Sometimes, I wonder what I'm doing with my life. It's always a question of when inspiration strikes and how it will strike.

POV: 1st Person, Lucca

The press conference was, for a lack of better words, boring. None of it was new information to me, which meant that the only thing to look forward to were the questions of the people there. Hopefully the questions would be intelligent.

"That concludes the conference. You will find more in-depth data in your handouts. We will now answer your questions."

"This is the part where people start venting, isn't it?" I asked.

"Yep. Welcome to the public, where everything is either a hate attack or a criticism." Kitora said drily.

The first reporter, a rather plump man, stood up to ask a question. "Because there were victims inside of Border itself, we must ask how well Border can actually defend itself. What do you have to say about that?"

"You try dealing with a trigger that can change into a gaseous form at any given moment." I muttered.

"Hey, it's not like they're aware of the existence of black triggers." Satori said.

I was a bit surprised. "They're not?"

"Nope. You might want to pay attention to the press conference. Netsuki is about to say some stuff."

We all turned just as he started explaining his reasoning. "Look at your handout. The scale of this attack was almost eight times as great as the first time Neighbors attacked us four and a half years ago. When that happened, 1200 people died and over 400 people disappeared. This time, there were only 6 deaths and 32 people missing. The invasion was eight times greater than before, yet we only suffered 1/40th of the losses suffered in the first invasion."

"Huh. That's impressive." I commented. "You guys have really come a long way if that's the situation."

"Well, it has been four years since invasions started happening. We would be rather pathetic if we were still suffering the same rate of loss."

"That's fair."

As we went back to the news, my brained tuned out most of the things they were asking when one of the reporters asked a very serious question.

"If trainees were targeted, is it possible that they knew that trainees cannot escape in any given situation?"

Netsuki paused for a moment before continuing. "They are only allowed to use their triggers inside HQ. It should be impossible for the Neighbors to find out."

The reporter's response seemed almost deliberately paused. "More than a month ago, a local junior high school was attacked by Neighbors. We have eyewitnesses who say they saw a trainee using a trigger. Do you think information was leaked to the Neighbors then?"

The pause was almost deafening.

"It couldn't be, right?" Arashiyama asked, shocked.

"What do you mean?" I was curious.

"That was when Osamu was defending the school from the Neighbor attack. It was outside of the restricted zone, so we didn't see it coming until the alarm was sounded."

"Osamu was a trainee back then?" I asked.

He nodded. "Yep."

I frowned. "Portals can't appear outside of the restricted zone normally. Do you know what caused it?"

"We found a bunch of Rads later. You know, the small trion soldiers."

I frowned. "Then the chance that they find out about the lack of escape functions on the trainee trigger is nearly 100%. Rads are also really good as spies. The chance that Aftokrator misses a detail like that is practically nonexistent."

"But your trion body would have to be destroyed in order for them to find that out."

"Oh… oh no."

I turned to Kitora, realization dawning on her face.

"What?" I asked. "Did you remember something?"

She nodded grimly. "Osamu wasn't the one to defeat those trion soldiers. It was Kuga. He told me when we were monitoring Kuga's progress as a trainee."

"So if Osamu fought them first and ran out of trion…" I started.

"Then it's more than likely he was forced to revert back to his regular body after it was destroyed by the trion soldier." Kitora finished.

Bingo. Aftokrator knew. There's no way they couldn't have.

As we discussed this, Tokieda cut us off. "Guys, you might want to see this."

As we all turned our heads back to the television, I couldn't help but feel my eyes widen as I recognized the guy on television. Granted, last I saw him, he was in the hospital, on a bed, completely unaware of his surroundings.

"I am Osamu Mikumo. I am a trainee, who about a month ago, used his trigger at his school. If there are any questions, I will answer them personally."

As he spoke, I finally noticed General Manager Shinoda in the back standing up, probably to defend Osamu. "Please don't blame our agents on your current knowledge. His rulebreaking was dealt with more than a month ago. The problem is over."

As Netsuki also tried to rise to his defense, the press overtook him. "He said he wants to speak, let him do so!"

Quite the ruckus they're making.

