"Based on the information Yuki and Ninomiya-san got, anything around the tower is fairly useless."

Inukai spoke from the right side of the table, Oshiro sat with him, and Mei listened from the top end of the table.

They were currently holding a meeting, but...

...Honestly, Kushikage was acting so hostile just a day or so ago, so I can't believe she's being so cooperative just because someone ordered her to.

At any rate, Oshiro had agreed to the suggestion that Jin make them breakfast, so they were using that time to hold a simple strategy meeting.

"Anyway, that is the order instructing us to go to the tower near the next city over."

Inukai was speaking to Kushikage who sat on the left side of the table.

She looked down at the letter Inukai had given her. The surface of the parchment from the Border directors displayed something on it and she read it while listening to Inukai.

"Right. I've heard of it before. I wanted to go out and check it for myself, but that got messed up when I found out some stupid little girl decided to skip out on resting and went out into battle. I guess that was fine though since I also got to help out two children along the way. I guess that's all come full circle now, though, since you assholes want me to do this fr you."

She smiled with the ends of her eyebrows lowered.

"If it wasn't for this stupid girl being on the side of my idiotic brother, I would have torn you all apart by this point. ...Basically, I will only ever be on the side of myself and my siblings. Since this stupid girl is with my idiotic brother, that makes her a semi-sibling to me. So I'm obligated to help out here. It still would have been nice if those fuckers at the top came down and told me this themselves. ...Especially since I have this idiot with me for awhile now. He just won't leave me alone."

"In that case, we need to make sure this all works out," commented Inukai.

"That's right," said Nono who sat toward the entrance from Mei. "But even assuming we do get this...notice on the weird tower? Well, whatever this thing causing the issue is, even if we get it and send it to Border's tops, how will we get back and before long? Two of us here have the B-Rank Wars to deal with, and even worse is that we have teammates who are difficult at times."

"Right. We should be able to come back to Mikado by the end of the day. Nothing too worrying if we just consider how little is around this tower to begin with. It should be fine, but I'll make sure to talk to Yuba-san about it later on, if it matters any."

That had apparently been what Jin saw the majority of.

"So," continued Inukai. "The tower itself had been there for a good amount of time already, sort of like a lookout post for the city. But things had been happening there and people claim to have seen Neighbors over there. So we need to go check it out and see for ourselves."

"Yeah," said Nono across the table from Mei. "I have a question though. Inukai, why does it feel like you're being put in charge here? I figured that Kiyoshi would be in charge of this kind of thing, you know, since he had to find these things out."

"He and Ninomiya-san are being sent underground with the others, and Oshiro and myself were already decided on to go with Mei-san. And as for why Jin-san pr Mei-san aren't being put in charge..."

The elite agent could be seeing wiggling from the nearby kitchen, so they ignored him.

And after listening to all that, Mei had a thought.

...Th-there's almost nothing for me to say here.

.

Mei suddenly felt left out.

...Well, there's no helping that.

She knew they were going to complete their preparations and leave for the strange tower.

But Inukai was in charge of their tactics and route, Kushikage would check on Inukai's ideas, Oshiro would ask about anything he did not understand, and when Inukai's ideas were not enough, Nono could jump in with her knowledge on different sorts of environments.

Mei was currently in charge of combat, but with Kushikage helping, there was nothing for her to do there either. She felt horribly left out as she nodded and peered at the map Inukai had laid out for them.

...I'm sure I'm only imagining it, but I feel like the kid no one likes ho tries to join other people's groups!

Kushikage smiled and turned to her.

"Fuji? If you have any questions, don't hold back. Just ask."

I know that! she thought. You don't have to treat me like a child.

She knew her mother could be mean and that saying this would not help, but...

"I am an A-Rank, you know?"

She only noticed how prickly her voice was after the fact. She had been ignoring that Kushikage was trying to help them, as much as her pride would allow. She was not just being treated like a child; she was acting like one too.

...But, well...

It may have been the location that made her feel left out.

...I can't believe we're holding a strategy meeting in this family's house.

She had never actually been here before. Her home had been far to the west of Mikado City. Thinking back, she realized Kushikage had moved to disguise the fact she was around for so long.

After hearing Kushikage's stories, she had often begged to be brought here. Kushikage had smiled bitterly and said that was impossible, so she had called her a liar to provoke her.

...I tried searching around but naturally couldn't find it.

Even with her Side Effect and in-depth knowledge of the city at the time, she still had not been able to find this single house.

