A/N - It's exam week, and I have a lot on my plate, to say the least. BUT! I am doing my best for this, since it's something that I really enjoy doing, and the comments I get always make my day feel a little brighter! So I get that this chapter, being an interlude with drabbles for the most part, is kind of a let down after last week's chapter, but I'll be posting the next chapter, TOMORROW!

So I hope everyone that bothers to read these, has a wonderful day! I look forward to all the reviews I receive, as per usual, even though I don't actually respond to them! They mean so much to me!

-0-

(Just because Mori wasn't around the first time Yuma got hit by a car, doesn't mean she'd never end up witnessing it. AKA, the first time Mori ever saw Yuma's Trion body repairing itself. It wasn't exactly a pleasant evening.)

The first time it happened, Yuma reluctantly admits that the heart attack Mori nearly had was… Hilarious, to say the least.

He hadn't looked both ways, and Mori, despite actually seeing the car, didn't move to jump towards him—as he'd told her not to earlier.

She sent him a quizzical look for that, but apparently didn't think too much on that and nodded along. The words 'don't run after me if a car is about to hit me' were just… too weird for her, apparently.

Whoo-boy was she in for a surprise.

So the car crashed right into his side—oof, that really would've hurt if he was actually a normal person—and sent him flying across the street. He distantly felt the crack along the side of his face, the feeling of his arm snapping unnaturally to the side, and the 'thud' of his head against the road, and wow, that's the world that's going sideways.

There's a blur of white noise as the road explodes into chaos, in which Yuma takes his time to get up. Apparently preferring to just stay lying face-down on the ground until further notice.

He distantly recognized Mori running up to him in an absolute panic, so he decided that the time to play dead was pretty much over, and he pulled himself up to his feet.

Never let it be said that Yuma doesn't like jokes. Or pranks.

His head was still healing, and his hearing was still pretty muddled from bouncing off of the concrete, but his eyes were fine. So when he sat up and got a good vision of Mori, who looked borderline hysterical as she stood over his collapsed body, eyes wide and completely filled to the brim with worry… His amusement dampened a little.

And with hearing still bordering on completely deaf, he mutters out what he hopes can be understood as, "Sorry".

Mori watches in dawning relief as the cracks in his face sew themselves up, black Trion peeking through the tears, before picking him up in her arms and running away from the growing chaos on the street, People preparing to approach the victim of the 'car accident'.

"Never do that again, you fucking bastard", is the first thing he hears when his ears finally start to work again just a few seconds later. He gets a good laugh out of it, but he concedes that maybe playing such a dangerous prank on worry-wart Mori wasn't such a good idea.

Well, whatever, it wasn't really planned in the first place. He only really thought of it after he got hit by the car, and figured that at least something should come out of it.

-0-

(Tachikawa-squad talks about Mori. Because you don't come by shooters every day, and everyone can see that Izumi is absolutely ready to take the new arrival under his wing the first chance he gets.)

Border wasn't exactly plentiful on shooters, Kunichika knew.

It was actually a little upsetting, considering she knew just how sad that made her teammate—the teen that was practically her little brother—being a shooter himself.

She could probably count all of the official-agent shooters on just her hands. Well, there was Izumi himself, Ninomiya, Nasu-chan, Kako-san, Mizukami-san, Kurauchi-san, the three from Mamiya squad… Is that it?

'Is that really the only shooters in Border?' Kunichika can't help but droop in disappointment as a pout slowly forms. 'No wonder Kohei's so sad about that, that really is upsetting.'

And now, we can add Mikumo Mori to the roaster… Bringing the total number of shooters up to the grand statistic of 10.

10 shooters.

In all of Border.

Safe to say, Izumi had brought his grievances about this topic to Kunichika and Tachikawa many times.

It was—sadly enough—to be expected though. When people first start out, they have to make the decision between 'shooter', and 'gunner'. At first, shooter seems like the smarter choice. You can spread out your bullets more, and it gives you more of an advantage with making composite bullets, as you don't need to set it to an entirely different Trigger holder—like with a gunner. And even if your arms get cut/shot off, you can still fight properly.

