Onto a new chapter. I want to try and focus more on Lucca's interaction with the culture/system here.

POV: 1st Person, Lucca

"So this is…"

"Fish. There's multiple different kinds. That one's salmon, this here is tuna, over there is bass. There's tons of other kinds of fish in the store. I just pointed out a few." Tokieda said.

Currently, all of Arashiyama squad was out at the grocery store. Right now, I was with Tokieda trying to figure out what I should cook, as well as identifying marine animals for the future. After I hit B-rank, I was officially added into the Arashiyama squad roster as an independent agent that reported to the squad. It makes sense. Too many people in a squad can actually mess it up, after all. And I didn't really want to mess around with a team synergy that has clearly been going on for years.

"Huh. Looks a bit different from the fish that I'm used to seeing in Liberi. How about those?" I asked, pointing at what appeared to be a peeled crustacean.

"That one is shrimp. It's a really popular seafood. And right next to it is crab. It's often used in sushi rolls."

"Huh. I see. I think I remember seeing it a few times. But what about the yellow stuff? The one that's around the stuff with the same tail as the shrimps?"

"Oh, you mean tempura? That's just a layering that a lot of chefs use. It's basically breading over the actual food. It's used for a lot of different foods."

"Huh. That's interesting. I should learn more cooking here."

"Hey Lucca!" I turned to see Satori waving. "We got almost all our other groceries. Are you about ready to go?"

I frowned. I wasn't ready to go quite yet. I still hadn't decided what to get. Wait, I could probably do that really fast. I turned to the guy who was selling the fish.

"Excuse me, could I look at the meat of each fish?" I asked him.

After he agreed to it and put out a bit of meat of each kind, I activated my side effect. One of its better applications for everyday domestic use is its ability to let me see what the texture of the food would be like on my tongue. About eight seconds later, I knew exactly what I would get.

"Can I get these three in a two to five to three ratio? In a total of twenty pieces?" I asked.

The guy just stared at me. "What?"

Tokieda sighed. "One kilogram of this fish, two and half kilograms of that fish, and one and a half of that one."

As we were walking back to the house, Tokieda turned to me. "We need to teach you the whole metric system later."

"Metric system?" I asked.

"It's how weight is measured here." He said.

"Huh. I still have a lot to learn."

"Did you trade stuff like that in Liberi?" Kitora asked.

I shook my head. "We had our own measuring system. I just figured you guys wouldn't know it because it's not the same world."

POV Change: 3rd Person

At the Arashiyama Squad house, Lucca ended up staying in the kitchen with Tokieda while everyone else went over the most recent information regarding Border recruitment.

"What's the current number of people who've left?" Kitora asked.

"About fifteen people so far. And by the looks of things, more people might leave as well. After what happened to a lot of the C-class recruits, I can't blame them. This is going to hurt recruitment for a while." Satori said, frowning.

"We couldn't have known that they were after the C-class recruits until they started sending in those new trion soldiers. Though it might have something to do with the fact that the recruits don't have an escape mechanism on their triggers."

"How would they know to aim for C-class recruits though? I thought they would go for the agents who actually had proficiency with triggers." Arashiyama said, frowning.

Lucca and Tokieda appeared, with Lucca holding a pot of his freshly-made dish in his hand. "You're joking, right? Strategy in Neighbor wars has always been to go for the least protected resources. That way, you can weaken your enemy and strengthen your own ranks at the same time. That applies to both raw trion and people with higher than average trion ability." Lucca said.

"Huh. You sure know a lot about that." Kitora said.

Lucca shrugged. "I helped plan a lot of defensive countermeasures when I was in Liberi. Most of them involved allocating resources in order to adapt to the situation while I would engage the strongest person that came with the invading force. Usually a black trigger."

Kitora raised her eyebrow. "Why you? You're not exactly in top level physical condition compared to a lot of other people."

Lucca placed the pot down and raised his left hand, which still had Sword Saint. "Mainly because of this. I didn't fight that much with this trigger, but when I got it, I got assigned to frontline fighting. Compared to even other black triggers, Sword Saint is immensely powerful. In terms of power, it's strong enough to compete head-on with Organon."

Arashiyama turned his head in surprise. "Organon? That's one of Aftrokrator's black triggers, right?"

"Yeah. It's easily among their strongest. There aren't many triggers, normal or black, that can compete with its performance. Sword Saint is one of them. But enough about that, have some of this seafood." Lucca said, opening the pot.

The smell of seafood wafted through the air, causing a ton of stomachs to start rumbling.

"Oh man, that smells good." Satori said.

Tokieda started distributing the plates of said dish to everyone. "Lucca got the hang of the kitchen really quickly."

Once everyone got plates of food, they started chowing down on it. A lot of faces went red very quickly, Kitora's and Lucca's being the only exception as they happily munched away at the food.