"..."

But now that she was here, she knew why Kushikage had never brought her.

...It gives a very strong feeling of her family.

The others did not seem to have noticed, but her calmed mind would pick up hints and clues. The area resembled a prison yet had a homeyness to it, so it felt strange and addictive.

Mei realized that Kushikage's old stories about what was here and what happened here were all true.

"Urg..."

Everything placed around her made her feel a little woozy.

I give up, she thought concerning the feeling of being left out.

"Here's yours, Mei. There's plenty more, so make sure you eat up, okay?"

A smell suddenly appeared in front of her.

It was a plate of Jin's cooking.

.

Mei looked at the food on the metal plate in front of her.

"I can really have curry that's this red?"

"Well, I don't get a chance to just dump all kinds of spices with anyone but you. I got to have some fun on a bit of a spice adventure."

He served some vegetables next, but they were stewed in a bowl with butter floating in a cream sauce. The cod mixed in eliminated any complaint about eating only vegetables.

"Oh, I kind of want some of that too," said Nono.

"Wait just a bit. Mei comes first."

It concerned her how much that last part improved her mood. He probably just meant she ate the most and he was preparing the most up front, but...

"Mei looks like she's starving. She's been fidgeting for a while now."

...No, um, that's because...

She could hardly say she was bothered by that family's home, so she gave a harsh denial without thinking.

"I-I was not doing that."

"Oh-ho? What a bitch. ...You need to get up and walk around when doing that kind of thing. That'll really show what's up."

"Is it just me or are you pretty amazing, Kushi-tsan?" said Nono.

Was that a compliment? wondered Mei, but Kushikage placed her hands on her cheeks and wiggled around. She must have been happy to receive any kind of praise.

The woman could not have missed everything around her, but did she understand how Mei felt? If so...

I can't tell if she's partially ignoring me or trying to help.

Mei sighed and the elite agent shook a bowl.

"Inukai, what are you gonna do for food? Do you not need any? Yeah, I guess you can't eat much. If you gain too much fat, Hogo might dump you. There's no helping that. If you insist the straw here is enough, I guess I'll leave you with that."

"W-would you stop giving me that sympathetic look without letting me speak for myself!?"

Oshiro reacted to Inukai's protest by standing up. He pushed his chair in and turned toward Kushikage with a serious look. The look was enough to make the woman falter.

"I can borrow your kitchen, I assume."

After Oshiro requested confirmation instead of asking, Nono began recording and Kushikage nodded once she realized what was going on.

"Oh boy," she said with her hands on the table before returning Oshiro's look.

"Are you that...um...Gunner? Anyway, are you his...well...lover?"

"Correct. We have decided we will be together."

"Then…you live together? And at night, do you…um, sleep together?"

"Correct. When we sleep together, I am on the bottom and Sumiharu is on top."

Gudako: "Victoryyyyy! I don't know what just happened, but I just won! I hit the jackpot!"

Wisteria: "Well, I suppose that's better than anything abnormal."

Inu: "Th-this is a misunderstanding! He's talking about rolling out a futon!"

At any rate, they were served a bacon and cabbage soup. Mei was served first, followed by Nono. Mei felt bad toward Nono, but she also felt a fleeting happiness at being chosen to go first.

She went on to eat some of the curry brought out while preparing for the bacon.

Ah.

It made her feel nostalgic.

.

Mei continued eating a few more spoonfuls without thinking.

...This kind of spice tastes so nostalgic.

That may have been because it tasted the same as Kushikage's homemade spices she had eaten for breakfast some years back. She had eaten similar breakfasts afterwards, but Kushikage had not been there.

Why did I think she was an enemy? she started to wonder.

"..."

But she corrected herself: She is an enemy. She is only helping for the moment.

She knew Kushikage would crush someone if that person would eventually oppose her. That was the kind of person she was. So once this cooperative mission was complete, it was possible she would immediately attack once more.

Mei wondered if it was wrong of her to be so worried about that future that she could not enjoy herself now.

But...

"Here, Mei. Plate #2."

"Eh!? Wait! Um, when they have this much spicy, a second one would bring my calories up to..."

Kushikage raised her hand, placed it on her cheek, and spoke in a reserved tone to the elite agent.

"Gimme a third one."

Mei could feel her competitive spirit firing up.

Th-that woman!

She was starting to understand what led certain others to remove walls. However, Kushikage turned her way and tilted her head.

