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.

9. Rehearsal

Sekai-san...doesn't have someone to rely on.

Murakami felt his heart race a bit more at that thought.

If it was true then that meant Sekai would be dealing with his situation by himself. The general understanding from the rest of them was one thing, but he knew what it meant to have someone else there to completely understand the thoughts and feelings of someone who was Unneeded.

It's to keep them as sane as possible.

Border had a lot of insane people as it was. Adding on to that with the Unneeded would only make things worse.

But more than that...

It's to make sure they don't end up losing themselves in their own thoughts and feelings.

If not for him then he was sure that Yuki would have been far more resigned to his previous lifestyle. Getting everything out and having someone anchor him to those around him had led to their current formation. One where they could now speak about these sorts of things and let others know.

Kumagai was someone in the same position as him, the only difference being who they were anchoring. Even Jinsei seemed to have some part in all of this.

So if Sekai didn't have someone by his side...

"Jinsei, if that's true, then how do you know about this stuff? I had always thought that you were the one staying by his side."

Jinsei gave a bitter smile.

"I wish that were true. That would have made things a lot easier. But nope, I only know about the situation. He hasn't told me anything himself, so I still don't know a lot about him."

"Then he's been taking everything on himself..."

"That explains why Denji said that he won."

Murakami looked to see Yuki waving his hand through the air. Anything more than that and he would be showing too much for everyone around them.

"Denji probably predicted this would happen with me, once he knew that Minoru would be coming over last night. The rest of you were bound to follow, so it wasn't like anything else could happen. That ruled me out of everything. Now knowing that Sekai-san never had someone with him, Denji's basically won here. He kept to the rules set out and remained the same from the start." He gave a laugh that should have been bitter, but it wasn't. "It's ironic that the one most people don't like is the only one to follow through with everything we agreed on."

"Would you really call that winning?"

"It's how he views it," Yuki said with a shrug.

"I'm starting to think that you guys view things in a twisted way we can't understand."

Yuki shrugged again and looked to Arafune.

"It's just a matter of our experiences. Compared to those two, I really haven't been through too much. That's probably why I could end up relying on you guys and move past being 'Unneeded'. But those guys..."

Murakami could see his gaze slowly shift toward Ninomiya and Minoru.

Out of everyone in the room, it was those two who could likely do something more. They could do something, but only when it had mattered.

At this point, would they be able to do anything?

Ninomiya was in the same age group as Sekai and Denji. That gave him a good amount of time around them whenever they went out.

Kuruma-senpai has told me a few stories about those times.

They usually led to rowdiness and drunken confessions. He had not gone into detail, something Murakami was very glad for.

But that meant that they had spoken to each other a lot before and gotten to know each other at some point. Saying something about their situation should have come up.

Knowing them, they likely diverted the conversation or just didn't answer.

He felt bad for Kumagai when he thought about it. As the only other person anchoring one of them, she understood the trouble they all caused.

Then there's him...

Minoru was a former teammate to both Sekai and Denji.

"Do either of you know how thing it's been like this for those two?"

Murakami was shaken from his thoughts by Minoru's words.

There was a clear bitterness to them.

.

Minoru gave a sigh into the air just behind Ninomiya. The conversation had brought down his mood some, but...

How are you doing?

The small girl sitting on Ninomiya's lap had finally woken up and listened in on the conversation.

She had likely not understood everything, but she probably got the gist of it from what everyone was thinking.

After a moment she looked up to him.

"(Are Den and Kai...)"

Finding the right words for this must have been hard. Minoru understood what she was asking.

He lightly patted her head.

"(Those two are just making bad choices. We will set them straight.)"

The way Ninomiya looked up at him was concerning, but that was something to talk about later.

Right now it only mattered what they would be doing about this situation.

Still Young Girl: "So this is the situation around those two. What troublesome children they are."

Kuro-shi: "I would like to help, but..."

"That's right," Yuki said with a nod.

That would be hard for them to do.

"It would be especially hard for Yuki or Kō to do anything, right?"

Both of them nodded this time.

"We can't do much when it comes to those two. We won't hold anything back if we had to fight them, but that's more-or-less the best we can do."

Kuro-shi: "The display you showed in our grand hall was marvelous, Suzunari-1 Ace."

Black Wolf: "Th-thank you very much, sir!"

Murakami fumbled with his phone to answer the Kurosaki Boss.

All around them their group began again.

"Looks like both Yuki and Murakami are going to be the next ones to destroy the city."

"Do we stop them now or later?"

"Considering how they are, we can wait a bit."

"I have Kuruma-san ready to dial up."

"Nice going, Yuka!"

Everyone gave Kon a thumbs up and turned back to the duo looking away.

Leave it to her to be ready for this kind of situation.

She had likely realized what everyone would do after having met the Kurosaki Boss in person.

"Anyways. The fact remains that both Kō and I won't be able to do anything against those two. Even if we are in this new position, we still have our own things to deal with from our time like that. If anything, you guys can ask Yūko for some help when it comes to Denji. I just don't know how well that will go."

"Why's that? I thought you said that she'd be the closest person to that guy. Shouldn't she have the most sway when it comes to him?"

"The difference between us is pretty big." Yuki made a circle in the air and made a second one twice the size of the first next to it. "Kō was anchoring me by verifying my existence and keeping me in the same space as the rest of you. My mentality towards him is a good one that lets me see him as a friend. When it comes to Denji and Yūko... Without telling you directly, I can say that they aren't int hat sort of situation. She may be anchoring him, but not in the same way as Kō was doing for me. Their relationship is much more difficult than ours, but also one that makes them closer than us."

Minoru was starting to realize just how much it meant to have someone like that around for the three people calling themselves "Unneeded".

Everything for them was taken to an extreme that was different from what anyone else could consider normal. That meant these explanations were needed here.

"That being said..."

Yuki sighed and pushed off the wall.

His movements were a bit staggered, but he righted himself and moved more to the side.

"We weren't the only ones in this sort of situation. Rather, we weren't the only ones considered for all of this. We had thought about others were could end up in the same position as us. It even seemed that way once we saw who they were closest to and who they found themselves confiding in."

"Who else was it?" Hokari asked from directly behind Yuki now.

Yuki looked around the room again before landing on someone.

It was Senshi.

.

"Senzai Senshi. Girikage Daigo. ...Tenryū Shokubutsu. Those were the other people we thought of."

Everyone stopped and looked towards Senshi.

As for Senshi himself...

"That's news to me," he said while pointing to himself.

Yuki scratched his head and pushed it aside to properly look at Senshi.

"It should be," he said. "We had wanted to see what would happen. By the time we thought we figured it out, the three of you had changed enough that you were excluded."

Kurauchi raised his hand from the spot next to Senshi.

"What caused that?"

"That would be you. Specifically, you and the others who had dragged out more from those three. Well, at least SenSen and Daigo. Shobu was put in a different situation from you two, but the end result was the same." Everyone could hear the relief in his tone. "Don't think about it too much. Just know that you basically reached the point we're at way before Kō and I did. The same with Daigo. ...Makes me glad that I took him on as a student."

Jinsei raised both his hands, brought them down, then did a spin around. His ending pose had some people raising their brows, but Yuki ignored that with a roll of his eyes.

Kon lifted her leg to kick out both of his.

The sound of his body hitting the ground was heard. No one bothered to check on him.

"So this is what you three have been hiding..."

"I would rather speak of this than speak about what we're hiding. Oh, and of course Kō knows exactly what happened."

"I figured that much, you idiotic fool."

Minoru felt the oncoming argument would lead to something else, so he made a move to grab Michelle from Ninomiya's lap. Everyone else backed away to give the two of them some extra room.

This much had not changed.

---

"What...is this?"

Mitsuteru looked down at his phone's screen. The messages displayed there were ones he found himself staring at intently.

His senpai had forgotten to properly get rid of him form their chat. This left him to see the conversation going on between them.

He had thought of informing them of this, but then the topic of discussion had made him stop. It had been about his former captain and what his true situation was like.

Now that they seemed done with that conversation he could only feel a heavy weight of understanding. Things that had not made sense to him before were now connected to everything he knew and showed him everything.

This was something he would not forget.

"So this is what he has been hiding from the rest of us..."

"I knew it. I had thought it was strange when Umi-chan didn't say anything for a long time. He can be real sneaky, when he wants to be, that is."

Mitsuteru froze up as he felt a hand on his shoulder.

A feeling of complete dread began forming inside him as he slowly turned around.

"Ō-Ōji...-senpai?"

The smiling face he was looking at gave him nothing but a bad feeling in his stomach.

"That's right. Come over here to speak with me for a moment, won't you? This conversation they had... It really shed some light on things, didn't it?"

---

"Ko ko ko. It seems like we learned something interesting today. But that seemed to be the end of that."

Yoshiko laughed behind her fan.

Learning more about Denji's situation had put her in a good mood. Even if his situation was not a good one, this meant that she had come to better understand the person that had made her life easier the more he appeared.

