I put off starting on Chapter 4 until now because I had finals to study for. Now that I have some more time, chapter output will probably increase somewhat.

POV: 1st Person, Lucca

Well, first day as a C-rank member of Border, here I go. At the very least, it was nice of Arashiyama squad to give me some extra starting points so I didn't have to start from scratch. Right now, I was starting at 2000 points.

First thing the trainees ended up doing was combat training. Kitora had me run through some different combat training scenarios with a Border trigger so I had a good idea of what to expect. Apparently, the first day of training they had a downsized Bamster as the opponent to fight. I'll admit, I laughed. A defense-heavy trion soldier as the first training opponent? Easy.

One of the biggest weaknesses of trion soldiers in general was the fact that they all had one glaring weakness: The eye. If it was damaged significantly enough, the trion soldier would essentially shut down. Anyone who recognized that could take down a bamster in less than ten seconds if they had enough power. They weren't very fast, after all.

While the trigger I was currently using was a C-class trigger ("You mean I can't use my black trigger?" "No! Do you have any idea how unfair that would be to other people?"), I had managed to stuff it with literally every single trigger I thought I could use. Which included a kogetsu, a scorpion and literally every single shooting trigger I could stuff into it (Asteroid, Hound, Viper, and Meteora). I also decided to add a bagworm and a senku, an extension for the kogetsu, into it. Everyone had asked me if I wanted to add a radar into the kit as well, but I declined. My side effect was more than good enough to compensate.

But yeah, when I got to the combat training room, I noticed that there were three guys that were trying to stand out among everyone else. I ignored them for the most part. It wasn't like I really cared for the other trainees.

A few minutes later, Arashiyama, who was the guide for the training, called for everyone's attention.

"Everyone, thank you all for coming. I know a few days ago things were difficult, due to the invasion, but for those of you who managed to come back, welcome. For the next combat training simulation, you'll be facing these." He said, waving to the simulator room where another simulated trion soldier had just appeared.

Once again, I found myself dangerously close to laughing my head off. More bamsters. But of course, there's probably a little trick to them as well. I doubt training would just repeat itself over and over again if people would adjust quickly to it. If I were to guess, there's another trion soldier that will pop out of a defeated bamster. At this level, it's probably going to be something like a weakened mole mod that's been made easy for these guys to handle. At least that's my guess. Mole mods are small enough to stuff inside bamsters, after all.

POV Change: 1st Person, Jun Arashiyama

Training went well this time around. At least for the trainees who had been here before. All the trainees had to defeat the neighbors presented in the simulation. This time around though, we decided to make it so that another trion soldier would pop out of the defeated one. After the invasion, HQ wanted everyone prepared for that kind of a scenario of some sort.

We weren't going to have them face off against the new models though. Those were tough even for the A-rank members at Border. While the Tamakoma-1 members could all single-handedly take one down without too much effort, the rest of us couldn't exactly do the same.

We could, however, have them face off against the mole mods. Those were easier. Somewhat. We were going to have weakened ones for the trainees. I could see Lucca trying really hard not to laugh though. I guess he's been through this kind of thing before, being a Neighbor and all. Well, he should probably blaze through this pretty quickly and… oh look, I'm right! He's already done. Sweet. So this is what happens when we let Lucca stuff a training trigger with all the possible trigger options that he could want.

Gotta say, I'm impressed. He didn't even bother with fighting the trion soldier inside the defeated one. He just mixed together an asteroid and meteor and blew it up from the inside out.

Maybe we shouldn't have let him stuff all those trigger options inside the training trigger.

A voice popped up from behind me. "You know, I never thought Lucca would ever use a ranged weapon in my entire life. Close-ranged suits him way better."

I turned around to see Yuma Kuga standing there.

"You know Lucca?" I asked.

Yuma nodded. "I met him a couple of years ago back when I was travelling around the Neighborhood with my father. We stayed at his home when we were in Liberi."

"Why did you stay at his place?" I asked, curious. This was the first time that I was hearing about this.

Yuma smiled as he looked down at the training rooms. "Did he tell you about his sister?"

"A little bit." I said.

"His sister let us stay at their home. Lucca was completely against it at first, but the moment his sister begged him, he relented."

I looked at him in surprised. "He spoiled his sister?" And I thought I was attached to my siblings. I mean, sure I loved my siblings, but I don't think I would ever let them bring a stranger home. Alright, I might. I mean, I let Lucca stay at my place.

"You'd probably spoil your siblings also if they were as sickly as Aria was. Still though, Lucca may have spoiled Aria, but Aria was one of the sweetest people out there. She didn't ask for much. She was nice to everyone. The only thing she ever wanted was for Lucca to take her with him wherever he went, once she recovered from her illness."

"I guess that never got around to happening." I said, looking down at Lucca with sympathy. Losing a loved one was always hard. Especially when it was family members that were lost. Kido faction knew that better than any other faction in Border. Part of me is still surprised that Lucca didn't join Kido faction. He actually wouldn't have been that bad of a fit there.

