The interior of the Goodsprings general store was stuffy and cluttered. The leather jacket and pants charitably advertised as "leather armor" that Akira had just put on wasn't helping. He glanced at his left sleeve, reaching just above his elbow. "Will it… will it do anything to protect me?" he asked Sunny.

"Should be enough for wildlife bites," she replied, then glanced at the shopkeeper, "though it would've done a better job if it was in better quality."

"That's the best I've got," the shopkeeper protested. "After the gunfight the townsfolk rushed in to grab whatever I had left, just in case of Powder Gangers attacking again."

Akira noted the implication that there was a first attack on the town, but said nothing.

"Please tell me you've got at least one gun left," the courier pleaded.

"Two, in fact." The shopkeeper dived behind a thoroughly damaged glass counter and came back up with a rifle and a pistol. The rifle was a well-worn bolt-action with a wooden stock and a detachable box magazine, looking like it had seen better days. The pistol looked crude but functional. It was the color of stainless steel, with black hand grips. Akira picked it up and inspected it in his hands – it resembled the Tkachev model he had been using at the beginning of his Phantom Thief career, and he wondered if the universe was messing with him.

"You like it, huh?" Chet smiled, misinterpreting his expression.

It was heavier than the plastic imitation he had used before, and that was putting him on edge. "I guess? I don't know much about guns."

"They're good enough for a start," the courier proclaimed. "We'll take both, and an ammo box for each. What's the total?"

"Okay then…" The shopkeeper pushed the buttons on the cash register on the counter as he went: "Leather armor, varmint rifle, Tokarev, box of 9 mil, box of .22… that'll be a hundred caps."

"That's not how you pronounce 'seventy', Chet," the courier said.

"Look," Chet replied, "just because you shot a few convicts that tried to storm the town doesn't mean I can operate at a loss."

Curiosity overcame Akira's desire to keep his head down. "What convicts? Did I miss something?"

"A bunch of cons broke out of the prison down south a few days ago," the courier explained. "They tried to attack the town and capture a caravaneer that shot back at them, but I whipped up a militia with Sunny and shot most of them, including the leader." He chuckled. "Heck, I found you unconscious when I was digging up graves for the dead Gangers!"

Up on the hill, near the water tower, there was a cemetery with a bunch of new graves.

Since almost none of the attackers wanted to introduce themselves, only one of them was marked in any form.

Joe Cobb

dunno – XX/XX/2281

nothing of value was lost that day

"So," Akira said, pointing at the Courier, "this guy helped save your town from a bunch of criminals, and now you don't want to give him a discount on the scraps you have left?"

"He already got me to supply the townsfolk with armor free of charge," Chet protested.

"And then they came back and bought what remained of your stock," Akira countered. "Would the Powder Gangers bother with paying for your wares, or would they just loot the place?"

Chet gave him an irritated stare, but Akira "fought a god to a standstill" Kurusu was past being concerned by such things. Finally, he said: "Eighty caps. If that's too much, you can walk to Primm and do your shopping there."

"Deal," Sunny proclaimed.

Her and the courier paid their share each, grabbed the goods and left, followed by Cheyenne and Akira. "Is haggling like that common here?" he asked.

"Kinda," the courier replied. "You can get a few percent off as long as you don't push things too far." He turned to Sunny. "Could you go to the bar and get a few empty Sass bottles for plinking?"

"On it." She marched to the side door of the Prospector saloon and her dog followed.

"In the meantime, let's go through the basics." The courier pulled out the new- okay, the newly-bought pistol and showed it to Akira. "First question – is this gun loaded?"

Seeing a trick question from a mile away, Akira replied: "Yes, because you've loaded it while I wasn't watching, haven't you?"

"Nope," the courier replied, and pulled the slide back. It locked in place, revealing an empty chamber. "But that's a good first instinct you've got there. Treat every gun as loaded, unless you've personally checked it isn't. And even then – once a year, a gun fires on its own, so better safe than sorry." He pushed a lever on the side and the slide went back into place. "Now," he handed it over, grip-first, "point it at something."

