Trigger × Game × On!
Synopsis: A year before the Second Invasion, an unfamiliar face shows up in Mikado City. Nobody seems to know who he is or where did he come from, but one thing is for sure: the future has changed, and not necessarily for the better. Pseudo-gamer OC with a grim twist and a bit more realism than Ashihara had intended.
Disclaimer: I do not own World Trigger series – that honour goes to Daisuke Ashihara / Toei Animation. Only the original character and the non-canon parts of this fanfiction are mine.
Three and a half years ago, Mikado City experienced the First Invasion – an extra-terrestrial first contact, in a sense. The aliens, who were later codenamed "Neighbours", however, were not peaceful in any way: after an enigmatic group of people called Border repelled the invasion, over twelve hundred people died and four hundred more went missing, presumably abducted by Neighbours.
Since then, Border agents built a massive fortress in the middle of the devastated city, whose goal was to contain any subsequent invasions, no matter the scale. To that end, Border has ever since been expanding its ranks, as well as equipping its agents with devices based on the Neighbour technology – Triggers.
And that leads us to today, where we find one Mark Haagensen wandering aimlessly through the streets of Mikado-shi. The 21-year old, despite being clearly foreign, did not stand out too much among the general populace – in fact, none of the passers-by gave him any attention. This suited Mark just fine; after all, he did not arrive on Japanese soil (and Mikado in particular) entirely legally.
In fact, to actually get into the city, you had to get dozens of various permits from both the Japanese government and Border itself, as well as sign a document that absolved the authorities of any blame should the signee die inside the Danger Zone to an errant Neighbour attack. Rumour had it, that the initial draft proposed by Border applied to the entirety of Mikado City, but, fearing the inevitable riots and public outrage, they had restricted it to just the zone itself.
Mark, however, did not sign any of that. His presence in Mikado was one hundred percent illegal, and, should he be caught red-handed, he would be deported immediately, or shot on sight if he attempted to sneak into Border HQ (the latter actually applied to all non-authorized personnel). The only papers he had on him were his British passport, a tourist visa that was due to expire in two days, and a few thousand yen.
Now, the question stands – why did he go through all this trouble and risk just to get into Mikado? Well… the answer to that is a little complicated.
"System, update local map. Time of synchronization – 11:52 local time."
"Request acknowledged. Updating map."
Shortly speaking, Mark had a Trigger. An unusual one – it made him a videogame character, was extremely hard to please and threatened to erase him from existence every two weeks. The last one was probably the most annoying, though.
One day, when Mark was coming home from university, a stray brick fell on top of his head, almost killing him. Of course, as it happened in broad daylight with many people around, someone had the sense to call an ambulance, and he was immediately rushed into a hospital. After a week of recuperation and two surgeries, he was discharged, only to receive a notification window:
Time left until Evaluation: 165 hours.
Note: upon failure of Evaluation, your Trion body will be erased, leading to your instant death.
It is advised to hurry.
Since then, Mark had over a dozen Evaluations, and so far, he had managed to pass each and every one. As he found out, Evaluations were essentially snapshots of his abilities and skills. If this 'snapshot' at the time of Evaluation matches or exceeds his Trigger's expectations, he gets to live another two weeks, as well as gains a reward based on how much he had overshot the mark.
As for that, well, Mark had essentially turned into a videogame character. His old flesh body was converted completely into Trion, granting him invulnerability to regular weaponry – he had tested it by trying to slice his finger open, only to find the edge of the knife completely dulled. On top of that, his Trion capacity showed up as an old-school HP bar, and, if his Trigger was to be believed, getting that to zero would mean his death as well.
Other than that, there was not much information on Triggers, Trion or Neighbours in particular – Border, who did not have any significant presence outside Japan, zealously guarded every single scrap of info related to these topics. Whatever ended up circulating in the Worldwide Web was either unconfirmed rumours, urban tales or just outright misinformation. Therefore Mark had decided to quit his chemistry degree (his parents were very cross with him, but after a thorough explanation, they subsided and paid for most of the expenses), and travelled to Japan in search of answers.
Therefore, now he was in Mikado – alone, knowing barely three words in Japanese, and nonchalantly trying to find a recruitment centre for Border while attempting to avoid the authorities.
There was a sizeable chance that upon finding out his stowaway status, Border agents would immediately deport him without so much as a by your leave, but Mark hoped he would be able to interest the agency enough so that they would… overlook… the paper mishap. After all, it isn't every day that a foreigner attempts to become a Border agent, let alone with such a weird and dangerous Trigger.
