Someone inside of the school building groaned in response to the students' calls of people appearing in the couryard.
Tōma turned toward the courtyard.
"The problem is where the battlefield is. The courtyard is now completely abandoned."
"Right," replied Arafune with a nod. He turned his eyes toward the direction of the public school. "Who will make it to the school!?"
The ones in Mikado City's private schools did not have to go on a Saturday, but that did not mean they were close by. A glance into the sky reminded Arafune of this fact and he clenched his teeth.
There would be the students of the the school itself there, but he knew that his group of cannibals would be the first to act against anything concerning Border's appearance.
Some would also be holding back from doing anything or stopping others from doing anything. Then there were the ones who would be on the side of Border.
...And most of those over in that school need to stay out of trouble.
"I'm heading over!"
Kura-uchi: "Please stop. I've determined you won't make it in time."
As Arafune began to run, Kurauchi's message appeared on his phone.
"Why's that!?"
"Right. Any of our movement will be watched and others will have to respond accordingly. Within three minutes max. If they can stop us in that small amount of time, that is fine. If we can stop them for that long, that is fine too. The time limit is a mere three minutes, so you won't arrive at the courtyard in time even if you begin now. Also, Border will likely issue strict orders to keep up from going while also watching over that there will result in removing or even destroying the uncertain reactions. Working to control and protect the area after that will delay any approach to the school."
"Then..."
Just as Arafune began to speak, a new video call appeared on his screen. He answered it along with some others.
"Then we only have one option: use those at the school to oppose the ones who had gotten there. That's all there is to it."
.
Arafune watched Akashi sigh in the video call.
"You have no choice but to leave this to us for the next three minutes. Could you focus on making sure no one else comes over here? I managed to get close, so I can meet up with anyone from the school. But getting back to this... Depending on how we all move will change how the people view this battle," said Akashi expressionlessly. He looked around at all the people in the area he could see. "Sorry. A lot of things are happening."
Those words worried Arafune. As someone who could switch positions while in combat, he understood what role a strategist bore.
...This will only get worse for the strategist.
They had been watched by Border, but that was only to see what each of them would choose. There could be damage to the city, some ares had a chance of no longer functioning, and buildings could be lost. Blame would be turned toward Border and their inability to control their agents, but the most blame would fall on anyone who would be giving out orders.
Everybody who had to decide on what to do understood this much, so Arafune exchanged a glance with some of the others who were nearby before turning back to Akashi.
"It isn't time for the strategist to apologize, is it?" asked Arafune with a bitter smile.
Letting his worry show at this stage was rude to the strategist and he needed to show trust in one of their strategists.
"Once all of this is over, we can have a small victory celebration and meet up with each other. That will give us an excuse to make up for any trouble or damages."
"I see you Attackers love your glory," commented Akashi while smiling bitterly.
Arafune suddenly noticed the background behind him was moving.
"Akashi? Don't tell me..."
"Yeah. It's like I said: I'm heading out myself. Inukai-kun wants to have some fun, but he has his hands full with his own squad and what they will be doing. And in a direct confrontation, I don't have to worry about giving instructions to so many people."
"But..."
Arafune wanted to say it was dangerous, but he cut him off.
"You understand, don't you? That fox has done something and is being hunted down, but we've been told that he doesn't know what he did. Unlike the times with the sponsors, we don't gain anything, so people are going to be wondering what was going on. I need to do my best as a strategist. I need to show them I gave it my all so we could pull through to the end. I want to avoid having Border criticized because of us. We have already gotten back the support we lost and gained even more from outside, so I want to rid us of as much uncertainty as I can."
He took a breath which developed into a long sigh.
"Three minutes is a long time."
A computer screen emitted light within a small office room.
Someone sat at the end of a desk leading to the door and in the back of the room.
"What is it, Takumi? And after I went out of my way to bring the large and small metal balls."
The middle-aged man wearing a tracksuit looked at the Tamakoma Director who also wore a uniform.
"Just as I was starting to worry about what direction things were headed, something else already started up," said Branch Director Rindō. "You saw that, didn't you, Chi-chan? The emergency message went out to all of us branch directors. I'd imagine the main target's boss would especially be informed."
"Yeah, it looks like my idiotic student had gotten into even more trouble. It only just happened, though. As someone else who has caused trouble, what do you think of the agents' actions?"
"Some of them have decided to show a more conservative face to the base," said Rindō.
He watched a livestream showing Border's agents and the school. The footage was being recorded from a house near the school. Others had started doing the same thing, but most of them were being quickly taken down due to what they were showing. This one in particular had a boy who seemed rather familiar in the way he spoke.
"Oh, look at that! It seems several people thought to be Border's top members just entered the school grounds! This unknown man named Musashi will provide the following report on those who entered the area: their ages range from children to adults; their sexes are male, female, and maybe something else; and their combat styles are offensive or maybe not. ...Okay, can someone please execute the idiot who wrote this!? ...Eh!? Me!? I was the one who wrote it!? You're going to execute meeeeeee!?"
"I don't see why they would bother going to the school. Hm?" muttered Rindō. "Well, Border had two options. One was to hold Mikado City in check by accepting what happened, clear his name through a lot of work, and work to resolve anything other problems that come up. If they chose that path, they would not need to divide their exhaustion and attention between this and fighting off Neighbor. Then they could use the very end resolution to their advantage if something does come up later on. Border could take the lead in bringing about something new once again by showing even more faith int heir members. Our influence could then rise dramatically and be used to gain even more from our sponsors.
"However, those at the base chose the other option. They are treating Yuki and this situation as an enemy and reliably taking care of their own member by taking him into custody. If they do not disobey the normal laws of this world, the people of the city won't interfere or pull any unnecessary 'interpretations' during the meeting that will need to be held. Anyone involved may even try to help Border out some. Instead of aiming for excessive gain, those at the base chose the reliable route. A lot of things have been happening recently, but we have managed to retrain ourselves from being too greedy."
"But what led them to make this decision?"
"It was the end result of them sending A-Ranks out to find and catch Yuki. Yuki opposed them and went back to his family's old home, and Border chose to respond with an attack. In that case, what are the agents to do as members of Border? If they protect Yuki, they would be making an enemy of the organization they work for. And if the agents hadn't gone to search for Yuki, more higher ranked members could have been sent to do so and determine who would be on which side. The combatants would be charged with aiding someone like Yuki and attacked before they had a chance to make any kind of excuse. And as long as Yuki is still around, the ones at the base will have to keep hounding the agents. At any rate, the agents can no longer act as an intermediary between Border and Yuki, along with whoever sides with him. Carrying out the attack right at the school rather than in the Forbidden Zone gave everyone less time to make their decisions. That was probably Karasawa's idea. People like him are a little too clever, don't you think? Hm?"
Rindō turned toward the screen. It was a different video and the school had already grown more distant, but something else had happened as well. The courtyard was wrapped in fog and that fog could be seen moving even from this distance.
"Well, even if a new things brought this on, the agents themselves must ave resolved themselves to carry out the tasks given to them. If they want to go the reliable route, they'll want to keep the advantages to a minimum. It's probably due to how difficult it is to find a reliable path through these kinds of times where almost anything could happen from both this side and the other one. At any rate, now that some of the agents have made this decision, they must be planning to tackle this problem using Border's methods. I hear some people are even working outside of anyone's sight just to get this over with.
