The Tsukiko Squad operating room soon received a notification that a new fight within Mikado City had begun. Asano received the information from the news and media that had seen the fight.
"...So the last of the fights have begun."
Mikado City was entering it's nighttime festival.
She could see an illuminated city in the distance.
That would be Mikado City.
...It seems almost insignificant from a distance.
Asano looked to the girl who had opened her phone next to her.
"What do you want, Maya?"
"Are you still mad about earlier?'
"...I let my emotions get the better of me."
"That's right. You let your feelings for Takeshi get to you."
"What feelings are you talking about?"
Hearing that, Amaya's expression stiffened.
"Um, sorry."
"For what?"
"...Are you...trying to deny your feelings?"
"...I guess I'm focusing more on the fights and being a strategist."
"How so?"
"Well," said Asano with a nod.
She understood that her feelings towards the Kotowari Squad captain were different from what they were for her teammates.
But she only understood them at a basic level.
Still, she knew that the feelings she held for him were rather enjoyable.
"He has managed to beat the two of us and gotten to the top tier of B-Ranks."
"Oh, yeah. Those guys are doing really well for themselves by adding a new teammate while also improving themselves, aren't they? It takes something like that to rise back up from the bottom."
"Yes. ...I'm still trying to figure out how we can end up like that too."
Amaya's expression froze. After a while, she hung her head with sweat pouring down her face.
Asano could tell this was bad, so...
"Hey."
"...Ah! Sorry! Sorry, okay!? Let's get back on topic!"
She was troubling a teammate.
She did not really mean it as a way to make up for that, but she decided to ask what she had intended to earlier.
"What am I supposed to do about these feelings?"
"I dunno. I've never actually gone through that as harshly as you. ...What do you think?"
"I suppose figuring this out at some point would be good. We've heard what some of the other side's plans are, so I'm expecting him to come and fight me."
"Then that physical interaction will be a good thing for you. ...Don't worry. Takeshi likes being around you, so it won't be too complicated."
"I see," she said while getting back looking at the city.
But then Amaya asked a sudden question.
"What do you think of him anyway?"
"I can't really say." She responded immediately. "Our positions are the same. Any thoughts would have to come after we both come to an understanding. Otherwise, it is irrelevant."
"You really aren't joking right now, are you?"
"If you get that, then don't do it again."
But Asano had another thought.
...I don't feel like talking much, do I?
She felt like she had talked a lot today, but it was still nothing compared to Amaya and the others.
So she kept speaking to avoid an awkward silence with Amaya.
"The first thing you have to keep in mind is that he is still trying to understand how to be himself with others."
"That sure is a heavy change of topic... But just out of curiosity, what do you mean?"
"You know, but I'll let it slide this time. Nasu-san and Kakizaki-senpai are helping him understand others better, so he is focusing more on that."
"Oh." Amaya nodded. "And so he won't focus on other things."
"When he manages to get all of that settled, I might have figured things out for myself and will be able to say something."
"...I think you can manage to do that."
She could not decided if she should thank her for that. But...
"After that, neither one of us will be in the same position as before. ...And I don't know what will happen."
"Then how about you ask us for help with that sort of thing?"
"That's for a later time to think about it."
"Then," said Amaya again. "Why are you so mad at the people you think are so against him?"
"Because they made me mad."
Asano knew Amaya was going to ask why she should be mad, so she continued before she could do so.
"Mad because he can't currently be mad at them. ...I can't say anything to him if I can't at least be mad for his sake.
...So they want to finally get down to this.
Kimura looked down at her phone that showed a line of messages there.
The festival lights and sounds surrounded her as she walked in a large group with many others who were waiting to do something about the current situation.
Rather, they were pretending to care about what was happening and were instead focusing on the festival all around them.
"Hey, don't go takin' my food like that!"
"You shouldn't eat too much when we're going to a barbecue later!"
"Weren't you paying attention? Awdry called that off since he said he's going to go do something else!?"
"What a little punk! I was looking forward to eating some rare meat!"
"Let's riot!"
"Yeah, let's!"
"Riot! Riot! Riot!" they cheered.
She shook her head with a defeated sigh.
It had taken the full day for her former teammates to contact her with news of what to do about the current situation. And now that they have, she had to deal with all of these terrible people.
Rampage Dress: "Is everyone here? If you aren't just say so."
Everyone: "What kind of prank is that!?"
Kuru-ma: "I thought it was pretty funny..."
Black Wolf: "Does anyone have anything to say here?"
White Fox: "Say it now. That way we can properly mark down who we need to beat up."
Everyone: "Shouldn't we be beating you up first!?"
"Now, now," she said while lowering her arms.
Now was not the time to fight the idiot over something trivial.
Manager: "So what's going on?"
White Fox: "We wanted to ask you that."
"What good are you!?"
Everyone turned to her with a "now, now" motion, so she turned away from them to calm herself.
Taking a few breaths, she went back to her phone.
White Fox: "Have any more fights started?"
Manager: "As far as I know, there hasn't been any major fights. Just Kageura finding something odd."
White Fox: "Oh, we know about that. You don't have to go over that."
That was a good thing. Wasting time on that sort of thing would only slow them down here.
Grateful for Kageura's fast thinking after his fight, Kimura send a look toward Kitazoe. The message got through as he gave a thumbs up and began typing on his phone.
Looking over at everyone, she saw that some were paying attention to their own phones while others were busy with the nearby stalls.
Some people were missing, but most of them could be accounted for elsewhere. Murakami and Kageura were off with others while Meishō and Hokari were getting ready to make their appearance at the festival. But there was one particular person who was not there right now.
"Has anyone seen Kanzaki? I would have thought that she would be eating up the festival food."
"Oh, don't you know?" Tōma asked.
She did not, so she motioned for him to continue.
"She's busy fighting Tachikawa-san. Yeah, she sent a message a bit ago."
"I didn't see anything!"
"Well now you know."
"Tell someone to go help her!"
"Who can even go?"
She looked around to see everyone turn away at her gaze.
None of them wanted to leave the festival to go fight the #1 solo agent of Border. Even with her there, it did not feel worth it when their loss would be obvious.
It was fair once she thought about it, but she was also a bit disappointed that no one took up that challenge.
Hearing someone sigh off to the side, she looked over to see Arafune raising his forearm with an annoyed expression.
"I won't go myself, but there's someone who owes me a favor. I'll call that in and have them go help her. That sound fair?"
"That would be appreciated."
With that settled, she went back to her phone to inform her former teammates of the situation.
Manager: "Kanzaki is fighting Tachikawa."
White Fox: "Oh, that should be something."
Rampage Dress: "Have fun, Kanzaki. We'll pray that you won't have a less than fortunate loss."
Manager: "When were the two of you this bad!?"
Black Wolf: "They just got like that recently."
That was worrying for multiple reasons.
