Barriers (A World Trigger fanfiction)

(UN)Reliable (IN)Sanity

Empty.

Blank.

It was a lack of contents, a lack of everything. A lack of reasoning, a lack of explanation, a lack of warning. He was doing nothing out of the ordinary when suddenly, it was all gone. He knew it was wrong, and he knew that nothing good would come out of this, but sudden jars of reality like this were reserved for children's stories, and the real world would always be run on a set track of rules. Something so peculiar and influential just... disappearing, it didn't just happen.

So what the hell was it?

He avoided pursuing the answer. He didn't even acknowledge that anything was wrong until too late, and by that point, he just threw his hands up willingly, hoping that maybe a blank slate for the future would be just as refreshing as he'd always dreamed. Jin felt lost and wondered why he felt his brain was on hyperdrive, yet, so empty at the same time. He followed the two boys down the sidewalk to the base. once again, without realizing it, being troubled by the possibilities that weren't actually there.

_______________________

"What is it like to have a future seeing side effect anyway?"

The corridors of headquarters were otherwise empty as the two of them walked side by side, but the presence of hundreds of other agents filled the area, making sure that it didn't feel alone.

"What was it like?"

That was a question that, to say the least, had a few too many answers. Jin took a moment or three to wonder how he should respond. All futures held different outcomes, risks, situations, benefits, losses, sensations, and experiences. Jin often wondered how he could handle it all, the futures of thousands of people. It wasn't common, and Jin occasionally took the time to be concerned at his mental state, and how unknown it was, but figured that worrying about it was a waste of time. One of the most honest possible answers was "stressful." It was devastating at times to walk through the bustling halls of Border, only to see futures of hard truths, failure and pain. It also put a lot of pressure on him, to see everything. To stop everything. They didn't seem to understand that not everything is avoidable. Bit everyone expected that he know and do it all, by himself. If it happens in his head, nobody can really help.

"Uh, Jin? You still there?" Tachikawa teased, with a layer of suspicion. Jin started a little, an odd occurrence for somebody like him. "Hey, Jin, you alright?" Tachikawa raised an eyebrow. Oh, one little jump and suddenly something is wrong! he thought darkly, but in all honesty, he was frustrated immediately by how well Tachikawa knew him. A moment's hesitation and Tachikawa could figure something was wrong. "Yeah, I'm fine," he said, smiling to cover up. "Why the sudden interest?" Tachikawa grinned awkwardly. "I've always been curious, I guess I just never got around to asking." Jin stopped for a moment to think, of the many answers he could give, 'Stressed' wasn't the correct one here...

Ignorant bastard.

He cursed mentally. "Well, It's very unique." He piped, his forced smile always didn't fit right with Tachikawa around. "And fascinating..." As he spoke, Jin decided that maybe it was time to try to force his future.

Ever since his mind had been wiped of foresight, Jin hadn't chased the future. Maybe something bad would happen, and Jin didn't want to tell anybody about something that nobody really understood, and he didn't want to force it to do anything it didn't want to. Suddenly having fate invisible was disorienting, and Jin didn't know whether or not he wanted it back, or winter of not he should do something. He had been trying to ignore it because this was such a big change, he didn't want to panic just yet. But for Tachikawa, and because his old friend was practically prompting him to try so, he began flipping through the 627 most probable futures of this conversation, looking for the best outcome. Or rather, the shortest. In his hunt, futures 20, 106, 215, 460 and 592 stood out for his needs.