But most people just couldn't do it. That was the biggest obstacle.

They just couldn't manage it, and it was really a sad thing.

It was much easier to visualize the bullets— as well as practice with different trajectories when you had just one shooting point. As in, the point where the bullets come from.

AKA, a gun in your hand.

Not to mention, it makes it much easier to aim. When you have a gun in your hand— with the Asteroid, in particular, you can take aim with the gun and shoot. But with the Trion cube-bullets, the completely different shooting points can very easily throw people off.

Most people just couldn't manage it. The fact that Mamiya squad had gotten all three of them with the ability to do that was, sadly enough, astounding, never mind how low-ranking they were.

So yeah, Izumi was quite sad about this fact. The number of shooters was quite low, and the number of people that could improvise trajectories with the Viper Trigger were even lower— being only Izumi and Nasu-chan.

Then Mori comes along. Kunichika (properly) met her first, but the day that Izumi met her, Kunichika can just tell.

Never mind the fact that Mori had excitedly texted her about it just a few hours after the apparent snow-ball fight.

(Mori gets unnaturally nervous about meeting new people, but also unnaturally excited about making new friends. Kunichika can't help the strange mix of sympathy and protectiveness that washes over her when she thinks about it.)

So when Izumi arrives back at the operator room that night—he'd already asked if he could sleep over that night, considering Kunichika did it all the time—Kunichika patiently waited for Tachikawa to finish up his little moment with their younger teammate, complete up his paperwork, and get out before she made her move.

Except this plan had a very, very big hole.

That hole? Well.

It was bold of her to assume that Tachikawa would finish his paperwork within a reasonable time. That's all she's gonna say.

So when she was tired of waiting—but absolutely sure she wouldn't be interrupting some meaningful, heartfelt conversation between the two of them that they'd been putting off since the shipwreck of an invasion—she threw open the door and walked in.

"Oh, Yuu!" Izumi waved from his spot beside their captain on the couch, lying down with his legs tossed over the side of the couch. "I didn't think you were sleeping over tonight, sorry about that."

"Maybe we should just pull out the sleeping bags," Tachikawa laughed, lifting his eyes up from the papers in front of him. "Cause I don't think I'm finishing this tonight." He paused, before quickly adding, "Or tomorrow."

Izumi shot him a flat expression, before returning his attention to their operator.

"Shinoda can't protect you from Kido-san forever, you know," Kunichika mumbled scoldingly, stepping into the room as she collapsed onto the opposite couch, pulling a blanket around her shoulders with a pout. "You never hand in the paperwork on time, he's gonna bite your head off one of these days."

"He has been pretty crabby since the invasion," Izumi chuckled. "Probably cause of you, captain."

"Well, maybe you shouldn't have gotten captured," Tachikawa pouted, and it really said something for how useful their discussion must have been, with how Izumi didn't even flinch at the mention. "… Still, what am I supposed to do? It's just so boring and takes so much time."

"I guess we could help you, captain," Kunichika giggled, finally sitting up so that she could lean over the coffee table and check his progress. "But next time, you shouldn't procrastinate."

Tachikawa's expression turned into something more indignant, but he gave up on refuting that as Izumi sat up beside him.

"Huh, you actually got most of it done!" Izumi teased, stealing Tachikawa's pencil from him. "Colour me impressed."

It's now or never, Kunichika figures. This is one of the few times Yuiga won't be around to interrupt them, with how late it is, and the atmosphere is relatively light-hearted.

And after a while of some quiet discussing as they fill in part after part of the paperwork together, Kunichika finally finds a break in the conversation to ask.

"Kohei," She begins conversationally. "What do you think about Mori-chan?"

And he blinks, and Tachikawa blinks too because that question did seem rather out of the blue.

"Mikumo?" He repeats. "… What about her?"

And Kunichika groaned, because he's acting oblivious and sometimes he's not half-bad at it, but right now that's not what she's looking for.

