I'm honestly not too surprised that no one answered, but I wanted to see if anyone got the references.

So the references/inspirations for the following triggers:

Pendolos: Lyserg Diethel from Shaman King (a series I fell in love with in middle school). I modeled Pendolos off the medium that he uses with Morphin. I actually thought this would originally fit better as Lucca's trigger. After all, Lyserg is pretty hell-bent on revenge when we first meet him in the story.

Skeptron: The skeptron from Mortal Instruments, City of Heavenly Fire. Yeah, I changed it somewhat, but it's the same idea. Lots of power to kill lots of stuff.

Iratze: Literally the most used rune in the Mortal Instruments series, I figured a healing rune would be fit as a name for a trigger that repairs others. I'm pretty sure the user would be a kind person, which fits as Lucca's mentor.

Armatus: Tales of Zestiria. The mode change where you practically fuse with your companion to get fancy powers. I chose the two changes for Lailah and Zaveid/Dezel, as they were more closely related to blades, which is half of Lucca's theme in terms of fighting. I might incorporate the other armatus forms somehow, but I'm not sure as to how I'll do it yet. Come to think of it, Lucca is kind of like a Shepherd in how he has a companion that's invisible to everyone.

If anyone was going to guess any of the triggers, it would probably be Skeptron, Iratze, and Armatus. Pendolos was more of a wild shot.

Without further ado, onto the story!

POV: 3rd Person

Calvaria was a peaceful nation in the Neighborhood, only focusing on defending themselves when attacked. On most days, it was a peaceful place. Today was not a peaceful day.

Raymond, the leader behind the defense, could only scoot back in horror as every single trigger user he had brought with him had been defeated when they tried to fight the intruder.

"Come now, I just asked you gentlemen a simple question. It shouldn't be that hard to answer, should it? Besides, I'll leave you alone once I get my answer." The intruder grinned as his weapon returned to the gauntlet on his arm.

"W-why are you going so far for just one trigger, even if it's a black trigger?" Raymond asked, still trying to get up.

"Hm. I suppose you don't know this, as occurrences have been very rare, but black triggers created from the trion of a person holding the ability to become the god of a star have the ability to evolve beyond their original capabilities. For us to let go of such a trigger would be quite the waste. Surely, you can understand, can't you?"

"Even so, I'm not telling you where he went." Raymond said, finally getting up.

"Let's think this through logically. I could kill you and order my men that I brought with me to begin killing your people. It would only take a few minutes to decimate your population. Or, you could tell me what I want to know and I'll leave this place as it was before. There is a reason that I haven't killed any of you yet."

"You're bluffing."

The intruder sighed. "A pity that you don't believe me. Shall I show you my resolve?"

Before Raymond could ask what he meant, the gauntlet that the intruder had released its weapon, which then proceeded to pierce through the heart of one of the men on the ground. Raymond could only stare in horror, as the intruder calmly recalled his weapon and spoke again. "Think about it. Save the life of your people, or end up being the death of them as you continue to defend a man who you have absolutely no debt or allegiance to."

Raymond finally caved in. "Meeden. He went to Meeden looking for one of his friends."

"Thank you. That wasn't so hard now, was it?"

The intruder turned around and walked away, speaking into his comlink. "Lia, we're leaving. Tell everyone that we're going back home. Our target has run away to Meeden."

"Should we contact Ergatis then, General? They should be making contact with Meeden in a few weeks. We can make use of the world teleporter that they helped install."

"Do it. We'll need their help in reclaiming Sword Saint, given the user."

"Very well. Lia out."

As the communication channel closed, the man looked to the sky, where a portal was opening for them to go back to Liberi.

Auriel Dux grinned. "It seems we'll be seeing you much sooner than I thought, my dear son."

POV Change: 1st Person, Lucca Dux

"So you can use Lucca's side effect?" Tokieda asked.

Well, somewhat. It's more along the lines of I can process the same information that Lucca processes through his eyes, now that we're bonded like this. It's really cool, actually. Lucca's brain is like a supercomputer when his side effect is at full performance.

"In other words, when Lucca uses his side effect, you end up using it as well because you're sharing the same vision?"

Pretty much. But come on, the enlistment stuff isn't going to get organized by itself.