"Now then, before we get to why you two are here, is there anything you want to say about that conversation? You both did well to stay quiet. And no one can blame any of us for having the two of you listen in."

"I'm fine. I don't know the other two, but since it seems like Boss is good then I don't have anything to say," the sitting boy said with a shrug.

"Nothing from me either," the standing boy said.

She gave another "ko ko" laugh and looked up at the standing boy.

Jin Yūichi and Futoyuki. What interesting boys they are. From what I know, their positions should be reversed here. But...

But...

"You're taking this surprisingly seriously, Jin Yūichi."

"It's because of the reason as to why I'm here."

That was right.

The reason he was here had been at his side from the very start.

"...That's him, isn't it?"

.

Futoyuki looked over to see Jin place his hand on the Black Trigger at his side.

From what he had heard, Jin had called in a favor to get a hold of that Black Trigger again for this meeting.

Their situations were different in many ways, but their ideas for this meeting had seemed to be the same. Both of them understood what it meant to be here and what kind of mental state they needed for this.

If Jin had been this prepared to be here then he only had one thing to do.

I need to make sure things don't get out of hand.

Looking down at his own hand he saw a black necklace in his own grasp. It seemed normal enough, and he would have thought it was just jewelry himself, but the power the single black object held was on par with what Jin had at his side.

They were both Black Triggers.

I didn't expect my request to come in so soon. Hatomi really is cool for getting things done so quickly.

Going into this meeting without these Black Triggers would have been a risk. That had been why he sent a message to the Wanderers, asking them to send over Prosforá for him to bring to this meeting.

No one had objected to this.

"Now, can I ask what my brother and my son go by now?"

"You don't want to think of them as separate beings?"

Yoshiko shook her head from behind her fan.

"Denji had told me how those types of Triggers are made. They used up a person's life to create them, even going so far as to having preferences for who can use them. If that's the case, there is no reason to view them as different beings from those who had made them."

If that was how she thought of them...

"That's a cool way of thinking about it! In that sense, they are still helping us while also being with us. Is that it?"

"Ko ko ko. It looks like you understand that. What a good boy. And you?"

"That's one way of looking at it. It's similar to how Akasora-san views it," Jin said while standing. Futoyuki noticed the way his hand had never left the Black Trigger at his side. "And to answer your previous question: your brother had created Fūjin here."

"And your son made Prosforá," he said while lifting the necklace up.

Yoshiko exampled both of them from where she sat and nodded three times. The first had been towards Fūjin, the second toward Prosforá, and the third to herself.

Futiyuki looked to Jin after the third nod. His hold on Fūjin had lightened a bit.

"May I see the other of them? Or would Border not allow that?"

"Big Boss said that I'm free to do whatever I want. As a contingency, he said I could even act as the former leader of the Wanderers. So with that being said... Here you go."

"My, my. That boy sure does like to take thing easy, doesn't he? Make sure to tell your boss that he should be more careful. Although...that may be trouble for him, right?"

"It probably would."

His real boss was someone who was viewed as a truly neutral person when it came to those around him. The Yagura Branch as a whole was seen as a part of Border, but it stood on its own ground due to the one there and what they could do.

Futoyuki felt like he should be more grateful for that.

"Now then... Let's see."

Yoshiko took Prosforá with both hands. She held them as a mother would their child, something that Futoyuki felt was something she deserved.

Gently lifting it up, she slowly turned it around to look at the finer details of it. The indents and curves of it were always something that Futoyuki liked, reminding him of how his former leader had been whenever he was around.

That's right... Even back then, back when he took me away from Aftokrator, he was like that. He could be a bit pushy and forceful, but he made it look so cool.

Little Hyu was pretty annoyed when I went on-and-on about him. I refuse to be blamed after meeting such a cool person.

Oh, but it was really fun to see Little Hyu get mad when our leader was messing around with him.

Futoyuki chuckled to himself as he watched Yoshiko examine Prosforá some more.

Once she had seen every part of it she held it to her chest. She stayed like that for a moment, eyes closed and basking in the feeling of the object in her hand.

After another moment of this she opened her eyes and gave a bitter smile.

"So that's how it is..."

She held out her hand once more, this time to return Prosforá to him.

Futoyuki felt a small tug on Prosforá but thought nothing of it. Wanting to hold onto it for as long as possible must have been Yoshiko's want as a mother who had finally been reconnected to their child.

He could only respect that.

"Thank you for that."

"Of course. I can't really promise that I'll have it ready whenever you want to do that again. I need to send it back after this."

"Ko ko. I understand. Just knowing that this was how things are is enough. But there is something I want to ask you. Before that..."

She turned to Jin while moving to stand up.

"May I see my brother again?"

---

Karasuma knew something was wrong when he walked into the branch office and saw Director Rindō sitting across from a familiar-looking man.

He looks like Toby.

They had all been informed that people would be visiting all of Border's branches today. That meant this person was someone related to that.

Having him look like an older version of Toby was enough for him to figure out who exactly this person was.

...Toby's dad. Henry Awdry.

From what I remember being told...he sucks. A true businessman who had put more focus on his work than on his family. The younger brother has let somethings slip before, but most of what we know if from Toby himself. If what he says is true, then...

This was a person who he had to be cautious around.

"Hey there, Karasuma. Coming back from one of your jobs?"

"Yes. I don't have much else to do today, so I planned on seeing if anything needed to be done here today."

"Not really. Yōtarō is out with Hyuse and Takahashi again while most of the others are out doing their own things."

"Osamu had told me that he would be out with Takeshi and some others, so that's all I had known."

Director Rindō nodded and smiled, a clear enough indication that he understood what Karasuma was getting at here. After all...

Toby is sure to be nearby. Both of them wanted to go see the Yagura Branch again.

And if there were going to be people at each branch office then it meant they would see them there.

Looking back to the man sitting across from Director Rindō, he gave a bow and moved to go towards one of the other rooms.

He was stopped before doing so.

"By the way, Jin finally got the guts to go speak with Mogami-san."

Karasuma stopped at hearing that.

The full story was still a bit lost on him, not having heard it completely, but he understood the importance of this.

More than that, it meant that Jin would be out for a bit with Fūjin at his side. Besides him, Hyuse had told them that Futoyuki would be going to see Mogami himself, being in a somewhat similar situation to Jin.

But if Director Rindō was telling him this now then there was something else to it.

"Is there anything you would like for me to do?

"Not right now. If you want, you can go relax while we wait for the proper time to start our meeting."

If they had yet to start their meeting then...

Which one of them is stopping them?

His question must have shown on his face with the way Director Rindō gave a light laugh.

"Our guest here likes to do thing on the dot. We still have a ways to go before our meeting starts properly."

"Rushing things would be pointless. Not keeping to a proper schedule leads to confusion and delay. I have made a great amount of time to come and visit the Tamakoma Branch Office, so there is no reason to take things carelessly."

"Right, right, I get that. We don't want any mishaps, do we? I also made sure to make as much time as possible for this meeting."

"I see," Karasuma said.

This was the first time their guest had spoken and Karasuma found it hard to connect him to Toby.

The gap between them couldn't be any wider. I wouldn't have thought they were related if I didn't already know that.

Well, I guess that doesn't matter too much right now. Neither one of the brothers is here right now.

With no one else in the branch office it left him little choice but to stay and wait things out.

Director Rindō's words were clear enough for him.

I'm supposed to play the guard here. Everyone else had left, so I'm the one this falls on.

No one else was in the branch office right now and he had nothing else to do today. It only made sense that he stay here to act as a guard for these two important people while they had their meeting.

Giving Director Rindō a nod, Karasuma began walking away. As he did so, he had a thought,

What exactly will happen with Jin-san?

---

Jin could feel how Futoyuki was staring at him as Yoshiko stood in front of him. She did not hold out her hand, but her slight movements told him that she wanted to do so.

I really have no right to deny her this, he thought bitterly.

Mogami Sōichi had been his mentor, but more than that, he had also been Mogami Yoshiko's brother. The connection by blood showed in the way they acted, something that felt a bit off-putting to Jin.

So instead of holding back here he held out his hand with Fūjin in his palm. The weight of the Black Trigger seemed to grow the more he held out his hand.

Yoshiko did not hesitate to raise her hand, but Jin saw that she had been careful to not grab Fūjin quickly. She's being cautious more than anything, he thought. It made sense when he considered the situation.

She had just seen what her son had turned into. I doubt that was enough for her, but holding onto Futo's Black Trigger for that long must have put a burden on her.

And if that was the case, she would be more cautious when it came to Fūjin.

"Ko ko. To give such a troublesome woman like me something like this... You are such a foolish child."

Jin saw it.

The future expanded out to him as Yoshiko took hold of Fūjin.

As it did, something happened.

"—!"

Ribbons of light bloomed from Fūjin's activated blade.

She activated Fūjin!

.

Futoyuki was quick to stand up from his sitting position as ready Prosforá.

