There Is No Kill Like Overkill at Elimatsuri [Darren]

She couldn't help but smirk for a moment, clearly amused at how he commented that he wasn't Tetsuko. Duh! She certainly wouldn't mistake her adorable girlfriend in such a way! "Daimon..." She mused softly, a hand raised to her chin as she seemingly pondered for a moment. "Where did I hear that name before..." Trying to think back the pieces started to slowly connect together as she seemingly finally started to get a grasp of who exactly the teenager before her actually was! "Aha~ Now I know who you are: You're THAT Darren, heh heard you gave Kobayashi-sensei quite a headache when you went out to brawl with a giant sharkman."

Snickering in amusement she stretched her arms slightly into the air, tensing them just a little to deal with the slight numbness of standing in the same spot for so long. "I'm surprised you're in one piece~ Sharks usually turn berserk the moment they smell blood~ Either you're very skilled or have the devil's luck." A grin lingered on her lips as she listened to Darren declare that he liked shotguns. "Hmm, yeah I guess judging from what I heard you would prefer getting up close and personal, then having a shotgun is obviously a pretty good choice~"

Nodding in acknowledgment of his choice of weapon she smiled sheepishly at the engineer. "Pleasure to meet ya Yoshida~ And it is a cool job for sure! being able to build those weapons means you're basically one of the people putting together those firearms, a parent to all firearms on display!" Yep, enthusiasm over nine thousand, and it clearly wasn't subduing anytime soon! "Hmm, does this mean that Tanaka Arms primarily supplies the army with their weaponry?"

An idea seemingly was brewing in her mind as she looked at the engineer, that spark of excitement in her eyes clearly showing she wasn't going to leave without an answer to her questions! "Does this mean you were involved with the creation of those weapons here? Wait if they did then perhaps that could mean that my rifle was also made by them. I wonder if sensei hired someone from Tanaka Arms, then again my rifle is a German model."

A few nods of acknowledgment came as she listened to the engineer's explanation. "I much prefer using a MSG90, I'm much more accurate with my shooting than with say a shotgun because my rifle Freyja is based on the MSG90. Not to mention a shotgun's recoil is a nightmare." The girl still remembered how much she struggled to deal with the blow, that was almost bad enough to blow her off her feet!

Still, Darren's question seemingly brought her excitement to a new peak. Experimental weaponry?! "Really? they got special ammunition and weaponry on display here? That's amazing! If only Kobayashi-sensei could have seen them!" Whoops, totally not intentional, and she seemed oblivious thanks to her bout of excitement as the engineer inquired if she had any new questions.

"Mhmm! I do! I do! Can you tell me a bit more about the different components of a sniper rifle? I mean... I can shoot them REALLY well thanks to my training but I don't really know much about the particular details. Like sensei taught me how to aim, reload and fire but I know almost nothing about them aside from the model types! Like the different type of sights and the barrels and what the difference between calibers is~"

Poor guy, he really had unleashed the floodgates, didn't he? "I noticed before but a lot of times a sniper rifle has this lazer dot which could alert a wary opponent, same with the flash when you fire it... are there ways to deal with those problems? I mean I can fire without needing the laser but it still is kinda handy to have~"

A few nods followed as she thought back on the matter. "Oh! and do you have any special ammunition for sniper rifles to test? like experimental ammunition Tanaka Arms might be working on? I'm in particular interested in ammunition which restrains or incapacitates rather than outright kill a target."

She certainly wanted to find out more about all those fancy details, still observing the rifle carefully while she turned toward Darren and inquired with a grin. "Have you ever fired a shotgun before Darren? Or will this be your first time? Actually..."

As she turned to look at him she leaned a bit forward, a glint of mischief in her eyes. "Want to have a little contest to see who can fire the best? I'm kinda curious to see if I can outgun the famous 'Shark-wrestler of U.A'" oh boy, she really was looking forward to having fun with the guns. "Could that be possible Yoshida? Could you arrange a few special targets for us to practice on? Especially moving targets! At this point, stationary ones are kinda boring after practicing so much on them."

