Someone sat in the dark night.

It was Mei who wore a boy's coat over her shoulders and had a skirt placed below her butt and thighs. She took a slow breath, sat up a bit, and looked around.

The people she was with were currently preparing themselves for the trip she had been informed of, but she could not sleep.

...It's so hot.

Her body was filled with heat, but it was more of a swollen heat than a flushed one. She felt pain and itching across her body and it all throbbed too much to sleep.

She could always have Inukai get her something to reduce the pain, but...

...Inukai is tired, too.

The recent battles were over and the Galopoula forces had withdrawn while Kotowari Squad had lost their recent match. They did not seem to beaten up by it, instead having found someone they could now find comfort in besides her.

"But this is still a complicated situation."

She had thought about the result of both of those battles and the present situation.

...We managed to push back again and prove ourselves without much issue.

"But I never thought Kushikage would bluntly go against us like that."

Was it wrong to think that was very like Kushikage?

The Yagura Branch's best fighter had ignored all else and had entered a battle that had nothing to do with her, so it had to be an awkward situation for them. After everything had been said and done, they had found themselves as nothing but the victors after having defended themselves even without her intervening.

According to Shinoda, Border's internal situation meant they could not afford a conflict with the Yagura Branch's strongest fighter. Mei sympathized with that, but at the same time…

There isn't a doubt in my mind that she isn't thinking about that. This is all about having fun and sating her hunger!

But others could easily view it differently, so Shinoda had suggested another method of restraining her.

We have to continue suppressing her.

No, that was not quite accurate.

We have a new objective with that woman.

Shinoda had given them something else to do after having seen everything during the Galopoula attack. It was something only a certain amount of people could properly do.

Work with Taiyōko Kushikage, travel with a set squad to an area outside of Mikado City, and find out the reason for reports of neighbors appearing outside of the Forbidden Zone. These reports have not been recent, but had not been abundant until just recently.

The details would be given once they decided when they would leave.

"Even if that woman won't be able to do much, unless she risks getting her Trigger taken away, we still have to deal with her."

But would she even hand it over then? A capricious beast was a frightening thing.

And that mission also required them to meet with Kushikage and travel with her.

"…"

Her thoughtful mind and body were filled with heat and refused to work properly.

The others were in similar situations. Inukai and Oshiro had also been chosen to go, but both seemed to be having their own situations to think about.

Especially Inukai.

After the recent match had ended and all of the squads had dispersed, he had been the first to go to her. His body looked more slumped than usual and his eyes were less focused.

According to him, there was something going on with the people he knew and he had been trying to figure something out, but he had soon pretended to cry and said, "Shiro-chan, this sucks."

Oshiro had expressed legitimate concern and started patting his head, but he seemed to have also had some things going on since his body was not glowing a much a usual. He was likely thinking about the people he knew, but he had a way of prioritizing others.

…And after the medication and my previous sleep schedule, I can't let myself be too much trouble.

Mei had declined to be given time off. She had asked Oshiro to take care of Inukai, himself, and others first.

Each squad would be given a week break before their next match, so her own squad had said it was fine for her to rest. Some of the other Operators had also messaged her to check on her and that led to the present.

"…"

But Mei was wide awake and unable to sleep, no matter how dark it got.

.

Mei took in a breath to cool her body.

The air filling her lungs was chilly and contained a hint of dampness and flavor.

As her body cooled, she could tell it was loose, dull, and swollen.

Maybe that's why I can't gather my thoughts and calm down enough to sleep.

What had happened to Yuki? Was it directly connected to what Kushikage had done?

What had happened with Border? What did they have planned if Kushikage continued on?

And what should she do about all of this? What did she want to do about it? She acted like she understood it all, but there was a great barrier standing in her way.

…Kushikage.

If they did not do something about Kushikage, Border would start getting hate from others who would otherwise wish to help them. But the fact remained that not even Kanzaki could touch the woman.

"And no matter how much thought I give this, if something happens to other people…"

It will all be over, she thought while sticking her hands into her hair to hold her head. But then she heard a sudden sound from below.

She heard the moving of the roof door opening and rustling of clothes as someone got up. Based on the direction it came from, she knew who it was. It was Amatori.

A trio from the Tamakoma Branch had come over after Inukai and Oshiro had left, but Mei had only been able to greet them until now.