"Just so you know, Fuji, I slept with him earlier in the week."

"Eh?"

Mei looked to the elite agent who was mixing in more spices.

"Yeah, that's right. I ended up bleeding a whole lot."

Gudako: "I'll delete this part when I hand it over to Suzume."

Inu: "Huh? Huh? Why are you handling this so differently than with me?"

Wisteria: "I have a feeling it;s all over regardless from the moment she's giving it to Suzume."

Anyway, thought Mei as she noticed something heavy in her heart.

Um, Jin was...

"Eaten" by Kushikage? Does that mean, in a way, I wasn't able to protect him?

She briefly pictured Yuki's face and thought of the word "protect".

"W-wait! Um, uh…!"

She looked at Kushikae who smiled back with just the corners of her mouth.

"Well damn. What a frightening look."

"Kushikage!"

"C'mon, Mei. Your hair"s bristling up."

More plates arrived. First for her and then for Kushikage.

"When we say 'slept', we literally just mean 'slept'," said the elite agent. "Unfortunately for me, nothing sexual happened."

Eh?

She did not know what exactly happened and she did not know what he had meant by bleeding, but she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Is that so?"

"Oh, shit. She actually bought it."

Mei did not listen to Kushikage's cruel joke. She relaxed her shoulders, sighed again, decided to resume eating, and saw what was on her plate.

"Um, can I have a third one too?"

"Can you manage as much as your mentor?"

Her former mentor gave a triumphant laugh, so her response was obvious.

"Easily!"


It was the morning of the investigation for Border.

While on the way to the underground area, everyone sat atop the destroyed field in front of the area.

Akasora lightly clapped his hand in front of them all.

"Now, I'll explain the situation. This is an investigation for both Mikado City and Border. That makes it rather important. We're scheduled to spend today, and tomorrow if we need, exploring this place."

He opened and enlarged a simple map of the area. And...

"Look to the entrance."

The entrance was directly in front of them all.

It was a giant hole. And an artificial one at that. It was eighty meters tall, twice as wide, and tiled with white stone.

"It isn't as big as the base as a whole, but that's a pretty massive passageway, isn't it? I've heard that's so some pretty big things can use it. There have been people checking on it form time to time, so there is some protection in effect. One side sank down during the second large-scale invasion and a bunch of mud and other stuff got inside, so there's a dirt floor and ceiling is lower in some areas." Akasora tapped the map of the ruins. "But there are two levels. Both levels have a large hall. the first level is exposed to the surface and its ceiling is open to the sky. The second level is underground. And deep inside..."

The underground corridor he pointed to did not have anything drawn at the other end.

"Based on what we've been told, you can find the location of something weird inside. Exploring the area will be the highlight of the investigation. However..."

He raised his eyebrow in a smile as he tapped on the two halls. That placed a Neighbor icon on them.

"Wouldn't you know it? We got a signal before coming over here today."

"You sound happy, Sensei."

"Believe me, defeating a signal this strong isn't easy."

"You've done it before...?

They all pulled back in shock.

"That was a long time ago. ...And, well, the specifics are complicated, but you'll have to go in there and defeat them. While we do have tomorrow as an extra day, you can't hope to retreat and come back once you've recovered. Be careful."

"Sensei, could I ask something?" asked Chisato. "Have we set things up so it won't cause problems if we do defeat them?"

Akasora nodded.

"This was a request from the signals themselves and it counts as cleaning things up. We have no idea what this is all about, but, to Mikado City, we are just checking things out while they are viewing it as it's own thing. ...And the Neighbors' actions will apparently help when it comes to dealing with any others that come through the Gates. There is supposed to be something happening relatively soon concerning a terrestrial something-or-other. ...I don't think we should take that long for this though."

They all fell silent at that.

The teacher looked to the Combatants and said more.

"That means the world's greatest threats are concerned about your actions. ...Okay, how have you divided up he teams? Akashi?"

.

"Right."

Akashi stood up from the rock he was sitting on, pushed back his hair, and read from the tablet in his hands.

"We will be dividing into three teams today. The field team will be going to the underground and exploring, the standby team will wait here for them to return, and the base guard team will be ready to alter the base should anything come up."

"That last one is just mean!"

Akashi nodded at everyone's critique. You leave me no choice, he thought.

"Then should I call them the holy land preservation team? There's plenty to do there, including testing out some new equipment. Anyway...I'll start by announcing the field team."

