I'll be changing the formatting a very slight bit. Nothing big to worry about. It'll just make things easier to follow.

POV: 1st Person, Lucca Dux

"Huh? Where's Satori?" I asked.

I had just gotten back to our operation room after about fifteen more matches of using Kogetsu with Tachikawa. Ranked matches were starting and I wanted to see how this would go.

"At the ranked wars viewing room. He's doing the commentary along with Mikumo for this match."

I blinked in surprise. "Isn't Tamakoma-2 in this upcoming battle?"

"Mikumo still has some injuries, so he'll be commentating today."

"I see. Run me through with how these battles work again?"

"It's pretty much a kill is one point, while surviving until the end of the match gives you another point. It's usually a three-way or four-way fight, with teams having up to four members. Usually they go with three though. You're warped into random locations once the battle starts, so you won't be instantly grouped with everyone else in your squad."

"Got it. So who wants to take bets on how fast Tamakoma will win this first battle?" I asked.

"Really Lucca? Are you sure you want to be giving Tamakoma the victory so easily?" Kitora asked.

I shrugged. "Hey, I knew Yuma from years ago. Knowing him, it won't take that long to win. Probably less than twenty seconds of action for each of the other squads."

When he made contact with the first group of people, he took about three seconds to take them all out.

"Well that's fast." I commented.

"Alright, fine. You were right about that. But what about the other squad?"

Judging from the viewing camera, they were all hiding in a single building. Problem was, they didn't have bagworms. Even so, they all used hound, so they could theoretically overwhelm Yuma with firepower.

All the same, I groaned at their positioning. "If Yuma has meteor, then they're going to get flushed out in seconds and destroyed. If he doesn't, that's an opportunity wasted."

"Not really." Arashiyama commented.

"What do you—"

Anything else that I might have said was cut off by the giant blast of trion that destroyed the building. A few seconds later, Yuma cut down everyone who was sent flying in the blast.

I was shocked. "What the hell was that?"

"That would be Amatori. She has a ridiculous amount of trion."

Wait a second. Amatori as in Chika Amatori? The same little girl that I saw when I visited Tamakoma? I thought she was an operator. Guess not. But HOLY, that trion ability is massive.

If I were to guess, she probably has even more trion than I did.

"You sure about that, Aria?"

Positive. That trion amount is astounding.

"Agreed."

But how is her trion organ so large? It's like she's on a whole different level.

"Well, trion capacity is somewhat related to chance."

Let's be real, Lucca. There was no way our talents were acquired by chance.

"Hey Lucca, Aria, we're heading out to grab something to eat. If you need us, give me a call." Arashiyama said.

We may eat together quite often as a squad, but there are times when we don't, so that works out just fine for us. Besides, Aria and I were starting to get pretty deep into conversation, so this was good for us.

After they left, Aria and I continued were we left off. "Even if we weren't chance, there are others out there who probably gained their abilities by chance."

Fair enough.

A knock on the door of our operation room pulled me and Aria out of our thoughts about Chika quite abruptly. That ended our discussion pretty quickly.

When I opened it, I was surprised to see Rei standing there. And then I remembered what she asked me yesterday regarding talking with Aria. I guess she's here to make good on that promise.

"You want to talk to Aria?" I asked.

Rei nodded. "You said yesterday that I could come in and talk to her today, right?"

Right. I did say that. "Hold on a moment. Let me go set things up so that Aria can connect with your trion body to talk. Pass me your trigger, please?"

After Rei deactivated her trigger and handed it to me, I went over to the computer and used it to link her trigger with Armatus so that she could talk with Aria at any time. Even though we had set up a speaker in the room so that everyone could hear Aria, it helped to connect her to triggers so we could talk outside of the operations room. I may be relatively new to Meeden technology, but I learned quickly.

Once I finished, I handed Rei's trigger back to her. It took a couple of minutes, but I got it to work.

"Alright, let's see if I set up the link correctly. Activate the trigger now."

Once Rei activated her trigger, Aria stated talking.

Testing, testing, is this working?

Rei started. "I can hear her!"

