The guardian had to give it to her, she was a quick learner. About half an hour after she'd begun her barrage of questions, they lay beside each other, Kipo bracing the Night Watch on a small log they'd found.

"Ok, hold it against your shoulder, braced solidly- yeah, like that." The Guardian watched closely as she took a focused breath, eyes narrowed and mouth drawn into a thin line.

She looked down the sight, let the breath out, then squeezed the trigger. With a bang the rifle shoved itself into her shoulder, and her breath caught. The bullet had soundly avoided the tin can he'd set up, but Kipo's eyes brightened. "Wow." She looked up at him, beaming, and he dumbly gave her a thumbs-up. Her grin narrowed and she bit her lip, realigning her eye with the scope. She set to firing the rest of the magazine in quick succession, and somewhere around the eighth bullet the can leapt off the log. "I got it! Guardian, I got it!"

"Nice job," he stated, holding back the smile that threatened to infect him. "Now, finish off that mag, but aim for the knot in that tree over there."

"Where?"

"The one with a split branch, about ten meters that way."

"Ah!" She fired quickly, squeezing off shots as rapidly as the mechanisms would allow. She missed all of them, but one did hit the trunk near the appointed target, he noted with surprise.

Kipo looked disappointed, but he didn't let her stew in that. "All right, now show me how you reload from full prone."

She tilted it sideways, sliding out the magazine from its place in the scout rifle's bullpup configuration. Reaching out and taking the next one, Kipo slid it in smoothly, if not quickly, and slid the left bolt back. Then she looked back to him.

"Finger off the trigger, I didn't say to fire."

"Oh! Sorry."

"Careful with it. The Night Watch looks light, but I've torn holes in Eliksni battle plate with that."

"Oh, that's its name?"

"Yeah. I didn't name it, though."

"Who did?"

"Some guy named the Drifter." He sat up. "Go again. Aim for the same spot."

She gingerly touched the trigger again, then settled back in. She began firing again, more carefully this time, and suddenly the knot on the distant tree exploded in pieces of wood. "Yass!"

"Here. Hold fire." He rose, snagging a couple cans from the pile he'd brought. The guardian went into the forest a small ways, setting up the cans. He hustled back. "All right. Hit those, now."

Kipo stuck her tongue out in concentration, and soon two of the cans had been knocked off their perches. "Ah! I'm so good at this!"

The guardian rolled his eyes. "All right, you've tried that one. Now which?"

She set the rifle down carefully and sat cross-legged. "Do they all have names?"

"Uh, yeah."

Kipo looked at him expectantly.

He sighed. "Of course you want to know them. Here. I'll point, you say what kind of gun they are, then I'll tell you the names." He pointed to the sniper.

"Sniper rifle."

"Diametta LR-2."

"Ooh, that's pretty. Um, auto rifle."

"Halfdan-D."

"Shotgun."

"Botheration Mk. 28."

"Hah! That one's funny. Pist… no! Sidearm?"

"Yep. Vestian Dynasty."

"Ooooooo. I like that one. Uh…. Big sidearm?"

"Hand cannon."

"What's its name?"

"You got it wrong."

"What!? C'monnnnn, tell me!"

"Nope."

"Please?"

"Ok, never make that face at me again."

"What face? The one that makes you feel all guilty inside?"

"It's the Allegro-34."

"Hah! That's a music word!"

The guardian shrugged. "I wouldn't know."

Kipo looked at him, shock plastering her features. "You don't like music?!"

"I don't know music. Difference. Sometimes the radio picks it up, but the signal is bad." He shrugged. "Anyway. Next weapon. Which one do you want to try?"

"Ah, the hand cannon sounds fun."

The guardian grimaced. "Ok, a few things you should know." He handed the gun to her, and Kipo's eyes widened as she hefted the weapon. "It's very heavy, and the recoil is strong. So, you'll use both hands, like this." He demonstrated using the Dynasty. She mimicked him, and he moved a few of her fingers. "Don't let anything get near the chamber. I've heard stories of the one-tens taking off people's fingers."