Akira grabbed the Tokarev with his right hand, scanning the area. The message the courier tried to convey was obvious – there had to be a 'good' place to point a loaded gun at in the area. He thought about it for a few seconds, then something clicked in his head and he lowered his arm, pointing the muzzle towards the ground. "Done."

"Good," the courier did a golf clap. "Rule number two – don't point the gun at anything you don't intend to destroy. Rule number three is finger off the trigger until you're ready to shoot."

"Oh." Akira removed his index finger from the trigger and put it in parallel with the barrel. "Of course, it makes sense. If it twitches too much or something, I might end up firing on accident."

"Wow, you're picking up fast," the courier smiled.

"I mean, it all seems logical, y'know," Akira replied. Guns are deadly, gotta make sure they don't fire where and when you don't want them to."

"You'd be shocked at how many people don't realize that," the courier replied, reaching for the pistol. Akira handed it over, and he continued: "I'll just tell you the last rule upfront – pay attention to what's behind your targets. Bullets can miss, or go all the way through and hit whatever's in the back. For example, if there's a hard flat surface in the way," he knocked on the saloon's brick wall, "the bullet can ricochet and go in a random direction."

The side door opened and out came Sunny, carrying a wooden box filled with glass bottles. "Sorry, I got sidetracked chatting with Trudy."

"It's okay," the courier reassured her. "Give me the bottles, I'll set 'em up for target practice."

The three plus the dog walked west, towards a dilapidated gas station. About midway between it and the saloon, the courier gestured at Akira to stay in place, then walked to the damaged asphalt road.

"Sunny?" Akira spoke up, "I keep thinking about you having to kill the convicts in self-defense. Is that… common in this world?"

"Some thugs and highwaymen shoot first and ask questions never," she replied. She then noticed his unease with the concept and raised an eyebrow. "Not used to that, are you?"

"Not… directly," he admitted. "I'm more of a sneaky, subterfuge-y type of guy."

The courier put the bottles of Sarsaparilla on the road in a neat row. The terrain was just slightly elevated relative to where Akira was standing and there was a sloped hill behind them that'd stop any stray bullets. Anyone that would've wanted to travel that road would've done so slowly enough to get noticed, but with the fuck-off bugs that nested down the path, the courier found that unlikely.

"Alright," he shouted, trotting back to the group, "we're doing the rifle first." He displayed the rifle to Akira. "Locals call this the varmint rifle – a bunch of different manufacturers make it, the parts are roughly interchangeable." He pulled the bolt back and detached the magazine from the gun. "The mag fits five .22s," he said, loading tiny cartridges, five by twenty-five-ish millimeters as far as Akira could tell, into it. "They're weak, but if you put one or two into a gecko's skull they should stop it dead in its tracks, and the rifle's accurate enough that you can do that reliably at up to hundred yards even without practice."

Akira was curious about what a 'varmint' was (and a yard, come to think of it) but bit his tongue. That was already a lot of information to take in.

"Now watch how I do it." The courier loaded the magazine and pushed the bolt forward and a bit down. The sound of the gunshot was quieter than Akira expected, almost drowned out by the sound of a shattered bottle. The courier pulled the bolt up and back, ejecting a spent casing, then pushed it forward and down. Another shot, another broken bottle. The courier loaded and fired three more bullets, hitting the targets dead on without issue, and then left the bolt pulled back. "Alright," he put the gun on the ground and placed five cartridges next to it. "Your turn. Load it, then fire at the bottles down there. Careful, the barrel's a bit hot."

Akira hesitantly approached the rifle and, after a struggle, removed the magazine. "Do I get some spare clips?" he asked, loading the cartridges.

"Two for each gun," the courier replied. "I think that's the standard procedure with Mojave's stores."

With some fumbling, Akira got all five bullets in the magazine, put it back in the rifle, and chambered a round. He mimicked the courier's position – supporting the gun with his left hand, putting the right hand on the trigger, resting the stock on his shoulder and putting his cheek on it.

"Focus your eyes on the front sight," the courier instructed. "And press the trigger smoothly, don't yank it or it'll throw off your aim."