Amatori must have realized she had been noticed because Mei heard a voice before she could wonder what the girl was doing.

"Can you not sleep?"

She could hardly say she could sleep, so…

"Yeah. That's right."

She naturally gave that answer and the small fact that she had exchanged honest words with the girl seemed to calm her heart a little.

I really am obedient, aren't I?

She let out a sigh from inside at her own question.

It was too dark to see her face clearly, but the weariness was beginning to leave it.

She could now clearly acknowledge that she would not be alone here anymore.

And so she spoke first this time.

"This is a difficult night to sleep on."

"You're right. …I can't sleep either."

Amatori walked over while still crouched down, but she did not approach any further than Mei's feet.

"Takato-san, may I see your heels? You were dragging them a little as you walked earlier. Your shoe was rubbing you, wasn't it?"

"I don't need-…"

She trailed off and was not sure what to say. It felt strange to have an underclassmen do this, but Amatori smiled and spoke in her stead.

"I can't seem to calm down, so can you help me out a little?"

.

"If you're asking for help, I don't have much choice."

Mei noticed a hint of a smile in her voice as she removed her shoes. She undid the ankle fastener for her tights and revealed her feet. Amatori gasped slightly.

"You're bleeding."

"Heh heh. It's slow, but I'm pretty sturdy and heal relatively quickly. It's much like how medicine is meant to speed up the healing process by kicking your body into gear."

"I see," said Amatori. "Then I need to bandage you up before you can fully heal or my efforts will be meaningless."

Her tone made it clear she could do it.

…Yuzuru picked a good girl here.

As she gave that impressed thought, a soft cloth was wrapped around her feet and it started with her calf.

"Ah."

"Sorry. Did that hurt? I was loosening your body with a massage."

Recently, she had learned that certain parts were sensitive, but...

My lower legs are too!? I was careless!

At any rate, she felt her back and shoulders suddenly go limp.

"That's due to the circulation in your foot, Takato-san. After being told as much by someone, I know that something like this is especially important. Healing up injuries means you need to try and normalize your body, so it might help you relax and get to sleep."

Even as she listened to Amatori, she could feel the swelling in her back and the other heat across her body vanishing.

…She really is a good person that it even drives me crazy!

These new developments felt weird without her Side Effect.

But at the same time, something else bothered her.

"You are worried about Tsukiko-san, right? I heard from Jin-san that he is better after the day's matches."

.

"Eh?"

That was what was bothering her. Suddenly hearing the forefront of her worries confused Mei.

"Wh-why would you say tha- hyan!"

"Eh? Oh, s-sorry. Did I start too strong?"

Control yourself, control yourself, she thought while biting her lower lips.

Meanwhile, Amatori massaged her foot and spoke.

"Um, can I say some other things I have heard from the other branch members?"

"Why does it feel like I'm going back in time here…? Oh, but yes, say whatever you want. It's not like I'm in a situation to say anything myself."

"Right," Amatori nodded.

"I heard some of the agents and directors are still cautious."

"Cautious?"

She then realized what that meant. Kushikage was still around and she was basically a true predator.

"I don't know what is happening, but our branch members had come across a dangerous woman recently. She had also appeared in other locations and in fights."

"You mean that woman still hasn't had her fill?"

Amatori tilted her head.

Oh, I guess she wouldn't know about Kushikage.

"Sorry. The woman you are talking about is Taiyōko Kushikage. I have been a part of the going ons involving her."

"I see. Then you must already now all of this."

"More-or-less. But I still want to talk to you, so you can go on."

The sparkle in her eyes had made Mei turn away for a moment.

Sometimes the young people were too dazzling to look at.

"Well... If she had been finished with everything, everyone around would have relaxed. Since they haven't, it means she is still waiting. And if that is still true by the time you leave, I think it will be safe to assume Taiyōko-san has decided to not go after anyone. She feels like the type to attack at night, after all. At least from what Reiji-san has said. But…"

Amatori tilted her head for a second time.

"That is all I can say. …I don't actually know how she does things. Do you know, Takato-san?"

It was hard to say that she did. Kushikage had not gone after specific people since Mei had become an Operator. But she had heard some things from Kushikage or from other people.

"She has people surrender to her and then deals with them. And she does it whenever she wants. At times much like this."

"Surrender to her?"

Mei more or less knew how.

