Chapter 2: Tests, tests and more tests.

AN: ElatedFanboy here with another chapter, this one even longer than the last. It was hard to write it without giving you all 12 pages worth of info dumps, but I think I've done a decent job saturating it with dialogue and some plot, even if it's really not much of the latter. Chapter 3 is already underway, and it's going to cover Jin's arrival and the start of Mark's long journey towards achieving A-rank. He's talented enough that I'm certain he'll do it, and I already have a good underrated unit for him to slip in without really making a big mess of things.

There's some headcanon regarding English language in this chapter as well but it's mostly for convenience, both yours and mine – I'm already up to my nose in Japanese textbooks, and I'm not nearly as fluent in Japanese as I'd like. Thus I'm extremely glad Mark hadn't yet met anyone other Arashiyama Unit, or we'd be obligated to read a one-sided monologue in broken Japanese, and this chapter would've been delayed by a week.

As for your feedback - I've read every review so far (2 of them), and I'm flattered you hold me in such high regard, honestly. I didn't think it would explode like it did, but apparently I'm scratching an itch nobody really knew about, and I'm happy to do it. If you have any questions concerning the plot and the story in general, feel free to PM me here on FFnet. Happy reading!

For Mark, sleep as a thing was entirely optional – since the 'accident' back in late February, he no longer had the urge to sleep, eat or do anything 'real' humans had to do. He still did all of that anyway, just to retain that sense of normalcy and avoid unnecessary questions. Hence when he opened his eyes the next day, he was not surprised to see that the clock had just struck 4 in the morning, and he had no side effects from waking up at this ungodly hour. Instead he just stood up and started exploring the small room he was in.

Now, calling it small was a bit of a misnomer – it was decently sized for one person, but Mark's perception had been warped by Western comforts, and so he stuck to calling it 'small'. The room resembled a hotel apartment, with one bedroom and one bathroom with no electrical outlets, and Mark assumed with a high degree of certainty that all appliances inside Border were either tailor-made or adapted to using Trion instead. This, however, made the task of charging his smartphone impossible, so he just left it turned off for now.

Instead, he turned to the TV on the wall. The remote was lying on the bedside table, so Mark clicked a random button just to see if Border had an active TV subscription.

As a matter of fact, they did – and the first thing Mark had seen on TV since arriving in Japan ended up being a weird advertisement for some kind of sweet. Cruising through the various channels, he managed to scar his eyes with several more ads that were even weirder, and he swore one of them was advertising lingerie.

"Well, it's four in the god damn morning, what did you expect?" he muttered. "Anime?"

Finally, he settled on a National Geographic channel, and since most programmes on that channel were in English, he managed to have a nice, relaxing session of watching how cars, specifically Toyotas, are made.

Two hours after he woke up, however, a loud knock jolted him from the science-induced bliss.

"Haagensen-san! Are you awake?" shouted a familiar voice.

"Yes, I am decent, you can come in!" he hollered in response, and the door lock clicked. The voice ended up belonging to one Jun Arashiyama, the charismatic leader of Arashiyama Unit.

"I didn't expect you to be awake at this time!" he gestured for him to lower the volume, which Mark promptly did. "It's so rare to see anyone outside a few early birds to be up by six!"

"Can't sleep, remember?" Mark refreshed the young man's memory. "I still do it just to keep myself from going insane, but it's not exactly sleep, more like… system shutdown, if you know what I mean." he managed to stealthily slip in a joke, which Jun seemed to miss completely.

"Ah, right. My bad." Jun scratched his neck. "Anyway, come down to the training room when you're ready, I have news for you."

"Sure thing. I'm not going to get lost, am I?"

"No, you just take the elevator down the corridor," he pointed in its general direction, "then head straight and take the first left turn. Training room 209, just in case." Then he went on his way… somewhere, leaving Mark alone. The 21-year old turned off the TV, closed the door and marched down the corridor, taking care to remember where he was.

"So, Haagensen-san," said Jun with a smile on his face, when they met up in the training room several minutes later, "Kido-san and the others decided that for the next two days, my team and I are going to be your minders. I hope we get along!"

Arashiyama's exuberance was really infectious, and despite knowing that he was effectively kept prisoner, Mark nevertheless smiled and nodded. "I do so as well, Arashiyama… san? Sorry, I'm not really familiar with Japanese honorifics yet."

"Well, yes, in our case you would call me Arashiyama-san," the young leader replied after some thinking. "For now, don't really worry about it – '-san' is generally a safe bet when…" he chewed his lip, "how do you say 'to speak to someone'?"

