"It's getting darker out, but I guess that doesn't matter much."

Ninomiya listened to Inukai from his seat at a table.

They were both in one of the general areas of the Border base. This was a few hours after their match had ended and their victory had been called.

They were both seated across from each other.

They had not simply gone there.

Ninomiya had wanted to check on some things and Inukai had just come from meeting with the Hogo Squad Captain.

Ninomiya had gone almost all the way home and had been told that there would be no one there at the moment.

He gave a sigh and backtracked to the base.

"I never imagined that someone else would bring up the past like that."

"Sometimes people need to tell you that you have a stubborn personality."

"No, I get that enough from the people around me."

"True."

Inukai seemed to accept that answer, but it was a mystery what meaning he had taken from it.

Still, he could only blame his own personality for refusing to let go of that past that held him back during their match.

…What am I supposed to do?

Should he rejoice? Should he argue his case for keeping that past in his mind and letting it get to him?

Everyone in the know understood the reason for him and Suzunari-1's ace to do what they did. That would be why Inukai had said nothing about it.

But it still bothered him on the inside.

"How should I put this?"

"Just say it however you can."

Fair enough, he decided while pretending to think hard on it.

"I don't like…"

This was something he had been thinking on for a while.

"I don't like how it feels like those of us there are being toyed with all over the place."

"Isn't that exactly what happened?" The other boy smiled bitterly. "Something comes in and sets things up to how they had been and puts us there. And we have to fight in that setting. So you had no choice but to work while thinking back to a terrible time, but then others from the same time show up and try to fight in that same setting. You probably wish that entire incident would just leave you alone, but there are people on that side who can even get things right by guessing."

"Not 'that' side, 'your' side. Don't act like you aren't a part of this."

"Eh, I prefer staying out of the more complex stuff and just live in the moment. It's such a pain otherwise."

"So you were thinking of it from my point of view?"

"That would be kind of weird."

"Then…"

Before he could ask why, Inukai explained.

"When something is too much, I try to leave it to, or shift it to, 'that'. I don't mess with it myself if I know it makes things worse. That's how I live my life after having met Oshiro."

"I hate that."

"Why?"

"Because it means you have people you can trust to deal with it for you."

Inukai looked over at him with eyes wide. That response had clearly come as a surprise. And…

"–––––"

For some reason, he hung his head and held his head in his hands.

Ninomiya wondered if he had said the wrong thing.

He was feeling kind of awkward, so…

"What is it?"

"Well, sometimes these weird truths hit you in the last way you ever expected. But anyway." Inukai pointed forward. "Look, he's coming."

Ninomiya looked over to see a familiar face moving toward them.

His face went into a deep frown.

"That damn faker."

.

Yuki nodded when the airhead called him.

He had already taken some hours to rest.

He had contacted multiple people to ask what they thought of what was going on.

…Mitsuteru apparently understood what I meant.

He had decided to not let go of the past until Yuki had solved things himself.

That meant he had to wait.

He decided that Mitsuteru was a good person who deserved to hate him for everything that had built up.

While thinking about that kind of stuff, he had heard the airhead was taking his own break in one of the open areas.

When he had told his teacher he wanted to speak more with the airhead…

White Fox: "Is Kaze here?"

Kaze: "Yeah. I am right behind you, Yuki-san."

He looked back to check.

Kaze: "Um, could you not turn around out of simple curiosity? It's a simple enough motion for you, but I have to run all the way around you."

White Fox: "Hm? You don't have to stay behind me, do you?"

Kaze: "Standing in front of a VIP would obstruct their words. That's why I always saw some of the guards move when my parents' boss comes in."

What an interesting way of thinking, he realized. But on the other hand…

White Fox: "What if you need to shield them?"

Kaze: "In my case, I would knock them down from behind. Then I would attack with Scorpion."

White Fox: "Attack the VIP? Yeah, I guess no one can kill them if they're already dead."

Kaze: "Attack the attacker!"

Oh, yeah. Whoops.

…I hate how accustomed to Border's rules I've gotten.

But Kaze asked a question about this.

Kaze: "Yuki-san, is this that kind of person?"

White Fox: "What kind of person?"

Kaze: "One you think I should stand guard in front of you for."