"HOT!"

"Lucca, what did you put in the dish?" Arashiyama asked, gasping for water. He had never tasted anything so spicy in his life.

Lucca stopped eating and thought for a moment. "Umm, the fish that we got today, some of the green onions, this one sauce which I don't remember the name of, and some of the fuoco seasoning that I brought with me from Liberi."

"Fuoco seasoning?" Satori asked, reaching for a cup of water as well.

"Liberi specialty seasoning. It's actually somewhat hard to come by, as the ingredients are rather tough to get. It's this mix of crushed fish eggs, peppers, and a small sprig of this one herb that grows on the smaller islands that circle the main city."

"It wouldn't happen to be a super spicy herb, would it?"

"Well, I wouldn't really call it super spicy…"

Once everyone had downed enough water to the get the spicy flavoring out of their mouth (Kitora being the one exception), they all took a breath.

"Lucca, don't use that sauce again." Ayatsuji said.

Lucca's face was confused. "Huh, why?"

Arashiyama's face was surprisingly grave. "Well, the dish was good, but I think our tolerance level for spicy things isn't at the level needed for the dish."

"Excuse me?"

"Minus Kitora."

Lucca's face brightened a bit. "Oh, in that case, why don't we save this so Kitora can have something to eat for next time?"

Kitora had a small smile on her face. "I think I'd like that."

After dishes had been put away, everyone got down to look at recruitment information once again. Before that though, Tokieda had a question for Lucca.

POV Change: 1st Person, Tokieda

Something that Lucca said didn't make sense earlier. He said that he was assigned to frontline fighting after he received his black trigger, but I don't get what happened.

"Lucca, you said that you fought on the frontlines after you received your black trigger, right?"

"Mhmm. Yep, that's right."

"Why did they try to take away Sword Saint?" I asked.

It didn't make sense. They had a guy who was perfectly compatible with the trigger, a genius at it even. And then they tried to confiscate his trigger. He should have been fine as a soldier otherwise.

Lucca's face seem to have a drained look to it after I asked the question though. "They thought I wasn't good enough."

Kitora frowned. "That doesn't make sense."

Lucca explained. "They had their doubts about my ability before. I was never a top soldier in Liberi. When my sister became Sword Saint, they only let me keep her at the time because they were unwilling to cut off my arm just to try and get the trigger. That's why they put me on the frontlines... for a bit."

"What happened?" Arashiyama asked. Everyone seemed to have interest in what happened to Lucca.

"The first couple of weeks that I was using Sword Saint, it was fine because I could fend off pretty much anyone. But that was mostly because most of the invaders weren't that strong. One week, Aftokrator invaded. They sent one black trigger user. Viza, user of Organon." Lucca clenched his left hand into a fist.

Organon. Lucca said that Sword Saint was on the level of Organon before we ate. I pieced together the information quickly. "You fought against him and lost."

Lucca nodded. "We didn't expect Aftokrator to use something as strong as Organon. I guess they heard about how we had been repelling invaders week after week. The moment I lost, Viza went off to support his allies. They made off with lots of trion and killed a large amount of people. I couldn't do anything about it because my trion body was gone. After that battle, I overheard a conversation saying that they were going to try and find a different user for Sword Saint. That's when I made a run for it. I couldn't let them take it from me. I made a promise to Aria, after all."

"And you don't break your promises." Arashiyama noted.

So that's why he's here now.

POV Change: 1st Person, Lucca

Well, first day as an official member of Arashiyama squad. I'll admit, red was never really my favorite color. But given the squad I was officially a member of, I pretty much felt obligated to take up the uniform with the rest of the squad.

But that aside, I'm more interested in the whole money system right now. The currency itself makes sense, but using paper? What's the point of that? I figured it would be better to keep things conveniently light, but it still doesn't make sense. I mean, its paper for crying out loud. For all we know, someone could just be mass producing these pieces of paper and getting all the money in the world that they want. I don't get it at all.

I was standing in front of a vending machine, which was part of why I was currently trying to figure out the money system. Don't get the wrong idea. I could pay for it. I was just confused by the monetary system.

"You know, there are other people waiting for you to use the vending machine." A voice said behind me.

I spun around to see Rei Nasu once again. Still in her trion body too. And looking way more comfortable in it than almost anyone I know. Neighbors included.

"Why would they be waiting? It's not like there's a line to use the vending machine, is there?" I asked.

"Well, it's really awkward to get in the way of someone who's using the vending machine or trying to decide what to get from the machine."

"Oh." Makes sense, I guess. I decided to buy a drink. "I'm still trying to figure out the whole monetary system. It doesn't make sense."

Evidently, she was confused. "How so?"