"Hmm, 'to address someone?' Maybe that's what you want?" Mark came to his aid.

"Yes, thanks!" Jun laughed. "I tend to forget some words when Kitora-chan is not around, ehehe." he coughed to hide his embarrassment and continued. "Anyway, '-san' is a safe bet when address…ing someone you don't know much."

"And I guess '-chan' is for people you are very much familiar with, right?" Mark said, attempting to extrapolate the information he just gained.

"Sort of, yes. It's not the only use case, but you are right." Jun whistled appreciatively. "You might actually give Kitora-chan a run for her money when it comes to brains!"

'Your Intelligence rank has been increased by 1.'

'Shut up, System, or he'll suspect something is amiss. I can't hold a poker face for hours on end.'

"I'm flattered, Arashiyama-san," Mark waved him off, "but honestly it's only, like, twenty percent intelligence and eighty percent experience. University education is mostly self-study, so you learn to piece together information from a lot of different sources, including drunken ramblings." he scratched his head. "That last one might or might not be true, however."

Jun laughed again. "I won't pry… much." Then he became a bit more serious. "But we went off topic. Yesterday, the Commander decided that we, the Arashiyama Unit that is, perform a full exam of your skills and ap-ti-tudes, right." he stumbled over an unfamiliar word. "We will decide if you are good enough to actually become a Border agent, so give it your all!"

'That inspiring speech was definitely rehearsed beforehand,' Mark thought to himself, 'but that doesn't really matter. What matters is that he's my judge, jury and possibly even executioner, so I'm glad I'm already on good terms with him.'

"One question. Can I use my Trigger during the exam?"

"That's… tricky," Jun sighed. "The rules say that using a Trigger that is not approved by Border is a no-no, but since your Trigger is always active, Kinuta-san and Shinoda-san made an allowance for you. Erm, let me find the exact words…" he furiously tapped through his tablet-like device until he found what he was looking for. "Aha, here it is. 'You cannot use any function of your Trigger that directly interferes with other agents, or mimics the functions of approved Border Triggers. Any functions that directly enhance your physical and mental capabilities are acceptable, however, these need to be documented and declared to a Border official before use. The aforementioned restrictions apply only during sanctioned competitive matches and other events officiated by Border.' Whew, I understood maybe half of that; it's so dry and official!" Jun jokingly whined.

Mark decided to clarify. "So, in simpler terms, I cannot use my Trigger in competitive matches, whatever these are, unless I tell the Border officials what I'm using. And if I get into combat with… Neighbours? Yes, them, I can use my Trigger however I wish."

"That's right. If you suddenly develop a case of super-strength or something, you inform us before a ranking match takes place, and we decide if you can use it or not."

'Attention: this will require an immense amount of Trion expenditure, leading to the user's death. Proceed?'

'No. Learn how to take a joke, for fuck's sake.'

'Acknowledged. However, it is advised that the user checks their own sense of humour instead.'

"Nice to know." the 21-year old smiled. "And what are these ranking matches?"

"That's a long story, and besides, we have already went far off topic." Jun waved him off. "Before having to worry about that, you first have to become an agent, and that's why we're here."

Having said that, the black-haired teenager pressed some buttons on his tablet again, and a pedestal rose from the ground. On it were several rectangular objects that resembled a handgrip of some sort.

"Alright, these are training Triggers. A Trigger, as you might already know, is a device that allows for use of Trion. There are some Triggers that aren't meant for fighting, but here at Border you will mostly see combat-oriented ones. The training Triggers also act as a sort of measuring stick for Trion, but it is a very… crude measure. Enough to get an idea of a person's potential, but anything other than that needs to be measured in other ways. Go ahead and take one you like." the unit leader nodded towards the pedestal.

"And how do I tell which one is which?"

"These here are all the Triggers available for trainees, C-rank that is." Jun shrugged. "We are going to go through all of them, so it doesn't really matter."

Satisfied with the explanation, Mark closed his eyes and gripped a random Trigger.

"They don't bite," Jun jokingly said when he saw Mark do that, "so there's no need for that. Anyway, to turn it on, just say 'Trigger on'. Turning off is the same, just 'Trigger off.'"

"Trigger… on!"

Suddenly the handle vanished from his hand, and a familiar pistol grip took its place.

"Oh, a Handgun? Nice choice," Jun said. "One of the Gunner Triggers, very good at close range. This one is made to look like a Beretta, but there's quite a lot of other guns if you happen to have a favourite. Go ahead and shoot it, the rounds won't go anywhere outside the room."