As they settled down, I noticed Osamu's mouth moving.

"What's he saying?" Kitora asked.

"Something along the lines of 'I might make more problems for Border.' Not sure what that means." I said, reading his lips.

"You can read lips?" Arashiyama asked.

"Comes naturally with the side effect, sadly enough. I sometimes end up reading lips from someone who's trying to be a charmer but ends up sounding like a creep."

"That seems… unfortunate."

"Tell me about it."

"But what did Osamu mean when he said 'I might make more problems for Border?'"

"Well, we'll find out in a moment, I guess."

We all turned back to the screen, watching as Osamu took his first question.

"We were told that you used your trigger at school a month ago. Because you were a trainee, this was a rule violation. Were you aware that your action was a violation of the rules?"

"Yes."

Wow. Straight and to the point.

"Due to this violation, people suspect information was leaked regarding the trainee triggers. Do you believe this to be the case?"

Osamu took a bit of time to reply. Which made me think that the conclusion that I came up with was being reached by him as well.

"Remembering it, there is a chance."

Oh good, he figured it out. Sadly enough, that didn't really seem to be enough for someone in the crowd.

"Do you understand how serious this is? 32 people have been kidnapped! We need more reason than just 'remembering it'."

"I'm not trying to explain everything. Even if I knew that a leak could occur, I still would have used my trigger. That is how bad the risk was at the time."

"Even if it made more victims?"

"Yes. Even if future casualties were possible, it wouldn't have been enough of a reason for me to forget the people that day."

The next few moments of the press conference continued on like this, and I lost interest pretty quickly. At least until I heard a question that actually sounded good.

"How do you plan to make up for the 32 lives that were lost due to you and your actions?"

"I'll return them myself."

My ears perked up at this statement.

"Return them himself? Have you guys been sending people to the Neighborhood?" I asked.

"Umm, that's technically supposed to be confidential, but yeah, there have been missions to the other side. Only top agents though. We don't let new people go on these missions for good reason."

I nodded. "They'd probably get slaughtered. But these missions are confidential?"

"Yeah. The public isn't supposed to know about it."

Kido's voice rang out on the press conference. "Like he said, we at Border are moving forwards with plans to recover those who have been abducted. In fact, we have succeeded in unmanned expeditions to the Neighbor worlds before."

It took me only a second to figure out why Kido was saying what he did.

"So he's pretending to have only started trying out unmanned expeditions. Huh. That's clever. That way, they'll have something else to direct their attention to. Although…"

"What?" '

"We're in charge of enlistment, right?"

"Yep."

"And people are really going to be interested with this expedition. What's the chance that a ton of people are going to enlist?"

The entire team looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well…"

Crap. Our workload just got multiplied. By a very large amount.

As it turns out, I have the record in Border for hitting A-rank (A/N: I'm assuming the thresholds for each rank are 4000 for B and 8000 for A). After the press conference I decided to hit the ranking matches for a bit, which ended up turning into me getting into A-rank after beating a bunch of people. It took me a couple hours of ranked wars, but I got through it pretty quickly. As of now, I am officially an A-rank agent. I got wrecked the moment I tried to fight an A-rank member though. Kitora personally showed up to pummel me into the ground, which I thought was somewhat unnecessary. And then there was this other guy by the name of Midorikawa who simply outdid me physically. Which is something I'm going to have to work on. On my side effect alone, reaching A-rank was doable. Past that though, I was going to have to rely on a lot more skill if I wasn't using Sword Saint.

After I got off for the day, a thought occurred to me. I could probably go visit Nasu.

Wait, would it be alright for me to appear unannounced? Should I bring something with me? Maybe a small gift or something?

I already figured out directions there, so that's not a problem, but the question is whether or not it would be alright for me to go and appear at her home out of the blue.

Fortunately for me, I ran into the one person that could help me with this question.

"Ow!"

Or unfortunately, as I somehow managed to collide with one Yuko Kumagai I turned the corner.

"Sorry about that." I said, scratching the back of my head awkwardly. It was always a somewhat embarrassing situation whenever I collided with someone, which was actually quite often when I was at Border. I think I collided with at least two people per day. I have no idea how it happens. It just does.

