"Ahhhhh!" I yelled aloud the moment I arrived back.
What was Miss Gina thinking!? Just then, I noticed that I wasn't feeling any pain in my right eye anymore. To my shock, my right eye had already made a full recovery. But this realization only reminded me of the method of how it was healed, causing another burst of embarrassment.
I finally managed to recover my composure after ten minutes. I don't want to experience that again. That was too much stimulation for someone like me, who lived as a lone wolf from a very young age.
I proceeded to continue my path back to my dorm to pack up all my stuff. I didn't have many belongings, so putting all my stuff into different packaging boxes didn't take long. Fortunately for me, the North Goldberg Hero Academy was a local school located in the heart of the city. For the next two hours, I proceeded to slowly move all my stuff to my new dorm located inside the hero academy's campus.
After putting down the last box, I flopped onto my new bed. I was feeling tired from moving the boxes across the city. It was now summer vacation, and there were two months until the next school semester started. I discovered that during summer, the school campus was relatively devoid of people. Excluding myself, there were only a select few other individuals on campus. I found myself in a situation where I had lots of free time but didn't have anything to do.
For the first two days, I just slogged around, not really doing anything, just exploring the school campus and the nearby area. The cafeteria was open all day and was always stocked with food, so that was nice. After two days of doing nothing, I felt incredibly bored. I needed to work on something to maintain my sanity.
I then headed to the school's library. I decided to see if I could get some information on Anderson P. Whetstone, my target, and the Villeno Mafia Family, which he is the godfather of. I was delighted to discover that I was able to access some information regarding the Villeno Mafia Family with my new identity. However, it was still very much the tip of the iceberg. But, even with very little information regarding the Villeno Mafia Family, I was still able to learn that the power levels between the Villeno Mafia family and me were still gigantic. This realization reminded me of the difficulty and danger of this mission and pushed me to discover how to make this summer vacation a valuable one.
I sat in the quiet library and just started to think. I was thinking about how I could make the most of my quirk. My quirk was by no means strong. I was very fortunate during the hero academy test as my quirk proved very useful in two of the events. However, I can't be relying on being lucky from now on.
I thought about the situations where my quirk could prove to be strong and vice versa. I started brainstorming and noting that everything I thought about. After thinking for what felt like a whole day, I concluded that number one, my quirk is a supportive quirk. It is best used in a supporting role. Two, concerning fighting, my quirk is pretty much useless. My quirk was only coincidentally useful when I was fighting the dummies. With these two conclusions, I concluded that I should look into becoming a long-distance support role, specifically, something along the lines of a sniper. I thought that my quirk, especially the focus vision, could prove to be very helpful in sniping. My quirk allows me to spot targets from a long distance easily. My focus vision should hypothetically enable me to focus only on my target, eliminating all distractions. I could see myself becoming a feared sniper. It just so happens that there is a shooting range on campus, so I could spend this summer becoming better at using firearms.
With a plan in mind, I headed towards the school's shooting range. At the shooting range's entrance, a staff worker asked to see my student identification before being allowed inside the shooting range. I proceeded to hand him my student card and was happy to learn that I was allowed to use the shooting range with no problems.
Given that it was my first time in the shooting range, the staff member quickly explained the dos and don'ts of the shooting range and showed me how I could request different guns to use. This was truly a first-time experience for me as I had yet to touch a gun in both my lives. I explained to the shooting range staff a bit of my situation and how I wanted to use a sniper rifle eventually. The staff was accommodating and suggested I first get more familiar with shooting guns.
The staff then handed me a bolt-action rifle which also had the nickname as the newbie trainer. I thanked the staff as he gave me the rifle as well as a cartridge of rifle bullets. Following the staff's earlier directions, I grabbed a target and attached it to a board. Afterward, I inputted how far I wanted the target to be on a numpad, which caused the board my target was attached to travel back to the exact distance I inputted.
I didn't want to make it too easy for myself, but on the same token, I still wanted it to be a bit challenging. So, I settled on setting the target twenty yards away from the cabin I will be shooting out of. I first tried to get more comfortable holding the rifle, and it was heavier than I had expected. I copied the people I had seen on films who shot guns and put the butt of the rifle against my shoulder. I then lined up the rifle's reticle with the target and then pulled the trigger.
Whisk.
I was pushed back a little by the rifle's recoil. Did I hit the target? I pressed a button which caused the board with my target attached to reel back. Looking at the target, I realized that I had utterly missed… How did that even happen? Wasn't my reticle on the target perfectly?