The power of Fūjin was determined by both its natural abilities as a Black Trigger and the trion of the person using it. The ribbons of light were a visual showing of how much trion the user had and what they would be able to accomplish.

As Yoshiko held it in her hands, he could see ten ribbons of light bloom from the blade.

How does she have that much trion!?

Jin had once told him how many he had been able to create when using Fūjin. Eleven was the maximum for him. If Yoshiko was producing more than Jin it meant that she had more trion than he did.

But then...

...Is she really just a civilian!?

He counted up to fifteen ribbons of light coming from Fūjin while Yoshiko held it in her hands.

So that's what she was trying to do with Prosforá! She was trying to see if she could activate it!

Then why had Jin not seen the future for this? And if he was looking now, what was he looking at exactly?

Futoyuki didn't want to believe that Yoshiko wold do anything malicious with Fūjin in her hands, but he found that there was no telling what she would do.

Prosforá - her son - had rejected her by not activating. But Fūjin - her brother - had activated for her and created fifteen ribbons. How will she feel when it seems like one of her family members had rejected her while the other one had accepted her?

This was where they would need to figure out what to do.

"Such a feeling... Simply holding it and activating it make you feel like you have so much power."

But...

"The burden of knowing who it is really does weight on you."

"Yoshi-"

"Futo! Left!"

Futoyuki stopped speak and quickly activated Prosforá.

Throwing his hand to the side, he felt something collide with his palm. The sharp feeling was crushed and destroyed as Prosforá's ability began to activate. The familiar feeling of something being crushed up, destroyed, then incorporated into him filled him with emotion he had not felt for some time now.

Just as he was about to let out that emotion for himself, he heard something.

"Ko ko ko."

It was a laugh.

.

You saw it, didn't you? thought Yoshiko as she spun her body.

An attack had come from the left and Futoyuki had been quick to respond to it.

The two Border members had been alert due to her activation of Fūjin, but they had chosen to respond to the sudden attack instead of her.

...I'm betting that's because the foolish boy had already looked into the future and saw what would happen. If that's the case, then there should be no problem with my next action.

She had purposefully given no warning to her activation of Fūjin in order to gauge the reactions of the two boys. The sudden attack had come without her knowing about it at all.

Someone else had reached them and fired an attack against them. Whether it had been due to her activation of Fūjin or just bad timing, she didn't know. They had missed their timing regardless.

"Did they get frightened when I activated this Trigger and saw how the two of you reacted to it? Ha ha! Those who rush make mistakes, but it does make for a nice example of temporary justice!"

Yoshiko threw all caution to the wind and lifted Fūjin even higher up. Her body turned toward the direction the attack had been fired while the sun glared down on the three of them.

"Treat your actions with more care, young ones."

She pulled up the ribbon-filled blade. There were no decorations to it and the only thing standing out were the ribbons of light.

However, she placed her palm vertically along the straight blade.

"Reach them, Fūjin."

Something was immediately released from Fūjin's blade: slashes.

---

A distance of 500 meters would only take over three seconds for Misó's attack to hit its mark, so he knew he had won.

He had fired on Mogami Yoshiko.

He had thought against it, but this was an opportunity he knew he could not pass up.

After all, this was someone who held importance to both Mikado City as well as Jin and Futoyuki and yet nothing had been done to contain her in any sort of way. If that meant others were refusing to see her worth then he would strike her down here.

If he could attack her, he had to do it. He had avoided doing so when he was playing his part in the city because he ran the risk of being caught, but not it all meant nothing when he had already made many enemies within the city. So now that he had a chance...

"I'm going to go for the chance here! To get at both of those guys and that asshole Denji!"

As soon as he fired his attack on her from 500 meters away, he felt like he could relax some more since she would not have the reflexes to defend herself here. Fūjin was in her grasp, but it seemed like she had no idea how to properly use it.

"...Eh?"

He suddenly felt something while moving back from his own attack.

It almost felt like...

...I was hit?

Like something had struck him as soon as he had attacked.

Then he saw something ahead.

...Is that...?

They were lines tracing down the building and towards his location. He saw them after watching his attack get devoured by Futoyuki.

It had been a counterattack.

The visuals he was seeing now was a clear sign that he had been found out by them after his attack and had been attacked in return.

I see, he thought. So that's how it is.

Denji had always been around Mogami Yoshiko whenever he had the chance and Misó was figuring out why that was. He had been making sure this hidden gem stayed that way.

"It's no wonder those three are some of the only ones I want to personally choke out."

Then he remembered something he had once been told.

"Don't attack the people they're watching out for...huh."

---

Futoyuki saw it happen.

When Yoshiko moved the blade across the ground, the multi-slash attack was made. It looked like the ribbons had turned into lines being traced along the ground, but Futoyuki had little time to fully register it.

"She got us..."

But even as Yoshiko lowered the blade and gave a bitter smile...

...Fūjin remains active.

There was not real telling if her attack had landed without leaving her to go check. As someone sponsoring Border, and someone who had just been attacked, it would have been stupid for either him or Jin to leave her here.

That left them with only sending Border a message to have them send someone over.

Jin seemed just as surprised and tilted his head.

"How much trion do you have?"

"Supposedly a good amount. Denji had once told me about the amount I had and that it had dwindled due to me not taking care of it too much. As such, he had helped me maintain it to a standstill. Apparently there is a point where you can't go higher, but you can always lose it. He simply didn't want me to lose any more. I thought it would be fun, so I let him be and continued on like this."

As for her power...

"I know how to swing a sword well enough. Denji had once told me about what this Trigger could do, but only in the smallest amount of detail. He had said, 'You swing it around and funny things happen.' I took his word for it and went along with it. After all, he makes things so easy."

That was why she had instantly thrown those slashes.

...That explains the sudden reflex to attack.

And that went beyond attacking in some random direction or the general direction of the attack. Most likely, Yoshiko knew where the attack had come from and attacked the location directly to avoid any unnecessary incidents.

Denji had intentionally not told her about the particular details of Fūjin. If Yoshiko knew of that power, she would have been too focused on where she would strike. And that would only lead to more slashes being released than they needed.

This was one of the reasons Futoyuki felt like Denji was someone to keep an eye out yet make sure to keep a distance from.

Futoyuki saw the lines traced along the roof of the building fade away and he saw a puff of smoke in the far distance. The attack had hit to destroy the attacker, so the sudden surprise attack had failed with their counterattack working out perfectly.

In an instant, they had dealt with an enemy who had been going after someone supporting Border. Also...

"Yoshiko, are you okay?"

"The feeling is unusual. Add in the fact that I am basically using my brother, and it makes for a strange situation."

Yoshiko's voice sounded unconcerned from directly in front of them. She must not like this, thought Futoyuki, but...

"Are you feeling a little down?"

"Yes. I'm completely unharmed..."

"It means that both your brother and son put in work to save you, so you should celebrate."

"Ko ko. ...Sorry, Futoyuki. I was feeling pointlessly down when I should be happy."

"Keeping track of your grudges can only lead to losing your cool."

"People like me are only so calm because we make sure to hold grudges when one is warranted," said Yoshiko. "But don't stop me. My son did not want to be used by me, but this was a sudden attack, I was able to use my brother for this instead."

"I know the feeling of wanting to be used by important people and wanting to help important people. I think it's cool to think the way you do."

"I didn't have a large family, you see," she said. "But this has been a good opportunity."

"That does makes sense, doesn't it. ...I drew the line when my family gave me up and I left my home. This means Mogamis are just that much stricter than I ever was there. Also..."

Futoyuki looked to Jin and saw him lowering his stance with a more relaxed expression.

"It was good for all of us to see both Prosforá and Fūjin in action here."

.

I guess it was, Jin thought bitterly.

Making sure that Yoshiko was fine was the first step int his process. The second was contacting Border about the situation.

That attack was a trion-made one from the way Futo used Prosforá. We can contact the police too, but Border is going to be the first one to go to for this kind of thing.

Someone had used a Trigger to attack them. That placed this in a special position where he would need to address this as a member of Border instead of someone who only witnessed the incident.

2.7 Maime: "We have a situation over here."

Netsuki: "That's not something we want to hear when we know where you are..."

Kinuta: "Was it due to you or someone else?"

2.7 Maime: "Someone attacked Mogami-san while we were talking to her."

Shinoda: "Jin, does this have to do with Fūjin's activation that we saw over here?"

Of course they would not overlook Fūjin's activation. That happening just before he messaged them only made things seem much more suspicious on his end of things.

But that was to be expected here.

2.7 Maime: "It does. Futo managed to defend Mogami-san and Fūjin was used as a counterattack. Futo and I are going to stay with Mogami-san to make sure she isn't attacked again."

Shinoda: "Understood. We will send over anyone close by."

There was no definitive way for him to know who had attacked them without going over himself, so that left him to rely the directors and anyone else nearby.

Giving a sigh into the open air, he turned back over to check on Yoshiko and Futoyuki. Between the two of them it seemed like Futoyuki was much more alert.

As for Yoshiko...