Taking care not to point the gun towards Jun, Mark raised the barrel and pointed it in a random direction, then depressed the trigger. Contrary to his expectations, the gun did not have that much recoil – in fact, it reminded him of a NERF gun, only ten times deadlier.

'Attention: do you wish to analyse this Trigger?'

'Yes, but do it without damaging or altering it in any way. Do the same with any other Triggers.'

'Acknowledged. Limitations imposed. More Trigger usage required for full analysis.'

"Nice, now how about some targets." he pressed another button on his tablet, and two human-sized targets appeared out of nowhere some 20 metres away. "Let's see your accuracy. See these rings on the head and torso?" Jun pointed towards the dummies. "I want you to dump the entire magazine into one of them as fast as you can and as precisely as you can."

Taking a solid stance, Mark raised the gun and started firing. Immediately he noticed that the gun, compared to its real-world counterparts, was much more controllable due to it having almost no recoil, as well as lack of ballistics – the bullets always went straight no matter what.

After the gun clicked empty, Mark lowered the barrel and observed the damage. Despite being virtually untrained, he still managed a decent spread – most of the rounds had hit centre mass, in the 8-9 area, and several had even made it into the bullseye. Jun mostly agreed.

"Nicely done, but you'll need to improve your footwork. Put your right leg a little more behind… yes, that's it, and slightly crouch – this way your legs act like springs and absorb any impacts in combat."

Jun continued to lecture Mark on proper stances, until he was satisfied with the result.

"Alright, good. It didn't take as much time as I thought it would – you're mostly familiar with gun safety, which is admittedly not as big of a concern, but taking care not to shoot your partner is a nice touch." he grinned exuberantly. "And as for the accuracy… actually, I expected way worse. Did you have any experience with real guns?"

"Not in Britain. Dad and I had often been to America, where his cousins would oftentimes invite us to shoot at a local range." Mark admitted. "I had decent results, mainly with hunting rifles and when going prone."

"Oh, a Sniper?" Jun was even more excited now, if his face was any indication. "We don't get many sniper agents in Border – most are opting to become Attackers or Gunners, since they are easier to rank up in when going solo." Seeing the incomprehension on Mark's face, he clarified.

"Attackers are melee agents, who use sword Triggers like Kogetsu and Scorpion. Since none of their abilities consume much Trion, and most people in Border don't have a lot of it, Attackers are the most… hmm, numerous? Yes, exactly. Gunners, on the other hand, are agents that fight in medium to close range using firearm Triggers like Assault Rifle and Handgun. These consume more Trion than melee Triggers and require the user to be smarter than average to use effectively, but in return they have more options in battle. There's a third class, called Shooters, but these tend to be the smartest, as well as Trion powerhouses, and thus aren't exactly common."

"Well, it makes sense, I suppose. What about Snipers?"

'Analysis complete. Preliminary report on: Gunner; Attacker; Gunner Triggers; Attacker Triggers available in the Database.'

'More information is required to unlock Shooter entry.'

"Snipers…" Jun scratched his head. "You'd have to ask Ken-chan for details, he's the resident Sniper in our unit, but most Snipers are really skilled agents who fight at long range and specialise in precise takedowns, provide cover and information about enemy teams."

'Preliminary report on: Sniper available.'

'System, calculate my compatibility with all previously mentioned classes.' Mark mentally intoned. 'I will read these reports later.'

'Acknowledged. Compilation of user's parameters in progress. Estimated time to complete: 5 minutes.'

"Alright, I got it, what's next?" Mark asked, seemingly enjoying himself.

"Next, we test you with every single Trigger, until we find one that you're most comfortable with. After that, you normally take a written exam that determines how good you are at strategy and how good your… leadership is. It's not easy, and to date, I think no C-rank trainee had ever completed it with full marks, so there's always an option to retest yourself. Then, you have to be tested on your Trion capacity, whether or not you have enough to make it as a Border agent."

"Oh bother."

Seemingly not noticing his sour face, Jun unabashedly continued. "Border also requires quarterly school reports with your marks in every subject, but seeing as you're already graduated and from another country, you don't need to do that. However," and here Jun got more serious, "you will have to complete a man-da-to-ry Japanese course, because it's easier to teach one person Japanese than to teach everyone fluent English."

"I expected something of the sort, don't worry." Mark smiled. "Unless I'm going to be sitting that course with 5-year old pre-schoolers, that won't hurt my ego much."

Jun roared in laughter, and Mark mentally cheered. It seemed he already had a tentative foothold in Border with Arashiyama, and unless he did something stupid, this 18-year old unit leader would probably vouch for him.