Mark did not know, however, that he had made a very, very dangerous mistake – he had activated his unregistered Trigger, however briefly, within Mikado. And Border was very jumpy when it came to unknowns within the city.
"Attention all agents! This is an automated warning. An unauthorised Trigger activity has been detected within the city limits!" the loudspeakers inside the Border HQ sprang to life, briefly stopping all activity within the building. "I repeat: an unauthorised Trigger activity has been detected within the city limits!" Then, after a longer pause, "Miwa Unit, move out to HQ South-west ASAP." The automated message then started looping again.
The entire building instantly started to resemble a disturbed beehive – people running back and forth, shouting orders and such. On the surface, it looked incredibly chaotic, but a trained eye could discern the patterns in the agents' movements – C-rankers generally moved deeper towards the heart of the base, while the A and B-ranked squads on duty took advantageous positions in the hallways, waiting for orders. Outside the base, patrol squads were given orders to establish a perimeter and aid in the evacuation of civilians.
Miwa Unit, however, were purposefully running towards their intended destination, already clad in their Trion bodies.
"Oh, it's us, right? Wonder if it's a strong Neighbour that triggered the alert?" a laidback guy with slicked hair wondered out loud, directing the question towards his team leader. "When was the last time we had stretched our legs like that, eh, Captain?"
"Less words, more moving, Yōsuke." the captain, Shūji Miwa, tersely replied. "Keep the pointless chatter until after we are done."
Sensing that his team leader wasn't in the mood for banter, Yonezu let off one parting remark. "Alright, alright. But you're just as eager as I am, don't deny it." Despite receiving no response, the anticipatory grin on his face grew even more.
While they were running, their headset radios crackled to life, and the imposing voice of Commander Kido started calmly debriefing them.
"There is no time for pleasantries, Miwa-tai – less than four minutes ago, we have detected a brief spike in Trion output identical to one produced during a Trigger activation. The pattern did not match any known entries in the database, and an automated message was broadcast through the entire building. The spike was detected in the south-western part of the city proper, in a highly populated area. There has been no casualty reports so far, and silent evacuation is already underway, but the situation can change any second now."
He stopped to breathe, and then continued. "Your task is to apprehend the unidentified Trigger wielder by any means necessary. Prioritize your own safety and the safety of civilians, but do not use unnecessary force. Rewards for success will be discussed later. Dismissed and god speed, Agents."
"Aye-aye, Commander!" they all said in unison, and the radio transmission was instantly replaced by the voice of their Operator, Tsukimi Ren.
"I am going to brief you on the details the Commander has omitted. First, Border's surveillance system has not identified the intruder yet, so I cannot give you their exact position. Shohei, Toru – it is advised to hold fire until all clear." The two snipers nodded and continued running. "Second, the R&D division is currently analysing the Trion spike, and from their preliminary findings, expect to fight an opponent with an unstable Trigger."
"Unstable, as in it goes kaboom?" Yoneya.
"No, it just means the Trion levels are fluctuating and it's nearly impossible to gauge its exact strength. That was the primary reason Miwa Unit was sent – reconnaissance."
"O-ke!"
"Third, if things escalate, we can rely on support from Units Arashiyama and Kageura, who were on patrol duty until the alert."
"We won't need it," said Shūji in a steely tone. "One Neighbour is nothing."
"As long as the mission is complete, I don't care how you do it, Shūji," replied Ren. "Just keep a level head."
"Well, we wouldn't have become A-rank if we had our heads screwed on wrong, right?" Yōsuke parried the verbal jab.
"True. Now shut up and run."
As they ran past the Danger Zone, updates started pouring in. The evacuation was proceeding smoothly, and the perimeter around the presumed dangerous area was already established. However, among the dozens of civilians, they had yet to notice the Neighbour.
The problem was that, ever since that unstable Trion spike happened, no new ones were detected, presumably due to some kind of cloaking technique, and the R&D department was already in arms about the whole situation. If their adversaries have managed to make a cloaking Trigger that also scrambles the Trion signature, well… let's just say the indignation was very much warranted.
"Got another one!" Ren exclaimed, apparently just as highly strung as the rest of them. "Close to your location, 300 metres south!"
Shūji sighed in relief, and changed his direction. "You heard her. Shohei, Toru, take up your positions on the rooftops. Yōsuke and I will act as spotters."
"Understood." the two were off in a blink of an eye.