"What an interesting ability. What exactly do those lines turn into?"

"If I remember right... They're slashes? Right, Jin?"

"Oh, so that's why Denji said that. He does like to make life easy, doesn't he?"

The entire time he had been in Yoshiko's presence he had been worried about what would happen. The futures he had seen were ones that lead to worry or anger from the fox woman, something that had put him on edge.

When she had asked to see Fūjin it only served make him worry more about the futures he could see.

...There were no good ones.

Then it had happened.

Yoshiko had activated Fūjin right away and he had reacted to that. The future had played out before his eyes, one where she would take that and run with it.

And she did.

But...

"I really didn't think this would be the end result..."

"What do you mean?"

Jin nodded to the confused Futoyuki and turned to the grinning Yoshiko.

"Most of the futures had been where Mogami-san took Fūjin and went against us for what happened. There were smaller futures where that didn't happen, but I guess I got too caught up in the worst ones."

"So that was why you were acting like that. What a foolish boy you are."

He couldn't deny that.

"Are the members of Border naturally inclined to the worst possible scenarios? Between you and Minoru, there certainly are a lot of you I feel like I need to watch out for. It makes me glad that there are people like this boy and Akane around to balance you all out."

"Ha ha ha. I'm nothing particular, but thanks for the compliment! You're really cool too!"

"Ko ko ko. What a refreshing boy. No wonder Shuryō took a liking to you."

Futoyuki gave another laugh and held out his hand in front of him.

The destruction and incorporation ability of Prosforá was amazing the second time he saw it. There was nothing like it when it came to possibilities.

Jin understood what it meant for both Black Triggers to act like this when Yoshiko was here.

"These two... It would be great if I could simply call them Shōichi and Shuryō, but that isn't their name anymore. This is their legacy, not who they are. Even if their abilities seem to perfectly represent their personalities."

"I guess it does," both him and Futoyuki said in unison.

They could understand how she feels after having gotten to know the two Mogami males and using the legacy they had both left behind.

"Future-seeing boy," she began again. "You had said that you saw many futures where I turned on you for what had happened to Shōichi and Shuryō. I won't deny that I had those feelings upon learning this, but my talk with Minoru had changed my view on Border. The two of you showing up in front of me also helped. I was able to see the two of them now instead of being told that I wasn't allowed due to rules."

Their actions had prevented the worst futures from happening. That had been what she was saying.

Futoyuki had no way of knowing this, but Jin had seen what could have happened.

Those results had created a dead end for some people and would have left a lot of bad things behind for others. Changing futures meant that those kinds of dead ends could be changed to something good or simply take a different path from its original course, only to end up at that same dead end.

In certain cases, there would even times when the future could not be changed. A sort of lock would be placed where the future would always end in the same way.

Jin despised those futures.

That was why he was glad that this future had possibilities.

"I want both of you to tell me something." Yoshiko turned off Fūjin and held it out. Jin reached out to take hold of it. "I have my own thoughts on the matter, but I have come to terms with what had happened to the two of them. Both of you also seem to have settled your own feelings on the matter. So I only want to know one thing."

That was...

"Did you all enjoy yourselves?"

.

Jin and Futoyuki looked to each other at the question.

There was little to actually expect from Yoshiko, but this still went outside their expectations.

There was no anger, no remorse, and no bitterness to her tone. The question was asked simply because she could ask them that.

The first to answer was Futoyuki.

"My lead-... No. Shuryō always enjoyed himself no matter what happened. Even if times looked rough, he bounced back so quickly that Hatomi was always amazed. As for me... My time spent with him was the best time of my life outside of right now. ...He's the one who took me away from the situation I had been stuck in."

Then it was Jin.

"...Yes. We all had fun and enjoyed ourselves. It wasn't just me and my mentor. Everyone from back then, even people right now, we all enjoyed ourselves. There were times that were hard...especially when this became the end result...but we still came back."

The two looked to each other again and nodded.

They both understood why Yoshiko had asked them this.

"It must be a Mogami thing. Not want conflict, come back from the bottom, enjoy themselves with everyone around them. Isn't that right...Yoshiko-san?"

Yoshiko lifted her fan but refused to hide behind it. There was no reason to do so.

And she laughed.

"Ko ko ko. How nice to view things like children. Something like that isn't hereditary. Those two were just especially kind like that. ...Both of them were fools who wanted to make everything good for everyone else. I see that it fell onto the two of you to follow them."

"Not at all," Jin said. "It never fell onto any of us. We chose to follow after them. There's nothing more to it."

Yoshiko gave another laugh and turned around.

The cityscape was now in front of her, showing her everything her family left behind.

"That is good to know. Since that's the case..."

She smiled out into the city.

"Do you two mind telling me some stories? Likewise, I will tell you even more about those two."

---

The open air felt surprisingly refreshing as Kikuchihara and Svantje moved near the building Mogami was having a meeting.

A mass message had gone out for someone closest to that building to go and check on the area.

Someone had fired an attack over there. I guess Jin-san's there with someone else, so they probably handled the attack itself.

That left it to him and Svantje to go. After all...

"Why did we have to be the closest ones here?"

"I wonder~"

He looked over with narrowed eyes and said nothing about their situation.

In return, Svantje only grinned his way before looking around the area.

Sections of the area had been sliced while one particular section had a small indent to it. Instead of it appearing to be a fight, the area seemed to have been attacked itself. The sight was something he was used to and found to be strangely similar to a lot of thing.

One of those being situations with the girl next to him.

"...Why does this always happen with you?"

"No clue!"

"I guess this is to be expected when you're on the job It's hard to not be in these kinds of situations."

It was a constant that Svantje's curse would bring them to unusual sights while gong around different areas.

This was no different.

"And here I was, hoping to continue from yesterday."

"At this point I don't doubt that this is connected to that. But here's to hoping that this is a separate issues altogether."

The odds of that were low and they both knew it.

Kikuchihara shook his head and pulled back his hair. They were searching for the attacker since there had been no one who had Bailed Out to the base.

The distance is too far from the base to even do that. That's why they shouldn't have gotten too far.

Traces of the person leaving would have been evident regardless of how quickly they could leave. If they were to find any clues then they could follow them with their Triggers.

The difference between a Trigger and a person's real body made a big enough difference that they would be able to catch up with little effort.

And with both him and Svantje here...

"I found some things over here."

"There's unnatural rustling in the distance."

They would be able to find the one who had attacked.

.

"The lines tracing here aren't form Fūjin. It doesn't leave real streaks or marks until it hits. Even then, it only marks what it strikes. So these ones are different ones. Something else that's off is that the surrounding area shouldn't be torn like this either. Someone would have had to move, narrowly dodge the attacks, then move again. Even for someone with a lot of speed, that would be difficult to pull off in the same way this is."

"So what you're saying is that they made it look like there was more of a struggle here than there actually was."

Svantje nodded to Kikuchihara.

She looked around the area once more before moving to one spot in particular.

"These cuts were made in a haste instead of an attack. We were also told that Fūjin was used as a counterattack and not the initial one. If that was true, they would converge into one area and not spread out. You would only spread out the attacks to make it hard to move around in, but you have them converge if you know where the attack is coming from. Adding to that, the attacker's prints are all over the place instead of a single spot where they could have attacked."

It didn't make sense for the attacker to be running around. This had been their way to make it seem like it was more of a fight then it really was.

Kikuchihara placed his hands to his ears and closed his eyes.

After a moment he opened them and turned to one direction.

"100 meters northwest. Get ready to fire. I'll alter any problems to fix your trajectory. The way they're going makes it easy to line up the shot."

"Got it. I'll lower the power so it's nonlethal and won't cause any fainting from pain. There might be some bruising, though."

"We can leave that sort of thing to someone else."

Svantje didn't nod or say anything, instead only turning on her Trigger to get into position.

She lowered her stance into a crouch and lifted Lightning to line it up with her sight.

"Move it 6 inches to the right... Up by an inch... There. Ready?"

Even now, she said nothing.

And after a moment...

"See it? Fire."

"—"

---

Misó felt pain course through his body.

It started from his side and made its way towards his stomach. From there it had gone up to his chest and down to his waist. After that, it had become a pull ache to the rest of his body and spread out until his mind full remembered the feeling.

Then he smiled.

"Ah~"

The pain quickly turned to pleasure.

The pleasure of pain began to fill him even more than the pain itself. Overwhelming ecstasy coursed through him at a rapid rate that he could feel his knees buckle as he continued to run.

But he didn't stop.

Stopping here or falling would give the ones who had fired on him a chance that he refused to let them have.

So he took that pain, the pleasure, and ran away from where his attack had failed.

I wanted to also take out one of Jin's eyes, but I guess that will be for later.

Those eyes that saw into the future that he could never know.

...I always hated that Side Effect. One that can see the future. The only thing that's almost always unknown.

The pleasure he felt from the pain began to fade away as he thought Jin. About the uncertainty that everyone had to face at some point.