"Hold on a second. I just ordered Lucca not to do this stuff today. But we're still using Lucca's side effect?" Arashiyama asked.

"We can just focus on the first month's enlistment. It shouldn't take me more than five minutes." I said.

"Are you sure? I still need to record your assignments after you make them." Ayatsuji commented.

"Positive."

As I started scanning through the information, I frowned. "I don't see the weighted scores in here. They haven't done the actual testing yet, have they?"

"Unfortunately, no. We might need to stall this until next time."

"Done." I said, handing Ayatsuji a sheet of paper that I had just finished writing on.

"You're kidding."

"Oh, I never kid about this kind of stuff. Here's the assignments based on how they'll do during their testing for recruitment. Just write this down as a program and it'll be ready. If you link it with the testing hall, it'll instantly put down this information for who qualifies for the first month once each person finishes their test. If anyone complains, send them to me."

Everyone just stared at me in shock.

I was confused. "What? The majority of them haven't done testing yet, so it was easier to create a formula on which they would be evaluated and placed into their spots."

"Still, you did it really fast." Arashiyama commented.

I shrugged. "Overpowered side effect. What do you expect?"

"Fair enough."

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I believe I've been ordered to take a break for the rest of the day. I'll just go to the house and start working on that daifuku mochi." I said.

On the way home, Aria and I started talking again.

You're telling me that mother was responsible for killing Lucian?

"And the rest of the guard as well. Father ordered their execution after that loss against Aftokrator."

I was shut down during that time... no wonder I didn't know about it until now.

"I didn't want to talk about it with you."

No, it's alright. I understand. It's hard for you as well.

"I'd say you have no idea, but you have every single idea of what's going on."

Once we finally got back to the house that the squad met at (I claimed it for a living space. Didn't want to go on living off Arashiyama forever), I got started on the daifuku mochi.

I have to say, that looks really good. I can't actually go hungry anymore, but that looks delicious.

"Yeah, I have to get this finished pretty quickly. Everyone's coming over here once they finish patrol, after all."

After finishing up the mochi, I proceeded to start cooking dinner for the squad. I made sure to make everyone's favorite dishes, which really wasn't too hard. As I cooked, Aria started talking.

Do you think the military is looking for you?

I frowned. "I don't think so. I actually snuck back through home to get to Meeden, and I didn't see any reports of active searches for me."

Probably because they were dealing with a direct invasion from Aftokrator at the time, but who knows. You worried at all?

"Not really. Liberi isn't going to be in portal range for a while, so we can relax. Unless Ergatis somehow ends up orbiting Meeden soon, which I doubt will happen."

Ergatis… aren't they the nation with the funny-looking trion soldiers? The one that you and Lucian went to for negotiating an alliance when they came into orbit around Liberi?

"Yeah, that's the one. We helped them perfect their marine trion soldiers, they gave us some blueprints that were useful for creating new trion soldiers."

So what's the worry? They're not that big of a country.

"This was actually classified information, so you don't this, but Ergatis has a world teleporter that we connected with our world."

Hold on, what? A world teleporter? How does that work?

"Basically you can travel to any planet in the entire system so long as you have another teleporter in that area. Liberi was the only one that they installed a world teleporter on. The biggest downside is that it takes a long time to charge up and it's very loud. Which was why I didn't use it to escape. The military might use it though."

That's concerning. What if Ergatis comes into orbit range of Meeden?

I sighed. "I'll figure it out later. But in the off-chance that Ergatis does come, we'll have to get prepared. Ergatis has way too much variety in their trion soldiers to leave everything to chance. I think that's their biggest strength."

They do follow a trend though. Although I have to wonder, how about that other top secret trion soldier that you said you managed to get information on? The one that Ergatis's Dr. Lamia was working on?

"That particular trion soldier is still in development. Apparently, they came across some ridiculous functional errors when they were trying to get it to work. Not to mention that said trion soldier is so inefficient with its trion that it can only operate in battle for a short time. Besides, the strength of their trion soldiers comes from the sneaky stuff that they can do with them, not their individual power."

That's true. By the way, you need to cook for some more people. Arashiyama just contacted me and told me that the other squad on patrol is on their way here to eat.

