Ch 5: A Lesson Of War

Laying on my weird little ground bed, the blankets ruffled around my stomach, I listened to the night.

Brody was snoring, as she always did, the tone similar to that of a diesel train engine trying to start after being chiseled out of ice. Deckard didn’t make any noise when he slept, and that wasn’t any different tonight. It was unnerving how he sometimes fell asleep with one eye literally cracked open, and had an uncanny ability to snap awake if something drifted across his vision.

I had taken my spot near the window, as the other two were wary of sleeping next to it. The sounds of the night birds and song of wind coursing through the castle kept me tuned in as I went over what had happened again.

Why a red Oni? Why such a small handful of Trolls? We had cleaned up shop faster than a fast food joint wrapping burritos… but it didn’t make any sense to me, still.

Had it actually been a probe?

If someone had been watching the Troll approach the train, they would have seen how easily we took care of that lumbering sack of shit, so why bother attacking the gate?

If it had been me, I would have sent probes to three or more gates to see how the defenders would have reacted, but I wasn’t a couple thousand year old Oni.

Had that been the entire attack then? Had these people felt so confident they could break through with such a small amount of OPFOR?

I blinked, eyes tired, as I heard a flutter of wings and the scratch of avian claws hit the window sill. I let out a sigh, then raised my voice just above a whisper. “Slide on down, man.”

“Groovin’ on down.” The crow replied, sliding down the window before giving a gentle hop, and landing on my chest with a glide of wings. “Shouldn’t you be sawing logs on the snooze, cuz’?”

I chuckled quietly, sitting up on my elbows and holding out the side of my hand to the crow. “No z’s to catch with a buzzing dome.”

“Word.” The crow said, hopping up onto my hand and ruffling her feathers. “Some wire-sitters peeped action ‘bout ten miles off, cats tryin’ to stake claim on a new pad they figured.”

“What they chillin’ with?” I asked the crow, slowly coming up onto my feet and looking out the window with the crow still relaxing on my curled hand.

The crow looked out with me, then pointed her wing to where she was talking about. “The usual, sticks and stones an’ all that jazz, but the wire-sitters peeped one rockin’ a slick lookin’ long glass. High high-tech and shit.”

“That ain't somethin' they oughta be totin'.” I replied back, rather happy I had watched so many old movies and knew what the crow was talking about. “Means they snagged it from a city cat, not some wizard.”

“Solid, Jackson.” The crow said, her black eyes narrowing. “How's you figure they snagged it, man?”

I shrugged. “City cats steppin' out, those who ain't hip ripe for the pickin'. Fools hiken’, joggin’, ain’t knowin’ they in a jam till it’s all over.” I looked towards the crow then held my hand out of the window, letting the wind ruffle her feathers. “Go tell the main man and his whole crew, they need ta’ know squares be gettin' jumped.”

“I'm hip, get some shut-eye, ya dig?” The crow said with a pointed look at me, then took off with a flap of wings.

“It’s really weird that you know how to talk like that.” Brody murmured, rolling over on her futon and letting out an annoyed sigh. “You look like you played with erector sets as a kid.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Whatchu talkin' 'bout? Ya ain't never tripped to the groovy flicks of the '70s?”

“Ugh, god, go the fuck to sleep.” Brody growled, pulling her pillow over her head as I chuckled.

—

I managed to get a few hours of sleep.

Not enough to keep the bags away from under my eyes, but enough to keep me alert for the rest of the day… barring a power nap here or there. Loading up with our gear, we got ready for the day with numb fingers and bleary eyes. I decided to just grab all my stuff at once for both the patrol and training, stuffing a backpack with extra loaded magazines, and buckling the bag for my M1A Socom to it as well.

At breakfast, I sat down with Brody and Deckard, the three of us blinking tiredly at the usual tray of fish that the students were plucking grilled fillets from.

“Why is it never grilled chicken… or steak.” Brody grumbled, managing a tired nod to a student who handed her a heaping bowl of rice.

Deckard let out a low, dry laugh as he took his own bowl of rice from a student. “You can’t be upset that an island nation’s primary source of protein is sea life, Brody.”