There were always facts and information about the past and the present. There was no changing something that you could determine as fact, something that had happened and others could learn about. Information gathering about those sorts of things meant there there would be a point where none of it would be wrong. Something could be falsified, but there was at least a truth to find out.

But the future was not like that.

The future was always changing and left uncertainty for a lot of people.

The future becomes the present, then turns into the past. At that point everything is fine. But then everything else after that becomes the future. It's just a cycle that go go to hell.

When had he thought that?

"Hahaha! Miden sure is a great place!"

His time on this world had left him with some things that he enjoyed.

Phrases and wording from here could be used in all sorts of ways that others in the Neighborhood would never know.

"But Miden can also just die for all I care!"

It was a world of possibilities and uncertainty. That had been why he gladly took the job to stay on it while he waited for everyone else in Aftokrator to come along.

That had been his way of getting rid of something that always looked to the future.

Then he failed.

More than just Jin, everyone had worked to create a future where he had failed and Aftokrator had been left with much less than they had wanted.

The world of possibilities had won out to continue living and looking to the future.

That's why I love this sort of thing! This pain is here, a fact and something I known is guaranteed! Pain like this doesn't leave room for anything!

That was what he always wanted.

Something that would never change with the future. A time where everything was easy to figure out and where he could get correct information at any point in time.

His wish had always been for stagnation.

---

"This voice..."

Kikuchihara was quick to move.

Svantje was behind him, running along with Lightning at her side.

"What did they say?"

"I hope I'm wrong here. I don't want to deal with someone like that again."

The voice of someone who should no longer be on Earth was what he had heard. The ringing from the shot had cleared out and a laugh had been heard. Then it had been words.

But they were said by someone who disappeared awhile ago.

"We need to-"

Kikuchihara's voice was cut off by something slamming to the ground.

The noise caused him to flinch, but he held his ground and looked forward.

What he saw was something strange.

A large bipedal creature stood before him. The brown coloring on the outer part of it contrasted the light tan of its stomach. The panel-like structure of its arms were face downwards and on its face was a mask-like object that made it seem like it was hiding its mouth. The thing he took note of was the familiar core in its head.

"A Neighbor... But what kind?"

His question was drowned out by the shot fired from behind him.

This was neither out of panic nor out of a sense of danger. Kikuchihara understood that taking out this Neighbor would be what they need to reach the one who attacked Mogami Yoshiko.

So she had fired.

He followed her lead and moved forward, Scorpion already in his hand.

From the way it had landed, he already knew everything he needed to know. The weight, thickness of armor, and overall movement pattern had been shown to him the moment it landed in front of him.

So...

"This should be easy enough."

The second shot rang out, forcing its arm to come up to block the attack.

Kikuchihara used that to move underneath the arm and get closer.

The remaining arm circled around to strike him. It was slow in comparison to many of the people he had fought so far.

Moving around the second arm was easy. Climbing up the large body was just as easy.

Kikuchihara threw his body forward, impaling his Scorpion into the core of the Neighbor.

It began to fall.

Jumping off of it, Kikuchihara landed next to Svantje. He turned towards the direction they had been moving and shook his head.

"He got too far away. I can't hear him anymore."

"That's a shame," Svantje said from next to him. "At the very lest, we have something to have Border to look into. With more people it should be easier to find this person. What's more..."

The two of them looked down at the Neighbor.

"We have to figure out what's with this thing."

---

The daytime sun entered a room on the western side of a residence with eaves. The large Japanese-style room sat next to a window and two figures sat with their foreheads facing each other in a tatami room decorated with all sorts of strange things that would have been off-putting for most people who saw them.

The two spoke while sitting on the tatami mats with sheets wrapped around their bodies.

"Ōji-senpai, back when things were different, did you think that it had been Kiyoshi-san's fault?"

"You could say that, Mitsuteru, but that would mean that I cared enough to blame that sort of guy in the first place. Those times had been different enough that a lot of us were more unrecognizable than we are right now. But it's always been fun to mess around with those people."

"Hm."

Mitsuteru nodded and stared at what lay between them.

It was a chess board. However, three battlefields created from the wood and squares were connected vertically and they were labeled "Past", "Present", and "Future".

"The biggest problem was how bad all of us were exactly."

Ōji picked up the queen sitting on the back of the future piece and used his fingernail to press the crest carved into the bottom that showed them that it personally belonged to Ōji. It was one of the things he had left here along with other things from everyone else.

"I certainly wouldn't have expected us all to turn out the way we are now."

He put down the piece and the squares on the board between the queen and the future piece all emitted a blue light.

He did the same to the knights on either side of the queen and the light increased.

"A lot of us wanted to go all out from the beginning. Even now, that is true. Look at our fights in the B-Rank Wars. I thought we could use something for us that would make for a quick victory and get out of there. I never thought that our opponents would be so different." Ōji thought for a moment. "Hmm. Using people like objects is never the way to go. I understood that a long time ago. I need to keep thinking of them as people. Some say you can never know what will happen when people are involved, but that ignores the idea that people are unpredictable animals and still doesn't look at them as people. ...I did some of that myself at one point, so I needed to rethink how I did things. Maybe I was a little too full of myself back then since I had someone so reliable with me."

Ōji leaned forward and placed his forehead on the chess board.

"Mitsuteru, try not to make the same mistakes as I did."

"It was your mistake. I tend to make a lot of them, but the two of us are really different."

"You really do like to harass people in the worst way." Ōji raised his head, but his smile was a bit lacking in strength. "Anyway, do you think I'm better than I used to be?"

"That's a difficult question."

"I get it. So I'm hopeless, is that it?"

"I don't remember you being so self-deprecating."

"That tends to happen when you're around some people for too long. And the last one to cause it was that guy," said Ōji with a smile.

"Y'know," began Mistuteru as he folded his arms. "I used to think the same thing."

"I know, I know. I hear that you patched things up and are on good terms with that fox now."

"Hmm."

This time, Mitsuteru placed a hand on his forehead and thought. He could not come up with anything to say and color returned to Ōji's smile.

"Well, it seems like there's more to it than just what we can see from here, so that's good enough. The two of you seem to be taking things as if you're viewing that fox as someone different from Kiyoshi. At the very least, I can say that you aren't so weak-willed that you would just forgive your first squad captain like it was nothing at all."

"I don't entirely get it, but is it really that important?"

"It depends on how you view it." Ōji nodded and picked up a piece from the chess board. "Let me explain. This will involve any future with him."

.

Mitsuteru folded his arms as he stared at the pieces lined up on the chess board in the afternoon sun.

"What does something like that have to do with this?" he asked.

"People like Sumi or Kandata would be able to give the best answer, but they can be a bit troublesome. Anyway, my view is that he might push things back now that he's changed to how he is now."

"Is that a bad thing? I would have thought he would push it onto others if it became to much."

"Everyone is preparing for that, but things are heading toward something most of us probably won't expect. But that's to be expected, really. Border is moving forward in a way that needed him to also move forward without letting a lot of things go. And the way he chose to do things later could end up impacting that. More than that, there's this whole thing about being 'Unneeded' that involves him, Hikigone, and Bakuto. We learned a lot about it, but it had taken this long before they had said anything about the situation. I don't know if this was the case back then, but barely learning about it now leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It would have been better for them to get it out there from the start so that we wouldn't have ended up like this in the first place. I'm sure you can understand that much after being abandoned like before."

Mitsuteru frowned at those two people mentioned.

"I don't know much about those other two all that much. The only times I've ever been in prolonged interactions with them were when Shigeko wanted to speak with Hikigane-san and when Akagami-san and Seiza-san want me to go over for some study sessions."

"You mean when they drag you over? I heard that some of the girls tend to drag along people like you. ...Anyway, I'm talking about them in a more general way than what you might be thinking. Knowing that these kinds of people have been here for as long as they have must be worrying for people like you. Officially, they don't seem like they would even exist, but that unofficial status is what allowed them to move around so much without much problem."

In that case...

"We need to change our focus and think about how to take this sort of knowledge after learning about it. ...Anyway, I'm sure something will happen now that the fox has said those kinds of things. Their self-value was at a low, so being exposed like this won't be good for them. Knowing Hikigone and Bakuto, they might actually do something since this can be viewed as a loss for them and a win for everyone else."

"Then what will happen exactly?"

"That's up to those people which is the worst part. I'll explain that, too."

.

"Now, then," said Ōji as he slid aside the chess board sitting between him and Mitsuteru. He attached another board vertically and pointed to one corner. "This board is representing those three, okay?" And this one is everyone else."

"And?"

"That fox is the type of person to get back at others when something like this is exposed. So if he is the one doing the exposing, what would that leave the other two with? They wouldn't do anything obvious, but knowing that they will move when others aren't looking is what makes them dangerous." Ōji removed his hand from the board. "This means they won't have any reservations when it comes to attacking others who know."

"This sure does sound like some sort of master plot. ...Are you sure you aren't just getting ahead of yourself, Ōji-senpai?"