'Project: Interpreter. Progress: 6.7%.'

That project was something he had concocted during his flight to Japan, and this basically offloaded the tedious work of learning Japanese onto the System in exchange for a higher Trion upkeep. The percentage climbed slowly when he was hearing or reading Japanese, but the majority of the progression, about 4%, came from a travel book that had the basics of sentence structure in it, which made sense – no matter how many words you know, if you can't make a sentence correctly, then you don't know the language at all.

"Nice one, very nice." the young man wiped a stray tear. "Haven't laughed like that in a long time. No, no pre-schoolers, Haagensen-san – we're in the age of Internet, and Border has one of the fastest connections, so you'll take some courses online. We don't expect you to be instantly perfect at it," Jun started to wave his hand, "but we want you to at least be able to speak with other agents without too much trouble."

'Compatibility report compiled successfully.'

"Right, and with all the horror stories I've heard about Japanese kanji, writing is off the table for now."

"Sort of." Jun shook his head. "You will still have to learn kana and some of the most popular kanji, but these are simple and won't take much time to memorise. You can learn harder kanji at your leisure, and if you do, that's even better, but it's not exactly required." Jun composed himself again. "Now, onto more testing!"

And so, they went through the entire arsenal.

Kogetsu, a balanced katana-like Trion sword, was not a good fit – Mark had less aptitude with swordsmanship than a medieval peasant, and it showed: his cuts, which according to Jun had to be clean and precise, were wavy and altogether sloppy; stabs were somewhat easier, but Kogetsu wasn't an ideal weapon to stab with; and the less was said about his slashes, the better.

"Remember about edge alignment!" Jun shouted from the sides while Mark was decimating the dummies. "Otherwise you'll end up with weak cuts and a broken blade!"

'Aptitude report updated. Current affinity to Attacker role: 10.2%.'

'God fucking damn it, even my Trigger is mocking me.' Mark lamented. 'Why did I have to get a snarky bloodthirsty AI instead of a nice, docile one?'

A one-handed sword called Scorpion was only marginally better, since it was more suited for stabbing, but otherwise his skill did not improve much. The System pretty much agreed, raising his Attacker affinity slightly to a measly 11.8%.

However, when the time came to try out the firearms, the 21-year old quickly became much more proficient – his Handgun and Assault Rifle performances were the best, followed by Shotgun and, at the bottom, Grenade Launcher. The latter was mostly due to his inexperience with that type of weapon, a similar reason to his lacklustre sword performance. System agreed with his conclusions again, showing his affinity to be 34.4%.

"Alright, now an important moment." Jun said once Mark had finished. "The only distinction between Gunners and Shooters is the fact that Shooters don't use firearms. Instead they fire the bullets directly by creating a Trion cube, splitting it up and firing each piece as an individual bullet. This process is slower, but they trade fire rate for… ver-sa-ti-li-ty. Gunners can only shoot two types of bullets, and have to pre-set them beforehand. Shooters don't have that limit."

"And what types are available then?"

"Without getting into details, there are four – Asteroid, which is basically a Trion bullet with no ballistics; Hound, which tracks your target; Meteor, an analogue to a high-explosive round, only stronger, and Viper, whose trajectory can be freely changed."

"So, right now I was shooting what, Asteroid?"

"Exactly. If you choose to specialise as a Gunner or Shooter, you'll find out more, but we're already short on time, so let's go to the Sniper range before Kitora-chan comes and scolds us for being late."

The Sniper range, apparently, was a massive underground room easily a few hundred metres long and maybe sixty to seventy metres wide. Right now, the range had a few people training in it, and Mark saw that there were at least three Triggers that Snipers apparently used – a big anti-materiel rifle reminiscent of an American Barrett chambered in .50 BMG, a hunting rifle with a scope on top, and a sci-fi wicked-looking gun that had a decent fire rate.

"This is, as I've said, our Sniper training range." Jun started talking again. "Agents that specialise as Snipers frequently can be found here, sharpening their skills and such. I swear, Ken-chan spends more time here than he does with us, his beloved team!" Apparently, that was a bit of a sore point for Jun, as he raised his voice more than it was strictly necessary. And his short tirade was loud enough that a person on the far end of the range reacted to it.

"I don't, and you know it, Jun-san." Mark didn't recognise him from that far out, but evidently it was Satori Ken, the Arashiyama Unit's only sniper. His speech was far less fluent than Jun's, but it was good enough that Mark was able to understand him. "Testing?"