I chuckled. "Rei, meet Aria. She's been with me for a while. On that matter, do you want to go grab something to eat?"

Rei was a slight bit confused. "I thought I needed to be here to talk with Aria."

I shook my head. "You need to be within reasonable distance of my trigger to talk with her, now that I've linked her up with your trigger. Or if you want, I can go grab something for you and then come back. Anything you want in particular?"

POV Change: 1st Person, Rei Nasu

"You sure it's a good idea to just leave me here by myself?" I asked.

Lucca shrugged. "We've slowly been expanding Aria's field of senses. There are actually a few cameras set up just for her vision, a couple of sound receptors for hearing, as well as a speaker in case she wants to talk with us, which is quite often. She pretty much works as security for the room, so I'm not that worried."

True enough. As an AI, I can occupy more than one space at once, the spaces being Lucca's trigger as well as a central hub that Ayatsuji set up for me so I can access at least some of my senses. Personally, I'd rather just stay here. It's weird being hooked up to Lucca's senses all the time. Though if Lucca goes too far away, I'll immediately disconnect and go back to his trigger. Don't worry about making a mess either, though I'm sure you won't. Almost everyone in Arashiyama squad is really big on making sure things are orderly."

That's a lot of information to take in all at once. "Well, if you insist, I'll stay here."

Perfect! We can have some nice girl talk then.

"Ok, you know what? I'm out. Anything you want to eat, Rei?" Lucca asked.

"Something along the lines of Italian food." That sounds good about now.

"Italian?" Lucca's questioned mirrored Aria's thoughts at the exact same moment.

I had to resist the urge to smack myself. They're still learning. Of course they wouldn't know what Italian meant. "Something along the lines of pasta."

"Ohh. Ok. That thing that takes forever to make by hand." Lucca said.

"Alright, is there anything that you can't cook?" I asked. I feel like Lucca has tried to cook almost everything by now.

Lucca seemed to tip his head back in thought for the moment. "There was this one dish back in Liberi that I tried to make…"

Are you talking about the one that exploded on you because you added a teeny bit too much fuego seasoning?

"No, Aria, the fuego seasoning was not the reason for that dish exploding. If anything, I didn't put enough of it."

Oh shut up. Lucian told you that the fuego seasoning would create a reaction from being mixed with the fish meat.

"For your information, I managed to recreate that dish just fine when I came here."

That's because Meeden's fish don't seem to have that same chemical in their bodies. And you still put too much!

This really makes me wish that I had siblings now.

"Anyway, I'll go grab something for you. Just stay here for now." Lucca said.

After Lucca left, I deactivated my trigger and spoke to Aria. "You two really have that sibling dynamic down."

I like to think that it's something that we acquired as twins. After all, Lucca and I pretty much lived by ourselves.

"What about your parents?" I asked.

That's more complicated. They were technically around, but the only place where they influenced our upbringing was in Lucca's military training. Put simply, they were terrible parents. If anything, Lucca's mentor, Lucian, was more of a father than our father was.

"Is that why Lucca hates them?"

Yes and no. You remember Lucca told you that I had a weak body, right? Well despite my body's condition, I was born with a ridiculous amount of trion. Our father was considering turning me into a source of trion, but Lucca protested against it, offering to do double of what he normally did for the military in exchange for letting me stay free from military use, despite that being the original intention of our birth.

I was confused "Hold on, wha—"

We were military experiments used to see what would happen when you put together the two strongest trigger users in Liberi. Aria said bluntly. I was born with an enormous trion organ, while Lucca was born with his side effect as well as another hidden talent.

"What exactly does his side effect do? He's described it, but I've never truly seen it in use." I asked.

That's because it's active at all times. Even though it's in use all the time, Lucca can focus for a few minutes to increase its potency, though at the cost of giving him a killer headache. To put very simply, his side effect is enhanced observation. At maximum potency, his brain absorbs in every single piece of information that his eyes and ears can take in, allowing him to diagnose things from people's physical conditions and patterns in movement to how long it can take for a bullet to hit a target down to a millisecond and where it will hit the moment it fires. He's at most off by maybe a fraction of a centimeter when at maximum ability, and that's because wind is unpredictable. You literally cannot say any secrets when he can see your lips moving because he can read them without any trouble. And because he takes in so much information, he can formulate tons of strategies on the fly. It gave him a reputation as an expert of defensive tactics.

