Unneeded

by TheAnimeTrain

The B-Rank Wars have finished and Border's members begin to settle back into their routines however they can. Along with this comes the appearance of new faces along with old ones. Unseen by them all, those who remain unneeded continue to move around.

8. Setup

Xeno sighed into the open morning air. It wasn't hot or cold, so he found himself relaxing more than he thought he should.

He and Lilith had stayed in an abandoned building within the strange area of the city that seemed to be closed off. The place to sleep for him had been comfortable enough, but it was hard to fall asleep when he understood their situation as well as he did.

Then there's him...

"...Is there something wrong?"

"Xeno, stop staring at him like that! It's rude!"

"...It's fine. ...I was just wondering if he didn't like what I brought."

"But it tastes so good!"

The Wanderers' Autonomous Trion Soldier had brought him some food to eat and for Lilith to try. Even if it didn't mean anything for filling her up, Lilith was eating each piece brought in with a smile on her face.

If it had been a person from Miden then he would have been more cautious about eating this. The fact this was an Autonomous Trion Soldier made by the Wanderers made it hard for him to deny anything.

So here he was, eating something the Autonomous Trion Soldier had brought and sighing into the air.

"...How is it?"

"It's...fine."

"What are they?" Lilith asked, picking up another piece of the strange meat.

The Autonomous Trion Soldier nodded to the two of them before speaking.

"...This one is called bacon. ...It is usually eaten as breakfast, but overall, it can be eaten whenever."

"The crunchy feeling and rough texture are weird, but not bad. This one is pretty plain though. Not sure that I care for it."

"...Be careful with your wording around here. ...But that is rice. ...Usually you would want to eat it with other foods, but eating it alone is also an option. ...If it tastes too plain, add some of this onto it. ...The soy sauce they have will add more flavor to it and seep down to the bottom, that way the rest will also taste less plain."

"Oh, that's pretty good! I guess I'll give it to Miden, that they have food like this."

The Autonomous Trion Soldier moved the rice to the side and pushed the bacon more towards Xeno. The rice and soy sauce had been good, but he found himself enjoying the crunchy feeling when biting into the bacon. He even overlooked the few parts that were more chewy than others.

Without looking away, the Autonomous Trion Soldier moved another plate forward. It sat between both him and Lilith and they could only look on in wonder. He said nothing, only gesturing towards the plate between them.

Being someone without too much worry, Lilith was the first to reach out.

After seeing her plate the food in her mouth and eat it he followed her example and grabbed one of the remaining pieces.

The text of it had been strange and a bit rough, but it was also soft. The contradiction between the two feelings on his tongue was pushed aside once the three flavors properly hit him.

This is-!

The Autonomous Trion Soldier stared at him for a moment before giving a thumbs up. Lilith mimicked the action with her mouth full of the food.

"...I had thought that only giving you Far Eastern food would be a bit much, so I decided to add on to the bacon with some toast that had jam and butter spread onto it. ...Western food would normally be seen as strange next to Far Eastern food for breakfast, but I found that children tend to enjoy anything, so long as it taste good."

In that case...

"Are you calling me a child!?"

"...Of course not. ...No."

The way he turned his head without changing his expression was a telltale sign for him.

"...Anyways..." he said.

Lilith was enjoying the food, so Xeno chose to ignore his previous statement to hear him now.

"...There are people who will be going to get clothes so that you both don't stand out too much. ...Along with that, one of them will be working on figuring out what to do. ...Along with that, I will be able to move the two of you while not drawing suspicion from Border, so there isn't a need for you two to worry."

"And what about the other problem here?"

"...Anything involving that will be focused on by others. ...Whoever else is here chose to not properly hide what they are doing, so they have likely gained the attention of Border already."

"Alright... I have another question, then. What happened with that trion soldier girl?"

The Autonomous Trion Soldier shifted his head from side-to-side for a moment before looking out the window.

The morning air of the city was coming through from there, but the scenery wasn't too bad.

"...Someone had called in a favor from her."

---

"Well, anyway, it's pretty exciting gathering three people with a good amount of combat skill. Especially since one of you is able to properly beat my best student."

Akasora sat on the veranda of his home, pulled his hand from his pocket to rub his chin, and smiled.

"Oh, no need to be so formal. At ease, Kei, Real Tsukiko."

"Got it," said Amaya and Tachikawa who were wearing track suits. They adjusted their sitting position on the gravel by lifting their feet on their toes to gently lift their hips. They also straightened their backs.

"What do you need with us today?" asked Amaya.

Akasora looked to their left where Kanzaki sat more flatly with her shoulders pulled in tight.

"Kanzaki-kun, are you sure you want to reject my offer?"

"Eh?" asked Kanzaki before correcting it to, "Yes."

She lifted Kōgetsu Spear while straightening herself.

"I am already working on this." She seemed to be trying to convince herself more than anyone. "Using this to its fullest is what I want to focus on a bit."

"Sure. I had a feeling you would say that and I'm relieved that you did."

Akasora turned his smile back to the dual-Kōgetsu duo.

"Now, since Kanzaki-kun here says she doesn't need it, let's get down to business. ...I have something nice for you. Kyōko-chan."

He held a hand back toward the room behind him where Sawamura stood.

"You mean this?"

Sawamura stacked up five unopened black disk box sets in Akasora's hand and ignored how he nearly lost his balance.

"Honestly, I found all of these while searching through the closet. What is this Pax Sentai Seven Spicy Emperors? Partway through, they added more to the team to gain a total of seven, but why did they say, 'I just realized we have three 'Anus's! Together, we're the Seven Spicy Emperors!'? That does not even function as a mnemonic for one's exams."

"Yeah, and the first one is 'Janus' so it's actually pronounced 'Yanus' instead. Oh, but I bought this and that previous one with points at the same Roman Fair, so I didn't spend any money on them. And could I get some more tea? No?"

"More importantly, I assume this is what you meant."

Sawamura glanced over at Akasora as she stepped from the veranda into the yard and slipped on the sandals waiting there.

"The transfer has not yet been fully made, so you can only look for the time being."

She held something horizontal to the ground: a strange sword.

"This is Koigetsu, the ever violent sword Akasora-san used back in the day for training before our current Border."

.

Amaya spoke as she looked at the sword that measured more than two meters long.

"Koigetsu? Isn't that name a bit much? Besides, what do you mean by a 'ever violent sword' anyway? That should be two strikes right there."

But...

"To be blunt, there are a lot of similar names out there."

"That's unavoidable, Maya," said Tachikawa. "Some people who work in Border for too long are pitif-...valuable creatures that cannot resist doing pointless things. Slicing, cutting, and stabbing through things comes to mind. Pots, cars, Neighbors, and bridges are the usual victims, but there are plenty of variations such as one powerful example of slicing a go board in two."

"Come to think of it, the Gunner Triggers are a type of animal abuse."

"No, Gunner Trigger names are based on animals and that's all. Let's calm down and classify these things properly, Kanzaki-kun."

"Akasora-san, are you hearing what they are saying about you?"

"Now, now." The corner of Akasora's mouth rose in a smile. "Kei, do you want this?"

"You're willing to give it up?"

Despite his question, Tachikawa had already started standing, so Akasora smiled.

"I am, but first I'd like a bit of excitement."

"...A test?"

"The two of you can work together if you want. Oh, but I'm not your opponent. I wouldn't want anything unfortunate to happen. I don't like fighting kids, you see. So..."

Akasora clapped his hands and a small girl appeared in the middle of the yard.

She was an Autonomous Trion Soldier and Amaya knew her name.

"You are Sthénos aren't you?"

"Yup! I'm here as someone who owes that guy!"

She did not say anything else. Her short hair and long hair swayed and she pulled something from her waist hard point.

"This is a personal Trigger from a far off place. I'll be using it as the opponent in your test!"

.

Two people stood on a gravel-covered yard.

One was a male agent in a long black coat.

"Alright then. Time for Tachikawa Kei to have a new test."

The other was Sthénos, an Autonomous Trion Soldier in revealing clothing.

"As someone who owes Akasora I'll provide your examination! I'll even be getting serious for it!"

A short distance away, Amaya stood by the house with her arms raised up into the air. Her body was swapped out for her trion-made one, putting her in her squad's uniform. Then...

Trion connection approved

Next, she grabbed both Kōgetsu at her sides and lifted them into the air above her head. They were twin sword meant for her to use in battle, but...

"Kei-san, take these."

She removed the holders they were in as well and tossed them to Tachikawa. It was a casual movement, but the arms sent them slicing through the wind on a collision course with the boy.

The swords rotated with twin sounds of scratching at the air, but just when they were going to hit Tachikawa...

"Thanks, Maya."

They vanished. No, Sthénos turned her head to follow them while facing him.