"Yes, we need to test his Sniper skills."

"Okay." Ken took off the earmuffs and dismissed his Trigger, which took the appearance of a hunting rifle. "You tell him about Sniper Triggers?"

The unit captain visibly recoiled after a second of deep thought, and pointed an accusing finger at Mark.

"He managed to distract me!"

Ken sighed dramatically. "Alright. It's my job anyway." He dismissed his Trigger, and turned fully to Mark, a confident smile on his face. "You looking at one of the best Snipers in Border, and the one who uses two Sniper Triggers at the same time! I'm Satori Ken, but you can call me Satori-senpai!"

Mark turned to Jun. "Is he always that exuberant?"

"Well, he has earned it," Jun answered. "He's not an empty boaster, and his A-rank is not just for show."

Seeing as his audience was about to forget he even existed, Ken coughed loudly to get their attention.

"Right. Now, three types of Triggers. Ibis," he picked up a free Trigger and activated it, revealing a massive AMR as tall as him. "Extremely powerful, punches through Shields and Neighbours like nothing, but the bullets fly slowly and it's so heavy even I can't fire two of these at once." Was he reciting that?

The Ibis then faded away, and a hunting rifle took its place. "This one is an Eaglet, my favourite." the 15-year old Sniper stroked the rifle affectionately. "Best range out of all of them, good rate of fire and very good damage, a true All-rounder of Sniper Triggers." Mark felt he had missed a joke there. "Bullets are faster than an Ibis, so dodging is much harder, and it's strong enough to break through a general Shield."

He dismissed that one, too, and brought out the third Trigger. "The last one is called Lightning." he showed the futuristic gun Mark had noticed earlier. "Fastest bullets, nearly impossible to dodge. Fire rate is the highest of all three, somewhere between a Handgun and Assault Rifle, but every shot is weak. It's also lighter than Eaglet, and has a… computer scope."

'Preliminary report…'

'Not now, later.'

"Give each of them a try, then," Satori gave the three handles to Mark. "See which fits better."

Taking the Triggers, the 21-year old chose the most familiar one – the Eaglet, and took a knee, ready to fire.

"We start off easy," Satori started to fiddle with the controls on his tablet. "First up, target 100 metres away, diameter 50 centimetres. Every five shots it moves 25 metres, and you have 50 shots total." The stationary target appeared in front of him.

"Understood." Mark took aim and fired. His result appeared on the display nearby.

"Eight, good for first shot," Ken commented. "Let's see how well you keep that accuracy."

The next four shots landed in a nice even spread, with one bullseye and three 9's. Then the target moved, and Mark readjusted the scope.

Over to the side, the two teammates were having a quiet discussion in Japanese.

"He looks like a natural," Ken said while monitoring the scores the 21-year old was getting. "Did he say anything about it while you two were off chatting?"

"He did, in fact," Jun confirmed. "Said that he used to hang out at a firing range in America when his father took him along to visit his cousins or something. He doesn't seem to be lying, he's good with guns, but a natural?"

Satori shook his head. "You don't know because you always supervise the Attackers and Gunners, but believe me, there are not a lot of trainees with that much accuracy, especially from the knee. Obviously, he needs training, but there is potential, and someone like Azuma-san or Narasaka-san will tell you the same."

Arashiyama smiled. "It's rare to see you dish out praise, Ken-chan, and that's why I will trust your judgment."

The 15-year old grinned. "Well, I'm one of the best Snipers in Border, what else did you expect?" And quieter, "What about the rest of his evaluation?"

"He's hopeless when it comes to swords," Jun wryly commented. "Well, not exactly, but even if he gives it his best, I don't see him rising past low B-rank or even make it out of C-rank as an attacker. He's much more comfortable with long range, and that's probably for the best."

"True that, Snipers have always been in short supply." the teenage marksman sagely nodded. Turning back to Mark, he noticed that the foreigner was already well past the 250-meter mark, and didn't seem to have any trouble.

"Nine. 11 rounds remaining." the built-in speaker announced. Several seconds passed, then… Shot. "Ten. 10 rounds remaining. New distance: 300 metres."

"Wow," Ken whistled, "that's really impressive. On par with some skilled B-rankers, that's for sure, but that's with immobile targets. I wonder how he fares with moving ones."

"Leave that for when he gets accepted, Ken-chan," Jun lightly bonked his kouhai on the head. "I understand your professional curiosity, but now's not the time."

"'When', not 'if'?" Satori was sharp enough to sense the distinction. "I thought…"

"Jin-san arrives tomorrow," Jun clarified, lowering his voice even more. "But so far, I don't see anything that would jeopardise his chances. Except for the fact that his Trion body doesn't seem to change when using the Trigger."

