"These are the results of the expedition."
"Good work. Especially for managing to come back safely."
A man with a serious expression and intimidating aura sat at the end of a long table that was open in the middle. A few others sat around the table, all looking in the same direction. The person at the end of the table was Commander-in-Chief Kido Masamune. Those sitting around the table were the directors in charge of Border. Along with them were two members of Border's #7 A-Rank Miwa Squad.
Commander Kido, as well as the directors and agents, looked forward to the four people standing at the other end of the table. They were part of Border's #1, #2 and #3 squads. The last one was the Operator belonging to an unranked squad.
The captain of the #1 A-Rank squad, as well as the #1 Attacker. Tachikawa Kei.
The captain of the #3 A-Rank squad, as well as the #2 Attacker. Kazama Soya.
Member of the #2 B-Rank squad, as well as the #1 Sniper. Tōma Isami.
Operator of the unranked A-Rank Hatohara Squad. Lukas Wagner
"Oh! Wonderful! Triggers from the Neighbor world!" Director Kinuta Motokichi said happily. "With this, Border's Trigger Engineering will progress even further!"
"Kinuta-san~, can't you make the expedition ship a bit bigger? I've long feet that make it feel like I'm being crushed."
"Nonsense! If it were any bigger than it is now, the amount of trion to make it fly wouldn't be enough!"
"Is that so?"
Commander Kido's expression didn't change in the slightest as he interrupted the meaningless argument. He allowed it since the squads had completed their mission, but he wanted to get straight to the issue on his mind.
"Now then, I'm sorry to drop this on you so quickly after your return but, I have a new mission for you all."
Lukas opened his mouth to say something, but he was unable to say anything as Commander Kido continued to speak.
"We've confirmed that there is currently a Black Trigger in Tamakoma Branch."
"A Black Trigger...!"
"Tamakoma?"
Commander Kido motioned for Miwa Squad to take their turn.
"Miwa Squad, explain."
"Yes. December 14th, A.M, due to the follow up of a tailing, we discovered a Neighbor. As a result of hostilities taking place, we then confirmed he activated a Black Trigger. The ability of said Black Trigger is to 'copy the opponents attacks and make it its own'. After that, Jin, a member of the Tamakoma Branch, intervened in the battle, and then called for a ceasefire to show he was an acquaintance of that Neighbor. It seems that with Jin-san's help, the Neighbor enlisted in Tamakoma Branch. These are the current circumstances."
"A Neighbor enlisted in Border!?" asked Tōma. "What's with that!?"
"If we're talking about Tamakoma, then it's highly probable from the get go," added in Kazama. "Their Engineers have been Neighbors. Our current problem is that this isn't your everyday Neighbor, he possesses a Black Trigger. With this there are now 2 Black Triggers in Tamakoma's faction, this'll make Border's internal power balance topple over."
"That's right. However, this cannot be allowed. That's why you'll have to secure the Black Trigger using any means necessary."
"Excuse me, sir."
Everyone's attention turned to Lukas. He had his hand raised a bit, but did not back down in the slightest.
"I am declining this mission for my team. With my captain being unavailable at the moment, I will take responsibility and reject in his stead."
"What!?"
The one who shouted was Director Kinuta.
Lukas could see Miwa giving him a glare from his seat.
He had heard about the promotion test that had been done the day before, but that seemed to do little for the boy's attitude.
"This is an important mission! We must take that Black Trigger from Tama-"
"It's fine," said Kido. "You are dismissed."
"Yes, sir."
Lukas turned around and quickly left the room. He could feel the glare from Miwa at his back.
Not wasting any time, Tachikawa turned back to Kido.
"What is the action pattern for the Black Trigger?"
Tachikawa finally spoke up for the first time in the conversation. Even while he had a serious expression he put his arms behind his head in a casual manner.
"Is there a confirmed time slot when he's alone or something? You don't really want us to face all the members of Tamakoma Branch, do you?"
Narasaka Tōru pulled out his phone and read what he had been sent by his underclassmen and fellow Sniper. The two remaining members of Miwa squad had been watching the Tamakoma branch office for some time now.