He breathed in an plainly read off the list.

"Kirikari-kun, Kon-kun, Kimura-kun, my idiot captain, the fox, Kuruma-san Iko-san, Awdry, Kotowari, Misaki, Oki-kun, Amatori-kun, Shiraishi-kun, and Nino-san. ...It's a lot of people, but you'll be up against two strong neighbor signals. Keep that in mind."

Oki raised his hand.

"Why're ya splittin' up the Ninomiya Squad duo?"

"I will be having Tsuji-kun guard the second group we will be having here. He will have some difficulty supporting the people we have here, but Nino-san's siege-like abilities are perfectly capable of battling these kinds of opponents."

"I see," said Ninomiya with a nod. He was wearing a modified version of his squad's outfit. He had argued to have him wear his normal uniform, but that had been vetoed due to how it would not let him move in this kind of setting. What was more was the change to his Triggers set he had made upon a request. He gave a light nod toward everyone before speaking.

"So you are placing people where they will be of most use. Fine, I understand. I will just get this over with so my work time with the damn faker can finally end here."

"That would be great. Next up is the standby team that will wait for the field team while making sure everything is stable out here. Probably make some food for afterwards too. That will consist of Tsuji-kun, me, Kurauchi-kun..."

Kurauchi raised his hand.

"We would like to find a better position between here and the city. ...Whatever the reason may be, we are here to defeat some Neighbors in the underground. If we can make sure everything is ready, we will have more than enough prepared should anything go wrong."

"Understood. Call over some branch members to send some food too."

Ohh, I'm so cool, thought Akashi as he continued.

"Kitazoe-kun, Ōji-kun, Izumi-kun, Kako-san, Mizukami-kun, and Murakami-kun."

"I wouldn't do well in there. Makes sense."

"We have high firepower, so are you keeping us here in case they need some rescuing?" asked Izumi.

Akashi nodded.

"The fox has been doing some investigating and it turns out this part of the underground has a risk of collapsing."

"Huh? Where are they supposed to collapse? We're at the very edge of Mikado City and leading into the Forbidden Zone directly ahead."

"It looks that way, but no."

Akashi pointed at the image Akasora had enlarged.

That was the map of the area which did not show the other end of the innermost corridor. However…

"It might collapse, but the city will remain fine. There might be some sinking of the buildings, but that will only make it feel like an earthquake. We have spoken to some of the sponsors and they had already begun work on figuring out how to strengthen the buildings to make them more stable. Even if it is just a quick fix. Meaning..."

Meaning...

"You all will be the ones with the issue if it collapses."

.

Oki listened to the 18s' secretary.

After thinking about the state of the underground, he gave his opinion.

"Are ya sayin' the underground's fallin' inward and we need to escape before it fully collapses in we're fightin' there?"

"Yes. That's right."

"...But most of us can't do much at that point."

The others did not hesitate to give him a look of pity. Even Amatori nodded in his direction.

"Don't worry, Oki. You'll make it somehow."

"Thanks, but I really don't think I will..."

"I can probably kick you pretty far if I use Headfirst Fall in time, so don't worry about it. I already know how to charge at people."

This was apparently the "privilege" of the person who was likely going to be used as a shield.

At any rate, the remaining people would be on the preservation team.

"Are Kashio, Minamisawa, Girikage, and Hiyami on the preservation team?"

"That's right," confirmed Girikage. "If all goes well, we'll finish this tonight, but we still need to be ready to move."

To his side, Kashio, Minamisawa, and Hiyami meekly nodded.

"To be honest, we don't have the best time in that sort of setting and wouldn't be able to keep up," explained Kahsio.

"Because our traits are too different," added Minamisawa. Oki understood what he meant, being his teammate and all.

"...That's a lot like how I can't handle extremely closed spaces with Teleport, right?" asked Yuki. "That's why I had to swap out Teleport for Kiyome for this."

Once they pointed it out, it made sense.

It was easy to forget after being their comrades for so long, but the more inexperienced members of their group could really shine or be in great danger in places like this.

That can't be easy…

Just as Oki thought that, two people approached: Shinoda and the strange new resident of the Yagura Branch - Pyrínas.

.

"Hi."

The entire group saw Shinoda raise his right hand.

"I thought I would give a quick greeting and some advice before you head out. Oh, but pretend you didn't see Pyrínas with me here. ...Because of certain circumstance, he needed to come close to this place before you all started."