"That… sounds overwhelmingly powerful." I commented slowly.

It is. He does love complaining about it though. Sometimes I think he wishes that it was less overwhelming.

"But what about his other hidden talent?" I asked.

Secret!

"Wha- Aria! Come on!"

Hey, I can't go revealing EVERYTHING to you right when we first talk. But here's what you should know. Lucca doesn't realize that he has this other talent, seeing as he uses it unconsciously, and only when he is on his last legs or in a truly desperate state. The only reason I know is because I saw him use it to protect me once.

I guess I should be happy that I even got that information out of her. Still, I think I understand Lucca a little bit better.

There's something else that I've been wondering as well. "Do the two of you not have a last name?"

Actually, we do. It's just that Lucca doesn't like associating with our parents, so he doesn't like using it. Personally, I don't have any problems. In Liberi, the Dux family is well known for producing top level soldiers. Lucca was just the latest.

"So your full names would technically be Lucca Dux and Aria Dux?" I asked.

Yep. Though we don't really affiliate with it that much. That aside, I know that you and Lucca are nowhere near dating, but what do you think about my brother?

…I really hope that Aria didn't see my face go red for a moment. Though she probably did, given that she's got full vision of the room. "Well…"

Alright, what do you like about him?

Yeah, she definitely noticed. "W-well, he's really kind. And it's kind of cute watching him learn the culture here. Not to mention how considerate he is… of me in particular."

And yet you don't want to pursue a relationship with him? The two of you could be perfect together.

"It's not like I've done anything for him." I sighed. While I resigned myself to the fact that I did have feelings of a sort for him, it's sort of been a one-way thing, with Lucca being the person doing things for me while I did almost nothing. "Honestly, I feel like I'm just an extra bit of responsibility for him."

That really isn't true, you know. You've actually done a lot for him, just by letting him do all that stuff for you. He gets bored really easily and becomes unpredictable if you let him, so doing this will keep him focused. And besides, I think he feels something for you as well.

"How can you tell?"

I'm his sister. Of course I can tell. All that aside though, I haven't seen him care as much for other people as much as he has for you. The only other person I could compare that level of care to is myself. And sibling bonds are naturally like that.

"So what do I do about it?" I asked.

Make the first move or something. I dunno. I'm not the expert on relationships and neither is Lucca. Even if he was engaged at one point.

"Wait, Lucca was engaged?" It almost felt like I was shot right through the heart.

It was technically supposed to be a political marriage to forge an alliance with this one nation, but Lucca asked father to call it off because said nation was really weak and Lucca found a way to make them subordinate to us without too much trouble. Don't worry, it was purely political and nothing actually happened between them.

I almost breathed a sigh of relief.

At this point my face was hitting a very dark red when Lucca came back with the food.

"I'm back… Rei, your face is red. Did something happen? Do you have a fever?" Lucca asked.

As if to accentuate Aria's point from earlier, Lucca placed his hand on my head to check my temperature. "Hmm, seems fine. Maybe it just got a little hot in here."

"N-no. I'm fine. You don't need to turn down the temperature." I managed to get out.

This might turn out to be a very awkward lunch for me.

POV Change: 1st Person, Jun Arashiyama

"Are you sure we should have left Lucca and Aria back in the operation room?" I asked Kitora.

Ayatsuji was the one to answer that question. "Well, Nasu-san did want to visit to talk to Aria, and it's easiest to talk to Aria when we're in the operations room because of all the stuff we set up for her."

"And besides, we should at least give them some privacy. Especially after all that spying and teasing that you guys did to them." Kitora said.

Alright, maybe we deserved that. But still, how could I not be curious? Especially after Lucca mentioned that he didn't have a crush on her. And then promptly went out with her to get coffee the next day.

