"So this is what it all looks like! Amazing! Who knew that it was so big in here! And look how many people are even here! Boss was right in that it would be worth the wait!"

Futoyuki looked around the large hall within the Border base that he had heard about.

His white outfit had made him blend in rather well with everyone around him.

Being the former leader of a group who specialized in blending in had also provided support to his image.

"Futoyuki, you should probably keep your voice down. You're attracting a good amount of attention."

"But look, look! This place is huge!"

"Yes, I know. I have been here before when transferring over."

"You were over here, Arisa!?"

"Y-yes! Sawamura Kyōko-san helped me out while I was over here."

The betrayal from that information was deranged out by his excitement.

Arisa seemed to finally understand that he would not stop and only lowered her shoulders.

"Oh~ Oh~ So many people here! Hm… Still, sucks that there's no one here who-"

Futoyuki felt himself stop when looking around.

In the sea of white outfits that mixed with his, there had been something to stop him from continuing his look around the hall.

A single black outfit.

"Isn't that…?"

.

Arisa had been nervous from the moment she entered the building with Sawamura.

The Yagura Branch Director had been the one who wanted to escort her and Futoyuki to Border's New Recruit Enlistment, but Sawamura had arrived before they could leave and insisted on taking them.

It had been a treat to see the older man get bullied into the decision by a woman smaller than him.

It also showed her just how crazy Border really was for a twelfth time that day.

My stomach doesn't feel too good… But wait, you can't feel that kind of stuff while using a Trigger. So then am I imagining it? But that means I'm nothing but nerves at the moment. That won't help anything though! Akasora-san told me about what we can expect while we're here! I need to be ready for that! If I don't make an impact then I might get yelled at! I hear the branches around here are pretty brutal with each other on these kinds of things!

She wrapped her arms around her stomach as she thought more about her current situation.

In doing so, she had missed the talking around her.

"Is she okay?"

"It looks like she might vomit."

"Can we even do that while using a Trigger?"

"Not sure."

"I kind of want to try now…"

Strange noises began appearing all throughout the hall.

She could not figure out the source of them, but they reminded her too much of vomit and that made her want to do the same right about now.

"F-Futoyuki… M-maybe we can-… Huh? Hey, where are you going!?"

Once she had the course to look up, she found that her partner had already started in another direction.

.

It had to be his imagination.

There has to be some mistake. I had to have heard that wrong.

Hyuse felt a hand on his shoulder.

He would have normally batted his hand away and glared at whoever it had been, but the person was someone he knew well enough to where he would not do that.

"Hyuse, are you okay? I doubt it's from nerves that you froze up, so what's wrong?"

"…Nothing. I was just imagining something."

"Then it must have been something bad for you to freeze up like that."

The worst part was that Maki did not know how to joke and so his words had all been serious.

"I said it was-"

"Little Hyu! It really is yoooooooou!"

Hyuse could see it happen in slow motion.

The body that had been rushing him like a wild animal had appeared from within the crowd of people.

It moved quickly, but with purpose.

And that purpose was to crash into him.

Knowing that he could take the hit easily, he moved to push Maki to the side.

Once he had done that, he turned back to the body rushing him.

He spread out his arms and legs, lowered his body, and straightened his face.

"Wait wait wait! Don't do thaaaaaaat! Just move like a normal peeeeeeerson!"

It was too late.

The moment the body had reached him, Hyuse grabbed a hold of his waist and began to lift.

The momentum the body had from his run had added to the speed at which Hyuse threw himself back.

Holding his ground with his feet, he threw his entire back along with the body so that he almost created an arch.

Instead of flowing through with slamming the boy's head into the ground, he released the waist of the boy and watched with upside-down vision as the boy was sent flying in the other direction.

His body came to a stop once he had hit the wall with a solid sound.

Hyuse righted himself again and refused to look back.

"What the hell was that about!?"

"It was nothing. Nothing happened. You saw nothing. That crazy person that rushed me is nothing. Ignore his entire existence and I will do the same."

"Is that really something to say after throwing someone like that!? I thought you were just going to German Suplex him, but that was also pretty bad!"

"He deserved much worse."

"How can you make that worse!?"

.

Maki could only look between Hyuse and the body he had just thrown back without any issues.