Now hopefully Darren would accept her challenge and play along for a bit, it was always more fun to enjoy firearms with someone else, whenever it was geeking at them together or firing at someone! Wait not firing at someone, that sounded extremely unhealthy and also illegal!

When Darren mentioned that he liked it up close more, Elise couldn't help but snicker for a moment. She certainly could understand how he felt it was 'funnier', sometimes Elise couldn't help but find herself getting excited when she hit a faraway target that was difficult to reach. Of course, things were about to get more exciting soon as the engineer came to grab an empty hunting rifle. Her eyes sparkling with excitement she could basically almost feel the drool rising as she exclaimed excitedly. "If it propels itself forwards, wouldn't it technically be able to increase its penetration at larger ranges compared to a regular bullet? Especially if you add an increased initial velocity to the shot."

However, as they started talking about the deeper details of the barrels being rifled Elise scooped up the MSG90 into her hands and grinned sheepishly at the private. "I know, I never shot with an airsoft gun before." That likely would be enough to stir some alarms as she rushed over to the shooting stand and waited for the ammunition to arrive. Of course, if the private tried as much as suggest the idea of loading the gun himself she shook her head lightly in response. "Please allow me to reload it~"

And if given the ammunition she would start to rapidly load the magazine and attach it to the gun. Twenty bullets in what seemed to be less than twenty seconds, clearly the girl was not just an ordinary little gun fanatic. Grinning from ear to ear and oblivious to the impressive feat she approached the stand as she watched the target dummies moving along the field with the railing. "How about we keep it simple? The one with the least amount of misses from their magazine wins~" It was a simple idea, but she wasn't sure how properly time their little shooting contest otherwise.

"Let's start with a warm-up~" the girl hummed softly as she took aim, recalling the pose her mentor had taught her, the way she held her rifle, the way her body was positioned, even the way she aimed would resemble that of a professional sniper, and then...

A sudden bang resounded and a dummy at the back would had been shot straight in the head, making her hum softly. "Whoops, sensei told me to aim for the chest~" a sheepish chuckle escaped her lips as she was already shooting a second time right after she spoke, this time causing a dummy that had just slid from behind a wall to show a bullet hole in the chest area, particular at the spot the heart was at.

To the three of them it must had looked odd, how quickly she adjusted her angle, how quickly she locked onto a target and aimed from her sight and fired, and with each shot she fired the dummy found itself hit. The third bullet had gone straight through a makeshift window and hit a target that was sliding past it, a second headshot so to speak.

The fourth bullet had aimed at a far moving target in the back, seemingly hitting where the gal was, and with each shot, she seemed to remain cheerful and energetic, to the point that at some point she could be heard humming a tune! With each shot, her pace grew faster as she selected more difficult targets, each shot hitting the target, no doubt a courtesy of her training and zealous focus ability while she was aiming.

In the end, only a bit more than a minute the girl felt a soft click and with a dissatisfied sigh, she lowered the rifle, lamenting softly. "It's empty..." Oh how tempted she was to try this again, to ask to reload the magazine but then again, it was Darren's turn to have some fun shooting!

"Your turn Darren~"

She exclaimed with a smile as she placed the rifle on the table so he could decide on what to do next while she took a step backward and hummed softly. "I wonder if you're as great of a shooter as you can fight~ I heard the stories of you. They say you took down that sharkman with a single punch to his ugly maw and then grabbed him and did a Full Nelson. The guy must had been really persistence because the story said that you delivered the finishing blow by kicking him right in the crotch!"

A smirk on her lips the girl clearly seemed to look forward to Darren's performance, even if she was oblivious to the fact just how many heads her shooting performance just now could turn! "I know someone who did something similar, but she fought with a bear, heh seems U.A has both a Bear Wrangler and a Shark Wrangler, makes me kinda excited for this match."

