Howdy folks, how's it going?

Gotta admit, I had a busy weekend, so for a while there I was mildly concerned about how much writing I'd be able to do, but I prevailed in the end.

As always, a huge shout out to Chaos Productions, whose assistance was especially important for this chapter.

And as always, I own neither BNHA nor WH40K. Fuck knows Fulgrim wouldn't be my first choice for the next returning Primarch if I did.

Enjoy!

/

Currently, Izuku's positively giddy mind was flittering this way and that about the potential of what lies ahead. After a brief moment to show him the amenities of the apartment, as well as his room so he could drop his stuff, Lady Nagant had instructed him to follow, and that was exactly what he was doing, trailing behind the heroine as she led him down the stairs of the building down to the underground garage level. And then, he finally noted, a little further beneath.

When they finally reached the bottom of the stairs, it opened up in a small corridor of grey, concrete walls, at the end of which was a heavily fortified metal door, one that almost gave the idea of a vault.

With practiced ease, the heroine approached, placing her hand on the digital pad by the door, and then approaching her face to a small opening that popped up allowing for what Izuku realized was a retina scan. That was a lot of fancy stuff to keep gits out of here…

"Wondering just what I got down here that'd be so valuable, eh, kid?" Nagant asked knowingly, breaking Izuku out of his musings as he blinked up at her. "Well, fact is, you got lucky. You happened to catch me at a time when I'm shacking up in one of my better appointed safehouses, and as you're about to find out, that comes with some benefits."

No sooner were the words spoken than the door slowly opened with a mechanical hiss, and the heroine strolled inside, waving him to follow. His curiosity reaching a peak, the boy promptly did so. As soon as he went inside, the lights went on, and his eyes went wide.

The room he found himself in was massive and rectangular, clearly far longer than it was wide. A quick glance up and down the walls shows some sort of automated emplacements, the purpose of which didn't seem immediately clear, but the mostly empty space that occupied most of the place, as well as all the distinctly round indents on the far wall, didn't leave much doubt as to the purpose of this room.

And if that weren't enough to indicate the shooting range, the other thing that caught his immediate attention certainly did.

To their left, the wall was filled with various metal lockers and display cases. A fair few of them were completely covered, but enough had transparent plastic openings to see the ensemble of guns present. A veritable collection, which seemed mostly comprised of all manner of riffles, from the sniper to the anti-materiel, from the ones meant for big game hunting to even a couple for close to mid quarters combat. To Izuku's discerning eye, some of these seemed to be the standard fare for the police and military of today, but some others were quite a bit older, one or two he would even bet on being relics of the pre-dawn of quirks era. If he were any judge, and imagining the amount of dakka that might be held in some of those chests, there was enough in here to arm a police precinct, with a generous surplus to spare…

"You're drooling there, kid." Nagant noted, clearly amused if somewhat confused by such a reaction. "Still the gun enthusiast, I see."

"I hadn't seen dese many shootas in one place since dah history museum sed I culdn't go dere no more…" The green-haired boy muttered absently, almost as if in a trance before finally catching himself, and swiftly rubbing his sleeve against his mouth, even as one of the older riffles, displayed high above the rest, with a largely wooden body, caught his attention. "Dat one dere be a lil' bit on dah nose tho, innit?"

Eyebrow raised, both from his mutters and his question, the heroine followed his gaze, and promptly chuckled as she realized what he meant.

"Good eye, there kid. Yeah, that is indeed a Mosin-Nagant. You'd be surprised how many people don't get the reference behind my hero name these days." She replied with a light shrug. "What can I say? Considering what I picked, I really couldn't go without having one of those, now could I?"

"Not dat I'd evah complain about seein' dis," Izuku replied, very reluctantly dragging his eyes away from the scene to turn again to his mentor. "But why have dis much o'dah gud stuff just lyin' here? Ain't like ya evah used anythin' but yer own arm shoota, or at least I dun recall seein' it in any vid or online pozt before…"

"Yeah, it's true that when out in the field I only use my quirk. Mostly because it's just simpler, lighter to pack, and because most other guns need more tweaking and adaptations than it's worth to be compatible with my hair. Believe me, it's been tried." Nagant explained, looking over the assorted weaponry on display, with an expression that seemed fond in a nostalgic sort of way. "That being said, I find that using other weapons without relying entirely on my quirk is a good way to help keep my skills sharp when I am training by myself. That's why I always have a selection of them in any of my safehouses that are big enough to house this sort of room. And on a more personal angle, well… I am something of a gun enthusiast myself, so over the years I have amassed a bit of a collection. Some of these aren't even meant to be used, they're really just display pieces, some were just gifts from people who knew I enjoy this kind of stuff back in the day."

"Like dat one dere?" Izuku prompted curiously, turning towards another of the higher shelf guns, one whose entire frame seemed to be missing a fair chunk of its structure barring the most essential, giving it a somewhat skeletal appearance. "Dat'z a lot more holes dan shootas usually get, and none'a dem seem tah be fer shootin'."

Once again following his gaze, the heroine cringed slightly.