“No, but I can definitely bitch about it.” Brody snapped back under her breath, reaching out with a pair of wooden tongs to grab a long, grilled piece of mackerel.

I felt a bump at my elbow, and looked over to see a young Japanese wizard holding out a bowl of rice towards me.

I cleared my throat of the morning-gum, then nodded my thanks to him. “Aree gahto, and such.”

The students around the three of us giggled, then went back to their meals.

After ripping apart five Trolls and an Oni, the students were suddenly rather friendly and accepting of we pale, angry-eyed white folk, judging by them handing us bowls of rice and pouring our tea for us.

While Brody mumbled a longing for steak and chicken while popping flakes of steaming fish into her mouth, and Deckard slurped noisily from a bowl of warming miso soup, I busied myself with gathering my preferred breakfast vestments.

First there came that weird, sweet egg stuff, gathering myself a nice little pile of it to eat with my rice. I then snagged a filet of salmon, poured myself some miso soup, then took a few small dishes of pickled vegetables from the tray.

I ate automatically, my large spoon bringing food to my mouth in constant motions while I chewed.

I was still thinking over what that little rush to the gate meant. There could have been hundreds of reasons why they would do it, but none of them made sense. I would have preferred the simple version of “They were just stupid”, but a darker part of me wondered if there was more to it.

As soon as every grain of rice was gone, and fish bones picked clean, Brody, Deckard, and I stood as one, depositing our dishes with the animal-faced cleaning crew and setting off on our routes.

I went up high, M110 in hand, and sat on a bench that was positioned at the edge of the tallest tower.

I had plenty of time before I had to teach Tano how to use this rifle, and I wanted to just… look around for a bit, and see what the crows could see.

The area was mountainous, covered in trees where fields weren’t present, and overall a fucking nightmare for knowing where the enemy was going to be. I always had to smile when I saw the power lines coming into the town, providing them with electricity from the actual power grid that they paid for with who knows what.

They had ran a single line to the castle just for us, since we had so many electronics, and the teachers had so many spells put on it that it sagged like a flock of birds was sitting on it.

The risk for fire was high, this being a giant old castle and all, so they took precautions in the obvious ways.

I was halfway through taking notes when Otani Noritada opened the door to the tower and stepped through it, his weird little sandals making hollow, tock-tock noises on the hard stone.

“Good morning.” I said, not bothering to look over my shoulder while writing down rough estimations for long range shots to a particularly troublesome looking hill.

“Good morning.” Otani replied, my earring doing its job while he walked up beside me. “The crows tell us our enemies may be attacking those of a modern persuasion?”

I nodded, closing my notebook with a ruffling of papers. “Yes, appears one of them may have gotten their hands on a long range camera, or a spotting scope.”

“How dangerous is that?” Otani asked, resting his hands on the edge of the tower wall’s parapets.

He was wearing the usual, ceremonial, Japanese kimono that a lot of the wizards around here wore. They were elegant looking clothes, a robe, outer jacket, skirt, the whole nine yards.

It made my tactical trousers and light jacket look shabby in comparison, but his little teacher’s outfit wouldn’t last long in a gun fight.

“Dangerous enough in its own right.” I said, sitting up and standing beside him. I pointed to the hill that was bothering me, a tallish little number that had high tree cover. “Someone standing there, with powerful enough optic, could tell what color our eyes are at this distance.”

Otani raised his eyebrows. “Troublesome indeed…”

“I have reason to believe that your enemy has adapted to you, while you have not adapted to your enemy.” I said plainly, ignoring the insulted look on the man’s face. “The creatures you have kept at bay seek to destroy you, and they are using our technology to do it. The Oni, the one with the purple eyes named Tano, she can hold our weapons.”

Otani was quiet, the outrage slowly falling from his face, but he pressed his lips together. “She can?”

“I’ll be teaching her today.” I said. “Nor do I seek your permission. You lot may be paying me, and may be my boss, but I am not going to let by a chance to have one more rifle on your walls. I need an entire Company here, and instead I have three good shooters and a woman with horns.”

Otani furrowed his brows, then turned away from me, looking into the distance. “This school has produced some of the finest wizards in the East-”

“And yet you call upon three Americans who know their way with gunpowder and grain.” I said, cutting him off as I turned towards him. “This isn’t about waving our dicks around and seeing who is better. You told me yourself these yogurt things-”

“Yokai.” Otani corrected me with a grin. “I think your earring is having issue with your accent.”