"Um, well, it's nothing too strange. She…uses a woman's weapon."

.

"So, well, uh… She uses a woman's weapon to get the people to surrender."

How did Kushikage lure in the men?

After giving a brief explanation, Mei looked back to Amatori. She was afraid the girl would think she was being inappropriate or vulgar, but Amatori nodded with a perfectly serious expression.

"That is…a serious problem for a lot of people."

"Y-yes, i-it is."

She understood me! thought Mei in surprise.

"I hope that woman does not try anything so unbefitting of her age."

"Right. But she is currently a Border member."

"Um, well, it's enough of a crime to wear a school uniform when you have other people trying not to be traumatized, but I think it's even more criminal to use that along with a woman's weapon."

She was unsure she should be discussing a Border member's shame like that, but Amatori tilted her head.

"I don't see the problem. Isn't her woman's weapon Kōgetsu, or something like it? Won't she just be beating people with it until they surrender?"

She didn't understand me at all!

She suddenly noticed Shiori silently walking up from beyond Amatori. Shiori waved a hand in front of her face to say it was useless and moved back down.

H-huh? Aren't you going to help me!? Or at least say something!? You're just leaving it be?

From the nearby sound, she could tell Karasuma was crawling away from them. She wanted to throw a rock at him, but she could not when Amatori was watching.

Meanwhile, Amatori tilted her head.

"Was I…wrong? But don't you need strength to make a person surrender?"

"Um, well…"

What am I supposed to do? she wondered just as Amatori smiled.

"But Taiyōko-san might be able to mange without strength. I heard from Karasuma-senpai that she is very beautiful, so people might let their guard down enough for her to sneak up on them."

This was a new kind of comment that left her unsure whether Amatori was complimenting the woman or saying that other people would be hurt.

But it seems Amatori has little understanding of that kind of thing.

She decided that was up to Tamakoma. She also had a feeling Shiori or Karasuma would interfere, but there was no stopping that if it was destined to happen. But for the time being, the "beauty" that Amatori had mentioned was somewhat similar to the "truth" that Mei had tried to explain, so she began to speak based on that slight misunderstanding.

"I'm not so sure. That woman is pretty old."

"But she has an excellent figure and she stands straight and tall."

Amatori answered with a smile, but Mei sensed something off about it.

It was likely that she had also caught a glimpse of the woman at certain times, but...

Huh? she thought.

She soon realized what it was, but decided to ask to be sure.

"Um, Amatori? How would you describe me in that regard?"

"Eh? Oh, you have an excellent figure, too."

I knew it!

For the first time, she realized that someone satisfied with their own size would place anyone above or below them in the general category of a "decent figure".

From the point of view of Tamakoma's Canon, both Mei and Kushikage were nothing more than different types of "well-formed figures".

She's on my side!

But another thought occurred to her.

But wait. That doesn't solve anything concerning that woman's strange way of doing things.

She held her head in her hands and Amatori spoke to her.

"Um, Takato-san? Is something the matter?"

"No, um," she hesitated. "I have a feeling that things will get more difficult."

.

Two girls hung their heads while exchanging words in the dark forest.

"D-don't worry, Takato-san. I don't think a lot of people will give in to strength."

"Yes, some definitely aren't the type to give in to strength, but I'm worried about something else."

"Eh? What would that be?"

After a brief pause, Mei whispered her answer.

"Her excellent figure."

.

"Huh? Oh, I guess you would know better than I do. I have only heard stories here and there from the branch members."

"What do you mean by that? What did those guys say about us?"

"Hm." Amatori brought a hand to her forehead. "It felt more like they were trying to figure something out. I did get to hear about the Trigger you use though."

…That already sounds bad enough.

She was certain what they said was something that would come back to haunt her.

But what exactly had they told Amatori, and who else have they told? She did not want to think about it, but Shiori suddenly sat up and gave a thumbs up. She did not know what exactly that meant, but she got the general idea. She looked the girl in the eye and Shiori went back down.

"But," muttered Amatori while glancing around their surroundings. "They had all seemed worried about something as they told me the story. It felt like they were trying to criticize the people in the story, but to me it seemed different."

"I have a feeling that was just their normal thing since the people in that story were pretty dumb."

"But… Yes, I think everything will be fine."

"Why?"

Amatori smiled and held up Mei's foot.

