Bloom and Scatter [Free! Zombie AU]

Making Plans - Part 1

"Gah!"

Rin looked up to see Makoto fumbling with the gun post-shot, already well aware that the idiot had forgotten to brace for recoil again, and ignored him in favour of eyeing the opposite wall where he'd drawn in target lines with some markers to see if he'd been able to hit anywhere close to the centre.

Outer-most ring. Great.

"I'm doing everything you told me to," Makoto protested pre-emptively as Rin stalked over towards him, "Grip the gun firmly with your dominant hand, cup it with your other hand, feet apart, elbow straight, use the rear sight to aim—"

"—breathe in and hold it before you shoot, keep your finger down on the trigger after squeezing, and maintain your posture," Rin interjected with equal amounts of restraint and irritation, "Your grip on the gun is obviously not even in the ballpark of 'firm' if it's dancing in your hands like that. The recoil isn't even that bad, you dolt. Stop getting so nervous."

Makoto looked like he wanted to argue, but didn't have the words. He hung his head, muttering something that sounded like a well-chided 'sorry' and Rin was doubly glad his gas mask was on or the puppy-dog eyes would have overwhelmed him.

"One more time," Rin said with an irritated sigh, crossing his arms, "Actually do everything I told you to; keep a tight grip on that gun – but not until it's shaking – aim, take in a breath to keep you steady, shoot."

He watched Makoto go through the motions, noted the still gun with approving eyes, and blinked at the noise of a gunshot. He glanced at the wall. Second ring from the centre.

"Well, well, well," he said in a tone that could only be described at smug, "I guess you can be taught after all."

"Did you see that?" Makoto in his excitement forgot he was training to shoot at zombies, "That's the closest I ever got to the centre!"

"Well done," Rin said graciously, in a good enough mood to slam another clip down on the table-top between them beside two empty ones he refused to think of as 'wasted', "Repeat that with all the bullets in this magazine until you're shooting consistently in the centre."

He foresaw the crestfallen expression on Makoto's face. "Makoto," he said patiently, "The target painted on that wall is the size of a car tyre."

After two days cooped up inside the Tottori University sports complex, Rin was getting absolutely antsy. Between the constant barrage of gunshots into a wall that he hoped wasn't an important part of the building's support, and calling Makoto Ginchiyo enough times when he was tired to spur him on to swinging the un-nailed aluminium baseball bat at Rin (fortunately, the idiot did indeed hit accurately when he was feeling mean even if it ended up degenerating into a slew of spluttered apologies when it was time to take stock of post-training injuries), he was getting cabin fever. No, he didn't need to leave the building for a bit of sunshine – after all, he was used to being quarantined, no thanks to the epidemic – but he did need to get out of the sports complex they were holed up in and explore.

Rin had spent the two days fortifying their base and thumbing through some of the books that had been left behind. Some of the writings were purely academic – sketches of plant parts, descriptions and uses of herbs and other vegetation – but they were very pleasing to read, from a purely aesthetic perspective. Something about the unconcerned writing about the nutritional value of mugwort in between diary entries regarding the death of another survivor and someone else's conclusions from dissecting a zombie was... steadying. Amusing, possibly in some dark way. He really respected how keenly Nakagawa Akiko kept to her profession even in such dire times. He wondered if there was something therapeutic about drawing leaf veins while the world went to shit around her. He certainly found himself with a ripple of calmness each time he traced over her sketch lines.

"Makoto," Rin called out in the lull as he was loading a new clip. Rin didn't have to look to know that Makoto was starting to shoot consistently within the newer, smaller target on the wall, "I'm spelunking."

Makoto lowered his hands, "Oh, let me get ready."

"No, keep practicing."

"But—"

"I'm going to do a quick sweep of the university grounds immediately adjacent to us," Rin explained, feeling a little tired of talking so much, but talking was what you had to do when you were partnering up with someone, "I'm not going to go too far, just one floor above us, and around the sports complex. I want to see if I can catch sight of the agricultural grounds. If we're lucky, they were growing some vegetables or fruit, and they're untainted. If they're too far, we can double up and do a run together. Okay?"

He watched Makoto deliberate this.

"Besides, for short recons, it's better to have someone at home base. You get it, right?"

Makoto took this information in before relenting with a sigh, "You promise to be careful?"

"Like a surgeon," Rin saluted, "I'll be back before dark, mum."

"If—" Makoto interjected, "For future reference, if one of us goes out for, um, 'recon'... at what point does the other person decide to go looking for him when he doesn't get back in time?"

Rin opened his mouth but no sound came out. He'd... never had to consider that before.

"Uh," Rin scratched the side of his jaw thoughtfully, "I have a working watch. Do you?"

Makoto fumbled around on his person before he pulled out a lady's wristwatch from his pocket. Rin would have made fun of him, but he also recognised it as being from the pallets where they found Nakagawa Akiko's diary. They moved close together to synchronise their times and Rin quietly watched him strap the delicate thing onto his bony wrist, notched at the last hole, before he let out a breath through his nose.

"I think... possibly the allowance should be until the next morning," Rin raised his palms placatingly and continued over Makoto's torrent of disapproval, "Think about it – sunlight is infinitely safer to move about in, and it's easier to search. There should be less bodies moving around too, if it came to that. You'd have a clear view of where you can go."

"Three hours," Makoto's tone was surprisingly sharp, and his suggestion was rather generous if Rin had to be honest, "I can wait until the next morning if you're doing recon somewhere far, and it takes time to get back. If you're just upstairs, I will look for you within three hours. It's just the two of us, it's up to us to bail the other out if they get in trouble. I wish," Makoto sounded frustrated, "I wish mobile phones worked. Or that we had walkie-talkies."

"You and me both, sister," Rin could tell a touch of a smile had reached Makoto's lips at that, and he couldn't really find it in him to disagree with Makoto, considering how quickly Rin had doubled back to the hospital when he found out about the zombies, "But I tell you what; while I'm scurrying around, I'll try to find us a campus map, all right? If it's that important to you, we'll chart out the exact movement of future recon."

"That sounds good," Makoto's tone was thoughtful and relieved, "While you're at it, their course brochures would be nice."

Rin let out a bark of laughter. Trust Makoto to be so damned pragmatic in his optimistic little view that life could still return to normal after all this mess. "What, you interested in Tori U's agricultural programme?"

There was a smile in Makoto's voice, "Something like that."