They were up above. The two swords were spinning with the morning sky behind them.

"Did you place your hands on them and throw them in the moment of collision!?"

"No. That was no collision. It was the twin Kōgetsu-style 'hand-delivery'. After all...we can't have anyone else stealing them. Normally I would have grabbed them since we've prac-...but in this case..."

The next pair came. That is, a third and fourth sword. He grabbed these two directly from his own sides and put them back in, as if to make sure everything worked properly. As they clicked into place, he raised his hands toward the sky where the first and second swords fell.

"Now I grab them to complete my preparations. What do you think?"

"That was pretty cool! I think it was kind of unnecessary but that's whatever!"

With that assessment, Sthénos lowered her hands to the left and right. Both hands held a bladeless sword hilt and guard, but a green fog began to rise from the end. The fog floated out yet nothing appeared in the center. And that nothingness seemed to form a blade.

The blades were sixty centimeters long, but...

"Senzai Squad's two special cases were accepted by the rest of the squad before being officially added but that's why I'm sure we are loved by the ones who know what is going on with us! However..."

However...

"Senzai Squad's two special cases always exist to lead the way for Senzai Squad's course direction and guidance! So..."

So...

"Senzai Squad's two special cases carry the role of being the first to battle! We provide knowledge and connection for the rest of them but more than simply doing that we are the ones who cut open the way forward! So..."

The word "so" was accompanied by a change to the swords' lengths.

The Autonomous Trion Soldier's own trion control increased the pressure, transforming the thickness and length of the two swords. The invisible blades grew past two meters in the center of the fog.

"I went and made some new things that kinda copy both Scorpion and Kōgetsu so I could have something to play with! ...I haven't been able to use them since its a bit of a gray area whether they would count as a weapon for Border but I've gotten permission to use them for the purpose of training someone else!"

"You really consider yourself one of us?" asked Tachikawa.

"Yeah!" Sthénos stepped forward. "I've gone through enough to think of myself as one of you guys!"

With that one step, the Autonomous Trion Soldier erased all distance between her and Tachikawa.

.

Tachikawa watched his opponent's movements.

This was his second time battling an Autonomous Trion Soldier in Mikado City.

She resembled a human yet was not one. The trion control was one issue, but she also mechanically controlled her body, meaning she could ignore pain and move her joints beyond the movable range for a human.

The only real downside was the essential lack of what was known as a "mind" despite being able to make a series of decisions. That meant she could only use the knowledge built into her own functionality or from what she has learned by others.

However, Autonomous Trion Soldiers were devoted to their duty and defined their lives on whether they could fulfill those duties or not.

The closest analogy would be a knight that believed in using primarily physical attacks.

She interested him.

Sthénos was currently leaping to his front right side. She was leaning forward and using the trion sword in her right hand.

The gravel crunched as the first attack arrived.

Instead of taking a wide swing, she kept her right elbow on her side and...

...She's spinning her arm!?

The blade was raised in front of her chest and he assumed she would swing it outwards like a backhand blow.

But she did not.

Her forearm rotated. From Tachikawa's perspective, her forearm rotated without issue in the counter clockwise direction and it stopped in the eight o'clock position. That motion would have been impossible for a human.

She made an upwards diagonal slash from there.

Tachikawa moved back. He observed his opponent's movements, saw through them, and moved back as a reference for his future evasive actions.

"Whoops."

He took a left step back to dodge. He did not move much. Moving too far away would give his opponent an easier time of setting her sights on him and make it easier for her to target his arms or legs. He kept as close as possible so that she could only target his torso.

His feet crunched on the gravel as he put that slight distance between them.

From his perspective, Sthénos's first attack travelled from the lower left to the upper right. Moving left put him toward her back as she swung her right arm.

He watched her movements while moving around behind her. He spotted the waste in how she shifted her weight and placed her feet.

...Is this...?

He noticed something.

"...!?"

Immediately, her right arm made another attack.

It came suddenly, and...

...Her back!?

Her right arm mobilized both her right shoulder and right shoulder blade to stab at him behind her. As if to say her back was her chest, the arm bent at an angle far too deep for a human, yet still sent the blade accurately to its target.

She did not hesitate to target his face, so he evaded. He started to step back from the stabbing blade.

"...!"

Tachikawa gave up on stepping back and accelerated leftward instead. He moved further behind Sthénos. He first swung his head and then his body took a leap to follow.

That decision saved him.

Sthénos had let go of the stabbing sword.

The attack to his face was launched like a bullet and tore deep into the spot his face had just vacated.

Still, he had dodged it.

He used all his strength to circle around behind her.

"Oh."

Then he noticed that his enemy's attack was not yet over.

The released right sword stopped in midair and was pulled back in.

"Wait a second! You forgot something!"

Sthénos's left arm and shoulder blade rotated to her back as if to embrace her own back and as if to intercept him. And that arm's blade had already been swung.

It was a diagonal counterattack against him as he circled behind her.

Even if he tried to dodge, this Autonomous Trion Soldier could continue moving her arm for a full 360 degrees. Her sweeping sword would surely reach him and stab into him even if he moved back and away. Also...

"Sorry about that! It was very un-TS-like of me to attack you without facing you!"

Sthénos rotated her head so it too faced the back.

The movement of her left arm did not waver as it targeted Tachikawa.

Also, the other blade had been pulled back to her right hand.

"...!"

Her right hand sent the trion sword in to attack him from behind. The elbow instantly reversed its bend in a whip-like motion that sent it toward her left arm's counterattack.

"You will be trapped in the middle."

The left and right attacks were at different heights, so they would surely strike him at the chest and waist.

...But she's sure to adjust if I try to evade either up or down!

While that would be possible for a human, it would be quite forceful. It could easily damage the arm. But this Autonomous Trion Soldier could do so while ignoring the joints, muscles, and tendons.

In that case, in which direction was he supposed to evade?

"—"

Tachikawa made his decision. The situation was completely different, but the action he was about to take was one someone had once used on Yoneya.

...Just like Ketsu!

.

Kanzaki saw what action Tachikawa took.

...Is that...?

He casually walked up Sthénos.

"Excuse me."

With those words, he leaned forward and placed a foot on her rear-facing waist.

"—"

He almost seemed to be climbing a standard staircase.

It was a light action with no weight to it. And...

...That is what Kagerei-dono did to Yoneya-dono before!

The acceleration Trigger Kiyome pushed aside any impeding factors to raise the user's speed. When someone activated the Trigger to raise its level, any obstacles would be no different from level ground and even changing attacks could become a stepping stone if timed just right.

Because Ketsueki could use something lime that, he had done so when having a practice match with Yoneya a while ago. She had been shown the fight in order to properly understand Kiyome, so she knew what it looked like when the action happened.

...But Tachikawa-dono is not using a Trigger!

This was pure skill. He had pulled it off with nothing but skill and physical strength.

"Kh..."

She groaned at the comparison she subconsciously made.

She also heard Akasora asking Sawamura a question by the house.

"Kyōko-chan, he's controlling his weight, isn't he?"

"Yeah. His balance had been a strong point for a while. It's not at the level of standing on a blade or anything, but it's still something he's good at.

Tachikawa passed over Sthénos's shoulder and dropped down on the other side.

Kanzaki heard Sawamura give a sigh of relief.

"I think he has been training his physical abilities with Tsukiko - Tsukiko Yuki - by climbing walls or using unsteady footing such as Mikado City's bridges and tightropes. Jin is his rival, but he's mentioned how he doesn't want to be behind Yuki at times either. Really, he's just too competitive. Also..." Sawamura narrowed her eyes. "I think he still hasn't reached what he wants when it comes to certain things."

"I see," replied Amaya.

She watched Tachikawa land while sitting on the veranda next to Akasora and the others.

"But that little girl is also really impressive."

"I have a general understanding of that. And of what is to come." Sawamura corrected her expression. "Do as you want. That's what Tachikawa would want."

As soon as Sawamura said that, Kanzaki felt a chill.

...Fog?

A thin fog floated through the air while carrying some frost.

What is going on? she wondered just before noticing something.

Sthénos took two actions after Tachikawa stepped over her.

.

Sthénos moved.

...Here I go!

As her two attacks had been avoided, she rotated her arms from the back to the front and then embraced her own body.

The embrace was meant to straighten her up and turn her toward Tachikawa, but she did not stop there.

"—"

Something flew from her sleeves: two additional swords.

However, those were not the only new green blades. Twenty-four short trion swords left from her back and four large ones appeared from the air.

"A total of thirty-two! I've got a stable pathway for the power supply so please help me out here!"

They all rapidly released trion fog.

The entire area was dyed green, the air cooled, and Sthénos turned toward Tachikawa.

As expected, he was trying to turn toward her after walking over her and landing, but she was no longer wielding even a single blade. All of her weapons were targeting him from the air thanks to her trion control.