She wanted to ask if Murakami was okay, but something else had come to her mind that she needed to get out.
"Hey."
Manager: "Are the three of you just at the mall right now?"
Rampage Dress: "Oh, we were planning on moving out soon. The boys want to go one way and I will go another."
Manager: "What exactly are you planing by doing that?"
White Fox: "We want to find the person who looks like the old me. Someone who looked like 'current' me got caught by my sister, but the one Kage fought was different. We want to see what that's about."
He had directly referred to his sister without any hesitation. For someone like him that meant that a great change had occurred without them knowing.
She was not the only to notice this since she could hear Arafune speaking off to the side.
"He really is a bother. But at least he's decided what to do about his family."
"Oh, oh? Was Arafune worried about Yuki this entire time?"
"Don't be an idiot... You know what, never mind. That's impossible for you."
"Then it's super possible!"
The idiot had started dancing around in his shrine maiden outfit. If not for the festival, she was sure that Arafune would have tossed him to the side without any hesitation.
Leaving him to the rest of those people was probably the best course of action right now, so she went back to her conversation.
Manager: "Is there anything you need us to do?"
Life: "Hey, hey, Kawa. Don't go inviting us into this sort of thing without our consent! Consent is key! Key, key, key!"
"Are you a monkey now?"
The way he twirled and landed on his toes told her everything she needed to know.
"Anyway," she said.
Manager: "A lot of these guys don't feel like leaving the festival, so don't expect much from them. But I'll see what I can do from here."
White Fox: "Thanks for that, Kimura."
Manager: "Now you're just being creepy."
The others looked over to her with waving hands, but she turned further around to ignore them.
"Oshiro, c'mon! Over here! Over here! Let's enjoy ourselves some more over here! Oh, but not near those cannibals! Those people are the ones you should be staying away from!"
"Um, Sumiharu? Shouldn't you be helping Ninomiya-san?"
Hearing two familiar voices, she turned back around.
Walking towards their group were her captain and his boyfriend.
Upon seeing her looking directly at them, Inukai waved over and pulled her captain in close.
"Kimura! Heeeeey!"
.
Inukai smiled inside as he remembered the messages he saw before coming over here.
Everyone had been gathered together for the festival and he had been trying to find a way to escape his captain's eye. So with some stealth, he turned off his Trigger and started blending in with the crowd. Once he was safely away from his captain, he wrapped Oshiro up in his arms and both began their way to meet up with everyone else.
The complaints and threats he had gotten after that were amazingly short and terrifying.
So he had made up an excuse.
"I'm going to go make sure those guys don't try anything to help Yuki," he had said a she walked away.
His captain knew that he was just trying to get away, but did nothing to stop him.
Now that he was here he could see that everyone present really was enjoying themselves here and not bothering with what was going on.
They're all so carefree when they know that things will work out in the end.
Oshiro had been worried the entire time, so he took it upon himself to calm his boyfriend down.
They had been loud enough for others to hear them since Kimura turned to look directly at them. He waved in greeting and moved to stand near her.
"So I'm obligated to ask if you're trying to help out Yuki here."
"I have no obligation to answer you."
"That's fair," he shrugged.
He was only here to enjoy himself with Oshiro, after all. No sense in starting a fight.
Looking around the area, he took note of who was here and who was not. Yuki, Murakami, Seiji, Hokari and Kageura made sense to him, so he didn't question that. Even Kanzaki made sense when he found out that she had started fighting Tachikawa over by a river. But there were some others who he found strange to be missing.
"Hey, where are Ōji, Prez, SenSen and Mino?"
"Hm? Oh. I don't know about the first or last ones, but Kurauchi had said he wanted to go talk to Senzai about something."
That was questionable as it was. He let that go for now since he was in a good mood and did not want anything to get in the way of his spending time with Oshiro.
...But I'm worried about the other two.
Minoru had gotten a bit better since the incident with Yuki, but he would have liked to know that he was fine with everyone else. Messaging him directly seemed liked the best solution to the question he was asking himself.
Then there was Ōji.
He has a disdain for Yuki, so I'm also worried about that. If Prez is with SenSen then that means Ōji hasn't moved out his squad to look for Yuki.
He was doing this by himself.
That alone was something to think about. But if Yuki was focused only on Ninomiya then it meant that Ōji would have many opportunities to attack later on. If things weren't resolved by then, it would only cause more chaos later on.
Kimura understood that much with the way she straightened up and turned back to her phone.
"Kurauchi says that he doesn't know where his captain is either."
"You can try and find that out. I'm going to message Mino."
She nodded her head as he pulled out his own phone.
.
Inu: "Mino, you there?"
Deer Prince: "Yeah, I am. What do you need?"
Inu: "I was just wondering where you were. Shiro and I were hanging out and met up with everyone else."
Deer Prince: "Don't worry. I'm currently at the base with someone. Just enjoy yourself."
"Something important come up?"
"Not particularly."
Several screens were spread out as Katerina sat at a table, looking at all of the screen one at a time. Each one showed something different, but they all seemed to connect to a single point on the main screen.
On that main screen was the visual for a black rod that had a large blunt end and a sharp small end. The length of it was roughly that one a person's arm.
Minoru gave a bitter smile towards the screen. He knew what that rod was and what his friend was doing with it.
"I doubt this is the case, but are you on his side then?"
"I'm not on any side."
"So what you're doing right now is..."
"Simple maintenance."
Minoru raised a brow as he saw the black rod slowly changed. The two ends of it began to even out with the pointed end filling out and the blunt end thinning more. The length of it did not change, but that might have been because it was supposed to be small and easy to move. Two smaller portions came out from the one of the two ends as a loop formed on the other end.
Katernia continued looking from one screen to another as she typed on the keyboard laid out in front of her.
He could hear the nearby Engineers talking to each other, but they were quickly shut up by Terashima telling them to go and enjoy the festival.
With a thumbs up, he began to make his way back to the room he had come from.
"It really doesn't look like simple maintenance to me."
"Fine. I'm putting the finishing touches on Yuki's Idōgetsu."
"So how should I take this?"
"Take it however you want."
She turned away from the screen to look up at him with a smile.
The several screens continued displaying the information for the personal Trigger that Katerina had created and was now finishing.
"I'm pretty mad at that guy for wanting to keep things a secret for a stupid reason, but he's been doing well enough with the Trigger he had me finish over in Germany. Everything he has done with it and everything it has been through has been sent to me to look over and monitor. He kept his word on that much, so that's good."
"But you thought that there was more you could add to it."
"More like it could use a makeover since he is also changing."
"...Is the change a good one?"
The bitterness in his words had been clear, but she still smiled.
Even without being given the full story, she understood that his standing with Yuki was rocky at best. But she still smiled as if she knew something he did not.
Without turning back to the screens she typed something out and continued speaking to him.
