Warning: This article contains spoilers for World Trigger, Season 2, Episode 8, “Negotiation”, now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Round 5 of the B-rank placement battle in World Trigger Episode 8 concludes with Tamakoma Second receiving seven points, and the other two teams each earning only one, a resounding victory for Tamakoma Second’s new techniques. However, the team now faces much stronger opponents at the top of the B rank, like Border's No. 1 shooter Ninomia. But in order to get into the Neighbor expedition team, Tamakoma Second must place within the top two. This is why recruiting the powerful and experienced Hyuse into the team will be crucial to their future success.
The episode starts with some technical analysis from the commentators. This is one of the best aspects about World Trigger’s ranking battle arc, all the strategies and weaknesses of each team are carefully broken down so that not only can the audience understand each battle clearer, but also so that it's clear what each team must grow past. After the huge loss to Tamakoma Second, both Kakizaki and Katori Teams now seem more determined than ever to fix their past mistakes and become better competitors.
Tamakoma Second celebrates a well-deserved win, but Osamu knows that they still need a better plan. Their recent win was based on the element of surprise, but now that they've revealed all their secrets, future opponents will be much better prepared. Moreover, experienced fighters like Hyuse have already spotted their strategy's weaknesses. For example, the fact that Chika still cannot shoot people with regular bullets is a problem. Lead bullets only incapacitate opponents, meaning Chika can't earn points at all, but her opponents can still attack her with long-range weapons, as shown in the last battle.
The other major weakness is Tamakoma Second's imbalance of power is that it's difficult for Osamu and Chika to win if their ace attacker, Yuma, is somehow taken off the field early. During the last battle, the team almost faced this conundrum -- had Kakizaki shot a bit to the center, Yuma would have bailed out before he could help Osamu, and the battle would've turned out very differently. Since Osamu can't become stronger overnight, the team desperately needs a second ace attacker, and Hyuse is the ideal candidate.
Hyuse was captured during the Aftokrator invasion. Aftokrator is one of the most militarized Neighbor countries, their invasion team consisting of the country's top elite forces. While Hyuse doesn’t have a black trigger, his trigger, Lampyris, rivals the power of one. If the Aftokrator army trusts Hyuse's ability enough to allow him to wield it, then it stands to reason that Hyuse is one of the most powerful fighters in the entire World Trigger universe -- having him on the team would be a huge boost to Tamakoma Second.
However, the biggest obstacle to Hyuse joining Border is that the organization's leadership needs to be convinced that he's worth recruiting. Hyuse still adamantly refuses to divulge any information about Aftokrator and is fiercely loyal to his master back there, meaning he won't willingly betray his country. The only reason Hyuse agrees to join is that his goal just happens to align with Tamakoma Second, as they all want to go on the next expedition. Since his loyalty lies with an adversary, he is not completely trustworthy to Border.
Hyuse is an enemy soldier who caused great mayhem during the last invasion. Most of Border’s leadership, especially the Commander-in-Chief, Masamune Kido, have shown disdain toward Neighbors throughout the series, even Yuma had a hard time gaining their trust. Since Hyuse refuses to cooperate completely and has clearly stated that he is only using Border to get back to his home country, for Border, the risk of allowing him on the expedition outweighs the potential benefits. Now it is up to Osamu to propose a good deal and convince Border leadership to give Hyuse a chance.