"Today, Yuki had used Border's A-Ranks to show off his ability to escape and to display his determination to not trust Border. And now some other agents have displayed their own loyalty to Border itself and exhibited their intent to remain on the reliable path. As a man who has already opposed the base, that is reassuring to hear and it is amusing to see them use Yuki as proof of their loyalty. Of course, it is always possible their hostility and refusal to accept Yuki's escape are just for show, but the others are likely already working to pressure them away from that."
"...And have you already done so?"
"Do you want me to acknowledge that?"
"Yeah," said Akasora with a nod.
Rindō laughed.
"We can't let up. We are preparing for an away mission and gathering strength to do so. But even if we're busy dealing with that, we still have to do what we can here as Border members and branch directors," he said. "But some of our agents need to come to terms with some things before that can happen. They need to find out what to do and how to act. According to what exactly we known, Yuki is definitely a Taiyōko, younger brother to Kuhikage, and a representative of your branch. He has a close relationship with a good amount of people, Shinoda included in that, so him doing something like what he's being accused of is leading to all of this."
"But that idiotic student is in a complex position for a lot of people."
"Yes. He still holds the name of the second child of that family and has yet to be determined as a Neighbor or a Human. This person who is your student represents all sorts of 'unneededness'." He took a breath, looked at the screen, and continued speaking. "That family is able to start a war by wanting to protect him. Now that is a scene you never would have imagined not too long ago, hm?"
Suddenly, a noise burst from the screen.
"Was that...?"
An explosive noise reverberated through the screen as the feed was cut once more.
"Did that do it!?" cried a boy in a red and black uniform.
Large wooden containers covered the floor of that courtyard in front of the school. they were meant for the festival that would be starting soon. The orange haired boy, Mizukami, wore goggles around his neck. He held up his arm, a cube of trion at the ready, and faced forward.
A storm of dust produced by his attack rose where the enemies had stood a moment before.
As soon as he had arrived on the school's courtyard, he had made a surprise attack before even looking at the enemies.
The attack was recent enough that he could not see his enemies through the dust.
Mizukami used the short time until that dust cleared to check his surroundings.
His own class stood behind him, but...
I shouldn't expect them to be able to attack someone if I ask 'em to, thought Mizukami. They aren't like Suzaki. No, I guess Suzaku technically isn't like that either. But he did suddenly start shooting people at last year's opening entrance ceremony.
The tradition was to hold a festival after the ceremony where the upperclassmen and their parents or guardians set up stands.
There had of course been an shooter stand. Suzaku had been urged to play because they assumed a Sniper would know how to use a gun, but that had been a mistake. The upperclassmen and adults had been amused by how well the son of the Suzaku Shop could shoot, so they had made the targets more distant and smaller. As Suzaku had continued to nervously hit all the targets, focus on his had grown and his anxiety had reach its max.
"Okay, now let's try some moving targets! Can you do it?"
That comment had been the biggest mistake of all.
Suzaku had been so nervous that he had started shooting everything in motion around him. The long combo he pulled off had turned the festival into a disaster. Ultimately, it had been the fault of the upperclassmen and adults egging him on, but Mizukami remembered running away from Suzaki, who Mizukami had not known at the time, as he had targeted Mizukami's back. Mizukami had later asked Suzaku why he had done it and Suzaku's answer had been "I was nervous, so I wanted to end it all as soon as possible."
...Yeah, but I think you were tryin' to end more than just the shooting game, ya stabbin' business worker.
However, Suzaku was not here. Once he had gained his qualifications as a business worker, he had been banned from shooting people outside of rank wars. He would still playfully shoot his comrades, but he was not generally permitted to seriously shoot people. The restriction was due to the fact that the power of someone like that was meant to be used to help others. Probably.
At any rate, Mizukami prepared his next attack.
The foundation of a good attack was preparing the attack in your mind beforehand, but that applied more to the mobile Triggers. Even so, using the power Triggers took time to aim and use focus to make sure they would hit. In some cases, preparation time could make or break an attack. Mizukami went over the basic attack pattern.
...Moving forward means I can force 'em to a certain direction and really just aim where I think they'll be.
This was the smallest amount of planning he would need to attack without any sort of restraint. And each other factor included was another value needing to be added in.
The rules governing the addition of changes did not always match up with the end result and they could even change based on one's level of understanding of the area the attack was being sent in. But despite those difficulties, understanding those rules was what it took to perform a proper attack that could be used.
Well, a lot of info can be troublesome, thought Mizukami as he held up his next attack in the form of a green cube.
Using either of the mobile Shooter Triggers would take too much time and would not do much damage. There was only two options. One of the two power shots. The one he decided to go with was the one that would not matter if it was dodged so he had decided to throw it.
I'll just blow up the area they're in
Meteora would hit them in some way even if it was dodged.
The dust from the previous attack began to thin.
However, he could clearly see the silhouettes of the people beyond it.
The enemy was there and they were approaching.
Mizukami did not know if the previous blast had been effective at all, but he completed the second by using what he knew concerning Triggers and their uses.
As the color shone brightly within his own hand, Mizukami threw it underhanded.
He targeted the silhouettes approaching through the dust before him. Not even he knew the exact timing, but once the multiple cubes of trion hit something, its explosive ability would activate and detonate. The attack would not need to hit one of them to activate that explosion, so he decided not to worry.
"Perfect!"
.
Dust spread out over a large area and dampened the movement of the wind.
After the burst of dust, a large gust of wind caused it to move toward Mizukami and the others as it gathered together. But Mizukami received this rough, tainted air with his goggles rather than his eyes.
"How 'bout that!?
He received a response from the students behind him rather than the rough tainted wind blowing ahead. He heard victorious cheers as the groups waiting behind him began to move forward.
They all seemed impatient to achieve some great deeds themselves.
"L-leave this to our schools's Body Building Research Club 'Gol iath'!"
"D-don't be ridiculous! This is a job for the Greek Sun God Research Club 'Helio-ga-balus'!"
"No, the Buddhist Research Group's Monks 'Buddhist Sentai Mikkyoger' will handle this!"
Shut up. Why do we even have so many weird ass clubs here? thought Mizukami as he prepared his next attack with half-lidded eyes.
The dust cleared up as if splitting down the center and a voice came from within it.
"Oooooh, dear. Do we only get the one opponent?"
A few figures stood approximately fifteen meters away.
There were four of them.
...They haven't even brought out their Triggers.
The trion explosion should have sent the attack flying everywhere. From as close as they were, they could not have evaded it, but the people standing there were unharmed. Also...
"There's something wrong with them!?"
.
The person standing closest to Mizukami was a beautiful girl with the appearance of a hunter.
Her body was in perfect shape and her yellow hair cascaded down her back, her body fit well in the uniform she wore, and this was all without any sort of makeup. Her uniform was a familiar one that consisted of a long coat that fanned out behind her and was short in front. The high boots were also something indicative of a what a hunter would use to find prey and not disturb the surrounding area. She faced forward with a straight face.
"I had not planned on coming to school today, so pardon my intrusion, Mizukami-senpai."
Mizukami knew who they were. Some of the people went to this school while others were simply known around the Border base for one reason or another.
This girl in particular was the Sniper to a squad where he had a friend. He knew her as a serious-type who cared deeply for the wellbeing of children, no matter how annoying they were. So if she was here...