I slow blinked at him, then spoke plainly. “Yokai, have become resistant to your magic, isn’t that right?”

Otani nodded, bitterly. “They have been showing great resilience to our more powerful magics, ones that cut flesh and kill.”

“You have charged three men with protecting an entire castle, from an enemy that numbers in the thousands." I said, carrying on my point. “Doesn’t matter how fast our weapons can shoot, they will find a weak spot and overwhelm us, and now they have equipment to watch us carefully.”

Otani was quiet, turning his head to look towards the largest of the three villages.

“Those are an issue as well.” I said, slowly turning my head to look in their direction with him. “Your villages are weak spots. They can use them to sow chaos and grow their victory from it, flooding us with refugees and using the flames of the buildings to scare your students. If I had a Company, I could put a Squad or two down there, but you have hamstrung me.”

Otani drew in a deep breath through his nose, and as he spoke, his voice was frustrated. “There are soldiers there, trained in the old ways. Swords and polearm, wand and staff, they can hold their own and manage.”

“They will swamp you.” I said, my mind focusing on the tactical acumen rather than feelings or prospectives. “You think your men can last when they have a couple thousand warriors running into them with who knows what kind of weapons? You’ll just be wasting bodies and blood.”

Otani turned towards me as I crossed my arms over my weapon, and he raised his chin. “What would you suggest, then?”

“Don’t bother.” I said, and when he gave me a confused look, I nodded towards the villages. “As soon as your enemies look towards them as targets, you pull back every soul and blade you have to this castle. Out there, they are nothing but a resource for your enemy, but here, they can better mount a defense.”

Otani blinked at me, then stepped around me to face the three villages fully. “They have their own walls, their own protections… do you really have such little faith in them?”

“I have faith in what I know.” I said, then blew out a breath past my lips as I scuffed my boot heel against the tower’s stones. “I know that if I was in charge of protecting both this castle and those villages, I’d leave them to burn and bring the people here. Consolidation leaves a better avenue for survival. From what I understand, you magical folk are already on the decline when it comes to magical blood and birth rates, there is no point in dying in droves purely to pride.”

Otani crossed his arms this time, his long wand catching the sunlight from its holster. “They survived raids before, with few losses.”

“When was the last raid?” I asked.

“... Fifteen years ago.” Otani admitted, clicking his tongue against his teeth. “Roughly a hundred Oni made a run for the temple grounds in order to steal sacred seals, but they were beaten back.”

“Not anymore.” I replied. “You won’t last, not this time.”

Otani scoffed. “How on earth could you know that?”

I turned to look at him, meeting his black eyes with the hardness in my brown. “A feeling. Same feeling that tells me that the attack on the gate means more than any of us thinks it does.”

“You ask me to trust your intuition?” Otani asked me, leaning his hip against the tower wall’s parapet. “Or do you want me to believe that you are a far seer?”

I smiled dryly at him. “It’s the same feeling that knows that Tano went into our quarters and touched our guns to see if they would burn her. A feeling that knows she did so out of fear, not curiosity."

Otani frowned at this. “She has a reason to be afraid… there is a lot on the line when it comes to her and her part in this.”

“Lay it out.” I told him, placing my lower back to the wall.

Otani pulled out his wand, summoned a relaxed back chair, and took a seat on it before running his fingers through his long black hair. “The Rogue Priestess came to the castle a long time ago, bolstering it and making it the fortress of fame. Everyone knows it is just because she does not want to be the wife to Prince Aozor, and she is so afraid of her fate that she won’t even leave the castle grounds.”

“Are there others like her?” I asked.

“Maybe.” Otani said, leaning back in the chair. “Where they are… there is no telling. Not all of the Yokai are in league with Prince Aozora, but the majority of them are. If he were to wed and bed Tano, they would create the True King of Demons, he who is to inherit the land where the sun rises, and become he who wields the Blade of Dragon Flies.”

“He sounds like a cunt.” I said flatly, and that caused a smile to break across Otani’s lips.