That's the real question, thought Yuki as he made his way over to the airhead.

He knew the area around here quite well. He had walked it and he had viewed it from multiple angles.

He recalled that this person had fought him here all the time, and he called out to them.

"Idiotic airhead, you had a pretty annoying time, didn't you?"

.

Ninomiya responded to the faker while aware he was physically below the other boy.

"You look like your entire day has been annoying."

"That's right. I had to watch a terrible match with fools that I know too well. After that reminder to not think too much, I'll probably have to entirely replace my thoughts, reason, and wants."

"How are you going to do that?"

"Right. By bowing my head to Minoru and getting my ass kicked at some point."

The faker's words told Ninomiya something.

…He's trying to change.

He had not been the kind of person who would come out and say he had to bow his head to someone.

For that matter, he did not have the personality for getting beaten in a fight either.

"Damn faker." Ninomiya spoke his mind. "This hasn't been easy for you, has it?"

"What is that sympathetic look for?"

"Nothing." He waved his hand back and forth. "Don't worry about it."

Besides, he had something else to say.

"Why not say it's someone else's fault?"

"No, I will pay for my stupidity myself. Because my actions were my own decision."

"Are you stupid?" The words left him on reflex and he leaned forward a bit. "Do you really think that's enough to settle this? Are you just going to abandon your continuing responsibility to all of the people you have ruined?"

"Then will you pay for it?"

"Why would I have to!?"

There's something weird about him, thought Ninomiya.

Not that long ago, the faker had spent all his time keeping all sorts of things to himself, but now…

…I have no idea what he's trying to say.

He realized this bizarre behavior did not really have anything to do with whether or not the faker kept everything to himself, but that was not the point.

"Damn faker, did you get yourself brainwashed somewhere?"

"No, I didn't."

Inukai raised his right arm.

"What person would say yes to that?"

"Hm, that was a stupid question, wasn't it?"

But the faker tilted his head with a frown.

"There's something weird about you."

"That's my line." Ninomiya sighed and let his shoulders slump. "Besides, why are you still trying to do everything yourself?"

"Oh, that. Since you know as much as I do on a lot of things, I'm giving you responsibility for looking into certain things for Border. Oh, and I'm not asking you for help. I'm only deciding to be a bit lazy by giving you more to do. That starts in 5 seconds from now."

"What the hell is with you!?"

When he stood up, he felt a pang run through him and grimaced.

"Is the pressure of the position really such a shock? Well, you need to get used to it."

"Th-that was pain from a memory!"

"So," said the faker, "you're saying it isn't too much pressure? Then I'll send that information to the needed people via Umi and Border's transmission. Okay, done."

"Oh," said Suzaku while working with Kunichika who was holding up her phone to photograph the mess outside of one of the large match-viewing halls. "Kimura? Yukicchi sent a mail asking to have, um, the Ninomiya Squad Captain in charge of looking into some things in his place."

"Hm, but I'm buttering some bread right now, so it'll have to wait."

"Kimura, are you saying butter is more important than Nino-san?" asked Kitazoe. "And where did you even get that?"

Kimura ignored the last question then placed a slice of buttered bread and a slice of unbuttered bread in front of him.

"Now." Kimura placed a hand on the table. "Which would you prefer, Kitazoe? Choose one."

"W-well, in this case, I think the unbuttered one would be better."

"Oh, are you sure about that, Kitazoe?"

Kimura grabbed and lifted up the buttered bread. Jinsei approached from behind and swapped it out with a toasted slice. It was of course buttered too.

She held it up in front of Kitazoe.

"Now, which would you prefer, Kitazoe?"

"Th-the buttered one! Wh-what else could I choose!? Damn, I feel so defeated here, but unbuttered bread is just bread!"

It felt like Kitazoe had been working on his schtick lately.

Meanwhile, Suzaku noticed that Hitomi was only drinking some canned iced tea.

"Aren't you going to eat something, Hitomi?"

"Eating would make me sleepier. Sticking to a light snack and tea is the best way to get my stomach in order."

"Yes," said Ōji who was toasting some bread nearby. "Tea is wonderful because it tenses the stomach. If you drink some strong tea and eat some bread on a damp day, the tea soaking the bread will tense your stomach and improve your body's circulation."

