Written by: Stupid Studios

He watched it all from a distance. The crowd gathered around a single person, the noise filling the entire space and cluttering the area with unnecessary bodies. Border's halls weren't so small that it stopped other from moving around, but the issue came in that he needed to get to the person who was in the middle of the crowd and who was attracting all of the attention.

Jumping on his feet resulted in nothing but seeing the top of multiple heads and the clear red of who he wanted to talk to. It was annoying to deal with, but he refused to feel bad about this in the slightest.

So he did something else.

"FEEEEEELING ALIIIIIIIIVE!"

He cupped his hands over his mouth and shouted.

Kenzaide Kanji noticed the attention on him and only smiled with his hands on his hips. A large grin spread across his face before lifting his head more. His sight was now parallel to the ceiling, but he could hear the murmurs of the people in front of him. It was an interesting sound that made him really think that none of them would make this boring.

With that thought in mind, he opened his mouth once more. Now that he had everyone's attention on him there was no reason to hold back now. So with a rumble in his chest, he gave another shout.

"KIRIKARI IS COMING AND HE'S A NUDIST TODAAAAAAAAY!"

Without another word everyone went into action. They did their best to rush out of the area while dragging along their friends or helping others get up after having fallen from the ground. Each one of them was screaming to run before the nudist made his way over to them all.

To the side of this chaos, Kanji grinned with his hands still on his hips. The room was clearing up quickly, but he only reveled in how alive everyone seemed when it came to running away from a terrible person. When the chaos began to settle, he moved forward and looked around to see who was left standing in the hall. One of them was the head of red he saw and the other was a girl with shot cut hair smiling in his direction.

The first one to greet him was the smiling girl, but the head of red smiled toward him too, a hand on his chin and a brow raised in amusement.

"That was an interesting way of getting everyone to back off there."

"Kanji-kun likes to be excited when he can be. It's a personality trait that people both like and dislike about him."

"What about you, Ayatsuji-san? Do you like it or dislike it?"

Ayatsuji giggled behind her hand, but Kanji was already aware of her thoughts on his excitement. It was nothing new to him, so he only continued to smile while walking towards them.

"So who exactly is this boy you wanted me to meet, Ayatsuji-san?"

"Kenzaide Kanji - someone who makes sure to always feel alive."

"If you don't mind me asking... What does that mean exactly?"

"It means whatever you want it to mean! I think of it as feeling alive, but others can think of it as feeling alive!"

"Kanji-kun, that doesn't make too much sense."

"It does to me, so that's all that matters!"

The energy coming from Kanji was not enough to deter the smiling duo. They only stared at him with smiling expressions and held nothing from him. His own grin felt like it was lighting up the more they stayed by his side, so they made sure not to move too much away from him.

The first person to react to him moving closer was Ayatsuji. Holding out a hand towards him, she looked to the head of red and spoke.

"Meishō-kun, this is the person I had wanted you to meet. He is currently in search of a squad to join, but no one actually accepts him."

"Oh, um... I am not really looking to join a squad just yet."

"Then how about forming a squad?"

"Is that not the same thing?"

Kanji waved his hand as he pulled out a pair of glasses. The head of red raised his brow again at this and watched the Kanji placed them on his nose. The lens were clearly taken out, yet he pushed them up as if they would help him figure something out.

With his finger outstretched and his pose moved to the side, Kanji spoke up with his grin still in place.

"You! Are Meishō Seiji!"

"Indeed, I am."

"I've seen some of your movies and always see that you're crowded around by other people! People who want you to join their squads because they want someone popular and famous in their ranks!"

"It seems that way."

"Well then," Kanji said with a clap. "How would you like to form your own squad with you as the leader!"

"You want to use my popularity as well."

"I want to have a captain who won't judge me and teammates who won't judge me."

By this point Kanji's bright grin had lowered to a bitter smile. His shoulders had begun to slump and both Seiji and Ayatsuji could tell that a different feeling had come over him due to this conversation. It was off putting to see just a change from such a simple sentence.

It was Seiji's turn to move forward, placing a hand on Kanji's shoulder and smiling towards the boy. He had said it so naturally, but the reaction was quick and honest. Something he had not expected to see when looking at the boy a few moments ago.

There was a clear difference between his attitudes, but it was interesting to watch how things had changed in an instant. Was this how Border was all the time, or had this been a special situation?

"Sorry to say, but I want to try being a solo agent for a bit."

"Huh? Oh, that's fine! Just know that I won't be leaving you alone for a good, long while!"

"Hm hm hm. Then we can see how long it will last."

That seemed to be enough to stir a challenge from Kanji.

Kanji was about to respond when someone called out from the distance. Seiji looked over the boy's shoulder to see that the one who had called out to him had been a blond boy with glasses. Next to him was a more effeminate boy with blue haired. It took no more time for Kanji to turn around, wave, then rush over to the two boys.

With him gone from their sights, Seiji turned to the girl next to him, who had been covering her mouth to hide her laughs. He personally had no issue with her doing this since he also found the entire thing rather assuming.

Once she was done with her laughing, Ayatsuji began walking away. She started as the lead and he followed easily in step with her and not in front of her. He was still new to the Border base and did not want to end up getting lost.

After getting into one of the halls, he spoke up to her, hoping for some answers.

"He seems like a good person."

"Doesn't he? Out of the male Operators we have, he's probably the easiest to get along with."

That explained his previous statement. But there was more to this than what Ayatsuji had said.

