Chapter 3: The Berserker Gunner.

"So, I know I talked big about how I wanted you to help me reach the top of Border, but if I want to do that then I'll probably need more than just you in the unit." Ryouichi nodded in response to her question. The two of them were undergoing discussion in Kokoro's room at her apartment that she was renting for cheap. While Ryouichi was initially filled with apprehensions about entering someone else's room, much less a room belonging to someone of the opposite gender. Kokoro just pushed him inside before he had a chance to raise any nervous objections. The room was quite normal. Other than a few extra accessories like a bookshelf, a keyboard and some plush toys on her bed. The room was rather featureless, from the clear white walls to the ordinary bed frame and futon as well as the small table that the two were seated around.

"Well…how should we go about looking for members?" Ryouichi proposed, wondering where Kokoro was going to go with this meeting. The two of them had just formed a unit together. A rather lacklustre process despite the importance of it. They filled out a form, decided on the small details before handing it into administration and getting it approved. The only thing of note was how the captain was chosen, with Kokoro being appointed as the captain of the Unit. While she was a little shocked and honoured that Ryouichi would let her be the leader, whereas Ryouichi was just glad that he didn't have to lead anyone.

"Well. Why don't we just start with the tried and true method of making friends in border." Ryouichi becomes confused and intrigued. "You go to the B-rank solo battle room and fight some random agents." And his intrigue immediately turns into disappointment.

"Um…Not trying to be rude. But are you sure that's the best idea? Wouldn't it be better for you to… well, go out and find someone? If we do the ranked battle thing, it would be me talking to them, and I'm not very good at socialising."

"What do you mean? It has to be you who meets them first. I told you already, I wanted to help you make a unit where you feel like you belong. So, you need to be the one to see them first." Kokoro shoots a smile at Ryouichi and he looks away embarrassed. "And don't worry about messing up, I'll be here to back you up if you need it. Just be yourself and do the best you can." Ryouichi nodded, now more confident with the task.

The first few matches were a failure when it came to finding a new teammate. He fought a whole bunch of different types of agents, fighting at least one from each of the positions. Most of the time, they were quite easy to beat, attackers were the one that were the easiest for Ryouichi. He rushed up to them with thruster before taking them down with the Kogetsu + Gen'you combo or outclassed them with his superior offensive skill. Snipers were the hardest for him, requiring him to go hunting them down with a bagworm on and a raygust out for defence, luckily those fights were only 1 or 3 rounds battle. Though that wasn't to say that he defeated everyone he challenged as there were many that were able to give him a challenge or beat him, from a girl dressed in purple and black that used both scorpions and handguns. To a girl with ash blond hair who outplayed him with tricky viper patterns. Unfortunately, all the good agents were already in units of their very own and appeared to be unwilling to leave them.

The two were beginning to lose hope in this method. While it did get them to meet and learn about some of the skilful and powerful agents in B-rank. It didn't seem to help them in find any new potential teammates, all the good B-ranks that they've found were already taken. They both decided that Ryouichi would go for one or two more matches before it's back to the drawing board. Ryouichi scrolls down the list of agents before taping on a random one. Their main trigger appears to be a shotgun with a point total of 5479. As he tapped on the icon to challenge them to a fight, a best of three, the request was accepted almost immediately. A moment later, Ryouichi was on the familiar battlefield of Cityscape A in his Trion body. Just a few metres in front of him, another person was teleported into the battle. She was a girl with short brown hair, with dark red streaks running through it, her eyes were of a dark green. She was dressed in a black tank top with a green jacket tied around her waist and green pants.

"Um…Hello. My name is Tadayou Ryouichi. Let's have a fair battle." Ryouichi pulls out his raygust and Kogetsu, remembering that the girl's main trigger was a shotgun. The girl gives a fierce grin in response as she pulls out 2 shotguns in both arms.

