"Mori-chan, do you know how to make composite bullets?"
The sudden disruption ended up jarring Mori's concentration, causing her to drop the small, handheld video game she was holding onto her face.
"Fuck—Ow!"
Kunichika giggled airily from her spot opposite to the 15-year old, though still on the same couch. Both teens were sitting on the couch, feet to feet, with their backs and head against the armrests of the couch.
"I won," Kunichika declares triumphantly, lifting up her own hand-held video game.
"That's only 'cause I got distracted—!"
Izumi snickered at them, which brought Mori's attention back to the source of her frustration.
"—Izumi-senpai, sorry, what'd you say earlier?"
He grinned, spinning a pencil between his fingers. "I asked if you knew how to make composite bullets."
Mori thought for a moment, before ultimately finding that she didn't even know what they were. "Nope."
"Yeah, that's what I thought."
Kunichika huffed while absentmindedly picking up the device that Mori dropped on her face, apparently recognizing the distraction for what it was.
'I guess I'm not going to get to play video games with her right now…' The operator frowned, before abruptly launching herself to the area where the operator's desk was, where Tachikawa had been left to complete his homework all by his lonesome. "Captain, play video games with me!"
"I thought that you guys told me to just mind my own business over here...?" Tachikawa sighed, though he was agreeably prying the device from Kunichika's fingers like the indulging captain he was. "Do you have a third one? Maybe if Yuiga plays, it won't look like I'm losing to you quite as badly."
"That's cruel!" Yuiga wailed from his spot on the second couch—trying to mind his own business for once—where he'd been nibbling on one of the many snacks from their fridge. "I didn't even do anything!"
"This time."
Tachikawa sighed, glancing across the room as Izumi enthusiastically lectured about the different types of composite bullets with an attentively listening Mori, who was nodding along with an equally excited glint in her eyes.
'... At least they're having fun.'
Kunichika returned with a third console, as well as Yuiga under her arm—dramatically sobbing all the way—before she sat herself in front of their captain with an excited grin.
-0-
"So, composite bullets are really one of the biggest advantages a shooter can get," Izumi began, holding up a single finger. "Do you know why?"
At some point I had slid off the couch, a pillow in hand, as the two of us got distracted by our conversation on the floor. I felt a bit bad about dropping the game with Kunichika, but I did see her having fun on the other side of the room with Tachikawa and Yuiga, so most of my guilt was nonexistent.
"Because it won't take up a separate Trigger space for them, unlike a gunner…?"
"Yeah, mostly that." He pulled over one of the bags of chips they had left of the table, bringing it down to the floor before he ripped it open and offered me some. "If a gunner wants to load composite bullets, they need to program it into the Trigger's gun ahead of time," He paused, shoving a chip into his mouth. "But then, that Trigger space can only shoot those composite bullets, so no one really does that. The only ones that can use composite bullets effectively… Are shooters. Ironically, the only ones that actually need to gain any mastery over making them, are also shooters."
"Are they… particularly hard to do?" I asked, hugging the pillow to my stomach as I leaned my back against the couch. "I don't think there are very many shooters at Border, so how many of them can make composite bullets?"
"Right now?" He sighed. "Well, you're right about that, the shooters in Border are limited. I think there's only… around 10, at the moment. Most of us are high-B-rank, or A-rank so the only people that CAN'T make them are…" He lifted his hand as if to lift off the names on his fingers. "… You, and the three for the low-ranking Mamiya squad. Though I'm actually not too sure about Kako-san, since her Triggers aren't really set up to do it anyway… Both her shooter Triggers are on one side, but she could PROBABLY make some composite bullets she wanted to."
I blinked. "… So… I'm being left in the dust here."
"Well, not for long you know. Don't you have any faith in me to teach you?"
"Wait," I paused, my eyes widening. "You're willing to teach me? I'll have you know, I'm—"
(—A bad student.)
"—I might not pick up on it all that quickly," I finished, instead of the words that had unconsciously formed in my mind. "It'll probably be a waste of your time."
"Teaching you would never be a waste of my time," He waved off, rolling his eyes as if he found what I said particularly funny. "Besides, if teaching anyone was a waste of time, it'd be every time Yosuke crawls to our operator room, begging me to help him study for our test the next day."
I admit, I did laugh at that. The mental image of the spear-user doing that was, unfortunately enough, hilarious, but also believable.
That idea was soon followed up with the thought of Miwa stomping after his troublesome teammate with an angry scowl, dragging Yoneya away from bothering anyone else.
… Yeah, that was a funny mental image.
"By the way, before we start doing anything…" He leaned over with an excited grin on his face. "What're your Trigger sets anyway? You haven't had enough rank wars matches for me to accurately guess, so I'm still kind of wondering about that."
"Oh, right." I sat, up, drawing up my fingers—not unlike what he had done before—as I crossed my legs. "On my left, I have Asteroid, Meteora, Shield, and the Spider… And on the right, I have Hound, Viper, Asteroid, and the Bagworm." I trailed off with a hum, tilted my head upwards. "… I did have a Scorpion during the first match, but I eventually decided to commit to being a shooter and took it off so I could have as many shooter Triggers as I could…"
I trailed off, finally noticing his slightly surprised expression. "… What?"
"… Oh no, it's nothing." He laughed, and there was suddenly a deep sense of amusement deep in his eyes. "It's just… Your Triggers match mine almost perfectly… Other than the Spider, since I have one Shield on both sides. It's almost funny."
I did laugh at that too, because that was a strange coincidence.