POV Change: 1st Person, Lucca

Well, that was easy. Oh hey, there's Yuma. "Yuma, what are you doing here? I thought you were a regular member."

Yuma shrugged. "Somewhat. I'm technically B-rank now, so I guess I'm a regular member. It shouldn't take you too long to get to B-rank either."

I nodded. "I had a couple of good teachers."

"Let me guess: Everyone from Arashiyama Squad?"

"Yeah pretty much." I laughed a bit, scratching the back of my head.

"So how are you liking it here so far?" Yuma asked.

I shrugged. "The food looks kind of strange here. That and the value of money is also strange. I kind of get it, seeing as it's really just a bunch of numbers, but I still think it's strange."

I still remember Kitora talking my ear off about how I had to be careful about the amounts of money that I carried on me at all times. I still don't leave the Arashiyama meeting house unless I have someone that can show me around. Mainly either Jun, Kitora, or Tokieda. Satori kinda just talked my ear off if I was with him. To be honest, it still freaks me out.

"The food here doesn't look as strange as that stuff that you cooked when my father and I were staying at your place." Yuma said.

I'll admit, I was a bit insulted. "Hey!"

"Lucca, you can cook?" Arashiyama asked.

I nodded, while glaring at Yuma skill. No one insults my cooking. "Seafood, mostly. I had to cook for me and my sister for a long time. Being a trigger user doesn't pay that much in Liberi, so I couldn't take my sister out that often. I had to just buy the food and cook it myself."

"Hey, I just said it looked strange. It still tasted really good, if rather spicy."

I still glared.

"You know Lucca, why don't you try cooking for the squad sometime? Kitora likes spicy food. It's not the stuff that you see in Liberi, but you can try making a good dish still." Arashiyama said.

I relented with my glare. "Sure, I could do that. Although you're going to have to show me around the food store. And tell me which one has which flavor. I'd rather not have to go around tasting everything just to find the right dish."

"Alright, sure!"

One hour, seventeen minutes, and ten seconds.

That's how long it took me to get to B-rank once I started getting onto the solo ranked battles. Honestly, it really wasn't that much of a challenge. But I guess that's to be expected when you stick someone whose proficiency with triggers was rather high with a bunch of guys who don't know that much about using triggers. Although that has more to do with my side effect more than anything else.

I should probably explain more about my side effect. I mentioned to Jin a while back that I had enhanced processing time, basically I could make analyses in a few seconds. To be frank, that's actually understating it. The main reason I could learn how to use triggers so proficiently in such a short time was because of this side effect.

It slowly puts stress on my brain when I use it though, so I have to be careful. When I do use it though, the amount of information that my brain processes increases a hundredfold. One example of this is what happens when I see a bullet flying. If I use my side effect for a few seconds, I can predict almost exactly where the bullet is going to be based on its speed, trajectory, and wind factors. I can also tell when it's going to get to a location. It's only a prediction though. Not an exact guess.

Another use of my side effect is planning out strategies in seconds. Ever since I got to use the Viper trigger, I fell in love with it. It works so well with my side effect. I can literally control the area my opponents can move to and then move in to get them with Kogetsu while they're busy.

But enough about that. After breaking into B-rank, I found myself climbing ranks rather quickly. But I figured it wouldn't last. I wasn't an elite soldier per se back when I was in Liberi. We had our military training, but I was never near the top for anything except for strategy. In a regular battle of skill, I was average at best without using Sword Saint. My biggest advantage in any battle was my side effect. With it, I was able to make complicated plans on the fly. But it wasn't necessarily enough to compensate for actual fighting skills. Right now, I was sitting at about 6000 points.

As I was walking through the hallway, I ran into Shinoda.

"Ah, Lucca. Congratulations on making it to B-rank so quickly." He said.

I shrugged. "It really wasn't a challenge."

"I see. Maybe we should have put you with B-rank right away."

I shook my head. "That would be unfair. Kido said that one of the conditions for my protection was enlisting as a regular agent. That means going through the same process everyone else does. It'd be weird if someone like me was instantly stuck in B-rank, right? I'd rather not have people finding out that I'm a Neighbor out of the blue."

"Right. That's true. Kuga also said the same thing when I offered to make him a regular member right away."

After I stopped talking with Shinoda, I went to the cafeteria where everyone else was eating. Granted, I wasn't actually hungry, I just wanted to sit somewhere.

"That's the new guy…"

"You mean the one who got to B-rank in an hour?"

Oh geez. I feel like I should've seen this coming. I'm pretty sure most people don't rank up this fast.

I finally managed to find a seat where I could just relax for the moment. It didn't really last though. A few moments later, someone familiar sat down in the seat right across from me.

One of the first people that I met when I came to Meeden: Rei Nasu.

POV Change: 1st Person, Rei Nasu

I had heard rumors about someone making it to B-rank in an hour, but I had ignored them for the most part. Rumors didn't really catch my attention. Besides, most A-rank members during their enlistment hit B-rank rather quickly. However, when the cafeteria starting buzzing up and talking about the guy in question, I was curious. I had to look.