"I guess you need to see for yourself if it is. I have my thoughts about it, but they're different from the ones you have. I don't want to mess anything up, so I'll be keeping my mouth shut about it."
"Then I can assume that it is a good change if you are changing his Trigger like this."
"Do you really think that's the case?"
He did not.
They both knew each other rather well so he was aware that something like that was not the case.
Katernia was one of the smartest people he knew and she would not be fooled easily by anything Yuki said or did. If she was working on his personal Trigger again then it was because she looked into the future with her genius mind and determined that it would be best if he had a Trigger that was ungraded instead of how it had been up until now.
Yuki had been someone who did not underestimate her in the entire time he had spoken with her, even going so far as to have his guar dup the entire time they had first met. It had likely been his training that had him reacting like that, but it was a good thing he had not thought she was not capable. If he had made a mistake that time then there was no doubt that the trouble he would have been in was not something he could have easily gotten out of.
But that had not been the case.
...He knew right away that she could be dangerous if given the proper setting. Which, admittedly, doesn't take much.
But it was enough proof that he understood the situation at the time.
And now that decision had come back in spades as Katerina continued to work on his Trigger.
"I should be done with this soon enough. Well, at least put it to a spot where it can be tested out. But..."
But...
"It looked like things are starting to move again. I won't have time to test it out before it needs to be used."
She turned back to the screen and he knew what she wanted from him.
It would be difficult, but if it put a resolution to all of this, he would overlook it enough to get things done.
"You don't have to directly go to him, but I want you to get this Trigger to him. Pass it to someone who will reach him or throw it at him; I don't really care. You just need to make it to him. ...Is that alright?"
He wanted to say that it was not alright, but she was giving him options here. Nothing was being demanded of him and nothing was being forced upon him.
Katerina was only asking him for a favor.
So he responded properly.
"I'll make sure it gets to him. But don't expect me to get too close right now. ...There's some things I still need to think about before doing that."
"And there's something he likely needs to think about, too. So that's fine."
With a nod of her head, Katrina began working once more.
He only watched as the screens came to life once more with things like the Trigger set and different places they were bering placed.
He was not certain about what everything meant, but he trusted his friend with figuring it all out here.
"Oh yeah," she said without turning away. "I forgot to let those other guys know, but you can do that too."
"Let who know what?"
She stopped for a moment, shook her head, and went back to working.
"Mrs. Yasuko should be here soon enough."
"Have you given up on victory, Kanzaki!?"
In the riverside of the city, the battlefield had moved to the rooftops surrounding by the dark of the night and Kanzaki let Tachikawa's words wash over her.
He was saying she did not intend to win and she understood that.
He said so because she was focused on defense.
Currently, Kanzaki had her back to the city in the north and Tachikawa was to the south. She was keeping him from reaching her former teammates within the inner city and her duty was to hold him here until the entire situation was under control.
Her method was simple.
She would crush his attacks as soon a she made them.
Kōgetsu's greatest attack was using Senkū and cutting through anything in the way with its blade, so when he swung it, she would take action before it could turn towards her.
...The key is to counterattack and keep him from completing his swing!
She used the tip of her spear. She simply watched Kōgetsu's movement and thrust her spar into the base of the blade when he started to swing it. When she did, Tachikawa roared bakc at her.
"Damn you!"
"Damn you," replied her spear.
A metallic sound rant out, she felt an impact through her weapon, and Tachikawa pulled his weapon back.
That was all it was. Of course, this method meant she could not attack, but...
"Have you given up on winning!?"
She had not. She simply defined victory differently here.
...After all, the nerdy boy and Kimura said a lot about some kind of strategy. ...I think.
She had not understood much of it, but it had probably been important since the nerdy boy liked to talk and Kimura had said some confusing things. It was important to be understanding of such things.
So she stuck to this. Whenever Tachikawa tried to swing Kōgetsu, she would attack and stop it.
"Damn you!"
"Damn you."
He moved again and she stopped him again.
"Damn you!"
"Damn you."
She continued stopping him.
Instead of an intense clash, it was a smaller strike that stopped just his initial movement.
Her challenging spear tip would deflect the initial swing of his blade and the sparks illuminated the night and the water below the bridge.
It grew into a continuous barrage.
The amount of green sparks grew the more they moved. She also knocked his blade back with greater frequency.
…This is quite an intense exchange!
Each movement of her spear was flowing into the next and she started also using the bottom end to knock his blade away. The straight line of the spear made it faster and holding it in both hands increased its strength, but she could not hope to match Tachikawa's strength as someone who had trained even more than she had. Every few attacks she received pushed her back half a step.
Kanzaki sensed danger in that backwards movement.
After all, they were fighting atop tiled roofs that seemed like they had to be repaired.
It was not the best footing.
During her training, she had been taught that tile roofs could be difficult to move on if they were wet or not securely placed.
Some boats had been passing by along the river, so she wondered what would happen if she had taken the fight over into the water. The difficulty of moving on there would affect Tachikawa much more than it would her.
Doing just so, she made a great leap onto the roof of a stationed festival boat and cut the cord holding it in place. Tachikawa had been quick to follow, so both gathered their stances atop this new roof.
They now stood in the center of the roof. The roof's ridge was their only footing now.
...I suppose I can't use my usual footwork here now.
Not only could she not run and jump around, but even swinging her body to either side proved difficult. She could only move forward and back or a step or two to either side.
Once she saw how Tachikawa adapted to this footing, he moved to attack.
She noticed even more festival boats that had likely been placed for the midday festival, so they would not longer be in use.
So when the roof was swept away, she was forced to move to the next one.
But the same applied to her enemy. Tachikawa could only move forward and he could only do that by removing her from his path.
That was why she continued to focus on knocking back his attacks.
Tachikawa then gave a shout.
"Damn you! And you call yourself an Attacker!?"
.
He is trying to provoke me, concluded Kanzaki.
He was asking how she could be an Attacker without fighting.
But she did not need to respond. She knew this was enough for an Attacker. After all, she had seen this before.
...I am using the bunting technique of my former teammate Taiyōko Kiyoshi-dono!"
Taiyōko would knock down his opponent's attacks to throw off their balance when his forceful strikes failed him.
Kanzaki had been on the receiving end more than enough during their training sessions together.
She had never been able to break through this technique.
But even after so much experience on the receiving end, she was having trouble using it herself. She could only deflect her enemy's attack one out of every third time and she was allowing him to advance.
She became even more painfully aware of how high level of a technique it was.
He had pulled it off against countless opponents at the same time and all from different directions.
She was inexperienced and the world was a large place. That was what this meant. But she did her best to fight and move even a little bit closer to his level.
Tachikawa responded by raising his speed.
He began his attacks again and again from many different angles and Kanzaki stopped them with a high-speed barrage.
"—"
Their exchange accelerated.
Yuki felt a shiver run down his spine.
