The Odewara Gun Girls Auxiliary arrived at the competition field out in the countryside near Hiroshima. Two dozen big tour buses were already parked like big walruses owning their section of beach, with passenger cars and vans filling the parking lot. These buses had brought the six GGAs for the American Zone along with spectators for the event. Yuriko and Ito, the club’s school advisor, led the team off their bus and towards the field. There would be about a hundred competitors for the second regional tournament of the year. After the third competition, the scores would be tallied up, and the best-scoring team would advance to the national tournament.

  The shooting field was a large outdoor range with an earthen berm acting as a backstop and low hills behind it. Viewing stands were set up well behind the firing line to comfortably seat the six hundred spectators there. Bright-coloured pennants and blue flags of the National GGA Association fluttered over the stands. It was a sunny day with only a light breeze, so it was a good thing the stands were partially covered along with the seating areas for the competitors. Vending machines with hot and cold drinks were in abundance at the venue in the countryside, but the cold drinks got all the business. The nearest convenience store was a good kilometre away in the nearest town.

  “This is exciting,” Karen said, looking around at all the other teams already there. “It looks like everyone is ready to go.” Each team wore its distinct school uniforms in addition to its GGA armbands and slung rifles. It was a colourful mix of different-coloured blazers and pleated skirts. All of the girls appeared to be quite animated, and they pumped each other up for the day’s events.

  “Oh, there are more food vendors than normal,” Sarah said. “There is even a yakitori stand over there!”

  “You’re always hungry,” Ayako said. “How’s this? Sarah, you’re the best marksman here. If you get a perfect score on the 300-metre targets, I’ll treat you to BBQ.”

  “I want meat,” Sarah happily squealed. “Consider them shot.”

  “You’re going to have to make up for the rest of us.” Chiyo sighed.

  Chiyo, like most of the girls, would be okay at 300 metres, good at 200 metres, and very accurate at 100 metres or less. The competition used small metal discs inset into a man-shaped frame for the target shooting, so only the centre of mass hits counted. Scores tended to be lower as only the best shots hitting the discs counted.

  The girls walked over to the competitor's stand, where some of the teams already sat. It was obvious from the school uniform colours where each team sat, and it would be blue and grey colours for Odewara High. Ayako noticed none of the teams sat near Hiroshima Higashi High, which stood out because of their sharp, ruby blazers and black skirts. The Odewara team began sitting down when a tall girl with short black hair stood in front of Ayako. The two were almost matched in height and build, but Ayako wore her long hair in a ponytail.

  “I’m gunning for you, Ayako.” The girl locked eyes with Ayako. “You might have just beat me out last time, but I’m beating you and your little friend in the singles and doubles combat shoots this time.”

  “Hi, Saiyori,” Ayako casually replied to the captain of the Hiroshima team. “It’s good to see you again. I hope we will have a really good match today. Your team did really well last time, but I think we’ve improved a lot, too.”

  Seeing that Ayako wasn’t going to be baited, Saiyori just snorted. “Your little rural high school can’t possibly compete with our private instructors, even though I hear you have some marvellous ex-military coach now.”

  “Our coach is the best,” Ayako rebutted. She knew Hiroshima Higashi High was a fancy private high school that usually won the regionals due to the extensive coaching they received. “But, GGAs aren’t just about competition, you know. We have a duty to help around the community.” She then emphasized. “And actually do real patrol work.”

  That remark stung Saiyori. “We volunteer around the community, too. Things just aren’t as relaxed as they are out in the boonies.” Her urban high school didn’t have the same privileges to patrol as the rural schools. The Hiroshima police preferred that only official law enforcement carried loaded guns in the city.

  “Well, then. Let’s have a good match.” Ayako held out her hand for a handshake.

  Saiyori shook hands reluctantly. “We’ll see who does better this time.”

  Chiyo watched Saiyori head back to her team. “Why is she always like that? But I think you handled her well.”