“Yes, well, he is less than favored.” Otani said, then cleared his throat politely. “I don’t believe anyone would take major issues with you teaching Tano how to use one of your weapons, and I will speak with the rest of the staff about the villages.”

I nodded to him, popping myself off of the wall with a jerk of my leg. “You’re lucky this is all happening in Japan.”

“Why’s that?” Otani asked, his arms resting along the plush arms of the chair.

I chuckled, stepping towards the door. “If this was in the states, your enemies would have access to enough rifles to drown you in lead. You only have to worry about shotguns and air guns… I shudder at the thought of Oni having access to the kind of shit our rednecks have.”

I left Otani sitting there with a confused, yet slightly worried look on his face as I stepped down the stairs, hooking a hard right into a lonely hallway that mostly held older rooms from times gone by and unused in the modern age.

Checking in with Brody and Deckard and finding nothing amiss, I made my way down for an early lunch. After speaking with a smaller man with the face of a rabbit, I was given a parcel of food, and I made my way to the old archery garrison of the castle.

Despite being a magical school, many of the students still practiced archery, swordsmanship, and martial skills, which meant that I arrived at a lively little archery area with students wearing long, split sided hakama skirts, kimonos, and their odd chestplates.

Their teacher, Arihada, was a rather short, tea-brown haired woman with a long scar down her chin, and she listened to what I was asking of her with polite interest.

When I had outlined what I needed, she smiled.

Her wand, shaped like an arrow with a golden practice tip at the end, zipped into her hand with a snap of her fingers. With a few gestures, she arranged some wooden planks, soil, and gravel to create a small backstop for me.

I watched on with idle curiosity, as it was rather fun to watch her work. Magic, after all, was something I had never believed in until I got hired on for this job, and watching this short little archery instructor make wooden boards slide easily into place was something to behold.

“There we are!” Arihada said, pleased as she gestured to the little gunnery mound she had crafted some distance away. “That should stop your little arrow tips from going through!”

I nodded to her, smiling. “I do believe that will do nicely. Are you sure you are okay with me putting holes all up in your archery targets?”

“They are self healing.” She said, waggling her wand at me, and I made a note to lean to the side so the tip wasn’t pointing at me. “At most they will grumble about it later and give us an earful when we are putting them away.”

I laughed at that, dropping my backpack and setting out the magazines. “I see, enchanted, I assume?”

“Of course.” Arihada replied, slipping her wand back into its quiver styled holster. “Why bother with constantly remaking good targets when we can just make themselves stitch back together when we are done.”

“Won’t hear me talking bad about it.” I replied, pulling out my Socom and setting it against a wooden pillar of the archery overhang. “We all used paper targets back home on backs of cardboard, damn things would catch the wind and fly off.”

Arihada raised an eyebrow. “Cardboard huh? My cousin uses a lot of that in his little cosplays.”

“You have a normie cousin?” I asked her, looking up in surprise.

“Oh, he’s not a normie.” Arihada said with a laugh, her students chuckling around her as they worked their bows. “That little dummy became enthralled with anime, and got caught using actual magic at some convention in Osaka. He’s lucky they didn’t take his stupid little star wand and break it over his hands.”

I laughed, imagining some male wizard pretending to be a magical manga girl, and laid out the magazines for the M110. “Well, I guess you can’t blame a fella for trying.”

“Absolute fool, that man.” Arihada muttered, then clapped her hands together. “Rapid fire practice, I want three arrows per hand!”

As I finished setting up my stuff on a small table, I sat back and watched the archers go about their business.

Clutching multiple arrows in their hands, they worked through the process of quick-firing their bows, lacing arrows down range in rapid succession with an agreeable rate of success.

I always found archery fun to watch, despite being shit at it myself, and I savored the moment. The Japanese took it a bit further with their slow, deliberate movements, but that didn’t make it any less satisfying to watch. The class took their turns, their bows thudding arrows down the range in a constant flow of feather and shaft.

To my amusement, the feathers would pop out after the shooter was done and lazily snake along the ground back towards the overhang, sorting themselves into the appropriate quivers like obedient dogs to kennels.

“Clever folk, you wizards.” I mused, unpacking my little lunch of these odd, triangular rice balls and sticky dessert mounds.