Acting like she had grabbed a microphone the girl started to put up her announcer's voice. "In the left corner... The man who wrestled a giant manshark into submission! The guy who pumps shotguns faster than his shadow... his name is DAAAAAAAAAAAAIMON DARREN!" letting out a playful clap after he had fired his first volley Elise continued. "In the right corner~ She who makes a Grizzly Bear run for her mama, as explosive in power as she is in attitude. The blond lioness of U.A..... JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASMINE! Heh, that totally could make newspaper headlines~"

A grin lingered on her lips as she waited to see the end result of Darren's shooting. For a moment she had even forgotten that she had lost her girlfriend among the crowd while making her way to the armory, so excited had she been about getting involved in the little shooting shenanigans, so intense was her excitement to play around with all those firearms! Who could possibly blame her? After all... She was Kobayashi Touma's gun bunny for a reason!

And god knew just what type of bunny he had been raising in secret. At least she was a fun bunny!

"Hmm..." She pondered for a moment as Darren commented about having not grabbed the sharkman into a full nelson, something that make her try to imagine the scenario for a bit before she chuckled softly. "Yeah, best that you didn't do that, you kinda need your arms if you want to shoot." The girl exclaimed with a smile as Darren tried to reload the gun, yet unlike her seemingly needed the assistance of some of the soldiers on duty. And then came the shooting, while his stance was solid enough, she could see that he was holding the gun too strongly, also his body looked too tense to her, which "hmm as I thought..." the girl muttered under her breath as she watched Darren fire the first few shots. "Darren, you'll want to adjust your stance a bit, try not to fight against the recoil, learn to use it, the recoil is the sacrifice you make in exchange for the firepower~" Repeating the words of her mentor she watched as the delinquent continued to fire the shots.

For a moment it actually brought her back to when she first started learning how to use firearms. Inside the basement of the principal, she would often ask him questions about how to best handle a weapon, how to improve her reloading or how to make her shooting more accurate. It also helped that she was someone who learned the best by observing others, and with a skilled soldier like Kobayashi Touma it was to be expected that she would improve at an amazing pace. It actually made her happy, to know that she was obtaining the means to fight, something she would otherwise never been able to accomplish by herself. She wasn't suited for martial arts and her Quirk couldn't do much on the offensive aspect either. However, as the final shot was unleashed the burgundy-haired lass her thoughts snapped back to reality as she watched Darren put down the gun. When he commented about not making headlines with his shooting Elise merely shook her head and answered with a grin. "Well, you already are making plenty of headlines on your own already Darren."

Indeed, it didn't take much effort for one to learn the name Daimon Darren, in the end, whether it was because of his loud personality, his tenancies to get into troubles or his over the top shenanigans that led to adventures like the one where he fought the sharkman, a bit of effort was enough for one to at least hear the name before. It also certainly didn't help his case that he gave Touma plenty of headaches to deal with at times! She could have sworn she heard him mumble the name before...

"Oh, where I learned to shoot?" The question caused her to grin softly as she recalled the memory, a feeling of joy and pride filling her as she exclaimed happily. "Sensei taught me!" Leaning back from the wall she took a step toward the teenager and continued with a grin. "He taught me how to defend myself, how to reload a gun, how to aim, how to fire it, all the things I was taught about a month or two ago?"

Wait, a month or two ago?! The privates their faces clearly showed their disbelief at the words spoken by the girl. How in the world could someone with her skills have only started wielding a firearm so recently? Some of them had been in the military for years and didn't even get close to her level of skill! Was it the power of a Quirk at work, or was she merely dedicated and with an amazing teacher? Then again judging from how enthusiastic and zealous she was in her excitement the girl clearly had some sort of secret up her sleeves. "You know... When Thunder Shock killed my father and left my mother in a comatose it was sensei and Tetsuko who took care of me. I don't think I would be smiling here like this without them by my side."