Both Mei and Murakami raised their brow at his sudden stiffness.
"I feel like a troublesome person just thought of me..."
"You thought of yourself?"
"Keep talking and see if I don't hit you, Kō."
"Don't say that while you take a swing for my head."
Murakami had dodged his swipe, so he brought his arm back down.
Mei shook her head with a sigh, but openly smiled at the two of them.
The actions they all took were common ones and ones they had done multiple times by now. There was nothing strange or new about them.
But they had changed meanings since the start of the day.
Now that I think about it, it's almost been twenty-four hours since I entered that tower.
There were still a few hours to go, but the fact remained that a lot had happened in a short amount of time.
And now they were busy discussing what to do about the issue before them.
"Hey, are you three there?"
Yuki and Murakami stoped their fighting to look at her. Their attention was quickly put to their phones as messages came in.
Izumo: "I am here, Mei-san."
Lobo: "I'm pretty sad about not having the barbecue today, but I'll get over it. Oh, I have Ai and Osmau with me, so I can patch you through to them at any point."
Honest Sister: "Heh heh heh. It's like you want me to honestly make something out of that, foolish dog boy."
Lobo: "I'm in a good mood, even while being sad, so I'll let that one go."
Honest Sister: "I'll return the favor by making this a good one."
Izumo: "You two can be too much a lot of the time."
Mei smiled again.
They were not the only ones to change. Within the week her second former squad had become something new.
Each member of Kotowari Squad had grown enough to where she could leave them for a bit and know that they would be fine. She would not be needed for them to function, but they would continue to rely on her when they could.
And I will try to rely on them some more too.
If Yuki was her pillar and Minoru was her wall then those three were her home. A place to go back to and enjoy herself without having to worry about anything.
She laughed lightly to herself.
Yuki and Murakami looked to her with raised brows before showing their own smiles.
This was all different, but not unwelcome.
Rampage Dress: "Do any of you have plans for tonight?"
Izumo: "I wanted to meet up with Asano-san."
Lobo: "I'm just hanging out with Ai and Osamu right now."
Honest Sister: "I am honestly with the others. Was there something you needed from us?"
I guess they wouldn't know about what happened.
That was fine. It should be a good surprise for them.
Rampage Dress: "Since Takeshi is going to meet with Asano, that is fine. Toby, if you can, please hold off anyone who wants to stop us from moving. And Suzume, please come over here and help us."
Honest Sister: "Wait, wait, wait! What!? Honestly!? Mei-san is honestly asking for our help!?"
Lobo: "Whoa! Nice! Yeah, sure! Count on me here! I've got you guys covered!"
Honest Sister: "Heh heh heh! Now we really need to try here, foolish dog! We can't hold back at all!"
Lobo: "Right!? Right!? I'm super pumped right now!"
Mei gave another laugh as a new message came up.
This time the message was not from her squad's chatroom but the general Border one.
Yuki and Murakami looked to their phones as they had gotten the message as well.
They read through the message before looking back over to her.
Kitora: "Can someone explain to me why Awdry just got excited enough to try and jump forward and backwards at the same time?"
Megane: "He ended up tripping over himself, fell into a roll, bounced up a second later, then fell onto a festival stand's trash pile."
American Idiot: "Did you record it?"
Shore: "I hope they did. Then they would have a nice funny dog video to upload."
Megane: "Why would we record it?"
Everyone: "Does he know where he works!?"
Kitora: "It happened all at once, so there was no time to start recording."
Daybreak: "I am both amazed and disappointed about that..."
She could see how that would be the case.
It would have been entertaining to see Toby do such a thing, but she also wanted to make sure he was fine after that.
Knowing how he was, though, she determined that he would be more than fine right now.
Instead, she focused on something else. Specifically, the person who was currently amazed and disappointed.
"Hey Yuki, don't you think you should tell Mitsuteru something?"
"Why would I do that?" he asked with a tilt of his head.
She tilted her own head and thought about why he would do that.
The calculations began to run, but they all ended up with dead ends that did nothing good. So she changed her thoughts by pushing the calculation away and made sure to look at how she felt right now.
They were all supposed to rely on each other, so she spoke freely.
"Isn't he still holding onto things because of you? Wouldn't it be better to tell him that it's fine to let go of all of that?"
"Um, Sen-... Mei? There's a bit more to it than that."
"Then could you explain it to me?"
Murakami could not and knew it.
He turned to look at Yuki. For his part, Yuki only looked at her with a bitter smile.
"I can't make that choice anymore, Mei. Rather, I was never the one who was able to make that choice for him. So..."
So...
"I'll see what happens."
Mitsuteru sighed as he walked through the festival grounds. The nighttime air made it easy for him to breath and the noise of the festival was a few streets down.
His phone was currently in his hand as he walked through the city.
After helping the Kageura Squad captain he had decided to leave things in more capable hands. There was no need for him to stay around them when others could manage his job much better.
"I guess even my best can only get so far..."
"Stop being a downer already. If you keep that up, I might actually go after that crappy first captain of yours."
He smiled at the familiar voice and looked up to see who was there.
"Hey, Shigeko."
"Yo," she waved.
He made his way over so that he could stand directly in front of her.
"I figured that you wouldn't try anything really."
"Did you think I wasn't serious about it?"
No, that wasn't it.
She took everything seriously.
"I just know you well enough. If you really thought that he was at fault for everything then you would have done much more than you have now."
"So you're saying that I had faith in that guy."
"I'm saying that I'm glad you trust me."
She huffed in response.
That was all he needed to know that she was not mad at him for choosing someone who had left him behind.
"By-"
White Fox: "Mitsuteru. Do you have a moment?"
Shigenaga clicked her tongue upon seeing his screen, so he waved her down with his hand.
If his former captain was directly messaging now then it meant that something had come up.
And knowing who his former captain was, he could guess what it was about.
Daybreak: "Was there something you needed, Kiyoshi-san?"
White Fox: "Ah ha ha. I guess I really am still 'Kiyoshi-san' to you. Sorry for the trouble."
Shigenaga reached for his phone, but she was stopped when he took a step away. He smiled her way as he turned around.
His smile fell as he reread the message.
Unlike how high tension he had been up until now, he seemed to be relaxed and casual. It was a quick and strange transition, but he left it alone for now.
Now that I think about it, wasn't I supposed to try and call him something else?
His current captain had wanted him to try and call his former captain by a different name, but that was harder than expected.
Daybreak: "It's no trouble at all."
White Fox: "I see..."
He likely did not believe Mitsuteru's words.
Even so, he continued on.
White Fox: "Anyways. I just wanted to make something clear with you."
Daybreak: "What's that?"
White Fox: "I never had a right to make you hold onto anything. You have always been free to let go of anything and everything you want. So..."
So...
White Fox: "I understand if you want to let go of everything involving me."
.
This guy is...
"A real idiot."