There was wasabi in a small leaf as well, and I looked forward to that with a smile.

Arihada let out a grunt, stepping back and forth as she watched her students. “Not clever enough, seeing as to how we need you now. I must admit, no arrow could have done what you did on the train. Dropped that giant sack of turd with a single shot like it was nothing.”

“Warn’t too hard.” I replied, crossing my legs as I smeared some of the green paste onto one of the triangular rice balls.

Arihada raised an eyebrow at that, looking down at my rice ball. “Are you sure you pale skins can handle wasabi?”

“I use hot sauces in my chili with names like ‘satan’s rectal exam’ and ‘second tongue burner’, I’ll be fine.” I said, taking a bite of the rice ball and letting the delightful sting fill my nose. “How effective are arrows against those Oni and Trolls, anyway?”

“Effective enough.” Arihada replied, picking up an arrow and showing me the tip. “Our combat tips can tear through flesh as easily as paper and bury into the organs below. The only issue is when they wear heavy armor, and that’s why we have spells.”

I raised my brows, pulling out the wooden bottle of green tea. “I don’t have that problem.”

“Yeah I bet you don’t.” Arihada mused, thwacking me on the side of my head with the feathers of her arrow.

I chuckled, rubbing the side of my face while taking a sip of the tea. When my mouth was cleared a little, I looked up at her. “You know why I’m here?”

“Word travels fast, normie.” Arihada replied. “You’re going to teach the Oni how to shoot.”

My face grew a little more serious as I looked into her eyes, and she regarded me with a warrior’s gaze. “I’m going to need every rifle I can, and that may come down to your student bowmen.”

Arihada slowly twirled the arrow around in her fingers, then smiled down at me. “Everyone will do their part, I assure you.”

The sudden drop in chatter caused both Arihada and I to look around, and following the gaze of the students, we both looked towards the side of the archery overhang.

Tano had arrived, and I couldn’t help but smile when I saw what she was wearing.

Sporting a Wendigo Gin relaxed fit t-shirt, a deeply split black hakama, and black hi-top sneakers, the yellow Oni stood at the side, her finger tips placed together and facing toward the grass.

“Afternoon, Tano.” I called out, taking another bite out of my weird rice ball and giving her a little wave. “Come on over here and have a seat, we’ll start when their class is over.”

Tano, apparently not used to being treated like… someone who wasn’t a rogue priestess, lifted her chocolate eyebrows in surprise as the students looked at each other. From what I could see, they were expecting me to burst into flames, or suddenly melt into a skeleton.

I thought the look of confusion looked rather cute on her, and she slowly stepped up onto the shooting deck with a light squeak of her hi-tops.

Arihada, a bemused smile on her face, snapped her fingers at her students. “What are you gawking at? Back to shooting!”

The manic pattering of socked feet filled the air as the students refound themselves and took back their places, while Tano stepped up beside me.

“I’m still eating lunch, so pop a squat next to me.” I said, shoving the rest of the rice ball into my mouth.

“Pardon?” Tano asked down at me, her head tilted.

With a mouth full of rice, I patted the wood floor next to me, and she understood what I was about.

She sat down next to me in that odd way the older Japanese were known for, sitting on their heels with their knees together.

The posture looked rather painful to me, but what did I know?

I wasn’t thousands of years old.

I took a long glug of the cold tea, then set the bottle down on the floor. Brushing my hands off on my pants, I nodded towards the magazines I had laid out.

“Did you see enough of these when you went poking through my stuff?” I asked Tano, watching her face to read the reaction.

To my lack of surprise, the light green blush around her nose and the light purse of the lips told me everything I needed to know.

“Anyway, these are magazines.” I said, continuing on without pause. “These are what holds the little bullets.”

I held up a 7.62 round and showed it to her, then placed it into her hand as I grabbed another loose round.

I angled the tip and base between my pointer finger and thumb, and held it up before me. “This puppy is known as a seven point six two, and is a main battle rifle round. The pin inside the rifle hits this little circle down here.”

I showed her the primer, and she flipped her bullet around to also look at hers.