Kunichika can only give him a half bland, half pouting expression before he laughs as a knee-jerk reaction.

"… Just promise me you won't corrupt her with your trigger-happy ways when you try mentoring her." Kunichika sighs, and she has to physically stop herself from bursting into laughter at Tachikawa's confused expression. "And try not to piss off her other teachers too much."

He snickers. "She does have a lot of people looking after her, huh? There's Jin, Karasuma, and Kikuchihara." And he pauses, before grinning again. "Besides, I think she's the one infecting others with her 'trigger-happy ways'."

Kunichika really shouldn't be laughing at the conversation, or Tachikawa's building confusion, but she can't help it. It's just too funny.

(She really does love her friends. Her family.)

-0-

(Miwa squad was one of the squads hit the hardest by the invasion, right behind the whole Tamakoma branch. Miwa made them worry quite a bit, so they figure that this is justified.)

Miwa blinked, stunned.

"… I wasn't expecting you guys to be here."

"What, really?" Yoneya questioned, and for some reason it has Miwa feeling just a little bit bad.

He doesn't let that show though, so he huffs and continues to walk forward.

"We heard that you were getting released today," Narasaka began. "So we asked for a free day so we could meet up with you."

"Weren't you guys helping out the city?" Miwa asked rhetorically. "How'd you get him to agree to that?"

"—Anyways…" Yoneya continues, completely unperturbed. "On 3?"

Miwa blinks. 'What?'

"Sure." Narasaka shrugs.

Kodera looked somewhat nervous but nodded nevertheless.

Tsukimi only laughed while Yoneya began counting down. Confusion spread across Miwa's expression as he stared at his squad members.

"Wha—"

"ONE!"

And Miwa as cut off as all four of them tackled him into a hug.

-0-

(Mori's side effect is nice at times. But she—similarly to Kikuchihara—does, on occasion, end up with some information that she would really rather not deal with. Some times are less worse than others.)

Nasu had been dating Kumagai for a while now.

It was almost natural, they had each other's backs, they were always there for each other, and Nasu had always looked at her friend with a fondness that Sayoko explained was something a little more than what you might have for just a friend—

Kumagai asked her out before the year was over, and Nasu had never been happier.

Hiura congratulated them many, many times, Sayoko seemed to send Nasu an almost smug—yet also proud—look. Then, once the second large-scale invasion was over, They gained their fourth member that Hiura had helped them scout out, among the newly promoted B-ranks.

A sniper that had been practising non-stop, grieving over the help they had failed to provide for their friend on the battleground.

Natsume Izuho.

And Hiura found something about her that the rest of the team couldn't help but see in the both of them, and the team had grown.

In a way, Hiura was interested in making Natsume her successor for once she was forced to leave Border. There's no better person for the job, she'd insist, before launching herself at her so-called 'protege'.

A fine addition to the team, while Nasu couldn't be prouder of their squad.

But as the year went along, it became increasingly clear that they had unintentionally hidden one of the biggest impacts on their lives from just the previous year.

It became increasingly clear, that they had unintentionally hidden Nasu and Kumagai's growing relationship.

It wasn't intentional, Nasu is sure. They hadn't even realized what had been happening until Narasaka brought it up with them after they ended up telling him.

That being said, the number of people that were aware of their relationship was... Limited, to say the least.

Narasaka, being Nasu's cousin, was one of the first (only) people to be told voluntarily. He'd taken the news fairly well, congratulating Nasu with a small, soft smile that he didn't show most, before proceeding to give Kumagai the equivalent of 'the shovel talk'.

(It wasn't that bad, Nasu insists. Kumagai politely disagrees with her on that front.)

Kikuchihara was next, although that was less intentional and completely accidental. He'd simply overheard it being said at one point, and promised to keep it to himself... for the most part. Nasu suspects that he ends up finding out private secrets like this quite often, and must be somewhat used to this awkward situation.