She approached Darren and tried to grasp his hands lightly, shaking them lightly as she continued. "You must have realized it also right? We're all being taught by sensei so you must know how amazing he is right? Whether it's his lessons in physical education or when he trains me, he always gives his everything! Kobayashi-sensei REALLY is amazing~"

Finally letting go of him, and seemingly having been unaware she had given poor Darren a revelation of a lifetime. "hehe~ To be honest, if not for his training I would never been able to become able to protect others. My Quirk is one that only helps lessen others suffering, it heals them but it can't prevent them from getting hurt. I'm sick of watching those dear to me suffer, it's for that reason I decided to learn how to use firearms."

She averted her gaze for a moment, seemingly pondering about a thought before she enthusiastically clapped her hands together. "Say Darren~ Do you want to play some more? I heard they got a paintball hall around here, and I'm confident that if we poke around in the school chat we should get people interested to join us. Heh, we might even be able to get some exciting matches going on!"

Seems she clearly was excited at the idea of exposing others to the idea of paintball, and soak them in paint! Still, she was kind of curious if Darren already had any plans in mind for the rest of the day. She had to admit while he wasn't exactly the type of person she would usually hang around with, his fondness for firearms certainly earned him positive points in her eyes. Still, the privates were still whispering among each other, as if the name 'Kobayashi' was making them think about some stuff. Little did Elise know at that time just how famous of a person her 'sensei' truly was!

It seemed that Darren wasn't opposed to the idea of a paintball event, in fact, he even seemed excited at the opportunity! Of course, it would take her a moment to realize the reasoning of his enthusiasm. "Hmm, to be honest, I never fired a paintball gun before." A sheepish grin lingered on her lips as the girl confessed her inexperience with anything that wasn't the 'real' deal. In the end, Touma had decided to skip the steps of paintball weaponry and they instead went straight to practicing with real ammunition, or in some cases the specialized BB tier bullets that her Freyja possessed. However, she certainly was looking forward to the idea of a little challenge with Darren. "If you want, we can check out the paintball range, get a little headstart on the others by doing a quick one on one match and book the place for the event." It was a simple suggestion, but also a bit of a tactical one. She assumed that while fundamentally functioning similar to a real gun, the specifics of using one would still be different since those were paintballs and not real bullets, god forbid the idea of firing a real gun at Darren!

Once he agreed to the idea Elise would guide him toward the firing range and continued to fan his competitive spirit a little as she hummed softly. "I'm kinda curious how fast you can run, according to sensei I can accurately hit an average person while they are sprinting, but if you're as fast as an Olympics runner I might struggle, then again there are a lot of factors to consider when aiming." A soft mysterious snicker escaped her lips as she recalled a certain lesson she was taught before: When you are using a sniper rifle there is a certain way to make an opponent actually get themselves hit. This by itself sounded like a silly, borderline crazy idea. Obviously, nobody wanted to get shot, but if a sniper aimed their shots in a way that made their target hesitant and afraid it often led to a case where their reactions would slow down. Just imagine for a moment that a person whose location is unknown to you is shooting at you! A bullet hits the wall a few steps before you, obviously the most natural reaction most people have is to slow down and try to hide or change the direction they are running from, because if they had been just a little bit faster that wall could have been their corpse!

Indeed, snipers were just as powerful as they were terrifying as long as one didn't know where the sniper was or where they were aiming. People fear the unknown, it makes them restless and nervous because it's something they don't understand or are able to figure out, and in a way, a sniper's who was hidden was an unknown threat, and it took a certain type of training and mindset to be able to endure that psychological pressure.

