I don't own World Trigger! Daisuke Ashihara does.
Surprised by the early update? I was.
"Well, that sure was an interesting turn of events." Karasawa deadpanned.
"Very." Usami agreed.
"And on that note, the upper management have taken out Izumi of Tachikawa squad, one of Border's top shooters." Azuma said.
"An excellent Senkuu by Kyoko." Kido rumbled. "Masafumi would be proud."
"No doubt." Karasawa drawled. "And there's Kitora - she's caught up with Satori already and setting up wires again - Kazama trading blows with Tsuji - oh, Kageura's entered the fray too, and Kazama's gone, probably using Chameleon to get away before Zoe shows up."
"A good choice." Azuma said gravely. "Inukai's already there. It won't be much longer until Ninomiya shows up. Although the Director seems pretty determined to not let Ninomiya meet up with them, if that Ibis is any indication-"
oOoOo
"Ibis?" Konami choked.
"What's the Director doing with that sniper cannon?" she shrieked.
Yotaru patted her back comfortingly.
oOoOo
Azuma gave a quick double-take as he realised what he had just said.
"Uh, yes, the Director has an Ibis, and he's still headed to towards Kyoko and Rindou, but his Bagworm's off..?"
"Isn't the Director supposed to favour Kogetsu?" Usami questioned as they watched him Grasshoppper his way across a series of tall buildings, Ibis in hand.
Azuma threw his hands up in mock despair.
"Do I look like Kyoko to you? I'm not the one who works with him twenty-four seven!"
Kido frowned at the tittering crowd of journalists (read: Shinoda's fanclub).
As much as it pained him to see his favourite Kogestu-wielding problem child absolutely fail at romance, he wasn't about to entrust the sacred responsibility of shipping him with Kyoko to the media.
"The mischievous brat's probably hoping that everyone will stay far away from him to avoid his bullets and Kogetsu." he replied. "With Bagworm off, everyone will try to avoid him, and he can get some cheap points off with Ibis."
Azuma blinked, momentarily stunned.
"I - well, yes, that does make sense. Interesting - maybe I should teach them how to snipe next time…" he mumbled.
"Does he even know how to snipe?"
"I don't even think what he's doing is even called sniping," Karasawa drawled, as the entire room watched Shinoda stroll across the rooftop and aim.
"It's more of him aiming vaguely at the direction he wants to and seeing how many people get engulfed in the explosion."
oOoOoOo
"Clear?"
"All clear, Masafumi!" Rindou cheered from his place in the sewers.
"Clear." Kyoko echoed.
"Good…" he said, before firing.
oOoOo
For the second time that day, the entire sky lit up.
Kageura winced as he felt his entire body prickle.
Tsuji gave him a sympathetic look as they turned to face the beam of trion that just had to be from the Director.
"Ninomiya better win." he grumbled, as the bullet hit the two attackers.
oOoOoOo
The crowd winced as an unfortunate Arashiyama was engulfed in the explosion.
"And that's the entire Kageura Squad down, along with Tsuji and Inukai from Ninomiya squad, along with an extremely unlucky Arashiyama. With that, the upper management takes a comfortable lead, standing at 7 points while Kazama squad sits at second place, just 6 points behind." Karasawa said dryly.
"Maybe Tachikawa can pull something off?"
oOoOo
Rindou stopped what he was doing to give his friend a short round of applause, before breaking into a strange victory dance.
"We're going to win, we're going to win, we're going to win~" he chanted, flapping his arms about in mock worship of his best friend.
Kyoko and Shinoda shared a look of faint disgust, before heading towards where Ninomiya had been last seen. With any luck, he should be heading right for them.
They weren't exactly wrong.
oOoOo
As it turned out, Ninomiya had been right behind them.
They found out when he began shooting bullets at them, forcing both to pull up shields and retreat.
"Rindou!" Kinuta bellowed. "Are you done yet? Ninomiya's onto them!"
"Patience," Rindou replied sagely. "Good things come in good time."
Shinoda rolled his eyes as he grabbed Kyoko's hand and ran.
"Much like our impending deaths, don't you think?" he snapped, pulling an equally annoyed Kyoko along.
Ninomiya sighed as he broke into a run after them.
Three minutes later, Rindou was finally done, and the two disgruntled members of the upper management had led an equally disgruntled Ninomiya on a wild goose chase around a small neighbourhood, before turning up once more at the main road where the entire fiasco had started.
"Am I great or what?" Rindou bragged. "How many people do you know who can set up traps quicker than me?"
The pair slowed to a jog, exchanging exasperated looks, before coming to halt right at the end of the main road.
It was with the utmost dignity (and reluctance) that Kyoko detached her hand from her superior's grip, choosing to clasp the hilt of her Kogetsu tightly instead.
He gave her a rather apologetic look as an extremely annoyed Ninomiya came into view, still running and blasting bullets at them.