"One-tens?"

"One-hundred and ten rounds per minute archetype hand cannons. This is a one hundred and fifty, which means it shoots faster and has more bullets, but doesn't hit as hard. Every weapon has an archetype it belongs to, but that's not super important to you right now. Ready?"

"Yeah…" She sighted down the cannon's barrel, bit her lip, and fired. The gun bucked in her hands and she cried out in surprise, but didn't let go. That was good. "Owwwww..." She winced, shaking out her right hand.

He smiled. "Good job. You held it right, and didn't drop it."

She smiled back, shaking her head. "Wow, that thing's got a kick! Here one sec."'

And then she muttered something to herself he couldn't make out. "What was that?" he asked.

"Nothing!" She raised the cannon again with more confidence, and without pause and a cacophony of reverberating bands, Kipo emptied the cylinder with a grin on her face. "There! That's better. Wow. I didn't hit anything."

The guardian held up a hand. "Wait. You just now did something, tell me what it was."

She met his gaze, eyes wide and innocent. "I got used to it, was all! So then I push this button here?"

"Uh, yeah." He looked at her closely, but didn't see anything… wait.

Kipo awkwardly flicked the cylinder out, then reached to take it. "Ow! Hot!" She sucked on her burned finger. She looked at him, smile still bright. Her irises were that strange shade of pink, but he could have sworn…

"Ok, can I try the auto rifle?"

"Yeah, go ahead," he replied, trying to play it cool, but he knew she had noticed his suspicion. She replaced the revolver and picked up the Halfdan, sighting down the makeshift range. There was something very odd about this girl.

The distinctive clipped ratta-tatta of the rifle echoed, and Kipo quickly picked up that this gun wasn't as much for spraying, taking down a few of the cans they'd set up. She was getting better quickly, but he wanted to test something. "Here, when you're done with that one, try this."

"Ok!" She finished up the magazine, then reloaded the Halfdan smoothly, then set it down. The guardian handed her the Botheration, and she hefted the large shotgun. "Woah. This thing's huge."

"There's bigger, I promise. This one's a little different, it shoots one cartridge at a time, and after every shot, you have to rack the pump." The guardian pointed at the parts, and then mimicked the motion. She nodded. "It takes a lot of strength, so be careful." His voice was the perfect mix of concerned and casual. Maybe he'd be able to catch her doing it this time.

She lifted the shotgun, braced it against her shoulder like he'd taught her, and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened, so she moved to try to pump the shotgun. The mechanism moved very slightly, and she blinked in surprise. The guardian nodded at her. "Go on." She eyed him, then wrestled with the pump again, managing to bring it all the way back. Then triumphantly Kipo shoved it forward, leveled the weapon and fired, the shotgun bucking in her hands.

"Woah! That's crazy! And loud." She met his eyes shiftily, then looked away, rubbing her shoulder. "Don't think I'm gonna like this one much…"

"No no, give it another try," he prodded. "Maybe you'll get used to it."

She groaned but complied, trying it again. It was smoother this time, the guardian noted, but when she fired it again there wasn't anything noticeably off. Either she'd gotten better at hiding it or he'd been mistaken. The guardian shrugged to himself. Even if there was something up, it was up to her to tell him. He wasn't going to pressure her.

"Yeah, I don't think I like shotguns."

"Well, that only leaves you with one close-combat choice."

She looked back at him curiously. "Which one's that?"

He handed her the Vestian Dynasty, and she gave him back the Botheration. "Try the sidearm. It's got quite a punch for its size."

"Sounds like me!" Kipo handled it, inspecting the insignia on the side. Kipo ejected the magazine, looked inside, then slid it back in.