Mitsuteru could hear Shigenaga snort from behind him as his thoughts became words in his mouth.
The thoughts of his former captain had always swayed to respect and remorse the more he got to know him. It was to be expected when someone as strong as that found value in his lackluster abilities and overall unimpressive existence. If he could find something even back then then it only stood to reason that Mitsuteru could build that up and use it for everyone else.
Shigenaga had stuck to his side since she also saw something to work for in him.
But now he found the former to far different from his memories.
...I guess I really did put a nice sheen on my memories of back then.
Everything that happened in the past seemed great because he had been with great people.
With that sheen taken off of his sight, he was able to see what exactly it had been like back then.
We were an unorganized mess who won due to the abilities we had gathered there. Any strategy we had was more so for me and Kimura-senpai so that we wouldn't get lost in the craziness that went on.
Shaking his head with a laugh was all he could do when he thought about those times.
After all...
"I never realized how much of an idiot my own captain was."
"You do have a bad record with that sort of thing," Shigenaga said from behind. She was right, but he chose to ignore that for now.
Answering back was what was important.
Daybreak: "Kiyoshi-san."
No.
Daybreak: "Paisen. I knew that already. The reason I chose to not let everything go was because of my respect for you."
White Fox: "Eh? Huh? Wait, go back a bit there. What did you call me?"
Daybreak: "Now that I've realized just how dumb you are, I feel much better about calling you differently."
At this point Shigenaga was laughing behind him.
She had probably looked over his shoulder to see what he was typing and was now enjoying herself more.
Daybreak: "Yeah. Don't worry about it, Paisen. I think I've made up my mind by now."
White Fox: "...And what did you choose?"
That was easy.
Daybreak: "I've decided to not let anything go. Rather, I've decided to hold onto all the good times I can remember and let go of the painful times."
That's right, they couldn't find him anything.
There had been nothing to be seen.
He would have never said it.
But now...
Daybreak: "Just tell me when you will come back."
He was saying his farewells to the painful days.
Daybreak: "Maybe I can see you later."
This was his farewell to the painful days.
He was making his decision.
It was hard to achieve, and the memories would not let him go.
But...
I'll leave it somewhere in my heart, for now.
He would not put a lid on it, but he would not focus on it anymore.
Daybreak: "Yeah. I don't know what you decided for yourself, but I've made my decision."
He took in a breath through his nose.
Shigenaga smiled behind him.
Daybreak: "Who you are now is 'Tsukiko Yuki'. The one I respect is 'Kiyoshi-san'."
"Soooooooo," he said while releasing the air. All tension in his body faded and only a light feeling was left behind.
Daybreak: "Hello, Yuki-paisen. I would like to get to know you better."
White Fox: "In that case..."
The answer was immediate, but worth the wait.
White Fox: "...Tell me what's going on, my friend."
.
Shigenaga watched from a few steps away as Mistuteru covered his face with his hand. His shoulder shook, but she could not tell if it was because he was laughing or crying.
The conversation he was having with his first captain had been one she wanted to get involved with, but she knew that it had not been her place to be there. There was no reason to apologizes, but she still hung her head lightly.
Now that it seemed like the conversation was over, she could see the end result.
Her friend was happy.
He had finally gotten what he needed out. At least enough to where it won't hurt him to think about it anymore.
That was good to hear.
Sending one last message over, Mistuteru turned around to face her. His body looked light and his breathing was even.
This is good. He looks much better than I've ever seen him.
What she saw before her was what a normal person should look like. It was far different from the person who had been trying to reach new heights earlier in the week.
And now that Mitsuteru had settled all of that...
"I'm supposed to be hunting down that guy."
"I suppose I should stop you then."
"How do you plan to do that?"
He smiled at her, so she smiled right back.
With a hand held out to his side, he spoke up. The lights from the festival behind him shone even brighter as his smile turned large and his eyes gave a new glow.
This was someone who had just let go of a lot.
"Let's go enjoy ourselves at the festival tonight."
"Thanks for telling me, Mei."
Yuki smiled towards Mei as he placed his phone on the table.
"It seems like everything worked out with Mitsuteru. That's good. I want to see him even more now."
"I'm sure he would like that."
"You aren't the one to decide that."
He gave a light laugh in agreement.
There was no longer a reason for him to worry about his younger former teammate. The choices he would make from now on would come only from his own want for those choices.
It made him feel that much lighter.
"On another note," Mei said, looking at her phone. "I got word on where we could find that second faker."
"Are you ready to confront yourself?"
Kō was being careful with his words, but still spoke however he wanted here.
The place Yuki had placed himself in now seemed much different with nothing holding them all back.
Nodding his head, Yuki stood up.
"There is still a fight going on, and more will be coming soon enough. I need to take full responsibility for everything that involves me personally. But before that, I need to find the answer to an important question."
That's right.
Others had asked him this question and now he was asking himself the same question.
"Just who am I?"
Unlike times before, he asked himself this in genuine curiosity.
He wanted to find out the answer for himself and speak with others about what he found.
And two of the first people he wanted to talk to about the answer were currently with him.
"Mei. Kō. Please continue to be by my side."
They spent no time in thinking of their answers.
"Of course."
"I always have to put up with you. This time will be no different."
As Mikado City's nighttime festival continued, multiple actions were being taken on separate fronts.
The first was a trio of squad members who moved to intercept anyone going after their former captain.
The second was that same captain moving out with two others to resolve the issue that had been hanging over Mikado City for the entire day.
And the third...
"Dammit. Do you intend to seal off my attacks to the end, Kanzaki!?"
On the eastern side of the nighttime festival city, Tachikawa Kei and Kanzaki Shizuka confronted each other on the boat rooftops as the river slowly moved.
Tachikawa wanted to make a one-man charge on the running trio resolving the issue, but Kanzaki stood in his way.
Kanzaki fought with her back to the northern side of the city. She would detect any initial movement of her opponent's A-Rank level sword techniques.
"...!"
Whether it was a faint, brute strength, or a continuous barrage, Kanzaki focused entirely on interfering with the initial movement and continued doing only that.
Sparks flew, the clashing of blades scattered through the air, and their movement made no progress.
"What a pain in the ass!"
Tachikawa gave a yell and the sparks and clashing sounds grew all the more intense.
"—"
But he was still stuck where he was, unable to move.
The scattering light and noise simply strengthened.
.
Kanzaki focused on detecting the beginning of his speed.
Seeing through Tachikawa's attacks was the key to victory.
However, the opponent before her had muscular strength far exceeding that of a human. And it was made all the worse because…
…He has more than just brute strength.
With brute strength alone, he would lose his balance and leave an opening when she deflected his attacks, but whenever her strikes stopped Kōgetsu, he immediately regained his balance and began his next movement.
He had the brute strength, but he used a gentler strength to instantaneously launch that brute strength.