"Every morning around 7, it leaves Tamakoma, and gets back at 9 at night, making it 11 hours out. Yoneya and Kodera are currently surveilling it."
"That means we have a chance every day then. In that case, we should elaborate a reliable operation-..."
"No." Tachikawa got a more casual look as he continued.
"Let's act tonight."
The two from Miwa Squad, as well as Director Kinuta and Director Netsuki, all seemed rather surprised at this. While Kazama and Touma just looked a bit confused.
"Tachikawa, you'd better not make light of the opponent."
"Underestimating him? What do you mean, Miwa?" Tachikawa turned to face the Miwa Squad Captain. "Our opponent's Trigger is a 'studying' Trigger, right? Right now he's 'studying' with Border Triggers at Tamakoma. The more time passes, the more it becomes disadvantageous for us. Moreover, if this drags on, things will turn sour for Yoneya and Kodera, who are on lookout. We have to end it tonight. That's not to mention that Ketsu is out of Mikado City right now, right? That would cause a larger amount of problems if he came back when we went out."
Both Tōma and Kazama resigned to the facts and were fine with leaving as well.
"Are you alright with this, Commander Kido?"
"It's alright. I'll leave the commanding of the units to you, Tachikawa. Also, Bakuto Squad will be accompanying you all. They may be troublesome but they deserve their rank. Besides, the complaints from them are piling up. This will shut them up for a while."
"Oh? Alright."
Tachikawa seemed rather excited about the latter part of what was said while some of the other people in the room seemed rather skeptical about it.
Lukas let out a sigh as he opened the door to his squad's operating room.
"Welcome back, Lukas."
He gave a nod to the one who had spoken to him.
The older boy had black hair and a kind smile that pushed his freckles up a bit. Compared to the sour expression he knew he was wearing, the other body only showed kindness towards him.
"I'm back. I would have probably been back later, but Kido had started talking about something going on with the Tamakoma Branch. It was a mission, but I declined it for us since you don't look too well right now."
"It isn't much, really. But I do appreciate the thought."
The older boy looked to the ceiling with a hand on his chin.
"If it has to do with Tamakoma then things should be fine. They have a lot of capable people there. Besides that, they have a good amount of connections. If anything comes up, they should be fine."
"Exactly. What's more is that we need to focus more on what was sent to us."
"Right... A new member."
Lukas pushed up his glasses instead of nod his head.
They may have just returned from a mission, but they had been told of a new member that Director Netsuki had wanted to join their squad.
"At the moment, they are not even enlisted into Border. The upcoming enlistment day should change that, but we should still meet this person before we have them join. If you are fine with them joining, that is."
"It depends on how they are. I don't want them to mess with our squad's dynamics, but I will give them a chance no matter what."
"Right, that would only be fair."
"And speaking of things sent to us..."
Lukas raised an eyebrow at the light laugh the other boy gave him.
This did not sound good.
"Shinoda-san also sent us a mission request. And I...kind of accepted."
Silence filled the room.
It continued to stretch on as the two boys stared at each other, one behind a pair of glasses and the other with a small smile.
And finally...
"Hah. Yeah, that sounds like what you would do. Next time, at least wait to talk to me or Svantje before doing that. We want to make sure everything is fine with you before we leave things like missions for you to do."
"I know. Sorry about that. But it seemed important, so I really couldn't wait to answer?"
"What was it about?"
"Hm..." the other boy said. "He said that he would tell us in person. If we accept, that is."
"'We'? Who else is involved?"
"Arashiyama Squad and Loki."
Lukas' face went flat in an instant.
The other boy franticly waved his hands in front of him and said, "I know you don't like him too much, but he really isn't that bad! Besides, if even he is being called on then it has to be something important, right!? Right?"
"It's not like I don't like him... It's more that I don't trust him as far as I can throw him."
"Considering his body..."
"That is not the point."
"Right..."
Lukas fixed his glasses again while looking at the other boy.
At least he isn't that bad as a lot of other people. Compared to even most captains, he is the far better choice. But more than that...
