I don't own World Trigger! Daisuke Ashihara does.
I'm just someone who enjoys it.
Smouldering eyes stared back defiantly.
Caught in the glow of trion, they stared each other down, unwavering.
A casual flick of a hand, than chaos.
Bullets against bullets.
Animals against cubes.
Commander against commander.
Accompanying the booming explosions were plumes of rising smoke, obscuring the vision of those in the ship.
It wasn't until the smoke finally started to clear, that they could make out the faint silhouette of the two men.
"Director?"
He grinned through the dissipating smoke in response.
Hairein gave him a forlorn look, then, abandoning his bullet-ridden trion body, joined the rest of his comrades streaking across the sky.
Shinoda turned to face the ship, still grinning.
They all cheered.
Even Miwa, albeit softly.
All was good.
As if.
Shinoda knew there was something wrong when he got on the ship.
He clutched his stomach with one hand as his head spun, the other gripping the wall for support.
"Director-sama!" Shun cried.
"Contain yourself!" he snapped in a rare instance of crabbiness, fighting the urge to puke.
Shinoda didn't hear Shun's apologies as he leaned over to vomit in a nearby trash can.
Kyoko took charge.
"Chika! Get me a glass of water! Yuma, some motion-sickness pills!" she ordered.
The white-haired shrimp raised his hand in question.
"What are motion-sickness pi-"
Osamu got them instead.
2 pills and a sip of water later, his nausea became slightly more bearable, although he could have done without the crowd surrounding him.
Vomit temporarily at bay, he stood up unsteadily.
"We're heading back today." Shinoda said. "Take a break and relax for now. Shift duties will be posted later."
Osamu opened his mouth to object, but was interrupted by the sound of the Director vomiting.
His headache was back in full force.
"Out." he managed to order, before turning away to vomit in a handy paper bag.
He sat back down heavily while the agents shuffled back to their quarters.
"Right." he said, turning back to face Viza. "How did you come across Antarakishimosu? It's not from your country."
Viza gave him a placid smile.
"While that is an excellent question, I would instead recommend you to focus on the aftermath of your side-effects first."
Shinoda waved his hand airily with all the grace he could muster. "An interesting proposition. Unfortunately, my question takes precedence."
The elder produced a small bottle of pills from his cloak. "A pity too, since I just happen to have some motion-sickness pills that should be able to help."
Shinoda rolled his eyes in response, instantly regretting it when his headache intensified.
"I doubt it," He said, "For all I know, they could be narcotics."
He gave Viza the most suspicious look he could manage.
Kyoko had no such qualms.
She turned to him, pills in hand.
"Swallow." She ordered.
He wilted.
Grudgingly, he took them, forcing the bitter tablets down.
The spinning stopped.
Astonished, he turned to the elder once more, his mind brimming with questions.
Viza smiled serenely as the commander stared at him with undisguised curiosity.
"How-?"
Kyoko kicked his chair.
"Dinner first."
They hastened to follow her orders.
-LINE BREAK-
The elderly neighbour grimaced at his meal.
No wine, no gin, no whiskey…
"Is there even any alcohol on this ship?" he complained.
The two officers gave him bemused looks over their food - ramen for the Director, chestnut rice for the Lieutenant.
"Most agents are minors, and we don't really encourage drinking…" Kyoko ventured.
His eyes widened in horror.
"Then what do you officers do in your free time? Surely you don't spend all your time working…" He trailed off as the younger man innocently pulled out a stack of paperwork.
"Carry on." he said, dark eyes widening guilelessly as he began filling out forms.
The scene was ruined when Kyoko smacked them off the table.
"Director! You're not supposed to be doing my paperwork!"
He smiled at her sheepishly (employing another of his family's patented smiles), picking up the scattered papers.
She gave him a disgruntled look, but grudgingly accepted the proffered papers.
Viza tried his best to disguise his adoration at their cute dynamic.
He probably hadn't done a good job as the younger officer abruptly changed the subject.
"The Black Trigger." he said. "Didn't it originate from Chion?"
The neighbour savoured his meal, chewing slowly.
"Antarakishimosu is an oddity, even among Black Triggers. It's the only one to be shared among the various nations, and there is an extensive database of compatible users."