This normally would have been impossible. She would not have been able to control so many distinct objects or provide the power for them. And even if she did pull it off, the burden would have been great enough to hinder her later duties. This was only possible because...

...Piripiri!

That Autonomous Trion Soldier was the other Senzai Squad soldier. That bird-like Autonomous Trion Soldier was helping her through their shared memory. More than just data from her sight, hearing, and bodily balance, data on Tachikawa's movements was being sent from the sensory devices on the girl.

As a result, she only had to focus on moving. And...

"...!"

The burden of controlling and powering the four large swords and twenty-eight small ones was shared with Piripiri.

She did not consider this unfair. The two Autonomous Trion Soldiers were from the same place and thus the same. The Autonomous Trion Soldier had gone through the same thing, so they were more closely connected to each other than most people were.

That was why she had never said their opponent would be Sthénos.

She had always said it would be...

...Senzai Squad's Trion Soldiers!

Sthénos spread her arms, grabbed and twisted at the air, and used her gathered strength to move the total of thirty-two blades.

"Here I go!"

She understood that this was a test, but that was why she had to test them with her full power. After all...

"In the future Earth will need people who can use new power that 'Neighbors' won't know about!"

So she spoke once more.

"Show the way babies! Specially made Triggers for our use!"

Formless blades tore into the surrounding fog and faced Tachikawa.

.

Tachikawa leaped.

He moved away. This was a change from before, but...

...This is dangerous!

He was faced with a large number of bladeless swords and their lengths could change at will with their reinforced power.

"—!"

The fog was torn apart as if by rain in the spot he had just vacated. The white color spread out, tore apart, and gave a brief glimpse of Sthénos on the other side.

"!?"

One of the large swords broke through the fog and flew his way.

He ducked to dodge it and then jumped left from that lowered position. After all...

...Trion control!

The large sword had stopped over his head and then dropped straight down.

He escaped left while low enough to the ground for his hands to scrape at the gravel.

A further attack arrived. As Sthénos swung her arm, sixteen small swords flew his way like a splash of water. Also...

"How about this!?"

A second large sword flew over the splash of swords.

This was the worst attack for him in his lowered position.

He could not completely dodge the swinging swords by moving either right or left, but the large sword awaited him if he tried to dodge upwards. And he was leaning too far forward to jump backwards to gain more distance.

He thought he could make it if he ducked below the splash of swords, but...

"The gravel!"

His footing was covered in round gravel. If he poured too much strength into his step, it could easily shift and throw off his movement.

In that case, he thought.

I have to go for it regardless.

.

Now what will he do? wondered Akasora.

He watched Tachikawa facing the blades while thinking that the boy had to overcome this. If he did not...

...He'll have trouble continuing being one of the main fighters supporting Border.

And, he thought while preparing to accept whatever he would see here.

...What about you, Kanzaki-kun?

He had a certain thought about Kanzaki: You're going to have to rival everything you're about to see here. After all, she had previously been on a squad made up of string people growing stronger, and more importantly...

"You're still nothing more than 'Taiyō'ko Squad's member'."

Akasora narrowed his eyes as Tachikawa relaxed his body and leaned further forward.

...Is he going for it?

Will you show me the strength of the boy Masafumi tried so hard to train while I was busy with a fool and his friends?

So...

"—"

Akasora raised both hands, cupped them, and clapped them together.

...Now, you two.

"Begin."

As if that was his cue, Tachikawa took off.

.

Sthénos saw it through the dancing fog she was parting and through the sensors that she and Piripiri were monitoring.

...Eh?

The large sword had slammed into the gravel and the sixteen small swords had stabbed into it, but…

...Kei isn't there!

He had vanished. No, there was something there. A small light was scattering in the space filled by the fog and multiple trion swords. It was trion light, which meant...

"Sthénos! To your left!"

Sthénos ran toward him on the left before even turning. Piripiri was tracking his location, so she only had to make the quickest attack possible. But...

"Sthénos! The enemy has changed course!"

In an instant, eighty-four possible enemy attack patterns were sent to her. Piripiri used the high speed decisions of an Autonomous Trion Soldier to narrow them down to the most likely one, so...

"#7! You can make a counterattack!"

Sthénos followed Piripiri's instructions by allowing her knees to collapse. She released the knee joint to drop forward by the height of the knee joint. She also sent her left sword to the location in Piripiri's instructions.

She felt the blow land.

A moment later, something passed over her head from the left to the right.

She could only perceive it as "wind". In fact, it was a "powerful wind".

Her senses were rattled by the gust and her visual data contained the inexactness of corrected footage.

But that complication only lasted a moment. The footage soon recovered.

"Nice job Piri," she said quietly because of what fell onto the yard in front of her. "That's Kei's Kōgetsu. ...If I hadn't broken it off in that reflexive interception I'm sure I would have lost my entire head!"

"Sthénos...?"

"Yeah! What is it!?"

"Well, that means you are leaving all of the sensory duties to me. In that case, please look to your right."

Sthénos looked to the right and found her glove was missing.

...What?

She quickly realized that the removed glove was sitting on her right shoulder.

But that was not all.

Something else had been added onto her shoulder: the hair decoration sensory assistance device that had been attached to her head.

.

"—"

Sthénos was dumbfounded as she placed her bared right hand on her shoulder.

Her hair decoration was the symbol of where she came from, but it had been removed and placed on her shoulder along with the glove.

He had to have done that while passing by just now.

It was a warning.

An Autonomous Trion Soldier's trion control was mostly controlled by the motions of their hands and arms, but...

...He's warning me that he can mess with that!

Removing the hair decoration was the same. He was warning her that he could interfere with her identity as a Neighbor Trion Soldier.

...I see!

She turned right while checking the data sent by Piripiri.

Tachikawa had landed about thirty meters away after scraping a long line in the gravel. He held the broken Kōgetsu forward in his right hand and placed that hand on the ground to lean toward her.

He was telling her he could begin at any moment, but he remained motionless so it would act as a warning to her.

He was saying now was the time to stop him.

But Sthénos demonstrated a certain answer.

She placed the hair decoration sensory assistance device on the ground.

"Let's continue!"

She then took the glove from her shoulder and threw it between the two of them.

"Now show me what you did to avoid my previous attack! After all, I am your tester, but...!"

Prepared to be ashamed, she returned all the swords to herself.

"Please show me the power of Border's #1!"

Sthénos and Piripiri sent their full power toward Tachikawa.

---

An Autonomous Trion Soldier had stopped picking at its trion-made feathers on a line overlooking the room of an archer.

It was Piripiri.

Around it, the other (real) birds were still sitting, but it had closed its eyes.

...I have to make corrections.

It was sending data to Sthénos who was holding a test battle with Border's #1 Attacker. It was computing the speed and distance of the movement techniques that Tachikawa had used while also taking his balance into account.

"Piripiri create a valley of fog and send the swords through the center!"

Piripiri determined the path Tachikawa would likely take: the direct straight-line path.

It had determined he would not choose a roundabout path during this test. It had determined he preferred to run straight forward and that he would consider the answer that provided as the appropriate answer to this test.

So the two Autonomous Trion Soldiers prepared a single test question for him.

They would counterattack using all thirty-two swords. They would detect his movements, attacks, and all other actions and then send out their attack to accurately interfere with them. And to do that...

"Please come, challenger."

---

Tachikawa determined the blades were prepared in defense.

The trion fog sword was prepared somewhat low in an iai-like arrangement.

"Here I go!"

He poured definite speed into himself.

.

In an instant, Sthénos realized Tachikawa had made it halfway through the trion fog blades.

...He's fast!

Autonomous Trion Soldier decisions were generally a thousand times faster than a human's thoughts, and they could reach nearly a million times faster at the greatest, but there was one thing they had trouble with at any speed: a never-before-seen situation.

They had no prepared countermeasure for it. They could list up a number of possibilities, but they would have no idea what was best. Tachikawa's speed was so great it reached that "unknown" level for Sthénos and Piripiri.

For speed alone, they could reference the area movement of Bado and an Illgar, but there was a difference for Tachikawa.

"That is something original!"

Green squares were appearing and disappearing on the back of his heels.

They had no data on this tactic that he used to accelerate.

.

"Is that...?"

Something seemed off to Kanzaki.

This was definitely something original when it came to speed, but that would make it the same as Kiyome.

...It is suppose to be appearing ahead of his movements, not behind him!

Kiyome used a type of "purification". The acceleration Trigger functioned by pushing aside all that was unnecessary, so they would purify any elements in one's path that was obstructing their acceleration. That was why Kiyome appeared on the front of the knees and top of the feet.

But for Tachikawa, it was appearing below the toes and heel of his feet.

"—!"

She saw him accelerate as if digging into the Trigger with his feet.

