Muv Luv: Grim Alternative
Disclaimer: I do not own Muv Luv Alternative or the characters, only the OC. So let's get the show on the road!
'Thoughts.' Thoughts or Neon mentally talking.
"Hey!" Takeru talking.
"HEY!" Samara talking.
Chapter 4: New Day, New Challenges
Thursday, October 25th 2011, My Room
Another day came and I woke up and sat up on my bed. It was also at the same time that I sensed someone outside the door to my room and I silently got up and crept up to the door using my enhanced vision to see in the dark since the lights were off. While pressed against the door I watched as it opened and in came whoever was at my door who turned out to be Kasumi. She turned on the lights and then looked surprised when she noticed that the bed was empty.
"In case you're wondering I'm already awake and good morning to you." I greeted surprising the young girl who spun around to look at me with wide eyes. I just raised a brow in amusement at her look. "What? You weren't expecting me to be an early riser?" She shook her head in reply. "Whatever, thanks for trying anyways. Not necessary but also not unwanted."
She looked at me for a few seconds and then said, "Bye-bye." She went to the door and stood there looking at me as if waiting for something.
"Okay…Sure, bye-bye." I managed to say.
She then turned around and left my room.
'Okay…That was…unexpected.'
"What was unexpected?" spoke my partner.
'Kasumi came to wake me up this morning. Unfortunately I was already up.'
"Not surprising. Apparently in the last loop she did the same for Takeru."
'Is that right? Speaking of him is he still sleeping?'
"Yes…the moron's still asleep."
'Whatever. He'll wake up when he wants to.'
I checked my watch to see that there was still time before the wakeup call. Once again I'd woken up early and so I used the time to do some light exercises in my room.
…
Training Field
"Aim for the 100 meter target! Fire one round at a time at full auto!"
Once again the squad was at the training field for firearms training. And now we were with our assault rifles with Instructor Jinguuji giving the order to hit a target from a 100 meters using single shots while in full auto. I smirked for once at this. Finally something that may be challenging as I'd never done anything like this before.
"Now!"
RATATATTATATATATTATA!
Our guns went off as we all fired at our targets using single shots at a time while in full auto.
"Okay!" With that I stopped firing. Yeah, that was a bulls-eye alright. This was something new to me I'd admit but it still wasn't challenging enough. It wasn't that hard to carefully pull the trigger multiple times to only shoot one bullet at a time. The only real challenge is preventing the recoil from the full auto messing with your aim and making you go full auto. For me it wasn't a big deal since I already had firearms training except this new training exercise was a new wrinkle. Since I was done I decided to watch the others try to hit the target.
"Wow! Class rep's rounds are hitting the target." I heard Takeru cheer.
'So you finally decided to talk? And here I thought you were still going to keep moping about you nearly waking up late.'
"I blame you for that. You could have woken me up you know." Takeru complained.
"You'll have to be fucking stupid to blame Neon for your own incompetence." Samara snapped.
Takeru kept his mouth shut immediately after Samara talked. I returned my focus to the training exercise. It was then Takeru noticed something off about not only Chizuru's shooting technique but the other squad members. They were all getting too trigger happy. Takeru suggested that I bring this to their attention but I didn't as I didn't see the issue then and told him not to bother about it. However he didn't like that and he took over my body and then brought the issue to their attention. He mentioned that their way of training had gotten them too used to shooting like that and that could carry over to when they were in their TSF. He advised them about a better technique which is more effective and would reduce risk of friendly fire in the field. It actually made sense funny enough though I'm not surprised as I'd mostly worked solo and even when I worked with another squad I did my own thing but still assisted them all the same. After all that Samara and I told Takeru that we were going to beat the ever living crap out of him for taking over my body without permission something he wasn't looking forward to.
Next part was sniping. Takeru had also mentioned that Tamase was the squad sniper, in fact the best of them when it came to the art. Samara was grinning at that while yelling girl power. I was interested in seeing the cat looking girl's skills for myself so I approached her.
"Hey Tamase." I called.
"What is it Neon-san?" Tamase asked.
"Can you hit that target over there?" I pointed to a target that was 300m away.
"Eh? That 300m target?"
"Yes."