Kanzaki's acceleration Trigger was cumulative, but Tachikawa worked in a single instant. He was similar to Grasshopper-users in that regard, but Tachikawa's acceleration came from his person's natural traits instead of a Trigger. That meant it put little burden on his body.
Tachikawa was entirely defined by his own overwhelming potential.
But, thought Kanzaki.
His physical abilities were his limits. He could not do anything more than his body allowed for.
That meant he would not do anything unexpected.
He would not sacrifice a leg to launch himself forward as some others had done.
Yes, there is nothing to fear. I only need to react to what I see before me. Nothing strange will happen. This opponent is normal. He will not do anything odd. To sum up, people like Taiyōko-dono were strange individuals who did odd things.
…Oh?
Did I make a mistake in there somewhere?
Well, not that it matters, she thought. Everyone from Border is weird, so Taiyōko-dono should fit in just fine if he too is strange. They know how to look after him. I would expect no less of Border.
As for the present…
"Damn you!"
"Damn you."
Kanzaki did not mind. She simply struck and simply pushed. She pushed back as much as her opponent pushed at her and remained at the same distance from him. Eventually, he raised the density of his attacks.
"Damn you!"
Tachikawa continued yelling.
"Damn you, damn you, damn you, damn you, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn you, damn you, damn you, damn you, damn, damn, damn, damn, you, you, you, you, damn you!"
"Damn you, damn you, damn you, damn you, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn you, damn you, damn you, damn you, damn, damn, damn, damn, you, you, you, you, damn you."
I really must hate losing to go along with his rapping, she thought. And he must be quite diligent to bother saying it each and every time.
My father would not have done that. When my mother would say the food was ready, he would ignore her and keep laughing at the television, so she made sure to always have a butcher's knife handy by the kitchen pillar.
That takes me back, she thought while continuing to stop her opponent with her spear.
She pushed, struck, and deflected.
"There!"
She stopped him. She stopped him, continued stopping him, and always stopped him.
Sparks flew, the noise rang out, and they both stepped forward and moved back.
They exchanged glances and words, but none of it surpassed their movements.
As time went on, they honed their movements.
This helped her know what initial movements he would use and even let her narrow it down based on the movements of his shoulders. How his shoulders moved gave her a general idea of what angle the sword would come from, so she sent her spear there.
"?"
The tactile feedback unexpectedly vanished.
Her spear cut through empty air.
.
It happened suddenly.
Kanzaki saw her spear's tip gouge into empty space.
Strange, she thought. She had definitely seen his initial movement coming, so why had the expected tactile feedback been missing?
When she perceived her enemy with her whole vision, she realized something.
"You let go of Kōgetsu!?"
"Say I sacrificed it. It sounds cooler."
Sure enough, the Kōgetsu he had been using was falling a step in front of Tachikawa.
The very next moment, Tachikawa grabbed her spear's errant tip.
He pulled on it, which threw her off balance.
Tachikawa moved closer to her than her spear's tip and held the base of the blade below his arm. That prevented the blade from reflecting him. At the same time, he kicked up Kōgetsu, tossing it to his opposite arm.
He grabbed it and opened his mouth at close range.
"Senkū Kōgetsu."
.
Senkū's cutting power activated.
The air split, opened up, and burst along a horizontal line.
Kanzaki's split-second decision was more of a gamble than anything.
She extended her spear's shaft to launch herself backwards.
"…!"
She escaped by leaping as far back as the bottom of the spear would allow.
Tachikawa was holding the blade below his arm to avoid being cut, so the extension naturally moved away from him. And since Kōgetsu had been tossed up from below…
…The blade should be pointed up!
Kanzaki's predicted path of the cutting power became a reality along a nearly horizontal line.
That cutting power swept along just above her spear's shaft. Kanzaki dropped her hips down and hung from the shaft, so a few slower tufts of hair were taken off.
Still, she had dodged it.
However…
…Oh, no!
She had reached the edge of the roof and her spear was extended so she would have to pull it back to attack. Also, the longer weapon would get in the way if she tried to jump to another roof.
"You're mine, new A-Rank!"
Tachikawa came toward her. He adjusted the position of Kōgetsu's blade and made a horizontal cut along her spear's shaft.
Kanzaki also took action. She held her spear's shaft and retracted it.
"Senkū!"
"Iiidiot! I'll be there before it gets back and it can't cut me when I'm past the blade!"
She did not care because she was not cutting her enemy.
"I am cutting the roof!"
.
Kanzaki cut the battlefield itself.
While pulling the blade back to the left, she pointed it downward and made a diagonal cut to the roof's ridge.
…Go!
Immediately afterwards, the roof broke in two near the center.
She had cut the very top, meaning the ridge supporting the entire roof and the straw around it.
But with its support gone, the center fell straight down with the thickness of a blanket.
The roof formed a V-shape. Tachikawa was in the center so he fell down and Kanzaki was on the edge so she was lifted up.
"…!"
Kanzaki threw her shortened weapon to the opposite side of the roof.
At the same time, she jumped. She used the rising of the roof's edge while also crouching down and straightening up again like a spring.
"—"
She took a mighty leap.
She stretched and twisted her body in midair, jumped over Tachikawa, and prepared to land on the opposite southern edge of the roof.
The center of the roof fell into the water below her.
She heard the splash and saw the boat and its roof spread out and flow into the water, starting from the cut she had made.
After crossing over that, she landed on the opposite end of the roof's ridge.
Her feet seemed to stab into the straw as she placed them on the diagonally tilted end of the ridge and she had already turned around.
She then grabbed her spear from the air as it finished its own flight.
She looked to the enemy.
If Tachikawa attempted to go on ahead, she would attack him from behind.
He was standing on the opposite end of the collapsed and tilted roof, but…
…He's turned my way!?
He was looking at her and his body was facing her as well.
He was not going to carelessly show her his back.
But he had been running forward, so would it have been possible to turn around that quickly on the tilted roof?
Kanzaki saw the answer to that question.
He had not actually turned around.
His body maintained the stance from taking a large step in the other direction, but there was something odd about his pivot leg placed toward the center of the roof.
Even its ankle was applying a powerful twist to the roof.
…Is he pushing down on the center of the ridge!?
Tachikawa had used his leg to help along the collapse of the roof and that was bringing the roof to a nearly vertical tilt. Also…
"I can see you just fine. That isn't up, is it?"
As he stood on the vertical roof that was now more of a wall, he bent back to look up at her.
He did everything through brute strength.
That was the proper strategy for his heavy offense nature. He created a battlefield out of his own body's strength.
Then he sank down on the vertical roof.
He was going to move and Kanzaki sensed danger, so she held her spear in front of her.
"Senkū, rapid fire!"
In the instant, she launched the cutting power forward, Kanzaki saw something.
It was the night sky.
.
"…!?"
She saw the clouds floating in the sky.