He was someone important to Lukas. There was a strong connection that even extended out to his cousin.
It had been due to that that Lukas found himself as the Operator for the other boy.
Hatohara Squad Captain, Hatohara Minoru. He really is a good person.
That made it hard to be mad at the choices he made. Especially when they really did seem like they were important.
Lukas pulled off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. It was not the first time this happened and it would not be the last. He just knew it.
"Alright then, Minoru-nii-san. Let's get ready to go meet with Shinoda then."
It was after school and, since it was late, the sun set early. Students were pouring out of the school building for club activities, committee activities, or to have fun outside of school. The entire scene was dyed in the orange of sunset.
Misaki Suzumebachi was not a part of a club or committee and had nowhere else to go, so she was walking through the school's campus.
She held a large bag of burnable trash and another of non-burnable trash.
"Well, it's not like any of those other girls would even touch the bag."
There was a trash dump near the back gate for faculty. She had decided that since everyone else was too obsessed with keeping away from the smelly bag that she would just get rid of it for them all. Fortunately this was not a special class or anything, so she had no time limit.
As she made her way to the dumping area she saw someone already there.
The space was rather small for a place where things needed to be thrown away, so there were some impressive piles of garbage bags. The space was the size of a classroom, but the bags were piled up higher than a human being in some places. Someone could easily get buried if there was an earthquake.
Due to the drink packages and sweet bread wrappers from the school store, the entire place was surrounded by a sweet aroma.
The person she had seen was in the valley created between two mountains of trash. He wore his uniform and had plastic gloves on his hands.
It was a familiar face from both her own class as well as around the Border base.
"Oh. You are the one who's bringing the trash? Don't usually the guys try to show off by showing their 'muscles' and carrying the bag over with one arm?"
"Yeah, well, I'm honestly not a weak girl, so all those guys can honestly take their macho bravado and shove it."
Girikage Daigo nodded a bit at hearing this.
"So does that mean Satori-san is one of those guys who can 'shove it'?"
"His squad had to leave earlier to meet up with the rest of Arashiyama Squad for something. My squad has the day off, so I'm free all day."
"I see."
"By the way, were you honestly assigned to do this? Shouldn't the janitors be doing this?"
"Yes, well, they usually come later at night or around the morning before the students get here, so I figured I might as well help them out since I also have some time off right now."
Suzume gave a small hum as she placed the bag on the ground and checked around to make sure none of the other ones would end up falling on the poor boy.
"So what exactly are you doing? Is there honestly that much to do?"
"Kinda." He pointed here and there. "It is generally divided between a burnable pile and a non-burnable pile, but some people dump aluminum foil and other things in because separating it out is too much work."
"Oh..."
Suzume looked over at the trash bags, but she did not notice any real problems from what she could see through the translucent bags.
"Well, Mikado City's garbage processing facilities do a lot of recycling too. They of course compost the kitchen waste and recycle old paper, metal, and plastic, but they also do urban mining...that is, recycling the micro-sized rare earths inside electronic circuits. ...But I would still like to prevent anyone from throwing away a broken utility knife blade or a hairspray can."
"Ugh. People are honestly that careless?"
It was easy enough for the person throwing it away, but in some cases, it could blow off a finger of the garbage man who came to collect it. After all, to increase efficiency as much as possible, the trash bags were crushed with a powerful press inside the garbage truck.
"There are over five hundred people here. And it might help that it cannot be traced back to them like it can with household trash. It was suggested we write the class numbers on the bags, but for some reason there was a lot of opposition and it was denied..."
"But..."
Suzume followed Daigo's pointed instructions to casually toss her two bags into the appropriate piles.
"This space is one for the whole school, right? Shouldn't there be someone else honestly doing this then?"
"Well, like I said, the janitors usually do these things. But I'm just here helping them out."
The plastic gloved agent slowly exhaled.
"Even if I don't have to do it the danger will be overlooked if no one does it. And that means someone has to do it."
"..."
Suzume looked around the area now that she had finished her job.