"Still, is it alright to leave them like that? Ken might get into a teasing mode again once we get back to the operations room." I said.

"Well, we should at least give Nasu-san a chance with Lucca, right? After all, she does like him."

"Alright, where are you two getting this from?"

"Call it a woman's intuition." Ayatsuji winked.

Woman are strange in how they seem to know things sometimes. "So should we expect things to get awkward from here on out?"

"Probably."

We actually saw Nasu-san on the way back to the operations room. And she looked really red. As in embarrassed red. Connecting the dots was somewhat tricky, seeing as we had no idea what happened there.

Lucca was just walking out of the operations room with a couple of trays and plates when we saw him.

"Oh, Arashiyama. I was just about to take these back to the cafeteria." Lucca said.

"Nevermind that. Why was Nasu's face red?" I asked.

"Her face? Oh, I'm actually not sure. Just before she left, she asked if I wanted to go watch a movie with her at her place tomorrow. I figured it wouldn't hurt so I said yes. Afterwards, she went red, said bye, and left the room. I'm not sure why she turned red." Lucca said, clearly confused as to her reaction.

The rest of us, on the other hand, were not. Especially given the conversation we had before we got here. As Lucca went to return the trays, we decided to ask Aria what happened, with Satori getting back just as we started asking.

Fortunately, Aria was in the mood to explain. It pretty much happened how Lucca described it. And before you ask, Lucca has no idea that Rei likes him. And I'm not about to tell him. If anything, he should figure it out himself, though he's not all that familiar with relationships. Neither am I, but it's not like I can date people when I'm an AI.

That's actually a horrifying thought if you think about it. She's pretty much doomed to stay in that trigger for as long as the trigger isn't destroyed. And there's nothing she can do about it.

By the way, someone needs to tell Rei to be careful with ordering or making coffee for Lucca. We've lucked out for the most part because Lucca prefers decaf, but if another incident like that happens…

We all shuddered as we remembered the one morning where we gave Lucca some coffee that was a slight bit stronger than normal.

Flashback

"Man, Lucca. You look exhausted." I commented.

Lucca shrugged. "I was up all night with those Japanese books. I finally finished and memorized them."

"Oh. That's great! Need some coffee? It'll help perk you up." Ayatsuji said.

"I'll take some, thanks." Lucca said, starting to sip on the cup of coffee.

When he was only halfway finished, he suddenly dropped the cup.

"Is something wrong, Lucca?" Tokieda asked, somewhat concerned.

"W-what was in t-that coffee?" Lucca asked, starting to stutter.

"Huh? We just put some extra caffeine in there. Figured you could use it. What's wrong?"

Lucca started muttering numbers to himself as he tried to figure out what was wrong. "I-I'm not sure, but f-for s-some r-r-reason, my vision is turning f-funny and one point five eight two meters from the floor to the tip of Arashiyama's index finger, four point nine seven nine centimeters from Ayatsuji's shoulder to the closest tip of hair, thirty one thousand two hundred and fifty three follicles of Satori's hair pointing off to the side, the distance from the tip of Kitora's left thumb to the sleeve of the jacket is point one four three millimeters shorter than the right thumb, the top right star on the emblem on Tokieda's jacket is point zero two three millimeters off, making it unsymmetrical. The chairs for the table are not perfectly aligned, the one Arashiyama is sitting on is three point seven four zero five centimeters farther away…"

What in the world did you do?! There are tons of numbers floating around Lucca's eyes! Aria practically screamed at us, the concern for her twin brother evident in her tone.

We could only stare as Lucca rattled off more and more numbers in a nonsensical manner. "Everyone's collars are slightly off center, with Satori's being off the most by two centimeters and one point three millimeters, the computer is half a centimeter off center, as well as two point seven degrees unaligned with the edge of the desk."

Someone knock him out. NOW. Aria said.

Kitora took immediate action, knocking out Lucca with a good conk on the head.

"What in the world was that?" I asked, shocked.

