"I am interested in a guy."

"...Eh?"

He made a complete stop at hearing those words from his cousin.

Hatohara Minoru had been minding his own business when his cousin walked into the room. They lived in separate homes, but she had come by to visit him and his sister while her parents were on a trip.

"What was that...?"

"I am interested in a guy."

"Like...romantically?"

His cousin blinked twice, placed a hand on her chest, looked to the side, then raised a brow at him. It was not a questioning look, but more a confirmation of his own question.

That's right, she wouldn't have any questions...

It was something that had always been a bit concerning when it came to her. Having a mind that could seemingly calculate everything, she had never once had a question about something. When they had been kids, his parents had worried about that part of her, but his aunt and uncle had only accepted it as a part of who she was.

After some time, he had also accepted this part of her, along with his sister. They knew there was nothing she could do about it, so they tried to help her feel as normal as possible.

But sometimes it's hard to reaffirm that when she can just figure out what we are trying to do.

His cousin had never said anything against their actions, only thanking them for trying, but sometimes he and his sister worried about how she really felt about the matter.

"It is fine, Minoru. I don't mind that this is how I am."

"Uh... Right, sorry for overthinking about this all."

"Not at all. I am thankful that you care so much."

This was just how things were.

He could only move the conversation along.

"So in what way are you interested in this guy?"

"It's because he made Fuji-nee actually question something."

Hearing the voice of his sister, Minoru and his cousin looked over to see her waving at them from the doorway. She walked over and stood next to their cousin. Without any hesitation, she wrapped her arm around their cousin's arm to hug it.

Their cousin looked down at her, and she only smiled before nuzzling the arm a bit.

After watching the series of actions, it finally hit Minoru what his sister had said.

"Wait, what!? Fuji-nee questioned something!?"

"More like I did not understand someone. Mirai, please be more precise with what you say. It could lead to confusion."

"Sorry, Fuji-nee. Do you forgive me?"

"There is nothing to forgive. Good girl, good girl."

It was nice to see his family act like this. Their cousin did like to spoil them at times, but his sister always accepted that and chose to be spoiled.

But...

There's still that thing Mi-chan just said!

"Even if it wasn't a question, for Fuji-nee to not understand something is a bit..."

"Yes, it is a bit strange," his cousin said with a nod.

"I was pretty surprised by it at first too. At first, I thought she was just going through the motions."

"What motions?"

"Those ones. You know, the motions."

"You always get like this whenever Fuji-nee spoils you."

"What else am I supposed to do?"

That was fair. Even he had moments like this whenever their cousin chose to spoil him. It would be even worse when their aunt and uncle were around, since they expressed their desires to spoil them without any sort of hesitation or regret. Even in public, they would go out of their way to hug them or give them kisses.

At times, it was a wonder which ones were their parents and which ones were their aunt and uncle.

Then again, our parents spoil Fuji-nee a bit too.

It was probably just something that ran in the family.

Now that I think about...I did spoil Taka a bit myself.

"Please, no dirty thoughts right now, Minoru."

"Ooooohhhhh!"

The thought itself had not made him embarrassed, but being caught like that felt like the worst.

Clearing his throat, Minoru tried to look away from his sister's understanding look and his cousin's knowing look.

"Right, so, uh... Who exactly was this guy anyway? This person who made Fuji-nee not understand something."

His sister nodded and moved to sit down while guiding their cousin to sit between the two of them.

"He is someone in the same grade as me, a few classes down. His name is Taiyōko Kiyoshi, and he looks a bit like a delinquent."

"There's more to him than that, isn't there?"

"That's right," his sister said. "I had met him recently. He really isn't a bad guy. Murakami had told us as much, but seeing it for myself really made a difference. There is a clear roughness about him, but he's just painfully honest and wants that honesty returned."

"Is that how it is?"

For the second time that day, Minoru had completely stalled.

The first had been due to confusion, but this time it was due to shock.

"Fuji-nee..."

"Oh, I did it again."

The way his cousin furrowed her brows made it clear that she had not asked that question on purpose. His sister's smile only further pushed that belief.

Out of every person he knew, his cousin was the only person he had faith in to understand everything around her. The confidence she showed in knowing just what to say and what to do in any given situation made it hard for him to think that any of them would be able to support her in any way.

This kind of faith came with the drawback of knowing that she was not good with emotions. Even so, he thought. For her to question something like this, what does it say about this guy they are talking about? Just what kind of person was he really?

His sister had spoken about his personality a bit just now, but there had to be more if their cousin was acting like this when he was the topic of discussion.