"Good question…I could probably hit that…"
I raised a brow in confusion. I expected her to be more confident in her skills. Most snipers I knew were very confident of their skill and 300m was considered easy to them.
"Hmmm…how about that one?" I pointed to another target which was 500m.
"500m? Hmm…I'm not so sure…"
"Really? I expected you to be a lot more confident in your sniping ability considering how good of a sniper you are." That got Tamase's attention. And Takeru was starting to yell at me for blurting out that fact.
"Who told you that?" Tamase asked.
"Professor Kouzuki." I lied. No way in hell am I going to tell her that some kid in my head told me this. Said kid was sighing in relief for my quick thinking and now yelling at me again for calling him a kid. I ignored his rant for the situation at hand.
"You don't need to be modest about it Tamase. Show Neon what you're made of." Chizuru said. Most likely she'd heard our discussion. Tamase laughed nervously as she turned to the squad leader.
"I'm not good enough to show off." She said modestly. Well I can appreciate modesty too but there are also times when one has to show off to prove a point.
"C'mon. Take his breath away." Chizuru encouraged. Oh? Is she telling her to go all out? Then this should be good. "We can't keep losing to him, now can we?" she finished.
"Uuuu…That's true, I guess…okay I'll try." Tamase said with more confidence before she went off to set up.
"Nice of you to encourage her." I stated to Chizuru who just peeked at me.
"Oh? I was being serious." Chizuru replied.
"Really? Not surprising since you're the squad leader." I said.
"Is that sarcasm?" Chizuru said before she giggled, "Watch. Tamase is really incredible. A genius even."
Really eh? Tamase must be really good if Chizuru's saying this about her teammate.
According to Takeru, Tamase has panic attacks but she's been able to suppress it with sheer willpower at this stage, which is a good thing as that's the last thing a sniper would want in the middle of a battle.
"Hey can I use prone position for this?" Tamase asked, bringing me out of my thoughts.
"Huh? Oh yeah. Do it anyway you want." I replied. She nodded and turned towards the field and faced the target.
"Well then here goes…though the wind's kinda bugging me…" Tamase said in slight worry.
I licked my index finger and raised it up to feel the air. There was a small wind alright, though not enough to be a big deal. "The wind's not that strong though." I stated.
"Think you can hit it?" Chizuru asked.
"Yeah. This isn't too bad…Okay now!"
While Tamase was getting into position Chizuru handed me a pair of binoculars. I took them and looked at the target just as Tamase opened fire at it.
BANG!
Dead center. I'm impressed. More shots were fired after and each one hit dead center. Yes Takeru was correct, this girl is very good.
"HA! I told you so!" Takeru said with pride.
…
Classroom
"You ready?"
"Of course I'm ready. Let's do this."
"You seem very confident of yourself."
"Do you expect me not to?"
"No I didn't, just hoping you're not getting arrogant."
"No need to worry about that. Let's do this."
My vision blackened as Chizuru put the blindfold on. Once more we were doing field stripping in class and this time I was to reassemble a rifle blindfolded. Samara and I smirked as we both knew this wasn't going to be much of an issue for me. Anyways this activity was to prepare us cadets for the worse case scenarios in the field.
"Still reassembling a rifle together while blindfolded…I can't think of any time when this small arms training came in handy." Takeru stated.
'What are you trying to say? That the training is useless?' I asked, 'There's a use for all this training even if it hasn't come in handy. Worst case scenarios can happen at any time.'
"Yeah I know…but in the last loop those situations never came up…actually I haven't even seen real combat at all."
'Which sounds like a crappy excuse as far as I'm concerned.'
"Hey are you ready?" Chizuru asked.
"Yeah, I am I'll get started."
I began reassembling the rifle while seeing nothing but black. Soon enough I was done and I removed the blindfold to see my handiwork.
"Eh? Already?" Tamase asked in surprise. I could also see Chizuru and the others being surprised too.
"Yes. Something wrong?" I replied. No, seriously this has been drilled into me years ago that I can even do this in my sleep any day any time. This is starting to get insulting. "Instructor, I'm going to get it adjusted."
"Alright go ahead. Don't put a magazine in it while walking." The instructor stated.
"Understood." A tip to avoid getting shot for a misunderstanding.
Shooting range…
There was a slight breeze out here and I have to hit a target from 300m, no biggie.