It actually looked like he was used to doing that, Maki thought while taking another look at the body.

When he did so, he was shocked to see that the boy had gotten right up and began another rush.

Not wanting a repeat of what had just happened, he took a step forward and got between the two of them.

The rushing boy had thankfully slowed down his speed so that he would be able to come to a stop just before hitting Maki.

"Tch. You should have just ignored him," he could hear Hyuse say from behind him.

Sometimes it was hard to deal with the Neighbor.

"Futoyuki! You jerk, what the hell were you doing!?"

"He was rushing my friend here and got thrown into a wall for it."

Maki had instinctively answered the voice as he turned around.

The girl who had asked quickly made her way over to the other boy and threw his head down.

"I-I-I am so s-sorry for him! He had g-gotten the wrong person and did something stupid!"

"I didn't get the wrong person! And let go of my head! If I bow my head at Little Hyu like this then he'll just get an inflated ego!"

Yeah, that is a possibility.

It had happened at the Tamakoma Branch already after all.

Letting out a breath through his nose, Maki waved off the duo in front of him.

"Who are you two anyway? And don't lie to me about it," Maki said, pointing at Hyuse. "I already know this guy's situation, so holding back will do nothing. Especially since no one should know about him."

"We're people enlisting into Border today and then joining the Yagura Branch right after. I am Misawa Arisa and this is Futoyuki. He is indeed what you think and has been allowed to join today."

"Takahashi Maki. Hatohara Squad. I'm here to watch out for Hyuse today, who is also enlisting."

At least one of the two could be a proper person.

The boy on the other hand…

"There's more to it than that. For you see, I am not some simple person. I also happen to be Little Hyu's best friend!"

.

Arisa could not help the dead stare she gave her partner. From the corner of her eye she could see Takahashi Maki give the same look towards him.

Futoyuki's words had made sense, but his entire being contradicted such a statement.

That must have been a hammered in nail though as the person called Hyuse turned to glare at her partner.

"He is a stupid, selfish, ungrateful, air headed, obvious, moronic, tactless, stubborn idiot. If you give him the time of day then he will start talking about anything that comes to mind. Maki, don't pay attention to him or you might become as stupid as him."

"Aw! I love you too, Little Hyu!"

Is this a Border-authentic tsukkomi I am seeing!? Does something like this spread that quickly!?

It might not have been since Takahashi Maki was not reacting to those words like a comedian would.

Her partner on the other hand seemed to be enjoying the time he had around Hyuse.

Even she could see that Hyuse truly did hate her partner, but she also understood when there was something under that.

Her former mentor had been the same way.

Every time he spoke about Shinoda-san or Akasora-san he would get that kind of expression. He would always say he hated them for his own reasons, but he would follow it up when he thought I wouldn't hear him. Does that make him a tsundere? No, no, no, no, no. It's not like that. It's more like-

Arisa placed her fist in her hand with an "o" expression.

"You two are just really close!"

.

Hyuse could feel his anger begin to boil over.

He had tried not to pay any attention to the idiot as he went on a tangent, but that had become difficult as he went on.

The more he spoke, the more Hyuse remembered a different time.

A time he could count as "happy".

And then that girl had gone and said something he would not like to think about.

"I guess there are different forms of 'being close' to someone. Still, I'm not too sure that this is the case, Misawa."

"It's not?"

"It's not. Hyuse looks ready to go for the throat here, so I would say they aren't that close."

Maki's efforts here were appreciated.

He wanted to say something as well, but was stopped when an arm had made its way around his neck.

"Yup! Little Hyu and I are great friends! He doesn't like me, but I like him, so that makes us friends!"

"That's not how that works!" both Maki and the girl yelled.

"Of course it does! Because he kept responding to me and I kept going to him! Even with our circumstances being what they were, he still responded to me! Yup, if that isn't the sign of a friendship then I don't know what one is!"

"So you don't know what one is!"

Their snap comments had actually not been what he was expecting.

But he had been told that something like this was common in Border before leaving, so he thought nothing of it.

"At most, you can say this guy was my senior. But now he isn't even that."

"Huh? Why is that? Because you aren't wherever you come from?"

"It's because he is a traitor."