The next person was Kako. She seemed like the person to know all of the gossip, Kumagai admits sullenly as Kako was walking away, Kuroe on her heels and a chuckle on her lips. Neither of them, to this day, know how she found out—For all that they had no doubt she could have nagged and annoyed someone until they spilt, neither Kikuchihara or Narasaka were really the type to be bothered—And Kako has never confessed her methods of information gathering.

Inukai, somehow, found out. Nasu finds him to be a friendly and understanding person though, so Kumagai held herself back from chopping off his head once he confessed that he had found out. On the up-side though, he offered a warm congratulations, and similarly to Kikuchihara, a promise to keep silent.

At this point, Nasu was comparing this whole situation to a game. 'See how long it takes for everyone to find out'... Or something.

Kumagai finds it somewhat entertaining, if sometimes a bit privacy invading.

Other than that, either no one else knows, or they just haven't admitted how aware they were of Nasu and Kumagai's love-life they were. Jin is probably the only other person that is no doubt aware, but he hasn't bothered them about it. So it's fine like this.

It remained like that for a while.

Until the one time that Kuga Yuma had brazenly challenged Miwa Shuji—in front of a large crowd of C-rangers and B-tankers alike—To a solo rank-wars match.

Nasu recalled quite a bit of goading on his part prior to the actual challenge itself, but Miwa seemed rather wound up himself, and agreed without a word, and murder in his eyes.

The second the matches start, Yoneya—Miwa's teammate—bursts into amused laughter, falling backwards and landing himself a spot on the front row couches, beside a few familiar figures.

The rest of the team, Kodera, who was looking quite nervous but nevertheless excited to analyze the match, Narasaka, who was levelling a flat stare at his sometimes-too-easily-aggravated captain (Although he seemed to get angrier quicker around Kuga, which was strange). As well as the rest of Tamakoma-2, Amatori Chika, exasperated yet slightly amused and resigned, and the captain, Mikumo Mori, who was yelling something unintelligible at the screen while her eyes sporadically flickered around the room... Which always seemed to happen whenever a room was relatively busy.

Yoneya only laughed harder at the captain, who was sitting right beside him.

Everyone's attention was captured by the battle happening on-screen, so was it really Nasu's fault for getting caught?

It started like this, Nasu and Kumagai were on their way out of the building, hopefully on a nice, relaxing date, and they just so happened to walk by the bustling lobby full of awed Border agents, all of their eyes glued to the screen with the smug white-haired teen, and the increasingly frustrated A-rank agent that—dare she say—seemed to almost enjoy the match after a while.

And it ends somehow with Nasu staring at the one beside her, all of a sudden overcome with such love and adoration for the woman that accepted her so completely, to the point where she was actually the one to confess her feelings. And it goes on with Nasu standing on the tips of her toes, surprising Kumagai with a kiss to the cheek, watching with fond eyes as Kuma's face glows a bright red, stuttering out questions that Nasu can't quite decipher as her girlfriend turns towards Nasu in shock.

And as Nasu's eyes stray over to the side while her girlfriend questions her, she can't help but meet eyes with a certain someone across the lobby who had watched the so-called 'scene' unfold with red-tinted cheeks.

Mikumo is still sitting in her spot, head turned a solid 110 degrees to Nasu's direction, her mouth agape and her eyes wide as she accidentally witnessed such a private—and somewhat intimate—scene between the two teammates, and her eyes almost seem to stretch wider when she and Nasu meet eyes.

(… Well, I suppose we have another person to add to the list of 'people in the know'.)

Nasu waved good-naturally to the younger teen with a small, soft smile. Mikumo waves back—awkward as it is—although the blush from her cheeks hasn't faded. Kumagai's face seems to get even redder when she realizes that they'd been seen.

Kumagai pulls Nasu out of the lobby and towards the first doors after this, with Nasu right behind her with a small smile on her lips as she grips her girlfriend's hand.

Life is good.