This was strange.

Each individual step looked slow, but for some reason he was fast.

"I guess he was experimenting with Yuki-kun, but it seems to be working well," said Sawamura while staring at him. "Trying to create a new Trigger had been too much of a hassle for the two of them due to how they think about everything. But he seems to be gaining powerful acceleration when he presses down his feet. That's different from Kiyome that provides speed as you move your legs forward. It's also different from using Grasshopper that only pushes a person forward."

So…

"I got a message from those two, asking if it would work. They had a thought: If they wanted a type of acceleration that was impossible through speed-type Trigger, they would ignore the rules concerning it. And..."

And...

"It looks like they came up with an idea using what they had. Instead of only moving one way and getting pushed that way, they use Shield to place their foot before using that Shield to push forward for the speed that they can control."

.

Amaya watched Tachikawa run.

He was using the Pushing Shield to do so, but it provided no acceleration at all on its own.

It acted on the location set as his acceleration footing and erased any issues that would obstruct his acceleration. That way, he could build up his acceleration with each step he took.

That was all the Trigger did.

It had originally been a Trigger used to defend against attacks. It had been designed to make an attack be blocked.

The Trigger had two objectives: to create footing that would provide one with reliable acceleration and to let them build up that acceleration.

The acceleration one acquired from the footing was reliant on the individual's own leg strength.

So what would happen if someone with great leg strength continued using it, step after step?

If that was all they did, they would be unable to control the built-up power and would eventually be blown away by it.

But what if they also had the balance needed to control that power?

There was one person who could do everything needed to answer that question.

...Kei-san.

His original leg strength was not to be compared to his trion body's, but that false body allowed for this to happen. The training done with Yuki also allowed him to maintain control over that strength.

It was not perfect yet. Both the accuracy of the use of the defensive Trigger and his own body could use work.

He was inexperienced in this regard.

But once he perfected it, he was sure to reach an amazing top speed.

That was why Amaya shouted to him as he ran through the foggy blades.

"Do your best, Kei-san!"

A moment later, the trion fog moved.

Sthénos had been unable to react to Tachikawa's initial speed, so she only now began her interception. She pulled back the blades he had already passed, and...

"...!"

Attacks and counterattacks assaulted him as a series of high-speed movements.

.

Tachikawa made a single decision.

Trion swords were arriving from behind, the sides, below, above, and ahead.

He could not defend against those blades with his own swords. They were an invisible manifestation of cutting itself.

But he made a decision while continuing onward without fear.

...I have to keep my footing firm.

That was all.

Despite the many trion swords around him, he evaded the invisible blades as they sliced through the fog.

"—"

He then grabbed one trion sword hilt.

"...!"

And he kicked at it with Pushing Shield to accelerate it.

After a solid sound, the kicked trion sword shot away from him.

It was light, so that was to be expected.

But that acceleration also pushed his leg forward thanks to Pushing Shield. It may have been a small acceleration, but he had already built up quite a bit of speed in his body. So...

"Here I go!"

He focused on dodging as he ran through the trion sword strikes and toward their source.

.

...Go.

Tachikawa continued forward as if leaping, as if racing, and as if challenging his opponent.

He turned his body around and even flipped upside down as he kicked off the ground and trion swords to continue forward.

He seemed to be running up a slope.

He swung his entire body around, kicked off the hilts of attacks he had passed, kicked off the guards of the large sword, and raised his speed each and every time. He slipped through the attacks as more blades came his way.

"...!"

He kicked off the base of the guard, tore into it with his toes, and accelerated.

He was always moving forward.

He blew away the whipped-up trion fog and thought of each individual piece of gravel as footing for his acceleration.

"Ohhh!"

It's been a while since I yelled like that, he thought.

How long has it been?

...I believe it was...

Jin. When he had faced Tamakoma's Elite Agent Jin Yūichi in a full-on battle. There had been many battles between them, but some of them were better than others.

He had used his full strength and raised his voice there.

And ever since his defeats and victories, he had been restraining his full strength. But...

...For now!

"—!"

He gave a roar and threw his body forward.

He stretched his hand forward.

His accelerated body and scratching hand whipped up the wind and blew the fog away.

This revealed his enemy: Sthénos.

As soon as he realized he had arrived, he took a certain action: He accelerated.

"!"

He raised the broken Kōgetsu in his right hand and charged straight toward Sthénos.

.

Sthénos used the two remaining large swords to intercept.

She did not hesitate in the slightest as Tachikawa arrived from directly ahead.

"So you're here!"

She sent the two swords forward in a crossed arrangement.

Tachikawa did not fear the twin attacks that threatened to slice into his shoulders. He accelerated, but when he sent out his sword, it was not toward Sthénos.

It was toward the ground.

That Kōgetsu in his right hand had broken off halfway up, but he still stabbed into the ground ahead and on his right.

That bearer of acceleration could create footing out of anything, even the blade he had just stabbed into the ground.

After moving his foot over the sword, he stepped on it and raised his speed.

He accelerated forward and instantly slipped below Sthénos's crossed swords.

This should have placed him right in front of his enemy, but Sthénos had moved back.

She had made a shield from the trion fog whipped up by the crossed large swords, and she had stepped back while leaving the position of the large swords unchanged.

.

Sthénos and Piripiri both understood that this would settle the battle.

"Sthénos!"

She understood. Something rotated through the air and arrived in her raised hands.

They were the large swords she had sent out earlier. She had pulled them back through the gap between the crossed swords, caught them in her trion control, and sent them straight toward Tachikawa as he stood up.

"Here I go!"

However, he avoided the blades dropping vertically toward him.

He had used Pushing Shield to kick off of the hilt of one of the previous crossed large swords.

He moved right, but when Sthénos turned in that direction, she saw a second Kōgetsu stabbed into the ground.

He had used this one as footing as well. The blade was vibrating and the light of the shattered Trigger surrounded it.

Before she could turn around, Tachikawa had stabbed the sword into the ground, kicked off of it, and changed directions.

...Such speed and decisiveness!

"Sthénos! Behind you!"

She understood. The two crossed swords had already returned to her hands, so she made her attack entirely based on Piripiri's instructions.

She released the motors of her shoulders, and let the momentum of raising the two large swords swing them around behind her.

This movement was impossible for a human.

"How about that!?"

.

Amaya saw the final action.

As the two swords were swung down from above, Tachikawa first made his preparation.

He removed a Kōgetsu from his waist, held it horizontally, and threw it toward the bottom of the large swords.

...Is that...?

Amaya predicted what he intended to do.

She knew she was right once he swung up his other Kōgetsu from below.

...Nice!

He struck something, but it was not Sthénos or her twin swords.

"The horizontal Kōgetsu he already threw!"

Hit from below, the sword hopped upwards in its horizontal orientation.

Immediately afterwards, that blade sliced into something: the guards of the two large swords swinging down toward him.

The horizontal blade embedded itself inside them.

"...!"

He swung up his sword as if pushing up on that horizontal sword.

It was more of a splitting sound than a sound of destruction.

The hilts of the dropping swords broke open near the guard and the trion swords burst.

The wind broke into pieces.

The invisible blades vanished and produced the sound of scattering wind. The fog whipped up, but Amaya still saw Tachikawa moving within it. He took action to stop Sthénos as she started to turn around.

"Excuse me. I'll be winning now."

He used his sword to break parts on her neck, sides, and waist.

.

"...It's over then."

Akasora saw the wind whip up and clear away the fog.

Sawamura spoke expressionlessly as she sat next to him.

"Where will you find the money to repair your yard?"

"Well, it's my home, so I guess it'll come from my own pocket... Sure as hell not going to ask my nephew for money."

"And a branch director's salary comes from Border."

"W-well, it's my money once it's been paid to me. ...Right?"

Two figures stood on the large yard: Tachikawa who had put away his Kōgetsu after his attack and Sthénos who had finished turning toward him.

As the wind blew, Sthénos finally bowed toward Tachikawa with both arms out to the side.

"Sorry for all the trouble!"

"Nah. I should be the one who is sorry."

Tachikawa also bowed and then sat down on the gravel. He crossed his legs and looked up into the sky.

"Sorry, Akasora-san, but do you have anything for me to eat?"

.

"I already gave it to Tsukiko here."

Amaya stood up with a bitter smile.

"I only have the small amount they gave me. Will that be fine?"

"Yeah, thanks."

When she saw the smile on his face, she was glad they had come to the area.

"Hm? Is something the matter?"

He was also looking her way more now, so she decided it was for the best. However...

"Kei-san, you shouldn't end a battle like that."

"Eh? ...But those are vital areas that can stop people from continuing."

"Yeah," agreed Sthénos. "That can be interpreted as bringing me 'death'!"

