Target Practice (OPEN)

Henri walked into the long oval-shaped field. It was a nice grassy plain that looked well cared for. On the left side of a field was a bunch of targets made out of wood. Henri had made them the day before to prepare for today. He hadn't bothered to bring practice weapons for he wanted to practice with his own. He set the targets on the automated training dummies and set the dummies' movement to fast. The movement sensors would allow the dummy to avoid most bullets and setting their movement to fast made it that much harder to shoot them down. He took out his dual pistols, the Twin Dragon Fangs. He smiled as he looked at the name engraved on the guns. 'Such a cheesy name for a pair of guns. What was Ol' Mack thinking?' He remembered fondly the gunmaker who made these guns for him. Ol' Mack had been a friendly old man who lived on this hill. It was too bad that he wasn't alive anymore. 'Ah, the curse of a long life, all the people that you know will eventually die leaving you behind.' He decided not to think anymore and proceeded with his training. He missed the first couple times but he was getting the timing down.

Yuko sat in a tall tree, overlooking the campus, watching the birds in the sky. Everything about the scenery, from the birds to the other trees planted throughout the campus to the actual layout of the campus, was beautiful to the greatest degree; but everything was incredibly boring to go along with it. There was nothing to do at the moment, as to her knowledge there were no sign-ups for the Strategy clas, Dagomis had gone off to the Suzaku fortress to have some form of meeting, and Yuko didn't really know any students to converse with. She heaved a sigh, the sound of a gun rang out. Yuko hastily turned her head to the noise, only seeing some figure holding a gun shooting at moving dummies. It made for some enjoyment, just watching the person shoot and fail at hitting the targets. Yuko brought her hand to her mouth stifling a laugh, as she dropped from the tree and walked into the vicinity of the target range. Her hands dropped almost instantly as she gained a view of the targets, drawing blood from her index finger and placing it at the tip of the tattoo feeling it travel in a straight line down her back. The guns appeared in her hands, glistening in the light. She brought up her right hand and fired off one bullet at moving target. It nailed the dummy in left upper chest, slightly off from the heart. She had meant to hit the area in which a heart would be, but that just hadn't happened in this instance. After firing, she turned to the person who had preceded her to reach the area. He seemed powerful enough. "Hello." As she spoke, a friendly smile formed upon her face.

Bang! A bullet hit one of the dummies in the chest area. Henri saw a girl out of the corner of his eye and she was holding a smoking gun. 'Not bad, she hit it on her first try. But then again, I haven't trained in ages so I am rusty. I'd say that she is on my level or so.' He didn't really appreciate the person intruding into his training but he figured it didn't really matter now. Gunners were scarce in Sentou Gakuin and he finally met one after a while. His more animalistic instincts told him that she was feeling amusement. 'She must've been laughing at my pitiful first attempts. I can't exactly blame her, if I had seen someone doing as badly as I did, I would've laughed quietly and offered to help him.' As he turned to look at her, he noticed that the girl was actually one of his colleagues. He had given her a curt nod in reply to her greeting. He realized that he wasn't acting like himself. But then again, he was quite irritated with himself so it was understandable. He was disappointed with his own skills. He had not fought or trained in a long time but he had not expected his skills to deteriorate as much as they did. He stopped shooting and spoke, "Hello Yuko, I apologize for my rudeness, I was slightly irritated with myself back there." He smiled in apology and hoped that he had not angered her.

"It is no problem, Henri-san. I would be mad too if I had been defeated by my own target practice course." A small innocent laugh came about after the words to show the fact that she had been joking with him when she spoke the preceding words. But, as she laughed, her hand also shot up to her mouth, covering it in a very lady-like manner. The gentle laugh stopped soon after it started, as Yuko brought her still smoking gun to her mouth and blew upon the entrance of the barrel, ceasing the smoke before once again pointing her right side gun, Purity, at a different target. This one was moving at a slightly slower pace, but the move were quite deceptive in its ways. Another single shot fired from the gun, this one seeming to curve and conform to the path of the dummy. The dummy moved slowly, but at a fairly quick pace from the original shot it reached the end of its loop and returned. The bullet, off target having been aiming for the temple area of the dummy, hit the eyes socket area of the dummy. It was something that gave some shame to Yuko, ever since she had begun to use guns especially Purity and Vigor, she prided herself in being very good in the terms of marksmanship. Her head dropped somewhat as she watched the still going bullet, miss the head of another dummy, and dropped down a few meters from the spot which Yuko inhabited. But, as her head drooped, an idea came to her. She turned to once against face Henri, and spoke. "How about a competition, Henri-san? Seeing who can hit the most dummies in the time before those birds takes off." Yuko spoke as she point over to a tree which was hosting four birds, of a large enough size to be seen from the spots of Henri and Yuko, waiting patiently for the response of her fellow Tsurabi.