"I see," said the girls while taking a note of that. "Oh, Kimura, what should we do about Yuki's request?"

"Hmm, what is the situation like with whatever he needs to look into?"

"Right." He raised his hand. "In the versus mode of Tale of Border's Best Idols, there's Yuki and two or three others, but the rest are filled with question marks."

"I wasn't asking about some video game!" Hmm, thought Kimura. "I should probably have someone look into that."

"Netsuki-san, Hogo Squad's Operator has sent you an urgent command via Suzaku."

"What!? We're kind of busy at the moment, so what could possibly be so important!?"

"Right." One of the workers read the message aloud. "What did Tsukiko Yuki need to look into?"

"Isn't it a little late to be asking that?"

"Netsuki-san, why are you actually starting to investigate that for her?"

"You don't get it?" Netsuki narrowed his eyes to a glare. "If I don't do this, she'll demand I do something even worse. I could just ignore it, but she has more authority if she works with and uses Suzaku."

"Kimura, Netsuki-san just sent his response. Here, I'll give everyone else a copy too."

"Oh? That was fast. If you need something from the inner parts of Border, there's no one better than Netsuki-san."

Kimura quickly read what the message had to say about what Yuki was looking into.

…They do indeed have a lot of stuff for him to look into.

This only told her the locations he would be going to, but based on that...

"Huh? Kawa, isn't this a full list?"

"No, look more carefully, Hitomi," said Kurauchi. "This list of locations might look full, but most of the places are listed as 'Quick Hotspot Locations'."

"I see," said Senshi while viewing Arafune's phone, but refusing to look him in the eye. "Instead of going to places that are close by or near the Forbidden Zone, they want him to look at the locations I mentioned before for tunnels. During the second large-scale invasion, someone had punched a hole through the ground from the underground up. There was some worry about that, but that's all I know about it."

"Did you try to look into that too, Senshi?"

"I really wanted to, but I instead went to other locations to make sure nothing was put into them. Mikado City has a surprising amount of underground areas that connect all over the place. I haven't gone through all of them, but the ones I did find were clear of anything but danger. I had to head back before I ran any risks."

It was amazing that everything had not collapsed on the unlucky boy there.

Kurauchi gave his back a few pats with a hint of bitterness. Kimura looked to the others, but…

Demon Child: "The shoulder, the shoulder. Go for the shoulder, Kurauchi."

Kura-uchi: "He's already tripped on the stairs five times, so I think this is enough!"

Demon Child: "Keh."

Lack of sleep doesn't slow Hitomi down any, does it? thought Suzaku while Kurauchi looked to Senshi and spoke quietly.

"If you had gotten crushed by anything there, would you have tried to do something about that? You could have gotten seriously injured."

"But if that happened, I'm sure you would have managed to reach me, Kazuki."

"The underground is not visible aboveground," he said. "But while still above ground, I just know I would have found you wherever you were."

.

Life: "Given his reliability, I bet he could have found him from any part of Mikado City."

Black Wolf: "Yes, that line was weirdly convincing. Especially since SenSen would not have had to hide anything and would try to use his Trigger."

Ortlinde: "I hate that I can't deny any of that due to not knowing the guy beyond fighting a car to a standstill."

Kura-uchi: "Hey! Stop that! Don't twist my charming line to make me sound like a pervert!"

.

"Anyway," said Kimura while reaching an understanding of the current situation. "They want to make sure the underground or nearby areas are safe from Neighbor attacks. Which means…"

She opened a few tabs, displayed the locations chosen by the directors, and checked over them or filled them out. And then…

"This guy is not asking for help, so no one bother thinking about that. He just wants to get back at Ninomiya for being Ninomiya. But regardless of that, Suzaku, you handle the process."

"Oh, right," said Suzaku as he accepted them and checked them over. "These are official documents to be sent to the businesses too, right? Then who will handle the official process?"

"Netsuki-san, the Hogo Squad Operator has sent another job."

"What!? I just did a job for her!"

"See? This is what happens when you go easy on her."

"Kimura, they came back unbelievably fast and now we are receiving a rapid series of empty mails."