"Because Taiyōko-san has given something important to someone else once before."

…You mean…

Mei had an idea what she meant and Amatori confirmed it.

"That is why you are so strong that even I know about your strength."

.

Mei listened to what Amatori said about her.

"I got curious about some of the other agents and Reiji-san has taught me a lot, including how strong you are. …You were a Combatant before becoming an Operator, weren't you? According to Reiji-san and Jin-san, you were very strong and could do a lot of things on your own."

"Y-yes. That's right." She shrugged. "I had been someone who could hold their own in most situations and made sure to use that for the sake of Border. Doing things by normal human standards would not be enough to stop Neighbors, so I had thought that joining Border would be the best way to use everything I had. But…"

"That had become difficult with the current situation, hasn't it?"

Amatori gave a troubled smile, but she made sure to say what she had to say.

"According to Jin-san, you had been seen as a perfect person in every way possible, weren't you? Everything about you was just really amazing."

Mei knew about that. She had seen it all around her and others had made sure to tell her as much regularly. But Amatori continued.

"That is why people could also be pretty envious of you; but there were people there for you the entire time, whether you knew about them or not. And…"

"And?"

"I think that is similar to the reason Taiyōko-san is fixated on you."

Because…

"She is looking out for you as someone else who cares after seeing how people view you. Also, if people continued to view you like that while she was around, she could just make sure to use her own strength to push them away and make sure you were okay. So she was preventing anything bad from happening."

"Then why does she always resort to violence?"

"Probably as her own way of making sure you grow strong, like her. You may be a very strong and skilled person, but you even you must need help at times, right? That is why you are in this strange situation to begin with. But that is only the way I see it."

"Then why did she drag others in to this?"

"Probably to make people think you were not such an important individual. You may be a strong person, but you also seem to not rely on others much. This might be a way to help you by showing the people around you how to help."

That was true. People had once pointed that out to her. They had told her, hurt her, and tried to twist her. She sighed while remembering all that. She hung her head and rested her forehead on her hands.

"You're right. ...I always think I need to be the one helping others since I have this Side Effect. And I really am just a child without even knwoing it."

"But..."

"?"

"There are some things I do not understand, but one thing feels certain to me now."

Wondering what it was, Mei raised her head and saw Amatori tilting her head.

"You were not an unwanted person, were you?"

.

Mei felt a chill at Amatori's words.

But not because she was angry or upset at the girl.

This was different. The chill felt like it was stroking her spine.

...Amatori may only now be understanding her wants and needs.

She had troublesome Side Effects as well and those Side Effect were caused due to a high amount of trion. That second point had been the reason for some issues as well, but...

"Amatori, have you...ever resented your birth?"

"No, because I have no one to resent. But...I do wonder why."

"You ask something you can never know the answer to?"

How long had she been wondering that? Mei had no way of knowing; but Amatori's smile deepened.

"It's fine. Osamu-kun and the others are helping me answer that."

Mei wondered if she should record this conversation and share it with the others later. But she noticed Shiori open her phone as she lay on her side, so she left it to her. At any rate, she asked a question like an interviewer.

"U-um... Your squad or the Tamakoma Branch? And how?"

"Right. ...You see, I have been thinking recently. A lot may have happened starting right from the invasion and I may be looking at this in a convenient way, but..."

She held a hand to her cheek.

"I feel very happy when I'm with the people I care for, so I hope a lot of people have times like that too."

Shiori gave a thumbs up and Mei replied via eye contact. She heard someone collapse beyond the roof, so they had likely given up. At any rate, Amatori continued while blushing.

"So can I assume Taiyōko-san had times like that too?"

"It isn't my place to say."

"Then!" said Shiori while suddenly standing up.

Her glasses shook, she held up her recording phone, and she gave a crescent moon smile.

"Mei-san, I want to hear about your time before now!"

"What? Wh-why do you want to know that all of a sudden?"

"Because." She wrapped her arms around Amatori's shoulders from behind and the two of them looked at Mei. "I want to know how you ended up being so amazing even with everything around you. ...It could even help us find a way to keep others safe."

Mei felt it was rare for people like Shiori to be this motivated by pure curiosity, but she decided it was fine. It was late at night, this was a gathering of girls, and she had her own stories to tell.

"Fine then. ...But to make some thing. What do you think about me? ...After what you had seen during the testing before."