"And they didn't bother to ask me how I felt about it." I sighed.

Oh shut up. We both know you like cooking.

"Fair enough. It's the only thing that I do where something doesn't happen to me. Or something doesn't blow up."

What about dancing?

"Don't mention this to anyone, but I tripped around eighty times during my first ten lessons. Commanding the defense force was way easier."

You have got to fill me in on the story sometime.

"Later tonight. Do you know who else is coming over?"

No clue. Though Arashiyama told me that only the squad members were coming over. The fourth one apparently has a fear of boys or something.

"Wait, what?"

I know. I don't get it either.

The first one to arrive at the door was Ayatsuji. Part of me wondered how she got here before everyone else, but then I brushed it off due to the fact that we didn't have to worry about the squad getting overwhelmed.

I placed everything on the food warmer before handing her the boxes of mochi that I had made. "Here's the mochi. I put some strawberries in them, so try to finish them quickly."

"Can I start eating now?" she asked, her mouth almost salivating.

I drilled her with a stare. "If you eat them now, you'll upset your stomach during dinner. You can wait until after dinner."

She pouted. "Fine."

A few minutes later, we heard people start coming in. Seeing the rest of the squad come in wasn't a surprise.

"Really Lucca, I don't get why you have to cook here and now. Couldn't you cook the meals in advance and then save it in the fridge in the kitchenette?" Our squad leader asked.

"You mean that tiny place? Are you kidding me? The kitchenette wouldn't fit all the food. And reheated food doesn't taste good."

"Still, would it really kill you to cook somewhere that wasn't this particular kitchen?" Satori asked.

"For your information, I have cooked outside this kitchen before."

"Oh? Where was this? And why have we never heard of this before?"

"My place." A voice from just outside said.

I glanced over from where I was cooking to see Nasu squad pile in as well. Looks like we'll need some more chairs.

I blinked in surprise. "Rei?"

She smiled shyly. "Hi, Lucca."

"So your squad is the reason I'm cooking extra?"

"Yep. Sorry about that."

"Eh, no worries. It's not going to kill me. Besides, I like cooking."

"Ohoho. I see. Cooking for your girlfriend, huh?" Satori said, a small smirk on his face.

I'm pretty sure Rei's face went about as red as mine, given that we both shouted at him at the same time. "We are not dating!"

"Wow! So synchronized. You sure you're not dating?" Akane exclaimed.

"Oh great, not you too, Akane-chan." Rei sighed in exasperation.

"Yes, I'm pretty sure we're not dating." I sighed as well.

"Alright, you're both sighing in exasperation as well as trying to deny any sort of connection of that nature with each other. Are you sure absolutely sure that the two of you aren't dating?" Kumagai asked.

"No!"

Come now, denial is one of many things that you'll experience on your way to acceptance, whether it be death, dating, or winning some kind of lottery.

"Oh, shut up. Not you too, Aria!"

I realized my mistake then and there. Aria was technically an Arashiyama squad exclusive secret, so no one else knew about her.

"Aria? Isn't that your sister's name? I thought she was dead." Rei asked, very confused.

Tokieda decided to give her the short version before I could. "Technically, she's an AI created from Aria's consciousness that now resides in Lucca's trigger and can talk to him through his head. Since right now, we're not at base and our triggers aren't activated, Aria can only communicate with Lucca."

"Basically, yes." I confirmed, feeling rather embarrassed at the moment.

POV Change: 3rd Person

Auriel could only close his eyes as he prepared himself for what laid ahead. No matter how determined he was to find his quarry, he had to be careful. After all, his target was Lucca. As the world teleporter was getting prepared, he closed his eyes, taking deep breaths.

Auriel Dux was a very imposing man, with white hair and the same eyes that Lucca had, the exact same silver irises. His entire body was well-toned and tan, as he worked out a lot in the sun. Despite this, he was a very affluent man, making his way up the hierarchy with ruthlessness and cunning, always planning ahead to ensure that he got the results he preferred. A trait that he shared with his wife.

"Preparing yourself for what's ahead, General?" A female voice asked.

Speak of the devil and he shall appear. Auriel Dux turned to look at his wife and comrade all these years. While they had shown affection for each other in the past, displays of emotion between the two were seldom, as shown by their constant addressing of each other by their military titles.