"Hm? Did Netsuki-san hit the wrong button or something? Sorry, Suzaku, but is there a punishment for this?"

"Hm." Suzaku placed a hand on his chin. "Harassing Border's transmission via mail would normally get your identity traced from the message and then a love letter of yours would be chosen at random and displayed on the network for all to see. Oh, but you can reach a settlement instead."

"That would be a little much right now. I'd feel bad for him, so stop it, will you?"

"I will inform our TSUBAKI it was a mistake and make a bribe of sake and a romance manga. Now, as for the documents…"

"Right," said Kimura. "I submitted them to the other directors and they were already accepted, so send word to that guy."

"Oh? Idiotic airhead, it was already accepted."

"Eh!? That was fast! If we sent that from any of us, the directors would have sat on it for around two weeks before finally getting around to it!"

"Hmm." Yuki crossed his arms in a satisfied way. "Our age group is pretty cannibalistic, so they know how to handle these administrative and delicate processes. Isn't that right, Inukai? I should probably send the thanks through the official route."

"Please leave me out of that situation…"

"Netsuki-san, The Yagura Branch Representative wants you to contact the Hogo Squad Operator and pass on his thanks regarding the job transfer."

"What!? I did that! What is going on here!? How did she get the credit!?"

"Netsuki-san, about 5 second ago, I realized you should probably just get used to it."

Manager: "Hey, Netsuki-san, great work. That dumb idiot I use to call a captain sent me his thanks. In that mail you sent. Thanks."

"Netsuki-san." The worker glared at Netsuki who had fallen silent. "I have determined your life is over if you let yourself feel happy about her praise."

Ninomiya saw the faker nod.

"Well, there you have it, you idiotic airhead," said the faker with arms crossed in a dignified way.

"Wait, hold on, damn faker! Listen to what I'm trying to say!"

Things were progressing at an extreme rate.

…Um, I'm doing a strange job for Border's directors now!?

Putting him in charge meant he would not have defense duty, but that was neither here nor there.

"How are things changing so fast!? What is going on!?"

"First you tell me to listen to you and now you pepper me with questions?"

"Just tell me what is happening!"

"Fine," said the faker again before pointing into the outside sky.

The empty sky was turning a pitch black instead of a deep orange as night approached.

The residential area was over there.

"I screwed up all over the place and need to make amends."

"And you think you can do something like that by doing even more work!?"

"Oh? If you know I'm doing that, you understand this better than I thought."

"Ah." Ninomiya was dumbfounded. He had simply had a feeling this was headed that way. "You decide to change again and now you're not even sure how to do it. Are you stupid!?"

"Sorry."

When the faker apologized so directly, Ninomiya lowered his raised hips back on the seat.

Everyone around them had come to a screeching halt and Inukai had even thrown himself from the seat.

The faker had managed something that all had thought was impossible.

…He is stupid.

Ninomiya knew things were over for him now that the other boy had apologized.

Because no matter what he said or did, the other boy would simply apologize.

"Listen, idiotic airhead."

"I don't want to hear it. Because I know you're just shoving your selfishness onto me!" He moved the arm past his shoulder to point out toward the city. "You have no idea what kind of shit you have done!"

"Sorry."

"Don't apologize!"

"Alright."

"And don't say alright! When did you get even more selfish?"

"This is why I'm leaving that stuff in your hands until I figure myself out," said the faker. "Even from this distance, I'm impressed that so much is intact. There is no way anyone can doubt your resolve to do something like this after everything."

"But…that was only possible because I was given a second chance."

"Probably so. I also like to think it's because I got involved, but that would be too messed up. Even for me. But from what I've heard and seen, you've never left his side or let him get beyond that point. Not until I came in with my own stupidity."

"Because if I had let it get that far at any point in time, I would have quickly done something even more regretful than losing that first time."

"You take everything so seriously."

Ninomiya just about retorted with "unlike you, damn faker" but held his tongue.

The faker was trying to move away again. This time to a place none of them would regret.

"You've gone insane."

"Yeah. I must have been exposed to a nasty influence since that day in the hospital."

So…

"I am going to get my act together as Yagura's representative and as a person so that I can make sure people like you and Kō don't have to regret knowing me."

