back for effective fire... can fire almost 2 kilometers... could push it to 3 with the right modifications and skill set. And for fucks sake you don't need to flex when you're holding that thing- we already know you're a brute anyways-"

He looked at me with a puzzled look on his face. Either that or he took offence to my snarkiness. "I... appreciate your knowledge- but- damn you'd make an excellent weapon's master- however, you never answered my question. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Now take a step back and fire, I want to see how good of a shot you are."

"You don't sound fine Rin..." He backed up away from the target. Aimed. "It's okay if you don't want to talk about it but-... I want you to know that Nami's death wasn't your fault. Sure you were the shooter that killed her but at the time, you were defending yourself and following orders... everyone sees that except Dawn... It's why she has her- dislikes- about you-"

Nami?

That was her name?

I spoke before he could finish. "Hurry up and shoot your shot already. I don't want to talk about it. Fuck, why'd you tell me her name?"

He fell silent and sighed. "I'm sorry... we haven't talked about Nami in months... It's hard to stop using her name... she meant a lot to us... the villagers here loved her dearly..."

"I don't want to hear it. Take up with Leonard or Dawn or Raphael- fuck even Sophia will do. I just- don't tell me anymore. I don't want to know anything about her. Now shoot."

Finally, he fired at the target.

An M4 can fire 790 bullets per minute or per cycle.

Felix wasn't a bad shot, but he needs to work on his aim.

"You barely hit the target while at minimum range. I'm surprised you survived this long with a poor shot like that."

"Hey! Like I said, it's been a while!"

"Excuses... Here, let me try." I took the M4 from him. Pointed. Straight arms, firm but not tense and flexed. I took my time to aim, then fired. Once the final bullet rang out, I released a breath I didn't know I was holding and got closer to the target to look at my shots. Most were body shots to the chest and stomach. No headshots.

"Wow..."

I turned to see Felix completely amazed by the outcome. "What?"

"You're awesome! That was so cool!"

"It's just an aim game... besides, my first gun was an assault rifle... AR-10... 20 bullets in a round and I learned to shoot it from 600 meters... I was dumb and tested the limits, and was able to shoot it as far as 4 kilometres by the time I joined The Elite Strike Force. This is nothing compared to what I can do."

I watched his eyes fill with stars.

"Oh come on, don't give me that look."

"Teach me! Please!"

I chuckled softly. "I thought you're the weapon's master... you should be teaching me"

He shook his head. "I'm much better with a melee weapon... knives, blades, staffs, spears, axes... those sorts of things... firearms- it's been a good 5 years since I last held one of these so I'm very rusty. Please Rin. You have to train me."

I threw my head back and groaned in annoyance. "Do I have to?"

He nodded enthusiastically. "Fuck yeah, you do!"

He's starting to act like Sophia. I see where she gets it from if Felix is supposed to be a role model for her.

"Fine."

Oh Rin, what did you just sign yourself up for?

⌖ ⌖ ⌖

I put him to work and trained him up for what felt like all night. At first, his whole body still recoiled with each shot but eventually, he was able to land a few body hits with that terrible aim of his.

"Alright, enough playing around, see if you can land a deadly headshot."

His eyes grew wide and he lowered the gun. "What? I can't- I can't make a shot like that this far back-"

"Yes- Yes, you can. Now quit being a baby. Point the gun at the target, use the iron sight to guide your shot and help aim, breathe in through your mouth, shoot, breathe out through your nose. And you'll hit it. Trust me."

He looked a little hesitant at first but he followed my instructions.

Pointed.

Aimed.

Inhaled.

And fired.

Exhaled.

The shot was strong and true, straight through the target's head.

"See~" I teased as I watched the look of surprise and pride shine into his eyes, clearly happy with the small progress he made.

"I-... I did it! I actually did it!"

"Yeah? Well... you still have a long way to go, the next step is trying to hit a moving target. And knowing your aim- we might want to go deeper into the forest for that- I can't have you taking out civilians now, can I?"

Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time as Raphael approached us.

"You two need to stop fucking around. Our meeting is going to resume in 5. Pack this shit up and come to The Guild Hall. Now." He was quick to turn on his heel and head off towards The Guild Hall.

"Jeez... what's up his ass?" I mumbled to Felix and got a small chuckle out of him before the snarky response back.

"I'm putting my money on Dawn~"

"Don't tempt me." I snickered back in response.