...She's lookin' out for the children who'd get caught up in this mess.
"If you're here, Shingai, then the person behind ya is...?"
The figure seemed to nod. Standing behind Shingai was someone a bit shorter than Shingai who was quite short herself. Also...
...He's pretty young.
It was a boy who seemed as young as Yuki's student. He wore casual clothes like it was no problem.
"Someone just helping out. Kido Cody. Yo."
He gave each statement casually as if there was not something going on.
Next, a girl with a single red braid stepped forward next to Cody. She had a slender yet well-trained body, wore her squad's uniform, and had two Kōgetsu blades hanging down from her waist.
Mizukami recognized her too. He knew about her from Oki having spoken about her and her teammate being in his class. She was another student at this school who was now standing opposite to it. Her tapping feet showed her impatient attitude here, so Mizukami spoke up for her.
"I never thought you'd be doin' somethin' like this, Girly Tsukiko. I guess it'd be better to just say 'Maya' though."
"Yeah. There are some things we aren't sure about ourselves, so I want to be involved as much as I can. And today, Eri decided to see things here."
"Right," said Mizukami with a nod.
He then turned to the girl standing behind Maya.
...An otaku. No, I guess that would be too rude.
The girl had short cut black hair, wore her squad's uniform, and made no immediate movement against him here. Her expression was a plain one that lacked any indication of her thoughts, but it was clear that she would not be fighting for some time with how far back she stood.
"You'd never think she's the main option Misaki chose for her teammate. I guess everything can come as a surprise when you don't think about it too hard."
"Heh. Does the charm of the real deal surprise you? Eri here is in the process of thinking of a way to get with Take, and we're all here to help her!"
As Maya joked while taking some light steps, Asano stared down her captain at her words as if she had wanted to change her target now. Mizukami on the other hand waved a hand to those behind him.
"Stay back. Yeah, get as far back as you possibly can."
"Eh?" they all asked.
Mizukami responded without bothering to turn around.
"That group includes one of Border's more powerful Trigger user and a special situation Trigger user."
Just like the fight Yuki had recently come from, they likely intended to take the boy into custody at the first chance they got. In which case...
"We need to make sure we don't end up being the underdog. Trainers would use weak underdogs that could'nt even fight back to give their fightin' dogs confidence, but what'd ya call 'em if they can and do fight back?"
"Oh? If you fight back but still lose, does that not simply make you beaten dogs?"
Shingai held out her right hand and began to move forward.
However, someone else stepped forward first.
"Here I go. Make sure to brace yourself, that way you won't get hurt..."
It was the Kido child. Despite the showy way he moved, his gait was light and silent. However...
"...!?"
The courtyard violently shook and everyone toward the front of it was slammed to the ground in an instant.
.
Mizukami questioned the sudden shaking and weight that came down from above.
…What kind of Trigger's this!?
The pressure from above had to be some kind of Trigger. There would have been no other explanation for it besides a strange anomaly that could not normally occur.
While the others collapsed to the ground or to their knees, Mizukami resisted the pressure and thought about the enemy's Trigger.
What was this weight he felt?"
Some power was affecting him as if pressing down from above. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see those behind him collapsed or kneeling, but one fact held true for all of them.
...Their hips fell first, so they landed on their knees.
He then focused on the pressure he felt on his own shoulders, head, and knees.
"This isn't anything like 'giving out your weight'. I've also seen this kinda trick when Chisato was havin' her fun. Gravity's bein' increased."
As if affirming that analysis, the four Border agents other than Asano stepped forward.
Mizukami folded his arms to either side to divert the burden on his back to the left and right.
"Everyone, stand as vertically as ya can! If ya can't manage standing, kneel on both knees and straighten yer back! Focus on trying to get away form this crap! Use something else above your head, if ya have to!"
As he spoke, the weight only grew.
What kind of monster Trigger affects an entire area like this? wondered Mizukami as he looked forward.
The four standing before him showed no sign of bearing the weight. However...
"I'm glad you all managed to fix your positions before it got really bad."
The Kido child was holding a sword. His arms were extended to the side and he lightly waved the blade to the side.
"It can't be..."
Mizukami felt the pressure increase and the Kido child move his arm even further, so Mizukami shouted.
"That kid is usin' a Black Trigger that controls gravity, isn't he!?"
"We have no reason to explain anything to you," said Shingai with a nod. "We are only here to catch the fox you have taken in to our school. It was fine when he was running around; I would have been able to hunt him down. But the fact he is in that school buildings means that you have decided to take his side. There will be no mercy for you if that is the case. As much as I hate that I have this Side Effect, my luck is perfect for this occasion..."
The blond beauty's pink lips formed a crescent moon shaped. At the same moment, the Kido child spoke in a chirping voice over a meter away from them.
"I guess you can say that the wealthy should give to the needy."
"No, thank you!" shouted Mizukami.
Shingai moved forward while holding her right hand out. Her footsteps rang loudly as she moved closer.
"Oh dear. How can this Shooter say such a thing when he is no needy at the moment. Especially in his virtue. You should at least accept the weight any normal person would have. Or is it enough to make you unsteady?"
"Kh! Th-that doesn't matter!" Mizukami raised his voice as his entire body trembled under the great pressure. "And I can go over to Fuyushi and mess around like this, so it's perfect if there's nothin' holdin' me back from just walkin' up like that!"
As Rindō listened to the voices picked up by the soon-to-be deleted livestream, he wordlessly closed the window and turned to Akasora behind him.
"Okay, let's get to the bar like we planned. I bet we'll scare some people throwing those balls down. Hm?"
"You need to grow at least somewhat accustomed to those idiots' performance style, Takumi."
Back in the school itself, everyone turned toward Fuyushi as they focused on the courtyard via the windows.
"That idiot!" shouted Fuyushi while scratching her head. She was blushing hard and said, "I don't let an idiot like that mess around with me even if he wants to, so don't believe him!"
"Y-yes, of course. Y-you don't do that, right?" said Murakami who was unsure what to say.
Fuyushi nodded and said, "Right. It's impossible while in school, so it's highly inappropriate."
"You mean you would do it if you weren't in school!?"
"What!? N-n-no! Of c-c-c-course not!"
Fuyushi tried to shake off everyone's comments, lightly embrace herself, and stare forward. Her eyes narrowed as she looked down at the courtyard which was wrapped in dust.
"But Mizukami looks pretty irritated. I hope he doesn't do anything reckless. He can get really, really reckless when he does. ...And I don't want to see that."
With an instantaneous movement, Mizukami threw a new mass of shots. He "replayed" the attack from before and threw it once more, but it required over twice the trion because of the course correction needed for the extra gravity that had been added on to him.
He targeted Shingai who was now less than ten meters away. It was a short distance, but the weight caused the shot's trajectory to drop. Mizukami had aimed well above the girl, but it flew toward her stomach.
"How reliable. From what I remember, you are actually smarter than you normally let on and you certain show that when it matters."
As she spoke, Shingai's opened right hand held something.
Immediately afterwards, a sound of impact was followed by a dust explosion.
However, something odd happened inside of Shingai's right palm.
"Ya fired an arrow at the Metora!?"
It had been a casual action. She had pulled back the bowstring as if stretching her arm and the explosion itself had been shot down as if it got in the way of the arrow she had fired.
