The SSS stopped in front of Bellheim Apartment building. When Elie noticed the thoughtful look on Lloyd's face, she couldn't but ask. "What's wrong, Lloyd?"
"Ah, nothing. This is the apartment I grew up in back when I lived with my late older brother. I was thinking about visiting an old neighbor."
"Well, why don't you say so?" Randy patted Lloyd on the shoulder. "Let's go."
"Please don't push him, Randy. Lloyd might feel pressured," Tio sighed. "Lloyd, if you don't want to, let's just go."
She then whispered under her breath. "I know the feeling well."
"No, no. I'm not feeling pressured at all. I'm just thinking about what to say, especially considering... no, never mind."
The other member of the SSS realized that Lloyd was about to say something about him but caught himself. Despite feeling the chemistry growing within the group, they were still familiarizing themselves with each other's habits. If Lloyd didn't want to share it now, they understood that.
Randy grinned. "Well, just say a variation of long time no see! C'mon, it's not hard at all," he tried to ease Lloyd.
But before they continued, the door was opened, and a figure came out. The figure has pink hair and a slender body. She wore casual combat attire and had a wooden sword on her hips. The figure looked at the commotion that came from the SSS and blinked.
"Wait... Lloyd? Lloyd Bannings?"
"Oh?" Embarrassingly, it took Lloyd several seconds to remember the name of the pink-haired girl in front of him. "Juna, right? Juna Crawford."
"Oh, Aidios, it's really you!" Juna ran towards them and stopped in front of him. "Long time no see, Lloyd! What are you doing here? Last I heard, you moved to Calvard with your relatives."
"Ahaha, I'm here as a newly graduated detective. I'm assigned to a new team in the Crossbell Police Department. The Special Support Section, or the SSS."
Juna blinked. "Wait. Not the Bracer Guild? Hmm..." Juna tapped her chin before she shrugged. "Oh well. Anyway, following Guy's footsteps, huh?"
Lloyd let out a small chuckle. "Well... somewhat. You know how I idolized him growing up."
Juna nodded. "Yes. He was an amazing role model..."
"Speaking of, I see a wooden sword on your hips. You're practicing martial arts?"
Juna gave a small smile. "Somewhat. I managed to bother Arios to tutor me a few months ago. I'm learning swordsmanship from him."
"That Arios MacLaine?" Elie suddenly said. "Ah, sorry. I'm Elie, Lloyd's colleague in the SSS. It's nice to meet you, Miss Crawford."
"Oh, nice to meet you too. Just call me Juna. Everyone does. And yes, the Divine Blade of Wind himself. You don't know how hard it is to convince him to tutor me," Juna shook her head as if remembering some memories.
"I can't imagine... oh, by the way, I'm Randy Orlando. 'sup," Randy gave a casual salute.
"'sup, Randy," Juna replied in kind.
The red-haired man grinned. "Oh, I like your spirits, Junie."
"I'm Tio Plato," the last of them introduced herself.
"What?" Juna blinked before turning to Lloyd. "Lloyd. You sure she's a police officer?"
"Ahaha... Tio is a genius in Orbal Technology and is lent to us by the Epstein Foundation." Lloyd explained, knowing precisely what she felt the first time he met Tio. "Speaking of, I remember you're also proficient with Orbal Tech yourself, little miss 'genius.'"
He remembered that Juna, despite being three years younger than him, was in the same class of Sunday School as him, with some Sisters praising her intellect.
"Oh, come on, Lloyd. Anyone could easily solve some Sunday School problems easily. Doing that doesn't warrant the 'genius' title the Sisters tried to push to me," Juna playfully deflected the praise coming to her.
And indeed. Juna never grew a big head from the praises. She was still the same cheerful girl that Lloyd knew growing up, at least before he moved away to Calvard. The fact that she still denied being called a genius meant that even now, Juna never let it get to her.
"And I was proficient, but that's because I read the manual. You can't believe how many people in the apartment don't read them and need my help." Juna then opened her mouth, realizing something. "Oh, you want to visit Auntie Leyte, right? She's there, I think. Uncle Miles is working in the Library, and so does Cecile in St. Ursula Hospital. I think she'd love it if you visit her."