"Anyways, you have a pretty good set for composite bullets… So I don't think we need to move anything around quite yet." He gave a quick thumbs up. "You can switch it around as much as you want later, once you've finally gotten the trick down. Then, it's just a matter of picking which ones you think will be the most useful, and adjusting accordingly."
"… When will I have the time to do that though…?" I wondered out loud, glancing up slightly. "Don't get me wrong, I definitely don't mean to be ungrateful, but I don't have much experience in the first place and I only have one or two people that would be willing to spar with me… People that aren't our competition at the moment, anyway." I laughed dryly, flicking a stray hair off of my face. "Finding enough time to actually get the technique down, experiment with different composite bullets, and get enough experience that they're not more of a hindrance than an advantage…?"
"Well, it's a good thing you have some good friends here, isn't it?"
I quirked an eyebrow, levelling him a confused expression. "… What do you mean by that?"
He grinned again. And for one of the hundredth times in my few short months I've spent here at Border, I found myself blown away by how determined and radiant these people always were.
"If you can pull of 100 wins against either me, Yosuke, or Midorikawa… Then I'll bet you'd gain enough experience under your belt as a shooter, to learn how to make composite bullets. And it's a good thing too because anytime you can find some time to stop at Border… At least one of us is usually gonna be lounging around."
He paused to look at my gobsmacked expression, which unfortunately caused him to snort.
"Also, I'll add Miwa to the list, because it'll definitely piss him off."
-0-
Chat: Operation:100 Wins
Shun : yeah sure, i'll help!
Spear idiot : Did you really think i was gonna turn down free fights
Spear idiot : dude
Bullet brains : I guess that's a yes from you too
Unknown Number : … Why am I here.
[Unknown Number has left this chat]
[Bullet brains has added Unknown Number to this chat]
Unknown Number : Let me leave.
Bullet brains : Not a chance, buddy
Unknown Number : Then let me die.
Unknown Number : I lost my chance a few weeks ago during the invasion anyway.
Four-eyed weirdo : eyyyyy
Four-eyed weirdo : up top. high five
Bullet brains : Kids, could you lighten up a little?
Spear idiot : Yeah, I'll have to say NO to that too.
Shun : oh yoneyan used proper punctuation, he's serious
Unknown Number : …
[You have saved this Number as 'AngstyMcAngst']
Four-eyed weirdo : that… that IS Miwa, right?
Spear idiot : got it in one
Spear idiot : *finger guns*
Four-eyed weirdo : good cause that'd be awkward otherwise
AngstyMcAngst : Why.
Four-eyed weirdo : Nothing, never mind.
Four-eyed weirdo : Thanks for agreeing to be a part of this shitshow I guess
AngstyMcAngst : I didn't agree to anything.
Spear idiot : by the way shujis usually at border after school on most days so you can ask him for a few matches everyday…. probably
AngstyMcAngst : Yoneya. Shut. UP.
Shun : oh you just got ratted out
Four-eyed weirdo : anyways, Ive already gotten 2 wins against Izumi-senpai, so… I guess I'll be at this for a while
AngstyMcAngst : If you can't even properly beat Izumi, you don't have much of a chance of beating me.
Bullet brains : Really feeling the love here, Miwa
-0-
Mori didn't really pay much attention to her surroundings at school before Hyuse came around, but when he did end up coming along… She ended up on high alert most of the time.
Trying to pick apart the Neighbour's personality and lifestyle was tedious at best, and extremely irritating at its worst.
He didn't show too much interest in 'Meeden' culture like Yuma did most of the time, but Mori found him similarly excited (as excited as the brunette would will himself to show, anyway) to try out the different, diverse kinds of food earth had to offer. He seemed to like taiyaki most though, which was something that Yotaro, Mori and Yuma had picked up on, before promptly spilling the beans to the rest of the branch building.
He also seemed somewhat fascinated with the weather. Yuma told me that, yes, snow did exist in the Neighbourhood since one of the strongest planetary nations—'Kion' or something—was apparently an eternal winter wonderland. But the mere fact that the earth's climate seemed to conduct itself without any 'mother Trigger' was indeed fascinating for both Neighbours.
(Hyuse actually seemed a little bitter about the whole 'mother Trigger' thing… Didn't Yuma mention something about that? He said that HQ has another prisoner that told him about Hyuse… Whatever, I'll confirm it later.)
The first time they actually had a decent amount of snow since Hyuse was allowed out of the building, Mori ended up dragging both of her friends into a snowball fight—in a true idiot-trio manner. Just another one to the list of things that Yoneya and Izumi taught her.
They would've been so proud if they saw Hyuse's expression the first time she decked him in the face with a snowball. He was infuriated.
Branching off of that, Mori also learned that Hyuse was terrible at making snowballs. That was less important information, but it amused both her and Yuma, so she kept it in mind.
(Watching him fumble with the snow was absolutely hilarious. She was glad that all three of them were in their Trion-bodies too, or else they would have been very, VERY cold on the way home.)
The next thing to be added to her little list was actually brought to her attention by Yotaro. She'd noticed that he'd been constantly badgering Rindou to take him to the crafts store for the past few weeks, but she didn't really pay attention to it much. Until he was eventually cut off from his bi-weekly 'store visits' by their boss himself. Yotaro didn't really listen to him, and one day ends up, both hands clinging to Mori's leg as she attempted to walk down the hall in vain.
"Please take me to the crafts store! I promise I won't ask for too much, I promise!"
She ended up bringing him after all. When she asked him why he didn't ask someone that could actually drive, he only shrugged. Mori sighed heavily, carrying the toddler on her shoulders as she walked down the street.
It was at this time that she was actually paying attention to what Yotaro was asking her to buy, and she eventually asked him once they had gotten through the cashier's line.