BANG!
A hit though not a bulls-eye, just have to adjust my aim a little to the left. Let's go again.
BANG!
That's more like it. Still the fact that I didn't get dead center the first time is still off for me considering my training or maybe it's because I haven't been in action for a while.
"So…How's it going?" Tamase came up to me.
"Looks like mine is fine." I replied, "What about you?"
"Mine's good." Tamase replied happily. Then she went prone and fired a shot at her own target.
"Good to hear." I said as I checked her target. Once again dead on! "Once again you nail it! You're just as good as Chizuru said."
"Well a good sniper is good at adjusting her weapon which isn't surprising for someone like Tamase here." Samara stated. "She's very good at her craft."
"On that we can agree." Takeru replied.
"Alright I'll have a crack at that." I said as I also got into position.
"Good luck!" Tamase said.
Well like her I'd already adjusted my weapon once so this should be easier.
BANG!
"Ah, amazing!" Tamase said in awe.
"Really? That's nothing special." I replied. If I was just a normal cadet I'd be acting arrogant here but my boss had made sure to remove arrogance from me so that it doesn't make me slack off in anyway. Something I'm glad for as I've seen what that same arrogance can do first hand, and the results were never good. Anyways I hit dead center once again. Looks like the first adjustment was good after all although I would have preferred to have nailed it the first time around but we can't always get what we want now, right? "Besides it took me two attempts to hit the bulls-eye unlike you who needed one attempt."
"Eh? Why? There's nothing wrong with having to check your weapon a few times! And look you hit dead center." Tamase said.
"…True." I never thought that I'd get talked to like that by anyone except the boss, not to mention being complimented. Most of the time it was just 'Good work!' or 'Keep up the effort.' This world just keeps intriguing me. "Thanks Tamase!"
"You're welcome Neon-san." Tamase replied, "Oh, by the way, can you do long range shots?"
"Yes I can, though whether as good as you that remains to be seen." I answered, "I'll give it a go."
"Really? Show me! Show me!" Tamase requested like the kid she is.
"Now it's their turn to be blown away." Samara giggled.
"Why? Is Neon very good at sniping?" Takeru asked.
"…Look for yourself…Actions speak louder than words right?" Samara answered.
"Oh? A long range shot in front of Tamase? That's some nerve." Chizuru spoke up.
"What? She's the one that wants to see my sniping skill in action." I deadpanned. "It's not like I'm trying to compete with her to begin with."
"Really? Either way I want to see this."
"You can use my sniper rifle Neon-san." Tamase said and then gave me her sniper rifle to use.
"Thanks." I took the weapon from her.
"Then how about that target?" Chizuru asked pointing to a distant target. I looked ahead and saw that it was 850m away. Really? Are her expectations that high? She gave me the binoculars which I used to check for myself. Yes it was definitely the 850m one.
"Can you do it?"
"Only one way to find out." A rookie wouldn't have a prayer in hitting that target. Fortunately I'm no rookie but they do not know that…with the exception of Professor Yuuko.
Whatever. I dropped into prone position and got the weapon set up. "Well then let's do this."
"Oh? The English style? That's what Tamase uses." Chizuru stated.
"Really? English style of sniping? Never knew that shooting from prone position originated from England." I replied. "The soldiers from the Netherlands snipe like this too and so do the Americans."
"Is that so? Whatever, do as you please."
"Oh I will." I loaded one bullet into the sniper rifle.
"Just one? Are you sure?"
"One's all I need to hit a target."
Chizuru shrugged and left me to my devices.
"So confident…" Tamase said.
"Don't you mean overconfident?" Chizuru deadpanned.
I ignored them to focus and aim down the sights.
BANG!
There was silence after that which was starting to get annoying.
"So what do you think?" I asked. I could see it for myself with the binoculars but I wanted to see their expressions first.
"You don't already know?" Chizuru asked.
"Maybe, maybe not." I shrugged.
We looked through the binoculars and saw the result for ourselves and I knew what was coming next. I hit a bulls-eye after all.
"A-amazing Neon-san!" Tamase exclaimed.
"I want to know where you learnt that." Chizuru said in suspicion.
Years ago at the UNWOP HQ. Of course that's in a different dimension.