As soon as Sthénos said that, the dress and sleeves attached to her shoulders were gone.

"...Eh!?"

Unable to grasp what had happened, Sthénos did not react quickly enough to grab the dress as it briefly floated through the air. Instead, she started laughing and placed her hands on her hips.

"...!"

This reaction may have been due to her nudist tendencies that came with being a Neighbor, but it seem to be a combination of her usual side and an expression of confusion over the unexpected situation. She had a half-thoughtful look on her face and her grin widened, perhaps due to knowing that she had not been the one to remove the clothes.

Sawamura entered the house and began searching through the dresser for some spare clothing for Sthénos. After seeing that, Amaya smiled bitterly at Tachikawa who was looking away from the laughing Sthénos. He seemed to understand that a certain archer would now be going for his head.

Amaya stood up and started toward him.

...Eh?

But then she heard a quiet voice that she could not quite make out.

"—"

It was Kanzaki. She had been sitting next to Amaya before, but she had stood up, taken a step back, and bowed.

"I will be leaving now."

"Okay, Kanzaki-kun. I'll have Kyōko-chan send you the information you asked for."

Akasora gave a quick wave and concluded everything with his words.

"I'm sure you're all busy, but if you meet the others, make sure to tell them this is the time to push yourselves pretty hard."

---

The Shitokei Residence living room was completely full.

Senshi had woken up especially early due to his internal clock. It gave him time to go out for a bit, return before the sun was too far into the sky, deal with some bad luck, and greet everyone as they began waking up. There was only one thing that was truly different from his usual routine.

We had to do this in the city. Then we came back to others, instead of an empty house.

There had been times when Kurauchi would spend the night at his house and go through this routine with him, but this was the first time they had done so in the city.

The scenery was completely different and the feeling of the morning air was much denser than by his house. Noises from all around told him that the city was slower to wake up for its morning, but it would also begin waking up with a start instead of gradually getting up. Senshi found that sort of difference to be something pretty amazing.

Having Kazuki by my side also helped to easy any worries I had.

They had invited the muscle duo of Arafune Squad but they had thought it more fun to stay and mess with others.

Now he was seeing the end result of that.

"This better not be one of those stupid history moments for you."

"Leave me alone, you jackass. This idiotic airhead just said something he should have waited on. Now I have to deal with it."

"I don't want to hear that from someone like you. Now say something or I will make you."

"Haaaaah!? Just try it, you idiot!"

"Hey now, keep your voices down. Michelle-chan is still not fully awake."

Senshi moved to close the door after Kurauchi and saw him lightly shaking his head.

"Looks like they are having an exciting morning."

"That should be expected, shouldn't it?"

Kurauchi nodded his head this time. The smile on his face never left, but now it felt much more relaxed.

This was a good place to be. Senshi understood that much from the way Kurauchi walked in without any problem.

It may have been someone else's house, but it was also a home to a lot of people.

In a way, it's one of many.

There was the Yagura Branch, the Main Red Lightning, and even the Border base itself. A lot of places within the city could be considered a home they could return to without a problem.

I feel like any place these people go to becomes like that. They enjoy throwing around their weight and making any place they visit into a spot where they can enjoy themselves. This is even more true when it actually involves one of us.

That was what made everything so much fun.

"Sounds like Ex Prez and SenSen are back. Good timing."

"We are," Kurauchi said while walking forward.

Senshi followed him until they reached the living room. Everyone was sitting around with Jinsei, Murakami and Yuki sitting closer together than usual. He thought nothing of it, but Kurauchi seemed to be questioning it inside.

"Is this some kind intervention?"

"We gave up on that sort of thing a long time ago."

That made sense. They were all too far gone for something like that.

"Then what is going on?"

Yuki let out a sigh from his spot between Jinsei and Murakami. He must have been the main target this time.

Senshi nodded towards them all and looked around the room again.

All around were the people from last night. The only ones he could not see here were the owners of the house.

"Oh? Is SenSen looking away because he smells right now?"

"Don't be stupid. He hasn't cared about that sort of stuff before."

"Then what's with that reaction?"

Almost everyone turned their head at the same time. The only ones to miss out were Ninomiya and the girl sitting sleepily in his lap.

He knew exactly what they were thinking.

It's best not to move form this spot. These people are like sharks in that they will attack at any sort of movement.

Bad luck has always followed him around and it would only give these people more to work with.

But...

"Ah."

His bad luck seemed to be against him today.

Nothing was happening to him, something he understood as he continued to simply stand there, not moving. But this meant nothing to those around him who continued to move or wait for their opportunity.

The one to get hit by his bad luck had been Kurauchi.

Senshi's mind was quick to go into action.

Catching Kazuki will give everyone what they want. Having them get something to attack would be bad for Kazuki, but I can manage fine enough. A headlock here and there will shut up most of them, so that isn't a problem for me. But Kazuki...

And...

Letting him fall would mean he gets hurt because of my bad luck. I would also end up looking bad because I could have caught him instead. Besides all of that, I just don't want him to fall or get hurt.

With a quick apology he went into action.

.

Everyone watched Senshi as he leaned forward and pushed out his arms. His feet were planted on the ground while his upper body reached out. Kurauchi's fall had caused him to go into action.

Then they saw something else.

Senshi would call it bad luck and some of them would call it a chance, but none of them could deny what he were seeing.

Senshi's feet, even being rooted in place, had slipped on nothing but the air. His body moved more forward than he had expected, throwing him off for a moment. His front would end up crashing into Kurauchi's back, sending the two of them to the ground instead.

He tried to correct this by moving his slipped foot forward and starting to move his arms earlier than planned. From both the right and left his arms began moving inward.

"—!"

Kurauchi's eyes went wide as he felt one hand move up his shirt and another going down his pants. They were warm and slide across his body as his collided with Senshi.

The two of them managed to stay standing, but their position gave enough away that Ninomiya was making sure to cover Michelle's sleepy eyes and the girls were already begging to whisper to each other.

Jinsei, Murakami and Yuki nodded from the floor, but it was only Yuki who spoke up.

"Thanks for lightening the mood. ...Or making it hotter, I suppose."

He pointed to where the girls were fanning each other.

Senshi was the first to move, pulling his hands back and helping Kurauchi to right himself again. He took a few steps back and nodded back to Yuki.

No one really knew what that nod was for.

Kurauchi coughed into his hand and said, "I would rather we pretend that didn't happen."

"No gonna happen," came the collective chorus.

"Besides," said Jinsei. "I doubt SenSen wants to forget about how your boobs and dick felt."

Minoru had moved over to cover Michelle's ears.

"Can't she read minds?" asked Arafune.

Everyone made an immediate turn to him.

"Arafune's thinking dirty things!"

Arafune raised a fist that had most of them quieting down.

.

They are all terrible...

Ninomiya had to reconfirm this with himself.

Out of everyone here there should have been some who were fine enough, but he was seeing that even Minoru would join in on their collective responses. That was to say nothing about Inukai. The only ones who seemed to be in the same position as him were the Hogo Squad Captain, Taiyōko Younger Brother, and Tsuji. Everyone else were cannibals who were attacking their own.

Minoru patted his shoulder from behind. It was the only thing keeping him from walking away right now. Well, that and...

I still need to know what is going on with this "Unneeded" situation.

More than just him, there were others wanting the answer to that. He had just been the one to finally bring it up here. After all, there were people who could answer that now.

It was just a pain that it had to be the former faker.

"Now that Kuracchi and SenSen are here they can join in the conversation!"

"And what conversation would that be?"

The caution in Kurauchi's movements was understandable. But there was no time for him to act on that since the Senzai Squad Captain had grabbed him wrist and pulled him towards everyone else.

"Cleaning up a bit sounds nice, but this seems important."

"More-or-less. It's just Yuki needing to tell us something."

"...Never mind. We can go clean up a bit, Kazuki. Come on, let's go."

"Go jump in sewage water!"

Ninomiya had to cover his mouth to hide the smirk forming at seeing the former faker getting attacked.

And Minoru tapped his shoulder three times but said nothing about it.

"Do what you want," the former faker said.

There was no longer any hiding his true thoughts.

He wanted the both of them here.

"I know he can be longwinded, but it's not like you two have much to do today, right? Not until later."

"Will you be staying to listen, Kanda?"

"Hah? Of course not. This guy takes forever to get to the-... Whoa!"

A nearby pencil had lodged itself deep into the wall directly behind Kanda.

Everyone turned to where it had come from and saw the former faker looking away while both the nudist and Murakami pointed directly at him.

This is really nothing compared to everything he's owed, Ninomiya thought smugly.

There was a yawn from his lap that made him look down.

"Masataka...meanie."

He went red as everyone's attention shifted over to him.

Ninomiya coughed into his hand and turned away. His attention remained on what everyone was saying, but he refused to look them in the eye.