"Sure sure! I'm always down for a thrilling battle. The name's Okazaki Naoko." She quickly took aim at him with her two shotguns. Taking that as a sign to start, Ryouichi changes the Raygust to shield mode before rushing towards with thruster. But his charge is interrupted when she shot the Shotgun in her right arm, a barrage of bullets quickly turned into a large wall of explosions. Creating a small crater as well as a large wall of smoke. Quickly disengaging the thruster, he landed on the ground again, skidding forward with the raygust shield open forward as another blast of asteroid bullets burst from the cloud of smoke. With most of them impacting the sturdy raygust shield, one managed to follow a trajectory under Ryouichi's defence and graze his exposed leg. While it wasn't a direct hit, the leaking trion marks the first blood drawn. Ignoring the small wound, he engaged the thruster again to burst forward again, though this time slight upwards, thrusting him diagonally upwards.

Ryouichi bursts through the cloud of smoke and sees that Naoko is now holding a Raygust in shield mode in her left hand. As he rushes up to her, the girl unloads another round of asteroid bullets at him with her shotgun while slowly backing away. A full guard from his raygust shield and the usage of his regular shield to help cover it stopped him from taking a second hit. Ryouichi manages to catch up to her before she can shoot another round and transforms the Raygust back to sword mode. As he descends towards her and does a horizontal slash to the left. Instead of the blade bouncing off Naoko's raygust shield, the sword instead morphs. It curves around the sides of the shield and hooks onto it, before Ryouichi continues pulling it to the left. Unprepared for this move, Naoko is unable to react properly and her shield is pulled along with the blade, exposing herself.

Wasting no time, Ryouichi quickly slashes at her with the Kogetsu. But before the blade can connect, Naoko pulls her shield out of the grasp of his Raygust. She then uses the thruster to launch herself backwards quickly. Though at first it seems she wasn't cut by the Kogetsu, a large cut is on her right arm, and leaking trion. Despite that though, she still had a large grin on her face. As Ryouichi attempts to follow her, she switches her raygust into a shotgun and shoots both at the same time. This creates a large barrage of asteroid bullets, forcing Ryouichi to change his raygust back into a shield to defen d against it properly. As he patiently waits for the lull in her offence so he can take the initative, a large explosion suddenly occurs right behind him. The shockwave of the explosion knocks him forward, and Naoko quickly took the opportunity to shoot one more round of asteroid bullets while he is exposed. He is unable to defend against it in his current conditions and the bullets pierces his trion body. Causing him to bail out and lose the first match.

Meanwhile, Kokoro was watching his battle outside in the lobby. With the benefit of being a spectator, she saw how Naoko was able to pull off that final attack. During the distraction caused by the first barrage of meteora bullets. She had pulled out a grenade launcher and shot it upwards. The grenade has rose upwards before arcing back downwards during gravity, Naoko had lured him to that spot. It was likely that she was prepared to defend against him with the raygust shield briefly and then run away when the grenade was about to hit the ground. But Ryouichi had pried open her defences quickly, causing her to retreat prematurely. So, she used the barrage of Asteroid bullets from the double shotguns to stall him until the grenade drops down and detonates.

Unfortunately for Ryouichi, he has no clue what had happened to him in the end of that battle. One moment, he had the edge by taking the first successful attack. And the next, he was hit by a large explosion and then filled with bullets. Thinking through the battle, he tries to find clues about how it could've occurred but is struck with nothing. And soon, this moment of thinking was soon interrupted by the voice of his opponent.

"Thinking about what happened? Can't blame you for that, the whole thing all went by pretttttyyyy fast. And it is a pretty neat trick behind it. But I have to remind you that the clock is ticking. Well, my clock really since I can get bored quickly, and this battle just seems way too fun to abandon. So, get back into the ring already, then do all your emo inner reflection junk after everything's all done." As Naoko's voice rings through the room, Ryouichi gives a light sigh, while she could've been more polite about it, she was right. It would be rude for him to hold up the battle. He pulls himself off the bed, his mind racing as he thinks about how to approach the next match.

Once again, he enters Cityscape A in his Trion body. This time, Naoko was already holding two shotguns, her posture lazy as she let the two weapons rest on her shoulder and leg. Upon noticing him, her lazy posture becomes tense and a large grin appears on her face again.

