Trion Body

"While a user's Trigger is activated, their body is exchanged with a combat body composed of trion. This body is largely impervious to damage from non-trion sources, and its athletic ability is greatly enhanced."

- Trion bodies explained

A Trion Body (トリオン), also known as a Combat Body is an artificial body made out of trion. It is normally created by activating a device called Trigger. Border classifies trion bodies as Triggers, specifically Standard Equipment Triggers.

Appearance
Trigger users can ordinarily choose between a trion body with a pre-set attire or one with the clothes they are wearing at the moment of activation. It is also possible to tweak one's trion body in order to include cosmetic modifications such as one's haircut, but if these changes become too prominent, involving traits such as height and body type, the trion body may become difficult to control. This sense of unfamiliarity may carry over to the flesh and blood body if too much time is spent in the combat one.

The inside of the trion body is homogeneous in terms of material and color. The torso, limbs and head are traversed by five blood vessel-like canals arranged in a cruciform formation, with the largest one at the center and the two smallest ones at the sides (from a frontal perspective).

Damage to the trion body causes gaseous trion to leak from the wound for a few moments, especially if the damage extends to the central vessel, which contains darker-colored trion, possibly due to its higher density. When a trion body's structural integrity is irremediably compromised, cracks spread on its surface before it explodes in a puff of smoke and is replaced by the user's normal body. Deactivating a trion body without destroying it causes it to "peel off" the user and be instantly replaced by their living body.

Yūma Kuga's trion body for daily use is peculiar in that his hair color was changed without the intervention of an engineer. Below the surface, it is black in color.

Mechanics
When a Trigger is activated, the user's real body is stored inside the Trigger Holder, which in turn is moved to a space in the Neighborhood and is thus protected from physical harm, while the user’s consciousness is transferred into the trion body. If the user has a Side Effect, it will be replicated. The flesh and blood body is released once the trion one takes a certain amount of damage or the Trigger is voluntarily switched off.

Trion bodies cannot be repaired, only rebuilt after they are destroyed, a process which requires time and trion. The more trion a person has, the longer its reconstruction requires. For someone with low trion levels like Osamu Mikumo, the process lasts only one or two hours. Turning off one’s Trigger will cause the trion body to be stored away as it is. The next time the Trigger is activated, the trion body will be available immediately, but it will be in the same conditions as when it was dispelled.

Structure and Abilities
Trion bodies are artificial replicas of the Trigger user’s flesh and blood body. Although they reproduce most of its functions (down to crying, sweating, etc.), they have no actual organs or tissues in the strictest sense, as they are uniformly composed of solid and gaseous trion. Nonetheless, there are two “vitals” without which no trion body can operate: the trion relay center and trion supply system, which function similarly to the brain and the heart, respectively. The relay center transmits action messages to the trion body, allowing the user to control it much like a normal body, while the supply system regulates the afflux of trion from the trion gland, enabling the user to activate Triggers while in a trion body. The creation of a combat body consumes trion.

The preeminent characteristic of trion bodies is that they are virtually invulnerable to any damage that is not caused by trion. Their durability is the same for everyone, regardless of trion capacity or other factors. Furthermore, trion bodies offer heightened physical abilities and unlimited stamina (although the user can still run out of trion and experience mental fatigue). Defects such as bad eyesight can also be fixed. With the assistance of an Operator, trion body users can communicate and share their senses with anyone who is also in a trion body.

The communication function is the same for all trion bodies regardless of their provenance, including the ones generated by some Black Triggers. In Border, it makes it possible to reach HQ, one’s Operator or other agents. It also enables telepathy between agents within earshot of each other, a function for which Operators are not required. Although it is not necessary for it to take a physical form, agents often include a headset or headphones in their trion bodies. Aftokrator and Galopoula warriors have demonstrated that it is possible to reach allies over great distances, even if they are on the other side of a Gate.

Damage to the combat body causes a trion leakage whose severity is proportional to the damage suffered. The leakage will generally stop after about one minute. The destruction of the trion body is accompanied by a puff of smoke. Border A or B-Rank agents can force their trion body to self-destruct by activating Bail Out. Galopoula fighters equipped with the new emergency escape Trigger appear to be able to do the same.

Biological Support
On top of the enhancement in physical abilities and their durability, trion bodies offer a wide range of other improvements to ensure the user’s survival. For instance, oxygen consumption is hundreds of times lower while in a trion body, and if critical levels are reached, the trion body will go in “sleep mode”, preventing the user from dying. This “sleep mode” can keep the user alive in environments as severe as outer space. Despite breathing being barely necessary, coughing is still used to expel foreign substances from the respiratory trait.

Other primary needs such as sleeping and eating are not suppressed. Food is digested more quickly in a trion body, and almost all of it is turned into energy, which results in the absence of waste products. However, since the satiety center is barely stimulated, a feeling of fullness will not ensue. Theoretically, if one never expended trion or took damage and moved only to eat, they could remain in a trion body forever.

Almost all bodily functions are replicated by trion bodies, partly in order to render them more familiar to the user, and thus easier to control. They do not prevent users from experiencing psychological reactions they would normally have, such as yawning or getting seasick, and even if one will not get tired, it is still possible to have palpitations, which can cause agitated breathing due to nervousness. Experiments have been made to suppress fear, but since performance in away missions deteriorated, it was decided to maintain trion bodies as similar to the original as possible.