"He had spooked me when we first met and made me drop my Trigger. But he had gone out of his way to give it back to me. More than that, he hadn't shown any sort of hostility toward me, just annoyance that he had been interrupted while on the roof of the school."

"What were you doing up there?"

"Is that really a question for right now?"

"I guess not. But I'm still curious."

"I wanted to see if he was there."

Oh?

That meant she had gone to search for him before going on defense duty.

"I'm glad I went. He wasn't a bad person at all. But he did..."

"Did what? Did he do something to you?"

"No, no. Nothing at all."

"Clam down, Minoru."

Doing as his cousin said, he took a breath and calmed himself. Even if his sister had been saying good things about this guy, Minoru would not have just stood by if something did happen. That was just how he was.

Seeing that he was calmer, his sister nodded and directed a smile towards him.

"It isn't really my place to say. So I'll just let you know that something pretty bad must have happened to him."

"How so? Did he say something?"

She shook her head.

"Not while he was awake. I had found him while he was sleeping, and he had the most painful expression on his face. It hurt just looking at him..."

"Hm... Well, it isn't really anyone's place to pry with that sort of thing."

"That's why I left it at that. Our conversation was something unrelated to that."

Minoru looked over and noticed something about his sister. The smile she wore had turned bitter, and her eyes were looking at something else entirely.

There was more to this than what she was telling them. Maybe for their cousin's sake, or maybe for her own, she was keeping something to herself. He wanted to pry a bit into that, but now was not the time for that when they needed to get down to the mystery of this person who had their cousin so interested.

Even so, he made sure to put the thought in the back of his mind.

.

He really isn't a bad guy...

Mirai thought to herself with a bitter smile.

The conversation with that boy came to mind the more they spoke about him. The way he would make sure to talk badly about himself but not be self-deprecating was something new to her. Most people would do such a thing as a way to put themselves down or appear to not care about themselves. By speaking the way he did, it showed her that there was a way to speak the truth without giving up on yourself as a person.

Through that one conversation, she was able to understand him a bit more than most others seem to. That alone felt like an accomplishment when she thought about the way that boy had managed to handle himself in a fight and how he dealt with the rumors surrounding him.

Then there's the way he reacted after waking up.

She had purposefully left out the fact that he had tried to attack her upon waking up.

It was my fault for not being careful. And he really did look like he felt bad for doing that afterwards. No one who is bad could give that sort of pained expression while holding a pencil to someone's face.

That same day, she had gone with her squad to do defense duty. While out, she had spoken about that interaction to Inukai in an offhanded manner. Knowing that having her captain hear about it would have led to her brother finding out, she made sure that he was not around while speaking about it.

From that conversation, she had learned that rumors that he had beat up students from the private school were going around as well. But when she asked Inukai if he had seen the boy around, he had only shaken his head and mentioned how there was a bad-luck man who would have put a stop to that sort of thing right away.

It was kind of amazing to see how much faith he had in someone who was supposedly a bad luck charm.

"In any case," she said with a fixed smile. "Murakami did say he could introduce us to him if we wanted. Were you planning on accepting that invitation, Fuji-nee?"

"It did cross my mind for a moment. When I tried to figure out where that could lead, I ended up getting a bit lost and could not find a real outcome."

"You got lost... Do you want us to help you?"

"It is fine. Unlike the times before, my mind was too preoccupied with finding the end result. Nothing bad happened this time."

"If you say so..."

Mirai could understand her brother's worry. There had been too many times that their cousin's mind had sent her down a bad path.

Too many times, they had to stop her from trying to harm herself to satiate some curiosity. Then there were those times when they had to try to hold her back from using her full strength to resolve an issue, even when her mind had decided that would be the best way to go about things.

In a way, they had been the ones to protect her from her own mind. Unlike how she had helped them before, they had to bring her back down to what could be considered normal. The emotions they showed with her were their way of supporting her and trying to get her to understand them.

"You know..."

"..."

"I do think it would be a good thing for Fuji-nee to meet him." Wanting to ease any worries she or her brother had, she leaned against their cousin again. This time, she closed her eyes and let herself sink a bit into her cousin's side. "You can also be painfully honest a lot of the time, and you don't hold back when it comes to telling someone something. Even if he tries something, we know that you can handle yourself just fine. And maybe..."

Just maybe.

"You might even find out something new about yourself. If he has been able to get this much out of you, then think about what else could come from talking to him."

"That would just be like using him for my own purpose. Doing such a thing is rude to him as a person."

That was true. He would also see it like that and deny any sort of conversation with them.

But there was no doubt that he would be able to bring about something in their cousin.