"I've noticed. Maybe it will resolve itself. At least we got one more Sniper to hang out with." Ken then adopted a thinking pose. "Do you think he and Azuma-san will hit it off? They're kind of similar in age, Azuma-san is 24, compared to his 21…"

Another bonk. Then, "Maybe."

"Drill over. Cease fire."

Their attention was diverted to Mark, who had just finished the firing drill. The display then shifted to reveal his ranking. "Mark Haagensen. 19th out of 107 people."

"19th? That's really good!" Ken switched to English again. "You might give B-ranks a really tough time if you continue to score like that!"

The adult foreigner just scratched the back of his neck, seemingly embarrassed from the praise. "It's nothing, Satori-san – I just happen to have a bit of experience with real guns, and these Triggers seem to be somewhat simplified versions of a real thing."

'Trigger analysed. More detailed information is available in the Database.'

Ken took the stage. "Yes, you're right – Trion bullets aren't affected by wind or gravity, so our job as Snipers is easier. If you have it in your crosshair, you hit it, simple."

"Then why did Jun-san tell me there are not that many Snipers?" Mark was baffled.

"Two reasons," Jun interjected. "The first is that we Japanese have a long history with melee weapons, and since the majority of trainees are 14-16 years old, they tend to choose Attacker positions, even if they would've been fine as Snipers. However, the second one is more important – Snipers need to have a certain… mindset of sorts for them to succeed, and that's not something you can just," he snapped his fingers, "get overnight."

"Skills can be gained and lost, but you either are a sniper or you aren't, huh? That's what you mean?

"Exactly!" Ken was overjoyed. "Someone finally gets it!"

'Either Satori's overacting, or he's naturally that excitable. I can't tell which is which.'

After that, they tried out the two remaining Triggers. In Mark's hands, Ibis was a beast, penetrating several targets at once and generally making his minders shake their heads, while Lightning lived up to its name, its rate of fire being almost as good as that of an AR, with sniper-like accuracy. The power behind each shot, however, was still lacking, but Ken assured him that it was something no amount of Trion could change, not in a training Trigger at least.

'Affinity for Sniper position: 45.6%.'

After he was done decimating the field, Mark returned the Triggers back to their original compact state and made a show of dusting his hands.

"So, off we go then, to the dreaded strategy test?"

Ken visibly paled, seemingly remembering his own enlistment. "Good luck with that – in my two years, I haven't been able to get more than 30% on this test. Fuyushima-san and Shinoda-san are monsters…" he shivered.

"Don't take him seriously – he hadn't retested once, and still tells horror stories about it to anyone willing to listen," Arashiyama grinned.

"Your last test was a sixty-eight!" Satori cried indignantly. "You don't get to say anything!"

"And that's why I'm still a leader."

With that parting remark, Jun and Mark left the sniper range and Ken behind.

"What's it going to test me on, anyway?" Mark decided to clarify. "I get that it's sort of a leadership slash tactics slash strategy sort of test, but is it really that accurate?"

"Well, if it was made by anyone else other than Shinoda-san and Fuyushima-san, I would have agreed," said Jun once they had entered an elevator. "Shinoda-san is one of the best strategists in Border, on par with Haruaki Azuma-san, a legend among Border agents and Snipers in particular." If Mark didn't know that Jun was eighteen, he would've taken him for a hopeless adolescent fan boy. "Fuyushima-san is a genius when it comes to tactics, that's why he's one of the very few Trappers in Border. He personally selects those who he thinks are suited for that role, and so far he had chosen two others besides him."

"Only three? Out of, what, hundreds of people?" Mark gasped. "That must be one hell of a selection, then!"

Jun nodded. "Nobody really knows the exact criteria, but it is rumoured that getting a perfect score in tactics is a good starting point." Then he smiled wryly. "I have a four out of ten in special tactics, so I never even bothered to ask."

The elevator stopped, and they traversed another long hallway before stopping at a large non-descript door.

"So, here's the examination room," Jun said, shaking Mark's hand. "Good luck, Haagensen-san. You might need it." And he was gone, sending one last wink Mark's way.

'That sneaky… He just ditched me! And he's supposed to be my minder!' he ranted internally, opening the door. Immediately he was greeted by the sight of a half-empty room with desks and chairs inside. Still no windows, same as the rest of the Border base. A few other occupants glanced his way, but, not recognising his face, they turned back to talking with each other.