"Finallyyyy. I thought you were going to sit there and mope forever. Bring out your triggers already and let's get started." Ryouichi pulls out the familiar trigger set of a Raygust Shield and a Kogetsu, his guard ready for a blast from her multiple shot guns. Upon seeing him manifest the triggers in his hand, Naoko took the opportunity to aim her right shotgun at him before shooting. Once again, this creates a large wall of explosion before round of asteroid bullets come rushing through the smoke. Ryouichi was prepared and took the attacks with his Raygust, he steps a bit backward to stay out of her range before activating the thruster on his Raygust. Instead of using it to fly forward, he directs it so that it swings his arm at a fast speed, blowing away the screen of smoke. This unveiled the secret behind the trick, as he caught Naoko red handed holding a large grenade launcher. First adopting a sheepish look, it quickly turned into a large grin before she shoots a large barrage of meteora grenades into the air. He quickly scanned the incoming bullets before making a quick decision, twisting his raygust, he activates his thruster to launch him sideways inside of a house, a salvo of asteroid bullets streaking past his previous position. Knowing that the house will likely be blown down by Naoko and her variety of meteora bullets. He started quickly thinking of a plan.

Naoko couldn't resist a grin as she prepared another volley of meteora bullets from her trusty grenade launcher. Angling her grenade launcher, she pulled the trigger and shot out multiple meteora grenades. BOOM! The explosion tore through the house, leaving a cloud of rubble and smoke, as she narrowed her eyes to peer through the smoke. She switches her sub trigger to Raygust, just in case you know, with a grin dancing on her lips as she scans the cloud of smoke. After a minute, just as she was about to start shooting some asteroid rounds, something strange came quickly zooming out of the smoke cloud, some kind of weird black rectangle being pulled along by…a Raygust! She quickly pulls up her raygust shield out of reflex, before it suddenly becomes destroyed by the projectile raygust, and the rectangle joins it, wrapping around her. And as she struggled to pull the object off her, a kogetsu sword pierced through the carpet, slicing through her chest and cutting off her trion supply. As the automated warning rang through her ear and she bailed out, she wondered in confusion about what happened at the end.

Kokoro pumped her fist in joy, happy to see her partner's plan work out. Ryouichi's plan was simple but inspired, quickly taking stock of the materials around him, He pulled down a curtain black curtain before shielding himself from the onslaught of meteora grenades. He then hooked the curtain to his raygust before throwing at Naoko with the thruster active. The raygust dragged along the black curtain, breaking through Naoko's own raygust shield and pulling the curtain around her. He then took advantage of the opportunity that he created to quickly take down Naoko before she could recover. She inwardly patted herself on the back in pride for choosing to recruit Ryouichi into her unit…Well, future unit, her point still stands.

Meanwhile, waiting in the arena for Naoko to re-enter, Ryouichi let out a sigh of relief. Truth be told, he wasn't even sure a gambit like that would work, but he felt that he needed to quickly take back the initiative before Naoko can pressure him into midrange again. As he thought over the brash demolitionist, her voice rang through the intercoms again.

"Hey! That was a sick trick you did there! How did you do it?" The girl's voice eager as can be.

"Well, you se-" Ryouichi began to explain before he was cut off again.

"Actually. Don't tell me. It'll be more interesting if I don't know. I knew you would be a fun one to fight. Let's make this last round a fun one." Naoko quickly interjected, cutting off Ryouichi. Before Ryouichi can react, her trion body rematerializes back in the cityscape again, still with the same grin on her face. "Now let's get this started."

As Ryouichi shifted the grip of his kogetsu, before quickly pulling out his handgun in his sub trigger before laying some asteroid shots towards Naoko as he ran for cover. She dodged a few shots though she had to rely on her shields for the rest as she switched her sub to her asteroid shotgun. Luckily for Ryouichi, a quick switch to raygust and a boost of the thruster was all that was needed for him to get behind adequate cover before the asteroid bullets hit him.

He quickly realised that being stuck in a narrow alleyway when his opponent was wielding dual shotguns was likely not a wise decision for his chances of winning. Pulling out his kogetsu, he makes 4 quick slashes against the right wall before kicking down the square he cut and diving through the newly made hole. Just in time too if the asteroid bullets whizzing through the alleyway just were any indication. Glancing at the area he just broke into, a basic living room with furniture, couches and a tv, he leaps over the large sofa before kicking it at the hole, blocking the bottom half of it off, an early precaution to hinder his opponent's entrance. He then ran for the tv, pulling as the chord. Just in time for Naoko to jump into the room. Quickly switching to Raygust shield before throwing the tv at Naoko. The shotgun blast impacts his shield but the thrown tv manages to smash into Naoko and throw her off balance. He quickly follows this up with the thruster, smashing into her and trapping her against the wall. Naoko herself quickly switches to raygust to form a shield between her and his Raygust. But Ryouichi takes the peculiar decision to stab his kogetsu into the ground.

