Before Border

Advances in Time

2 years later

Jin dedicated his life to helping border defend the city. There hadn't been a large scale invasion since his journey to Meedem, and only occasionally trion soldiers would make their way into the area guarded by Border.

Jin had lived with Rindo for the whole 2 years, training to do one thing. Get Fujin, the trigger Soichi had left behind. Jin missed Soichi every day, and all of his actions were put towards making Soichi proud.

All the triggers in border had been upgraded and reinvented by Jin and some of the team that already worked there. People were always confused and bewildered by Jin, entranced in his knack for everything to do with triggers and Border.

Jin was an A ranker now, and he had been for a while. He worked solo, but sometimes he worked with Arashiyama's squad. This year was the year that Jun, Arashiyama's brother would be entering Border. Arashiyama planned to quit this year so he could move to America to go to a special high school.

Jin made his way through the complex halls of Border that he had explored countless times when he didn't know what else to do. He arrived at the rookie testing area where he had blown everyone away 2 years ago. Instead of staying on the upper floor, he walked down to where all the rookies were, and suddenly the crowd hushed just a little bit, and Jin could hear whispers about him.

Jin just kept walking until he found Jun. Jun waved and smiled at Jin, who smiled back.

"Hey Jun!" Jin was excited to see his friend.

"I'm so excited! I finally get to join you in Border, but I'll have to work hard to catch up." Jun laughed. He wasn't like other rookies, in a sense that he knew how hard it was going to be to move up.

****

"Tsuji we're finally here!" Inukai looked around, bewildered by the massive building they stood in. New agents stood all around them, ready to fight a Bamester for the first time.

Tsuji just smiled at his playful friend, being the quieter of the two. He was also excited, but it was more of internal thing. Inukai knew that, though, and didn't mind being the hyper one. He always stuck by Tsuji through the years they had grown up, and in turn Tsuji always got him out of trouble.

"We're going to be the best agents. Also the hottest ones because our uniform will be suits!" Inukai giggled at the last part, and Tsuji's smile just got wider.

"I want a gunner trigger, it looks so cool!" Inukai continued on, but as soon as Tsuji looked a bit over Inukai's right shoulder, he noticed a very special shade of brown hair.

"And Tsuji maybe you could do the same thing! Or maybe you could have the cool blade fo-"

"Inukai, look behind you. Is that...him?" Tsuji asked in a quiet voice, surprising Inukai a little. Inukai turned around slowly, and sure enough, there the boy stood, talking to another one their age that had night black hair and piercing green eyes.

"Tsuji, it's him. He's here, right here. We-we should thank him." Inukai suggested, and Tsuji agreed.

Inukai's heart raced. He had always gotten a funny feeling he couldn't describe whenever he thought about the boy that saved them what felt like decades ago. Inukai and Tsuji owed their lives to this boy, and they didn't even know his name.

"Let's go." Tsuji spoke again, and Inukai nodded.

They both made their way over to where the two boys were talking.

"Yeah, you'll do just fine, it's in your blood Jun." The blue eyed savior smiled at his friend.

"Hi." Inukai said. Jin turned his head to address Inukai, thinking he may be another one of his admirers, because for the 10 minutes he had been talking to Jun, several groups of people had come to ask Jin questions, as well as get pictures with him. Jin didn't understand why he was so popular, maybe he'd been on TV and he didn't know.

But then Jin saw the olive green eyes he sought after for so long. Jin had always wondered where the two boys he saved had gone, and now he knew. They'd become Border agents. Jin would see them all the time, especially the dirty blonde one. The one he had a strange feeling about.

"It's you. You're the ones I saw 2 years ago." Jin breathed. He couldn't believe his eyes. He thought something bad may have happened to them because they ran off.

"Yeah. I-I'm Inukai, and this is Tsuji...thank you for saving our lives." Inukai spoke, looking in to Jin's eyes, his heart jumping out of his chest. He had the funny feeling he used to only get around Tsuji, but it was ten times stronger.

"I'm Jin. And I didn't do much, but...you're welcome." Jin spoke back, and Inukai and Tsuji bowed. Jun didn't understand what was going on, but he got called down to try to kill a Bamester anyways.

"Jin." Inukai tested out Jin's name.

"I'm sorry, but it's Jun's turn to fight a Bamester and I promised to watch...you can come though." Jin festered for them to follow him, and they did, though Inukai was confused as to why heads turned when Jin walked by.

"Wait a second." Inukai said once they were overlooking the combat room, and Jun was getting ready.

"Hm?" Jin turned and looked at Inukai quizzically.

"Are you that kid from two years ago that was younger than everyone else, but defeated the Bamester in less than a second?" Inukai asked, and Jin slowly nodded.

"Whoa." Tsuji added quietly.

"It's really not that big of a deal, I'm just a little different, I-" Jin was about to mention Soichi, but Jin couldn't say his name without choking. "knew someone in Border, he's the head of the Tomakoma branch."

"Oh. We're joining that branch!" Inukai said cheerfully, and Jin smiled wider than ever before. It had always just been Rindo and him, but now there could be more people than the woman that occasionally came by. Jin thought she had a son, but he wasn't sure how old he was. Rindo was never clear about who she was, but something told Jin it wasn't just a friend.

"I'm excited to see you guys there. We have a little HQ all to ourselves." Jin said, and suddenly the bell for Arashiyama to start rang.

They all watched as Arashiyama tactfully used the walls to bound around the Bamester to confuse it, then attempted to strike it's eye, missing the first time, then hitting flawlessly the second time.

"Finally time: 9.38 seconds. Current record in all time: 0.11 seconds. New record for this year only: 9.38 seconds." The announcer spoke, and Jun walked out proudly. He ran over to Jin, Tsuji, and Inukai.

"Great job!" Jin wrapped his arms around Jun, who hugged back.

"This is going to be so fun! Thanks for giving me pointers!" Jun told Jin once they stopped huggin. "Also, nice to meet you guys I guess, I'm Jun Arashiyama, but since my older brother still works here for a few months, you can call me Jun. Haha, Jun and Jin, the soon to be dynamic duo...once I catch up to him." Jun smiled.

"Nice to meet you too, I'm Inukai and this is Tsuji." Inukai introduced them and Tsuji gave a small wave.

They could all tell already how wonderful of a friendship this would be.