Henri watched as his colleague shot at one of the dummies. She had missed a vital spot but still hit a pot that could've been fatal, in the eye socket. He was glad that he wasn't the one messing up. However, at the same time, he was also ashamed of himself, that he would feel joy in the shortcomings of others. He started shooting again as Yuko started to make her proposal. He shot 1 bullet from each of his guns. The bullet from the left hit a dummy right in the heart. It was easy despite the dummy's speed for the pattern in which it was moving was extremely simple. The other dummy that he had aimed at was more tricky. This dummy had been programmed with the data of a man named Neo. This allowed the dummy to do many acrobatic routines. These routines were incorporated into the dummy's movement and made for a difficult target. He had aimed at the head of the dummy hoping that his dominant arm would not fail. (He was ambidextrious for the most part but his right was still slightly dominant.) The dummy did a matrix however and as a result, he missed. 'I should've known better to aim for the head of a dummy who could do that.' He blew on the smoking barrels of his guns and replied, "Sure, why not? I'll get the left side and you'll get the right. It'll be fun." He smiled to show that it was all in fun and that he didn't really care who won. However, he was slightly curious as to who was the better marksman out of the two.

Yuko smiled at the attempt beginning of her fellow Tsurabi. It was up to her to take the first shot and she felt it right to make it start off with a bang. She scoped out the entire field for a singular instant. Her adversary had fired off two shots, one which made contact but one that was dodged by a truly acrobatic dummy. Just seeing this she knew how to start it off. She brought both of the guns up to a height where she could use the sights. She aimed carefully and made her move. Two bullets fired explosively out of the barrel, just as the first bird flew off. One bullet was aimed for a smiple dummy, one that was not moving very much except for a basic back and forth pattern. It hit without any trouble as if the dummy wasn't moving from the time the bullet was fired to the time that the bullet came into contact with and sailed through the dummy's head. It was a clear shot that could only be expected to happen with such condition, with the precision of which it hit. The exact middle of the forehead, a perfect equilibrium which would have sailed through a brain and damaged the cord connecting it to the spinal cord. There was nothing to compare to it, unless Henri could also do something of the like, which wasn't doubtable being as he was a Tsurabi and most likely as proficient, if not more, in guns than Yuko. The second bullet was a much trickier shot, a shot that had taken Yuko years to even learn how to do a shot of the like. The bullet fired forward at an alarming rate, as if blessed by some form of magic, though she wasn't that kind of gunner at this point. The second bullet slammed into the side of the bullet of Henri which had missed. The two grinded together creating a few small sparks which lit a small line behind them. The bullets bounced against each other and separated. The bullet from Henri sailed back toward the acrobatic dummy, which had so cleverly dodged the first time. But, this time it couldn't do anything to dodge. The ricocheted bullet fired into the back of its head and left it with a small hole from the impact. The lack of power from the time spent in air and the ricochet caused the bullet to stay in the head of the dummy. The third, and final, bullet was also headed toward a fairly simple dummy. The target had a motion pattern to try and duck every bullet. A pattern which didn't make very much sense do to the distance from the firing line. The sheer showing that it was either expected that the gunner was an idiot or new to gunning. The bullet soared into the torso of the dummy, as it tried to dodge in a very Neo-esque manner. The force of the bullet caused it to shake a little and break due to the movement out of pattern.

Yuko turned to her companion, "Your turn. Quick before the birds leave." She spoke very energetically and enthusiatically, as she smiled in the friendliest of manners. The competition was alreayd starting to become fun and it had just started. The attempts could only get much better and bring about a great show for all of those people who may be passing by.