"Oh, this? I'm buying it for my new frie—Kohai, Hyuse!"
She had—of course—noticed his habit of doodling during class with sketchbooks and charcoal that she didn't remember anyone giving him, but brushed it off relatively easily. It wasn't like he was drawing out plans for world domination, he just drew whatever he could see. Harmless.
But she took a bit more of an interest in it after that and even bought him a few art supplies that she knew were decent quality not too soon after that.
Hyuse gave her a weird look when she and Yotaro handed them over, but she could only shrug. It was the least she could do for him, since he does deal with both Yuma and herself for hours on end… And she knows that it probably gets tiring after a while.
The last important thing that Mori learned, was that Hyuse had a very specific set of people that he listened to.
It was kind of like an unconscious ranking system in his head, where he put different people to decide how to treat them in particular. It was honestly fascinating to watch.
It showed in subtle reactions, little ways that most people don't notice in the slightest. The way he unconsciously glares at Jin if he's in the same room as him, how he shuffles away from Konami when she approaches him (She's taken to giving him 'pats' on the head when he's around) in a way that doesn't make it look like he's backing away.
How he nods along and actually listens to Yotaro when he speaks. Even if he doesn't contribute much.
So she's learned that in people that he 'really-doesn't-get-along-with-and-kinda-hates', we have Border's higher-ups and Jin.
Really, those are the only people there. She can kind of empathize with him since she was like that for a while too, so she doesn't dare comment.
Next, people that 'he'd-prefer-not-speak-with-but-will-tolerate-their-presence-if-needed', there's Karasuma, Kizaki, Rindou, most Border agents, and for the most part, Konami.
An exclusive category all on its own, 'people-that-he-might-feel-kind-of-bad-about-but-doesn't-even-entertain-the-thought-of-apologizing-to', (Whew, that's a mouthful,) Chika.
Since he, you know, tried kidnapping her under orders of his psychopathic country.
He hasn't tried interacting with her quite yet, which she felt was… Acceptable? It was clear to see that he wouldn't apologize unless it was of his own volition, so both Mori and Yuma hadn't tried pushing them together to interact as the latter had done with the former and Jin. Also, they didn't want to bring up any unwanted memories of the invasion for Chika, so everyone involved would stay happy if the issue was just left alone.
Then, the last group, which was 'people-he-actually-doesn't-mind'. Which might as well be Hyuse-speak for 'friends'.
Maybe. Again, this is just Mori's personal observations.
(Just as a note, Mori doesn't know where any of the other Neighbours stand on this little… pyramid of Hyuse's. She hadn't really seen him interact with any of them, and he hasn't spoken or asked about them, so she stays away from that topic… Though Yuma had mentioned something about one of the Neighbours still being alive, somehow having his consciousness transferred over to a Rad via-Trion-horns… Mori had stopped listening at that point, and only regarded him with a flat look. Wait, was that the prisoner he had mentioned…? Man, now it's all blurring together.)
Anyways, as far as she knows? Only one person stands on this part of the pyramid… Well, technically by extension, two.
Yotaro(And by extension, Raijinmaru). The short, little brother of everyone in the Tamakoma branch, who had also been tasked with watching Hyuse for the first one or two weeks while she was unconscious.
(Reluctantly, she admits that Kasumi might also be on this list. The two of them have a loose, mutual respect for each other for putting up with Mori's antics, apparently.)
This had thoroughly perplexed Mori. She felt like it shouldn't have been a surprise, but at the same time, it just… Came as such a shocker.
She also didn't comment though, because Yotaro genuinely cares for the teen that they were supposed to be watching, and Hyuse didn't wish him any harm, so it was fine.
As long as Yuma and Jin are keeping an eye on Hyuse, she doesn't really have any reason to be particularly afraid. If something happens, she'll just deal with it as best she can.
But anyways, he actually listens to most things Yotaro asks for. Of course, the toddler doesn't really realize the amount of trust the Neighbour has put in him, but Mori admits that it's probably better this way.
And as the days pass Mori admittedly had no idea where Yuma and herself were placed on that scale.
It's growing increasingly frustrating to try and guess.
-0-
"We're baaaack…" I called out into the house, kicking my shoes with a little more force than was probably necessary. "What's for dinner, mom?"
She peeked her head through the door, taking note of Hyuse behind me, before walking back into the kitchen. "… Yuma isn't with you two?"
"Nah," I yawned, tossing my bag towards the couch as I collapsed onto the cushions not too soon after. "Ow, my feet. I shouldn't have walked all the way from HQ to Tamakoma to back over here…"
"You could have just left me back at Tamakoma," Hyuse accused, still somewhat salty about being pulled away from the little time he'd been spending with Yotaro without Yuma or Jin pestering him. I did feel bad for him, but it was getting late, and we needed to eat and sleep. Preferably at home, since I don't want mom to get lonely.
"I didn't feel like it," Was my only response, rather than the proper explanation swirling through my mind.
Hyuse sent a clipped glare in my direction, before following me to land on the other side of the couch. The two of us sat there in rare silence for a few minutes before Kasumi walked into the room with a few plates of food.
"Oh, are we eating in here?" I questioned, rolling over. "We could have gotten up to go to the dining room…"
Hyuse grunted something that sounded suspiciously like 'I wouldn't have moved', which I shot him a glare for. Nevertheless, he didn't back down with neither of us breaking eye-contact as Kasumi set down two plates in front of us (filled with stir-fried noodles, yum) without batting an eye.