"I did not expect to hear the term 'male Operator' while here."

"They are rather few, mostly because the guys go to Engineering. But there are a handful of males who decided they still wanted to directly help the frontlines, so they took up spots as Operators. The two boys you saw Kanji-kun go to were also Operators. One of them has no squad yet, but the other is with an A-Rank squad already."

"I see... So is that what he meant by 'won't judge me'? Male Operators are judged here?"

Ayatsuji gave a sigh while placing her hand on her cheek. That felt like more than enough to answer him, but he let her continue.

"They are. Not really heavily, especially with who exactly are male Operators, but they are still judged. There is one or two who are picked on, but the others seem to react to it differently. The two older ones brush it off while another one has made name for himself as someone not to mess with. Then there is the one who is picked on for it. But Kanji-kun, like another one, choose to accept it, brush it off, and enjoy themselves here. The rest of us help when we can."

"Well that is nice of you all."

"Yes, but still..." She took her hand from her cheek and looked up at him. "Are you sure you didn't want to accept his idea? You would be in a squad where you are in charge. It would lessen the amount of people wanting you to join their squads and also give him squad to be a part of."

"Well... We can see if he holds true to his word. I doubt that I would be able to continually say no to him if he is that relentless."

Relentless he was.

For a full week, while others asked Seiji to join their squad, Kanji would constantly go up to him and ask if he wanted to make a squad. One that would have consisted of only them, for the time being. Everything concerning command and how they would operate would be for Seiji to decided while Kanji would be the one to take care of the paperwork and other things he deemed boring. It was something that had been brought up right away.

He had been rejected each time, Seiji telling him that he wanted to try being a solo agent for the time being. But each time he said so he felt like it was slowly becoming less of the truth and more of a saying for himself. Kanji might have noticed since his grin would continue to grow each time he went up to ask about it.

During this time, Seiji had found out a bit more from the boy. After some of the rejections they were simply sit there and talk. Even if they were not a squad, Kanji would tell him about Border, where things were, which rooms he could safely go into, and the general layout of the area.

Something else that had come up was his reason for being B-Rank instead of buying his way to A-Rank. Kanji had asked about it casually, but it felt like an important question.

To answer this, Seiji had said, "I wanted to start out like everyone else, but that didn't seem like it was possible. Maybe because of some other people? Well, either way, I managed to get everyone to agree that I start as B-Rank and continue on from there. I quite being an actor completely, but issues still come up from it."

Kanji had been understanding of that, not talking too loud and nodding along with his words. That had been when Seiji learned that, while loud, Kanji was someone who understood others, listened to them, and overall had street smarts that could guide him through life.

It was interesting to see this boy in action, even while he did very little.

What he did not expect was to see the lensless glasses again.

Time-after-time Kanji would pull those glasses frames from his pocket, place it on his face, and begin speaking like someone who knew more than they let on. It was amusing to watch, but it made Seiji curious as to why he had those in the first place. Hi thought was that it was a memento or gift from someone, but the answer he got was different from either one of those.

"These? Oh, that's because Lukas has glasses and is able to intimidate others using them. I thought that I'd try them, but I ended up taking out the lens. Now I just use them as a prop while trying to do some entertainment routines."

"You try to entertain others?"

"Mostly myself," he shrugged. "You see, there's this girl my age and a boy your age who are seriously crazy. But they know how to put on a performance, so it's pretty cool. I don't want to be that bad, but I can at least have some entertainment for myself."

"Well I am usually entertained by that as well."

"Really!? Wow~ I must be doing something right if you're praising me like that!"

"I suppose having some praise from an actor is nice."

Kanji had tilted his head at that before righting himself and shaking his head. He placed a fist in his palm, shook it a bit, then smiled at Seiji brightly.

"That's not it at all! I got praised by you! You look like you have a good sense of humor, so it's cool to know that you're entertained by it!"

To be told that he as a person was the reason why this was a good thing felt nice. Many movies had plot points like these, but it felt different to hear it in person. The genuine feeling behind it also helped to soften him up to this. Kanji's normal personality was enough to make any of their conversation enjoyable and not something that felt like it was a lead up to his question again.

Conversations like that had built up within the week and Seiji had found himself enjoying them more and more. Questions about his time as an actor were minimal and questions about Operators came up frequently. It was impressive what they were able to do for a squad.

And that single question never stopped coming.

"Hey, Seijin-san, do you want to make a squad together!?"

It was time for that question to come back up.

Seiji found himself smiling as he heard the question and the footsteps that followed. They had become normal within the week and he began to think that he was looking forward to it coming. So once it did, he smiled to the rushing Kanji and spoke.

His tone was even, but his feet were separated a bit more than before.

During the week, when not speaking with Kanji, he had spent time doing solo rank match and learned a lot of how to fight. It was different from practicing for a movie: it felt more real. The weight of a true weapon made him hesitate for moments before he could try to fire at a target or an opponent. Once he confirmed that the opponent was always fine he would smile and congratulate himself for being able to do something like that. This had happened until he was able to fight like others.

His position was Gunner.

The boy running up to him was an Operator.

They had spend roughly a week speaking with each other. The same question always came back up. By this point some others had given up on trying to recruit him, but Kanji had not slowed down in the slightest.

Seiji found that he had lost the challenge as soon as he accepted it in the first place. The thought alone made him laugh at himself.

And now, here they were.

With Kanji in front of him, Seiji gave a smile and said a single word,

"Sure."