I nearly did a double take when I saw it. I recognized the guy. It was the same one that our squad had found a couple of days ago at the portal site, the one that I figured out was a Neighbor. If I remember correctly, his name is Lucca.

Curious as to why he was here, I got up from where I was sitting and moved over to the table he was sitting on.

"You know, I'm surprised to see you here." I said.

Lucca raised an eyebrow. "Why is that?"

I elaborated a bit. "I never thought that I would see a Neighbor in a Border uniform. And B-rank already, to boot."

He shrugged. "Kido's condition for my protection involves me being a member of Border. So here I am. But let's not talk about me being a Neighbor. I don't want people hearing about it. Too many questions would be asked. You're Rei Nasu, right?"

I nodded. "And if memory serves, your name is Lucca?"

He nodded. "Yep. As of a couple of days ago, I am a member of the Shinoda faction.

"Why Shinoda? Why not Tamakoma?" I asked. Tamakoma was more likely to take in a Neighbor, after all.

"I'm technically not allowed to talk about it, but there are reasons."

I decided to stop pursuing that subject. If it's supposed to be confidential, I need to keep quiet. Asking him how he fights might be a better idea. He's probably going to be my opponent in a later ranked match. "So how do you fight?"

He didn't even hesitate to reply. "All-rounder. Shooter and attacker."

I was a bit surprised. "Who did you learn from?"

"Literally everyone from Arashiyama Squad." I said.

Well, that explains something. Nearly all of them are all-rounders with expertise in attacking and shooting. "Wait, that doesn't explain what Satori helps you with."

He shrugged. "He was mostly there for sniper pinpointing practice."

"I see."

"Enough about asking me questions though. What about you?"

"Huh?"

"How do you fight?" He asked.

Oh, that's what he meant. "I mainly use the Viper trigger."

"And secondly, is there a reason you seem way more comfortable in your trion body than anyone else around here?"

"What?"

He continued. "Your body. It's hard to notice, but compared to the rest of the people around here, you seem way more comfortable in your trion body."

"How did you know?"

"I've seen enough people to know that there's actually a difference between when they're in their trion bodies and when they're not using their triggers. There aren't that many people who aren't Neighbors that can grow so accustomed to their trion body that they don't even feel a difference."

I'll admit, I was speechless for a moment. "I… I guess there is a reason for this. I do spend a lot of time in my trion body."

"Do you not like spending time in your regular flesh and blood body?"

"Kind of."

"Any particular reason why?"

"You're being too prying." I said, standing up and leaving him to his own thoughts. All the while, I could only wonder how he figured out so much from so little.

POV Change: 1st Person, Lucca

Well, that was an enlightening conversation. Something's bothering me about that girl though. And it's not just how comfortable she is with her trion body. It's more along the lines of how familiar her manners seem.

"Ah, Lucca! There you are. C'mon, we're going home." Arashiyama said.

Once we got into the car, Arashiyama drove off. "So, besides hitting B-rank in record time, how was your first day as an official member of Border?"

I shrugged. "Nothing to really say. I might peak at around 7000 points for a while until I learn some more tricks for close range fighting."

"Ah, I see. Did you make any new friends?"

I shook my head. "Not really. I did meet someone that I met when I first got here. Her name's Rei."

POV Change: 1st Person, Jun Arashiyama

So I guess Lucca made one friend. At least it's better than nothing. It might take him a while to socialize with people. Who knows? He might even make his own squad one day. But for now, being able to chat with people is nice. Still though, the fact that he met Nasu of all people is pretty cool. I mean, they're both so proficient in shooting.

"Rei Nasu? She's one of the two most proficient Viper users in Border, the other one being Izumi from Tachikawa Squad. Maybe three, now that you've joined. I've never seen anyone besides the three of you use that trigger so proficiently." I said.

"You mean that whole thing with us being adaptable with the trigger as compared to people just memorizing patterns to use?" He asked.

"Yep."

"Huh. That's pretty cool. There's something else that's interesting about Nasu though." He said.

Whoa there. What's he talking about? "What, do you have a crush on her?"

Lucca didn't even miss a single beat in replying. "Not that. It's in how she carries herself. She's so much more comfortable in her trion body than literally everyone else that I saw today. Most people have a slight discomfort, but she's managed to completely eliminate that discomfort. Still, that wasn't the most interesting thing about her."

"What was it then?" I asked.

"How she talked when I asked her about it. It reminded of Aria telling people to mind their own business when they asked if she was sick."

And scene. How'd this one go? I know I didn't really include anything of what Lucca did in Border, but I felt like that would've almost been a repeat of what Yuma did. I don't like being identical.

Also, lack of 3rd person this chapter hurts my head a bit.

As for Nasu. I've always been under the impression that she's a bit sick all the time. Someone like that would probably earn sympathy points from Lucca, who had a sister in poor condition.