You Fire a Shot and Let Me See

Wood: "..."

Gion: "(Д)"

Wood, looking completely unconcerned and waiting to deliberately lose later, and Gion, brimming with fighting spirit and ready to redeem herself, having even picked out a gun, both froze when they heard the Captain Instructor's words!

"The others have already started preparing. What are you two still standing around for?"

Seeing everyone else moving to carry the shells while Gion and Wood, assigned to the same team, remained rooted to the spot, the instructor immediately barked at them.

"Instructor, I'd like to request a transfer to another team. You said earlier that this test required teamwork, didn't you?

But I don't think I have any teamwork with this person whatsoever!"

Gion was fine teaming up with anyone—anyone but Wood. She even thought she could load the cannon, adjust its firing angle, and fire it all by herself. She could manage perfectly well on her own.

"Quiet! I'm the instructor here. Before you can become good Marines, you need to learn to follow orders!

Are you planning to disobey your superior's orders like this in the middle of a battle once you become full-fledged Marines?

If you don't have any chemistry, you can build it over time. If you don't want to attend class, you can leave now. Of course, I'll give you a zero for the test."

The Captain Instructor looked at Gion with a stern expression. After Vice Admiral Tsuru had learned that Gion had talked back to him during a test, she had specifically come to see him.

She had also made it clear that the Marine Academy didn't play favorites. Gion's current status was that of a new recruit, and if she broke the rules, there was no need to spare her feelings.

The threat of getting a zero on the test had no effect on Wood whatsoever.

He'd wanted to be an unremarkable supporting character from the start. As long as he didn't do so poorly that he got kicked out of the Marine Academy, he really didn't care whether he made something of himself after graduating.

Wood wasn't Kaji. He had no interest in trying to win over Gion when she clearly couldn't stand him. So just as he was about to give up on the test, someone suddenly grabbed his shoulder.

"Where do you think you're going? Didn't you hear what the instructor said? If we don't cooperate during training, we'll get the lowest score on this test!"

Unlike Wood, Gion cared a lot about her grades. Her shooting test score had already been quite mediocre, and if she got the worst score on this artillery test too, she really wouldn't dare face Tsuru.

"I heard him. But you must hate me, Gion. Even if we force ourselves to work together, we won't have the same chemistry as the others.

Wouldn't it be better to give up from the start than to try our best and still get crushed?"

Gion's tone had been somewhat awkward at first, but after hearing Wood's ridiculous reasoning, it turned stern and serious.

"What are you talking about? If you give up so easily, how can you ever become a good Marine?

And how do you know we'll get crushed if we haven't even tried? Teamwork doesn't depend on how close people are. It depends on their personalities.

Sometimes, rivals work better together than best friends. Besides, it's not that I hate you, it's just..."

"Anyway, you're not leaving on your own. If you make me come in last on this test, I won't let you off!"

A few minutes later, Wood and Gion stood behind a cannon. Wood had carried over box after box of shells and loaded the black cannonballs into the barrel, waiting for Gion to adjust the firing angle.

That's right—in the end, Wood had given in...

Gion was, after all, the future "Momousagi." He was determined to be an inconspicuous supporting character, and he couldn't afford to offend someone of Admiral Candidate caliber.

"Momousagi" already had a negative opinion of him, so at the very least, he couldn't let things stay that way forever.

If he couldn't get on her good side, at least he shouldn't make her hate him completely.

Besides, before Kaji left the Marine Academy, he had told Wood to take good care of Gion—and had already paid him for it. It would be a little hard to justify taking the money and doing nothing.

"Boom—!"

A dazzling flash burst from the cannon's barrel. As the gunpowder burned, it generated tremendous force, propelling the black cannonball into the air.

Following a perfect parabolic arc, the cannonball landed dozens of meters away from the marker...

With an antique medieval cannon like this, the blast radius was at most a few meters. Missing by this much meant the shot was practically useless.

"Looks like the barrel was angled a little too high. Let me adjust it again. I'll definitely hit the marker next time."

Looking at the huge crater the explosion had made in the distance, Gion wore a confident expression. She felt she had made tremendous progress since her first shot. If she practiced a little more, she was sure to pass the test.

"Wood, what are you standing around for? Hurry up and load another shell! At this rate, you're obviously not going to keep up with my firing speed."

A full minute had passed since she fired, yet Wood was still standing there doing nothing. Gion was clearly unhappy with his obvious effort to drag her down.

"It's not that I don't want to load another shell. We're almost out. If we keep firing, we probably won't have enough ammunition left for the actual test."

The Marines at Marine Headquarters weren't made of money. Ammunition cost money, so they couldn't provide an unlimited supply for new recruits to practice with.

Each team had been given one cannon and two boxes of shells. There were twenty shells in each box, which meant they had about forty shots in total.

They needed to fire three shots during the test, so that left them with thirty-seven chances to practice.

Gion had already used up nearly two-thirds of the shells, yet the little marker flag planted in the dirt was still bravely fluttering in the wind.

"I've improved a lot since the start. Next time..."

"Next time, you'll definitely hit it, right? But I've heard you say that more than ten times already.

You really have improved with every shot. At first, you missed by fifty meters. Now you're missing by around forty.

Based on the twenty shells you've used, you're getting about half a meter closer to the target per shell, on average.

So my preliminary assessment is that even if you use up every shell here, your odds of hitting it will still be very low.

Of course, it's possible you'll suddenly get lucky and hit it. But I don't think that kind of luck is going to keep holding up during the test."

The girl had been brimming with excitement and confidence, but after hearing Wood's deadpan analysis, she couldn't help looking embarrassed.

But then she remembered that his shooting score had been about as bad as hers, and she retorted indignantly, "You're talking like you're such a good shot. Fire a shot and let me see!"