"!"
The explosive noise was shot down and Shingai and the other three were unharmed.
Mizukami, however, shouted into the dust explosion which was brushed to the side.
"So that's the special Trigger SenSen's spoken 'bout before!"
"Yes," rang Shingai's voice. "I have been given permission to use it here."
I see, thought Mizukami.
This Trigger had been a special made one that had come from seemingly nowhere. It took the form of a bow without a bowstring until it was meant to fire. At that point, a thread of trion would appear to connect the two ends of the bow together and form an arrow of trion that could be fired right away. It very much felt like a strong Trigger.
...So if these two are working together...
"You really are smarter than you let on, aren't you?" muttered Shingai, cutting off Mizukami's thoughts. "Anyway, we do no have time, so let us keep this short. I wanted to finish this assignment here without using this. I had hoped we could do this peacefully, but at this rate, I will not even be able to end this without some force being applied."
She held her left arm up so that it could prepare another arrow. That left hand was more dangerous than the right holding the bow.
"The name of this Trigger is Tauropolos. It is more than enough to handle this sort of assignment."
.
Mizukami saw the golden bow held in Shingai's right hand. It was wrapped in a green pattern but otherwise looked rather simple and unassuming when compared to everything else. Even so, the green pattern began shining brightly on the surface and it wholeheartedly worked to make its presence known. Finally, Shingai raised the bow in front of herself.
"I am rather proficient at firing a normal bow and arrow. This weighs much less than a normal bow and arrow we use, so firing this in rapid succession is nothing to me." She pointed the bow toward him without warning. "That has been your warning and you shall not be given any other ones. Remember that and know that my range of effect is not at all a small one."
As Shingai spoke, Mizukami heard a certain noise.
It only took one archer here that was not being crushed under the Kido child's gravity.
...She's really turning that toward me!
"Do you get it now?" said Shingai. "Right now, you are a hostage."
"...!"
The word "humiliation" floated up in Mizukami's gut. He heard the straining of a drawn bow in front of him as well as the voices of his school's archery club looking on.
"How come she gets something col like that!?"
They were complaining about pointless things. Out of the corner of his eyes, Mizukami saw a good amount of people managing to get under the school's overhang. But as he did so, he realized something. Arrows had been fired and were sent across the area. They all turned and held still in the air.
"Kh!"
There was only one reason these arrows had moved and yet did not hit anything. That was because...
...It's the gravity holdin' them in place an stoppin' them from movin'.
Several students allowed themselves collapse, but they grimaced when they realized that they could nothing in this situation. Some had been C-Ranks, so they had likely thought they could at least be shields. They gave anguished groans.
"Mizukami-senpai, I'm sorry! What are we supposed to do if you get in trouble with this girl!? Then we can't draw you and Fuyushi-senpai in our one-shots over in the manga research club!"
"What!? Whaaaat!?" said Fuyushi from a window. "Why Mizukami and me!? Why do you allow that!?"
"I stop it when I'm with a guy. I let this slide for the compensation."
"No, that's a lie."
That final comment may have been spoken using male language, but the voice belonged to a girl.
Behind Maya, Asano stood in her squad's uniform and with a casual stance that gave nothing away. She spoke with her face turning away from them.
"Mizukami-senpai. You are the type for that, true. But that sort of thing also isn't like you."
.
Mizukami heard a clear-toned indifference come from Asano's lips.
"Mizukami-senpai, you get lazy when it comes to things like that and don't care much for being used like that without compensation. But you are still smart enough to know what would happen if your likeness was used in that way and so decide to not involve yourself with any of the SS's ideas. There is only a single reason as to why you would allow yourself to be used by that club's activities and ask for so little in return. It's very obvious."
"Oh...?"
Mizukami began to mentally sweat as Asano began looking around once more without even looking over at him. This sensation could be described as a slight chill, and there was a good reason for that.
...I thought I'd been hidin' it pretty well up 'til now.
"Oh, right," said Asano as if he had just remembered something. "I hope you will eventually be able to confess to that person you like the most without holding back by teasing them."
"..."
Mizukami felt himself give a hard gulp.
...Most of those cannibals haven't even figured it out yet!
Mizukami felt something a bit different than simply having a secret exposed. This was something he had not told many people. It could only have been seen by someone who was in a similar situation and could look in between the lines carefully.
Mizukami did not know if this was his opponent's intention, but he felt this was a method of "unbalancing" him. And so Mizukami spoke into the the chat that he had brought up.
"Umi, make sure they can't reach Kiyoshi, no matter where either one of you are. It'd suck if he got caught after all of this work and ends up being guilty. Granted, it'd suck just as much if he was guilty in the first place. But that can be a worry for later."
"I'm already on it."
"That's good to know. If you would have said anything else, there'd be problems. Umi, listen to my words carefully: If ya don't, the damage'll be pretty high. And if other get involved, it'd make a bad image for Border to attack the school. We need to make sure even the festival has a grand entrance. Every time a festival comes around for the city, it feel more like a ceremony." Mizukami gave a small smile. "I know. How 'bout we talk about 'What I Want to Do'?"
The messages silently disappeared. Meanwhile, Shingai stopped at five meters away.
She looked over and sighed.
"I see your pointless chatting is over. In that case, I have a demand for you all who are going against us."
With a smile on the corner of her mouth, Shingai opened that mouth. Instead of looking toward Mizukami, she turned her sharp gaze toward the school in the distance.
"Hand over the white fox we are chasing and this will be settled."
.
Hand over the white fox.
Mizukami's mind jumped up at those words.
...Don't be stupid.
However, he also heard something else. Some solid mass struck the ground to his right.
At the bottom of his vision, he saw a cube of trion placed on the ground to the side. It was not one of his own and it was not held by gravity, but it should not have been there if he had not been the one to create anything to attack with.
But something was wrong.
He frowned as the cube began to glow a brilliant light.
...It's starting to charge!?
Before he could wonder what was happening, Maya shrugged beyond Shingai. She took a slight step and the two swords at her side shook.
However, this was not because she was ready to attack him. It was meant as a warning for what was to come.
This was a taunt.
"I can't really get up close to attack you with all of this going on. It would leave me pretty defenseless until I could reach you, but even I can make something small to place at a distance. ...I'd say thirty seconds before it blows."
The sound of a bow being tightly drawn grew louder in front of Mizukami. The bowstring started to sound metallic.
And Shingai's smooth voice could be heard over the straining of the bow.
"Surrender, one who sided with that fox. What is it? I thought our upperclassmen were ready to make an enemy of whoever they want for a single person. ...Your primary defender is now our hostage. So what kind of pitiful performance is this exactly?"
Shingai held up her bow and arrow and raised her eyebrows slightly.
"Will you all abandon one of your own? After all, it is not like you will die. You will simply be out of any more fights for the day."
However, Mizukami heard an immediate response.
"C'mon, c'mon. Don't look down on your senpai like that, ladies. We haven't abandoned him."
This voice came from the video message that appeared
"Hikigane Squad's memeber..." said Shingai with a frown. "Wh-why are you naked!? There could be children around!"
.
Shingai saw the naked boy in the video message she was receiving.
He looked at her with his arms folded, but Hogo Squad's Operator and Suzunari's Operator could be seen behind him retying a rope around his neck. The naked boy looked back at the two girls.