It was the size of one classroom and the piles were taller than she was in places.
"Do you want some help?"
"It's fine. I am use to these kinds of things. Plus, I'll be done for the day once I check the ones you just brought."
He looked at the extraordinary piles of trash once more.
He had already checked through all that on his own?
"I did think about opening them all by hand at first, but I pretty quickly realized that would not work."
"Yeah, I would think so."
But he apparently did things differently now.
As for how...
"The really dangerous things like utility knife blades and spray cans are generally made of metal, right? So I ordered a cheap metal detector. That gives me a general idea of where they are just by bringing the device in close. I am just glad the faculty allows me to bring it."
"I see."
"Not that that actually separates it all perfectly. But as I said, Mikado City does some really good recycling, bordering on urban mining, so it's all about give and take. And if you give me an impressed look like that, I cannot help but agree with you."
"Oh, so you weren't using some kind of rare power that only psychics would honestly have or some specialized Trigger meant for detection..."
"Anyway, if you have no more business here, there's no reason for you to stick around. Do you have any club activities after this? Or are you working at your mother's flower shop?"
"I was just honestly heading on home."
"I see," was all the boy said.
For better or for worse, he did not seem interested. He was wasting his after school time on his most troublesome duty (that didn't even belong to him), but he apparently had no prejudice against people who simply went home.
"Then let's head on home."
"Huh? You don't have to meet your squad or something?"
"The only thing I will really see is either Captain-san sleeping while the other two are on electronics or Vice-Captain-san trying to mess with Captain-san by kissing him."
Suzume got sparkles in her eyes at hearing the latter part of what he had said.
Daigo just let out a small sigh as he removed his plastic gloves. That ceremony seemed to say his work for the day was complete.
With nothing to do, Suzume noticed something almost buried in the trash.
It was a rusted metal box about the size of two vaulting boxes side by side and it had a smokestack attached.
"There's still honestly an incinerator here in this day and age?"
"The bottom was apparently attached to the concrete ground, so removing it would have cost a lot of money."
There was a metal door on the top of the box, but it was locked shut with thick chains and a padlock. So was the small window on the bottom for letting ashes out.
"If no one's using it, why bother locking it up?"
"Who knows. Well, maybe... If the incinerator is left open, it seems students will sneak things into it at night and burn them. ...For example, an inappropriate magazine they worked up their courage to take to the register but were disappointed by and don't know what to do with. Or a life-size doll or body pillow cover they got carried away and ordered online late at night."
Suzume raised an eyebrow at this. She knew that there were boys in her class that would do something like that.
"You cannot do that. It ends up causing a bunch of smoke, so you can't do it secretly, and the sparks and smoke might even set off the school's fire alarm. You will end up in tears as you are charged with illegal entry and attempted arson. Even if you didn't mean it, if people catch sight of a realistic doll's burnt face or arm, it can cause a panic and get you charged for forcible obstruction of business too. You will only be left with some baffling official records of the incident."
"I promise you I didn't think it was a good idea. I was honestly thinking about the idiots in my class doing something stupid like that."
It seemed to be more out of habit than to make sure it was locked, but the dull-faced agent shook the padlock connected to the chains.
"No problem today either. Okay, let us get home."
"Sure."
Zzt~!
The two heard a small buzzing noise and looked over at Suzume's skirt pocket.
She put her hand in her pocket and pulled out her phone to see she had gotten a message from her captain.
Being a bit curiously Daigo leaned over to read what the message said.
White Fox: "I know it's our day off, but I really need your help with some Border stuff. You're free to decline though."
"...!"
"I really don't think this is worth getting starry-eyed over, Suzume-san. It is probably just some paperwork or something."
"Regardless, the fact Yuki-san is asking for help is something in of itself. He's usually stubborn when it comes to things like asking for help and has even made Mei-san keep away when he really needed help."
Daigo could not say he knew the A-Rank too well, so he did not know how much help he had rejected.
"Oh. Sorry, Dai-chan, I'm going to head over to see Yuki-san."
"It's fine."
With that the two went their separate ways.