Not sure if there was any seating arrangement at all, Mark sat down at a desk not far from the front, and started waiting. Apparently Arashiyama brought him just in time, because roughly five minutes after he did, another person walked in.

All conversations immediately ground to a halt, as the unknown short man who introduced himself as 'Kinuta Motokichi' started distributing papers. Mark got his, and noticed they were both in English and Japanese, a fact that seemingly baffled the rest of the attendees.

'Instead of printing out different copies for me, they just translated the entire thing and let the others make their own conclusions. Smart, he thought, 'and an underhanded way of seeing if there are any people shrewd enough to connect the dots.'

Deciding to give it some thought after the exam, he flipped his test over and read the first sheet. The questions were hard, to put it mildly – most of them concerned various engagement tactics in different environments and with different team compositions, but there also were some that leaned heavily into strategy and large-scale warfare, and Mark had a hard time even understanding the terminology. Still, he powered through, deciding to give it a try.

'Hmm, deciduous forested area, three teammates, one Attacker and two Gunners. Enemies are two All-Rounders with Bagworm, Kogetsu and Assault Rifle, and one Sniper with Eaglet, Bagworm and Dummy Beacon. Your task is to eliminate all enemy agents with minimal casualties. Describe your actions.' Mark mentally intoned and started writing: "As a Sniper, in this situation my main goal is to eliminate high-ranked threats and provide cover for my team. Therefore, I will start hunting for the enemy Sniper while keeping an eye on my team's actions and path taken, with a secondary objective to scout ahead for traps and ambushes." He then put down some sentences about keeping to shaded areas in order to stay hidden, and a plan B in case the enemy Sniper had the same thought, but that was basically the extent of his knowledge. Same thing happened with every other question – it was rife with Trigger names he had no idea about, but he could guess and extrapolate some that were the most prevalent.

Shield was self-explanatory; Bagworm concealed someone's presence on radar; Chameleon did the same, but for the visual spectrum; and Lead Bullet probably made either the bullet or the target heavier, and Mark was reasonably sure it was the latter. The other Triggers were still unknown, and that made his task even harder than it probably should've been otherwise, but in the end, despite being the last one to leave, he still managed to answer every single one.

"System, update local map. Time of synchronisation – 11:21 local time. Set to auto-chart mode."

"Request acknowledged. Updating map. Auto-chart mode enabled."

Outside the room, Arashiyama was already waiting for him, Satori and Kitora in tow. 'I wonder if I should be angry with him for not telling me about these Triggers… Well, no, he probably simply forgot, but that's something to consider in the future.' "How long have you been waiting for me?"

"Not that long," Jun waved at him once he walked closer. "we've just came back from training, and managed to pick you up on our way back."

'Awfully convenient, but I'll let it slide. He's not the type to openly lie – lying by omission fits him better, and so he's probably telling a stretched version of the truth. However…'

"How convenient, Jun-san," Mark made his disbelief known. "I don't know if I'm impressed more by your scheduling skills, or your ability to make other people believe you." he laughed lightly to soften the blow. "Nevertheless, I think it's time for that last test, no?"

"Right you are," Jun laughed as well, seemingly unbothered by the accusation. Kitora, however, looked ready to throttle Mark, and Satori either did not understand what was said, or judged that the situation was well in hand. "And no, I didn't lie – we got here about twenty minutes ago, and training for my team usually ends at 11 AM, so you just got extremely lucky."

"I guess I was in the wrong here, huh? Sorry," Mark apologised, making a mental note to check their timetable. Trust, but verify and all that. "So, how is my Trion going to be tested?"

"It's simple – you take a special Trigger, activate it, it measures your Trion output and displays the result. The lowest score you must get to be accepted as a trainee is three. Four to six is medium rank, which is where most of the agents are. Seven is mid-high, eight is high, nine is large and ten is where it gets… insane."

"So is it like, out of ten?"

"Kind of, but there's theoretically no upper limit," Kitora interjected. "And honestly, it only makes a difference when you're a C-rank or a B-rank, since A-rank generally values skill more than Trion. I have a four in Trion myself, and I can easily best anyone from low B-rank or mid B-rank in single combat, no matter how strong they are, just due to our skill difference," she sounded proud of herself, and Mark had to give it to her, she probably deserved it. "High B-rankers are much more skilled, though, and most of them are either former A-rankers who have been demoted, or our replacements."

The talk then segued into other matters.

"I don't think I did well on the strategy and tactics test, to be honest," Mark admitted. "A lot of the questions there seemed to rely heavily on my knowledge of various Triggers, which you, Jun, didn't cover."