"...Thank you so much for being so thoughtful."

Pyrínas bowed toward them from below a tree.

"...I will leave this to all of you."

He did not raise his head afterwards. He instead lowered it further as if to drive the point home.

"...They are something I know very little about. ...But I had managed to catch a glimpse of them at one point. ...And they find pride in battle, so please," he told them. "...Please let them end everything with one final battle..."


Mei realized she was at a disadvantage.

Once she entered the large open air bath, her sensitive body was enveloped by the water that seemed to remake her and made her all too aware of her own shape.

...I never thought I would be outnumbered two to one! Dammit! Why did Haya have to come in to see us off?

It felt strange to think about things like that while her mind was still off from her Side Effect. The effect was still active, but it had been busy filtering other thoughts around.

Nevertheless, the other two ignored how much water resistance they created. Nono soaked her arms to soothe the heat in them and Haya rubbed the water into her body, unprepared for being tossed into the bath like this.

Two Shikifuku blades were there, too. One acted as a stand for a plate holding leftover breakfast and sweets. The other floated in the water as their bodyguard. Both of them were moving lazily around and without much more purpose other than the basics. They had been given to them by Akasora as insurance, along with the rest f the Black Trigger.

Everyone is preparing in their own way, thought Mei as she suddenly felt a stone in the sand below her soaking feet. She reached down toward the bottom that the spring water had mostly turned to sand and she picked up a round stone that had been polished by the sand.

She then recalled the night of the attack.

One of my throws during that battle with the Neighbors was strange, wasn't it?

One thing still bothered her about that battle. When she had thrown that piece of a destroyed Trion Soldier at Mouri-01, she had achieved a much greater speed than expected. It had almost seemed to slip from her fingers and it had seemed like a failure, but it had had even more speed and accuracy than normal.

What was that?

There was a chance she would have to face her mentor again, so she wanted to understand all of her power. The idea of finding "more power than she expected" was quite attractive.

"..."

But when she threw this stone, it flew with standard speed and inertia before falling into the water.

It was exactly what she expected.

It had none of the speed from the night before and she gained nothing from it. So…

"What was that the other night?"

"Hm? What is it, Mei?"

"Ah."

She turned around and saw the other two girls tilting their heads.

She realized they were worried about her, so she decided not to hide it.

"Um? I threw a broken piece of a Trion Soldier during the battle the other night, remember?"

"Right, right."

The large two nodded to urge her on, which made them jiggle. Kh! she thought as anger filled her heart, but she decided to stay positive, took a breath, and opened her mouth.

"I threw that piece faster than even I expected, so I was trying to figure out the exact timing I used. If I knew, it would help me grow stronger. I know I was using Shikifuku, but that still used my base physical abilities."

She could not exactly say she was worried about her strength, but the large two exchanged a glance and Haya spoke first.

"You probably won't know unless you try to throw it with all your might while in a similar state of mind."

"And wouldn't it be dangerous if you did do it here?"

"You're right about that."

Mei could only smile bitterly, but Nono continued.

"I do remember one pretty amazing throw, from the video sent to some of us, but I didn't realize you didn't know the trick to it."

.

That throw looked fast to Nono too?

That meant she was not just imagining things.

Mei questioned it while suppressing her new impatient desire to learn what that throw had been.

"My mind was still wavering, so I should have been weaker than normal. And I've never thrown anything like that before."

"It was just a random chunk of a Neighbor, so I doubt how you were holding it mattered much. Was there some trick to the swing?"

"Hmm."

The three of them tilted their heads and Mei's bitter smile grew.

"Well, this isn't really the time, so I can think about it more later."

She had definitely pulled off an unusually fast throw.

She only had to investigate it and pursue the answer without rushing things or disturbing her thoughts.

If she could obtain that same kind of speed...

"It would be a powerful weapon for me."

No one responded to that, but the other two girls did look toward her.

After a while, they smiled and said "right".

Haya sat on one of the stretched out swords and Nono spread out her arms to lift up and sit on the edge like a bench. Nono looked up at the sky visible between the roof and stretched a little.

"Things are pretty weird right now, aren't they? Especially for people like you, Mei."

"The two of you are pretty close. Did you grow up together?"

"No, we didn't. But even if we had, we didn't get along that well."

...Eh? Should you really be telling her that?

Mei turned toward Nono and the Yuba Squad Operator waved toward her so Haya wouldn't notice.

She was saying not to worry about it and she smiled while staring into the sky and continuing.

