This chapter completely focuses on Xigbar! With a little something, something on the side. Muahaha! Read and enjoy my friends!
A round of shots echoed through the air in sound-shattering waves, but those with ear muffs on barely paid any attention to the sound except to the target which the .9mm bullets were being fired at.
One the trigger for the last bullet was pulled, the gun was lowered back to the table and the pedal was pushed for the target to come forward.
When the target came into better view, a few murmurs of awe expelled from the lips of some colleagues.
"Shit…" a man swallowed as he examined the bullets holes converging on a particular spot.
The shooter ripped the paper target off and roughly placed another one on before kicking the pedal down to force it to go back to its original spot.
If this guy ever shot at anybody for real, outside the training department, is gonna be plenty unlucky.
Round after round after round was fired and soon, everybody else in the room had their eyes glued on the unfortunate paper target of which the shooter was purging his fury at.
Once the shooter felt remotely satisfied with his results, he pulled the safety switch of the weapon, laid it back on the table and walked out of the soundproof training room.
"Hey Xigbar!" a colleague called out to the said person as he pulled off his own set of ear muffs and unzipped his bullet-proof jacket.
The said person turned around and stared at his colleague nonchalantly.
Meet Xigbar. Aged 19.
As soon as he graduated from high school, he immediately ditched his choice for attending college in order to apply his mind and skills at the Police Academy at the Hollow Bastion Police Center.
He's currently training to be a gun-man, and is already in his second year of training while still holding the record for best Rookie of the year.
"Still top rookie of the year huh? How's it feel?" his colleague, a man roughly three years his senior with short brunet hair landed a hearty pat to the back.
Xigbar merely grunted with a small shrug. "Too fucking easy." He offered.
He's on the look out for a job to work in the field. Drive around in a police car, hunt down some robbers, and shoot some bad guys. That's where all the action and adrenaline is at.
No fucking way is he gonna be stuck behind some lame office job working on reports, sorting out files and trying to solve murder cases. No way.
He wants to go out there and shoot some fucking criminals!
Or moving targets like cars or their tires. As long as he gets to shoot something with a gun or a rifle or a pistol or a machine gun, he doesn't mind.
"Want to go grab a beer at the local pub or something?" his colleague, a man going by the name of Matt offered as he walked by the rookie policeman.
"Nah, I have somewhere else I need to be." He declined as he walked over to his locker and pulled the door open.
"Girlfriend?" he teased and gave a slight poke.
Xigbar snorted, "As if." He threw in his bullet-proof jacket and pulled out his black leather jacket and slipped it on. "Love is for the weak. The bad guys are gonna take that weakness and expose you and use it against you. No fucking way am I ever gonna fall in love."
"Ah, but love can also make you strong. Love gave me a purpose."
"You sound like a love-sick freak. Love is pathetic." Full stop. No use convincing the lost cause.
"You're just saying that because you've never been in love before, Xig."
He frowned at that nickname. Matt isn't close enough to him to merit him the use of that particular nickname. They've only known each other for about…maybe three quarters of a year or so.
And besides, that nickname's reserved to friends only.
"Catch ya tomorrow." The man with the ponytail threw a wave back as he headed for the door.
His class had finished hours ago, but he just stayed behind to get a few practice rounds and maybe a little friendly shooting competition with another trainee in the target room.
So far, nobody's been able to match to his skills or get the better or him.
He had the keen marksmanship of an elite sharpshooter. He was an expert in the field of guns and could totally take apart and put back together a sub-machine gun in less than fifty seconds.
Pretty good for a guy who's only got one usable eye. Not to mention being the quickest.
When they first allowed the trainees to go about their shooting program, a few people were startled at how good an aim Xigbar had. And the supervisors had wondered if he had done anything illegal in the past, but before he was admitted into the academy, they made a thorough check of anyone and everyone wanting to attend.
Xigbar's records were cleaner than a new pack of A4 photocopying papers.
Although a few people still wondered if he was a shooter of some sort in his past life. A killer maybe.
He stepped out of the building and made his way towards his car parked at the back. The drive to the university campus was a mere five minutes away. Not a problem. The only problem was finding a suitable, free parking close by.
He never really had much luck in finding a park and most of the time, he ended up having to go into those parking buildings where it costs an arm an a leg to park for an hour. Fucking con-artists...And that place isn't really that safe either.
But today was his lucky day and he found a good park not five minutes walk away to the university campus where he was going to meet up with his ex-high school buddies and go drinking.
"Woah! That's a sweet paint-job!" a boy behind him cried out in absolute glee as he came closer for a better look. "I am loving it."
"Hmm…?" the eye-patch wearing boy turned around and stared at the sandy haired blond boy as he continued to ogle at his car.
"I thought it was purple at first, but now I can really see the silver undertones." He commented as he refrained from touching the vehicle, lest he ruin the smooth wax finish.
Xigbar merely grunted as he pushed the button for the alarm to sound and walked off. The boy followed.
"How much did it cost?" the boy asked as he followed, his eyes still glued to the vehicle.
"I did it myself." He spoke nonchalantly as he stuffed his hands into his leather jacket and started his walk to the university campus.
Although, he may not look it, he's a pretty good artist with an eye (Oh, ha, ha) for detail. He had wanted to go into the course for arts and design or maybe graphics design, but he submitted into his love of gun power.
Finally, blue eyes tore away from the car and stared with a mix of surprise and shock at the man with hair tied to a pony-tail. "You did it?"
"Yes." Maybe he should've just paid the $10 fee and parked his car at that car-park building.
"Cool…" his voice was filled with awe, "And it's a sweet Honda Accord Euro R too…" he sighed longingly, "I've got a 1996 Toyota Celica. Second hand for four point five grand. Took me years to save up."
A chuckle escaped from Xigbar's lips, although whether it was willing or not, he wasn't quite sure. It wasn't even his usual sinister chuckle, "It's Xigbar." He had no idea what compelled him to give his name to an unknown kid.
"Huh?"
"My name." he rolled his visible eye and continued walking with his hands in his pockets.
"Oh, ok. Mind if I call you Xig? Or Xiggy?"
He quirked up his only visible eyebrow in surprise, then shrugged, "Sure kid, whatever you want."
"It's Tidus by the way."
"Sure kid, I'll keep that in mind."
For the first time for as long as he could remember, he felt his lips tug up in a small, meaningful smile.
Maybe he's not that much of a lost cause to begin with.
You know that bit with the taking apart and putting the gun back together again? I googled it up…and shit man…I was like 'WOW!' So yeah, apparently, in broad daylight, a sub-machine gun can be dismounted and assembled again in about one minute, so I decided, fuck that, Xigbar could do it in less than one minute. Lols.
Oh…guns are bad, don't use them. Xigbar would totally agree with me on that. Wouldn't you Xiggy?
Xigbar: Yeah sure, whatever you say.
Good boy.