-0-

(Inukai is stupidly friendly at his best, and only mildly annoying at his worst. So, Arafune figures that if he gets along stupidly well with the new B-ranker that seems to have a semi-permanent scowl—as well as a habit to get nervous around particularly impressive people… Well, there's not much he can do about it, other than try to make the kid feel at least a little welcome in the gigantic family that makes up Border.)

Arafune tilted his head, staring slightly downwards at the new arrival.

Dark hair pulled into a ponytail, square-ish glasses, and a scowl that seemed slightly out of place with Inukai's sunny disposition right beside it for contrast.

"… Inukai, Tsuji," Murakami waved from beside Arafune. "And… Mikumo?"

The teen nodded sullenly. Inukai himself bobbed at the motion, left arm still swung around her shoulder. His right arm was slung around Tsuji's shoulders, who was nervously standing on Inukai's other side.

Arafune didn't stop the remark before it slipped out. "You haven't brought someone else without warning us for a while, and now you brought two?"

"Sorry," Mikumo apologized for Inukai, and Arafune facepalmed.

"No, it's not your fault. He probably dragged you along, didn't he?"

She didn't quite deny the accusation, while Inukai didn't even bother looking ashamed. Tsuji was still nervously shuffling in his spot.

"I just thought Mikumo-chan should come along, and you should've figured I'd bring Tsuji-chan," Inukai sang, slowly pulling himself off of his friends' shoulders, before swinging his hands behind his head. "If it's no problem, anyway."

Now, Mikumo looked absolutely horrified at being a problem, so forgive Arafune if he only sighed and shook his head.

"No, it's no problem," He turned his head towards the building they were waiting in front of, checking that the sign had been turned to 'open'. "There's more than enough room."

Apparently given the o-k, Mikumo relaxed in her spot. Murakami decides to approach her to introduce himself—properly, rather than the confrontational meeting they'd had the first time.

"It's nice to meet you properly this time, Mikumo," He greeted. "Congratulations on your last win, by the way."

"Oh— Uh, thanks," She stuttered, nodding slightly in his direction. "It was a good match."

Murakami smiled warmly, and Inukai gave them both a pat on the back before finally taking pity on Tsuji, and pulling him by the hand away from the two.

"… I recall you two meeting in the lobby back then," Arafune begins conversationally, as Inukai and Tsuji walk up beside him. "Didn't remember you being so close though."

Tsuji tilted his head but decided to listen for an answer rather than fire off questions just yet.

('Tsuji has always been a quiet kid', Arafune remembers. 'And nervous around girls too, it really says something about Inukai's social skills if he managed to get both of these nervous wrecks over here without issue.')

"I managed to get her number out of Kunichika-chan," Inukai admitted shamelessly. "Besides, she's easy to get along with."

Arafune recalls a scene from a few days ago when she slapped the white-haired attacker across the face with her glove.

'Easy to get along with. Right.'

"… So you're just a stalker?"

"Geh!" Inukai winced, falling back dramatically as he clutched his chest. "Arafune-chan, don't say it like that! We're just friends, and she's only 15!"

"You just confessed that you needed to get her phone number from someone else other than herself," Arafune pointed out with a raised eyebrow. "Does that not sound stalker-ish to you?"

He hid a slight smirk behind the high collar of his jacket, watching Inukai's expression become more offended than ever before. He knows that Inukai had just been being his usual friendly-self, and so now it's just harmless teasing.

"I just didn't get to ask her for it face-to-face…" He whined sadly. "Don't make me sound like a creeper…"

"… Still, she looks like a good kid." Arafune nodded along.

Tsuji glanced between Arafune and Inukai, just as they walked into the Okonomiyaki restaurant.

Just in time too, because the second Inukai crossed the threshold, Kageura's head whips around and his eyes narrow, and his mouth pulls itself into a snarl.

"FUCKIN—!"

"Good morning, Kage-chan~! Lovely day today, huh?"

Tsuji stares between Arafune and Inukai a few more times, before seemingly making up his mind.