"A shared trigger?" he asked in disbelief. "And a database for compatibility?"
The lieutenant clearly shared his apprehension as she pursed her lips.
"It seems far-fetched, doesn't it?" Viza responded.
"But I can assure you, there is a good reason behind it. For one with such high compatibility, there aren't many people actually able to use it, and if there's one thing we Neighbours hate, it's having an excellent trigger go to waste."
Kyoko stabbed a rather unfortunate chestnut viciously.
"I thought you said that there was a high compatibility rate?"
Viza winced in response.
"Yes, well, there are two types of compatibility. Technically, there is an extremely high activation rate, but the people who can use it properly are usually limited to those with a specific side effect."
He cleared his throat.
"Official records are far lower than the activation rate - maybe a tenth at most."
"The reason being..?"
"The creator of Antarakishimosu had a Side-Effect not unlike yours - similar, but slightly different. It's something that was then imbued into the trigger itself, and thus refuses to allow anyone without a Side-Effect activate it. Of course, that's just the bare minimum."
He waved his hands expansively.
"To fully embrace its potential, one has to have the same type of Side-Effect as the creator - while there have been a few veterans who managed to use Antarakishimosu well without such a Side-Effect, it's still impossible to fully utilize it."
Shinoda rubbed the back of his neck.
"So we've established that Antarakishimosu is picky. It lets people activate it, but not use it properly. That still doesn't answer how it came into your possession."
Viza raised his hands in a placating manner.
"Patience, young commander." he said easily.
"An old friend of mine gave it to me for safekeeping, as he had yet to find a proper successor. He also happened to be eager to see how Antarakishimosu would fare in your hands."
Viza beamed at the two officers.
The younger man groused at his terrible luck.
No sleep, another Black Trigger to take care of, and a Neighbour to deal with.
The main reason being that a couple of old men were simply interested to see how the finicky trigger would react to him.
He let out a muffled groan as he calculated the amount of paperwork Viza was worth.
Kyoko gave him a sympathetic look as she followed his train of thought.
Pulling himself together, he turned to the Neighbour once more.
"And the Side-Effect?" he asked dully.
The elder man looked positively delighted at the question, a far cry from cantankerous fossil he had been upon learning about the ship's lack of alcohol.
"Now that, young commander, is the most important question."
"Official records show that such a Side-Effect isn't uncommon – it's by far the most common of all the documented ones." He said, taking a sip of tea.
"Unfortunately, they're really not that useful. Most of the manifestations are too weak or can't hold their own in battle. The most powerful users to date were the frog, followed by my friend the rabbit."
Kyoko tried not to laugh.
From the way her superior had his hand clamped over his mouth, he was having trouble as well.
"A frog? And a rabbit?" she asked, fighting the giggles that threatened to interrupt.
Viza smiled obliviously.
"You underestimate their power – for it is no common garden frog I speak of, but a Hairy Frog! The frog with the ability to protrude bones through its skin in response to an attack!" he cried dramatically.
She caught her superior's eye as he let out a soft snort.
"And the power of the Silver Marten!" The Neighbour thundered.
"An exquisite creature with a sensitive nose and outstanding jumping abilities!"
It was when Shinoda started miming bunny ears that she lost control, dissolving into giggles.
He joined her soon after, snickering softly first, than bursting into laughter.
His laughs only served to make the situation even funnier, and the two were soon slumped on their chairs, giggling.
Apologizing profusely, they sat back up as proper as they could, the relative silence only occasionally broken by a stray snort.
Viza waved aside their apologies with a smidgen of embarrassment.
"I'm afraid I should be the one apologizing, for I have forgotten that such Side-Effects are not common here."
The corners of their mouths quirked slightly as they remembered the dramatic wording that the elder had used.
He coughed delicately.
"Anyhow, the manifestation is the deciding factor. Most users have rather… benign creatures."
"Benign?"
"The frog was the most aggressive one…"
The elderly Neighbour pointed at Shinoda with a flourish, startling the duo.
"Until you appeared, young commander!"
"Pardon?"
"An apex predator!" he cried. "Never has there been a documented case !"
He seized the younger man's hands and stared at him.