"Yōsuke, you are with me. Standard formation."
The grinning boy nodded, and they took off towards their target. Hopping across rooftops, Miwa and Yoneya passed a couple of C-ranks who were herding civilians to evacuate, and the latter quickly noticed an inconsistency.
"He-e-ey, Ren, did anyone spot any Neighbours? I mean, of the non-human variety?"
"Not to date, no, and there was no report of a Gate opening anywhere within a few miles of Mikado," she replied, instantly suspicious. "What are you saying?"
"I'm just saying that it's weird. No Gate, no soldier Neighbours, and yet someone uses a Trigger this close to Border HQ? Something here doesn't add up." He replied in his characteristic nonchalant tone, but there was an undercurrent of uncertainty in his words. However, Shūji was quick to rebut:
"That's why we were sent – to investigate. Someone should listen more closely to briefings instead of daydreaming."
"Exactly," Ren piled on, causing the target to scratch his head sheepishly. But before their Operator could say anything more, Shūji held up his arm and laid down low, with Yōsuke following close behind.
"Updating… hold on. We have a visual." the leader of Miwa Unit calmly relayed to his team and Ren. "Roughly 20 metres, heading 40. Black-haired, visually about 20-22, no visible signs of a weapon, in civilian clothing. It seems like he didn't notice us yet."
"Confirmed, we have him."
"Engaging."
Yōsuke jumped down and casually approached the distracted young man.
"Hey there, hotshot! Care for a chat?"
"Oi, kisama! Hanashitai desu ka?"
Mark turned to the person approaching him and automatically tensed. The young man was about 16-17 years old, but that wasn't what alarmed him. The presence of an openly carried weapon and a Border uniform, however, did. The patch on his left breast denoted him as an A-rank agent, meaning there also was no running from him – despite passing over a dozen Evaluations, Mark still was roughly on the same level as an average civilian and he knew he was outclassed. Deciding that playing dumb in this situation could work, he mustered whatever understanding of Japanese he had.
"Gomen, Nihongo wa wakarimasen. Eigo ga hanasemasu ka?"
He was pretty sure he absolutely butchered the pronunciation by the reaction of the agent, who visibly recoiled in horror.
"Yabai, yabai." Then he chewed his lower lip. "English not know well. But understand... some."
"I want in Border."
This was the first time in his life Mark had seen the literal picture of 'error, cannot compute, NaN', and it almost forced him to laugh. Instead, a few stray snickers escaped his throat.
"Oi, nani o waratte iru no?" his opponent cried indignantly, forgetting that Mark couldn't really understand him. However, he had a good guess what it could mean, though.
"Nothing, nothing at all," Mark waved him off and instantly felt as if something zeroed in on him. The hand immediately fell down.
"I assume you are not alone, huh?" he wondered out loud, trying to spot the young agent's companion without moving his head. That failed – apparently, these agents were not given a high rank just for show. "I just want in Border – I'm a civilian with a Trigger, and…"
Well, if anything, the word 'Trigger' was familiar enough that it had an immediate effect – the companion of the first agent showed up out of nowhere, almost in Mark's face, ready to plunge his katana-like sword right into his midsection. Luckily, he managed to avoid being skewered in a vital area by tilting left. Unluckily, that sword was now in his former right lung, and while that didn't do much (he didn't need to breathe, per se, it was a reflex carried over from the regular, flesh body), it stung like hell.
'First wound in this body, and it's by the hands of a Border agent. How poetic.' were his thoughts as he narrowly avoided being split in two uneven pieces.
Warning: severe damage to Trion body detected, combat situation detected.
Do you wish to enter combat mode?
'Nice of you to show up after I've been skewered like a chicken. No, I don't. If I make this situation any worse, I might not live past sunset.'
Acknowledged. Shutting down non-vital functions. Shutting…
He went out like a light.
"Well, that was anticlimactic." were Yōsuke's first words after the foreigner, who was seemingly ready to fight them even after getting half of his chest cavity sliced open, suddenly dropped like a sack of… human excrements. "I think you overreacted, Shūji."
The aforementioned Shūji only frowned. "I am sure I have damaged his Trion supply system."
"What?!" was the reaction of everyone, including Ren. "Then…"
"Yes. He's not dropping out of his Trion body, nor is he bailing out."
"Hold on, I am notifying the rescue teams," Ren immediately went to work. "I am running his words through translation software right now… done. Relaying the results to you."
They all listened to the translation.