"Can you even bring yourself to face the people most important here?"

"No. I wanted to contact so many more people in person or even by message, but backed out before I could press the send button," he said. "That means I am still 'Yuki' as well as 'Kiyoshi' while trying to move on. In all honesty, I have no clue when I will be able to manage a proper lifestyle at this rate. I might even go out because of this illness before that happens."

"That sure is convenient for you, huh?"

"Then will you try to fix me yourself?"

Ninomiya thought about that. He had a number of thoughts concerning the faker. After all, he was the reason for his own misfortune, Minoru's current misfortune, and many other people's misfortune. But that did not mean he wanted to try and fight what seemed to be happening, nor did it mean it would actually work out.

"It's not worth my time."

But this crazy boy in front of him wanted to reach them all at some point.

…Oh.

Ninomiya mentally slumped his shoulders.

…He hasn't really changed at all.

He thought he had accomplished something, but he was still influenced by that "I'm an unneeded existence" complex.

But one thing had changed.

"You're willing to admit that you need to be fixed."

"Hiding your weakness doesn't make you stronger. So instead…"

"Yes?"

"If you admit to your weakness, something amazing is bound to happen."

"So you want to take advantage of essentially a miracle?"

"I'm trying to take this seriously," he said. And, "Ninomiya."

Listen.

"Something is bound to break at some point. That's just how things are."

.

Yuki spoke about what had happened and what he had discussed in the past.

"At that point or sometime after, I plan on making sure I won't be able to be seen and make sure I won't be in anyone's way."

And…

"I will eventually be forgotten along with everything connected to me. Don't worry though, I'll make sure my sister… Yeah. My older sister - Kushikage. I'll make sure she is also out of the way. That way only the good people from our family are still around. So…"

"I get it already. So how about you get going?"

Ninomiya shrugged.

"I understand." He briefly hesitated before continuing. "You aren't someone important to human history. So if you see yourself that way, it's bound to end up with you just leaving without being noticed. As your enemy, I would like nothing more. But…"

But…

"As a person… I hope something amazing happens and someone kicks your ass. That way you can figure out what even children know at this point. Honestly, what have you been doing up until now?"

"Well," said Yuki while aware he could not look Ninomiya in the eye. "Lately…I've visited a local business and had the privilege of having Kuruma-san's protection."

"Are you picking a fight with me!? And wait, was that what you were doing during the incident with the sponsors!?"

Then a change came over Ninomiya voice.

"Oh?" he said in confusion. "Damn faker, you got to be protected by him?"

"That's right. My name was a failure, as expected. I did decently for the most part, but, well, you can call my entire time there an accident. All I really did was provide Kō with a wrecking ball. You hadn't heard?"

"I was following the end results, but I didn't know what exactly happened there. …That's not true. What I meant was that Minoru was the only one I thought was important."

"I see. I guess that is fair. Ōji Squad got to fight a car, we went to some more festivals, Akane got a lot of snacks, Sekai-san got a farewell party, Tatsuhito finally got a girlfriend and started rubbing it in everyone's faces, and he and his girlfriend fought a strange Neighbor a few times. One time she had even been as naked as you could get while remaining PG. It was probably Border's worst battle. We tried to work things out with as little fighting as possible, but I think we forgot to agree not to take things way too seriously. Luckily there had been an idiot there to set us right."

"I see." Ninomiya rested his head in his hand. "I thought nothing else would have been as important as Minoru's situation, but maybe that was just because I didn't want to view it as a whole. Still, you actually hanging something is still a sour thought."

Ninomiya sounded a little disturbed, but Yuki had to admit it surprised him too. He had expected everything to fall apart because of his former name and some of the time he had been hiding behind the Suzunari members.

"Want to join in next time? Not with me of course. I might end up throwing you out of a high-rise after all."

"Isn't it better if something like that doesn't happen again?"

"That's why I said 'next time'," said Yuki. "Also, I know you'll want to make sure everything is fine if it involves someone important to you. Just as I am meant to get out of everyone's way, you should be the one in people's way. If someone wants to climb higher, you have to be the one to give them a reality check and make sure they don't get too full of themselves."

…Probably so.