"Yeeeeaaaah, don't mind that one. I keep it around for sentimental reasons, but it's frankly a pain in the ass to clean, dust gets in everywhere…" She explained, in that rushed manner someone eager to change the subject. "And anyway, this isn't even my whole collection, I got other things stashed in other places. There were even some things I wasn't able to get back when I returned to active duty. Damn, I miss that Solothurn…"

At that, the green-haired boy couldn't help but blink owlishly, both at the sudden wistfulness in her grumbling and in surprise at hearing a gun related name that wasn't immediately ringing a bell, his confusion readily apparent to the woman.

"20 millimeters." She stated as if that explained everything, making the boy's eyes go wide as he gave a low whistle. Some part of him thought that it wasn't the biggest that it could possibly be, but it was still an impressive number.

"Now dat be sum dakka I'da loved tah see. I'd need me sum roigt proppah gubbinz tah work wiff sumthin like dat…" He commented in wonder, before a thought suddenly struck him, and with it, a rush of excitement. "Wait, do I get tah shoot wiff dese?!"

"Settle down there, kid, settle down." Nagant replied with a raised hand to forestall what she assumed was gonna be the torrent of gushing questions and requests from the suddenly quite hyper boy, even if it amused her. "While you are here to learn from me during this week, you are technically still a minor, and I can't just be giving you access to guns, unrelated to quirks, all willy nilly like that. The higher ups would have my hide if I toed out of line like that."

"Aaaaawwww…"

Damn, she wasn't expecting him to deflate like that with just those words. It almost felt like she had just kicked a puppy.

"With that said, if you manage to impress me with your progress during these days, who knows? Maybe there's be something that can be done about that. And that segways nicely into why I brought you down here in the first place." She continued, and immediately his eyes were on her with unerring focus. "You see, kid, I've seen some of what you can do with your machinery during the festival. Impressive stuff, in many senses of the word. But what I wasn't quite able to get a read on, is where you stand regarding some of the more basic things that I can actually teach you."

With those words, the heroine stepped towards a nearby digital panel and started typing into it. As Izuku watched, curious, over by the other end of the room, one of the metal emplacements opened up, and a drone flew out, carrying a rolled up cylinder which, as soon as it stopped, unfurled to reveal a typical target with a humanoid outline.

Then she reached into a nearby closet, pulling out a set of visors, earplugs and earmuffs, and approached the boy with them.

"First things first, we gotta do this right, so I expect you to always be using these when we're working down here." She said, holding the gear out for her student (damn, that was gonna take some getting used to…) to take, which he did, glancing down at it in clear confusion. "So, what I want you to do right now, to start this internship, is to hit that target over there. Let me better understand what I got to work with here."

"Anythin' I shuld be considerin' in particular?" Izuku eventually asked, after a few moments of looking down at the protection gear, then up at the heroine, then over to the intended target, all with a sense of rising giddiness.

"Well, obviously I want you to use one of your own guns, and nothing that can cause real damage to the room like those rocket launchers of yours." Nagant swiftly clarified, just to be sure. "Other than that, just do as you will, kid."

Those were words that made a huge grin grow in the boy's face, as he swiftly put on the offered apparel and then shoved his hand in his pocket, clearly and hastily looking for something specific as he moved towards the shooting position, while the heroine stepped back a bit, a slight feeling of concern as to whether this had been a good idea crossing her mind.

"Ahah!" Came the triumphant call as the kid found what he intended and pulled out yet another contraption. From what Nagant could see, it was indeed, as specified, a gun. Or at least as close to a gun as the weird, slapdash mix of power tool grips, coffee machine chassis and other assorted bits could be classified as. Of particular note to the heroine were the three barrels apparently made out of bike exhaust pipes, and what she assumed was the ammo container on the underside, made out of a large, circular, tin container for cookies of all things…

"Aight, den," Izuku said eagerly, not waiting for any sort of say so as he slapped his goggles down over his eyes, turned towards the target-

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHH!"

-And promptly let it rip with a hail of bullets, the sheer roaring of the three rotating barrels loud to the ears even through the protections that the heroine had hastily put on herself, compounding upon the kid's bellow. The deluge of ammunition continued for a good minute or so, before the boy finally thought to stop, lowering the smoking barrels of the weapon and looking up at his mentor with a wide, expectant grin.

Kaina, for her part, simply glanced at him, down at the considerable pile of shell casings that had gathered around him, then down towards the end of the range, where, besides the considerable increase do bullet markings on the wall, both the target and the drone that had held it were in tatters on the ground.

"Oooooook then, the spray and pray sort, I see…" She muttered, more to herself than anything. "Got my work cut out for me…"

/

Let's be honest here, she kinda does.

So yeah, this chapter was mostly meant to mark the official beginning of Izuku's internship under Nagant, and I kinda figured guns were as good a subject as any to let them bond over for a bit. There were a fair few references that will likely only be picked up on by enthusiasts on the topic (and Chaos was a real help on that department, he's quite an enthusiast about it), but I wanted things to be as accurate as I could make them.

Anyway, next time, as the internships continue, some phone calls will be made, so look forward to that.

Cya all on the next one, stay safe and take care.