"Well, it's what yo expect when it comes to those people. Plus, this is just one link in the chain that connects all of this together. Thinking about it in full tells me that there is more of an issue here that we aren't seeing. Just because that fox said all of that doesn't mean things are done with him. You get it, right? He is someone who always brings trouble when he is around and now he is expected to throw that onto everyone else. That's fine and all, but having those things happen in the first place is..." Ōji opened something on his phone and nodded twice. "Who exactly had been part of his two former squads is also something to look at. That applies to the other two as well. We recently learned who their former teammates were, but that only makes me worry even more for what could be coming up in the future. Oh, and I'm including you in that, so don't think you can escape this either. Also, you lot are much more dangerous than I had originally thought, so I'm already running a risk being with you."

Tsukiko Yuki - Former squad captain. One who causes a lot of trouble.

Takato Mei - Former powerhouse of Taiyōko Squad. Current monster.

Kanzaki Shizuka - Strike forcer of Taiyōko Squad. Solo A-Rank agent.

Ariake Mitsuteru - "Completely average person". Master at harassment.

Kimura Kawaguchi - Terrible with jokes, but leaves an impact.

"I feel like you have a skewed view of me..."

"I have no idea what you could mean. But moving on, we have Hikigone and Bakuto's former squad. Or rather..."

Hatohara Minoru - Former leader. Sensible person.

Kagerei Ketsueki - Tamakoma member and A-Rank agent.

Hikigane Sekai - Former A-Rank agent who keeps Jinsei in line. An "Uneeded".

Bakuto Denji - Current A-Rank captain. An "Unneeded".

Yasuko Schneider - Former Operator? Can keep others in line?

"That sums it up. ...Why are you so quiet, Mitsuteru? Can you barely contain your desire to harass others?"

"No." Mitsuteru tilted his head and poked at the list. "Unlike me, they're mostly physical types. One wrong move and most of them seem like they would be at your throat, don't you think?" He paused for a moment. "Also, there are a ton of truly strange people in this list."

"I was trying to decide if I should say that or not."

"And they are more squads of monsters than I imagined too."

"I was thinking about saying that too."

"I'm glad we're relatively normal."

"I'm not sure most others would see it that way."

"Hmm," they both groaned while looking down.

They remained motionless for a while, but Mitsuteru finally clenched his fists near the floor.

"I-I need motivation."

"One! Two! Three!"

"Ohh!"

The two of them synchronized and regained strength of will, but then Mitsuteru relaxed his sitting position by letting out a breath.

"But there's nothing we can do if those kinds of people are wanting to be what they want."

"Isn't that how you dealt with all of this?"

"What do you mean? I dealt with being on that squad by following them all whenever I could and supported them however I could. Which, all-in-all, was pretty difficult."

"You really never saw your own value on that squad? And here I thought that someone as plain and forgettable as you would have known... I supposed there would be no point in dragging things out if you didn't know in the first place."

"Y'know," said Mitsuteru. Ōji tilted his head and Mitsuteru scratched below his side-swept hair. "I might be thinking too much about this, but it sounds more to me like you are worried about what this means since Yuki is moving on and you are still thinking about the past, Ōji-senpai."

"I know that you like messing with others, but even that goes beyond harassment... Honestly now, I didn't think someone like you would say something to stupid like that. Did you forget? My age group likes to use the money we have, give in to our passions, have a party, and forget everything unpleasant."

Ōji placed his hands on the floor as if stretching forward.

The chess board between them was the one used to explain the situation.

"Did you realize why I slid it to the side?" he asked while looking up at Mitsuteru.

"Because you are trying to move away from all of that," he said expressionlessly.

He went on to raise his arms and tumble backwards in a pose of resignation. Ōji laughed, moved backwards, and laid his body backwards to stare at the ceiling, but he heard a sudden statement from Mitsuteru.

"It's fine, you know."

"What is?"

"You want the same thing as me," Mitsuteru said to the open air.

His voice carried over, but he sounded like he was speaking to more than just Ōji.

"And what would that be?"

Mitsuteru let out a breath through his mouth and chuckled.

"From Yuki... This fox boy you have bitter feelings for right now. You don't want to hear those empty words or promises."

.

Ah, Ōji thought.

Seijin-kun was right. He really is like that fox. They both like their pointless sayings.

But this time it felt more obtainable than what that fox would say at times.

They were spoken from someone who had truly experienced enough to say something like that.

"Oh, that's right. I never gave you one."

"Hm? One what?"

Ōji rolled over to look directly at Mitsuteru.

He had been calling the boy by his given name due to their history together, but...

"You need a name. Now let's see..."

Mitsuteru was quick to right himself. His eyes darted around the room as if looking for a way to escape.

Then he gave a nervous laugh.

"Th-there's no need for that... I'm fine with my name alone. Th-thank you, though."

But it was too late.

"No can do...Mitsurin."

Then came a groan.

"I guess I'll add that to the list of names for me..."

---

"...Aaaaaaalright, are we ready to go?"

Xeno spat out the food that had been in his mouth.

Lilith tilted her head and finished the food that had been set in front of her. The dessert they had been eating had been enough to keep them in place a bit longer, but Lilith had been quick to eat as much as she could.

It was interesting to see.

"Where are we going?"

"Yeah, that's what I want to know! It thought we were going to stay here until the people you contacted came here."

Pyrínas nodded twice and looked to Xeno first.

"...That will be happening, yes. ...But they weren't the only ones who I had asked a favor from. ...The two of you need to be seen a bit more within the city, but you had made a scene before simply because of your outfits. ...Because of that I have made a plan. ...It will be called...'Have Someone Else Wear Your Clothes'!"

Sticking his arm into the air, Pyrínas looked towards the ceiling while Lilith clapped from the side.

Next to them...

"Am I really sure that this is part of the Pyrínas System...? The way he's acting is so different from what I had expected. Maybe it's just a Miden thing... I mean, I did see some strange things while here. They don't even seem to be reliant on trion..."

Xeno was muttering to himself. Everything going on around him had been unexpected.

Pyrínas gave two bows and lowered his arms to his side. His expressions had never changed, but it was clear to see his enjoyment in being able to do such things.

"So where are we going?"

"...At the moment, I had been thinking of meeting with some people just outside of the Forbidden Zone, but that may seem more suspicious than I would like. ...So, we will be going deeper into the city."

"And our clothes? What about that situation? If we had already started something by wearing these clothes then it would only end up the same."

"...Yes, I have thought about that. ...Leave it to a well-built Autonomous Trion Soldier such as myself to think this far ahead. ...Hmph."

With a triumphant pose he settled down into a nearby chair and crossed his arms.

Xeno and Lilith looked to each other and Lilith copied Pyrínas's action.

The two Autonomous Trion Soldiers looked to each other, nodded once, then finished it off by leaning back into their chairs.

"...I wear multi-layered clothing, so it would be no problem to hand over my jacket and shirt for the two of you to wear."

"Won't that mean you would be walking around without anything covering you?"

"...Does it seem like I need anything covering me?"

Instead of a pose, Pyrínas simply showed his arms.

After a moment...

"...Hm?"

He tilted his head.

Pyrínas looked around the room for another moment before looking back up. He tapped his head three times and sighed.

"...I guess those memories are a little too incorporated into my being now."

He let out a sigh.

"...But my words remain the same. ...The two of you can wear my clothes while we are out. ...Actually, it is really only Xeno that needs to cover up more. ...Lilith's outfit can be explained away quite easily."

"What's wrong with my outfit!?"

Pyrínas looked him up and down, but he said nothing.

"...Moving on."

"Hey!"

---

Day covered the area.

It was a space containing buildings but no people. The sun was in the sky, pouring down light between the buildings and to the ground. The area the did not reach were filled with dark shadows.

Something moved within those dark shadows.

It kicked off the nearby buildings and glass to move quickly yet steadily.

"Hah. What do you think's going on? Why are we going out of our way for this right now?"

"H'rd t' s'y. B't I'v' b'n h'r'n' th't s'me st'ng' p'pl' m'v'n 'r'nd. Th'r' w'r' 'lso th' 'n's who w'r' m'v'n' 'r'nd c'z th' m's'c th't Misasuzu h'd t' st'p e'rl'r. Th's c'ld be i't'r'st'n' 'f 't's 'n 'xp'r'm'nt f'r a n'w k'nd 'f st'lth 'r a s'cr't pr'bl'm w'th oth'rs. ...I j's' h'pe 't i'n't r'lly 'n is'u'."

"Hah. Quite mutilating the language, will you? It's irritating trying to decipher what you're saying."

The speaking form was two yet one. It was made up of two relatively tall men with one hanging off of the other's shoulder and back.

They were Hikigane Sekai and Bakuto Denji, two squad captains.

They would step onto a ledge, crouch down, and then leap forward. As they slipped between the shadowy buildings, they would land on a higher building and fly even further forward.

Denji started forward.

"Y'u w'r'n't s'y'n' th't wh'n I w's th-"

"Continue that and I will cut off your tongue. I don't have any issues with that."