"Anyway... Ya sure ya don't wanna wait for yer girlfriend and her parents to come back?"

"It's fine. We have the Kurosaki boss and Kobayashi's Mogami-san waiting. Anything more than this and they have all rights to start saying something bad about us."

Dino Boy: "I'm pretty sure they can say a lot of bad things about the situation at this point..."

Tsuji was right, but only him and Inukai knew that.

"Besides that, I would rather wait to tell Mei anything about this."

Minoru stepped forward with that one.

"Do you think she won't take it well?"

"It's because I think she will take it too well."

The former faker turned his head to look at Minoru and laid back on his hands. His expression was loose and there looked to be no tension there at all.

It was a strange sight.

"With the way she is now, she might not hold back on going for the throat with what I say. The rest of these people will only add fuel to the fire, and I really don't doubt that Kō will be one of the main instigators here."

If he didn't know any better then that sentence would have caught him off guard.

But...

"Please don't say that when there are important people listening in."

"Ease up a bit more and you have yourself a deal."

"Fine," was all he said before moving.

Like an empty doll, Murakami let himself start to fall. His body was tilted to the side and his head landed onto the former faker's shoulder.

The former faker only rolled his eyes and allowed this to happen.

Still Young Girl: "Ko ko ko. It sounds like you all are having a good amount of fun over there."

Everyone looked to each other.

.

Zoe: "I kind of forgot that most people outside of Border aren't used to us."

Pokari: "Usually the underclassmen would just turn the other way and stay out of our sights, so having someone directly talk about it is weird."

Kura-uchi: "There is always the option of just acting normal."

TetsuG: "Considering how bad we are, there's no chance of that happening."

SenSen: "Good try, Kazuki."

Umi: "Reminder: I can still know what's going on over there. I needed to leave because someone from R&D called me over to check on something new that they had made with a visitor."

Deer Prince: "Oh, Kitty must want to update things over here, too."

Umi: "I'll ask when I get there. But my point still stands. I'll know if you people start some things that will cause the sponsors to question Border again."

Manager: "Don't worry, Suzaku. We'll make sure they only have positive results that will make the directors pause the results."

.

The pain hit everyone equally. Yuki could only guess what it felt for Suzaku to be take the full direct hit from that.

Kimura didn't even seem to realize something was wrong. Until...

"Why would you do that to us!?"

"At least warn us ahead of time!"

"This is her special attack! Why would she use it here!?"

"Right, right!?" they all said.

The idiotic airhead and Tsuji jumped at their voices while Mukuro and Michelle continued to be blissfully unaware of their surroundings. As for Oshiro...

"Shiroooooo! Your terrible Operator hurt us! She did it without any remorse or apology, so do something about it!"

"Kawa-chan hurt you all? What did she do?"

"She gave us one of her special 'Jokes Beyond Terrible' attacks!"

"Huh? But Kawa-chan's jokes are usually fine."

Almost Everyone: "Inukaaaaaaaaai!"

Inu: "It isn't my fault! I swear! I thought Shiro had higher standards than that!"

Kage: "He's together with you, isn't he? His standards can't be too high."

Almost Everyone: "Oooooooohhhhh!"

Yuki made a rush to stand up and high five Kageura. Both of them grinned while Inukai threw his head into Oshiro's shoulder.

Oshiro only patted his head without questioning it.

Now that he was standing up, Yuki moved to stand against the wall next to Kageura. His body was more rested than before and he felt strength as he stood there. It was different compared to how he had been feeling before, so he used it while he could.

This was one of his better days.

"Hah. Moving past Kimura's crappy jokes and Shiro's crappy taste in people..."

"Hey!"

"Shiroooooo!"

Yuki waved the two of them off and nodded.

"Mogami-san, you had said something earlier. You had said to add in 'people important to them'. Were you referring to me, Sekai-san, and Denji?"

Still Young Girl: "If that's how you want to view it then go ahead."

"I see that we're similar here..."

That was a bit worrying.

"But I'm not too sure that's a good thing. I'm fine with saying my part of things since Kō's here, but those two have something else going on entirely."

Still Young Girl: "Ko ko ko. What a foolish boy. You understand who exactly is listening in, don't you?"

"She's got a point," Kageura said with a shrug.

Yuki knew that she was right, but there was still something off with saying too much when it concerned Sekai and Denji.

So he made a compromise.

"Mogami-san. Kurosaki Boss."

Still Young Girl: "What is it?"

Kuro-shi: "Yes? Was there something you needed, Tsukiko Yuki?"

Oh, he's being considerate, isn't he?

The Kurosaki Boss had used his current name instead of bringing up his true name.

Yuki could appreciate that much.

"I won't be inviting anyone in, but there are some terrible people around me. Plus, I can't really stop the two of you from doing anything. If something were to happen outside of my control...I guess I would just have to see what happens."

Another laugh came through.

This time it was from the Kurosaki Boss.

Kuro-shi: "Magnificent! I would expect no less from someone as conniving and ruthless as the Yagura Branch's Representative and one who has fought against his own organization for survival! Brilliant! I will make sure to compensate you with any sort of destruction you wish! Be it connections or property, I shall aide you in demolishing everything! Even better if it involves Sekai!"

Everyone froze up.

.

White Fox: "What does he mean by that!? I don't want to destroy anything! And who here told him that untrue crap about me being conniving and ruthless!?"

Umi: "First: you can't blame him for thinking of something like that. Your track record is pretty good on that. Second: have you met yourself?"

Demon Child: "Wow. I didn't think Tsukiko would want to end up destroying so much."

Competent One: "I'm pretty worried about this. The Kurosaki Boss is kind of hardcore if he's going this far, isn't he? I mean, it would be one thing for him to just help Yuki, but he's going so far as to destroy the city to do that."

Zoe: "H-hey, can we talk about why he even wants to do that!?"

Artist: "Isn't it because Yuki-kun really like messing around with things?"

White Fox: "That isn't true! Not in the slightest!"

Inu: "Yeah! He only likes screwing around when it ends up being an annoyance to others!"

Kage: "That explains why he would be around you. You're an annoyance all on your own."

Almost Everyone: "Whoooooooo!"

Inu: "Don't celebrate that!"

White Fox: "He has a point. Just deal with it, Inu."

Almost Everyone: "How ruthless!"

---

"That was pretty nice of me, wasn't it? Oh, but I really did mean it, so I'm not really trying to be humble."

Everyone in the room turned away as Kurosaki Shin tilted his head in confusion.

He had already interrupted the conversation between the Border members, so he was thinking that this would also work as a good apology.

After a moment of this Kumokawa slowly walked forward.

Kurosaki had always been rather fond of Kumokawa. Besides being invited in by Sekai, she was a hard worker who knew what she was doing at most times. Even as a serious person she still enjoyed herself around the buildings and other employees. The only one she had been wary of was Kurosaki himself.

I tried to make her feel more comfortable by taking her to see the animals, but...

She had ended up walking away with a nervous smile and shaky legs.

He had worried about her after that.

But now she was the only one to move forward to speak to him.

"S-sir...?"

"Hm? Yes, what is it, Kumokawa-kun?"

"Well... What exactly did you mean by all of that?"

He raised a brow. His words had been chosen carefully and with respect for what he thought the Tsukiko boy wanted.

"Exactly what I said. Demolishing that which causes issues is a good thing for people like him and Sekai. They understand things that we do not, so helping them to break down anything standing in the way of that understanding will be great for everyone. So in that sense, helping Tsukiko Yuki in that endeavor will only lead to happiness."

His personality made things even better.

He's really smart to come up with such crazy ideas alongside Sekai's teammate. They are both pretty conniving and great to rely on for their understanding. His ruthlessness to assist others is also very good. Tatsuya-chan has told me so much about how he is when it comes to others.

The Tsukiko boy was someone Kurosaki felt that he could rely on to take care of Sekai.

.

Kumokawa heard her boss give an ominous chuckle under his breath.

The lighting seemed to perfectly cast a shadow over his eyes as his cane hit the ground three times. His expression seemed vicious as he spoke.

"Yes... That sort of conniving and ruthless personality is just what I would expect from him. Oh, the kind of destruction that could come from this. We might even be able to take out a good portion of this filth if we can have him on our side. Heh heh heh."

There was something terrifying with the way he would laugh by raising his shoulders.

She could feel a cold sweat start to go down her neck.

This is crazy! He doesn't seriously mean to take out parts of Mikado City, does he!?

But that was what it sounded like to her.

"U-um...Sir? Maybe we should take things more slowly?"

"Taking our time would normally be great, but we mustn't keep Tsukiko Yuki waiting for too long. Our path is laid out before us and that boy will be the one to lead the way forward. After all..."

She tilted her head.

He nodded his head.