People were afraid when a gun was pointed at them with the intent to kill, even a trained soldier still felt uneasy and alarmed when that happened, and Elise certainly didn't want to die either, so she knew all too well just how much of a threat a firearm could be. They were not toys, but weapons meant to be feared and respected, just like the swords her beloved Tetsuko admired so much. As they arrived at the paintball hall the girl turned toward Darren with a smirk. "How about a simple respawn game? Get hit once and we both return to our base and restart the game, all weapons are allowed, and we can stop once we get bored or tired~" Elise suggested with a grin as she looked at Darren and hummed softly. "Just note, I will have some surprise in store for you, but I'll tell you at least one thing: I plan to use a sniper." That sounded at least fair, right? To tell Darren that she would be using her preferred weapon of choice seemed like a logical idea. "We can also already send out some messages through the chat system while we get our weapons and gear ready~"

And with that said and done Elise gave him a light wave of the hand and made her way into the changing room. Fortunately, she had already taken the time to talk to some of the stationed soldiers there before, so they were fine with them using some of the halls for their little event, and Elise found herself quite fascinated by the sheer amount of weapons they had available. One, in particular, was perfect for her, a sniper with a silencer on it that would make tracking her down quite difficult, and once she had properly put on her gear she scooped up a few of the paint mines and grenades and hidden a smaller handgun-type weapon in a holster on her leg. You never knew what would happen if Darren did get up close to her. Once she was ready for the game she send Darren a message through the chat system telling the proud delinquent that she was waiting inside. As promised the soldiers had assigned a referee to their game, who once both of them were inside their 'base' would signal the start of their game!

How fast would Darren be able to run? If she was honest, she didn't even know what type of Quirk he had, but she judged that from his attitude and achievements so far it was likely something physical? She doubted a guy with a supportive quirk like her own would be wrestling giant sharkmen! Still, to say that she was excited for this? Now that would have been quite an understatement! In fact, she was hyped as hell for the opportunity to try out those paintball weapons! In the end, she wanted to find out just how different they felt compared to the real deal!

It seemed both of them were equally enthusiastic about the idea of covering the other side with paint, and of course, their weapon of choice was quickly revealed. While she would pick a weapon she had the most proficiency with, a sniper rifle the burgundy-haired lass had expected for Darren to pick a shotgun, as he revealed his intention to 'get up close and personal and rekt her' as he would word it so perfectly. With both of them having announced their readiness the game would finally begin in earnest, and moving out of the base Elise quickly darted toward a nearby hiding place in the form of a large wall. She needed to figure out a good way to keep Darren from approaching her, and considering he was kind enough to announce the nature of his Quirk before, she knew that in terms of speed he had an overwhelming advantage.

However, that didn't mean things were hopeless, far from it. The grounds they were at had plenty of obstacles to hide behind, and for a moment Elise couldn't help but find her thought process slowly adjust back to that more serious nature of hers. She simply had to find a good starting point to snipe from and then lead Darren along! Fortunately for her, there was such an opportunity near the place she was at. Positioned diagonally with a nice open view of the area ahead was a single hut, a small window giving her a perfect angle to aim from, and the walls on both sides of the shack made it difficult to approach aside from two potential directions: straight ahead, for there was a small parting between the hut and one of the walls that led straight to one of the doorways of the hut, or to go around the longer wall. Of course, the burgundy-haired lass had a rather explosive idea in mind, and quickly rushed behind the aforementioned wall, placing a paint landmine which she cleverly positioned right at the end of the wall, which would likely trigger if Darren rushed around the corner without paying attention, while a second landmine she placed at a rather tactical spot: the doorway right between the hut and the parting between the building and the wall! Now she simply had to wait and see if the delinquent was going to be clever enough to avoid rushing head-first into her trap!

With her position secured the burgundy-haired lass crouched down behind the window, peering out of the scope as she tried to catch a sight of Darren. For now, he still had to reach the area she was hiding at, and so she had a moment to consider her strategy. It was a clever idea for sure, but she doubted that it would work twice, once she lost the element of surprise those mines would be useless, but for now they would ensure he wouldn't be able to just blindly rush up to her. Still, a human bullet... a part of her truly couldn't wait to see if she could shoot faster than he could 'be shot' by his quirk

Indeed, one could say that from the initial impression she had gotten, one could easily understand that Elise expected Darren to be the bold and aggressive type. He didn't seem like the type who would sit and plan properly, someone who had the patience and precision to carry out a plan. Charging head-on into the fray was after all, way more exciting than having to sit back and wait for the perfect shot. Just as she had anticipated the teenager had quickly tired of their game of hide and seek, and instead of hiding himself started to boldly charge into the open!