"So, he's indeed a civilian, and a foreign one at that. Wonder how he got into Mikado? And what's with his Trigger?"
"That is for the Commander and the interrogators to find out. Move out, and carry him with you." Agent Miwa closed his eyes and started running back to base.
"Yes, yes."
Later that day, in the Commander's office…
"Thank you for your performance, Miwa Unit. Dismissed."
"Yes, sir!" they all chorused and walked out. When they were out of earshot, Commander Kido ensured the doors were locked and walked back to his seat.
"Kinuta-san. What had your agents been able to determine so far?"
The aforementioned Kinuta-san, HQ Research and Development Chief, coughed and stood up, ready to deliver his report. "The full details are here," he then distributed a thin stack of papers to everyone in the room, "but in short, we've got our hands on a previously undiscovered parasitic Trigger."
"The subject is presumed to be Mark Haagensen, 21, from Britain. Our records show nobody with that name had entered Mikado in the past month, but upon our request, the Japanese government confirmed that a person with the same name, age and appearance arrived in Japan eleven days ago. However, they were unable to say how a civilian with no prior training was able to sneak past the checkpoints established outside Mikado City."
"Kinuta-san," a tall middle-aged man with black hair intervened, "I can't help but notice you avoid saying that the subject is indeed Mr. Haagensen."
"Had you read the report at least a little, Shinoda-san," the short R&D Chief retorted heatedly, "then you would have known that we cannot confirm it with a 100% certainty, as the subject is in a permanent Trigger state, and taking DNA samples from a Trion body is impossible." He then calmed down. "Besides, this is not the point of our discussion."
Kinuta-san took a deep breath and continued reading. "Based on the interaction between Miwa Unit and the subject, the latter seems to harbour no ill will for Border, and in fact wishes to join the ranks of Border agents. Extraction of the Trigger is strongly discouraged, as we have no idea how it chooses its next host or how it will react to the death of the previous one. Containment procedures have already been put in place, but their effectiveness is questionable."
"What do we know about that Trigger?" Kido-san.
"Very little. Three things, in fact." Kinuta-san. "One – it is indeed a parasitic Trigger. Two – it forces the user to reside permanently in a Trion body no matter what injuries the user sustains, possibly leading to the user's death, as shown by Miwa Unit's attempt. Three – it slowly increases the user's Trion supply and is capable of self-healing."
"Can you clarify, Kinuta? What exactly is a parasitic Trigger?" Netsuki-san, the PR Director, inquired.
"Bad things, Netsuki. Parasitic Triggers are rare even by the Black Trigger standards, mostly because nobody knows how to produce them, let alone use them. Moreover, even if you get your hands on one, it comes with a plethora of dangers.
For example, if I were to obtain the Trigger we are currently discussing, it would almost instantly drain me of all Trion, kill me, and search for its next host. Then, if you survive the initial phase of bonding, the Trigger will slowly increase the drain on your Trion until it surpasses the capability of your trion gland. Suddenly, you die a painful and agonizing death by Trion exhaustion." Kinuta-san shook his head. "The worst thing of all, however, is the fact that all parasitic Triggers are sentient. No exceptions."
"Then… how is the young man still alive?" Shinoda-san was dumbstruck.
"Most likely it is because the bonding was fairly recent, no more than a month or two ago. In addition, the measured Trion capacity of Mr. Haagensen is above average. Not quite the level of our A-ranks, but a respectable amount."
Their discussion, however, was suddenly interrupted by an urgent message on Kinuta-san's communicator. The squat middle-aged man read the contents, and smiled.
"It appears Mr. Haagensen is finally awake and ready for questioning. Commander Kido," the R&D Director turned to the Border Chief, "how about we get all the answers we need from the source?"
"Acceptable. Tell the agents to bring the subject to interrogation room five and turn on the video feed."
Netsuki-san then piped in. "I suggest Arashiyama Unit as interrogators. They're amicable enough to not immediately alienate Mr. Haagensen, and strong enough to subdue him if he attempts to escape, however unlikely that is. As an added bonus, all of them have excellent marks in English, so they will be able to communicate without using an interpreter."
Kido-san nodded, and both the PR and R&D directors started rapidly issuing orders.
Mark woke up in a hospital bed, handcuffed to the bedposts. There were no windows; the walls seemed completely uniform, made out of something Mark did not recognise.
The lights overhead were dim enough so his eyes quickly adjusted to the lighting, and his brain started to reboot, however slowly.
