Extra 2: Shooting Practice

Extra 2:
Shooting Practice

 

“TODAY, we’re off to the shooting range,” I declared during breakfast. Only a few days had passed since that rout of the Belbellum fleet. I was still hiding from Lieutenant Serena’s aggressive recruitment campaign. Mimi and Elma dropped their utensils at the announcement, blinking at me in surprise.

“This is rather sudden, but I’m all for it! I do need more practice,” Mimi said.

“I don’t mind either, but…this is really out of nowhere.” Elma cocked her head quizzically.

“This recruitment thing has been stressing me out,” I said. “It’d be nice to fire off some shots and get it all out.”

“That’s some destructive stress relief,” Elma said. “I guess it’s safer than blowing up asteroids, though.”

“I’d never ruin the environment like that! Imagine how pissed the miners would be.” Destroying asteroids brimming with raw materials would not play well with private diggers—or the mercenary guild. If I went around blowing them up for no reason I could face reprimand from the guild.

“Then are we heading to the guild after we eat?” Mimi smiled up at me. She ate a sandwich, potage, potato salad, and scrambled eggs this morning.

When I first took Mimi under my wing, she’d had trouble eating normal-sized helpings. Now she was such a hearty eater that even all that couldn’t sate her. Extreme poverty may once have shrunk her stomach, but now that her appetite had returned it had returned in force. I knew she fretted about her figure, but she looked incredible to me…thanks, perhaps in small part, to my little tweaks to her AI trainer’s routine and recommendations. Heh heh heh.

“Yup, we’ll head over after breakfast,” I said. “Let’s try to get going pretty soon.”

With that, I laid into my breakfast of a meat and cheese sandwich with vegetables and sauce. Training was hungry work.

 

***

 

Bellies warm and full, we made for the mercenary guild. I carried only my terminal and laser gun, as I’d heard we could buy energy packs at the range itself. Mimi and Elma followed me down the ramp leading out of the Krishna, Mimi with a bag over her shoulder and Elma wearing a fanny pack.

“What’s your deal?” Elma demanded when she saw my expression.

“Nothing, sorry,” I said. “I was just thinking about how you girls always have bags with you, unlike me.” All I had on hand was the laser gun in my hip holster and the handheld terminal and backup energy packs that fit in my jacket pockets.

“Unlike men, we girls have a few additional needs,” Elma said.

“Fair enough.” I didn’t have the slightest idea what was in those bags, but the girls knew what they needed. It wasn’t that I wasn’t curious, but it would be rude to pry. “Well, shall we?”

We used the direct elevator to head to the Third Division together. The sight of endless space whirling by just outside the elevator did not overwhelm me the way it once had. Human adaptability is an amazing thing. A few mercenaries cast us a curious gaze when we stepped into the guild headquarters, but most looked away after only a moment, used to our presence by now.

“Good morning. What brings you here today? Are you perhaps in search of requests?” The scary receptionist woman greeted us with a beaming smile. I thought I caught a glimpse of her coworker somewhere behind her, biting on a handkerchief and weeping, but it was better not to make eye contact.

“Nope,” I said. “We’re just here for some shooting practice today.”

“Very well,” she said. “The range is just over there. You can purchase energy packs from the vending machine. Please take the utmost care to avoid any accidents, as the guild claims no responsibility for any injuries that may occur in the shooting range.”

“Understood.” After a quick bow, we headed over. This was the same facility we’d used back when I taught Mimi self-defense.

“You’re weirdly polite to that receptionist,” Elma sneered. “Do you have a crush on her?”

“Not at all.” I shook my head. “I’m just polite because she terrifies me. She threw that big guy in the back with one hand.”

“That was certainly incredible,” Mimi chimed in. “I wonder how she does it?”

“Huh, okay.” Elma thought for a moment. “Maybe she’s been genetically modified or she’s a souped-up cyborg.”

“Eww, that’s even scarier,” I said. “Do people do that to themselves?”

“Mercenaries don’t, since we fight mainly on ships. People who guard big shots, fight hand-to-hand, or investigate new planets often do it, though.”

“Wow. Are those real jobs?” Stella Online didn’t have those missions, but, as I’d learned, much that came from the game did not make it to this universe. And vice versa.

Mimi was first up at the firing range, practicing with her laser while Elma supervised. In the meantime, I surreptitiously attempted to figure out how my own weird sci-fi weaponry worked.

“This is how you handle it,” Elma said. “Understood?”

“Yes, Elma,” Mimi said.

“Thanks, Elma. I’ll watch her actual shooting practice once you’re done,” I said.

“Really? Okay, then I’ll do my own practice.” I stepped in for Elma, using one of the wider shooting lanes designed for instruction. I gave Mimi pointers on how to improve her form, grip, and overall technique, but to be honest, most of my knowledge came from observation and imitation.