The arm around his shoulder had loosened a bit, but he refused to turn to the idiot.

"What do you mean by-"

"Arisa, just drop it. I'll tell you later."

"Well getting past that stuff, I guess… Does that mean you also have…"

Maki tapped the side of his head a few times.

Hyuse felt himself freeze up again and the arm around his shoulder completely dropped from its spot.

The girl must not have known about that either since she only tilted her head.

"Ha ha ha. I did. It was pretty great too."

An image flashed in Hyuse's mind for a brief moment.

"It was right here. Right in the middle of my forehead. Ha ha ha. I think you call creates like that 'unicorns' over here."

A smiling child with a single horn in his hand. A smile on his face and tears streaming down his cheeks.

"It became pretty annoying to maintain, I have to say. It was pretty fun to use against this guy though. Sometimes I would even use it to wake him up. Sort of like a fun poker that just happened to be on hand. He was pretty mean though since he would grab it and-"

"Futo! Enough!"

.

Maki looked past the boy to see the distance and angered expression that Hyuse wore.

It had already been enough of a shock to see him throw the boy and then speak the way he did to him, but raising his voice that way had been different. The only other time had been when they had fought and Jin had said too much.

But this was different.

It was someone he did not know who had apparently said too much.

"…I will be over there."

Silence filled the area around them as Hyuse had made this way towards the crowd.

The first one to break it had been the girl.

"I guess…you were on good terms if he called you by a nickname?"

It had been a nice try, but even the boy could not seem to find the energy to smile like he had before.

Instead he only shook his head and turned to the girl.

"That was just my original name. Back then my name had just been 'Futo'. The 'Yuki' part had been added once I left my home and… Well that's something I should say out in the open. Ha ha ha. Guess Little Hyu was right to yell at me.

If that's true, why do you feel so hurt by it?

He had not thought that he would find out anything like this form Hyuse, but Maki felt like he had made another step closer.

Even if it felt like a bad step.

The entire hall had been amazed by what had been happening, but no one dared to say a word while it had been happening.

Each person had been told that they would be given a set amount of time to take out a Neighbor made in the training rooms and then would see how well they did. The ones who took it down the fastest would be able to show their skills while the ones who could not finish in time would be weeded out.

During that time, two people in particular had done more than simply show off what they could do.

Talk had begun as two members had cleared the test with the second best record and one that had not been too far behind that.

"Figures you wouldn't be able to handle it," the one with the second best record had said.

"Don't be like that, Little Hyu. I'm just not used to these kinds of blades. Big Boss said I wouldn't be allowed to use what I copied, so this one messed me up," the other one had said.

And even while having such amazing records, they had not been satisfied.

This had resulted in the both of them trying against and ending up with records close to what they had originally gotten.

Now that all of the testing had been done, they were all held in the hall once more with two of Arashiyama Squad's members standing on the stage in front of them all.

But none of them could focus too long as their eyes continued to turn back to the two who had managed such amazing records.

.

"Don't be too sad about it, Little Hyu. I'm sure the one with the best record is some kind of monster."

"Pay attention or I will throw you into the wall again."

"Just be a little nicer and I will consider it."

Arisa shook her head while Maki sighed from his spot next to her.

Compared to the two boys in front of her, she had managed an average record with a little bit of effort.

Her accomplishment had been when she was told that her score had been relatively close to Yuki's.

At the time, she had only thought, This means I am not that far from Sensei's standards. If Yuki-san was that close and Kei-san is a #1, I should be able to reach A-Rank well enough.

It was rather arrogant of her, but she had been told that it was fine to feel that way when she had rivals as strong as Yuki and Tachikawa.

But now that the testing had been done they needed to listen to what the Arashiyama Squad members had to say.

So moving forward with Maki, the two got between the boys and made sure they could not reach each other.

"Well then, most of the training sessions are done," Arashiyama had said from the stage. "Just as I explained earlier, anyone whose solo points reach 4,000 from training sessions and Solo Rank Wars will be promoted to B-Rank. Now, I'm going to go over some details on Solo Rank Wars, but there's one other thing you must do in the upcoming training course."

Arashiyama turned his head, gesturing for a man with dull eyes behind him to move forward.