"Eh? Hey! What are you two doing this time!? I'm not gonna run away!"
"Shut up. We don't want you wandering around and being a bother while we're busy figuring things out. And we can't have you doing anything to the idiot while he's unconscious. At any rate, hurry up and say what you have to say."
"Chehh," muttered the naked boy below his breath. The then frowned toward Shingai. "Well? Um... What is you want? Hurry up and tell me."
"Y-you contacted me!" shouted Shingai as she felt somewhat dizzy.
...Ah, this is what Senshi has to put up with constantly.
Her excessively good amount of fortune was annoying most of the time, so she tried not to rely on it for times like these. But she would have liked for that luck to not throw her into this kind of situation.
It feels more like bad luck that I would need to deal with this man, she thought.
"I was asking if you are willing to abandon your friend."
"Eh? Oh, don't worry about that. Listen up, okay?"
Just as he struck a pose, the Hogo Squad Operator tied the rope to a nearby railing behind him and tugged twice to make sure it did not come loose.
"The way I see it...kh!? The way...heh!? Are you not going to let me speak!?"
"Eh? Oh, sorry, sorry. I'm done. You can talk now."
"O-okay! In that case, listen up!"
"Oh, it has come loose over there, Kimura," cut in the Suzunari Operator.
"As I was saying, I...gh! I...kh! Keh!? Did you have to pull it a third time!?"
The Ikoma Squad Shooter visible beyond the video message nodded twice. He turned toward Shingai with the ends of his eyebrows lowered in a look of pity.
"Don't talk to him too much or you'll catch his stupidity."
"Don't lie, Mizukami! You can't catch that just from talking to me! Touching me is a different story, though!" The naked boy took a Y-shaped pose of protest, but soon got back on topic. "Listen. I'll never abandon anyone! You can count on that!"
"What? Really, Kirikari? Even if it was the Kitazoe?"
"Eh...?"
"Wh-what kind of question is that, Kimura!? Your personality really has taken a turn for the worst lately!"
"Calm down, calm down."
The boy in the Y-shaped pose and Suzunari's Operator retrained the large boy with their hands.
"Whatever's going on at school, the base, or the world, I will never abandon anyone," said the naked boy as he folded his arms. "And listen. Mizukami there has more willpower than you think he does. At the very least, he isn't the type to just let someone take him hostage when he's trying for something."
As those words left the video, something happened.
The Shooter boy in front of Shingai swung up his right hand.
...What is he trying to do!?
What did he hope to do against the arrows and the time bomb?
Shingai did not know what the Shooter boy was doing, but there was nothing he could actually do. Shingai gave a command while releasing the bowstring in her left hand. She instructed the arrows to shoot the boy.
She had already warned the boy, so it was the boy's own fault for moving despite the warning.
And so Shingai let out a cry. She had already sent the command mentally, but vocalizing it seemed to drive the meaning home.
"Shot him!"
.
As soon as Shingai gave the command, she saw a bitter smile appear on the Shooter boy's lips.
"Too bad. I suppose I'll leave now that I've exposed what you all can really do here."
The Shooter boy spoke those words at almost the exact moment as the arrows were fired behind his back.
Several dozen arrows flew to pierce that Shooter boy's body in an instant.
But something else arrived before those arrows. A line of light flew from the center of the school to their right. That green trailing trion light was...
...A ball!?
No, it was a thick attack that seemed more blunt than anything else.
Wondering what it was, Shingai followed the line back to where the thick attack had been fired. Her gaze moved faster than her body and she saw a male student standing atop the school's rooftop.
He held a large, black sniper rifle that had just been fired.
"The Sniper posing as a Gunner!?"
"Who are you calling a Gunner!?"
While taking his follow-through breath, Suzaku waited for the feedback of a hit.
He had accurately read location, distance, and the wind. The extra protective measure had successfully taken the shot through the area ruled by Kido's gravitational burden and Shingai's strange Trigger. He had gone to all this trouble for one reason.
...Blow Mizukami away!
It had started with a simple transmission earlier. Mizukami's response had told Suzaku what he should do. The meaning had been hidden in Mizukami's speech.
...If ya don't, the damage'll be pretty high. And if other get involved, it'd make a bad image for Border to attack the school. We need to make sure even the festival has a grand entrance. Every time a festival comes around for the city, it feel more like a ceremony.
Without being told, Suzaku had known to take the last word of each sentence.
"The high school entrance ceremony!"
And Mizukami had followed it up with the talk of "What I Want to Do".
In that case, thought Suzaku.
There had been a few different people he had failed to shoot that day approximately a year ago. Mizuakmi was one of them. If that was what Mizukami wanted, this was a good chance to somewhat make up for his failure a year ago. And so Suzaku had prepared a non-penetrating anti-shock attack with Ibis.
"Hit!" he cried as green light exploded above the ground.
His attack had crashed into Mizukami.
The boy with red and black was blasted to the side.
The attack burst the instant it struck and its light expanded with a pressure that pushed the boy out of the way. Due to Kido's gravity, he did not float well, but he was still knocked a few dozen meters away.
"...!"
He had wrapped his arms around himself in advance, but he still rolled quite a bit.
An instant later, the arrows flew into the spot he had just been in, but the trajectory took them toward Shingai.
"...!"
Just as Shingai's cheeks bent in a frown, a bomb exploded in front of her.
The dust from the dirt on the ground hid the arrows and Shingai could not see for a moment.
However, countless arrows instantly stabbed through the dust. They crossed paths at the spot Mikzumai had been in, but they continued on to Shingai.
Shingai therefore pulled the bowstring in her left hand.
"Drop!"
The command just barely arrived in time. Only a dozen or so centimeters in front of her, the arrows stabbed into the ground like a thicket with sharp leaves and branches.
However, it did not end there. Instead of breaking through the dust in front of Shingai, something with a giant shield blew the dust away altogether.
"Suzunari's Attacker!?"
"Please leave at once!"
A medium sized body behind a shield with a blade at his side charged toward Shingai.
.
Despite Kido's gravity, the Attacker charged forward while partly running and partly flying.
"I will ask you to leave one more time!"
He held two weapons, so he faced Shingai by charging forward.
He filled the distance in no time at all, so Shingai did not have time to swing her right hand.
However, someone managed to move in that time.
"Hey you, I hope this isn't enough to give you trouble."
Those words were accompanied by the movement of sword held out with extended slashes. Behind Shingai, Maya instantly accelerated from a crouching start.
On her third step, Maya swung her right leg up and struck the Attacker's shield with the two blades in her hands.
"Double Senkū!"
The two extended slashes cut through the air and pushed aside the shield from the right.
"I can't have us losing someone from our side here!"
An attack that was not a single slash or a kick struck the Attacker and knocked him to the left.
As a sound of impact rang out, Maya landed and clenched her right fist.
"Good!"
Just as she spoke, a figure suddenly appeared before her It was a boy who had jumped down from the Attacker's back.
With a calm look in his eyes, he carried a piece of squared lumber that could be used as a support.
"If SenSen-san is here the it explains how that other shot got through Shingai's good luck!"
"If you know what had happened, why bother mentioning it?"
"I see," said Maya as she looked to the left.
There, she saw a certain sight. The Attacker had used the momentum of being knocked away in order to pick up the black and red boy who had rolled away earlier.