I'm not completely sure about this, but I think the caffeine in Lucca's system supercharged his side effect for a few moments. He's never gone to that many decimals before. At the same time, I think it overloaded his brain. Aria said.

"Let's hope the caffeine's taken its course when he wakes up. That was really scary…"

When Lucca woke up a few minutes later, he had no recollection of what happened. All of us agreed on one thing. Never let Lucca near caffeine again.

Flashback End

"Yeah, I don't think any of us want a repeat of that." I said.

"Maybe if we can control it, we can improve the performance that Lucca has in battle." Kitora looked thoughtful.

Not a chance. He'd get distracted by too much information coming in. Even Lucca's brain has its limits.

"So who's going to tell Nasu-san about it?" I asked.

Kitora sighed. "I'll go tell her right now."

I nodded. "Thanks, Kitora."

By the way, you guys want to hear a story about how Lucca was at one point engaged to a girl? Aria asked, apparently feeling somewhat mischievous.

"Give us the details." Satori said, a grin slowly growing on his face. "This sounds really good."

Well, if Aria is offering, who are we to complain?

POV Change: 3rd Person

"So pretty much avoid coffee with extra caffeine?"

"Just avoid caffeine altogether. Trust me. It'll make your date go a lot smoother."

"It's not a date."

"For the sake of convenience, let's just call it that."

"So no caffeine. What happens if he does take in caffeine?"

"Trust me, you don't want to know. I still find it scary."

POV Change: 1st Person, Lucca Dux

When I returned back to the operation room, everyone looked at me, as if expecting something.

"What?" I asked.

Satori was looking somewhat smug. "Oh nothing. Aria was just telling us a bit about this one time you apparently got engaged to a girl. Care to fill us in on the details?"

…Goddammit Aria. "Let's see… she was the daughter of the leader of Lingea, a tiny country without that many resources to go with. The engagement was apparently supposed to ally our two nations. It didn't really work out for Lingea. We ended up just forcing them to become subordinate to us because they were way weaker and we promised to help them if they ever got into trouble."

"And the girl?" Satori asked.

Man, is that all he wants to hear about?

"Haile Bakas—"

"Baka?" Satori asked, somewhat confused. Figures that he would confuse it with the Japanese word for idiot.

"Bakas." I corrected him. "Though believe it or not, she was actually kind of an idiot. Red hair, yellow eyes. She was pretty much used as a peace offering because she had no real influence in anything."

"But was she hot?"

"If you want, I can launch you through a portal to Lingea and see for yourself." I said drily.

Oh don't be like that, Lucca. She was at least decent-looking, if anything. Granted, she was an absolute jerk to me, so I didn't like her. Still though, credit where it's due.

"That's really all there is to it. She thought she was hot stuff because she was a leader's child. It really isn't that much of an achievement when your parent is the leader of a small country."

"I take it her attitude didn't go over well with either of you?" Kitora asked.

"When you're a member of a family that's as prestigious as ours, you tend not to be impressed by other people's pedigrees. I don't like our family, but that didn't stop them from producing the best soldiers that our military has ever known."

"And you still had to work for your food? Despite being in a prestigious family?" Tokieda was curious.

You're thinking of the nobility. If you're in the military, you have to work. It's how the Liberi military keeps it soldiers responsible. It doesn't matter if you're part of a noble family or you're the freaking leader of the entire nation. If you're in the military, you work for your pay. Plain and simple. Besides, the Dux family wasn't so much a noble family as much as it was a talented family.

"But enough about home. Is the information for this month's recruitment processed yet?" I asked.

Arashiyama nodded. "You'll be part of the guide for enlistment the day after tomorrow. You'll be with me and Kitora helping to facilitate the training room as well as using your side effect to assess the trainees for those that perform the best. Alright?"

I nodded. "Understood, captain."

"Well then, you can enjoy your date with your girlfriend tomorrow without any troubles."

"WE ARE NOT DATING!"

This last part feels somewhat choppy, but I'll roll with it.

The focus next chapter will probably be along the lines of

1. The (not) date

2. Enlistment day

Until then. I really hope my finals don't kill me.