Barriers (A World Trigger fanfiction)

Roughing In The Details

Usami burst through the door in panic. Forget her love life, she needed to worry about her life. Period.

Why the hell were they there so early, anyways?

The thick lab door swung back on it's hinges and collided with the wall behind it with a crash.

"Usami, Calm down!" Kodera called from his place a few steps behind her, but she didn't hear him, and was already pounding on the doors that framed the hallway.

"We're early. We're landing! Hurry up! Get in gear!"

"Usami!" Kodera called after her again, but she didn't yield any response.

"Now!" She cried, and he could see the panic in her eyes behind her glasses from across the hall. He could still see the recurring glow that strengthened and weakened a soft read light, that he knew displayed the words:

LANDING PROCESS, UNDERWAY.

He finally caught up to her, and the doors opened up after them, confused agents stumbling out. Once they reached the other end of the hall in the main room, Kyosuke, Konami, Jin and Tachikawa were activating their triggers. Usami looked terrified as the other agents were on her heels, and started talking over one another, asking all the questions that nobody had the answer to.

Why didn't we have more of a warning?

By the time Kodera caught his breath, the ship jerked violently, like the start of an earthquake, and Usami stumbled into him. He caught her in his arms, trying not to think to much, before realising..

We've entered the atmosphere.

"Are you okay?" He asked her, letting her right herself up before letting go.

"Damn it! We need to hurry!" She yelped, which he interpreted as a yes. Everybody looked okay from the split second glance he had to see them, so that was reassuring. Usami was pulling him away, her hand in his.

"Looks like we're landing right now..." He muttered, still trying to internalize the situation, so he didn't rely on instinct, and could maybe think it through a little. He instead focused on Usami's hand. Warm in his palm, fingers quaking, before she stopped dead as the ship gave another grumble of turbulence.

She squeezed his hand, almost cowering.

Usami was also scared of space.

Well, not scared of space, but scared of all the things that could go wrong. Two very different things.

Moments later, she was clinging to his arm, and he was leading the way to the lab.

If he couldn't believe it before, this really wasn't helping.

He didn't dislike it, it just wasn't contributing to his attempts of grasping his level head and clear mind.

"You can do this, Kodera... Come on... Just a little farther..."

"It's okay..." he ended up saying, and the ship refused to stop shaking as they set foot through the heavy trion door. "I'm scared too, but do you think Kido and Rindo would've put us on this ship if it weren't as safe as it needed to be?"

Usami didn't respond, but Kodera was convinced his words lessened the tension in both of their shoulders. It was nice to hear somebody say something positive out loud. It made it a little better than simply thinking it. Other people help situations like this, plain and simple, just being there. He was frightened, but that wasn't going to stop him. Hopefully. It just might at this rate.

They got their way to the control panel, and Usami let got of his arm, and he only realised how tightly she had been clinging to him once she had let go. She didn't however, let go of his left hand, and she didn't mention it either. She must've needed his physical reassurance badly, because holding hands while trying to activate landing mechanisms on an elaborate and touchy control panel, making both people one handed wasn't a very good idea, and she had never been somebody to inconvenience productivity without good reason.She looked to be beyond help at this point, and Kodera was getting anxious to see how much she could contain.