I refused to believe I had missed entirely, so I made the board go back to where it initially was before shooting an entire round of bullets at the target. Out of the thirteen bullets I shot, only two hit the mark, and they were both on the outermost circle of the target. It was then that I realized that shooting a gun was not as easy as they make it out to be in the movies.
----
A few hours have passed since I've been in the shooting range, and I've long lost count of how many bullets I've shot today. Both my arms were feeling incredibly sore, and I've already lost feeling in my legs from standing so long. I didn't want to stop training, but my body was protesting. I called back my target with the panel next to me. I looked at the bullet holes on the target. Of the thirteen bullets I shot this time, one lucky shot hit the ring just outside the bullseye, and the rest were splattered around the two outermost rings. The results still weren't good, but it was already plenty of progress for me. I looked at the clock in my cabin and saw that it was already getting pretty late. I finally decided that I'd shot enough bullets today and prepared to head back to my dorm.
Back in my dorm, I immediately headed into the shower, washed the grime and dirt that stuck to my skin, and headed to sleep.
With that, I successfully started following a new hardworking schedule. The first thing I did in the morning was to train in the gym. Then I would go to the cafeteria to get something to eat before spending the rest of the day shooting in the shooting range. The days started flying by, and I was getting better and better at shooting.
One day as I was shooting, I suddenly heard someone call out towards me, "What's your name, kid?"
"I'm sorry?" I replied.
From behind me, a middle-aged man who wore a leather jacket and a cowboy hat while smoking a cigar walked towards me and said, "Your name. What is it?"
"I'm Patton, sir."
"Patton, you need to relax your arms. They're too tense when you're shooting. Relax before shooting next time."
I wasn't sure who this person was, but I had a gut feeling that this person knew a lot more about shooting guns than I did. I followed the man's instructions and took a moment to relax my body before I pulled the rifle's trigger.
Whisk.
"Good job, kid, you hit the third ring of the target."
"You can see that?" I asked in surprise. The target was twenty yards away, and the bullet hole, at most, would only be the size of my pinky.
"You don't believe me? Go ahead, call the target back."
Still doubting the man's earlier statement slightly, I reeled the target back to the shooting cabin. Oh my god, he was right. The bullet hole was precisely on the third ring of the target.
"I was right, wasn't I, Patton?" The man asked.
"Do you have a quirk that allows you to see far?"
"Nope."
"Then how did you do it?"
"Through training, how else would I do it?"
"Could you please teach me, sir?"
"The name is Jeremy Richard, a pro hero. Just call me Richard."
"Could you please teach me, Sir Richard?"
"Knock off the sir. It creeps me out."
"Could you please teach me, Richard?"
"Sure. Seeing how committed you've been to the way of the gun and since I've got nothing to do anyway, I don't see why not."
I learned that Richard was a pro hero, a teacher, and a North Goldberg Hero Academy alumni. He told me that he had come to the shooting range to pick up a personal belonging and, by chance, saw me practicing shooting. Richard said he watched me for a few hours and saw how determined I was to get better. He said it was his duty as my senior to help me out.
Richard asked me about my quirk, and I explained to him the abilities of my quirk and that I saw myself being the most impactful as a sniper. He agreed with my statement and helped devise a training regime tailored for me.
"Patton, do you know what the three most important skills of a sniper are?" Richard asked me.
"I do not know."
"The three most important skills of a sniper are being able to remain patient and calm no matter the situation, the ability to judge the best opportunity to pull the trigger, and the determination to take down your target no matter what."
Richard then taught me a lot about various guns. He explained to me that even though I may be a long distance-combatant, I cannot neglect training my close-distance fighting capabilities as there will be situations where I will be forced to fight close-distance.
There was still a month left of summer vacation, and I was very appreciative of Richard for spending most of that time helping me become a better gunslinger and training my vision.
The month quickly passed by, and the school year finally started. I learned that I was sorted into the 1B class, which was not surprising to me. In the hero-academies, students are typically sorted into either A, B, or C classes. The students in the A-class are the strongest and judged to have the most potential, and C is the weakest battle-wise and more suited for a supportive role. B class was for the more average students.
The campus was now lively, with students being found everywhere. I headed towards the building where my homeroom class was located and proceeded to walk into my classroom. The first step into my new classroom was the official start of a new chapter of my life, and I looked forward to what life has to offer to me next.