To his credit, Arashiyama looked just as lost as he was. "Wait, wait, wait. What kinds of Triggers?"

Mark started reciting. "Bagworm, Shield, Chameleon, Grasshopper, Lead Bullet, Dummy Beacon, Starmaker. There were some others, but they were mentioned only once or twice, and I didn't remember them as well as the ones I've mentioned."

The entire unit blinked, and turned to look at Jun, who was absolutely flabbergasted. "What the… kuso-o!" He cried out. "I accidentally led you into the wrong classroom! Please, forgive me!"

After calming down from his moment of panic, Jun explained that the room he was in was actually meant for captains, who had their monthly testing session. And as for the reason Jun led him there, well…

"I completely forgot that these tests are carried out in different rooms, because I usually take these tests as well!" Jun lamented loudly. "Now I have to explain why your test ended up being mixed in with the captains', and why I skipped this month's exam!"

When questioned about why the papers were in two languages, Jun only waved him off. "It's a legal requirement, of a sort. While the Japanese government doesn't own Border Agency, we are considered a privately-owned foreign entity that operates on Japanese soil, and thus have to have all our paperwork available in English and Japanese at the same time. For tests, that means they have to be printed in Japanese with English translations."

And just as Jun finished speaking, they turned another corner and came up to another door. After that particular moment, Mark was almost certain that Arashiyama had a sixth sense for timing, because this was simply unreal.

The door in question was not really a door, it looked more like a bank vault door cranked up to eleven and fed steroids for years. Two scanners on each side of the door indicated that whatever was inside, it was worth an entire budget of a third-world country, if not more so.

"Hold on, we need to wait for another person to come." Jun stopped him before he could get any closer. "It's secured against unauthorised access, and we need a staff member here to verify my credentials."

This time, however, they waited for close to forty minutes, until someone showed up. That someone was a tall, black-haired middle-aged man in a full suit. Mark did not recognise him, but that wasn't really something – after all, he was in Border for barely two days, if at that.

"Shinoda-san!" Arashiyama immediately smiled upon seeing the man. "Kaigi wa umaku ikimashita ka?"

They started chatting in Japanese, which meant that the contents of the discussion remained a mystery to him. However, he did get a bonus out of that, anyway:

'Project: Interpreter. Progression: 9.0%.'

The two men took out their access cards and simultaneously inserted them into the scanner-like things, then put their hands on top of the panels. A few minutes later, the previously invisible hatch in the middle of the door opened up, and a medium-sized ball became visible. Arashiyama picked up the ball and gave it to Mark.

"Here, just activate it like a normal Trigger. It won't do anything except show your Trion value."

Mentally intoning the command (he found it stupid to shout such things out loud), Mark felt a very sizeable Trion drain, to the point where his HP gauge started slowly decreasing. Alarmed by the sudden development, he released his hold on the Trigger, only for it to float in the air.

"Not the first time someone tried to drop it," Jun laughingly commented. "Even though there's no risk in dropping it, we still implemented a sort of safety just in case."

"No, it's not that," Mark shook his head. "It was draining my Trion so much it actually made my health points go down."

Apparently, Arashiyama remembered their talk from yesterday, because he immediately became serious. "It shouldn't do that. It only drains the Trion that the user outputs, not the Trion that he has stored."

The former student could only shrug. "Maybe it's due to the fact I'm no longer flesh? So the Trigger reads all of my Trion as output?"

"Could be. Let's give you some time to recover, and then we'll try again, but this time as soon as you see your… health dropping, release it."

Mark did exactly that. It didn't take long, about ten to maybe fifteen minutes, but now he was ready for round 2. The same thing happened again, except this time when he saw a sliver of his HP disappear Mark immediately dropped the ball.

This was apparently enough for the Trion-hungry Trigger, because it immediately showed a nice, bright '9' over the top.

"Nine? Wow, that's huge!" Satori. "No wonder your Ibis was so strong!"

"Pfft, as I said, Trion doesn't matter. Skill does," Kitora, although Mark noticed that she was a tiny bit jealous.

"Well, if that doesn't get you a Border ticket, nothing will," Jun. "Nine is very respectable, especially for someone your age." Mark took a mental note to ask about that later.

The two Border agents then returned the Trigger back to the vault and retrieved the key cards.

"That's enough excitement for today," said Shinoda-san in his commanding voice. "Jun, accompany Haagensen-san back to his room and then return to the main conference room for debrief."

They saluted, and Mark was led away by Arashiyama while his two teammates ran back the way they came from.