Kumagai wiped the dust off her pants before getting up. "It's alright, it happens."

As we were about to walk by, I realized I could ask her something. "Oh yeah, if I'm going to visit your squad leader, should I bring something?"

I got a curious look from Kumagai. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I'm visiting for the first time, and I figured I should bring something so I don't feel like an intruder. Any idea of what to bring?"

POV Change: 1st Person, Rei Nasu

The doorbell brought me out of my bed and to the door. I had to wonder though, who was visiting? Kumagai has a key, and Akane always calls before she visits. Maybe Sayoko, but that's unlikely. She usually does voice conference.

My question was answered when I saw Lucca standing at the door with a bag with what appeared to be groceries and a bouquet of different flowers.

Wait a second, flowers?

Lucca seemed to read my mind, as he explained rather awkwardly. "My squad suggested flowers. I didn't know which ones to get so I got a general bouquet. And the groceries were Kumagai's suggestion."

I smiled and shook my head in amusement. "Leave it to my squad member to trick you into buying groceries because she forgot. Come on in."

As Lucca came in and unpacked the grocery bag of its contents, I noticed one product stand out. Lucca noticed my glance almost right away.

"Yeah the canned peaches was the suggestion of your squad member also." He said. I think he noticed the look in my eye because the next thing he said was "You really like canned peaches, don't you?"

"Guilty. You would be surprised how much better they taste than regular peaches." I admitted.

"Well, let's save that for later. I figured I could cook dinner while I'm here. Maybe mix the peaches into something."

"No, don't mix the peaches!"

Lucca looked at me in confusion. "You mean you just eat them as they are?"

I nodded. "They taste really good by themselves."

Lucca just stared at me. Probably thinks I'm crazy, but I'm not going to let him just use the peaches like that. A moment later though, Lucca just shrugged. "That's fine. I have plenty of other things to work with."

Only then did it occur to me what he was saying. "Wait, cooking? You're a guest here. Why are you cooking?"

"I can get bored pretty quickly when I'm off work. Usually, I'm either cooking or dancing. There's literally no place for me to dance and I haven't had a chance to cook for a couple days."

"Oh… Alright. That works, I guess. But what are you going to cook?" I asked.

"Haven't decided yet. Maybe curry. I want to try making it."

Curry doesn't sound bad. Although something doesn't seem right. I know we don't have any curry mix, so how does Lucca plan to make it?

"We don't have curry mix." I noted.

Lucca shrugged. "I figured out the components after a while. I think making it myself will get better results than buying it from the market. I even bought the ingredients to make it."

That is scarily impressive.

"But, it takes about six months to perfect, so I decided to buy the mix this time around. I'll make an actual powder myself in the future. So while I'm cooking, why don't you go ahead and sit down. This shouldn't take too long."

Well that's slightly disappointing. But Lucca's going out of his way to cook, so I should appreciate it how I can. It makes me wonder though.

"Did you do this for your sister a lot? Cook for her?" I asked Lucca as he started chopping up carrots.

Lucca finish cutting up the carrot he was on before answering. "Yeah. Although I cooked more spicy food for her. That was always her favorite."

"Did you ever cook for Arashiyama squad?" I asked.

"Once. The dish in question figuratively burnt their tongues to death." Lucca said, a small smile on his face.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Dish was too spicy for almost everyone except Kitora. We ended up saving most of the leftovers for her because she was the only one besides me who could bear eating something so spicy."

"Do you like spicy food?" I asked.

"Call it an acquired taste." Lucca said. "I came to enjoy it after a while after cooking it enough times."

"What about your parents? Did they enjoy it?" I asked.

I felt Lucca's mood drop significantly upon the moment I asked that question. Did I approach a bad topic?

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

Lucca forced a smile. "It's nothing. I should get back to working on the ingredients. I can't just stop midway."

I think that was the cue for me to shut up for the moment. The tension lasted for a while. A couple minutes later, I heard the door open and Kumagai came in.

"Nasu-senpai, I'm home. Is that curry I smell?" She asked.