"I get it now. That charge was a decoy so that you could get Mizukami away and send in a stronger fighter."
"I'm not stronger," said the boy with a calm look in his eyes. "I'm just very unlucky."
.
Mizukami's body was unsteady due to the impact and the tumble, so he could only watch the battlefield.
More in front of him than to the side was Murakami who stood between him and the opposing force. The Suzunari ace and Attacker obstructed his view quite badly, but he made excellent cover. Mizukami managed to stand up behind him.
"Nice job gettin' here," he commented.
"We couldn't have done much without you exposing them completely like that."
"Any more praise and I'm gonna feel humiliated, so could ya leave it at that?"
"I see that some of the classmates have grown a bit conceited."
Murakami then moved forward. Mizukami tried to follow, but...
...It'd be pointless.
His body felt heavy. He could feel every part of him holding back from moving away and towards everyone else. The point in between his shoulder blades and down to his butt felt weighted, and he could not gather strength in that area. He felt the same kind of feeling above his right knee and in the front lower portion of his shoulders.
Those parts had been tense under the heavy burden of Kido's gravity and the previous impact and tumble had caused that tension to collapse.
To make matters worse, that gravity was still affecting him because he had not escaped its effective area. Each time he moved his body, that feeling seemed to produce more weight, so he felt as if his body was hanging down from its structure.
Like this, I'm only in the way, he muttered in his heart.
Murakami seemed to understand how he felt because he moved forward without speaking a word.
The Suzunari Attacker loosely moved both shoulders around in a circle and took a large step toward the base's force.
As Mizukami watched, he took a half step back.
...Damn.
He felt a thick weight over his entire body below his inner wear, so he took another step back.
A few red pieces scattered as he moved away from the battlefield.
Even as he left the noises, movements, and wind of the battle, Mizukami kept his back to the front of the school and made sure the ones inside could not see him.
"Dammit..."
He covered his face with the pam of his right hand.
He could hear the sounds of the battle beginning once more.
.
The battle took the form of swinging blades underneath extra weight.
Kido swayed and added that extra weight while Asano was immersed in watching things go on. Ahead of those two, Maya and Shingai fought Senzai.
Border's goal was to go into the school and take the white fox in there. The opposing side's goal was to stop Border from doing so.
However, the situation would come to an end once that white fox woke up or more people have come to join them.
"Just two more minutes! Please hold them off that long!" Kimura's voice filled the area via a connection to the school's broadcasting station. "Once things have been decided on, everyone will need to back off! If that doesn't happen, someone will wake that idiot up! Even if they stop you then, it won't be a complete victory. Any further fighting will become a matter of pride than actual use!"
"You are giving meaning to this battlefield, are you not? Your words give different meaning to the situation and point the spotlight away from who wins and who loses," said Shingai as she watched Maya lead lightly into the air and hold her Kōgetsu tightly. "A very poetic method. There is more to a situation than what meets the eye. You retain the dignity for the ones who created this sort of strange battlefield by betting on our win or loss, but rather than let those creators speak for themselves, you express that result with different words."
She took a breath as Maya landed.
"Begin the next set."
The instant Maya both finished her preparations and landed, two extended slashes from her blades flew through the air.
Despite the extra weight being placed on the battlefield, the two slashes moved and destroyed a container.
Shingai fired arrows with a simple flick of the wrist. With a sound of impact, the box spun around and flew through the air.
"How very light."
The container fell to the ground and was smashed to pieces along with the items loaded inside.
Sounds of cracking and snapping wood rang out as the fragments flew into the air and disappeared. However, no one looked in that direction. All focus was on Shingai.
"Can you see this?"
She held one of the arrows that had been made but not fired. She held the arrow vertically above the ground in front of her.
"Kido. Focus your Trigger's ability on this."
In the next moment, two things happened.
First, the weight bearing down on the area vanished for only an instant.
Second, the arrow in Shingai's hand disappeared.
"...!"
An intense vibration came from the ground just before her feet.
The ground shook as if jumping up and Fuyushi gave a school-wide announcement.
"!? Hey, don't go destroying school grounds and properly like it's nothing, you underclassman! That sort of things should not be allowed in Border and even that is too much force for this sort of thing! But besides that, you guys be careful out there! That looks crazy!" She took a breath. "That attack is very dangerous, so stay away from it!"
.
Everyone heard Fuyushi's words that could be taken as surprise or a scream.
And in response, two members of the school side stepped forward.
Senzai stepped forward to confront Maya.
"Senzai, you handle her. I will take care of that standing gravity source," said a voice to the side.
A single bulky form walked toward the battlefield. It was...
"Suzunari's Ace from before?"
"That's right. I am going to ask you all to leave as a member of the Suzunari Branch." He calmly walked through the weight bearing down on him. "I have two things to tell you. First, I will be doing what I can to stop you. I don't want to cause damage to the schoolyard, but I might not have a choice. This much weight really is tough to go through, though. And second..."
Without nodding, Murakami looked toward Shingai.
"I will not be giving up Yuki at any point in time."
.
The silence and motionless brought on by Murakami's words was eventually broken by someone.
It was Maya. She glanced over at Shingai and nodded twice.
"Yeah, that's to be expected, and I told her as much myself. So I'm just left wondering what she is even doing."
"Hey, wh-whose side are you on!?"
"I'm fine with whatever," added Kido.
The weight suddenly increased and the ground was lowered a bit. The wooden containers making up the festival supplies were beginning to warp.
That weight was passed on to the ground itself, so the schoolyard began to be covered in dust and dirt from the sides to the center. The weight of course affected those in the schoolyard as well.
"...Nh."
Senzai fell to his knees, but held onto his Raygust to stay upright. However, Maya was not affected by the weight, so she sighed and stared at Senzai.
"You're done for either way. We only have a little more than a minute left and Murakami's endurance is a threat, but Kido can provide more weight and Shingai can throw more arrows. So..."
So...
"You guys are pretty much done for here, you know?"
"I hope those guys will be fine," said Suzaku as Kunichika walked up next to him on the roof of the school building where he had fired from.
Kunichika observed the warping of the schoolyard that was visible from outside and listened to the school-wide announcement.
"During a lot of their training, Akasora-san put a lot of pressure on those guys, didn't he? And I mean literal pressure, like this weight. They may not have done it in a while, but they make an excellent trump card for moments like this."
Kunichika tapped on Suzaku's shoulder and wrapped her left arm under her own chest.
"More importantly, you have nothing to do here, so why don't you go elsewhere?"
"But..."
"Heh heh. As a sniper boy known on a city-wide level, I know you want to shoot people left and right and make some victims bleed, but this is no longer a situation in which shooting will do any good. Besides, they wouldn't bleed unless you got them out of those bodies. You need to leave."
Suzaku initially wanted to deny most of that yet agreed to the ultimate conclusion, but...
"You aren't going to do anything, Kunichika?" he asked instead.
He was essentially asking if Kunichika did not want to gelp given the situation. However...
"No. I am just a normal Operator, remember?" said Kunichika casually as she looked toward the schoolyard. "Then again, SenSen isn't even a part of our school. But I have no actual combat abilities. And..."
Kunichika raised her right hand and placed the index finger on Suzaku's forehead. Suzaku looked up slightly from beyond that finger.