He held out the tablet in his hand.

The man with a dull eyes nodded his head before backing up and looking back down at his own tablet.

He faced them all again and continued.

"Everyone in this room has solo points. And we set your starting points at 1,000. Normally what we do is evaluate your skills during a probationary enlistment prior to the ceremony proper, and depending on your performance, you get bonus solo points. It's standard procedure to help naturally skilled recruits get promoted to B-Rank faster. However, since you all enlisted during an irregular part of the season, we didn't have enough time for a probationary period."

So.

"Here's what we'll do. I want you to take a quick skill test."

Arisa felt herself tense up a bit at the sound of it.

Everyone around her had also been questioning what it was about, but she held backfire saying anything.

"That makes sense. With things being as weird as they are right now, speeding things along while being efficient is probably what's best."

The calmness of Maki's voice and the never changing expressions of the boys had been enough to calm her down.

So with a few deep breaths, she listened back in to what was being said.

"I'll have you separated into groups of five. And you will fight each other in a VR space. Anyone who isn't you is an enemy. You will receive 120 points for each enemy you take down. After the battle, we will reshuffle the groups for the next match. This will continue until each of you fights in four matches. The more people you defeat, the closer you get to B-Rank. I expect you to show us the best you can."

.

This means I won't have to fight those crazy guys from before! Whoo! Go me! Wait… We'll be reshuffled afterwards. Damn it! That means I'll end up getting tossed around!

Fuyushi cried inside while remaining passive on the outside.

From her spot near the stage she could see Suzaku standing behind Arashiyama, but his gaze was down on the table in his hands.

The poor guy. He has to keep track of the transmissions during this time so they probably brought him here to make sure everything is fine during all of this.

Those transmissions had been important to Border so it made sense that Suzaku would be called in for checkups when there would be so many people around.

She herself had been sent some messages using Border's transmission while on her guest account.

White Fox: "Try not to get worried, Rep. If you see any monsters there, try and stay clear of them. Oh, but if they are on the same level as us, you should be good."

Black Wolf: "You will do fine. Probably. You asked us for help, so you don't have much to worry about. Probably."

Kage: "Try not to choke, Class Rep. If you do, make sure there's someone there to record."

Pokari: "We can stop by, if you want. Of course we'll go to make fun of you. So who is in for going to see her?"

That one had gotten too many responses.

But the worst had yet to come.

Manager: "You won't have to worry about using the bathroom while using a Trigger. So stay focused on what you need to do instead of what you need to doo."

She had truly felt the pain from that one.

Everyone had thankfully gone on to choose Kimura as their next victim, leaving her relatively alone.

But one final comment had come in before she turned off her phone.

Shōgi Boy: "Ignorin' those guys. You'll do fine, I'm sure. Don't sweat the small stuff and just do whatcha think is best. It helps ya get through the days with those guys after all. Anyways, I'll come by to look at how yer doin' after my match finishes, 'kay?"

Some of them had meant well, so she had focused on those ones going into this.

Now that she was here she could see that not all of them were meant to scare her.

In particular, the comment about monsters being here had not been wrong.

There had been two monsters who cleared the training with ease while she had struggled to make it into the two minute mark.

But that had been fine with her.

Like as was advised, she had stayed away from those monsters and focused on what she could do at the moment.

So here she was, finding herself mentally preparing for a free-for-all.

If they're anything like how our class gets then I should be fine. But if I end up being in the same groups as those two monsters then I might just loosely mind.

To say life was unfair was an understatement.

Fuyushi realized the truth about reality the moment the first two shuffles had placed her in fights against the two monsters.

The first one had the boy who held the second best record. That time had been quick as she had not even managed to start her attack before he had taken her out.

After that, it had been just as bad. The guy had been kind enough, but his attack had been relentless. That alone had managed to overwhelm her before she could even try anything.

Thankfully, that had been the worst of it.

The rest of her fights had been normal enough with her winning some and losing some.

And those guys do this daily? From what they tell us, they are even tops in certain areas. Man, what kind of crazy people are they?

She knew the answer all too well but chosen to think that she had no cue.

Letting out a sigh, she looked around for someone.

During one of the matches, she had come in contact with a girl younger than her. At first it had been hard to tell if they were a male or female, but that had been easily cleared up once she began to speak.