"Give it a moment it's going to take another five minutes."

"Oh, alright. Nasu-senpai, can I talk to you for a moment?

The distraction was welcome, seeing as Lucca seemed preoccupied with something. When we got upstairs, I didn't expect the question that I did.

"What happened down there? Lucca seemed almost like he was almost fuming or something."

"You noticed that?" I asked.

"It was hard not to, seeing as you weren't even chatting. I could feel the tension in the air."

I looked away. "I think I touched on something hard for Lucca."

Kumagai had a concerned look on her face. "What do you mean?"

"I asked him about his parents and he seemed to tense up almost immediately. I think he has bad history with them." I said.

POV Change: 3rd Person, Lucca

Lucca couldn't help the surge of memories that came the moment parents were brought up. It wasn't something he liked reliving.

"Look at these trion readings from the girl! They're monstrous, easily the highest I've ever seen. And the boy, well, his trion isn't shabby either. Nothing near as good as his sister, but I think he has a side effect, judging from how his eyes haven't stopped soaking in his surroundings. So this is what happens when we cross the genes of our strongest trigger users."

Lucca and Aria were military experiments from their very birth. Their parents, powerful trigger users, literally cared nothing for them besides their use to Liberi. The only people they could hold on to were each other, as no one else cared for them except for their use.

"Aria's body is weak. We can't have her using a trigger like this. Lucca's potential is amazing though. His trigger skills may be average, but the speed with which he learns them is tremendous. Not to mention how quickly he's been picking up on battlefield tactics. Perhaps we could have him work as a tactician instead."

The military was disappointed in Aria, and wrote her off as a failure. It was only through Lucca's begging that the military allowed her to have a home near the base where both she and Lucca could stay. While they wanted to simply harvest her trion organ for use, they needed her alive in order to ensure that Lucca couldn't go rogue. As long as Aria was alive, Lucca could be kept on a leash. A loose one, seeing as they let him take dance lessons and cook, but tight enough that any sign of betrayal could be met with Aria's immediate termination.

Lucca's eyes closed as he remembered the argument he had with the man that had sired him.

Flashback

"You can't just write Aria off!"

"And what would you have her do? The only thing she's useful for right now is a source of trion. No better than any of the hostages that we've taken, even if her trion organ is much larger than everyone else."

"Father, please!"

"Learn your place, soldier. You address me as our commanding officer or I ignore your pleas. Liberi cannot continue to lose to the stronger nations. Either we make use of her trion or she becomes strong enough to fight by herself."

"I'll work double."

"Excuse me?"

"I'll work at double the rate that I've been currently working. Just please, don't use Aria like that!"

"Hmm. Interesting. You would go this far for your sister?" Lucca's father asked. It certainly was a change, seeing as Lucca had never begged or tried to negotiate before. It made him grin on the inside, thinking he had an easy way to keep Lucca working for them."

"And farther, if I have to, sir."

"Very well. You have one year to prove yourself. You will begin your days as a fully-fledged soldier starting today. I expect many victories to come in the near future. You know what happens if we fail, right?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. You're dismissed,.. Lieutenant Corporal Lucca."

Lucca couldn't help but grimace at the title from where he was kneeling. "Thank you, sir."

Failure was not an option.

Flashback End

True to his word, Lucca didn't fail to perform. Every single battle he led was met with a victory. Being given such a high rank in the Liberi military on the spot meant that he was not allowed to fail. Aria remembered Lucca looking exhausted every single night after each day. Her relief upon completion of his trial year relieved her to no end, as he could finally take a small break from fighting like every other soldier. After all, leading a military force at nine years of age was no easy task.

Another six months of working as a soldier and Lucca was finally given a leave of absence which would last for a few months. During this time, Lucca finally got a chance to pick up dancing so he could teach Aria, in the hope that she would finally be strong enough one day to dance also.

That day never came.

Sorry for taking so long on this chapter. I've been swamped with college stuff, so focusing on writing was a hassle.

Hopefully I'll be able to pick up my pace as winter break comes closer, although if summer is anything to judge by, that won't be the case.