"Besides I made that shot thanks to Tamase adjusted the weapon already. So she already made it easy for me." I explained just to get Chizuru's suspicion off me.
"No, no…that was your own skill Neon-san." Tamase corrected.
"Maybe, maybe not. I still hit the target anyways right?"
"That's true, but..." Chizuru replied.
"Okay that's enough for today. Dismissed!" Instructor Jinguuji said to signify the end of today's training session.
"Salute!"
…
Classroom
"Looks like you have a problem Neon."
'You think Takeru!?'
When we returned to class I had suggested that we go to the PX for lunch. Tamase agreed to it but the rest were not so eager and I had an idea why. The training session today. But I had to play the ignorant one to not make them suspicious.
"What's wrong? Aren't we going to have lunch?"
Meiya began, "I should not continue to be surprised at your abilities, but that was…" Yes. I was on point.
"Really? Are you still going on about that shot? It's not like I outdid Tamase, it's not like all of you can't do that right?"
"We can but…" Kei said.
"Neon…have you been conscripted before?" Chizuru asked.
Why am I not surprised? I had a feeling that this was coming eventually due to my performance in the training sessions and classes. Still I didn't expect it to be this soon.
She continued, "It's just too weird. You joined less than a month ago, but you can do everything better than us."
"That is true. You are far from normal." Meiya added.
"Really? Really? That's what you're going off about?" I asked in annoyance. They are poking their noses where they shouldn't and here I thought they respected each other's privacy.
Kei just stared at me.
"You can stop staring Ayamine." I deadpanned.
"You're incredibly incredible." Ayamine said.
"That's right. You can shoot, snipe, hand to hand combat and everything." Tamase added.
"Strangely enough, you even know everything that we've been lectured on." Chizuru also added.
"Strangely? Really!?" I asked. I was getting more annoyed by the second.
"B-b-but we're squad mates now. W-whatever you did in the past, as long as you can benefit the squad…" Tamase said trying to defuse the situation.
"Yes, of course, but still…" Chizuru said.
"You want a reason? Here it is…you remember that relative of mine that was a retired GSG-9 operator? Well not only did he teach me about weapons he also taught me how to use them! Same for some of the stuff we know in class and my hand to hand combat skills! So there, you happy now!" I angrily explained which startled them. While that was a whole bunch of crap I was getting sick and tired of their suspicions. "Ugh! Whatever, I'm hungry, I'll see you all in the PX." I wasted no time getting out of that classroom since I needed to calm down a bit. Some grub from the PX would help with that.
…
While I walked down the hallway Takeru and I were having a discussion.
"You didn't need to yell at them like that, Neon."
'Oh and you expected me to just calmly talk to them considering how annoying their questioning was?'
"Well…yes. Don't forget that we need to keep the squad united so that they can graduate quickly. With the way you're outdoing them they're starting to feel inferior to you."
'So you want me to start holding back?'
"Yeah."
'Bullshit! Not happening. Holding back is an insult as far as I'm concerned.'
"But…"
'No buts Takeru! They don't like me outdoing them? Then they should do something about it and get better. In fact I think this should make them strive to get better since I've raised the bar for them which will help in raising everyone's skill level and graduating early.'
"I know that Neon. I'm just saying that if you're not careful our actions may lower squad morale which would make things worse."
'Fine. I'll try and be careful about my actions but don't expect me to hold back a lot. Maybe just a little.'
"Of course. That's all I ask."
'Whatever…Just don't rush things kid.'
"Kya!"
Due to me not focusing on my surroundings, a mistake on my part, someone bumped into me and fell down while I kept my balance. Luckily for the person I managed to catch them and keep them from landing on the floor.
"Are you alright?" I asked.
"Ah, yes…I'm fine, what about you?" A female voice replied, meaning that the person that bumped into me was a girl.
"Yeah I'm just fine." I said as I looked up to see the girl that bumped into me. She was shorter than me with short green hair, brown eyes and wearing the same uniform I remember seeing the girls wear. So she's also a cadet like the rest of us. It was then that I heard Takeru gasp.
'What is it Takeru? You know her?'
"Yeah…That's…"
'That's who? Spit it out already boy!'
"That's Yoroi Mikoto!"
Chapter 4 End.
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