"I kn'w y'u d'n't. Th't's wh't m'k's y'u e'n s'x'r. M'k's me pr'tty h'r'y."

"Hah. You never shut up, do you?"

"I f'g're th't y'u ap'r'ci'te s'm' c'ns's'ncy l'k' th't."

Denji patted him on the back of the shoulder and Sekai sighed bitterly.

"How about you focus on what we're doing right now instead of running your mouth?"

He jumped onto another building near the loaction they had meant to go and Denji moved to a new building as if supporting him. The road leading to an empty house lay before them. And behind them...

"F'm th's h'igh', w' sh'ld b' 'bl' t' s' fr'm th' F'rb'dd'n Z'n' t' th' c'ty b'ck 'n' t' th' l'f'. Th' Awdry reps sh'ld b' th'r'."

"They are at the branch offices, so we wouldn't be able to do much to begin with. By the way..."

Sekai gave another sigh before narrowing his eyes.

"Did you meet up with Minoru last night?"

"And what if I did?"

Denji's change in tone was clear, but his expression remained the same.

"Whatever you said to him ended up coming back to bite the both of us. Thanks to you they were told about us from Yuki, so this would be your fault. Actually, I'm pretty pissed at both you and Yuki right now. And definitely not the way you want it."

"It's been awhile since you've been like that towards me. And I never thought you would be able to get mad at the former #3."

"What do you plan to do about this?"

"I have something in mind."

"No, you are going to tell me, right now. I won't let you get away with this."

"That's too bad. I already called in a favor from Ketsueki, so you'll just have to deal with it."

"...Fine."

Sekai nodded in agreement and opened something while jumping through the air. Information he had gotten from the conversation others had showed up, but...

"Now Yoshiko and Shin know about us."

"Oh, I didn't think they would get involved."

Denji tilted his head and looked south.

He had known what he was getting into when speaking with Minoru the night before. The sponsors for Border getting involved had been a surprise and they were sure to do something.

Sekai spoke after staring at the open space for a few seconds.

"Hah. For now, I'm going to focus on what we know about over here. It might end up being irritating, but I know that Pyrínas is doing something strange in the Forbidden Zone, so I'm going to deal with it."

"You sure are putting a lot of effort into this."

"It's because I want to make sure everything is safe for Yasuko-ane, Jonas-ani, and Michelle to relax in the city without worrying about anything. Along with that, I want to use up as much of myself as I can before Yasuko-ane finds out and does something about it."

"Oh, I can go for that one too. It would be a shame if she saw these things from us. I don't doubt that she would be disappointed."

"Yeah."

Sekai nodded and moved his gaze from south to nroth.

He looked down.

He jumped a few buildings over to drop by about thirty meters, but...

"So how long are you going to stay over here then?"

"Just for a bit longer. I still need to go talk to Ketsueki about what we will be doing."

As soon as Denji said that, a noise suddenly rang out.

With a series of rumbles and sounds of destruction, the area before them was mowed down.

.

Sekai was the first to look up as something shot straight up into the sky. The color of it was brown and the metallic design brought a single thought to mind.

...A trion soldier.

There were three of them in total.

Their speed was pretty amazing, but it wasn't anything he hadn't seen before.

In fact, this was nothing in his eyes.

"You can take care of these, right? You already have this area set up, don't you?"

"Hah. Being prepared does you a lot of good."

"But setting things up is too boring. I'm fine with figuring things out as I go."

Denji gave a laugh as he moved backwards.

Sekai didn't need to keep track of him to know where he was.

After all...

...This space is already mine.

With only three commands he saw the results of his efforts.

Multiple lights shot up and chased the flying Neighbors through the air. Their speed and power were already set, never causing Sekai to worry about how this would turn out.

When it came to people who remained prepared, he was one of the best.

He had to be.

Making sure that everyone is happy is what I live for right now. My own happiness doesn't matter, so I can go to these lengths to make sure everyone else is fine.

So he thought nothing of it when two of the trion soldiers were quickly shot down.

But the third one...

"Oh, looks like it got away," he heard Denji say from the distance.

The third trion soldier had made a quick movement into the sky above them. It only left his space once it went above the clouds in the sky.

Sekai clicked his tongue and turned around.

"That thing should still be marked. One of the shots nicked it, so Starmaker is enough."

"It looks like it's fine staying way up there for now. Even if you have it marked, there's no way you would want to go up there if you hadn't set anything up yet."

"Hah."

Denji was right.

Sekai knew this and let his body sag for a moment.

"You want me to go for it?"

"Just go do whatever it is that you're going to do. Hah. I need to keep track of Pyrínas right now."

He could hear movement behind him for a split second before everything went quiet.

Denji had left.

Without anyone else around he bent his body down until his forehead slammed into his knees. There was no pain, but he did let out another sigh.

"...This is irritating."

---

Murakami hung his blushing head.

He was inside a tailor shop placed near the edge of Mikado City. One made an order in the front room and the clothing was made in the back room. That left a fair amount of time spent waiting around, but there was tea and food prepared to help pass the time.

He was currently waiting for some clothing that he had been forced to order.

...I had to hand over my jacket and switch into shorts so they could take the measurements, so the tatami mats are kind of ticklish.

This trip had used him as an excuse to get some clothing that Pyrínas had asked for, but he had ended up getting dragged further into this excuse by becoming the one to buy new clothes. This had caused things to take longer than they should have.

They needed to hurry, but they wanted to avoid rushing and forgetting something. Everything about their situation and the people who would be accompanying them were ready to go, so it was now up to them.

Far Eastern tailor-made clothing was quick and reliable at times like this, and he had something to do while waiting for the clothes to be made.

...I-I need to choose a clothing design...

Yuki and Mei peered at him from the side.

He was selecting a design that Mei would use her money to buy him as a celebration. As they had promised, he and Mei were with him. Suzume, Jinsei, and Suzaku had come too, but...

"Heh heh. Look, Kō-san. Isn't this design of clothing really cute?"

...What is going on here!?

.

Murakami assessed his options while sweating nervously for a number of reasons.

Inside an open tatami mat room, he was looking at the row of patterns an employee had brought out.

"U-um, Mei, what about this?"

He held out one of the samples and Mei stared at both the pattern and at Murakami.

"I see. That one is cowhide, isn't it? I would think one with a less processed surface would be more delicious."

"I'm pretty sure that would be too hard."

"Now, now," said Mei. "I have determined this is the foundational symbol of your past relationship with Yuki, so please take this seriously."

Mei tapped Yuki's shoulder a few times and then spoke to him.

"Listen. It needs to be cowhide. Nothing else really matters. Kō is easily swayed by rice, after all, so the white might remind him of it. Oh, and it has to be of high quality."

...That's fairly true, but I'm not sure it applies to clothing.

At any rate, it was now his turn.

"This one with decorative chain fits your overall image pretty well, don't you think?"

"Y-yes, that sounds good."

"Oh, but you fight a lot, so this one with a simple silver decoration on one side might be better."

"Y-yes, that sounds good."

"Oh? Look, look. This one's got a Border logo. That's so cool!"

"Y-yes, that sounds good too."

...Does everything sound good to me!?

He supposedly had the final say here, but as time passed, he seemed to be losing his individuality. And...

"Kō, can you lift your neck up?"

On occasion, he would casually place his hands against his body to check the pattern against him. The shaking of his body when his hands reached out and the rubbing near his arms felt ticklish, so a voice nearly escaped his lips.

...Kh! R-resist! Resist!

"C'mon, stay, stay."

He suddenly scratched at his head.

.

"...!"

A ticklish scratching reached his head.

Yuki was treating him like a dog and it had been a surprise, but he also felt a mixture of animalistic fear at having his defenseless head scratched and general understanding telling him to allow it. Also...

...Ah.

I've seen something like this before, so I must be acting the same way. Yes, this is, um, yes, quite dangerous. Or should I say it feels good? Um...

"...!"

He was filled with a mixture of the discovery that he had a weak point, the realization that Yuki was scratching at it, and the determination to resist it. He did his very best to not let it show.

"Good boy. Now stay like that. Stay."

Yuki's fingers suddenly slid down to the back of his ear. The sensation surprised him, and...

...Hiiin!

He distinctly sensed something being brought out through this and thought about what could happen. The odds of everyone here telling his teammates about this made him start to go slightly limp.

...Hyahh!

He nearly went to sleep. He had three options: collapse limply to the floor, collapse onto Yuki and let things be at that point, or desperately resist by pounding his hands against the floor. But as the ticklish and itchy attack on his ear continued...

"If there was a tail here, would it honestly be wagging like crazy right now?"

Behind him, Suzume suddenly stuck her hand down along the line leading into Murakami's butt.

...Hn!

.

Murakami's butt reflexively hopped up to escape, and that caused his body to collapse forward.

He tried to support himself on the boy sitting in front of him, but he did not make it in time and count not reach him.

"Gh..."