"It's paper for crying out loud. How does paper have more value than coins? I mean, for all we know, someone could be mass-producing the paper and getting rich. It doesn't make sense."

POV Change: 1st Person, Rei Nasu

I'll admit, I had to stifle a little bit of laughter when Lucca asked that question. But at the same time, it makes some sense why he would ask that question.

"Well, if you don't want to look like an idiot in front of everyone, how about we go sit down and I explain a bit about it to you."

Lucca looked at me curiously. Which was quickly making me uncomfortable.

"You sure you want to help me? I mean, you did seem kind of peeved when I started asking you all those questions last time."

Did he really have to mention that? "Just stay away from that topic and we'll be fine."

"Hey, can you blame a curious mind?"

I glared at him. "You know that I'd rather you drop the topic?"

He raised his hands up in surrender. "Alright, alright. I won't pry."

I have to admit, Lucca's new uniform seems pretty well-fit on him. Red doesn't really seem to be his color, but aside from that, it looked good on him. But don't get any ideas. I don't like him that way.

We found an empty table quickly enough. After we sat down, I got down to explaining the monetary system to Lucca.

"Do you have any paper money with you?" I asked.

Lucca nodded before pulling out a bill. "I carry some with me wherever I go."

"It's a good idea. You never know when you might need to pay for something." I said.

"Applies to literally every single aspect of life." Lucca muttered under his breath.

I had to admit, that was pretty true. I took the money, pointing to some parts of it.

"Money is standardized. It has to be exact. And you can't just print money and instantly become rich."

Lucca was confused. "Why not?"

"Because of inflation."

"Inflation?"

"Basically, too much money in the system and the price of everything skyrockets, making it so that other people can't buy stuff, which sends the economy into a tumble."

"Huh. Bartering seems way easier." Lucca commented.

I was confused. "Did you do a lot of bartering back at home?"

Lucca nodded. "Let's not talk about it here. It'll probably be better to talk about it somewhere else, like maybe a coffee shop?"

"Are you sure you should be tossing around confidential information?" I asked. It seemed somewhat strange that he would be so willing to let out information regarding his past.

Lucca shrugged. "It's technically not confidential. I just don't talk about it at base here because I don't like people eavesdropping or accidentally picking up information that they'll remember. People are about twenty times more likely at Border to pick up information by walking around compared to somewhere out in public, like a coffee shop. The only chance that we get overheard there is if some guy with an enhanced hearing side effect picks up what we're saying. And last I checked, there are only about five people with that side effect right now, one of which is in Border, the rest live in the city as regular people."

I was skeptical. "How did you figure this out?"

"My side effect. Essentially, I notice details and use said details to make educated conclusions about stuff. It's always active, but I can improve its performance for a short period. For example, that guy over there with the cropped brown hair has an interest in the girl over there with a ponytail."

Is he making this up? "How can you tell?"

"His eyes. They always slide over to her anytime he thinks that she's not looking in his direction. Those eyes have the look of 'should I ask her out?' It's actually pretty obvious if you just glance over."

Alright, maybe he's not making this up. "Is that how you figured out about my condition?"

Now it was his turn to look somewhat confused. "I can't diagnose whether or not people have medical conditions through their trion bodies. I just noticed that you were really comfortable in your trion body compared to all these other guys around here. And even some other guys that I know back home. But that aside, coffee?"

As tempting as that sounded, I really couldn't. "Sorry. I can't."

Lucca's eyes immediately took on a concerned look. "Does it have something to do with your medical condition? How bad is it?"

I think this was the moment where I felt like Lucca was prodding way too far for my liking last time we talked. But the amount of concern he's showing is surprising.

I shook my head. "It's not fatal, if that's what you're asking."

He sighed. "Well, that's a relief. But that still doesn't answer how bad it is. Clearly it's not too bad if it doesn't affect your actions when you're in your trion body, but it probably has some level of impact on your regular everyday actions if you're refusing coffee at a public facility."

"How do you know all this?" I asked.

"Because the Liberi military never let my sister use a trigger due to the fact that her health was bad enough that it would affect her if she ever tried to fight."

"Liberi?" I asked.

"Country where I was from."

On second thought, I might just take him up on his offer. The rest of our squad is getting off for the rest of the day as well. There's a lot I want to know about where he's from. "You know, I think I'll take you up on your offer for coffee."

Lucca looked at me, somewhat confused. "And the reason for this change of mind is what?"

"Curiosity."

"Ah. Well, in that case, let me just contact Arashiyama and tell him that I'm going out for some coffee and we'll be off."

Coffee sounds pretty nice.

I guess that's a wrap for this chapter. Really though, I had even more to this chapter that I could've written, but I'll save that for chapter 6.

I'm not really satisfied with how this went, but I'll stick with it for now.

As always, constructive criticism is very much appreciated.

XWX