Hyuse ended up trying to stab me in the arm with a fork. Under normal circumstances, since neither of us were in our Trion bodies, I would've immediately called HQ on him for that one, but I…
I did end up trying to stab him back in retaliation… So I felt like it was justified if I didn't bother reporting him to HQ about that.
Just for that, mom made the two of us sleep on the floor of the living room. I suppose Hyuse wouldn't have gotten to sleep in his own room anyway—since every Neighbour I come across seemed to be god-awful with any kind of electronics (Hyuse somehow managed to blow up the light-switch). But I wanted my bed back, dammit.
And this is how it ended up, I guess. He had dragged his mattress into the room grumpily, before tossing it into the corner along with a few pillows as he leaned against the wall. I shuffled my own mattress in the little space in the living room which was, unfortunately, somewhat close to him.
Awkward silence—with the both of us shooting each other glares from each of our spots.
And the silence had gone on for a long time. I absentmindedly wondered why we hadn't turned off the lights, gone to sleep and pretended the other didn't exist, since mom was probably already asleep by now.
I found my mouth opening without meaning to.
"Did you want to sit in our operator room tomorrow?"
And he actually paused at that, eyebrow curving questioningly as our glares slowly lessened.
"… You can watch our match tomorrow. Up-close, I guess."
And reluctantly, looking resigned and somewhat tiredly, he rolled over without a word.
After a few more moments of silence, I finally realized that he wasn't going to even bother acknowledging me. And so, similarly to my 'brother', I leaned backwards and covered myself with the blanket to rest with a huff.
The awkward—yet somehow casual?—relationship between the two of us kind of reminded me of Rinji when we had first met. Awkward enough to not be especially close, yet casual enough to joke around and be something similar to friends.
(It's kind of weird, to say the least. Not that I'm… complaining, but I'm kind of complaining.)
-0-
Waking up was slow and painful—as per usual. I felt a few more signature stings from my leg, my side, and my shoulder before I shifted for the pain to lessen slightly.
'… I wish I didn't roll over so much in my sleep, it fucking hurts.'
I could distantly hear the tapping of feet lightly walking across the floorboards, but was officially too tired to care who was awake, and what they were doing.
It's too early for this.
'We have a night session for the rank wars… I can afford to sleep in… Right?'
"Wake up, lazy."
My eyes wearily slid open, and I squinted with a miffed expression at the figure leaning over me. I don't think I would've answered anyone at gunpoint, with how tired I was. And it must have shown, because whoever it was leaned back, continuing their walk over to the coffee table nearby with a quiet huff.
Although my eyes were mourning the loss of shade—and dying of exposure to the light hanging from the ceiling—I managed to roll over with a quiet groan, a dull ache echoing from my scarred limbs. Once again, I found myself squinting at a blurry shape—oh, that was Hyuse, no wonder—slowly walking towards the coffee table to my left. He sat down across from who I rightfully assumed to be 'our' mom before the two of them continued to converse over… Whatever they had previously been talking about before he left.
Why did Hyuse get up in the first place?
I saw him put something down. Clear, so… A glass of water….?
(My vision cleared just slightly, allowing me to verify the assumption.)
Damn, I'm good… Okay, admittedly, this is a small thing to be proud over, but I'm far too sleepy to NOT get excited over small victories.
'… Wait, didn't Hyuse tell me to wake up?'
"What're y'guys doin'…?" I slurred sleepily and recognized with detached amusement when Hyuse winced at the poor attempt at speech.
'… Serves him right, for waking me up…'
"Hyuse wanted to get some quick studying in before you woke up and left," Mom filled in, completely unaffected by my usual morning sleepiness. "We're reviewing some of the Japanese homework that you guys got."
I shut my eyes, nearly surrendering to the tempting blackness before I got out a quiet "didn't we try doing that yesterday," and I shook myself awake again.
"She's better at teaching than you are," Hyuse commented sharply, catching the pillow I immediately chucked at where I thought his face was.
Face. Head. Wait, he's not in his Trion body… I'm not used to seeing his horns, that's really weird.
"Y'er not in th' Trion body…" I slurred. "Mom is right there…"
"It is truly incredible how little I give a damn."
"It doesn't matter anyway," Mom excused. "Did you really think that you could hide it from me?" She paused. "… Though finding out that humanoid Neighbours existed was… A surprise. But I'm not surprised that Border is hiding things from civilians."
… It seems that in my sleepiness I've forgotten how much of an intelligent woman my mom was. Man, what a queen.
"… Still, a ch'nge of topic… Why does e'ryone like my mom better than me…?" I groaned. "I know she's awesome, but you're supposed to be my friends…."
I didn't hear a denial to that before I slowly got to my feet and made my way to the shower in the bathroom, which was weird enough.
But coming out of there, once I had packed my bag, gotten changed, and thoroughly woken myself up, and seeing Hyuse waiting by the door for me, made me actually raise an eyebrow.
"… What?" He turned away with a scowl. "You said I could come right? I don't have anything better to do."
The retort was sharp but didn't have any bite to it. Hearing something like that from the stand-offish Neighbour that only Yotaro could get along with, was surprisingly heartwarming.
So excuse me if I got unnaturally pumped-up after that.
"—Little brother! Carry me to Tamakoma!"
"What the—I'm older than you. AND DON'T CALL ME 'BROTHER'!"
He was too distracted by the title to throw me off of his back, which I had stubbornly clung to. Good thing too, because wow, my leg really hurts today.
(It's gonna be a good day, though.)
(… I think. I might have just jinxed it.)
-0-
"… Mori, welcome back," Yuma waved, apparently having 'slept' over at the branch office… Not much of a surprise. "And Hyuse, what a surprise."
His carefree tone didn't really match the apparent 'surprise', but we were used to Yuma's personality enough for it to be brushed off.