Seeing Darren enter her field she remained carefully hidden, watching the teenager move through the scope of her rifle. He was right into thinking that zigzagging would make it harder for her to hit him, after all, a lot of people made the mistake of charging in a straight line because it made them faster, and a person naturally wanted to be as short as possible in an enemy their line of fire. It was why the principal had told her that zigzagging often was a solid tactic to make one less predictable, and yet Elise had to agree that even a clever tactic like this had its flaws. Darren compared himself to a bullet and his Quirk being the gun, which had a very interesting clue for Elise to draw from.

Hearing him humming a song the burgundy-haired lass was just in time to press her body against the wall of the cottage to hide herself from Darren as he stepped onto the landmine she had placed at the wall at the far end of the cottage's area, and indeed the beep that resonated through the air and the burst of paint that splattered into the air made her realize something: Darren could likely force his body into a rapid movement. That reflex had been way too fast for a normal person to do, it almost felt like he had been pushed backward be a powerful invisible force. However, that was when she had been determined to have an idea.

Seeing him jump onto the rooftops and dart around in search for her, the first thing she noticed was the blue sparks which cracked around his body, perhaps a telltale sign of his quirk's activation? Perhaps, but for now it was time to see if her tactic would work. Waiting for him to cross onto another roof where she had a clear visual line of sight, the moment Darren would start crossing it the burgundy-haired lass stirred her plan into motion.

A near soundless click was the only noise that was made as she fired the paint bullet straight toward the rooftop. However, curiously enough she had not aimed right at Darren, but instead relied on an attempt to predict his running speed and fired a shot a few steps ahead of him. If it would hit him, great but from what she had seen earlier the teenager's quirk could easily save him if he used it in time, and that was where she acted again.

If the first shot missed its target and Darren used his quirk, Elise had honed her sight onto him, waiting for that one accelerated motion so she could fire as soon as he exited it. It was something she wondered while watching Darren zigzag earlier, but could he actually use his quirk in rapid succession? The way she saw it his quirk caused a rapid Acceleration of a motion which led her to wonder if he could 'interupt' said motion.

If he accelerated backwards, and she shot to the spot she thought he would end up at, would he be able to adjust his movement before his previous one even ended?

It was something that made her curious, and also excited the researcher inside her. Elise always had been interesting in discovering things like this, so one could easily imagine that fighting Darren like this was truly exciting to say the least.

However, considering she had fired twice from the same spot, if her shots missed it could be quite likely that Darren would have a grasp of the general direction she was hiding at in comparision to his location! Whatever the case might had been, she should figure out some sort of idea in case he did dodge. She was still within the cottage, so she had shelter from his attacks as long as she didn't leave the safety or rose up from her hiding spot at the window. However, if he encroached upon her hiding place it was quite likely, no unavoidable even that she would be forced into a close quarters confrontation, which clearly meant she would need to be prepared for...

Yes, her earlier preparations would possibly help her with that, but... perhaps just to be safe. Her lips curved into a smile that one could undeniably compare to the smirk of a trickster who was up to some mischief, and she certainly was up to some mischief if one was to know what she had been preparing for Darren.

Of course, it all would depend on her earlier shots their result, whether it worked or not, whether he had an idea of where she was hiding... Still, she had to admit she was enjoying herself already, Darren's quirk made him much more unpredictable and difficult to hit compared to an average person, so it was understandable that trying to shoot the teenager was much more fun than say... shooting a target dummy.

However, for a bit she couldn't help but wonder how her sensei would have confronted Darren. She lacked strength and speed, and knew that close-quarters combat was her foil, and yet she also understood that in fights with villains she would not always have the luxury of fighting from afar, which raised the question: How could she possibly improve her abilities to compensate for that weakness?

Only time would tell the answer to such a question...