"Telling this kind of story is nice every once in a while."

.

"It happened after Mei became part of that one troublesome squad," explained Nono.

...A lot happened even back then.

Mei wondered if Nono was remembering the same kind of thing.

"Mei - Fuji at the time - and I didn't get along too well back then, but we started living near each other at some point. She had lowered herself, so we were in the same class too. Neither of us would talk to each other and we lived completely separately despite being neighbors, almost."

"Oh, my." Haya brought a troubled hand to her cheek. "Then how did you start to get along so well?"

She knows how to listen to a story, thought Mei while also wondering if Nono should really tell the rest of the story. She could have spoken up, but Nono seemed to be having fun with storytelling, so she kept quiet.

Regardless, Nono kicked at the water to turn her body so she faced Haya.

Nono gave Mei a look, so she gently moved through the water to approach the other two. Haya slid her butt along Shikifuku's blade and nodded her way, but...

...I'll beat all of Ōji Squad if they ever mistreat Haya.

Mei smiled bitterly and only rested her elbows on the board.

Was she being a coward to think it was wrong for a composed and disturbed girl to sit right next to each other?

Still, she was close enough to sense the girl's body heat. It felt ticklish. It must have been the same for Haya because she let her hair soak in the sun and warm her up.

Nono pulled the other Shikifuku in and grabbed some biscotti from the plate.

"Right. Anyway, we continued our silence for a while, but it was a stressful enough life that our minds were going against us. Mei can be stubborn," she said with a wink toward Mei. "So she took everything too seriously and we tried to completely ignore each other."

Mei remembered it. It had been during middle school when she had been pretty uncertain about a few things. Seeing Nono back then had given her a certain thought.

We'll eventually break apart.

She had thought she was correct and mature to see it that way.

"But for public events and other things, we had to make sure we were separated, right? So one day I was eating dinner at Kirikari's place... Oh, we were ignoring each other, but we'd made a tacit agreement to take turns eating at his place, because, damn, that place has some great food. Anyway, it was my turn that day and just when I was going to leave, Kirikari, who was working there that day, said 'take this' and gave me a few tangerines."

Nono made a large circle with her hands.

"The pack was too much for one person to eat and I was thinking it was about time I tried to grow up, so I went over to Mei's place and waited for her. Her parents tended to go on adventures, and she didn't think it was logical to go with her cousins, so I really had to wait. And then when she got there..."

"Yes?" urged Haya.

"Right." Nono scratched at her head. "At first, she tried to protest, but when I asked her if she wanted to take some of them, she suddenly got a look. When I asked her why, she said it was her brithday. Apparently, her family used to always give her tangerines to celebrate her birthday."

And...

"Each year, she would eat some tangerines on her own at Red Lightning, but she hadn't been able to this year since it was my turn. She could have waited until the next day, but she felt celebrating her own birthday both alone and a day late would just be too sad. But then I asked her if she wanted to eat some of the tangerines. I apparently reminded her of old times and, yeah. After she told me all that and apologized again and again while groaning, I looked and her and, well..."

Yeah.

"It really turned me on."

Th-that's how you're telling the story!? And when I'm right in front of you!

Nono waved a hand to say not to worry about it, but it was possible she just had no sense of morals in that regard. To be fair, Mei knew that she simply inexperienced when it came to people at the time, so it felt rather nice for her as well.

"Anyway," she said with a smile. "I ended up pushing her into the house and didn't stop until I'd had my fill."

Should you really tell her that? wondered Mei as she glanced over at Haya. The girl was a doujin artist like Suzume, so she must have quickly grasped what that all meant.

Haya however nodded a few times and smiled.

"Eating those tangerines and barging in is bad manners, but it sounds fun. It's like something a delinquent would do."

"Haya, you're just plain amazing!"

How did she reach that conclusion!? Why can't Suzume be like that!?

A small chill ran down Mei spine, but the source of the chill calmly smiled and spoke.

"There sure are a lot of ways for people to get along. I still have a bit about all of you. I know some things, but apparently some of you have more to your backstory than I had thought."

Haya turned her smile toward Mei.

She was really close, neither of them had anything to hide themselves with, and the water had mostly fallen from their skin.

That gave Mei a good view of Haya's body.

.

"..."

Staring at someone's body was rude, but it was hard to look at Haya without also looking at her skin and it seemed to shine in the dampness of the water. Mei had found it strange that her had started to think of her own body upon being beaten by her mentor, this was just an extension of that.