"That is what the second child of the Taiyōko family is able to do."

"...Huh?"

Tonbo: "Allow me to explain."

That would have been helpful way before, Saitou-san!

But she worked with the rest of Hikigane Squad, so she understood when she should remain quiet and listen.

This was one of those times.

Tonbo: "The Taiyōko family had been known for a lot of things. The parents in particular had always been known as some of Japan's best soldiers. But besides them, their children had also been given titles before. Most don't mention them for fear of facing their wrath, but they are there. That Tsukiko boy being the second child and first born son means that he also has one of those titles. It may be a bit much, and it may not seem like it at first, but we have confirmed with Suzunari's Kuruma-kun that this is true."

A title that stuck with Tsukiko. She had been told something similar by Mei before, but she never thought that it would go beyond something from the previous Tsukiko Squad.

But now it was coming up again.

Tonbo: "The second child of the Taiyōko family has been known as 'True Commander' for the way he is able to lead."

Cloudy River: "Huh? I understand that he has had multiple squads before, but his leadership has always been..."

Finding the right words was a bit difficult here.

She knew what Tsukiko's pervious squads had been like and how they had turned out. It was no secret that they all ended up in some kind of turmoil due to their connection with him.

But...

...They are now even stronger than before.

It would be a stretch to say that it had been because of him, but there was still something there.

She thought about it more and came to a realization.

Tonbo: "Do you understand now?"

...That's true.

While his leadership was put into question, his guidance had always led to something.

A lot of the incidents involving him had been due to his actions leading to something. In a way, it could be said that he was paving the way for each incident and each resolution.

The problem with the sponsors had been due to him using his name. That had resolved due to his connection with the Suzunari Branch.

The incident with his sister and Takato had been because he was used as a connecting point. His side of the battlefield during the attack on the base had resulted in Takato getting involved, as well. Takato had wanted to end that conflict because of him.

Everything that happened during that particular day had been because his actions were taken by someone else and his own actions had caused more problems. Then he had gone to face everything head-on.

To call him a commander was something she found strange, but he did seem to lead others into situations that forced them to resolve things.

But by the end of those incidents, something good always came from them that everyone held close.

Cloudy River: "...This is weird."

Tonbo: "Shin had been able to see that on their first meetings. That's why he thinks it's fine to assist the Tsukiko boy in whatever he does. Even if it means tearing things down."

Because...

Tonbo: "Something good is highly likely to come from the end result."

---

Yoshiko laughed into her fan as she figured out what Kurosaki was doing with this situation.

The possibility of a good outcome was high if that fox boy was leading the way to another incident.

"What a clever way of telling us to do as we want."

"Boss is pretty cool like that."

"Is that how you determine your viewpoints?"

"I just like what's cool. That's all."

"Oh? Then how do you view me at the moment?"

"You're pretty cool. You have the whole fox thing down as much as Boss does. I wouldn't think it's too weird if you grew a tail and ears on top of your head."

She gave a "ko ko" laugh and narrowed her eyes.

"What an interesting person you are. Especially when we consider your reason for being here."

But there was still something else she had to address here.

The boy who was still standing.

"Does Border just have pairs who prefer to have one standing and the other sitting?"

Jin Yūichi gave a bitter smile.

He placed a careful hand on the black hilt at his side.

He is being far too serious while in the presence of a fox.

When she thought about it, he would have some experience with the fox boy. It made sense if that was his situation.

Then there was the other boy.

"Boss sure does know how to play things out though, doesn't he? What's your response to this...?"

"Do you not know what to call me?"

"There are a few things I can call you, but some of them might end up accidentally being an insult, or bring up bad memories."

He was a good boy.

Both boys were the same age, but it was clear what was going on here.

Yoshiko let out a sigh behind her fan and lowered it to blow some wind towards him. They were in the same location where she had spoken to the Hatohara Squad Captain and Nasu Squad Sniper. The air was open and clean enough, but he may have needed to be cooled down a bit.

This was her way of telling him whatever he called her was fine, so long as he never meant to insult her.

The sitting boy relaxed in the wind and accepted it.

This is the proper way to take what a fox gives you.

But there was still something she needed to answer.

"You wanted to know my answer to this? That should be obvious. But good boys like you deserve a few free passes."

So she spoke through the chat to speak with the fox boy.

Still Young Girl: "I am fine with that result. But just let it be known that I have all intentions to do as I wish. That includes dragging in those mentioned without any hesitation."

White Fox: "Stopping you from doing that would make me one of the worst kind of people."

The meaning of those words was hidden behind what he had to say.

"Ko ko ko. What a troublemaker. To think someone like him would say something like that to me."

"Did Boss mess up here?"

"Not at all."

She gave a full laugh into the open air.

Enjoying the moment and taking in the challenge was what made her a difference breed from the fox boy.

Yoshiko gave another wave of her fan and nodded to the sitting boy.

Still Young Girl: "Now that we have that settled, you can go on. I want to know what you have to say."

And she was not the only one.

Kuro-shi: "As would I."

---

This is it, Yuki thought bitterly.

There was no longer any reason to hold back.

So he spoke.

"I want to clarify something first."

He turned to Kimura.

"How much time do we have until the official meeting with the Awdrys?"

"That's not something you need to worry about."

That was true. So...

"Okay then... How long do I have until I'm needed to go back to the branch office?"

"Shiraishi already contacted me about that. Akasora-san was at his house, dealing with some people, and you are over here. She said she would take care of things over there so you two can relax a bit."

Chisato was new, but Yuki knew how she could be in situations like these.

His own negotiations with her made him worry about the branch, but there was no other choice with his current situation.

"Hah. Fine. I'll make sure to thank her for that later on. For now, just tell her to hold down the fort as much as she can."

"Oh yeah. She also has Ikoma with her over there."

"I didn't want to know that!"

His worry grew even more.

Kageura patted his shoulder.

"I guess I just have to deal with that."

"Glad that you finally understand."

"Anyways," Yuki said with another sigh. "In reality, there isn't much to explain about what being 'Unneeded' means. The only thing that would take a long time would be what exactly it means to the three of us. Even then, I would only be able to tell you about what I feel towards that. But..."

He looked around and saw some of them nod.

They understood what he meant without being told.

...Yeah, it isn't really something to just say out to everyone.

"You don't have to tell us the specifics," Minoru said.

"Just let whoever you want to know know what you want them to," Inukai said.

"It's annoying to deal with you a lot of the time, but we won't force someone like that out of you," Arafune agreed.

They were all terrible, but their understanding of each other was in-depth and led to these sorts of situations.

That's good, he thought.

If they said anything then he would just counter them. That was how things worked.

.

"Let's start with the simple understanding of this entire situation. That being 'unneeded' itself as a concept."

Yuki began with looking around.

"When someone or something is unneeded they don't have purpose at that moment. Needing and wanting are different things, but sometimes they could end up being the same thing without purposefully ending up that way. The three of us took that sort of thing differently. We viewed being wanted as something that was bound to happen when speaking and getting to know others. On the reverse side of that, we viewed being needed as something that could happen. But only on a physical level."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Kunichika who was leaning on Kon. "I get that there would be a difference between a physical level and something like an emotional level, but it never feels that way whenever you say it."

Their viewpoints on these sorts of things were different.

Yuki remembered what something like this meant to him before it became a part of his life. Now he was thinking about it as someone who had gotten over that.

"We might have been needed on a physical level, even while not seeing it ourselves, but there was still something we thought was unneeded. It was something different for each of us, so that's why I can't exactly speak for Sekai-san or Denji."

Kunichika nodded and relaxed more onto Kon.

"In my case..."

Yuki turned his neck all around. His eyes wandered over the room and landed on multiple people.

Murakami and Jinsei met his gaze fully while others like Fuyushi and Kitazoe found it hard to do so.

"I had thought of my existence as unneeded."

There was a sudden silence over the entire room.

.

TetsuG: "Urg. This guy feels like the most pathetic side of humanity at times."

Kage: "If we add on how he tries to recreate history, he really is pathetic."

Mi-Kon: "You guys really don't take a break."

Shōgi Boy: "We've had more time to deal with him, so I'd say it's pretty fair on us."

Black Wolf: "Um, guys? He's being serious here."

Almost Everyone: "We know."

Black Wolf: "..."

.

Murakami's turned expression was concerning, but Yuki knew that looking at the chat now would only derail him to a bad point.

But he knew what was happening on pure instinct alone.

"Yeah, yeah, I know already."

"Do you?" Arafune was being his normal self when it came to speaking with him. Yuki couldn't hold it against him. "Thinking that something like an entire existence is unneeded is just something you can say after going through all of your life. Saying it before that only makes you seems like a child who doesn't want to admit that he doesn't know what to do with himself."

"I hate how true that actually is. But there was also something else to it. You saw it didn't you?"

