The first priority, Michiru decided, had to be the bandits in the gunner's seat, their machine guns capable of taking the house apart completely, should they decide to use them for that; her breathing slowed as she focused, tuning out the talk of Haruka, Grandpa Hino and his granddaughter, her hands perfectly still when she lifted the rifle, using the window sill as support.
Noticing what she was doing, Haruka stopped her own preparations, watching her closely, eager to find out how good she really was; the bandits were still a good distance away, and in fast moving vehicles no less, the blonde knowing from experience how hard it could be to land a hit under such circumstances.
If Michiru noticed her watching, she didn't let it show, not even glancing at her for a second as she went down on one knee, the rifle's sight now just on eyelevel for her, making it easy for her to focus on her target.
Without noticing it, Haruka held her breath as she looked from her to the quickly approaching cars; she had a second to wonder which one the sniper would go for first, then the shot tore apart the silence, and the head of the bandit in the left car's gunner seat snapped back, a spray of blood visible despite the distance, signalling that Michiru had hit her target.
The sniper rifle shifted, just the tiniest bit, while the bandits still were yelling at the sudden death of their comrade; and not even five seconds after the first shot, the second one followed, and the second man fell from the gunner's seat, just as dead as the first one, Haruka finding herself unable to do anything but stare at Michiru now, deeply impressed by the ease with which she had landed those two headshots.
"…wow", Rei murmured, clearly impressed, as well; and now, Michiru did react, giving them just the briefest glance and a small, tight smile before she focused on her targets again, the driver of the left vehicle falling off and into the dust seconds later as another shot rang out, the only man left in this car crying out in a panic as he scrambled to get hold of the steering wheel.
Not wanting to give him the chance, Rei aimed at her shotgun at the vehicle, then pulled the trigger; to Michiru's surprise, flames began to flicker where the pellets had hit the car and the bandit, the man yelling in pain now as he started beating down on the flames, losing his balance and vanishing beneath the other car seconds later.
By now, Haruka had her gun out, as well, aiming for the tires of the other, still manned car; she fired a few shots, darkly satisfied when one of them was an obvious hit, then Michiru's sniper went off yet again, the driver of the second vehicle joining his mates in the dust as she once more proved just how skilled she was with her rifle.
This left just one of them alive, and, just like his unfortunate companion, he scrambled for the steering wheel; Haruka put an end to that with a well-aimed shot, momentarily proud that she had made the hit – it hadn't been a perfect headshot like the bullets Michiru had fired, but it had done enough damage, the bandit slumping down lifelessly while the cars slowly came to a halt, all the people who had been riding them now dead.
"Well", Rei commented after the engine noise had died down at last, "seems like you are as good as you say. That was impressive."
"Which, coming from Rei, means it was freaking awesome", Haruka practically gushed, Grandpa Hino nodding his agreement, "honestly, I don't think I know anyone else who could have made those shots as perfect as that. That was great."
Anyone else might have feigned modesty now, and perhaps might have thanked the blonde for the kind words; Michiru wasn't like most people though, and thus, she just nodded, not bothering the slightest to pretend that she had thought anything else of her own skill.
"Well, then", she said instead, moving to the table and sitting down there to clean her rifle, prompting the other two women to do the same, "now that we got rid of this most recent threat, Haruka, I suggest we head out to find this bandit next. Nine-Toes, you said his name was?"
"Yes", the blonde agreed, briefly pausing the cleaning of her own weapon as she was fascinated by how fast and nimble Michiru's fingers moved, hurriedly polishing her thoughts before they could drift off to images of those fingers moving like that somewhere else, "we can still go and scout out his camp, it's not that far from here. But first, we should see if we can salvage anything from those cars."
Nodding her agreement, Michiru finished the cleaning and re-assembling of her rifle, then slung it onto her back again; eager to compensate Grandpa Hino for the help he had provided for them, she started to bring out her wad of money, raising an eyebrow in surprise when the old man immediately shook his head.
"We have no use for your money", he then let her know, "if word gets out that you pay the people who point you into the right direction, you'll not only have a million men and women lining up to give you hints, but it'll also cause more bandit attacks. If what I know turns out to be useful, payment after you found the vault and the treasure will be enough."
"…alright", Michiru agreed after a moment, not sure what to think of this; she pocketed the money again, almost expecting the old man to tell her that he had changed his mind, not used to anyone giving her anything for free, especially not since she had left her home planet to search for treasure, "thank you. I'll make sure you'll be compensated once we found the vault."
The old man just nodded in response, giving her a bright smile; then, Rei gained the sniper's attention again by asking if they were ready to go salvage the cars now, making it Michiru's turn to nod, the three of them heading out to the vehicles moments later.
"I was surprised to see you use that kind of gun", Michiru remarked to Rei as they reached the cars and started going through the pockets of the dead men, looting ammunition and money from them, "I didn't know Maliwan technology had spread that far. How much did you pay for this?"
"Nothing", Rei smirked, with a brief, proud glance at the shotgun, "I took it off a dead bandit. I have been using it ever since, that added fire effect is really quite practical."
"I thought about getting one of their sniper guns", Michiru let her know in response, briefly wondering where the bandit Rei had mentioned had gotten that gun – Maliwan guns were some of the most advanced and expensive out there, rare even in the upper class of her homeworld, "but with the customizations I wanted, the price would have been ridiculous."
Briefly, she thought back to the purchase of her rifle; she had gotten it before everything about her family's finances had gone to hell, but already back then, the bankruptcy had been looming on the horizon, and her mother, in a rare bout of talking back to her father, had made sure that not too much money would be spent on her weapons, being the one who never really had approved of her talents, thinking that shooting things was no proper pastime for a lady.
"Here", Haruka's voice distracted her from those thoughts, making her look over at the blonde, "he had some sniper rifle ammunition, I suppose you have tons, but better have too much than not enough, huh?"
"Indeed", Michiru agreed at once, accepting the ammunition and pocketing it; they made sure that they hadn't missed anything else, going through all the pockets of the bandits and the bags on their cars once more, then finally parted ways, Rei heading back to her home while Haruka and Michiru got back into the blonde's vehicle, ready to scout out their next target.