So she tried again.

"Then how about...you try to get him to join Border?"

.

That was rather direct, thought Minoru while looking at his sister.

He understood her desire to have their cousin go speak with this guy. The odds of something coming from it were high, and he wanted to see if this guy could do anything for their cousin, but his sister had been putting a lot of effort into making this happen for some reason.

Now she had gone and said something like this.

"Having him join Border would be his own decision."

"But not one he would be against...maybe."

This time, their cousin looked to his sister. She was not questioning her, but she was waiting for her reasoning.

But what reason could she have to sound that confident in that matter?

She had only met him once, as far as they knew. To get that kind of understanding about someone, it took a lot longer than a single meeting.

Then he thought about everything they had spoken about thus far.

And...

"Oh..."

"Because of his family."

Their cousin had answered.

"Your reason for saying this is because his family is Taiyōko. If anything, that would make him want to have nothing to do with Border, but if you are saying that is the reason, then it is safe to believe that he is not on good terms with his family. If that is the case, he would want to go against them as much as possible."

Meaning...

"Joining Border would put him completely at odds with his family."

It was a known fact about the Taiyōko family that they stood against Border due to the way they handled things. More than that, they refused to accept the way Border only allowed their members to hold Triggers instead of handing them out to the public to better defend themselves against Neighbors.

Minoru had understood their feelings on the matter when he first heard about it, but he could not agree with them. That line of thinking would only bring troubles for the city and anyone not part of it.

It's like saying you should give everyone powerful weapons and expect them not to fight it out with each other to see who is stronger. More than that, it would lead to people thinking they are better than others and starting to wield that power over people who don't have Triggers. That would cause mass chaos in a lot of ways.

Doing such a thing would also lead to others getting bad ideas in their minds about how they could use their Triggers. Normal weapons were worthless against a trion body, so becoming an almost unstoppable criminal would be all too easy.

Then again...

That had been the story they had all heard.

No one really knew what the Taiyōko family was like due to their living situation being placed in an odd location. Most people stayed away from them, so they were not able to get the full story or their specific views on these sorts of things.

Minoru felt a bit bad for them after thinking it over for a moment.

They were soldiers who fought in wars for Japan and are being treated like this. For all we know, it could have even been an offhanded comment they made.

As a Border member for a few years now, he could say that he had never seen any real action against them from the Taiyōko family. There were rumors about things they may have done, but that family had not gone against Border in any sort of dangerous way.

If anything...they seem to be giving us praise a lot of the time whenever we are called out during conferences and the like.

It was such a strange situation that he never knew how to feel about them.

Knowing that a member of that family had gained the attention of his cousin made him start to wonder about them.

"You know...maybe we should all go speak with him. Mi-chan has already met him, but I'm sure you still have some things you're curious about, right?"

"That's true. I do want to ask him a few things. Especially after having met him myself."

"I see... Very well. While I am sure he would not like it if we asked to meet him, we at least have Murakami-kun to fall on for this."

Their cousin nodded and relaxed a bit between the two of them.

Seeing her now getting more comfortable, Minoru leaned to the side until he was also pressed against her.

"Mirai, could you please let Murakami-kun know about this? And I am sorry you two have to go through this just because of my lack of personal ability."

"Not at all, Fuji-nee! This is a good chance for us too."

"That's right," his sister said. "But there is one thing that worries me about all of this..."

.

Fuji furrowed her brows as she thought about what that thing could be. For Mirai to worry about it, it must have been something to really worry about.

The more she thought about it, the more she seemed to get lost in her own thoughts.

It was only when Mirai spoke up against that that she managed to claw her way back to reality.

"His classmates are some others we know. And considering how our group and our senpai can be at times..."

"Oh, that's true. Not to mention, if Haru-chan finds out about this, the ones from my school might also tag along for the ride."

"I could always put them in their place."

"That is true," agreed Minoru and Mirai.

The two of them shook their heads and settled back down on her two sides.

"I say we just let them be. Besides, most of them can handle this type of person anyway."

"I just worry that some of them might start antagonizing him. That would certainly start something."

"Maybe give Murakami a warning in advance?"

Instead of nodding, Mirai gave a thumbs up while pulling out her phone.

"Oh? Do you have Murakami's number?"

"No. I was planning on messaging him through Border's chat. I know it's still going through a process, but Suzaku is working hard with the Engineers to perfect it."

That was the reason Mirai felt worried.

The chat pertaining to Border was new, and someone in her age group was helping to manage it. While it would have been easy for her to help with any issues that came up, she had been told by many people that they could manage it just fine and that she could just not worry about it.