He's sweating in his seat while he sits beside Mikumo, and he looks terrified out of his mind… But Mikumo looks similar, and despite this, they're attempting to hold a semi-stable conversation, so it can be counted as a win.

Even if Kageura is cursing under his breath whole time while being forced to sit beside Inukai after Arafune and Murakami drag him into their little breakfast/lunch meeting here.

-0-

(Border thought they could sweep the whole 'Miwa and Mori nearly died' issue under the mattress without much issue, with the invasion as a whole overshadowing it. And it would've died there, honestly. If only Miwa's classmate and his self-proclaimed friend weren't so darn good at digging up information when they really want to.)

Thanks to the fact that most Border agents were at school at the time that the invasion started, schools were evacuated first, and any Neighbours in the area were cleaned up relatively quickly.

Other than the Rabbits. But lucky (unlucky) for them, there weren't any by the schools, so…

Most of the schools stayed intact. For the most part.

So around… Just a week after the invasion? School started up again, and Nire was wallowing in misery once again.

For crying out loud, she didn't even get to do anything during the invasion, because Kage was god-knows-where! And she couldn't make it to HQ to help out anyway, because she got swept up with everyone else in the evacuations.

It's all because Miwa left her behind. Hmph.

… Speaking of Miwa.

He's been absent since the invasion, and no one knows why.

The teacher hasn't been told anything, Nire hasn't been told anything.

She's noticed that Yoneya's been skipping school—And she knows he's been skipping school, he can't deny it because he has actually shown up only once or twice. But every time she tries approaches him, he just runs away and she never gets a chance to ask him anything.

But Nire is nothing if not determined, and so she went digging.

She may be part of Kageura squad, which means that her teammates aren't the smartest, but she can use process of elimination at the very least.

And so, that's what she does.

If Yoneya won't tell her, the likelihood that Narasaka will is… Let's just say, next to zero. And if Narasaka is NEXT to zero, then Tsukimi herself is impossible, no matter how many sweets Nire can bribe her with.

And it's a well-known fact that Kodera is well protected by everyone in Miwa squad. If she wants to approach him, she should be prepared to be caught by Narasaka or Tsukimi.

Which she would rather not do, thanks.

Other people. What other people can she ask?

Azuma. He knows practically everything. But if Yoneya is either A—Under orders not to talk or B—Just not in the mood to share… Then the possibility that Azuma will tell her is unlikely. And if she asks about it, then she basically tells everyone that she's trying to look into it in the first place, and to be suspicious.

… There's really not that many options, is there? There's not much else left to do but… Hack into Border's website and… Read the newer mission reports… Fuck, that's not gonna be fun.

And that's why she's here right now.

"Hikari, what… What are you doing?"

She absentmindedly turned her head towards the side to shush Kitazoe, though her eyes never left the screen. "Zoe, be quiet."

"… That looks vaguely illegal," Ema comments, leaning over to glance at the screen. "Are we going to get demoted again?"

"Hah?!" Kageura sits up from his spot where he'd been lying on the floor, and Nire feels something smack against her folded legs. "Wha—"

"Don't kick me, Kage, or I'll kick you all out of the kotatsu!" Nire shrieked, reaching over the table to slap him. "And we only get punished if I get caught!"

"… That doesn't really reassure me…" Kitazoe sighed. "But please don't get caught."

"Oh, don't worry about it. I'm already done." Nire tried to smirk, but couldn't quite get her face to work with it at the moment. If anyone notices, they don't comment.

… Miwa was in the hospital.

He was… He almost died.

…

If there was a small gift box on Miwa's desk the day he was due to come back from the hospital, he didn't say anything.

(… And he didn't ask how she found out either. Best to not rat out an already grouchy Hikari.)

-0-

(After the invasion was all said and done, Chika found herself unbearably alone as she threw herself into training. She ended up meeting three very wonderful people during that time, and she can't quite bring herself to regret it.)

People were avoiding them.

It was a bit of a sad attempt, with someone as perceptive as Yuma beside her taking note of it, but she didn't comment.