"Lazy invited me to watch," He grumbled, slipping off his shoes as he shoved his hands in his pocket. His hood was drawn up so that his horns would not be visible, and I was struck again by how much I was used to him looking like a normal human. "I have nothing better to do."
"Please stop calling me that… It's not as bad as 'four-eyes', but we've started with a low bar here." I'm not ashamed to say that I whined, and it's perfectly justifiable.
… Okay, maybe it isn't, since maybe I should have seen it coming when he dropped me off of his back and down to the sidewalk around… Half a block? from the branch office. Though no one said I couldn't still be salty about it.
Yuma raised an eyebrow at our tones, somehow picking up on the casualness that probably wasn't present earlier in the week…. but he didn't comment, which I was thankful for.
(I still don't know where Yuma stands on Hyuse's 'ranking'. Or myself for that matter, but I don't really want to risk dropping lower than I needed to… Actually, I don't really care. While I'd like to be Hyuse's friend, I'm not going to pretend to be nice just because he can't suck it up.)
"So anyways, Mori." Yuma hummed while jogging down the hall, socks letting him slide around with a lazy grin. "You excited for today's match?"
I shrugged. But I wasn't dying of nervousness like previous matches, so that's a plus. "I'm… Relatively confident."
He grinned, eyes quickly flickering to the sunglasses sitting on top of my head. "We have gotten pretty far with the shared-vision thing, haven't we?"
"I think it's better than what we had before, for sure." I lazily waved off Hyuse's questioning glance, which he scowled at. "But it'll take a bit more work before we can add anyone else… Like Chika."
"Or she can just connect with you and we'll disconnect me," He offered, which I shrugged at.
"If the situation calls for it, but she doesn't exactly have years of experience on a war zone or a sight-based side-effect that can help her process the information better." I sighed, dragging both boys down the hall. "Is Shiori here yet? What about imouto?"
"Neither," Yuma laughed, allowing me to bring him to the couch. "I think Shiori tried pulling an all-nighter for gods-knows-what-reason again, so she'll probably be late."
"Was she texting you 'till midnight again?"
"… Until 2 this time."
I groaned, before dropping like a rock onto the cushions. "Wake me up in an hour."
I barely saw Hyuse give me a glance of horrified incredulity before I closed my eyes. "How are you both a workaholic, but also so incredibly lazy at the same time?"
Yuma snorted once, before I fell into a half-asleep state on his shoulder, and for the most part, completely dead to the world.
Heh. Dead.
But still, this gave me a bit of time to review, if in a bit of a disorganized manner. Our opponents. Nino… Ninomiya, Kageura, and… Azuma. And their teams. Right, their teams.
(Wow, maybe I should've stayed awake for this.)
I did go over some previous logs, but I can't depend on what past strategies indicate. Stay flexible, think on your feet. Things could change with something as simple as our placement on the map, so how much could things be thrown off with a change of map? The map which, Azuma squad is picking, by the way. Of course, Kageura squad's strategies probably won't change up too much… They seem to be relatively similar to us, where they just leave it up to their captain to think up something on the spot, and faithfully follow. So whatever I think up, I can expect them to counter accordingly without pause, and vice-versa.
Ninomiya seems like the type to try and plan ahead, but can probably think on his feet just as easily and effectively. He won't be thrown off unless something really big happens…. and even then, he might be expecting it with… Chika hanging around.
Actually, he might not be expecting much from her, the bastard. I want to prove him wrong in both that department, as well as his little slight about him being… 'better than me'. I mean, fuck, he's right, he is better than me. But I'm not gonna give him the fucking satisfaction! One way or another, even if we lose this match, I will make that smug bastard eat his words before the match is over.
Still, it's hard to make any concrete plans ahead of time, when I don't even know where anybody is going to be placed. I know I said I was going to plan things out for a change, try and improve my usual dumbass ways, but this is hard.
… No, I refuse to throw in the towel. If I drop the plans like a hot potato the minute things start to look rough, I'm never going to get better. I'll just remain stagnant… That's the last thing I want.
Back to the drawing board.
I'll need to do a majority of the planning on the battlefield, which isn't anything new. But let's think, think, think. What will I do if they're too fast for me to even think up a plan?
Because, side effect or not, Azuma was the leader of the former No. 1 squad. Ninomiya was on his team, which means that he was in the No. 1 squad too. Kageura can't be snuck up on and any battle experience he has completely trumps mine. And their squad members aren't bad either. According to Chika, Ema is… 'friends' with Touma, the No. 1 sniper, and taught by Hatohara… Geez, that woman is popping up everywhere, isn't she? So Ema can't be underestimated, and though I haven't seen Kitazoe in action really, he has a lot of destructive capabilities. At this rate, we won't be the only ones blowing up buildings.
Then Inukai, which… My track record with him is not exactly looking too good. 19 to 11 in his favour… Admittedly, that was when it was just me, without Yuma. But that was also Inukai without Tsuji, who is apparently famous for his assists.
Tsuji is pretty skilled, huh? No offence, but I wouldn't have guessed when I saw him the other day, all nervous and skittish. (Inukai said it was just because I was a girl, which honestly…? That's a pretty glaring weakness.)
Yuma also might get held off by Kageura, who seems to enjoy sparring with the short teen. Then there's still Ninomiya lingering around, definitely still condescending towards Chika, and there's also Azuma, who can literally snipe through buildings—!
… I'm getting worked up. Calm the fuck down, me.