Arafune turned his head away, but that was enough for all of them to know he understood what Yuki meant.

Arafune Squad had gone to Germany with him and some others. There an been an incident over there that had caused Yuki to act more like his family's child than the person he had been pretending to be. Most had not done much about it, but Arafune had been cautious since then and kept his eye on Yuki.

That was now coming up here.

"Think about it from my perspective. My body is deteriorating, my family situation was bad, I have to deal with you people, and I had basically-"

Yuki made a quick turn to look at Ninomiya. The girl on his lap shifted a bit but still held her head to his chest.

"Yuki's thinking...about oil..."

Everyone looked at him with questioning expressions.

It had been his way of avoiding Michelle reading his mind. His expression could be changed and his true thoughts could be conveyed through that, but his mind would still be open for the tired Michelle to read. So...

"I had to change my thoughts," he whispered.

Still Young Girl: "Ko ko. So the fox boy is thinking of oil? What a strange thought to have here."

Kuro-shi: "Oil could have a hidden meaning that we do not know about."

"No, no, no," everyone reflexively said.

Yuki found himself agreeing with them. Sometime what they said actually did help.

But that's neither here nor there.

There were still things to go over.

"Anyways, my point is that I had an actual reason to think like that. My existence, especially when compared to everyone else, felt like it should have only been used for others. None of us know how much more time I have, so why not just use it all during those moments? I figured that if I was going to die then I would do what I could before I do."

"That makes sense for someone who thinks he's being selfless. If anything, it makes you sound more conceited than anything."

"I can see that now. I would rather be selfish here than conceited there. Besides, when I compare it to how Sekai-san and Denji feel, I'm pretty sure I had felt Unneeded at a shallow level. Having an unneeded existence is really not much to what they are feeling."

"So what you're saying is that the way to be 'Unneeded' is to feel like you don't have something?"

Yuki twisted is head twice around and looked back to Ninomiya.

The incident that had caused him to feel that way in the first place had involved Ninomiya. Something had happened that caused his situation and the only ones who knew about the entire thing managed to keep quiet about it.

"...Incident...?"

Michelle's head slowly lifted and she rubbed her eye. Yuki looked worriedly at her.

Keeping his mind busy had been his usual go-to around her and around most people in general. The relaxing atmosphere in the house had lowered his guard to the point where Michelle had been able to read his mind clearly.

"It isn't something for you to worry about, Michelle," Ninomiya said while gently rubbing her back.

Behind him, Yuki could see that Minoru was wondering what they were speaking about as well. Even being with Ninomiya for so long, Minoru knew little about the incident.

Kuro-shi: "Has something happened before?"

White Fox: "U-um... It's pretty personal... Sorry, but it's something the people who know about can't really talk about. ...The pain is a bit much for us when we think about it."

Kuro-shi: "I see. Very well, I will not mention it."

Even with how terrifying he could be at times, the Kurosaki Boss was pretty understanding.

It makes sense as to why Kuruma-san likes him.

.

Mukuro continued to listen to the conversation happening around him while his eye remained closed.

The feeling of Tsuji's lap was not bad, so he wanted to enjoy it as much as he could. Along with that was the discussion about his older brother that started to show him some of how his older had been before. The usually strong old brother he knew was reduced down to someone who had thought their entire existence was unneeded by those around him.

Hearing that was enough to get him to move slightly.

"This is new to you too, isn't it?"

"It iiis. I diidn't knooow that Kiyo-nii felt like thaaat."

"To be fair, that incident is something that only a few of us know about," Inukai said bitterly. His tone gave away his feelings on the subject.

Just pure deduction of the situation and tone coming from others he could tell who in the room know about the incident in-depth.

"Getting back to being 'unneeded' in general. Something that came with that was knowing about what was happening in the city at all times. It's why I had to always be moving around the city and have multiple places marked."

"Then Hikigane-san and Bakuto-san also know most of what is going on in the city?"

"That's right. But most of the time they could only do as much as they allowed themselves to do."

That kind of tone only came with stipulations that meant his older brother could not say more than what he was telling them.

Mukuro understood well enough what that felt like. Living with his sister had made him wary of saying certain things around people that weren't related to him.

This was a similar situation for his older brother.

"There was an agreement between us where the three of us were not allowed to take the same side at the same side. Being in Border was one thing, but fighting at the same time was something we didn't really allow. One of us would either have to stay out of the fighting or take the other side altogether."

"That explains the situation with the sponsors. Those two had been with Kurosaki and Mogami-san while Yuki was with the rest of us."

"Exactly." His older brother did not deny that as the reason. "While it wasn't the main reason, that was enough for the three of us to work as much as we could during that incident. Beyond that, we had to keep ourselves from getting involved during certain times. Usually Denji was the one to stay out of things. At least when it came to attacks against us. Internal conflicts always got him involved."

That explained why he had heard very little about what Denji had done when the base had been attacked twice. But...

Still Young Girl: "What about the first invasion?"

He had been in the Forbidden Zone during that invasion and destroyed an Illgar. Everything within the base was something he never kept up with.

Something had happened.

"Oh yeah! Denji fought against that Black Trigger in the base! Suwa Squad and Dai-chan can vouch for that."

Still Young Girl: "That is right. He had told me why he did that, but what would you think it was about, fox boy?"

White Fox: "I would say he fought because he would have nowhere else to stay during those kinds of times if he didn't. Moving in to Denji's area is usually a bad thing since he can work in almost any situation."

Still Young Girl: "At least I know that you do understand him."

Mukuro opened his eyes and turned to see everyone else in the room.

Their gazes were turned toward their phones or to his older brother. This gave him the chance to examine their expressions.

The one who caught his attention most was his older brother's best friend - Murakami Kō.

Everyone was taking in the information while Murakami was only nodding at times. The nudist would do so at times as well, but there was a definitive understanding whenever Murakami did it that he could not see in the nudist.

If we take everything into consideration then this makes sense. But this also means...

"There's sooooomeone who understands that guuuy better than Kiyo-nii."

His older brother and Murakami turned to him so fast that he actually thought he heard a snap. The nudist purposefully make a snapping noise so he didn't matter.

Instead of waiting for any sort of response he continued speaking from atop Tsuji's lap.

"When Kiyo-nii says thaaaat Murakami knows everything abooout him...he actually means it. Isn't that riiight?"

"Hah. Leave it to you to figure that out."

Mukuro knew he was preening a bit over that single comment. He could care less.

The feeling of someone patting his leg did calm him down a bit.

"That's right. Someone else that we shared was that we each had one person who we could confide in. Someone who could understand everything about us and not judge us for our decisions concerning it. In my case it was Kō. He was here... Well, he was the one I was relying on to basically verify my existence. ...Sorry about that."

"If I wanted you to apologize then I wouldn't have stuck with you to this point."

"I guess that's true."

The two smiled to each other. The mixed emotions in those two smiles made him realize that there was still something he would not be able to reach yet with his older brother.

But...

...That's fine. I only need to work up to that alongside Hoshi.

It it seem like Tsuji was refusing to leave him alone. If he could be of some use here then there was nothing wrong with allowing him to remain nearby.

"Especially iiiif I get this niiice pillow..."

"Did you say something?"

"Yeah. I saaaid to shift over a biiit. I waaant to relax some more."

Tsuji likely rolled his eyes, but that was fine. He still moved, after all.

.

Yuki looked over with resignation as Mukuro tried to go back to sleep on Tsuji's lap. With his legs on Oshiro's lap it left a small amount of room for the two sitting next to each other. Neither one of them seemed to mind all too much.

That's good, he thought.

Mukuro choosing to be with Oshiro and Tsuji was the better option out of everyone he knew. Those two had been trustworthy enough for this.

I just wish that Tsuji wasn't part of that airhead's squad.

He had played up the part of a big brother but found that Tsuji really was someone good to have around.

I can just leave Mukuro up to them.

Kuro-shi: "If each one of you had someone who was meant to completely understand you, who has been there for Sekai and Bakuto? Or are you unable to tell us that much?"

Still Young Girl: "Before you answer that, I would like to take a guess. Rather, I have a good idea as to who has been with Denji for so long."

There was only one person it could have been.

Still Young Girl: "It's that Kumagai girl, isn't it?"

"I can't answer that myself."

Still young Girl: "And that's good enough."

There was doubting it at this point.

Murakami pulled out his phone, but Yuki already knew what he was doing. There was no questioning it at this point.

"I see," a voice said from the side.

Yuki looked over to see that it was Minoru. He held his chin between his fingers as he spoke under his breath.

"So when Denji said that about Sekai..." He looked up to face Yuki directly. "Yuki, tell me something."

"What is it?"

Minoru nodded once and spoke once more.

"Sekai... He doesn't have anyone like that, does he?"