Akira pulled the trigger as smoothly as he could. There was much less recoil to it than he had expected. The bullet went a bit above the bottle he aimed at. "Tch." He noticed there was a brief moment right after the exhale where the gun remained steadier and decided to fire in that exact moment. The bottle shattered with another bang. The next three shots were a hit, a miss, and a hit. He left the bolt open and lowered the gun. "That was… slow."

"Yeah, bolt-action rifles are good at long-range shooting, so that you have time to operate them before a gecko catches up with you," Sunny admitted. "If something gets closer, you have the pistol."

"Eyup." He pulled out the handgun again, made sure there's no bullets in the chamber, and displayed it to Akira. "It's semi-auto, so when you get it ready to fire, it'll fire when you pull the trigger. You get it ready to fire by putting in the mag and pulling a slide all the way back to chamber a round." He racked the slide, and it stayed back. "If it stays like this, you gotta reload. Press the button on the side to release the mag before pulling it out." He pressed said button and the magazine went down a centimeter or two. "We're running outta bottles, so I'll skip the demonstration." He reached into one of his pockets with his free hand and pulled out eight bullets, wider and slightly shorter than the rifle ones. "Load it, then unload it at the targets."

Akira took the kit from him and put all eight cartridges in the magazine. He then put it back in the gun and released the slide. He took aim with one hand, like he had done so many times before with an airsoft model, focused on the front sight, like with the rifle before, and pulled the trigger.

BANG!

It was loud, louder than the rifle for some reason. The gun had more of a kick to it than he had expected. The mechanism didn't cycle properly, leaving a casing stuck in the ejection port. It hit the bottle dead on though.

"Limp wrist," Sunny commented. "Hold that pistol firmly or this will keep happening."

"Tilt the gun to the side and pull the slide so that thing falls out," the courier suggested.

Akira did so and took aim again. Long story short: hit, miss, hit, hit, hit, miss, hit. The fact that he was more accurate with a handgun than a rifle didn't evade the courier.

"Well, that's the basics," he said. "There's more to say about various ammo types, proper gun maintenance, and other possible malfunctions, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

"Congratulations, now you know how to hunt sarsaparilla bottles," Sunny chuckled to herself. "Now that you know the absolute basics, how does shooting moving targets sound?"

Akira felt uncomfortable but didn't want to jump to conclusions. "...elaborate."

"There's a water source not that far away from the town. It attracts wild geckos."

Akira raised an eyebrow. "Geckos? Like, tiny lizards?"

"They might've been tiny pre-War," the courier butted in, "but now they're a few feet tall, bipedal, and very angry."

"And, like I said, they're attracted to our water source," Sunny continued. "They ain't tough if you fight back, but they move in packs and can catch an unprepared traveler off-guard. With the two of us-"

"I'll tag along, free of charge," the courier butted in.

"Lovely," she commented. "So, with the three of us, we should clear them out no problem. You'll get some money and safe hunting practice, and I'll get some meat to eat and hides to sell. How does that sound?"

While he was staunchly opposed to killing people, Akira found himself not bothered by the prospect of hunting wildlife, especially one dangerous to humans. "How long will that take? I still want to go out there and look for my friends."

"Only a few hours at most," Sunny replied. "You'll still be able to reach Primm before sundown."

"Then I'm in."

"Great," She glanced at the courier. "Give him the ammo and spare mags so he can load up."

The leather armor had some pouches on its belt, and so Akira put the 9mm ammo box in one, the .22 box in the other, and the empty mags in the third, bigger than the other two. Sunny and the courier watched his eyes linger on the pistol for a bit too long for some reason before she decided to speak up: "You know, you took me aback when you said it and I didn't think to ask, but how did you end up bothering a god enough to get banished by him?"

"Well," Akira pressed the mag release button, "it started a year or so ago." A beat. "From my point of view, I mean."

The Varmint Rifle rechambering was a part of JSawyer Ultimate.

The Tokarev pistol comes from… basically any Millenia weapon compilation, but I'm using Another Millenia at the time of writing. It's available as a standalone mod on Nexus though.