Naoko spins her asteroid shotgun around to shoot behind her into the wall. A round at such close range destabilised the wall and a slam of her trion body was enough for her to crash outside. But as she lands on the ground, she notices the distinct black smoke, indicating a trion cut. Taking a quick check of her body, she spies a long cut running through her left leg. A glance at her previous position immediately identified the cause. A long blade emerging out of the ground she was just standing out, and once Ryouichi pulled out the Kogetsu he had stuck into the ground, the blade disappeared underneath the ground.

Her grin grew further despite the injury, a quick activation of her thruster pulled her backwards as she switched to a meteora shotgun to shoot a salvo of the explosive rounds, covering her escape and buying her the time she needs to quickly pull herself up and change to her asteroid shotgun. A close call too, as some asteroid bullets shoot out of the smoke, impacting with her previous position. Ryouichi quickly rushes out of the smoke cloud using his thruster, taking a sideways slash with the kogetsu, she quickly turns the raygust shield to him and Ryouichi uses his shield hooking technique again with his kogetsu. This time she was prepared though, already having her shotgun aimed at him and her finger already pulling the trigger.

Instead of using his raygust shield to defend though, he does something even more unconventional, using the morphing of his raygust shield to morph it around the muzzle of the shotgun. The impact of the bullets were strong, but condensed raygust shield withstood the shot. Out of instinct, she quickly tries to pull the shotgun hard to escape the raygust grip, but the raygust quickly disappears, causing her to pull with too much force and trip backwards. Taking advantage of her mistake, he quickly pulls throws his open palm forward, impacting with her chest before scorpion blade appears outwards, cutting through the supply system.

For the second time in a row, the automated voice warned her off her trion bodies condition before she disappeared in a pillar of light. As she laid on the bed, she flailed her body in frustration while yelling incomprehensibly. Stupid attackers and their quick take downs, she was so sure she had him that round. After a tiny temper tantrum, she pulls herself off the bed to check her points. Well, at least it didn't fall too much in point rankings. As she walks outside back to the waiting area, a bashful Ryouichi was getting a pat on the back by a jubilant Kokoro. She couldn't help but grin watching the two. Walking up to behind Ryouichi, she joined Kokoro in the patting Ryouichi's back.

"Nice one, you made up for your lack of firepower with ingenuity, that was a fun battle there. Even if I lost."

"Uh…Sorry. I get really…uh…focussed when I fight." Ryouichi said apologetically, leading to Naoko flicking him on the forehead.

"Don't be. I just said that was a fun fight. I hope to have one again someday, yaknow?" Naoko said cheerfully, before walking away. Ryouichi glances at Kokoro before talking.

"Uh, I think she'd be good…As a teammate" Kokoro raised an eyebrow as she thought back on the battle before nodding herself.

"Yeah. I think so too." She runs up to Naoko to catch up to her before clapping her on the shoulder. Naoko turns around with confusion plainly evident on her face.

"Eh? Whatcha want now?"

"Well. You see, me and Ryouichi. We want to form a unit, but we don't know anyone else who can join." Naoko broke into a smile, quickly catching on.

"Heyyyy, and you're thinking about me? Little old me, joining your unit." A nod from Kokoro was her only answer. "Well, I think that might be pretty fun. But are you sure about this, I admit, I might just be a bit of a loose cannon."

"Don't worry about it, I'll make it work. As captain and operator of this unit." Kokoro said confidently, leading Naoko to give an even bigger grin.

"Captain eh. Well, I was never one for all that commanding and planning stuff. And that Ryouichi guy doesn't really seem like the kind of person to do so either. Too much of a doormat really." Naoko reached her hand out, open. "I look forward to working with you, little miss…."

"Kokoro. Mokuteki Kokoro. And I'll be happy to have you on the team." Kokoro said, grasping Naoko's hand in a firm shake.