She wondered how her horizontal gaze could be showing her that, but then she saw a ripple in the sky.
What looked like the night sky was actually the water's surface.
…Is this…?
She understood now. Her own footing had grown nearly vertical and her vision was pointed down at the water.
She also knew why: Tachikawa.
He had predicted the timing of her attack and stepped down on the center of the roof.
The ridge supporting the roof had broken, but the straw and other materials were still holding it together.
So when Tachikawa's side was pushed down at the center, her side also tilted.
…Oh, no!
She tried to hold her ground on the steeply tilted surface, but she saw movement in the water filling her vision. Something had broken through the reflection of the night to shoot up from below.
It was the soaked center of the roof.
Tachikawa had pushed down with the foot on the edge of the roof to send the center hopping back up like a seesaw.
"…!"
Kanzaki had placed a foot forward to hold her ground, but the rising center of the roof struck it from below.
And as the V-shaped roof returned to its horizontal shape, its momentum also affected her pivot foot.
She was pushed back into a sitting position.
…How careless of me!
She could breathe and, knowing only that, she moved her body forward to stand back up.
That decision saved her life.
Kōgetsu raced toward the previous position of her neck.
Tachikawa had crossed the center of the roof to reach her.
"Tch."
She heard him click his tongue, but it was the sound of the sword slicing the air that made her tremble.
But not from fear.
…Beautiful!
The sword strike she heard was powerful, but it was also as straight as a taut thread.
Splendid, she thought. He has so much strength, yet he does not use his sword roughly.
Kanzaki watched Kōgetsu draw a green arc forward and back as she jumped backwards.
She stood on the edge of the roof.
The excess force of Tachikawa sending the roof upwards kept the center from falling back down for a brief moment.
He used that loose balance to launch a second strike.
Kanzaki launched a movement of her own in response.
She kept the soles of her feet on the edge of the roof as she stood straight up and toppled backwards.
.
…Is she trying to fall!?
Tachikawa saw his opponent remain entirely straight as she toppled backwards without bending back first.
He did not change the horizontal swing his right hand gave Kōgetsu.
…Uh, oh.
The line of metal raced through the position his enemy's chest had been in.
It cut through empty air.
By the time he was certain he had missed, his enemy's body lay horizontal to the roof. Like the hand of a clock, she rotated around the edge of the roof on the soles of her feet. Still standing straight, she rotated down lower than the roof.
"Is that what you're after!?"
Tachikawa understood what his enemy was doing. She was not dropping down to escape.
"—"
He heard a sound below the roof's edge.
It was the sound of her spear extending.
He knew it would hit the wall. The bottom of her spear would strike the boat's wooden wall.
As she fell back and around, she would push herself back using her spear.
She would bounce back up.
Like playing her fall in reverse, she would rise once more.
He had just finished swinging Kōgetsu.
"Senkū."
Before he could pull it back, he heard a voice.
.
Kanzaki produced the action needed to launch the cutting power.
She targeted a horizontal line along the center of her enemy's chest. She initially thought he had no way of dodging it, but…
…No, he does!
She saw Tachikawa step strongly down with his right leg.
He had decided to make the center of the roof sink back down.
She was taken up and he was taken down. The rising edge of the roof tugged her upwards a bit, so Tachikawa moved below her vision as he intentionally lowered himself.
…Will I make it in time!?
If her cut did not hit, he would counterattack with Kōgetsu and she would lose. No, she needed to make her next move, too.
She had to keep moving forward toward victory. She had to read what came next and continue moving.
With that in mind, she felt the cutting power being fired.
She wanted it to hit, but she also felt a desire for it to miss. She wanted the battle to continue like this forever. She knew that was a dangerous desire, but…
"!?"
A sudden light came from the east which was to her right.
…A cannon blast!?
At the same time, Tachikawa looked and shouted to the east.
"You idiot! Don't interfere!"
His shout was accompanied by a line of light shooting between her and him.
"!?"
It burst and their surroundings grew bright.
…What is this!?
There was light, but it had not hit anything. She assumed it had failed to activate properly.
But something was destroyed after all: the spear in her hands.
The base supporting its blade contained the device that managed the activation of the cutting power.
"Heavy damage."
With a solid sound, that device burst from within.
Her spear was broken.
.
"You complete moron!"
Tachikawa looked to the east. Two people could be seen on the rooftops of a nearby building.
One of them was Izumi who raised a hand in apology and the other was a nervous wreck.
"Dammit, Yuiga!"
"Sorry, Tachikawa-san. That was supposed to be test firing, but this idiot's timing was really bad."
Yuiga held one of his handguns. There was no smoke from the barrel, but it was clear what had happened.
"He wanted to try out Meteora instead of Asteroid. I'll just take him away now."
.
...Meteroa!?
Kanzaki had been left in a daze by her spear's destruction, but the word she heard was enough to quickly snap her out of it.
…Did that light come from that attack!?
She could guess what it did. Her spear had fallen silent, but it had uttered a single word at the very last moment: heavy damage.
Also, that attack was not one that someone like Yuiga could fire.
"Did Izumi-dono provide him more trion that he had, causing it to have more power to it!?"
"They can be a huge problem from a friendly fire perspective, so I told him not to try it out for fun," grumbled Tachikawa. "Sorry about this. I would've won if that had continued, but that was an ugly way to end it. …But now you are only an obstacle to me."
He responded with Kōgetsu.
He did not activate it, but the strike had plenty of speed.
"You kept me from turning my back and continuing on. Allow me to do the polite thing and finish you off."
.
Tachikawa pulled his right hand to the left in a horizontal line. He moved it from right to left as if pulling it in with his reversed hand.
The enemy's neck was positioned along its path. He had no real interest in the girl, but he wondered if he should have at least asked her for a rematch later. But I wouldn't want to make others jealous, he decided.
And so he made the cut in silence.
However, Kōgetsu's path suddenly changed.
Someone had struck the blade from behind. The blow had enough force to produce a metallic noise and it knocked the blade upwards.
"—!?"
Kōgetsu passed over his enemy's head.
He had a new opponent behind him on the right. He looked back to the north end of the roof.
"Yoneya!?"
.
The man wielding a trion spear slipped past Tachikawa's right side using the same motion that had pushed up Kōgetsu.
"Yes, but I'm only here to repay something I owe Arafune-san."
…What a troublesome man!
"But this is interesting!"
Two A-Rank agents using spears. He had no choice but to decide these two were too dangerous to turn his back on.
If he wanted to continue on, he had to defeat them. Yuiga's unwanted favor had just about ruined his fun, but it all worked out now that he had multiple enemies. He could enjoy this without having to hold back.
"You can take a dip first!"
Yoneya was moving up alongside the Attacker girl on the south of the roof, but Tachikawa tried to send him flying with a kick.
However, his right knee was stopped by Kanzaki. Kanzaki strongly deflected his leg with the bottom of her dead Trigger.
