“Whoa!” Xiao Qianxue breathed, eyes sweeping a forest of weapon racks, barrels rising like bamboo after rain. Awe fizzed in her voice like soda on the tongue.

She’d handled guns before, but only standard black pieces, dull as river stones under overcast skies. Here, from AKs to USPs, every body wore carved patterns like dragons and waves. Even the metal felt different, like ore smelted under a colder moon.

“Well? Impressive, right? They’re all my treasures.” Hoshina thumped her chest, a proud sparrow on a branch, her small face shining with triumph.

“Wait, this one…” Bloo hooked an M4 off the floor and lifted it to the light like a rare fish in a net. The cerulean body and flowing filigree blazed like a royal seal. “Isn’t this the one from last time…” Frost had long sealed his face, yet the corner of his mouth thawed a fraction.

“Hold it, hold it!” Hoshina’s cheeks flushed like peach petals for no clear reason, and she windmilled her hands to cut Bloo off. The blonde girl just stared, baffled, like the audience catching two actors whispering mid‑scene.

“Ahem. Back to business.” Hoshina kicked on the room’s speakers; a rosy tint still clung to her cute face like sunset on snow. “Here, Xiao Qianxue, try this first.” A black pistol appeared on the range rail like a crow dropping from the eaves.

“What is it?” The blonde girl lifted the pistol, black as midnight lacquer. Awe rose like a tide at first touch; this wasn’t common steel. The frame ran longer than most, yet her fingers held it firm, like catching a quick sparrow.

“An SVI Infinity, a famous line,” Hoshina said, pride lifting her chin like a new moon. “But I rebuilt it, so it’s a different beast. Call it the Eternal Black Star.” Bloo drifted by the racks, taking pieces down now and then, toying with them like a cat with a tassel.

“Nice. It’s not heavy.” Confidence warmed her chest like a banked ember; after her boost, handling a gun felt easy. This one was trimmed and quick, a swallow in wind.

Snap. A far target plate sprang upright like a reed in a pond. Without lifting her head, Xiao Qianxue flicked a shot. Bang. The bullet punched the red heart clean through, a needle through silk.

“Now it gets serious.” Hoshina tapped at a floating control panel, fingers dancing like rain on leaves. “It’ll get harder and harder.”

“Whatever. I want to see where my limit sits.” Excitement sparked first, then steadied like winter water. The Little Loli popped the mag, checked it with calm hands, and seated it back with a clean click.

Clack‑clack‑clack. A row of plates snapped up and began to race, fast as swallows crossing a storm.

“Interesting.” She braced her right with her left, steady as a tripod under a bell. She squeezed. Bang, bang, bang. Plates popped and toppled like cut bamboo.

A clear stillness flooded her gaze like mountain spring. Awe cooled into focus, bright as frost. Her world sharpened; every motion traced a silver thread. She could read each plate’s path, even as they blurred past normal sight.

“Level up!” Hoshina flicked her small hand. Another line rose in the next lane, a second wave chasing the first.

“Tsk.” She slammed a mag home in a blink, neat as a swallow’s turn. With only one pistol, she timed overlaps to land double breaks.

Bang, bang, bang. To most eyes, only shadows drifted and tangled like ghosts in a gale. Under her rapid fire, many fell, yet more whirled into the mad dance.

Heat honed the Little Loli’s look like a drawn blade, but calm anchored her like stone in a stream. She held the field. Not one shot strayed. Each target died within seconds of appearing.

“There’s more!” Hoshina’s words barely faded when new plates sprang up on the left, sudden as mushrooms after rain.

“Huh?” Confusion pricked like a thorn. Then—bang, bang—the targets spat rounds back, their lines arrowing straight for Xiao Qianxue.

Annoyance flared like sparks. She knew she couldn’t dodge in time. She snapped her wrist to a new angle and fired.

The two streams met midair and cracked together like colliding pebbles. Spent, the rounds fell in a soft rain to the floor.

“Hoshina, what the hell? You almost got me killed!” The Little Loli glared, stormlight in her eyes. Hoshina kept working the panel, calm as a cat on a warm sill. “Huh? Standard training. If a few bullets stump you, what would death even matter?”

“Hmph.” The sound snapped like a cold twig.

“Don’t sulk. Here, have another.” Hoshina pointed, and a matching silver pistol dropped out like a falling star. “This one’s the Eternal Silver Star. Together they’re the Eternal Twin Stars. Both have auto mode. You’ll need it when it counts.”

“Eternal Twin Stars? Good name.” She lifted the silver twin in her left, waved it once like a moonbeam, then set her stance, shoulders square as gateposts.

“Then let’s—continue.” Three banks opened at once, streams crossing toward the girl in the center like converging rivers. She’d stood in bullet rain before, yet her nerves rang warning bells like temple bronze.

In that instant, emptiness swept her mind like wind over a plain. Calm came first—bright, fearless—then thought vanished. No trajectories. No math. Just shoot. She overlapped right over left, twin guns crossing like cranes in flight, and pulled both triggers.

Fire braided the air as both sides traded streams. The Eternal Twin Stars switched to auto, their voices a paired roar. Her rounds looked wild, yet each shaved past an incoming bullet, nudging it aside so it couldn’t touch the Little Loli, then howled on toward the plates.

Clack, clack. She knocked the two pistols together, reloads snapping home like teeth. More plates fired back, but her web of fire thickened, a storm net outgunning theirs.

“So annoying…” Bloo swept a gloved hand forward, blue flame blossoming like cold lotus. The rounds aimed at him turned to smoke midair. Xiao Qianxue could bend bullets off herself, but Bloo stood just behind her, catching strays like a pine in hail. Bulletproof glass slid up to shield the racks like clear walls of ice.

A minute or two crawled by, and Bloo’s patience thinned like melting frost. “Bloo! Don’t you dare!” Hoshina shouted, seeing blue fire swell in his glove.

“Thermal Convergence…” A blur ripped past her back, barely trackable, and blasted toward the range. Even in her heightened state, the blonde froze at the sight. Blue fire swallowed everything ahead, clean as winter wind over snow. Far targets left not even a smear of ash.

“Sigh… guess I’ll be fixing things again.”