Barriers (A World Trigger fanfiction)

You're Not Alone

Madness.

That’s what it was. That’s what you came for. You wanted a story with a little life in it, and here you go.

Kodrea sipped at tea, Usami was hunched before her computer, Midorikawa watched rank wars, Yuma was with Osamu, Tachikawa frowned down at his newly received bad grades. Jin puzzled over why his side effect was almost hazy, Kikuchihara and Kazama were at afternoon practice, and Konimi and Kyousuke lounged at Tamakoma. They were about to be subject to one hell of an adventure, but remember, stories start with the status quote, to emphasize the madness.

That is what you came here to read, correct?

Yousuke was playing a videogame in his apartment. It was normal for him too, he mindlessly tapped at the buttons in the bright afternoon sun that filtered through the window. It was a lazy afternoon, and he assumed that it would end the same was it had started. The same as ever. Izumi had been texting him about something that he really didn’t care about, so when his phone vibrated, he didn’t bother to grab it.

He was in the process of a long and tedious fetch quest for some elf lady, sipping at a soda can, his mind not really tied down to anything in particular, when his phone buzzed a second time.

Grumbling, he didn't assume anything of it, and was sure that if he picked it up he’d be telling Izumi to shut up and stop blowing up his phone once he saw what it was, but he looked anyways, on the small off chance it was somebody he was more keen on talking to.

1 New Message, Border HQ.

1 New Message, Miwa.

That, more than anything all day, caught Yosuke's attention. It was strange really, to get a message for either, and curiosity lead his finger to unlock his phone.

It wasn’t any kind of secret that Miwa didn’t like to talk to other people. Narasaka and Kodrea were shocked to learn that Miwa would occasionally drop him by little messages that didn’t concern business, because evidently he never did it for anybody else. Now, Yosuke had always respected Miwa when he talked to him, but after finding out that Miwa trusted him more than others, and let him in farther, he really began to cherish what he had been given, and from then on, he had put anything that Miwa ever said to him on a pedestal.

Yousuke, Are you there? I’m so sorry, could we maybe meet at my house, soon as you can?

That was it.

There was no context, no… nothing. That was all the message read, and Yosuke's mind suddenly was forced to stumble through the dark in search of an explanation. Was this as dire as it sounded?

Yosuke could only assume.

Yousuke knew his friend, and knew he would never tell him this without good reason, so it must be important, right?

Yosuke quickly opened the message from HQ, and now, it really didn’t take priority, but he was glad he looked at it, because he suddenly had the answers that he needed.

Attention all A-rank agents:

As you may or may not know, our engineers have been working on a long term project to create two triggers called “BARRIERS”

They, after 4 years, have succeeded in creating these triggers, which will act as a filter to gates. It acts like a forcefield, and prevents most neighbors from entering our realm. It is a time for celebration, and we will be selecting party members for another away mission at a meeting tomorrow at 12:00pm for the placement of these triggers. We expect your cooperation and understanding.

Yosuke’s heart turned to stone.

He was aware of the project. Barriers had been a hot topic amongst Operators and engineers around HQ For the past few weeks, saying that something big had just fit into place about it, and that it may be ready soon.