Ninomiya, although the highest ranking shooter, has a pretty fixed skill-set. Unlike Izumi and I, his shooter Triggers are limited but he can still pull off so many wins… Impressive, to say the least. I need to catch him off guard somehow if I want to even try getting close. I could to get him to use full attack, and bait a sniper to shoot at him…
No, if it were that easy, he would've been taken down a long time ago. Azuma or no-Azuma, Ninomiya won't let his guard down when there're snipers around.
… Snipers that'll shoot people, anyway. As far they know, Chika's relatively harmless beyond being a distraction, since she can't shoot people—
"—ori, wake up. Did you wanna get something to eat before lunch rolls around?"
Someone sighed heavily before roughly shaking my shoulder, and my eyes snapped open as I realized just how much time I had lost while travelling through my thoughts.
"… I told you not to shake her too much…" Yuma huffed, glancing at Hyuse. The brunette shrugged unapologetically, probably still slightly salty over how I called him 'little brother'. "Anyways, Mori. I'll help you cook something, so maybe we should get it started before Chika gets here… Shiori got here a while ago, but she passed out again at her desk." He grinned. "Since you shouldn't fight on an empty stomach."
I paused, glancing up as my eyes slowly adjusted to the light, before standing up next to both boys. "… Sure, what are you in the mood for?"
"Fish."
"Oh my god, Hyuse, you're like a cat."
"… Really? I thought he was more of a goat."
"Goat-cat—"
"Shut up."
… They're… Only wary of snipers that are actually willing to shoot people.
(Because if no one thinks they'll shoot, then there's no reason to be wary, is there?)
-0-
"B-rank wars, round 4! Sorry, we're barely on time!" Ayatsuji sighed, hand against her headphones as she settled down in her seat. "I'm Ayatsuji, Arashiyama squad's operator with the play-by-play! In the booth here, we have Kazama squad's captain, Kazama… And Kako squad's captain, Kako!"
"Hi there," The two captains replied in sync, Kako's accompanied with a friendly wave.
"By the way, here are your Valentine's chocolates, it's a little late… Here's some for you too, Ayatsuji."
"Ooh, looks good!"
Kazama, with a small nod of acceptance and thanks, immediately dug into the sweets. Kako watched on with a smile as Ayatsuji continued in the background.
"It won't be much longer, cityscape B has been selected!"
Meanwhile, back in Tamakoma's operator room.
"Mori, what's 'valentines'?" Yuma swung his head around, a teasing glint in his eyes. "Did I unknowingly pass up a chance to get free chocolate? Free food?"
Mori pressed a hand to her forehead, trying to ignore Hyuse's—also slightly curious—glance. "Not now Yuma... Also, what's with you Neighbours and food? And money for that matter, you're oddly fixated on both."
"It just doesn't make sense," Hyuse, albeit defensively, cut in. "Why would we get more coins in return as 'change'? And why is paper currency worth more than metal? It's ridiculous."
Yuma nodded along, rubbing his chin contemplatively. "Preposterous."
Mori groaned while Chika laughed at both Neighbours. She seemed oddly distracted though, so Mori inwardly resolved to ask her about it later.
"Guys, it's going to start soon," Shiori cut in, pushing up her glasses. Apparently, she was the only one that bothered listening to the announcements. "You should probably prepare—"
"Now, all squads have been deployed to the virtual stage!"
Mori didn't get a chance to right herself before a white light engulfed her, and she found herself tripping and landing flat on the ground.
The soft, snow-covered tarmac.
"This is the day-four night battle, four-way match. Let the battle, BEGIN!"
-0-
I groaned, slowly lifted myself up out of the snow. "Oh fuck, I'm gonna stab a bitch."
I heard my communicator crackle as I absentmindedly brushed the snow off of my glasses. "Mori, you got rid of your Scorpion a few matches ago."
"Yuma, shut up."
I gave up on the glasses, which were now smeared in the snow, and instantly switched to the sunglasses on my head. "I'll just stab them with my bullets, then." I tossed my normal glasses into the small pocket in my pants—What if those get crushed?! Will they be back to normal when I go back to my flesh-and-blood body…?
… The mysteries of Trion bodies keep piling on.
"… You idiot, you're open for people to attack you," Hyuse interjected, causing me to jolt slightly. "You haven't even equipped the… Usami, what was it called."
"Bagworm."
"—Bagworm. Anyone can find you right now, are you stupid?"
I frowned. There wasn't any real heat to his words, it sounded more like someone that was frustrated while watching a video-game play-through because fuck, that thing you were looking for is right there, you walked past it five times already—
I slapped myself to get rid of the slowly-forming grin, continuing my trek through the relatively deep snow. "Goat-baby, stop back-seat gaming."
Shiori let out a muffled snort at that, but Hyuse only reacted with… Mild confusion.
"… What is 'back-seat… gaming'?"
Yuma made a similarly confused noise.
I laughed at him too but didn't answer him before I began to tune him out.
Glancing down at the Radar, I frowned. "… I assume… Azuma squad is using Bagworms…?"
"Probably," Shiori agreed, and Hyuse finally ceased his questions about… 'back-seat gaming'. "Which means they're probably gonna try targeting someone… Keep an eye out, Mori—"
A glint appeared in the corner of my eye, and I shot forward like a bullet to avoid the approaching bullet.
(—Not the fastest, decently sized, Meteora—)
The house behind me exploded outwards, as a deafening 'boom' echoed in my ears.
I blinked at the spot behind me, smoke rising from the wreckage of a home. "—It missed?"
"Mori, you DID dodge… But it seemed like he was aiming with a Radar, so it's to be expected, I guess."
"…'He'?" I glanced up at the sky, before continuing to the brisk jog I was keeping up 'till I met up with Yuma. "So that was Kitazoe's random Meteora… it's easier to dodge than I thought it'd be."