Along with that, while the chat was mostly a standard one, there were a few things that Suzaku and the Engineers were adding to make sure nothing could be taken from it. That way, important information could not be stolen from it by the general public, and anything stolen could be traced back to the source. So for now, it was acting as a normal chat between Border members.

Feeling her body finally start to relax some more, Fuji let out a sigh and lifted both arms.

Placing them around Minoru and Mirai, she spoke with closed eyes.

"For a lot of people's benefit, I do hope things go well."

"So this is where you were."

A voice rang out in the alleyway. A boy stood at the end of it with his hands in his pockets, his eyes fixated on a single place.

The middle of the alleyway.

All along the ground were bodies of people clearly beaten up. Blood was seen coming from their mouths, and bruises littered their faces and arms. Some of them had trashcans and lids thrown onto them without a care, while others were leaning against the wall.

In the middle of all of that were two people.

One of the people was a boy with black hair, waving at the boy standing at the end of the alleyway. His name was...

"Ryūji...you didn't get involved with this mess, did you?"

"Nope! Just like Kiyo-san instructed, I didn't get involved at all! I only watched from the sidelines!"

"I guess I should have been more specific with my demands then..."

The boy at the end of the alleyway gave a sigh as he started walking into the alleyway. His eyes never looked down at the fallen people, but he made sure not to step on them. Each step was followed by a hop or a sideways movement that made it clear he was purposefully choosing not to hurt any of the fallen people any more.

Once he reached the waving boy, he gave a chop to his head. Due to the slight height difference between the two, the boy had to slightly reach up to reach Ryūji's head.

"Next time, stop this idiot from fighting to begin with. If this keeps up, then I'll have more idiots coming to pick a fight with me. And Hiro has already been annoying me with complaints about it all."

"Yessir! I'll make sure to remember that next time!"

"You better."

The boy nodded before turning to the other person standing there.

He made sure to give his harshest glare before continuing.

"And you... What the fuck were you doing, Kazuaki?"

"What? I was teaching these idiots a lesson. When someone's talking shit about you, I've gotta make sure to get the point across that I'll deal with them."

"That's not what you're supposed to do, moron!"

The boy lifted his arm and brought it down hard with as much force as he could onto Kazuaki's head. The sound it created made Ryúji wince and turn away, glad to not have been hit by something like that.

For his part, Kazuaki only took the hit and kept his head down.

"My fights aren't your fights! And so what if they were saying shit about me!? That's for me to deal with, got it!? Next time, I'll make sure to let Yuba and Fujimaru know about this! Maybe getting smacked by them will do you some good!"

"..."

"Kiyo-san, maybe that's a bit..."

Kauzaki stopped Ryūji from continuing by holding up a hand.

The boy raised a brow and crossed his arms. Making sure to give Kazuaki enough time, he waited for any sort of response.

A few seconds later, he got it.

"I'm not going to just let it go like that. You already know I'm not just going to let them talk shit about you like that."

The boy gave a rough sigh as his brow twitched for a moment.

It was always like this.

"Look...we aren't part of some gang or anything. We just get mixed up with some idiots who think they're tough shit. There's no need to go around acting like I'm a boss or anything. You should be focusing more of that effort into Border, help your actual squad out, or something. That way, the city could be safe enough for everyone else to live in."

"Why don't you join Border, Kiyo-san? That way, you would be able to help with that sort of thing. And that way, we could join a squad with you."

"I've already told you why, Ryūji. Don't make me repeat myself for some stupid reason."

"Right! Sorry!"

The boy gave a second sigh and lifted his arm again.

Kazuaki and Ryūji expected another hit, so they flinched without meaning to.

Instead...

"Hah... Whatever. Thanks for sticking up for me, Kazuaki. If this happens again, call me up. I'll make sure to beat the shit out of whoever, so you don't have to get your hands dirty."

The boy placed his hand on Kazuaki's head and rubbed his hair.

He couldn't see it from his position, but Ryūji was able to see the happy expression Kazuaki gave from his position.

"Anyway," the boy said. "I wanted to tell you guys that I got a message from that jackass Murakami. Apparently he wants me to meet some people."

"Did he say who they were?"

The boy shook his head and clicked his tongue.

"The jackass didn't say shit. So I want you two to tag along, in case these people are annoying to deal with."

"In case we need to fight?"

"In case I want to start a fight. I'm counting on the two of you to stop me from punching someone in the face."

The boy gave another click of his tongue and glared at Kazuaki.

"This is what happens when he keeps following you. Hey Ryūji, don't follow this guy's example!"

"Yessir!"