“When struck with sufficient force, it causes a chemical chain reaction inside the brass casing where gunpowder is ignited, creating the gas required to send the payload down the barrel.” I said, then tossed the bullet down onto the wooden floor. “None of that really matters though, I want you to focus on just three things.”

Tano looked up from her bullet, her chocolate brown hair falling prettily across her face. “What three things would those be?”

“Loading, sight picture, and firing.” I said, holding up a finger at each word. “Fancy dancy know-how ain’t gonna help us much at the current time, so we are going to focus on the stuff you need to make sure you put people’s dicks in the dirt.”

The blush grew on Tano’s face, probably at my particular word choice, but I pressed on.

I showed Tano how to load the magazines with her thumb first, then with an easy loader so she knew how to do both.

I made her load every magazine, alternating methods so she got used to them, and it also conveniently allowed me to finish my lunch.

When the students had finished up, I pulled around the M110 and deployed the bipods.

“Miss Arihada, may I use this table?” I asked aloud, pulling out my magazine and setting it down onto my backpack.

“Sure.” Arihada replied, pulling off her archery gloves.

I looked over my shoulder, and both she and the rest of the students were gathering around to watch the show.

Having set up in front of my own little special target, I pulled out a range finder for the hell of it and checked the distance.

“You’re off a yard.” I called out with a smile. “I asked for twenty five, not twenty six.”

“Suck it up!” Arihada barked out, causing her students and Tano to laugh.

I pulled the table in front of the two of us, setting the M110 down and letting it tilt to the side. After I showed her how to put and power on the electronic earmuffs, I took another glug of tea and thumbed the cork back into place.

“Get behind it, like I showed you at the window.” I said, gesturing to the rifle and putting on my own muffs.

Tano looked at me as if I was insane, her voice slightly pitched. “Isn’t there more to learn?!”

“Nothing you can’t learn behind it.” I said, then patted the table. “Saddle up.”

Tano awkwardly got behind the rifle, shaking the hair from her face as she looked up at me, waiting for the next instruction.

I handed a loaded magazine towards her, then tapped it on her knuckles when she reached for it with her trigger hand. “Ah, no.”

Tano bared her teeth at me, then slugged me in the shoulder. “That hurt, you jerk!”

The children and Arihada giggled behind me, and I flashed her a smile.

“Non-trigger hand reloads on this weapon. Support the rifle with your trigger hand, and load it with your left.” I said, waggling the magazine at her. “Bullet tips facing forward.”

Tano muttered something under her breath, something about “respecting your elders”, then snatched the magazine out of my hand. I chuckled to myself as she fumbled with it, as everyone does the first time, but she got it into the magazine well and jammed it into place.

“Give it two slaps on the ass.” I said, nodding my head as Tano gave it two taps with her palm. “Now pull back on that charging handle with your bow fingers.”

That seemed to work as an instruction, as she wiggled her middle and pointer finger, then pulled back on the AR-style charging handle with a crispy “click-clack!” of steel on oiled rails.

“With your trigger hand, use your thumb and knock that switch down.” I said, pointing to the safety selector. “Right now you’re on safe and that rifle won’t fire. When that switch is flicked down, you hold death at bay with nothing more than a single finger.”

Tano glanced at me from the corner of her eyes, but managed to wiggle the selector switch down to semi.

“Remember to keep that finger away from the trigger until you’re ready.” I said lazily, as I was always rather languid around this portion. If I stayed loose, the shooter stayed loose, and that kept them from over-stressing and making mistakes. “Now get down behind it, put your hands where I told you to, and place that mountain peak in the middle of that red circle.”

“You are rather… lax, for a teacher.” Tano said quietly, shifting down to a flat-legged sitting position and wiggling her shoes back and forth on their heels. “I expected something more… more.”

I barked out a laugh, taking a sip of tea before setting the bottle down on the table. “Afraid not, that costs extra.”

“How much extra?” Tano asked, turning her head towards me.

I gave her a grin, and that blush came roaring back like a tidal wave.

“Got your sight picture yet?” I asked her, my teeth cheekily bared and she snatched her eyes back to her scope.

“Yes.” Tano said tersely, brushing her hair away from her face with her non-dominate hand. “I have the mountain peak where it should be.”