The girl had also been relatively nice, if not a bit jumpy. Feeling for the girl, she had introduced herself and the two had hit it off rather quickly.

There was no sign of the girl anywhere.

Pulling out her phone, Fuyushi looked down to see multiple messages appear. Most were asking about how she had done while others were likely cursed threads someone was spreading.

I'll make sure to beat their skulls in later one or that.

She opened the first few and found that they had been from her classmates.

White Fox: "So how did you do? I can't really go see you right now since I'm actually taking a break."

Kage: "At least tell us that there's something to hit you with when we get to class."

Black Wolf: "I think Suzaku is also supposed to be there. You can go and ask him for something if you need any help. Oh, you can actually go to get your account properly set up now."

Pokari: "I'm with Kage. Did you do something that can give us a good story for class?"

"Well at least two of them are fine enough. I'll make sure to give Kageura and Hokari some extra things to do after class."

Even as she thought of ways to get back at the two, she felt a smile begin to form on her face.

It only grew when she saw the chat name next to the words she was typing out.

Class Rep: "Two of you can screw off. The other two are fine."

Instead of waiting for answers to her messages, she closed her phone and looked around once more.

She had found the girl, but there had been three other people near her.

Two of them had been the monsters she had seen while the third one was a boy in a special outfit that had an emblem on it.

"I guess not everything can work out," she sighed out. "I'll just talk to her later then."

"You use the panels to choose your opponents. Beat people with higher points gets you more points. Should be easy enough for the two of you. Misawa, you should probably stick with the ones who have lesser ones."

The new trio nodded their heads as Maki showed them what they needed to do to decide on who they wanted to fight.

Futoyuki folded his arms behind his head while backing out of the room.

"Guess I'll go get me some points. You wanna have a go at it, Little Hyu?"

"Are you sure you want to lose your points that quickly?"

"Funny, funny. Fine, I'll go take a look around for some people. Just try not to make anyone cry while I'm not around. Or better yet, don't be the one crying because you miss me."

"I have never done that and you have no proof of it."

Arisa and Maki only stared at the two of them.

Having dealt with them for this long, they had both come to terms that this is just the way the two of them interacted with each other.

There was clearly a past between the two of them, but neither one pried into that.

"I guess I should get a booth too. Akasora-san isn't rushing or anything, but I would like to reach B-Rank by the end of the day. Once we do that, we can form a proper squad for the Yagura Branch."

"Oh, that's right. The two of you are from there. Hm. I guess that means there is already a rivalry for your branch and Tamakoma."

"You would be surprised. There is already a good amount of those."

With that being said, Arisa gave a wave before walking out of the booth.

"So… Little Hyu, huh?"

"Don't you start too."

It was an unfamiliar place like this that made crowds stand out even more.

…Will this…be okay…? …Can I find…him…?

Shobu grabbed the devices around his neck as he looked up at the scores on the large screen. Tomoe and the upperclassman he had mentioned were standing in front of him, but they were not blocking his vision.

As for what they were talking about…

"That's crazy. If they barely entered today then that means they got a bunch of points right away."

"Even some of the C-Ranks from the previous season only recently got to B-Rank, but those two already made it without wasting any time."

His own two friends had been some of the ones who had "recently got to B-Rank", so he made sure to not tell them about this conversation.

Looking back around the screen, he saw those booths had been getting large amounts of points quickly and decided he would need to look at them to make sure he was right in assumption.

"Miura-senpai! Did something happen?"

The voice had been too sudden for him, so Shobu felt himself jump.

It showed how bad it had been since Tomoe had gone to make sure he was fine.

"There's been whispering going around, so we wanted to know what's up."

"Well, the thing is… Apparently, there are two new recruits who joined today, and they are already B-Rank."

"Already…!? It's not even been a day and they have already gotten that far!?"

"That's gotta be the fastest record ever, right!? Let's go fight those guys!"

"Hmm, I'm interested for sure, but…"

"They were C-Rank until a while ago," Tomoe said from next to him. "So they only have one Trigger each at the moment. They don't even have Shield yet."

"Oh, I see."

Would this be a good time to step in?