So he ended up lying on the floor, hiding the tremor running from his throat to his lower stomach. His lower body was propped up on his knees, which embarrassingly raised his butt into the air, but he felt that making any odd movements now would make his insides go crazy. So he pressed his knees together and tensed his inner thighs to bear with it.

"Good boy. Good boy."

A hand stroked his head.

"Are you okay? Are you so nervous about everything that's happened that you're feeling bad?"

I'm not feeling bad! This is the exact opposite!

But now Mei was stroking his head too.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa."

...That's for horses!

Despite his mental complaints, having his head rubbed was not unpleasant. He did not like being treated like a dog, but other than that, this was the same as social grooming and he kind of liked it. But...

"..."

He made sure to maintain a displeased expression a she got up.

"Ohh," said Yuki and Mei as he fixed his disheveled hair and took a breath.

...Oh?

He used the mirror next to him to check on the pattern Yuki had placed on him.

.

It looked a lot like the usual stuff he wore in casual settings. It was simple and it had decorative points to attach chains. He traced his fingers along it and his mirror image touched the attached silver decorations.

...I-it's a little too simple, but it might be just right with some chains added on.

As he tried to decide what to do, Yuki peered into the mirror next to him.

"Is it too plain? I was considering some flashier and rougher ones."

"Did you not think those would suit me?"

"It isn't that. Kushi would sometimes dress me up in stuff like that, so they really make me think of...bondage, I guess you'd say?"

...Wh-what were these siblings doing!?

Mei started to remove a tatami mat instead of the wall for a new running gag, so they stopped her. Murakami realized Suzume and Suzaku were smiling his way, so he used both hands to gently lift up the clothing pattern around his body.

While showing it off to Yuki and Mei, he wished he could have been smiling.

"I'll go with this one. I want it to be well-made, so even if I order it now, I doubt it will be ready for a while."

---

...They bring excitement wherever they go.

Kimura sipped at a teacup of peach nectar at the café opposite the tailor's shop.

As one of those who wore what they had, she did not need to shop for clothes or anything else, but the former Kotowari Sniper had dragged her here regardless.

"I'm supposed to take a break here?"

She looked around and saw a hill. The city spread out on either side of the road leading down the hill to the outer city. Even further in the distance were the roads leading out of the city.

She had heard the area's population was rather small when compared to the rest of the city. That was due to people not wanting to move closer to the Forbidden Zone. According to Murakami, who had visited this part of the city before...

"This area is also near where SenSen lives, so people feel like they should have business here for people who don't live within the city."

...But now they've started some construction in places.

After the attacks on the city and its problems, the people of the outer city may have sensed danger in their own futures. There would likely have been antipathy if only the inner city had been fixed, but they had worked on the outer city too.

"It's probably around there."

The areas that were hit due to some trion soldiers in the large-scale invasion were nearby. The massive attack on them had reached a point where the sky had darkened, scaring everyone within the radius who could not find it in themselves to fully leave everyone else behind. In a way, she felt proud that there were people like that after everything that had happened to them.

The way the people of the city saw it, Border had still won out in the end, had somehow gotten through more trouble with their own city, and was going strong after their B-Rank Wars.

That may have been why Murakami occasionally visited this area. Based on the conversation in the tailor's shop, he may have been acquainted with the restaurants.

"Kō, is there anywhere we can get some food before heading out?"

"Fine, fine. But we can't stay long, so how about we order some meat and rice and have a Genghis Khan barbecue later on? I have arranged to have SenSen come get us later on with Taichi, so we can leave to meet Pyrínas as soon as we're done shopping. See?"

Murakami looked toward the northern inner city where the Suzunari Branch would be placed in waiting.

"That will shorten our travel time. It is going to spoil us a little, though."

...Things sure are different when you're used to these kinds of areas.

Kimura looked around and saw the circulation of goods within the outer city.

Border was also securing things from even out here while they worked to cooperate with Awdry, but...

"Oh..."

A transport truck moved from the outer city land at the bottom of the hill. It slowly passed by the area and continued past the road on the other side of the hill.

...It's headed for the main base instead of the branch offices.

...If this is what I end up thinking about, this isn't much of a break from work.

But...

"Okay."

She decided to use this trip to the outer city to have a nice break for once.

.

This is my first real break somewhere new since coming to the city, she thought while appreciating the solid ground below her feet.

...Should I think of this as "visiting" a new area or "returning" to a new area?

Border was in Inner Mikado City. If she had truly become a Mikado City resident, then she was "visiting" a new area.

"Heh heh. What is it, sitting manager? Are you honestly so lost in thought that you're feeling like reciting a poem or humming!? You are, aren't you!? But you're not! Oh, dear. This poor girl is sitting here without reciting a single poem or fondling a single breast! In other words, she's ins elf-denial!"

I feel like your conclusion is oddly accurate, but everything else was completely incomprehensible, Misaki."

Kimura looked to the others in the tailor's shop. Inside the large tatami mat room, Murakami was waiting for his clothes to be made and Suzaku stood behind a square of partitions as he removed his clothes and had his measurements taken. His bare shoulders stuck above the partition and a tape measure was used to measure his shoulder width.

"You know what?"

"What is it, Kimura?" asked Suzaku.

"W-well..."

She had a sudden urge to comment on the sensation below her feet.

She could feel the ground there. She would sometimes come over to the outer city for work, but it had been a while since she had done so to take a break from it all. The sensation of the earth pushing back at the soles of her feet told her that they really had traveled all the way from the inner city to here.

"—"

She pictured a map of Japan and visualized their path from all other cities nearby or far away.

...I'm amazed we survived through so much.

No, she decided.

...We were protected.

Most likely, that would only hit home later on. So...

"Never mind." She shrugged. "I'll tell you much later once all this is over."

"Heh heh heh. This flat-chested bookworm! You sound just like a teasing woman!"

The former Kotowari Squad Sniper pointed both hands at Kimura's eyes and followed her gaze with the fingers.

"You're honestly supposed to be looking at whoever you're in love with! And... 'You know what? ...No, never mind.' 'What is it, honey?' 'Heh heh. Well, you see...' Just like that!"

"Suzu! Suzu! Leave that strange world of yours and come back to us! This isn't the base! And don't grab and shake Umi's booth's partition!"

"What does it matter, Yuki-san! That's just how it is! And look where that crossdressing manager's scandalous gaze is focused! Right here! On this manly errrrrrection!"

"Misaki, that pillar clearly belongs to the building, not a person."

That did not slow down the crazy person in the slightest. She pretended to cry while slapping her palm against the pillar.

"What does that honestly matter? Anyone can lust after a smooth pillar! The sound effect would be Onbashiraaaaaa! Isn't that right, foolish boy!?"

"Yeah! I can do it! I can totally do it!"

He didn't even have to think about it!? she thought as female and male cheered and high-fived.

"That's right. You can, can't you!? ...I can't, but you give it your best shot, foolish boy."

"Suzu! Suzu! I'm a little confused right now, but your engine's running full throttle, isn't it!?"

"What's wrong with that!? Besides, that manager honestly hasn't had enough romance lately, so you go help her out! Don't you agree, Kō-san!? When I'm working in the library, you always hide romance books below those chivalry ones!"

"Don't expose private information in my own safe place!"

The managers of the surrounding shops came out and started jotting down this new information in their memo pads labeled "Special Customer Notes". Then they all raised their right hands.

"We dedicate the prosperity of this land to Suzunari and to natto!"

"We dedicate the prosperity of this land to Suzunari and to natto!"

They continued chanting, smiled toward Murakami, and returned to their shops while raising wooden signs saying "Please Visit Us!" After watching that, Kimura looked over to Murakami whose mouth was spread horizontally.

"At least they're supportive of the Suzunari Branch and their signature product."

"Thanks for finding a positive way to look at that..."

Kimura sighed while watching Murakami hang his head.

"Everything's the same as always."

The crossdresser and Misaki were shrieking behind the partition in the tailor's shop and a piece of someone's uniform was thrown outside the partition each time. Mei was calmly nodding in approval as she watched and a sudden thought came to Kimura.

...This is peace.

.

Peace.

It was the natural state of affairs, but it was out of reach given the current age and the approaching problems.

Whether they would be able to acquire it or not was up to what happened next, but...

"Border and the directors have even more to do."

Kimura smiled a little and looked to Murakami.

"I'm counting on you."

"Yes," agreed Mei before tapping Yuki on the shoulder. "I am not counting on much from you."

"Oh? Then you're counting on a little from me?"

"Yes. You can at least function as a shield."

Yuki sat down on the bench, wrapped his arms around his knees, and began humming a strange song. As long as he's quiet, I don't really care, decided Kimura.

"I think it's about time we got ready to meet up with Pyrínas."

Murakami pointed into the tailor's shop where an employee was holding up cloth wrapping containing the completed clothes.

Kimura stood up.

"Now, then."

She faced the group in the tailor's shop and started walking across the road to them.

At that exact moment, that main road cutting east to west through the area was annihilated by a beam of light also running east to west.

It was a direct hit.