Still, the attack had been lacking. It had only stopped his attack and had no real force behind it.
…Has her spear's destruction left her shaken!?
She may have been trying not to think about it, but this would be the first time she had to fight without being able to use that cutting power. She did not know how to build up her countermeasures and tactics under those conditions, so she was hesitating.
That was why Tachikawa brought back his swung sword and prepared to take care of Kanzaki.
Except a trion spear struck back the blade he was moving back.
That was Yoneya.
Yoneya then crossed paths with Kanzaki.
They switched places. From Tachikawa's perspective, Yoneya was on the left and Kanzaki on the right.
Tachikawa moved Kōgetsu back to his right, and…
"I really have to use this!"
He drew his second sword with his left hand.
Kanzaki and Yoneya held their spears at the ready and both stepped forward at the same moment.
"—!"
A series of rapid strikes began.
.
Sparks flew and the wind blew through to bind them all together.
Yoneya dealt with the second Kōgetsu. While it balanced Tachikawa out more, it seemed to be moving more quickly.
Next to him, Kanzaki faced the first Kōgetsu just as before, but the damage to her spear had filled her movements with some slight hesitation.
Still, neither of them let their guard down. The two of them held their side-by-side positions and focused on their respective targets.
"Ohhh!"
After an exchange of several dozen strikes, both of the spear-users powerfully deflected Tachikawa's weapons backwards simultaneously.
The force of the intense noise caused those offensive arms to spread to either side. The second Kōgetsu had already broken and more of the first Kōgetsu's surface blade was damaged than not.
But just as the two from the opposing side made their attacks to pursue him, Tachikawa breathed in and forcibly swung his upper body backwards.
Instead of bringing his deflected arms back forward, he swung his own upper body behind him.
He moved back which returned his arms to the position needed to launch an attack.
"That's it!"
He yelled and took action at the same moment.
He suddenly lowered his hips to a crouch.
A moment later, a speedy shell shot in from behind and passed through the spot his head had vacated.
That was an attack from Narasaka's Ibis. After both predicting it and dodging it without seeing it, Tachikawa smiled.
He quickly stood back up and changed the movement of his arms for an attack from below.
"Don't think you can get me with the same trick twice!"
A shield flew powerfully in from directly ahead and collided with his face.
It came from Pyrínas.
After Kanzaki had kicked him out of the way, he had monitored the state of the battle and he now stood on a roof far to the south. He used his remaining shield as a staff.
"...In other words, it will work the first time. ...Keep that in mind, Kushikage."
.
The large blade had already activated behind Tachikawa.
By controlling her center of gravity, Kushikage had landed on the slanted roof without making a noise.
"Stab, Valkyrie Sfyrí - the one renamed Brynhildr."
A direct hit from point-blank range was fired into Tachikawa's back.
.
The noise throbbed in one's gut and turned the water's surface to spray.
Tachikawa's body was sent skipping along the water. He flew toward Pyrínas who rested his shield on his shoulder before raising it in preparation.
"...This would be a loss for you."
He made a splendid swinging strike.
But the attack's intended victim flew over it.
Tachikawa had used Kōgetsu. The weapon had finally reached a charge, so he had activated it downwards.
"Senkū Kōgetsu!"
The water exploded and the wind blasted upwards.
He flew high enough into the sky to easily clear Pyrínas' head and land five rooftops over.
He was active, but he fell to one knee and trion prayed from his open wounds.
His body was covered in gaseous trion that was untouched by water and his entire body shook from the blow.
However…
"Ha ha! It's been a while since I took something like that!"
"...Stay quiet and take the rest, please."
"Not a chance. I was thrown off my pace and I can't get back into it now. My body was smashed to pieces. I think even my stomach took damage from that. Sorry, but I couldn't possibly take any more. Not even if some Yagura member asks me. So…"
He swiped across some of the lesser wounds and he leaped eastward, way from everyone else.
The Kushikage's eyebrows rose when she saw it.
"You're fucking running!?"
"What!? Don't be stupid! I'm leaving because I've won! It's called quitting while you're ahead! Remember that, okay!?"
"Quitting while you're ahead?"
The black form jumping into total darkness answered their question as he disappeared into the blackness.
"Besides, it's not like we can't redo this battle at the base!"
"I'm not hearing anything from the east anymore. Did Mochi-san back off?"
Minoru raced through the city and its sky.
No one was persistently attacking him from behind so, without anyone there, there was nothing to stop him from moving forward.
But it would be over soon. He would reach someone important soon.
He had to pass that person the Trigger in his pocket.
Everything that had been going on during the day was finally coming to a head as others moved to stop the actions against Border.
He had been a part of it at first, but left upon his first encounter with Yuki. The ones taking part in this secret nighttime festival were doing their best to end this all for the night.
They were now in a position to only be stopped by Border itself.
...My job is done the moment this Trigger gets to him.
Minoru had to speak with Yuki at some point, that much eh knew, but that needed to wait until everything had been settled for the day.
So, he had to do what he could here and let everyone else handle the rest.
"I would think that Mochi-san would go until Bail Out, but oh well. ...Time for a running start."
He needed proper footing to build up speed, so he launched himself onto the rooftops. He leaped on top of a row of houses bordering the Forbidden Zone.
Once he landed, the edge of the Forbidden Zone was directly north of him.
He moved to the roof's eastern slope to hide himself from anyone not looking directly at him
"Now, then."
He accelerated across the roofs in a straight shot for the location he knew this would end.
...The place Ramage Dress first showed up.
Kimura closed her phone with a snap. Behind her she could hear Arafune groan out a response to his own phone going off.
They had been enjoying the festival when a message came through about the fight that had been going on.
"So that guy ran away even with that many people there..."
"Tachikawa-san can be like that, I guess."
"To be fair, when faced with boobs like those, anyone would run away."
"I'll make sure to tell Yuki's sister you said that."
"Someone's going to die," they all said at once.
She found herself agreeing with that.
Still...
They had managed to push back Tachikawa and his squad. The first ranked A-Rank squad would not be able to go after her former captain anymore.
But it sounds like Kanzaki had a rough time over there.
She had recently become A-Rank, gotten her own spear Trigger, and showed off how well she could handle herself when compared to others.
But that had not been enough.
She had only been able to handle Tachikawa using a single blade, got her spear destroyed, and needed others to come in and help after hesitating too much. All of that did not sound like the girl Kimura knew, so it was frightening to hear it at all.
...That just shows how much work both sides put into all of this. Any less than that and she would have Bailed Out before anyone else made it.
It was good to know that she had managed to stay in until the end, but that was all.
With a sigh, Kimura looked to everyone else who was enjoying themselves and thought, This is fine, for now. She's the type to get over it. For now, we wait until our idiot former captain tells us that everything has been resolved.
It was all they could do.
Wait until it was over.