"Oh, I got over that already," Shiori said with a wave and a smile. "Mei-san showing me that means I got to see just how strong she is! It worked out! ...Even if I did pee myself a little bit that time."

"Sorry about that."

She gave another wave.

Mei nodded. As she began to speak, she wondered what Kushikage was doing.


The Yagura Branch's strongest member and the Tamakoma Branch's future seer were intertwined on a bed.

"C-come on. Settle...settle down! Stop fucking moving!"

"Nwah! O-ow, ow, ow. Wait. Seriously, stop rubbing me like thaaaaat!"

"You're a boy, so put up with this shit for now! I can't believe you're making this much of a fuss over some fucking disinfectant."

The strongest member was straddling the future seer and pinning him below her butt. She looked down at him where he lay sprawled out with tissues in his nostrils.

"D-dammit. I tried to resist, but now you've rubbed that disinfectant towel all over me and put some calming oil in my hair. My pride is in tatters."

"And my pride as a soldier insists that I fucking heal you, even if it kills you! This is what you get for trying to grope my ass!"

But, she sighed while wearing a shirt. I've had to deal with more idiots than just this guy.

"Anyway, what the fuck do you want? You wouldn't try to grope me like that unless you saw some shit in the future. Even more, you managed to escape before because of those idiots, so coming back to me means you've got some shit you wanna get out there."

"I thought the challenge would be nice~ Besides, you're outfit doesn't leave much to the imagination, so trying to cop a feel should only be natural for any normal man, such as myself."

"Anyway," said Kushikage as she looked down at the boy.

She had fixed him up proper and clothed him after wiping down his body. Besides his jacket and sunglasses he wore his pants and plain shirt so that he had some protection from the cool air of the room. Now that she could properly get a look at him, she could see that his body had calmed down from her initial hit against him too. So...

"Have you stopped bleeding?"

"Hmm. I still feel something stinging in my throat."

"What a waste."

She said that partially as a complaint and started to sigh, but she stopped herself.

This had been brought on by her failure to predict what would happen. This boy was considered a guest, so if she had failed to make him bow to her, it was due to her own lack of skill.

...Those dead assholes would have laughed at me if they had seen that shit.

But she had another thought as well.

...At this point, it's probably impossible to make him bow.

The room smelled of blood and disinfectant, so the mood was all wrong.

She had opened a window and gotten some cleaning robots in from outside.

...The mood could hardly be worse.

With that serious thought, she tossed the towel to the cleaning robots. The technology for something so trivial made her a smile a bit.

"Anyway, you bled like it was your own shit."

"To be fair, I did eat a lot of meat for dinner."

Tamakoma's future seer had a wet towel on his forehead to cool the heat in his face. The towel covered his eyes, so she could not see his expression.

This would be a perfect chance to attack him. With that towel over his eyes, his Side Effect is null. My own only works when I'm "in a fight", so it wouldn't do anything unless I went on the offensive here.

It would have been easy.

...Reach out, use my fingers or my palm, crush his eyes. He wouldn't see it coming - no pun intended - and he would never have to worry about anything anymore.

He would not need to see the future or do anything for others. It would weaken Border quite a bit, but she thought they would only show how weak they were if that was all it took. All that matered would be how much better off the future seer would be if she only reached out and crushed him. But...

"I had really been holding back, so it had all ind of built up inside me."

"Holding back?"

He nodded.

Even with his situation as it was, he did not put up his guard or think anything else of her.

He trusted her at the moment.

"After all, I'd had a lot on my mind. But as I thought about all that, I suddenly decided 'to hell with it!' and relaxed myself. That's when it all came at once."

Oh? thought Kushikage.

"So you gave in?"

"Yeah. I mean you're super sexy. And it all looked like it would feel really great. I started thinking no one would blame me if I explained the situation."

But...

"I think it was too much for me."

"Is that so?"

She felt heat when she brought a hand to her head, but there was no point in denying it.

...So he did surrender to me?

He had simply been too honest with his intentions and she had responded too strongly. He had forcibly tried to oppose her, so she had gone in even stronger and ended up with a forced result.

And the boy said something else.

"Sorry."

"For what?" she asked.

"I kind of messed things up for you."

.

Yagura's strongest stared at Tamakoma's future seer.

He in groaned in thought and placed his right hand on top of the towel covering his forehead and eyes.