The feeling of temperature can be set to be the same as in a flesh and blood body, or, since temperature does not affect combat bodies, it can be regulated so the user feels comfortable regardless of the actual temperature.

In Combat
As their alternate designation implies, trion bodies are primarily used for military purposes. Their durability, agility and strength make them an indispensable asset that can be countered only by other Trigger users or Trion Warriors, which in turn renders a large percentage of a planet-nation's or a whole world's army and weapons utterly ineffective. In fact, combat bodies cannot be damaged by tanks or missiles, and it seems that not even atmospheric re-entry and the subsequent crash on a planet's surface could compromise their structural integrity critically.

The speed and agility of the user are also enhanced considerably, allowing them to leap several meters, jump from rooftop to rooftop without difficulty, run on the side of buildings and perform other acrobatic maneuvers that would ordinarily be impossible. The user's physical strength is increased to the point that a teenager was still able to run after having two 100 kg weights embedded into his leg, although he was slowed down, and managed to stand up with difficulty after receiving two more on the same side. Injuries only cause a light pain sensation that allows the owner of the trion body to know what part has been damaged, although even this form of feedback can be shut down completely.

Despite the brawn and stamina of a Trigger user's flesh and blood body not affecting those of the combat body, the latter operates under the same principle as the living one, so training to get a keener control on one's movements will ultimately benefit them in a battle situation.

The telepathic communication function allows allies to discuss plans in the midst of combat without allowing the enemy to catch wind of them.

An Operator's terminal allows them limited control over the senses of the trion body: specifically, they can enhance vision in environments where seeing would be ordinarily impossible, upload buildings schematics, maps of trion signatures (including Radar's), trajectory analysis and more as visual information. They can also link multiple fighters to one's senses, which is particularly useful for advanced sniping or if one of the combatants in question has a type C Side Effect. Audio information is known to be particularly easy to process and transmit. Visual and aural information can also be shared in the form of video feed for rapid communication.

Supplementary Paraphernalia
Some Border Triggers can be deactivated without destroying their physical medium: examples are firearm Triggers and Raygust. Agents who prefer not to dematerialize and materialize again such Triggers can fit their trion bodies with holsters to put away those Triggers and retrieve them quickly without expending trion.

The members of Kazama Unit have special devices installed in their uniforms that reduce the trion consumption of Chameleon. However, the trion body will require more energy to be created. They will glow for a few instants when activated, until they disappear together with the user.

Weaknesses


Despite its durability, there are several ways to destroy a trion body, although all of them involve the use of offensive Triggers. A trion body is automatically destroyed when the user runs out of trion, which often happens as a result of the leakage caused by injuries. The same occurs if the relay center or the supply system are damaged, or if the connection between the two is severed (e.g. decapitation). Light damage to the relay center that is insufficient to trigger the destruction of the trion body can still interfere with the normal transmission of impulses, causing paralysis.

As Trion Warriors designed for the capture of Trigger users, Plain Form Rabbits are aided in the task by the remarkable ability to override the settings of trion bodies and cause pain to the user by electrocuting them. Their physical strength is such that they can rip a combat body apart with their bare hands.

Furthermore, since trion supplies cannot be replenished while inside a trion body, and since its injuries cannot be healed, it is necessary to dispose of it to regain stamina and fight in peak condition. The fact that a certain amount of time is required to create a new trion body after one has been destroyed limits re-entry in battle after defeat.

In countries without Emergency Escape Triggers, defeated soldiers would be left to face Trigger users in their flesh and blood body, which, in times of war, results in sure death. Due to its cost, Border cannot fit C-Rank trainees and HQ personnel with Bail Out, and it also lacks the technology to add it to Black Triggers. Furthermore, its radius is limited, albeit wide.

Exceptions
Some Black Triggers modify the user’s trion body in remarkable ways. The trion body for daily use created by Yūma’s Black Trigger is the only one that is capable of repairing itself at the expense of its durability, being fragile enough to be cracked by a car crash. Furthermore, Yūma’s trion can regenerate while he is in that body, and ever since acquiring it, he lost the need (as well as the ability) to sleep. His peculiar conditions make Yūma the only Trigger user who can activate one while already inside a trion body.

Vorvoros enables the user to change the physical state (solid, liquid or gaseous) of their trion body as well as to control its shape and the position of its relay center and supply system at will. Striking any other part while it is liquid or gaseous will not cause any damage or trion leakage, which makes destroying the relay center or the supply system the only surefire way to defeat the user. The Black Triggers wielded by Tsukihiko Amō and the unnamed mercenary hired by Spinthir have also been implied to alter the appearance of the user's combat body, rendering it monstrous in appearance.

Users
Most, if not all, Triggers generate a combat body for their user upon activation. Among them, Yūma Kuga is particularly remarkable for being in a trion body all the time, as well as for its several peculiarities.

Trivia

 * There are instances of only three "trion vessels" being drawn instead of the regular five.


 * Yūma needs to eat more than other trion body users in order to send nutrients to his dying body.


 * Despite one’s eyesight being fully restored while in a trion body, agents who normally wear glasses keep them in their trion body because they are part of their identity.


 * The clothes of a trion body can be set to be removable, although doing so makes the trion body more trion-expensive. In Border, only the outwear can be taken off.