I paused, the 'crunch' 'crunch' of snow underneath my feet being the only sound echoing from around.
"… Is anyone near him right now, Shiori?" I questioned, eye flickering around to the houses surrounding me. "It'll get pretty annoying after a while, so someone's bound to go after him soon…"
"Uhhh… Wait." She hummed. "I thought Ninomiya was over there a while ago, but I think he disappeared from the Radar too, and other than that…? No one else is really around Kitazoe."
"Annoying." I huffed, pushing just a bit more speed into my steps. "Chika is within shooting range of him, but there's no point in needlessly showing her location if Yuma and I aren't even there to collect the point."
Chika didn't answer, but I could hear some shuffling over the radio. "Imouto, are you ok?"
"… Yeah, I'm fine."
I raised an eyebrow. "… Okay, if you say so. But don't move from your position, there're two snipers that can shoot at you, and there's a better chance that you're within their range."
"Alright."
She paused at that, as the conversation drew to a close. I was still curious and slightly worried, but Chika wouldn't really want me bringing it up during a match.
-0-
"… Usami," Hyuse spoke up, still standing behind the operator to watch the screens. "Connect me to the gremlin."
She raised an eyebrow, before gesturing over to a nearby set of headphones on a shelf. "I have an extra pair, bring them over. Plug them in, and I'll set it up… I guess."
Hyuse nodded in acceptance, not really enjoying being ordered around, but understanding that he had asked in the first place. After collecting said item, he shoved the plug into the socket that Shiori directed him to before he took a seat on the chair that they had brought for him to sit in.
"Alright, there you go." Shiori nodded after clicking on a few things, right as she began directing all her attention to the screen once more. "Don't distract him too much."
The Neighbour huffed indignantly at that, just as Yuma's voice echoed over the speakers in the headphones. "—ello, hello? Who is speaking~?"
Hyuse also frowned at the tone of voice. It was too lax for a battlefield (too lax for a war-front, too lazy for a war zone, too carefree when you could be killed at any moment) but he leaned back in his seat to speak anyway, in a tone too low for Shiori to hear.
"… You're going to lose."
There was a decent amount of silence after that, before Yuma's voice returned, as cheery as it had been a moment ago. "Jolly, why would you say that? Ye' of little faith—"
"Your teammates have more openings than anyone else," Hyuse shot back, thoroughly finished with the fake pleasant tone. "Everyone is targeting you guys. There's no hope of victory in this unless you have a goddamn miracle up your sleeve." He paused, before carefully wording his next sentence to make it clear that it was only half-meant as a joke. "If Tamakoma does win… I'd be more worried about the level of strength of this organization as a whole."
"Then, do you want to make a bet?"
Hyuse paused, eyes narrowing as they flickered back to Shiori's screens. "… A bet?"
"Yeah. Mori doesn't really care about this win right now, I think she knows we can't win. But if she can manage to take out at least ONE of these so-called, 'out-of-her-league' captains…"
The brunette could practically hear the smirk in Yuma's voice.
"… Then you owe me a favour. And vice-versa, of course."
It must have been the general ridiculousness, the chaos, the 'carefree' attitude that Hyuse (apparently) hated, it must have all been getting to him.
After all, why else would he accept to something so childish?
"Fine, have it your way."
-0-
It started with a quick flash of blonde in the corner of my eye before I was returning to my instincts once again as I threw up a quick shield.
Bullet after bullet slammed into the protective layer, only successfully making a small, thin crack in the edge of the shield.
And there Inukai was, standing on a nearby house with his gun aimed at my head.
"Looks like you're the first person I run into!" He cheers, jumping down from the roof airily. "Lucky me."
"… And I presume…" I sigh, lifting up a hand, a cube of Asteroid bullets forming underneath my fingertips. "That you're here to stop me from meeting up with Yuma?"
"Got it in one!" He sing-songed, before lifting his gun level with his head, and firing again.
-0-
"Yuma, Mori has engaged in battle, you need to head over there quickly!"
Yuma huffed, just finishing his conversation with Hyuse, as he pressed his foot harder into the ground. "I'm going, I'm going…—"
His eyes flickered with the instincts of a war-trained soldier, as he took a quick leap backwards.
A sword buried itself into the wall in front of him, not causing enough damage to take the whole balcony down, but still scoring deep cuts into the cement.
Yuma tilted his head, glancing at the black-haired attacker in the suit. "… A diversion?"
"Perhaps." Tsuji glanced back, turning his body ever so slightly. "… It seems like I'll have to stay here to hold the two of you off."
Yuma eyes flickered back too, crimson red clashing with sharp yellow.
"… Hey, gremlin." Kageura grinned, rearing his arm back in preparation. "Let's play."
"Aw, is that my nickname now? Whatever, I'm kind of needed elsewhere…" Yuma sighed, bending his knees as his eyes narrowed. "I also have another bet to win, so I'd really appreciate if you'd let me go."
Tsuji drew his sword, and Kageura smirked.
Yuma, who was seemingly resigned to his fate, sighed while forming a quick blade in his hand.
Koarai, standing behind a nearby building, took a deep breath in as he prepared to leap into the fray. "… Jeeeeeez… This is some really intense air…!"
-0-
I crashed through the window, glass shards raining down and bouncing off of my Trion body's limbs as I quickly scrambled to my feet.
"When fighting—as a shooter—" I dashed down the hall, before spinning on my feet as I recognized the blonde step through the break in the window I had made. "—Don't let your opponent get close!"
Both hands formed large Asteroid cubes, launching themselves at Inukai's relatively limited shield.