“So what you’re going to do,” I began, leaning forward and resting my elbows on the table, watching her, “Is place the middle of your top finger pad on the curve of that trigger.”

Tano flicked her eyes to me, but did as I told her, resettling herself behind the rifle as her off hand gripped the magwell.

“Buttstock tight to your shoulder?” I asked her, and I saw her pull it a little tighter into the pocket. “Thought so. Now, with the top of the peak in place, I want you to slowly pull back on the trigger with an even, constant pressure. The gun going off should be a surprise.”

“A surprise?” Tano said, her voice muffled by the stock of the gun on her cheek. “You didn’t seem very surprised when I watched you shooting…”

I smiled at her, watching her finger twitch on the trigger. “Watching me, huh?”

“Out of curiosity, as we all were.” Tano remarked, but her face wasn’t any less green.

I watched her finger, slowly pulling the distance back, and imagined in my head what the trigger sear looked like inside the receiver. I guessed the break rather accurately as the barrel of the M110 erupted in front of our faces. While I didn’t react, Tano looked up and around at me, her eyes wide and lips parted.

“Did I do it right?!” Tano called out, then ducked her head back behind the ACOG optic. “I see a hole in the middle!”

“Finger off the trigger, please.” I chided her, pulling my Socom around and deploying its own set of bipod legs. I flicked the magnifier behind the Romeo AMR and swung my rifle around to her target, and whistled out. “Dead center of the cherry, well done.”

I tilted my head to get a look at Tano, and she was grinning from ear to ear. Something else I noticed was that she tended to rock her feet back and forth on her heels when she was happy, and I took note of it.

“Normally, I would tell you to put the weapon back on safe after firing, but you are new to all this, and I don’t want you panicking and forgetting the damn thing is on safe. When combat starts, you flick that thing off safe and don’t put it back on safe until the shooting is done, understand?” I said to her, giving her a look that told her I meant what I was saying, and that this was a lesson I wanted her to heed with utmost importance. “When you get more trained up, you can practice more safety features, but I would rather have you dangerous than safe when the metal starts meeting the meat.”

Tano nodded to me, and I held her gaze for a few heart beats before putting my eye back around to my own optic.

“Fire three rounds, two second pause between each. Let’s open you up and see what you can do.” I said, but a quick glance at Tano told me that she was just as eager to see what she was capable of.

She was smiling, the same smile I had seen a hundred times over, and a hundred times again; The smile of a first time shooter that automatically understood the power that they held in their hands.

Rifles, no matter how one looked at them or what one thought of them, made all beings of flesh and blood equal. There was only one thing that mattered when it came to a rifle, or pistol, and that was something as simply understood as a raining sky.

Who was better, behind the barrel.

Tano let fly the rounds from my M110 with a growing confidence that was one in a billion, a being of ancient times finally getting their hands on something that no bow or wand could match. Her smile broke into a grin, her canines backlit by her tongue as she followed the orders I had given her.

She fired, emptied the magazine, released the empty magazine, and placed a new one into the well with a growing ease.

By the fifth magazine, she was openly laughing just under her breath as she drilled the center hole hard enough to make it gape open like a fist punched into risen dough. The target was having a hell of a time of it, as after the sixth magazine, it actually spoke up from down the range.

“Break! Time out!” The target wailed, its legs wobbling. “I need a break!”

“Aw.” Tano moaned, leaning up off the M110 with a frown. “I was having fun!”

Arihada pulled out her wand, and gestured to another target that had been constantly inching away from the one Tano had been firing into. “You! Take their place!”

“Why me?!” The target screamed, clearly upset. “Why can’t one of the others do it?!”

Arihada let out an aggravated exhale, and jabbed her arrow shaped wand at the target. “Do it! Now!”

“Man!” The target whined, but stepped its way over on its pole-legs while the other wobbled away, clearly having taken a spiritual beating.

I looked back at Arihada, who gave me a thumbs up, and I nodded my head to Tano. “As you were.”

“Ha, yes!” Tano hissed as she got back down behind the M110, and hefted it back up onto her shoulder. “I like this! It’s like punching them in the chest, but from a comfortable and cozy distance!”

I laughed quietly to myself, putting my eye back behind the magnifier. “That’s the spirit…”