"I see... thank you, Juna. If you have any problems, you can send a request to the SSS. We'll try to solve them," Lloyd thanked her and promoted the SSS at the same time.
Juna nodded. "Okay. ...wait. 'send a request' and 'solve problems'... that's basically a Bracer's job, isn't it? Are you... no way. Are the police trying to grab the Guild's market share in solving civilian problems? Hmmm... market share might not be correct. Considering how they're viewed in Crossbell... is it a PR move?"
Lloyd blinked. "That's right. Your deduction is good."
"You have quite a sharp mind, Juna. What do you think about joining the CPD?" Elie, too, was surprised that the pink-haired civilian managed to guess the reason for the formation of the Special Support Section just from Lloyd's promotional sentence.
"Oh. I was aiming to join the Bracer Guild, actually. You need to be sixteen years old to join as a Junior Bracer, and that's next year for me," Juna revealed with a sorry smile. "So I'm doing my best with my training in the meantime."
"I see... Good luck, Juna. Do your best."
"Thank you, Lloyd, everyone. See you!"
As Juna ran towards Central Square, probably going to East Street from there, the SSS watched her back.
"So I guess the label 'genius' is correct, then?" Randy started.
"I guess so," Elie nodded. "To think she can deduce that just from your words, Lloyd... The CPD is too late to notice her talent. A shame."
"Just one more thing against our 'rival.'" Tio sighed.
"Now, let's go inside. I think I'm ready to visit Auntie Leyte now."
A/N: Long time no see. As you can see, I'm basically busy writing this for the last five months. For context, this is actually an omake series born from Randomguy's story titled "If I had to be isekaid to a JRPG with harem, can't I be the harem protag instead of a harem member?" in Spacebattles. It's a Trails/Kiseki fic about a sort-of self-insert into Jessica Schleiden in the Cold Steel arc. You guys need to read it. It's amazing! As of this day it has 680k words of main story, 120k words of side story, and 670k words of non-canon omake. The premise is simple, a guy is inserted by an ROB into a JRPG game, but with a catch: the guy had never played the game he's inserted into. Shenanigans ensues when Guy-in-Jessica's-Body (affectionally called JesSIca by the readers. He has a name but it's spoiler-y stuff) thought she's a harem member because, hello, attractive female bodies? When in truth, Jessica's just an uninvolved side character in the real game. The layer of irony is strong in this one! I won't say anything else about the original fic because honestly? It's better enjoyed blindly. Yes, even if you have never dabbled in Trails series fandom, you can enjoy it. Actually, lots of people in the thread said that their first exposure to Trails was the original fic, JesSIca, and then played the game after following the fic.
Now, this omake is born because Randomguy wrote an omake about the guy inserted into the story as Anelace (affectionally called AnelaSI), instead of Jessica. So the thread came up with lots of what ifs scenario where the guy is inserted as other side characters. From Elise (EliSI), Alisa (AliSI), Shirley (SIrley), Towa (TowaSI), Alfin (AlfSIn), Lavian, Sara (SaraSI), Female!Crow, and even Rosine (RoSIne) and Linde! (LindeSI). There was talk about the guy inserted to Juna, but I tried to go over several characters before ended up with Juna as the best option. And besides, I always wanted more 'Juna in Crossbell' fic anyway. The only notable one I read is Eine Kleine, and I dropped it when it forced the MussexRean pairing. So here we are where the guy inserted into Juna, or as I (and everyone) love to call her, JunaSI. Bad name, I know. But it's the one catching traction. By the way, the official full title of the fic is now Trails of a Junior Bracer in Crossbell. I have to thank Writer of 2814 for the first idea, and then Feng Lengshun for suggesting Junior instead of Juna-ior (heh).
I actually do recommend you to read the original fic before continuing this, mostly because you'll understand the characterization of the SI better by reading the original fic by Randomguy first. All the other side character insert omake is written in first perspective from the SI, but this one isn't. This fic is deliberately written from everyone but JunaSI's perspective (though I'll delve into her mind in the future). So you'll see some gaps that you might not understand in JunaSI's thought process if you read this first instead of JesSIca. I'll post the JunaSI omake chapters daily here with the hopes that more people will read the main story.