  “That team has always been snooty,” Ayako sighed. “They think their trophy case isn’t full enough yet.”

  Karen was more upset than Ayako. “I would have torn a good strip off of her. She’s a dumb b—”

  Ayako cut Karen off. “Don’t let them get to you. You are too hot-headed sometimes.”

  “Who me?” Karen feigned surprise.

  “Yeah, you. You need to work on that as the future team captain.”

  “Ayako’s right, you know,” Sarah said. “You’re going to be captain after Ayako graduates. You have to be calmer. Right now, you’re a little sharp with the first years, too, especially Airi. She might annoy you with her peppiness and beginner’s mistakes, but she’s nice.”

  “You too?” Karen shook her head in exasperation at her best friend. “I’m not like Ayako. Things bother me more. I’ll never be like her.” She pointedly looked at Ayako, her voice sharpening. “You’re a very close friend, but sometimes I get so annoyed at being compared to you by everyone!”

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  Ayako’s eyes widened in surprise. “I don’t think anyone is asking you to be like me, Karen. I’m so sorry you think that.”

  “How could I not?” Karen replied.

  “I’m just me, and I’ll be the first to admit I’m not perfect,” Ayako gently said. ”You think I’m a natural leader, but I have to work at it. I think you just need to be you. Your friends and teammates only speak up because they want you to be at your best.”

  Karen’s face relaxed as she processed what Ayako said. “You did it again,” she sighed. “You handled it better than I would have. I suppose I’ll have to work on it more.”

  “I work at this, too. I try to follow Yuriko’s example.”

  “That’s a high bar,” Karen said. “She’s in a class of her own.”

  “No kidding.” Ayako just smiled and gave a surprise hug to her friend. “I’m sorry, I’m me. You care about the GGA, so I know you’ll be a great leader.

  “I’m sorry too,” Karen eagerly said as she hugged her back. “What I said earlier might not have come out right.”

  “I knew what you meant,” Ayako easily replied.

  Chiyo and Sarah relaxed after being surprised by the testy exchange. Chiyo hesitantly spoke up to Karen. “Yuriko might be able to coach you on leadership. She did it for Ayako.”

  “Shhhh,” Ayako joked. “That’s my secret.”

  They all laughed a bit.

  Karen stood in front of Ayako. “That sounds like a good idea. Maybe I’ll try it. But I’m going to beat Saiyori and you today, though!”

  “Really?” Ayako saw her friend was teasing but also serious. “You’re on, girl!”

  The two bumped fists while their friends just rolled their eyes over the display. The rest of the team watched everything from Saiyori to Ayako’s exchange with Karen and appeared content about how events had worked out.

  Yuriko and Ito, the club’s teacher advisor, came back after ensuring the team was registered properly. Ito raised a fist in the air and shook it. “We are all registered and ready to go get them! It’s going to be a standard schedule. Individual marksmanship first, followed by the singles combat drills, then paired combat drills.”

  Yuriko looked at her students. “It's going to be a long day, so watch the sun and stay hydrated. Everyone rechecks their rifles and gear. I trained you girls for real combat first, but those same skills will let you win here. Stay focused, and let’s go do our best!”

  “We will give it our all—right girls!” Ayako then rallied the girls to a loud “Go team!”

  *****

  The tournament started with the marksmanship event. This was composed of individual competitions where each competitor stood to fire five shots at 50-metre and 100-metre targets, then five shots kneeling at 200-metre targets, and finally five shots prone at 300-metre targets, gaining points for speed and hits on the poppers. Marksmanship tended to go fast as teams shot as a block, and six team members went at a time on the range. Shooters were spaced well apart to have their own shooting lanes with their sets of targets. Shots were fired rapidly by the girls as fast as they could accurately aim. No one ran over time, but very few managed to score the bonus points for speed without suffering the penalty for missing a target.