'I don't recognise the ceiling, or the room. Handcuffs? Am I a prisoner? Where? Border? But why?'
Still groggy from being forced into unconsciousness by his Trigger, he didn't notice how shortly after his awakening, two agents came in and unlocked the cuffs. He did notice them, however, when he was forced to stand and walk through the maze of corridors that was the Border HQ. Mark did not struggle, partly because his brain was still incapable of higher thought processing, and partly because he understood that struggling was futile.
'Am I led to an execution?' he thought. 'Bit of an overreaction to a stowaway. If they wanted to kill me, they could've done it outside. Then what? Questioning? Most likely.'
Assuming that he's not going to die in the next several minutes, Mark relaxed, and his escorts did the same – apparently they were afraid he'd do a runner.
After a few minutes of walking, he was led into another room, this time different. It had five chairs, one table and a ceiling lamp so bright he had to squint just to see where he was going. Nothing else.
'I was right, this is going to be an interrogation. However, five chairs? One for me, that's for sure, but four more? More than one interrogator?' Mark was puzzled. Then, an idea came to him. 'Border agents operate in teams. Four-man team? Highly likely.'
He sat down on a lone chair opposite the four and tried to take in the surroundings, but soon gave up on that and just waited. He didn't have to wait long before four ('As I expected') young Border agents came in.
"Hey, man! Nice to meet ya! I'm Jun, Jun Arashiyama!" an exuberant, outgoing guy shook Mark's hand.
In fact, Mark knew of him. The "Face of Border" was rather famous even outside Japan, and while searching the Internet, he had stumbled on some… risqué forums containing rather explicit content featuring the poster kids of Border, Arashiyama Unit. Despite not reading any of that, he had a passing knowledge of all of the people now sitting in as his interrogators, not that it would do him any good.
"Nice to meet you too. Mark Haagensen, at your service." He resisted an urge to bow ridiculously. The sheer charisma of this guy was infectious.
The rest of Arashiyama Unit also offered their greetings, and sat down.
"Should I be worried that an entire A-rank squad was sent to question me?" He broke the minute silence that settled among them.
"Not really," said the one that introduced himself as Ken Satori. "We're just the ones that know English well enough to… how do you say it… ah, not cause any misunderstandings."
Mark could believe that. Japanese people and English language apparently did not mesh well, despite them learning it in school. The same could be said in reverse, but that was a story for another time.
"We are here just to ask you some questions, that's all," Jun reassured him. "Here is the list, you can read through it and mark down the ones you're not… comfortable with answering or do not know the answers to."
And indeed, the young man produced a thin stack of A4 paper, which he gave to Mark. A few minutes of silence passed, then…
"Hmmm, I think I can reliably answer about half."
"Half?" a girl he remembered as Ai Kitora narrowed her eyes. "Not a lot of cooperation you have, huh?" She looked rather menacing in her A-rank outfit, and Mark hurried to reassure her.
"No, it's just I don't know the answers to half of these questions. Like, 'what are parasitic Triggers'? How on Earth am I supposed to know that?"
"It's no big deal," Jun came to his rescue. "Just mark them down as 'don't know' and pass the sheets back to me."
Mark did just that. The young leader of the Arashiyama Unit swiftly checked that all of the papers were back in place, and coughed.
"Alright, now to the boring part. Your name, age, country of origin?"
"Mark Haagensen, 21, Great Britain." at that Satori whistled in appreciation, only to be shut up by Kitora.
"How long ago have you received your Trigger?"
"Hmm, over half a year ago. I don't remember the exact date, but it was sometime in February."
"Reason for infiltrating Mikado City?"
"I wanted to join Border."
Now all of the eyes in the room were focused on him.
"Wait, really?" Ken whistled again. "That's nice, we don't get foreigners here often."
"Yes, really. I had quit university, actually, so you can imagine it's quite a big commitment I'm making."
"Who were you studying to become?" Kitora asked him with a gleam in her eyes.
"I was on my way to getting a chemistry degree." he answered. "My parents were not happy with me, but after I've explained that the situation was… escalating, they agreed to pay for the flight and send me money occasionally."
The faces of the youngsters in the room instantly darkened.
"Escalating?" Jun asked, his voice unusually solemn. "How?"
"Well, it's quite a long story." Mark's lips went flat. "But I guess we have all the time in the world now. Essentially, I've got a Trigger that threatens to erase my existence every two weeks on the dot."
Silence and white faces all around.