Taking in breath, Shobu lifted his hand, moving it away from the device around his neck.

"…One of…them…"

"Huh? Oh, Tenryū. How are you?"

Was it weird that he felt happy to be remembered like that?

…No, no, no… …That is just how things go…

Nodding his head in greeting, Shobu straightened his back a bit.

The encouraging looks from Tomoe and Sasamori had been helpful in building him up.

"…One of those two… …They are…part of Yagura… …If you want…to fight him…when he is ready…you can stop…by…whenever…"

It felt like inviting someone to his house, but that would have been too much for him if that had been reality.

This was just a way to connect people by letting them know when they could have a fight with someone.

"Oh, so he's a part of your branch? That would make sense then. You guys have some weird people there."

"Koarai, ssshhh! His uncle is the one who runs it!"

"E-eh!? Oh! My bad there, uh…"

"…Tenryū Shokubutsu…"

"You're that dragon Iko-san had talked about before!? Miura-senpai, you and Tomoe are helping to train a dragon who helped a lot around here!?"

"What are you saying now?"

At some point the rumors had gotten out of control and he was now a dragon. That was what Shobu got from what the older boy was saying.

"Koarai, leave him be. He's shy," Sasamori said as he turned the attention away from Shobu. "But getting back to what we were saying. We know that one of those two is form the same branch as Tenryū, but what about the other guy? What are we going to do about fighting him?"

"How about we all just use a sword? Don't bet our points. Maybe that would work?"

It had been amazing how quickly the fights had gone.

Maki had been there when Tokieda told Hyuse about the group wanting to fight him.

Each one had gone pretty quick with no one scoring even a single point on Hyuse.

They had all been clear wins.

Then came Sasamori.

The confidence he had shown at the start was clear, but it had only gotten him so far.

Compared to the other people who had tried, he had managed to get a single win and multiple hits on Hyuse. By normal standards it was nothing amazing, but it had been the fact that his opponent was Hyuse that made him stand out.

The final one of the group had been a small boy who had his eye covered by his hair.

Rumor had been going around about this boy, and his name had come up only a few times with Hatohara Squad. Other than that, Maki had no idea what he would be capable of.

What had been strange was the uniform he had been wearing.

Either Kakizaki Squad added him on just today or he didn't have Kōgetsu in a slot before this.

The second one had felt more likely since there had been no news about Kakizaki Squad gaining a new member.

Once the next fight had started, it had been a strange sight.

The boy had looked fine with using Kōgetsu, but his actions had all been different from anyone using the blade proper.

Every time he moved it had been on light feet, but the weight of Kōgetsu had slowed him down and counterbalanced his actions.

This had resulted in only a single win for the boy, but…

If he wasn't using Kōgetsu, it might have gone differently. The amount of hits he got in during his fights totaled more than the others. Even if he isn't used to Kōgetsu, he's used to fighting in general.

Once that had been finished, a voice had called out from the booths.

Koarai had been finding anyone he could to fight Hyuse.

The next three people had included Tsuji, who Maki had thought was with Hisoka and Oshiro, Ikoma, and Tachikawa.

Each fight had resulted in less wins than the previous ones with Hyuse only managing the win against Ikoma due to a breach of the rules they had set.

The Border chat had gone off right after that had happened.

Iko: "Sorry, Chisato. I messed up and need to go on a trainin' arc now. Take care of the place for me."

Ortlinde: "The place is in the Yagura Branch, so I don't need to do much. And stop being an idiot. If you have to go on a training arc then I have to go with you. I would be a failure as a girlfriend if I didn't get stronger with you."

Girls: "Oh my!"

Kuni: "It's getting pretty hot around here!"

Mi-Kon: "I just turned on the AC, but it's still pretty bad."

Artist: "Does this count as their honeymoon then? A training arc honeymoon that only they can have!"

Girls: "Tell us everything!"

Koala: "I found another one! Tachikawa-san said he would fight!"

Demon Child: "Koala, I suggest you leave right now or else you will end up in a bad place."

Koala: "Huh!? What's happening here!?"

Shobu: "…Bad things…"

Decoy: "There, there. No need to push yourself, Tenryū."

Ortlinde: "So when are we leaving? I want to make sure that we get back in time to feed the frog."