"You see," he said. "Mei's definitely part of the equation, but I also don't like blaming others for something I did or chose. And Mei said it would be better to leave things as is. But we all know that is just her way of saying that it will hurt more if there is nothing she can do once it is brought back up. And since she ends up just treating my words as an extension of my Side Effect, it's hard to really get anything important in without it seeming like something will happen."

He sighed.

"But i can't just leave it like that. I can look into the the future, I can shift how that future goes, but I'm afraid that all of that means little when it comes to someone like her. I always run the risk of having her dislike me by the end of it. But in the end, you're the one that ended up losing out from all that."

...This guy really does take things seriously when you least expect it.

So she opened her mouth and spoke while leaning down on him.

"Look, I'm going to be honest with you. I really was going to strike you down. Oh, and when I say 'strike down', I don't mean sex. I mean I was going to literally kill you."

So...

"You don't have shit to apologize for. This was a battle between predator and prey...and, well..."

This was only her second time to ever say this.

"Even if it was a situational fluke, you beat me."

"Don't say that."

...Eh?

The boy sounded certain of himself here.

"Don't say that. I was the one that messed up. That's what happened."

"Don't you dare-"

She cut herself off and she stared at the boy as he gave a weak smile.

"Whether we're talking about sex or dinner, the Yagura Branch's strongest member and the first child of the Taiyōko family isn't allowed to make mistakes, right?"

"But the first child of that family can't have a victory just given to her either."

Then...

"Then instead of a victory, once everything has been settled, you can properly lose to Mei."

.

"..."

Kushikage was dumbfounded.

She had recalled someone she could call a victor. She had promised to make sure they remained strong, her allegiance to them was certain, and that person had quickly became three.

...But someone like her?

Would the boy pinned below her only think of that girl as a "victor" once she had become something even greater than that?

She suddenly wondered if she out to stab his eyes right now.

After all, his face was hidden and he was defenseless below her.

Now is my chance, she thought while reflexively raising a hand.

But then he spoke.

"Sorry I can't do anything to help with that task. The spot that is next to her, that supports her, is already taken up and I can't do anything about it."

She heard him sigh.

"You may have been planning to kill me, or at least injury me, but not even that happened. If you think you would have killed me if I hadn't started bleeding, then you're basically saying I'm still not at the level where I can support her."

...Ah.

She realized that her conceited words and action had hurt him.

So she lowered her head at the bittersweet victory of that.

"Sorry."

She relaxed her shoulders.

I see, she thought. That's right.

...A soldier can't just go laying her damn finger on any random civilian.

She would wait until this boy had found a way to support someone important who could actually oppose her. That was how the Taiyōko family did things. And this boy faced her while viewing her as the first child born into that family.

They had both understood that previously, so suddenly laying a hand on him here would be lying to herself and betraying this boy - a normal civilian who was not fighting her.

Also, her family and the others who had desired her position as the strongest would be disappointed in her.

So she faced the boy. She looked directly into his unseen eyes.

"I have no intention of looking down on you. ...You weren't trying to stand on equal footing as me, but instead were trying to build that pathetic girl up, weren't you? But you don't yet have the skill needed to do that, or even the room to do something like that. And yet... Tch. I'm sorry for pitying you for that."

"Eh? Oh... It's fine. That was just a little complaint. I can't say things like this in front of the others. Also, I definitely lost to one person."

"Who?"

"You're brother. ...Mei already chose to lean on him whenever she can, right?"

She felt her pulse quicken and her body stiffen.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow. You're squeezing my hips between your legs! Tap, tap, tap! Ohhh! What's this!? Boobs! These are nothing like Mei's!"

"You've felt that pathetic girl's?"

She glared at him, squeezed until he screamed, and then sighed.

The boy also relaxed his body and his mouth bent upwards below the towel that hid his eyes.

"I'm a bit jealous of your brother. After all, both me and Minoru... We lost to someone like him."

She heard a hollow laugh.

"He was the one to break through to her."


"And when my parents left the forest together..."

Mei stopped at that point. Amatori was slowly nodding off to her right.

...Was the story too boring?

But she remembered the exhaustion from the day.

"Chika-chan must be tired after all of the stuff she did to help you out. From what I saw, she fell asleep around the time your mom tied herself up on accident."