"Combined with your versatile triggers, the output would be astronomical!"
Shinoda removed his hands from Viza's vice-like grip while he fawned on.
Kyoko broke Viza out of his spiel.
"And what exactly does the Director's Side-Effect do?"
He gave them an incredulous look.
"Did none of you sense the potency? The spike in fear, the tension, the delayed reactions? Isn't it obvious?"
"Blood lust!" He roared, waving Organon.
"Couldn't you sense the waves rolling off him?" he demanded.
"All of us were practically stiff in fear, while your agents were frolicking around you!"
Shinoda looked towards Kyoko for backup, eyes wide in confusion.
"Fear! The most powerful of emotions - it can distort logic and reason, paralyse even the best of men! A Side-Effect most befitting such a dynamic predator."
Viza forged on relentlessly.
"With your Sub-Effect in play as well, the power would be near limitless -" he paused at their confused looks, before sighing heavily.
"Please forgive this old man's ageing mind - I keep forgetting that you know nothing about the Side-Effects of our world. Like the name suggests, the Sub-Effect taps into the most primal instinct - self preservation. As the old adage goes, a wounded animal is a dangerous animal. In this case, the more trion damage or loss, the more destructive the attacks will be."
Shinoda leaned forwards, mind racing.
"How much more destructive? Is it a linear increase? Or is a sudden spike? What type of destructiveness?"
Viza pursed his lips.
"It's effects aren't massively game-changing, but I would suspect that an apex predator would have a larger spike than other creatures. Destructiveness-wise, it varies. Some users' trion become faintly explosive, but again, the effects aren't really apparent."
Shinoda could feel his head spin at all the new information, though his lieutenant seemed to be strangely at ease.
Osamu chose that exact moment to enter the control room.
"Director, sir, we can't go back!" he cried, face wrought with emotion.
"We're supposed to look for survivors, we can't just return empty-handed!"
Shinoda was saved from responding by Kyoko.
"Right now, we have a target painted on our backs. Two Neighbours from Aftrokrator, a national treasure, and a Black Trigger shared by the whole Neighbourhood. No one is staying."
He waved his approval half-heartedly, before feeling a rather familiar lurch.
"Um, yes." he said, realizing that he was supposed to speak. "With the presence of Galopoula, it would be best if we headed back as soon as possible."
"But-"
"Dismissed." Shinoda said hurriedly, trying to push the younger boy out of the rapidly spinning room.
"Sir, with all due respect, I don't think -"
"Out!" he ordered desperately, fighting the waves of nausea that threatened to drown him.
Osamu dug his heels in, refusing to forced out of the door.
"Director, the lives of people are at -"
At this point, the room was spiralling wildly as he lunged towards the waste-bin by the door.
For some reason, Osamu was still standing in front of him.
"Sir, we can't just leave-"
Unable to stop himself, he threw up over the poor boy.
Kikuchihara wrinkled his nose delicately as the sound of vomiting filled his ears.
"Apologies." Shinoda muttered to a vomit-encrusted Osamu as he heaved the rest of his dinner into the waste-bin.
Needless to say, Osamu didn't stick around.
This time, he didn't hesitate when Viza offered the pills.
Kyoko glared at the old man as she struggled to hold her superior up.
"I thought those were for motion-sickness!" she hissed.
He shrugged in response as he watched Kyoko deposit Shinoda onto a nearby chair.
"They are. They're just very a specific type of narcotics designed to knock out users so they won't suffer from motion sickness."
"Unbelievable." she muttered, straightening the Director's tie.
Yay! Most of the technical stuff regarding Antarakishimosu and the Side-Effects are done! Personally, I'm not really feeling the Black Trigger's name as it is a bit too wordy for my liking. Let me know if you have any suggestions!
Again, I'm super sorry for the gap in updates - I'm taking Chemistry, Maths and Biology and my new school has four tests assigned for the sciences alone next week, and I've been told to expect more, so updates will probably be monthly, until term break in November at least.
Story-wise, this chapter kinda felt bland to me, so do please leave a review and tell me if there's anything I can do to improve or edit it (or anything relating to the story so far in general). Criticism is welcome!
And of course, thank you to everyone who read or left a review on the last chapter!