She didn't mind being alone at the moment. In fact, she wanted to be alone, to review and process everything that had happened.

So Yuma had dutifully left her alone, and followed soon after as he trained, and trained, and trained until there was nothing more that he could do. Chika knew he was pushing himself harder than herself, since she was one of the few that was aware of Yuma's non-sleeping Trion body, but she couldn't do anything to help him at this point.

(She couldn't do anything to help herself, she soon realized. How could she pull anyone else out of this hole when she hadn't even climbed out herself?)

But the only one that could pull them out at this point, was Mori. But Mori wasn't here right now, so they had to make do until she would awaken.

Everyone continued to ignore them. To turn away out of guilt for the two teammates that weren't actively seeking out comfort, and pretend that nothing was wrong.

Well, most of the people that knew she was even unconscious anyway. A good percentage of people at Border didn't even know her personally, so it was easy to not take notice of her absence, with all the B-to-A rank agents rushing around to help restore the city.

But Chika hadn't been promoted quite yet. She was still C-rank, still weak, still helpless—

Still here.

She was still here, still trying, trying so hard to be strong.

And it was during that, when she met three very, very peculiar people.

"Aw, you were so close!"

Chika blinked in honest bewilderment, head turning at the pace of a snail as she tried recognizing the teen standing beside her shooting booth. The teen—who was a great deal taller than her.

"Man~ Maybe you should try aiming…" Touma Isami hummed, squinting at her target across the hall. "… A little to the left? You tend to lean a little while you're aiming."

"Touma-san," She greeted, forcing a small smile to her lips in greeting. "Thank you for the advice."

He grinned in return, and shot her a thumbs up.

Chika was suddenly reminded of her similarly carefree friend that she had also been avoiding since the invasion. Izuho really didn't deserve such a terrible friend.

"Though in my opinion," Touma brought her out of her thoughts, pointing a finger up to the ceiling as she jolted slightly. "I think you should try making a picture next time! I'd personally start with a heart or a basic shape, since you're a beginner. But it's really fun—!"

"Touma, who else are you trying to corrupt?"

Both tall—and small—snipers swung their heads around, both pulled out of the conversation by the new arrivals. Touma looked quite put out at being interrupted though, as his mouth formed a childish pout.

"Narasakaaaaa," He drew out, watching with unhidden amusement as the brunette eye twitched. "Don't call it 'corrupting', that's not very nice."

"Is this all you had in mind when you invited me to sit with you guys, instead of at my usual spot with Kodera and Hiura?" Naraska shot back bluntly. "Because I have better things to do with my time than entertain a child."

"You shouldn't talk about Ema like that, you know…"

"Oh, did you think I was talking about him? Because the only child I see around here is you."

The blonde teen beside the No.2 sniper didn't bother giving either of them a reaction as he sat down in the booth next to Chika's. Now that she glanced around she could vaguely see the edges of Touma's own bag, slung over the side of the booth on the other side of Ema's.

'He must have picked out the spot while I was distracted…' Chika winced at her inattention, head bowing unconsciously as her shoulders drooped. 'You can't do this during a battle, or else you won't—'

"I was giving honest advice!" Chika found herself brought out of her thoughts once again, by the exact same voice of the No. 1 sniper in all of Border. Although his voice was nearing more of a whine than it was before. "Drawing pictures is fun, I thought it'd cheer her up a bit!"

Narasaka didn't refute that in return, which apparently, Touma counted as a win. Although the younger teen's icy glare said otherwise.

"Oh, wait!" Touma suddenly, reached over, slinging an arm over the short blonde's shoulders (who yelped in surprise) before pulling him to face Chika fully. "Amatori-chan, you haven't met Ema yet, have you! This is my great apprentice, Ema Yuzuru!"

Rather than protesting—like he usually would to being called Touma's apprentice—Ema took one look at Chika, and was caught speechless for an 'unknown' reason.

"… Hello," Chika bowed, a smile going just a bit easier as she faced the young male. "I'm Amatori Chika… Pleased to meet you."