She was getting more confident with her movements, the Guardian noted with pleasure. It also seemed like her arm wound was completely done bothering her, which confirmed something in his mind. She had some kind of latent regeneration ability, and most humans he knew couldn't do that. Not that he knew that many.

Kipo sighted and fired the sidearm, using the same two handed grip he'd shown her on the cannon. Its sharp clacks rang out, and she smiled, showing teeth. The last round was emptied quickly, but the guardian wanted to test her.

"Hey!" He reached into his pocket and tossed another mag at her, and she froze and caught it instinctively. "Combat reload! GO!"

In an instant she had dropped the empty mag and slotted in the new, and with a quick snap of motion she'd racked the first round into the chamber. The guardian grasped an empty ration can in one hand and threw it into the air, and Kipo's eyes locked onto the flying container. The Dynasty rose and a sharp crack echoed through the clearing.

The can clattered to the ground, a pair of holes punched neatly through it.

The guardian clapped, a wide smile breaking out on his face. "Bravo, bravo, Kipo the markswoman!"

It took her a moment to comprehend what she'd done, then Kipo started to laugh. "Wait! How'd I do that!?" She looked down at the gun in her hand, then back at him, joy in her eyes.

"You've got a knack, kid!" He reached over and ruffled her pink hair, and she laughed, lightly pushing his arm away. "How did you feel? You remember your thought process?"

"I guess, it just kinda… clicked, you know?" She grinned mischievously. "Maybe I'm like actually an action hero or something."

He raised an eyebrow. "Don't get cocky. You've got natural talent, but…" He snagged the Allegro off the ground with one hand and grabbed three empty cans in the other. He flung them up, and snapped the hand cannon into position near his hip. Three blasts rang out, and the cans tumbled to the ground, more holed than they'd previously been. He spun the revolver in his hand with a flourish, holstering it. "Doesn't beat experience." The smile dropped from his face, and he lowered his voice. "Everything out here's had to survive, and has experience handling their weapons in do-or-die situations. Every day you're with me, Kipo, you're going to practice, to get you closer to that level. I hope we don't have to fight, but I want you to be ready if we do. You get me?"

Kipo shook the expression of awe off her face and sobered, nodding. "Yeah. I understand, guardian."

He nodded. "Good. Now that's all for today, we need to do something back at the box before we head out. Reload that for me, will you?"

"Ok. Guardian?"

He paused mid-movement. "Yeah, Kipo?"

She sank to a cross-legged position, head lowering slightly. "I don't know if this is a touchy subject, so, you totally don't have to answer if you don't want to."

Wariness rose, but he quashed it. She was being polite, he at least should hear what it was. "What's up?"

"Where did you learn to use guns so well? Did someone train you?"

The guardian sat down, brows lowering. His thoughts swirled as he picked up the sniper rifle and unloaded it, trying to pick out the right thoughts to say to her. "No. I've never been taught by anyone."

"How did you get so good, then?"

Such innocence, in that tone. No ulterior motive, no desire to twist his words and hurt him. It was… amazing. "I guess…" He held the sniper up to his practiced eye, muscles firm and steady from years, if not decades, of training. He looked down the scope, as if he could find answers in the trees. He lowered it, finding nothing. "The man I used to be knew a lot about weapons. And had experience using them."

"Ah…" she said, nodding. Then Kipo shook her head. "Wait, what does that mean? Man you used to be?"

His face darkened, that black weight returning. "It doesn't really mean anything."

She moved to ask again, but saw his face and thought better of it. He shook his head, trying to rid the unwelcome thoughts from his mind. Today was the happiest he'd been in a long time. He shouldn't screw that up with his useless angst.

"All right, c'mon. Gotta get back before lunch. That sparrow isn't going to buy itself."

Noting his attempt at re-lightening the situation, Kipo brightened. "Well, somebody else could, technically…"

"All the more reason to get going. Also, Kipo?"

"Yeah, guardian?"

"How good are you at cutting hair?"