"You are a business man, so you are not supposed to participate in combat either."
And yet...
"If you feel the need to do something and force yourself to take part, you will only make things more painful later. In your current state, that guy in the infirmary bed and the others are hesitant to include you in combat. A proper businessman should not force himself into the middle of it all where he will accomplish nothing. Try inviting them over to you without trying to win their favor."
"I-I'm not forcing myself into-..."
"Don't bother lying."
Kunichika forcibly cut him off. Suzaku tried to resist, but he realized growing stubborn would not help.
"You miss out on a lot when you have things to take care of," lamented Suzaku.
"Yes. You aren't allowed to shoot people."
"I-I think your view of me is a bit off, Kunichika!"
"Oh? The fact that I was only 'a bit' off is making me shudder."
"Huh!? Wh-why is everyone being so harsh with me today!?"
Suzaku hung his head down upon realizing how useless he was, but Kunichika opened her mouth to speak once more.
"Aren't there other things you can do? All the fighting will make you want to shoot something, but you can go and fix the transmission to be cut in half for each side. And. Another. Thing," she said with clear distinction between each word. "You need to trust the others more. They are more than just idiots. After all, they are all people that guy resting fully trusts. And you fall under that category as well."
The words and other sounds produced by the wind were accompanied by a certain groaning.
The school itself was creaking under the weight being placed around it.
Everyone frowned and turned cautiously toward the schoolyard.
"Huh?"
But they quickly let out confused voices.
"Is that…?"
The dust above the schoolyard had been sinking down under the weight, but it was now gently floating up and beginning to produce convection.
"Is the weight lessening!?"
As Maya fought with Senzai over her location, she saw something.
The Suzunari Ace was advancing.
Step by step, that solid form with two Triggers at his side approached Kido despite the weight bearing down on him.
The weight was definitely there. The Suzunari Ace's feet were breaking out of his shoes and he was leaving definite footprints on the dirt floor.
However, those footprints also meant that he had not stopped walking.
"You really are a high ranked Attacker and ace!"
As far as Maya could tell, the Suzunari Ace could not freely push forward while under Kido's weight and he could just barely walk.
"Concentrated attack," said Kido lightly.
That meant he was placing the weight such that the Suzunari Ace was in the center.
Kido's eyebrows rose, his arm rose, and the Suzunari Ace's body began to creak. However...
"Not nearly enough!" roared the Suzunari Ace as he took another step forward.
"...!"
Kido arrogantly poured the weight on, but it took time to raise the weight over the entire area. Instead, he diverted the overall weight toward the Suzunari Ace. And so…
"Are you going to ignore me?"
The boy named Senzai Senshi began to move more lightly.
Maya had a single thought concerning this warrior who opposed him.
…This guys is dangerous, too!
.
Maya faced the opponent who he alternatively attacked and defended against.
Due to the weight, Senzai had less clothes on and was relying on pure strength in his movements. Maya, on the other hand, raised her attack speed with a Trigger. Senzai chose a certain strategy when faced with that situation where his opponent had an overwhelming advantage.
"You're focusing solely on defense!?"
"It's kind of pathetic, so don't say it out loud."
The Raygust he had used as a support now functioned as a shield as he focused on defense. His arms, legs, and movements stopped, deflected, or evaded attacks. He seemed to take some attacks as feints, but…
…Even those are throw-away delaying actions used as defense!
Those feints had meaning. They sealed Maya's actions as she stood between Kido and Shingai.
Senzai did not have to win. He only had to keep Maya from helping the others.
…This guy is good for someone who only came here to stop Shingai's Side Effect!
Maya observed her opponent as she started mentally going over the other fights they could have later on.
"...!"
She saw Senzai with his hands full simply defending and moving his large support in and out of place. He was only in a simple jacket, pants, and boots and baring his teeth, so it was difficult to think of any word except "desperate".
He made up for his lack of skills by going all out. He had stamina and speed, but his arm strength was average for his age. That was his weakness.
One could call him unbalanced and awkward.
It was fun.
…But…
"To go with defense when you're best skills are using offense for you defense, you really should be higher in rankings of Attackers!"
Maya received no response. She raised his speed, so Senzai wordlessly worked at his own speed. The boy truly had his hands full now, but he still managed to force his defense through.
He was dangerous.
And so Maya turned toward Shingai.
"You! Can you fire another arrow!?"
"I can! More importantly, Kido!?"
Kido was attempting to hold back the gradually approaching Suzunari Ace. He had both arms up into the air and his face looked irritated, but he managed to speak.
"Yeah. I can do it."
"Understood! Great, Kido!"
The fletching of Shingai's arrow vibrated as if shuddering. This showed that Kido had reset the distribution of weight.
Shingai released the arrow as if placing it in midair.
"Arrow #2! Go all the way to destroy the area!"
To make doubly sure, Shingai struck the arrow down with her right hand.
The arrow immediately vanished, the weight instantly vanished, and everyone braced themselves for the coming vibration.
"..."
After a moment of silence, a loud noise reverberated from the ground the arrow tried to hit. However, it was not the creaking of the ground or the roar of destruction. It was a strange metalic noise.
"...I see!"
.
Shingai looked down toward he source of those words which had been accompanied by a loud impact.
"...Please do not mind me."
She could tell it was a white rhinoceros beetle, but why was it speaking with an arrow piercing its back and why was it staggering unsteadily.
"...Ah. ...Wait. ...I should not be speaking, right?"
Shingai dropped the next one, this time forcibly throwing it down, but the white rhinoceros beetle moved to the spot where it would land.
"...I see that these are arrows made of trion. ...They are well made too."
With the sound of a direct hit, the rhinoceros beetle floated up lightly from the rebound. However, the arrow did not pierce through this time.
...Does this creature have an anti-impact structure and is broadening its feet to disperse the impact!?
The ground still creaked, but it only rattled lightly.
"I cannot believe it," muttered Shingai while beginning to grow irritated.
She recalled seeing similar rhinoceros beetles moving around during a recent festival. It had not been noticeable then because the hard shell had only been fired on horizontally, but the anti-impact structures of each part were made to almost perfectly stop even impacts from above. The way the hard shell bounced up in the rebound was proof of that. Its defenses were set quite high.
The one using the shell would have a hard time moving, but their safety was ensured by the perfect defense.
And so Shingai leaped to the other side to her right.
"Kh!"
And she fired another arrow.
However, she saw immediate movement ahead. Over towards the school, an idiotic faced and muscular sniper gave a refreshing tone from the window he was at.
"Over here, RB07! come over here!"
The rhinoceros beetle picked itself up and moved towards the school.
"...Oh. ...Ah. ...I see."
"Kh," groaned Shingai.
This time, she leaped to the tree near the front gate and fired an arrow, but a slime creature was attacked to the gate's wall.
"Goo!"
"...Understood. ...Thank you."
A great vibration and noise exploded out and wind blasted up at the area, but the arrow did not penetrate any lower and the hard shell only staggered a bit.
"Stop pissing me off!" shouted Shingai with narrowed eyes and n arrow between each of her spread fingers. "It is time for rapid fire!"
The noise and impacts of the hard shell stopping the arrows were transmitted by the recording livestream going on by students.
The people in the area used a tablet screen to watch the rhinoceros beetle move left and right while Shingai dropped arrows overhead while also moving left and right.