Everyone: "You were serious!?"

Iko: "Trainin' arcs're serious stuff."

Shōgi Boy: "Ya have a week, tops. That's when we need ya for the next match."

Iko: "We should be back by the end of the day. Take care of the frog for us 'til then."

Shōgi Boy: "I'm not takin' care of him!"

Ortlinde: "Thanks for the help, Satoshi."

Shōgi Boy: "Hah. Fine. Just bring me back a souvenir."

Ortlinde: "Sure. Ask the others what they want to."

Koala: "Um… Can you just say for a bit then?"

Iko: "Sure."

Things like that may have been the reason why Maki chose to not focus too much on the chat.

Then there had been Tachikawa.

At some point during the mess in the chat, Tachikawa and Hyuse had started their own fight.

A single win was the end result.

Hyuse had managed to get a single win by catching Tachikawa off guard at the right moment.

That had seemed to be enough to satisfy everyone as they had called it quits and left the booth.

.

The first thing Hyuse did upon exiting the booth was spread his arms out.

His legs were then spread out just as far while his hips lowered.

The sound of someone running was heard and his reflexes kicked in.

Already beginning to bend backwards, he grabbed hold of the waist belonging to Futoyuki before bending all the way back and throwing the older boy back.

He hit the ground hard.

"Oh, so he did go with a German Suplex this time. I guess it would look bad if he threw him off from the railing."

Speaking of which, the railing had ended up in the way. The metal got bent after having collided with Furotyuki's head.

"I tried to stop him," Arisa said, walking up to them.

She pointed down below to a group of people wearing different squad uniforms.

"By the way, those guys are asking for House-san. They would have been doing the same for Futoyuki, but Tenryū Shokubutsu-san managed to stop that from happening."

"It's because they just fought Hyuse. They might still end up going for Futoyuki, so we all might as well head down."

After having gotten up from his bent position, Hyuse nodded along and started for the stairs.

.

"Hey, rookie!"

That had been the first thing to come from the loudest one of the group.

"You were pretty good out there! Who are you!?"

"Thanks for accepting our request."

Before he could answer, an arm had managed to get around his neck for the second time that day.

The culprit had somehow managed to get back up and make his way over them again.

"This guy is Little Hyu and I'm Futoyuki! Oh, oh! Boss Shobu, you're here too!?"

"…Yes…"

It felt strange hearing that kind of thing now.

Futoyuki's voice had carried to them all, but the respect directed towards the small boy he had fought felt strange.

Putting aside those thoughts, Hyuse shrugged off the arm on his shoulder before looking around the area.

By taking advantage of the VR training system, everybody can continue their training in a safe environment.

While their trion technology still has a long way to go…these technologies that are unique to Miden… They must be a huge factor in how they have gotten so many skilled combatants in a short period of time.

It was all different.

There was nothing harsh about the surroundings and everyone had seemed fine even after losing to someone new.

The group around him was a good example of not being sore losers.

Each one of them only smiled at him as they spoke and held no malice in having just lost to someone who only recently joined.

"It's different, isn't it?"

The voice had come from behind him.

Futoyuki had lowered his voice in a way that any fighter would when not wanting others to hear.

"Miden is this kind of nice place. I learned about that from my former leader. He came from this world and told the rest of us so many things. That's why we could settle here knowing that things had a chance of going well."

He gave a bitter laugh as he moved forward once more.

"But I guess you can't really trust what a traitor says, now can you. Sucks that you didn't get to see the Wanderers' 'greeting' for a second time."

Instead of listening to what he had to say, Futoyuki moved forward to stand next to the kid who had his eyes covered.

The words he had said remained in his head until someone broke through his thoughts.

The group around him still wanted to talk.

"Have you already decided on which squad you want to join?"

"If you haven't chosen yet, you should join ours."

"He already has a squad he's going to join. The same goes for those two as well, so don't bother asking."

Maki had stopped up next to him.

Even with the tone he took, the two who had asked him the questions did not bat an eye and continued smiling.

It was strange, this new experience.

But that was fine.

"Alright, Little Hyu! Time for us to have a match! I need to get more points than you, and the best way is to take them from you!"

So long as he did not have to deal with that too much.