Ema's cheeks lit up a bright red as he hurriedly shoved Touma off of his shoudlers with just a bit more force than he usually would have.

Narasaka could only raise a (slightly amused) eyebrow as his 'friend'—and senpai—crashed to the ground with an indignant yelp.

Chika was slightly confused, but the three snipers had helped her get through one of the hardest few weeks of her life, and so she would always be proud to call them her friends.

-0-

(It started with slight intrigue as Mori starts out, and grew into a tidal wave of protectiveness as he noticed Mori's lack of self-esteem during their training. He's proud, in a way, to see her slowly stand up for herself nowadays.)

Karasuma is aware that Mori is quite talented.

Tamakoma has been made vaguely aware of Yuma's past—though he feels like there may be some bits that they haven't filled in quite yet, he won't pry—as well as Chika's former insecurities when it regarded joining Border. They'd been addressed relatively early, but also not too soon within the first time they met that it'd be uncomfortable for them to share.

So Karasuma understood Chika's drive to excel, to get better so she could protect herself, and he accepted that Yuma was not only naturally attuned to combat, but also honed his skills on a war zone.

Though Mori was different.

She didn't have a particular purpose she was striving towards, because for all Replica and Rinji mattered to her, she also recognized that those two were to be Chika and Yuma's goals. So she usually ended up straying towards the side, caring just enough but coming off most of the time as maybe just a bit too little.

But somehow, despite that, she found a particular drive in simply wanting to be acknowledged by people that she could consider 'friends'.

Another thing that was shared between them, was Mori's general lack of friends prior to Border.

She'd blown it off and layered it underneath many lines of conversation, trying to bury the topic so no one would recall it, but it wasn't something that she could just… throw away. He had a feeling it was more than that, but he didn't pry.

So when he found that more and more people were taking note of Mori, not just as a friend or a rival or an opponent, but maybe a student, he let it slide.

Karasuma wasn't one to get petty or jealous anyway. Though he was Mori's first teacher, he could tell she was proud to be recognized by fellow Border agents, and even, maybe strived towards it. Though the relationship she was usually aiming for was a friendship, she was more than happy—not that she'd show it—to be recognized as a student.

It started with Kikuchihara, although that was a much looser relationship than something as clear cut as 'teacher-student'. He was more of the person to offer advice every time she needed it, although he didn't actively hold her hand or guide her through issues. He just assessed her whenever it came up, offered honest criticism—which, knowing Kikuchihara, was really honest—and trusted her to make it through it. Mori seemed to hold a great deal of respect for him, although she holds a lot of respect for most Border agents simply because she believes that they deserve it.

Karasuma wants to say that Jin was next, but he's honestly… Always been there. He might've been guiding Mori before Karasuma was, considering that Jin was the one that suggested he teach Mori in the first place. Mori held a grudging respect for the former S-rank, no matter if she knew it herself… And before the invasion, she most likely would have, although reluctantly, listened to whatever Jin said. Obviously, the large-scale invasion had put a crack in that, but that seems to be fixed fairly recently.

Next seemed to be… Izumi? That was a surprise when he went to pick up Mori the other week, after the first time that they suggested her talking with Jin after said invasion. Apparently, she had been found by the so-called… 'idiot trio', Yoneya, Midorikawa, and Izumi, and dragged into a snowball fight for the ages. He still doesn't really know what they'd talked about beforehand, but she seemed happier, and Izumi seemed fond of her now, so he considered it a win for his student.

Somehow that spread to Tachikawa, who he noticed talking with her at the festival, and accidentally overheard her asking him about 'captain' things. Mostly on tips to get better, so he decided to stop eavesdropping before he began intentionally listening in.

Her circle of friends got bigger and bigger, and eventually, he can't count them all on one hand. It's quite nice, seeing her so excited to go on to every day now that she actively has friends, and Karasuma couldn't be prouder.

Watching someone grow out of their shell, piece by piece, really is an exciting thing.