That would explain why she had never asked for details about certain parts that had been left out. The third Tamakoma member there would probably have some difficulties concerning that at some point, but it was not her problem. For now, she supported Amatori's head with her shoulder, but...

...Oh, she has a lot of time to grow, doesn't she?

She felt some fresh surprise at realizing what it felt like with someone who had room to grow in the right place, but she easily managed to support the girl. Shiori opened a new recording and moved the meter down to zero before speaking.

"Now, get on with the story."

"Shiori, you really like this kind of story, don't you?"

"It's called having taste," she said with a smile and a wave of her right hand.

But Mei raised one corner of her mouth in a smile of her own.

"I say that, but I don't really know much more. No one would approach me with the details after that had been said and done. But my parents said that it was a fulfilling experience and that they were happy once they realized my mother was pregnant with me. And..."

"And?"

"That family...that is, the Taiyōko family, the ones most people seem to have mixed feelings on, called out to my parents. They thought the time had finally come to be punished, but when they got there..."

She had a feeling they had always been vague about this part of the story.

"According to them, they were given a plea to not be so hard on some people. It had been sent by others who had tried all sorts of things. They traveled back to where they were called on and they gave whatever was needed."

"They...kept their promise?"

"A lot must have happened, but they had the the backing of some pretty strong people and ended up getting along with those same people. The best way to put it would be that both sides had bonded rather well with each other by the end of it."

Mei smiled bitterly.

"And my parents were forgiven. Based on what my mother said, it must have been in exchange for whatever they had gotten while they were out traveling. That allowed them to safely give birth to me, raise me, leave me here to go traveling again, and still manage to maintain everything they had built up to that point. But..."

At that point, she realized something.

"The one who helped them by the end of it was probably the same one who went against everyone."

She was...

"Taiyōko Kaseki. ...The mother of Yuki and Kushikage. Along with Mukuro and Hoshi."

.

"She died alongside her husband, right?"

"Probably," Mei nodded and stared into the darkness ahead of her. "She was probably the one who was most connected to my parents and wanted them to be happy. Her husband was supposedly a good guy too, but I don't really know much about either one of them. Once everything was settled, they had apparently only communicated through messages. There were things that could not be done since they did not live in the same location for too long."

"Mei-san, I'll erase that last part from the recording."

Only then did she notice the sharpness of her words.

"Sorry," she said with a light bow. "From my parents' perspective, she's the one that brought them together and then allowed them to remain together."

"Without her, you never would've been born."

The thought of her own birth got her thinking, but as she thought, she began to wonder what was wrong with her mother for telling her that sexual story when she was so young. She had a feeling she had seen her mother telling it while wiggling back and forth with her hands on her cheeks about once every three days.

She also remembered her mother rejoicing when she copied that action, but she stopped herself because she had a feeling that remembering any more would lead to a fatal dose of painful memories.

...But I really do owe my life to a lot of different people.

"Then again, I guess the reason Kushikage is a pseudo-enemy right now is so she can pay back the debt made before I was born and right after I was born."

"Oh, Mei-san, you're so cool."

She had recovered enough to reply with "I am an A-Rank, after all."

...But that's thanks to the others.

She had still not fully recovered, but she was not wrong to think that.

"How about we get some sleep? I'm sure we'll be moving about before the sun is up tomorrow morning."

"What about Chika-chan?"

"You can just leave her with me."

I sure have gotten lenient, she thought while supporting the girl's back and lifting her up.

She managed to get both her and Amatori steady while standing up.

"Nn."

But Amatori leaned toward her and gently clung to her.

Eh? she thought, but Amatori's arms were already wrapped around her arm. The girl's head and floral-smelling hair rested on her chest and held her in place.

"Nnn..."

Ehh!? Does she like to hold something when she sleeps!?

"Wait, um... Shiori! Why are you recording this!?"

"Hey! Hey, whoever you are! Is she like this with someone else too!?"

"W-well, not as far as I know, so..."

Mei and Shiori exchanged a serious glance as the voice of Karasuma came through to them.

"Mei-san, why don't we take a major step in your father's footsteps and teach her some things here?"

"No matter how I look at this, I have to agree with you."

"Y-you two don't understand the situation at all, do you!?"

As they argued back and forth, Mei placed her chin on Amatori's head.

Since Amatori had not said anything more, she could assume everything was still safe.