“Don’t close either eye when you aim,” I directed. “You want both eyes open.”

“B-both eyes?”

“Yeah. It’ll be hard to get used to, but you can’t close an eye. That makes your vision narrow and reduces your accuracy. See, you don’t just focus on the target and shoot blindly. You gotta let your gun do the focusing. Line it up through the sights and then find the target from there.”

After a couple of initial stumbles, Mimi hit her target.

“I-I hit it!” she exclaimed.

“Yep, you’re doing well. Let’s add some targets.” I operated our lane’s console to add four targets at varying distances. “The targets light up in order. Shoot whichever one is lit up. But take it easy; you won’t get punished for missing or anything so there’s no reason not to take your time.”

“Okay!” Mimi’s breathing went quick and shallow with excitement. Good! If she enjoyed practice she’d probably get more out of it.

She started strong, but once her accuracy started to dip I called for a break.

“It makes your arms tired, right?” I said. “Holding them out and keeping them tense for so long takes a lot out of you.”

“Yeah. My arms do feel weak…” Mimi massaged her biceps to ease the tension. Back home, I’d played around with airsoft guns a bit, so I knew how stiff and tight your shoulders could get from practicing for too long.

“Rest a while, Mimi. I’ll do some practice myself.”

“Okay.”

I worked the console to set up my own targets. I started with one close-up stationary target, then a few faraway targets like Mimi’s. A couple of them moved, dipping in and out of sight. Each round, I ramped up the difficulty.

“Haah…” I focused and took a deep breath. The world seemed to slow down around me, as though time itself stretched out.

Pew pew pew! I fired repeatedly, blowing through the targets. Why I could do this despite never using a real gun back on Earth still baffled me, but I had to use whatever I had to survive in this universe, so I wasn’t inclined to question it. One energy pack depleted, I called it a day. I could hold my own, at least.

“You’re incredible, Master Hiro!” Mimi said.

“Huh?!” I startled. I’d completely forgotten she was there, too deep in concentration. “W-was it that impressive?”

“Yes, it was incredible! Seeing you shooting down targets with such speed and accuracy was…incredible!” In her excitement, she just kept repeating that word: Incredible.

Mimi might have been exaggerating, but Elma leaned over from her lane and said, “I was watching from my lane, and yeah, your skills are kinda godly. I guess you’d expect that from a champion though, wouldn’t you?”

“Heh, uh, well…I think I did okay, yeah.”

This was actually only my second time ever firing this gun—the first being when I saved Mimi—but they didn’t need to know that.

Taking my evasive response for humility, Elma smirked. “Aww. Are you bad at taking compliments?”

“You know, maybe you’re right.” Living in Japan, I never really got compliments. If people knew I was a world-class gamer, they’d probably cringe, not be impressed.

“What’s with the funny face?” she asked.

“Sorry. I was just thinking that nobody’s ever complimented me like this.”

“Oh, true. Your whole past is a mystery, right? Where in the universe did you grow up if nobody praised your level of skill?” Elma said.

“Maybe a place where there wasn’t much fighting?” I suggested.

“I dunno where that would be. We elves live mostly traditional lives, but everyone knows how to use laser guns.”

“That’s heart-crushing.” Elves living deep in the forest while carrying around sci-fi weaponry kind of killed the aesthetic. Or maybe it just made them cooler in a weird, roundabout way?

“Wait, what were you imagining elves were like?” Elma stared, but I just shrugged. Her traditional elves might ruin my love of fantasy; I really didn’t want to know.

“Mimi, how about some more training?” I said, trying to change the topic.

“Sure. I’ll do my best!”

“Don’t push yourself, now.” I had to chuckle at Mimi’s fist clenching and heavy breathing. She was just so determined. I was glad to see it. She’d be a lot safer if she could defend herself from now on.

We spent the whole day teaching her how to take down multiple targets, how to use cover effectively for protection, and how to maneuver in a gun fight.

“My arms are aching…” Mimi said later, exhausted.

“Warm yourself up in the bath and get in the medical pod,” Elma suggested. “It’ll get better, trust me.”

“Mimi, how about we add some strength work to your training regimen?” I said.

“H-Hmm… I don’t want to be bulky.” Mimi’s face clouded over at my suggestion.

“Y’know, putting on some muscle makes it harder to get fat,” I said.

“I’ll do my best!” Her attitude changed in the blink of an eye. It was startling how quickly she could change her mind about something. Cute, but also maybe a little troubling. Eh, whatever. It wasn’t my place to rain on her parade.

After that, Mimi started putting a little extra oomph into her after-meal training.