"Were you trying to get in my way by giving me the cold shoulder for so long instead of antagonizing me?"

"Now you're just getting a big head."

"Just some wishful thinking, that's all," said Yuki. "You will be in charge of some of my work for a while."

"Then I will just do better than you ever could." Ninomiya shrugged with his palms painted skyward. "Besides, that's the role of being your enemy and yet Minoru's partner."

.

Ninomiya thought about his current position between a loved one and a hated one.

…I'm in the middle of something pretty crazy.

Minoru was someone he could say he loved and his sister had been a former teammate.

But then there Yuki, who was the only person he could truly call an enemy. He also had a sister. Two to be exact. Although only the older one was someone else he could hate.

In a way it had evened out with both love and hate having someone in those places and someone extending out from that.

"I've been pushed around because of knowing the both of you, but I don't really think that's too much of a bad thing."

"I doubt knowing the both of us so well would be that much trouble. If anything, it was probably because you have a terrible personality that people are against you. But more than that…" Yuki pointed at Ninomiya's chest. "They are probably thinking about how messed up you are for even thinking of breaking up with a good person like Minoru while his family member was here."

Inukai raised his right arm again.

"Which family member are we talking about here?"

"Right. I'm talking about Mirai here. Well, I guess that's the only one I can talk about since his parents and brother are…"

"I see," said Inukai. "I thought you were talking about his cousin or something."

.

Yuki found this sentence to be both confusing as well as shocking. He had heard stories about this cousin, but a name was hardly ever given.

"Who exactly are you talking about? If he has more family members then why haven't they come forward yet?"

"I mean, they've been around the whole time. But they look like they're going through their own issues right now."

"And how does that relate to this?"

What kind of issues would they have to be and how could they be related to all of this if they had not even come forward to help Minoru? It was a bit annoying to learn of this only recently, but there was nothing he could do about it now.

He remembered some people who had been as hardcore as family, but none of them seemed to any deep connections with the Hatohara family.

"I really wish you would just tell us already."

"If that's what you want, sure, I'll tell you. I just thought you would have known by now."

"Huh? Why?"

"Wait," said Ninomiya to stop the Gunner, but he continued regardless.

"Well," he said with a nod. "Mino has spoken about his family some, right?"

"Yes. At times, right?"

"Right," confirmed Inukai. "Depending on how you want to call her now, Takato Mei - or Shitokei Fuji - is the cousin of the Hatohara family."

Svantje looked over with a wary expression as Minoru came into the operating room.

"Oh, you got a haircut. It looks nice. But shouldn't you go find Taka?"

"It's fine. He is with Oshiro and Hisoka. Hisoka probably told you, but they plan on visiting the Yagura Branch. That's where my cousin is after all, so they should be there for a while. Haru might tag along with them too." He spoke with a dull tone and his eyes felt hollow. There was a clear difference from before, but the general feeling he gave was the same. "But I guess I should try and meet up with her at some point. I want to make sure she is better now. …Even if it's just slightly."

"If you say so…"

"Don't worry about it." Minoru glanced over. "I can at least do some things since I'm already over here."

"Mei is…Minoru and Mirai's cousin?"

"Don't look so shocked. It's the truth."

"Inukai, I think that's why it comes as such a shock," added Ninomiya.

But Ninomiya had something to say to Yuki who was hanging his head in silence.

"Just think of that as a starting point to this new place you want to reach, faker. This just means you need to try harder to figure out what exactly is going on with all of us. That way we can make sure we are on the same page and not destroying each other."

"I suppose so," weakly said Yuki.

Ninomiya saw him release a deep sigh toward the ground and decide to speak.

"Whoever you are right now, what kind of environment are you trying to make here?"

"I wish it was that easy to explain."

Yuki then looked to the sky outside.

At some point, Mikado City's sky had grown fairly dark. However...

"I wonder what's going to happen in the coming days."

A/N: This is just a note to let everyone that is caught up that there will now be a small hiatus. I will be working on two side stories that follow these recent SSR events, so SSR won't be updated for a bit. That being said, there will also be something in the works on ao3 as well. So that will add more time to the hiatus. I will be putting something to let everyone know when things are going to be coming again story-wise, so please be patient with my own stupidity. Thank you very much.