Disclaimer: I do not own Gunslinger Girl or its characters, which were taken from the manga series of the same name, all of which are the property of their creator, Yu Aida.
The Hostage
Daniela walked down the corridor silently, much like how a cat stalks a mouse. The MP7 in her hands had just arrived yesterday and almost immediately she had received a short course in handling it from Walther. Now she was carefully making her way towards the target room where a hostage was being held. At the same time, Walther was right behind her, dressed all in black and wearing his black equipment vest. He was surprisingly agile and resembled a black jaguar hunting a small animal
Daniela stopped at one of the doors along the corridor. Yes, this was the room marked out on the map. She glanced at the hinges, decided which way the door would open and took up her position. Then, she grasped the doorknob and flung open the door to start the attack.
As she moved into the room, she began to identify targets. Sitting on a chair in the middle of the room was a short-haired woman who was clearly the "hostage." Behind her and on her right were plywood targets with armed men wearing ski masks drawn on them. Those were clearly the "bad guys." Also, in the far corner of the room Daniela spotted another "bad guy" and decided that these three would be shot. She made these cold calculations in a split second as she passed through the doorway and then shifted to its left to clear it for Walther to enter. Pressing the stock into her shoulder, she swung her MP7 up and squeezed two rounds over the head of the "hostage" and onto the plywood behind. Twisting her waist a little, she aimed at the target to the right of the "hostage," fired two rounds into it and proceeded to do the same for the target in the far corner of the room.
"Cease fire and unload," bellowed Walther. He waited for Daniela to remove the magazine and clear the round from the chamber before showing her the timing on the small black stopwatch he was holding in his hand. "You took seven seconds to clear the room. That's too long. We'll have to run it again."
"NO!" shrieked Priscilla. She had been sitting in the chair all this while and was quite hysterical. "You told me that I was going to help Daniela train and next thing I know there're bullets flying around me. I could have died!"
"Well, please accept my apologies and let me buy you lunch. After you clean yourself up that is," said Walther, noting the wet patch at her groin. At that Priscilla stormed out of the room and Walther couldn't help but have a little laugh at someone else's expense. He turned to Daniela and was surprised to see her looking absolutely furious. "Daniela, you're not thinking of attacking Priscilla, are you?" Daniela shook her head. "It's the conditioning..."
"Anyway, let's get down to the serious stuff." Walther pulled the chair over and sat down. "It takes about two seconds for a person to take an aimed shot. Seven seconds means that the bad guys would have shot at you and if they get lucky, well..." Walther pointed at his eye and the unsaid message was clear. "You need to deliver fast and accurate shots. I notice you raise your gun and then lower your head to the gun in two separate motions. That's good for accurate shooting but not for fast shooting. Try this." He reached over and retracted the MP7's stock. "Look at where you want to shoot and bring the sights up to your eye. When you need to shift your aim, use your knees, ankles and feet to move your whole body." Walther got up and walked over to the plywood target in the far corner.
"What made you decide that this one should die?" asked Walther as he tapped the target.
Daniela thought for a moment, and then replied: "He was wearing a ski mask..."
Walther searched his equipment vest and pulled out his old balaclava. Pulling it over his head, he said: "When you assess a target, look at his hands and decide whether to shoot or not. That target wasn't armed, so think about it before you decide to shoot me because I look like a bad guy. Now pick up the cartridges, reload your magazines and run this yourself." Walther then went to adjust the targets as Daniela busied herself picking up cartridges.
A few minutes later found Daniela, gun in hand, quietly moving towards the room again. Just like before, she stopped, threw open the door and started the attack. This time, the "hostage" was dressed in black from head to toe, complete with a ski mask and dark glasses and was sitting extremely still on the chair, almost like a mannequin. Daniela just glanced at the "hostage's" hands, saw that there were no weapons and looked at the plywood targets. There was one behind the "hostage", one on the right and one in the far corner, just like before. However, there was a difference that was not lost on Daniela. She noticed that the one in the far corner was pointing his rifle at her while the one was pointing his rifle towards the ground, clearly not ready to shoot. Also, the target one the right had a handgun in his shoulder holster but his hands were empty and by his side. Daniela prioritized her targets in less than a second and reacted accordingly. Clearing the doorway, she looked at the target in the far corner, raised the sights to her eye and fired off two rounds. Then, she used her ankles and knees to shift her aim to the target behind the "hostage" and squeezed off another two rounds. Finally, she took a step towards the target on her right and cried: "Hands up!"
"Excellent," exclaimed Walther as he stopped the stopwatch and took off his balaclava and dark glasses. "Three seconds. That's a great improvement. Pack up and take the rest of the day off."
Outside, Jean was waiting for him. "Let's see how capable you are," he said as he passed Walther a slip of paper with a room number scrawled on it. It was an interrogation room.