He took a fierce step backwards, barely dodging the bullets that shattered the floor underneath his feet. The few stray bullets that made it through were blocked with a few quick shields, causing Inukai to grin.
"Hey, you didn't let me get close that time!" He lifted his gun once again, shooting a few quick bullets that I managed to dodge. "Getting' better, Mikumo-chan!"
I smiled, not yet willing to forgo the full-attack to form a shield. "I didn't exactly have anywhere to go but up."
He returned the expression at the joke before his eyes narrowed slightly. "But you'll need to do better than that—"
I saw a quick flicker of black in the window behind him, before I grudgingly-but-quickly dropped one arm of bullets in preparation to form a shield.
Inukai abruptly jolted, doing his best to duck before a blur of black and white shattered the window, and sliced off his arm.
Okudera—alone, I noted with relief—preparing to land nimbly on the ground just a little ways away from the blonde gunner. Inukai could only sigh, snatching his gun out of the air as he glanced at the attacker.
"… So you were around too, huh?"
Before Okudera could land, Inukai shot a series of rounds into the wall behind the brunette, shattering the cement and causing a decent cloud of dust to kick up around the break in the wall.
Okudera landed on both feet, holding up his sword as his eyes flickered between us two. "… You missed."
Inukai grinned, and I caught a brief hint of mischievousness in it as my eyes widened.
"You weren't what I was aiming for."
And I dropped both arms this time, raising both my hands to form a double-shield to block the hail of Hound bullets that flew out from the smoke, aiming at both Okudera and myself.
While the Trion-pumped bullets peppered and tore away at my shields, I barely managed to block all of them before they stopped. Okudera was not so lucky—having had his back facing the broken wall—as the holes in his chest leaked white fog.
"Combat body limit exceeded. Bail out."
And once again, that familiar white streak painted itself into the sky. But I had my eyes focused elsewhere, the shades on my eyes glinting as I caught sight of the familiar figure emerging from the dust.
Ninomiya, with the Bagworm still in the process of disappearing from around his shoulders, stepped into the building with Inukai now at his side.
I knew a lot of swear words (and when I say a lot, I mean, a lot), but I don't think any of them could properly express how screwed I probably was right now.
-0-
"Yuma, change of plans. Keep Tsuji and Kageura there, if you can. Don't bring them over here quite yet, or else I'm screwed."
"Got it," Yuma hummed, dodging a quick blade from Koarai and making a half-assed block to avert Kageura's Scorpion away from his face. "Why not now?"
"I want to see if Azuma will try shooting at one of us through the building. Okudera just got taken out, and he might deem it necessary to shoot before the fight progresses too much."
"Understood." And then, Yuma was ignoring the world around him once again, only focused on the three attackers before him.
-0-
"Ninomiya, what's the plan?" Inukai hummed, silently speaking into his earpiece and Mori eyed the both of them warily. "I thought you'd go after Kitazoe for sure, but then you came over here instead."
"Tsuji is holding off Kuga since he can't fight Mikumo," Ninomiya commented instead, both hands still jammed in his pockets confidently. "Right now, our priority is to make Amatori reveal her position, since she will likely try taking out the building with a cannon to avert our attention… Then, Azuma will head after her, and most of the snipers will be marked."
"Oh, sneaky, sneaky." Inukai chuckled, standing up from his crouched position on the floor as he rolled his shoulders. "Should we attack first, to pressure the cannon more?"
He got his answer, in the form of the bullets that Ninomiya formed at his side.
"I guess so," He sighed, lifting his gun up once again, only with one arm this time. "Oh wow, that's really off bala—"
He didn't get a chance to finish his sentence.
(White Trion gushes like a fountain, glowing fog escaping from the hole because that was fatal, that was a fatal shot—)
He didn't get a chance to say another word before there was a bullet through his head.
No one got to say another word, as Ninomiya spun around in somewhat-disguised shock, Mori glanced up with the same shock-mixed-with-confusion eyes, because that was not an Ibis bullet, that was a Lightning—
And Mori's eyes widened in horror, because she could hear the distinct sound of heavy breathing over the communicator, she could hear hyperventilating, and she could hear Shiori cry out in shock as Inukai's body slowly cracked and shattered.
"Combat body limit exceeded. Bail out."
"CHIKA!"
("Because if no one thinks they'll shoot, then there's no reason to be wary, is there?")
-0-
Chika struggled to breathe.
(—I shot him I shot him oh god, I really shot him right through the head I'm so, so sorry I didn't mean it—)
And she shook, but didn't stumble backward from where she had been watching Inukai slowly break and leak Trion from the bullet hole in his head, watching every second carefully with no small amount of horror. She was watching, she couldn't bring herself to look away as Inukai's body slowly swayed from the impact and teetered towards the ground for what felt like hours.
(—It isn't real, it isn't real, it's just a simulation, he's fine, you didn't just kill—)
"CHIKA!"
Chika struggled to breathe. Because she only wanted to not be a burden, and suddenly she was collapsing under the weight of her morals and fear over hurting another human being.
(I never wanted to hurt anyone…)
"No, there's really not enough time… Replica sent a mini-Replica ahead earlier, and just confirmed for me. The Neighbour guy is heading right towards me, I don't have enough time to get back to base without endangering the people there. There are tons of defenceless engineers and business workers, yeah, but…Chika's at HQ too."
(…I just wanted to help her, since I couldn't before…)
-0-
A/N - I've realized that I've been missing a little something called... 'cliffhangers', in my recent chapters.
Just as a note, I've been planning this one scene since the start of this fanfic-and during World Triggers hiatus.