  In less than three hours, the hundred competitors had all completed their shoots. Each team’s scores were tallied up to provide an overall team score. Hiroshima Higashi High came in first, with Odewara High coming in a close second. Sarah aced the 300-metre targets with uncanny precision, and Ayako and Karen tied with the next-highest scores for Odewara High. The other GGAs gossiped about how well the Odewara team was doing so far this year. They had gone from fourth to second in the previous tournament and were doing very well in this one so far.

  *****

  Yuriko addressed the girls, who were in a good mood. “We’re doing pretty good so far. Our team score was only six points behind Hiroshima’s, and we’re five points higher than the next closest team. Good work, girls. I guess Ayako is buying Sarah a whole lot of yakitori for lunch!”

  “Yes!” Sarah joyfully exclaimed. “Those 300-metre targets were toast! And I get meat.”

  “I’m going to need another part-time job to pay for this,” Ayako joked. “You didn’t get the bonus points, but you got a perfect shooting score, so it’s worth it.”

  “We’re going to beat them in the singles combat drills next.” Karen appeared confident. “I’m still going to beat Ayako and Saiyori’s score.”

  Chiyo smiled at Karen’s enthusiasm. “You two are so competitive.”

  “Speak for Karen only,” Ayako replied. “I’m just here to do my best, but beating Saiyori again would be so nice.”

  “Hey…” Karen pretended to be hurt. “You and I are rivals. Like in a manga.”

  “Fine.” Ayako played along. “The loser buys the winner a drink. It’s not going to recoup my BBQ money, but it’s a step.”

  “Don’t think I’m going to subsidize your drinking habits 'cause I’m thirsty.”

  Yuriko clapped her hands together. “That’s the kind of enthusiasm you need to win, girls. Let’s have lunch while they set up the combat courses. And that yakitori does smell good, so I’m going to get some too.”

  *****

  The team order for the singles combat drill event was randomly drawn, just like for the marksmanship event. Onomachi High would go first, followed by Hiroshima, Odewara, and the rest of the schools. Each team had ten shooters who ran a course of six stages. A stage had walls and obstacles to dash around and designated shooting positions marked so that each competitor knew they were to shoot targets from. Every shooting position in the stage had five to ten targets to hit from each position, sometimes the same targets again from a different position. There were three short-range stages, two medium stages, and a long-range stage.

  Scoring was determined by the time it took to run the course and the number of targets hit. A missed target gave a five-second penalty, but a shooter could fire multiple times at a target to hit it. Competitors scored in a wide spread of around 180 points with completion times in a similar range. Shooters ran through the course quickly with at least two mandatory magazine changes.

  All of the competitors had ten minutes to review the course layout and devise their strategies. Before they competed, every team walked the course and huddled to strategize and motivate each other.

  A teenage girl in the audience watched the proceedings avidly. She wore a light-yellow summer dress and a wide-brimmed straw sunhat with a blue ribbon at the base of the crown. Her delicate chin and the lower part of her face hinted she could be quite pretty, even though large dark sunglasses obscured her eyes and the upper part of her face.

  “I wish I didn’t have to wear these glasses,” Tomoe complained to Nagisa, her assistant and bodyguard. “They make everything so much darker.”

  “You know that is part of the conditions for attending the tournament. There are too many cameras and press here, so we cannot have anyone identify you here.”

  “I know,” Tomoe sighed. “I just wish I could be down there with them.”

  “Be grateful you can watch in person,” Nagisa gently consoled. After being Tomoe’s assistant for nearly a decade, she understood her feelings of isolation well. Tomoe had real friends for the first time, but there was still an unbridged distance between them.

  “Your advice is always good.” Tomoe nodded. She sent a group message to let her friends know she was in the stands and cheering for them. Ayako and the others checked their phones and turned around to look for her. Tomoe waved when they looked in her direction. The girls saw her and energetically waved back before returning to the business of the competition.

  “See. Your friends are happy you came to watch. It is a boost for them.”

  Tomoe did smile at that.

  *****