"It has a weird mechanism called Evaluation. Every two weeks, or 336 hours, the Trigger does a check of my physical and mental capabilities. If it finds me lacking in any of them, poof!" he mimed an explosion with his hands. "I die, plain and simple. So far I have been getting by, but soon I will not be able to catch up to its demands, unless I get proper training. So I opted to join Border."
"That… that is horrifying." Apparently, the whole prospect was just as appalling to them as it was to him.
"True. In addition to that bit of bad news, I apparently no longer have a flesh body – it was replaced with a Trion replica. Therefore, I'm now invulnerable to regular damage, I no longer need to sleep, breathe or eat, but in return I'm completely dependent on my Trigger. If it decides I'm no longer useful, it will kill me. If I am killed, it will just suck all Trion from whatever remains from my body and find itself a new… victim? Host? I'm not entirely sure yet. Anyway, the moral of the story is that I am held hostage by an alien thing that Border knows how to deal with. See my reasoning?"
Mark wondered if that clinical speech of his was too much – the agents sitting across him were whiter than fresh snow, and the Kitora girl was looking like she was ready to barf.
"F-Fuck…" Jun uncharacteristically swore, his complexion just as pale as the rest of them. "Any other… surprises?"
"Not really. That's the gist of it." He shrugged. "And it's not as bad as you imagine it, honestly – the Trigger's demands grow linearly, not exponentially, so before the flight to Japan I had trained by myself enough to have a safety net about ten to twelve weeks long, one of which I already spent trying to get into Mikado. If I'm accepted into Border and reach at least B-rank, that's about three, maybe four years' worth of life without worrying about death by evaporation."
That shook them out of their stupor. Surprisingly, Kitora was the fastest to recover and continue questioning him.
"What are your intentions towards Border?" she read out loud.
"Again, I intend on joining the organization."
"How familiar are you with Trion and Trion-based technology?"
The rest of the interrogation… no, simple questioning, proceeded along the same lines. Kitora would read a question – Mark would answer. She even asked him a few questions he marked as 'don't know', probably to catch him lying, but contrary to her expectations, he was truthful. Mostly. After all, he did not reveal every single facet of his Trigger, nor did he say what benefits it granted him. After such a… warm and inviting welcome, he was reluctant to lay down all of his cards on the table. The fact that they were too shocked from his revelations also helped a great deal.
Eventually, she ran out of questions, and at this point Jun had mostly recovered and offered to accompany Mark to his 'cell', as the charismatic unit leader jokingly said. The 'cell' turned out to be a well-furnished room, albeit with all of the furniture secured to the floor and the door being locked from outside.
Tired from the eventful day, and with stress finally catching up to him, Mark flopped down on the bedsheets.
"System, shut down mental functions. Time of reawakening – 5 hours from now or when the door opens."
"User request acknowledged. Shutting down."
"Well, at least we don't have to rush anything too much," spoke Kinuta-san after a long pause. "It was rather smart of him to have some backup in case his plans fell through."
"Indeed. Has Jin returned from his mission?" asked Karasawa-san, directing the question at Shinoda-san. "His Side Effect would be invaluable in this particular case."
"He is stated to return in two days," the man responded, a frown on his face visible to everyone. "Until then, I vote that we evaluate the skills of Haagensen-san and see whether or not he's fit for Border admittance."
"Seconded," from Karasawa. "While he appears truthful enough, he still presents a clear danger of a rampant parasitic Trigger, and he even admitted that he does not know what will happen in case of his death."
"We cannot release him from Border now!" Kinuta-san shouted while banging his fist on the table. "If he gets out and dies, whether from a Neighbour or from his… Evaluation failing, that Trigger will latch onto another civilian, and there is no saying how the public will react to a rogue parasitic Trigger running amok! We should count our lucky stars that this young man had the presence of mind to come to us before anything truly happened!"
"Calm down, Kinuta," Netsuki-san interrupted his colleague. "Nobody is saying that he must be released – in fact, I think the Commander has decided."
All eyes in the room turned towards the scarred man.
"I have. Until the arrival of Yūichi Jin, Haagensen is to be evaluated and given the very basics of Border training. Should he prove unfit for Border duty, or should Jin state that Haagensen is a definite danger to the organization, his Trigger is to be extracted and examined in detail. Failing that, he is to be sent on the next away mission and sold to the Neighbours in exchange for new Trigger technology."
A cold chill passed through the room.
"However, if Haagensen proves to be an asset, I will have no objection to him becoming a full-fledged Border agent."