"Grasshopper." he called, just as Ninomiya let out a rather furious bellow of "Gimlet!"
Whatever Ninomiya was expecting, it sure wasn't a series of explosions under his feet.
Very vaguely, he could here Rindou's cheers echoing from the sewer tunnels beneath him.
"I apologize for my friend." he muttered dryly, after successfully escaping the rather unfortunate Meteor traps Rindou had set.
oOoOoOo
Whatever strategical meet-up they had planned was swiftly interrupted by Tachikawa's arrival.
"Director!" the distraught attacker cried. "You promised that you would use Kogetsu!"
Shinoda sighed.
Knowing his student, there was no way Tachikawa would let him leave, at least until one of them was cut down.
It took a good chunk of his already thinning patience to not just riddle Tachikawa with holes.
Rindou wasn't really helping matters either.
"Masafumi! Can I borrow Kyoko? Kako wants to know if she wants to come over for fried rice after the match - also, they're trying to kill me."
He turned to Kyoko, who drew Kogetsu warily.
"Please go before Miwa shows up."
As she left, he turned to face Tachikawa.
The younger man let out a loud whoop and a Senkuu in response.
Shinoda sighed again, electing to avoid the strike with a well timed Escudo.
Tachikawa pressed him hard, swiping and forcing him to defend.
Then again, this could be a good opportunity.
He raised an eyebrow as the younger man managed to nick him.
"You've gotten better." he said, before drawing his second blade, and breaking into a grin.
Tachikawa paled under his teacher's grin.
oOoOoOo
"Tachikawa's dead." Azuma said bluntly.
"But… Isn't Tachikawa still alive? He's holding up pretty well against the Director, right?" Usami asked, as they watched an exceedingly nervous Tachikawa parry blows with a still grinning Shinoda.
"That's probably because the Director needs something from Tachikawa - he's probably going to use this as an experiment, actually. If we're lucky, we might get a new optional trigger out of this." Azuma explained.
"I'll bet you anything that it's a trigger for his beloved Kogetsu." Karasawa snarked.
oOoOo
Tachikawa was trying very hard to break free from Shinoda's attacks - he was in a continuous cycle of defence against his teacher's slashes and verbal comments.
"Your parents called me." Shinoda hummed, before delivering a rather nasty gash to Tachikawa's leg. "Apparently you failed your latest exam."
Tachikawa shrank under his teacher's disapproving gaze, which flipped back into a cheery grin.
"It's a good thing we're having an Exhibition Match today, isn't it?" he smiled, easily blocking his student's rapidly weakening counter-attacks.
He nodded feebly in response, before deciding to take a chance, and brought both Kogetsu swinging down on Shinoda.
Shinoda blocked it easily, and proceeded to give his student a dazzling smile.
"Lead Kogetsu!"
oOoOoOo
"Ah. So that's what it is."
"Lead Bullet combine with Kogetsu, huh?" Azuma pondered. "No wonder he was so interested in Miwa's trigger lately… He must have been messing with his own trigger set."
"He's got a new trigger holder as well," Usami interjected. "Rindou told us that the Director got one like Reiji's."
Karasawa snorted. "I can't imagine Masafumi in Full Arms - that'll definitely be a treat to see!"
"The brat just wants a full arsenal." Kido growled. "He's doesn't need Tamakoma's triggers anyway - all of Border's are practically made for him."
"True," Azuma conceded. "But the Director has more than enough trion to do whatever he wants at this point. If anything, Full Arms won't even put a dent into his trion pool."
Notes:
I'm going to try to cut back on the length of these notes - the one from the last chapter was far too long.
As you can tell, I was super pumped to write this chapter - I can't believe that I managed to get this out so quickly. Hopefully, it won't be as riddled with errors as the last one. （；￣д￣）
Also, Shinoda will not be getting Full Arms. He doesn't need nor want it, unless he manages to get Kinuta to make him a version that uses almost all the offensive triggers in Border (probably by doing his paperwork for a month). The insane trion boost he gets from his Black Trigger will be more than enough - it'll probably bring his trion stats to at least around Viza's level Organon, which will be revealed later, but until then, feel free to guess!
And while Full Arms might be an interesting look, I doubt his fanclub will be pleased - the shields would probably block his pretty face. ｡ﾟ(ﾟ´Д｀ﾟ)ﾟ｡
Obviously, he doesn't have a fanclub in canon. However, he is a pretty popular character, if the 2nd Valentine's day polls (and the other polls) mean anything. Ashihara has also admitted that he is weirdly handsome. Therefore, I have no choice but to agree that yes, Shinoda is pretty gosh darn hot, and that he deserves a fanclub. Everyone who voted for him know what's up. *grins*
As always, thanks a million to everyone who took the time to read this, and especially to those we left a review! If you enjoyed something or hated something in this chapter, do leave a review below! (Or if you have any suggestions to the story or characters!)
(In case anyone was wondering, Ninomiya hasn't bailed out yet.)