They held no love for their children though. For them, results always came first, regardless of the method. That was why they had the children in the first place. In theory, children could hold as much potential as their parents. Even though trion ability had as much basis in chance as it did in hereditary means, it didn't stop them from trying to pass it on.

When the twins were born, everyone was surprised. Firstly because they were twins, but more importantly, because of their talents, which ranged from Aria's trion organ to Lucca's unparalleled side effect. If focused right, they could in theory defeat anyone that they put their minds to defeating. Which was why their children's capacity for kindness had always bothered both of them to no end. Emotions made for too much variability in the equation.

Auriel had tried many times to remedy what he considered Lucca's weakness, through hardening of Lucca's heart. The executing of his guard was meant to be a method to completely seal away all attachments he had and make him focus only on results.

Clearly, the results were not found, as Lucca ran away the night his guard was executed. However, Auriel and Lia would not deny one thing. They enjoyed the execution. Mainly because among the guards that were executed, Lucian was one of them. While Auriel liked to think himself devoid of many emotions, jealousy was not something that he was devoid of. When he and Lia saw Lucca and Aria attaching themselves more and more to Lucian, he could only feel a surge of jealousy, however slight.

Auriel stood up from where he was meditating. "To some degree. After all, the target is Lucca. There's no telling what he may have planned for us."

"All the same, our son is a broken man. After the execution, he lost everyone that he held dear. I think you may be overthinking this somewhat. After all, committing two black triggers to retrieve one is a risky endeavor. Who knows what would happen if a stronger country invaded while we were gone?"

"The only close-by country right now is Kion. And their priority has always been of a more defensive nature. Besides, Kion has never been comfortable with going up against us. Their last five defeats say as much. Lucca is a much more dangerous target, after all."

After Lucca had left, other countries had tried invading Liberi in hopes that without their defensive tactical genius, the marine nation would fall. Many would fail. Only Aftokrator succeeded in doing any significant damage to them.

"Very well. As you command, General."

With that, Lia left his presence, leaving herself to reminisce on her thoughts.

Unlike her husband, Lia Dux was a sadist. While she normally didn't let it get in the way of her mission, she wouldn't inhibit it her nature if the compromise didn't jeopardize the mission. When she found that she was compatible with the black trigger Skeptron, she was honestly a bit disappointed. As a long range trigger, she wouldn't be able to see her victims suffer. Which was why she took to carrying a normal Arpio trigger with her as well.

However, even she knew the threat that Lucca could present. Unlike what most people in the military thought, there was more to Lucca than the prowess that came with his side effect. This secret was only known to a select few, as even Lucca was not aware of his abilities when he first used them.

A moment later, a soldier ran up to her. "Madam! The world teleporter is connected. We can go to Ergatis at any time. Shall I go inform the general?"

Lia nodded. "Do it. We have a couple of weeks to prepare before we reach Meeden. Once there, proceed with caution."

"Understood, ma'am."

As the soldier ran off, Lia took a breath before letting herself smile. "I wonder, Lucca. What connections of yours can I sever this time?"

POV Change: 1st Person, Rei Nasu

Today was a strange day. First, we have patrol at the same time as Arashiyama Squad, which is right before dinner. As it turns out, Lucca wasn't even there. Apparently, Arashiyama had ordered him to take a break from patrol, which made me slightly disappointed. NOT in that way. Right after telling me this, he invites our squad over for dinner, saying that Lucca is cooking for us. When we finally get there, everyone teases the two of us to death and then we discover the existence of Lucca's sister-turned-AI.

Somehow, we still managed to have a rather normal dinner. Lucca's cooking is really good though. He could probably start his own restaurant if he wanted.

After dinner though, I actually wanted to meet and talk with Aria. Having never met her before, I really wanted to see what she was like.

Lucca refused, though. Said the timing wasn't really right. He did say that I could come over tomorrow, so there's that opportunity.

"So are you just going to go back home now?" Lucca asked.

"Actually, I was thinking we could watch a movie. You know that newest horror movie that was getting all that hype? The producers gave us an advanced copy as a thank you for protecting the people during the invasion." Satori said, a sly smirk on his face.