"Arafune, doesn't seeing this scene on a tablet make you want buttons for moving them left and right?"
"Yeah. I used to have a black and white handheld game like this. It was made by some corporation and I had the Giant Octopus and Fire games."
"This is more like the Insane Monkey Man game that had two screens. You have RB07 back and forth on the bottom screen while SenSen moves up and down on the top screen to hold the dual-Kōgetsu back."
"Oh, I can hear you," said Hanzaki from within the school building. "That kind of video game is...ow. That one looked like it would really hurt. Even for that weird beetle."
"Why do you do when the damage builds up, Arafune?"
"Right. You recover by tapping the right button as fast as you can to drink the goop that slime Hanzaki was talking about hands you."
"You two need to take this more seriously," said Kon with a sigh.
"That's right," agreed Kimura.
"Listen," began Kon as she pointed at the tablet and raised her eyebrows. "The two of you need to worry about what comes later. After all, the true challenge begins when you reach 100 points and enter high speed mode."
"You need to take this more seriously, too!" shouted everyone.
"...If I get hit by 100 of these, I will be taking a full day to spend with the children," said the rhinoceros beetle through the tablet.
"A day off would be enough?" someone muttered, but the impacts and screams continued.
Jinsei would occasionally give comments like "Py-yan, not there!" as time passed.
Whenever the arrows were fired, the weight holding Murakami down would lessen and he would walk forward. Eventually, he made it within ten steps of Kido.
Someone shouted out in response to that situation.
"Eri! Help Shingai with the arrows!"
But Asano did not respond to Maya's voice. The tablet footage showed her with her face turned to the side.
"That makes sense. If it goes that way then it would only make sense that covering the sides would be the best option."
"Listen to me, you!"
That shout finally caused Asano to turn her eyes, but she did not turn her head in the slightest.
"Shut up," was all she said.
She turned back toward whatever she had been focusing on and covered her ears to shut out the surrounding noise. However, she gave one offhand comment as she immediately lost herself in thought again.
"That's a pain, so I'll just move things properly. That's fine, isn't it?"
"Wait!"
Shingai's voice caused the tablet's voice device to tremble. She stopped firing arrows and turned toward Eri with her eyebrows raised.
"This is an order from someone in the top tier! Do not try to change anything without restriction outside of the Forbidden Zone! We only brought you with us because you agreed to that, so..."
"I only wanted to see if someone would come out so I can talk to them. ...Including some others. Seeing how I can go about everything is quite thrilling. More importantly, Shingai, do your job. Do it for the children."
That last sentence seemed to affect Shingai more than the rest.
She gave a snort and a final parting glance toward Asano.
"You are an impertinent person, but I will forgive you as you have not forgotten about the children. Even if it was a blatant attempt to manipulate me. And in that case..."
Shingai swept her hand across sever arrows to fire them.
"Three at once!"
Three arrows. They could not defend against that with RB07 as their only shield.
Everyone knew the triple attack would reach the ground and likely the door.
But in the next instant, everyone saw a certain sight.
"Hound."
As if swayed by the word which reverberated through the air, the three arrows moving at high speed suddenly got devoured by something. It looked like they had been taken from the air.
No one there had the ability to do that so freely.
If someone had done it, it was a newcomer to the battlefield.
The first to notice the newcomer was Eri as she turned away from the side. She quietly looked beyond the lines of large wooden containers and spoke.
"There is one of them."
The person to whom Asano referred arrived on the battlefield.
"Sorry I'm late."
He released a few orbs of tiron into the air, lightly raised his right hand, and gave his name.
"I am Suzaku Squad's Shooter and second-in-command, Akashi Ichiya."
.
As Maya fought Senzai, she handled her enemy's attacks with her blades and turned toward the newcomer.
Suzaku Squad's Shooter, Akashi, ran over from the opposite side of the gate opening.
An orb of trion hung around his head with the size being the same as his head.
As a literature type, Akashi might not have liked running here. However...
"This really means nothing if the hero can't keep standing and push right through."
Maya saw all of the lacking parts of Akashi begin to fix themselves as he lifted his head and moved his shoulders around. As the trion orbs by him moved around him, Maya realized what it was.
...Kido's Triger's power is breaking apart.
Kido's Trigger was not affecting Akashi. This was because...
"With only thirty seconds remaining, I finally arrived at my enemies. And I'm going to keep speaking."
And he did.
"Sorry I'm late. I'm just a slow runner is all."
While dealing with Senzai, Maya realized something from what Akashi said and the feeling it gave her.
"Eri! He is-..."
Maya trailed off before she could say "a strategist".
Asano had righted her posture while dusting herself off.
...She really is taking to this one!
But Akashi took action before anything more could happen.
"Sorry."
As she straightened herself, she felt something put her slightly off balance.
Akashi moved the orbs of trion around him as he rushed her.
"I hope you don't mind if I used the weight I just brushed aside to hit you hard."
His words became reality.
One of the orbs of trion rushed out before him and slammed down onto the girl and exploded upon impact.
"I won't be holding back here just because you are younger or a girl. Actually, I want to fight even more since I decided to speak with that boy from Kotowari Squad," he said.
"Don't take any of this personally, though. I just want that fox to owe me one."
With a great roar and a creaking of the ground, the enemy tilted herself. The orb of trion became an impact that struck the enemy and the space around her and produced a powerful explosion of wind.
An explosion blossomed in front of Akashi and a great noise burst out.
And that left one less enemy.
.
Akashi took a breath.
...I'm glad I could finish that quickly by taking the first move.
Once the strategist defeated one of the enemies, the people's image of the battle would change greatly. That fact would demonstrate that the strategist had put himself in danger on the front lines and that he had the power to handle that danger. And by proving the strategist was useful, opinion of him would be more positive. So...
...Well, that should be good enough.
The battle was not over, but he needed to focus on covering for the others because his own attack style was slow to implement.
Like his Gunner teammate, he always enjoyed moving in close with large orbs of trion before using them to attack from right in front of his opponents. It was meant to throw them off balance since they would be looking for his close-ranged attacks and would think of a way to deal with his orbs of trion. It was something he had noticed the Kotowari Captain begin to do without noticing and so he made sure to put more emphasis in his movements so that that boy could see how it was done properly.
Akashi had undergone a semi-high level of training, so he could use his past experiences as a basis for an example on what to do. That allowed him to show through actions instead of words, but reusing any failures would only cause efficiency to drop. That was why Akashi like moving forward and never going back, that way he could always ignore the failures. This gave him a stock of unused experience that could resemble failures but end as successes.
He had just used an overly simple way of attacking by moving directly in front of his opponent. He had not used much of his stock of trion for any fights recently, so he had several ideas moving around in his head.
"Well, that should do it..."
Akashi began to turn to the gate. He began to turn to look at Shingai, Maya, Senzai, Kido, and Murakami.
"...Eh?"
But before he could, he saw someone standing in front of him.
It was a skinny short-cut girl wearing her squad's uniform. It was Asano.
She stood within the winds as if nothing had happened. It was as if she had ignored his attack.
And she opened her mouth to speak.
"Quite an interesting attack," she said as she slowly nodded and stared at him from a distance. "You could say this is Shooter vs Shooter. Surely you didn't think you could take down a fellow Shooter with attacks styles at that level."