Oh, that movie. I was actually looking forward to watching that movie for a while. The producers have always been really good at making this particular series realistic. Plus it's a good way to introduce Lucca to movies. I hope. Satori's probably hoping for that whole get scared and hold on to someone reaction from me. Probably won't get me, though.

"Wait, so what's a movie?" Lucca asked.

"Basically a recording that gets replayed for people's entertainment." Kitora said.

"For… entertainment?" Lucca was very confused.

"It's a pretty popular thing. People are always making new movies, so they come up with new movies with better visual and sound effects."

"Eh, I guess I'll watch. Learning about the culture here has been pretty interesting so far. Besides, what could go wrong?"

POV Change: 1st Person, Ai Kitora

"Find your happy place, Lucca. Find your happy place." Lucca muttered under his breath from the corner he was shivering in.

Out of all the people I expected to be curled up in a fetal position in the corner of a room after a horror movie, Lucca would have been the very last person I put on that list. Yet here he was, the first and only person watching the movie who ended up in the corner in fetal position almost right after we got to the scary bits of the movie. As far as movie went, I thought it was alright. Nothing as scary as to the level that Lucca was reacting at the moment. Everyone else was shivering a bit after the movie (the producers were really good, after all), but no one had gone down to the level that Lucca had.

"Was it really that scary, Lucca?" Satori asked. Said twin sniper had decided to pull out a camera just to record how Lucca would react during the movie. He was not disappointed.

"That thing had blood streaming out of its eye sockets and down its face! How was that not scary?"

"… You know those effects are fake, right?"

"Who cares about that? That was still scary!"

I get the feeling that Aria was laughing her head off at Lucca's reaction, assuming she hadn't shut down for the night. I still don't fully understand Aria's capabilities, though I don't think anyone does. Not even Aria.

"How does it not affect you guys as badly? Why would anyone even want to watch horror movies?"

"Probably to get a kick out of getting scared." Nasu commented.

"I don't get it! Why in the world would you EVER want to entertain yourself by scaring yourself? How does that even work?"

I think I know why Lucca was affected so badly. Firstly, as a Neighbor, he didn't have the experience of ever watching a movie, let alone something of the horror genre. Secondly, his side effect lets him take in all the details. Even the gory little bits of detail. And this movie had a lot of those, thanks to really good producers. Poor Lucca.

"Umm, people like the adrenaline rush?"

Lucca threw his hands up in the air. "I give up. I'm not going to understand this part of Meeden culture ever."

"If we ever end up going out together as a squad to the movies, we definitely need to avoid horror movies." I whispered to Tokieda-senpai.

"Agreed."

POV Change: 1st Person, Lucca

"I have to say. In just one day, you've shown great improvement in using kogetsu." Tachikawa-senpai said.

Next day, I was once again at lessons with Tachikawa. We took a break in the middle of our matches to go over what skills I had managed to acquire during the lessons. Aside from that, the ranked wars for B-class teams were about to start soon, so I wanted to finish up a little bit earlier than usual to go watch. Granted, I could still make it back to my squad's operation room in time to watch the start of the matches, so I didn't really need to rush.

I frowned. "It's not good enough yet, is it?"

"Well, no. But you're improving significantly than most people in your position would. I think we're at the point where you can start learning to use senku along with kogetsu."

"Senku's the extension for kogetsu that extends its blade length, right?"

"Yep. That's the one."

"Alright. So what are we waiting for?"

"Just one thing, actually. I heard about this from Izumi, who heard about this from Satori (I had a bad feeling about this right away), but apparently you can't handle horror movies? Satori took a video and showed Izumi the other day." Tachikawa asked with a teasing grin.

… I am going to kill Satori when I get back. And then bring him back to life, and then kill him again. I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I'm going to do it.

Well, that's a wrap on that chapter.

For those of you wanting more action, don't worry. You'll get it soon enough. I've been avoiding them for two reasons mainly. First, they're a hassle to write and take up more words when I want a bit more content. Second, I suck at writing action/fight scenes. They're not my specialty.

So yeah, if you want an idea of where the timeline is at, it's the first day of ranked wars, just before they start.

As always, R&R

XWX