But how others see themselves?

Mei felt like the time it took for her to grow closer to Haya had been too long. But they had become classmates and friends just like Nono and she had and like everyone else in the class had.

But, she thought. That boy who wanted to pursue himself was almost always involved for the rest of us.

He was nearby now too, but would he help here?

Would she end up using his help to build herself back up alongside these two?

"Is something the matter, Mei?"

"Oh, I think Mei saw her mentor in your breasts. Yeah, that's gotta be it."

"Th-that is not it."

As soon as she said that, her mentor appeared on the right-side edge of the open air bath that led to the house.

Mei looked up in surprise and saw her mentor remove her shirt with a smile.

"Well ain't that some shit. Fuji, don't tell me you're jealous of my body."

"Oh!"

Nono looked up and saw Mei's mentor stroking her body and narrowing her eyes toward her student.

"Heh heh. Fuji, what do you think? I've still got it, don't I?"

Sh-she's provoking me again!

Then her mentor vanished. It can'' be, she thought, but the woman's red hair was indeed already inside the bath.

She had entered the water silently.

What was that!?

There was no splash, but nothing strange had happened. Her initial velocity had been high, but she had slowed down just before arriving. It was likely a method of shifting her center of gravity.

But once the woman sank into the spring, she lifted the water with her body and stood up as if carrying it. She then looked down at Mei's hands and feet.

"Fuji, you had both a manicure and a pedicure done? But when I did that for you, you said it felt too hot and refused to ever have it done again."

"I-it helps me fight."

"I get it. Then do you want to know how to make a really good one?"

"Oh," said Nono with a nod of understanding. She held Shikifuku out toward the mentor to offer her some food. "I know that one. You need a careful hand and to make sure your tools are the best you have, right? Then you should have someone you really trust who knows what they're doing."

"Right. I use my younger brother for that shit."

She stared at her pearly white nails and lightly licked them.

Haya gave an admiring sigh, nodded, and looked to the mentor's nails.

"A family like yours have a lot of secrets like that, don't they?"

"If we have time while traveling, I can teach you how to do it. I'll make sure one of these two sends you the instructions."

"Um, but Kushikage?"

"What is it, Fuji? Not even the family of soldiers and secrets has a way to make breasts grow. I'm sorry your chest took after your father so much, though. Must make you feel like shit."

"W-wait. Can you stop making things up!?"

Mei put up her guard which caused Shikifuku to shake. Haya grabbed the hilt on the other end to keep her balance and her shoulders were shaking. The term "family shame" filled Mei's mind and she blushed.

However…

"Oh?"

Her question came from the left, on the opposite end of the bath from the house.

"I hear the doors parting! Is someone peeping!?"

She held Shikifuku to stand up straight while the others gasped. Nono also gave a cheer, wrapped herself in her arms, and sank into the water. Haya said "oh, my" and only hid her chest.

Wh-why do they seem so calm!?

However, her mentor was the last one to react. She placed her hands on her cheeks and wiggled back and forth.

"Oh, noooo! A peeping tom!? How embarrassing!"

C-curse this mentor of mine!

The fact that her mentor had the looks to pull off something like that annoyed her all the more even if she was from her boyfriend's family.

She considered sending a mail to her family, but she remembered how tolerant they could be and that they liked how her mentor would get so excited. Simply put, her only choice was to bear with it.

Wait. Am I the only one losing out in this shared family thing? she wondered, but she decided not to think about it too much. At any rate, her mentor was too busy pretending to be a young girl to be any use, so she would have to deal with this threat herself. She grabbed the empty plate from Shikifuku and turned to face the left edge.

"Quit peeping and show yourself, Jin!"

She received an immediate response from the house on the right edge behind her.

"That's what I'm talking about, Mei! We've got permission to look now!"

She heard the idiot's voice and the sound of parting door.

Eh?

Unexpectedly, they both came from behind her and she did indeed see the two boys when she turned around.

"Oh, Inukai?" said Haya. "Are you here for a bath, too?"

Mei screamed.

.

As the scream stretched into the sky, Inukai held back the idiot.

"Nwoooh, Jin-san! Mei-san is in there, so you can't look! You can't! Yuki will kill me! That's not even mentioning Nono and Kittaka!"

"Eh? Inukai, I don't mind."

Hearing Kittaka say that with her hands on her cheeks was enough to send his excitement rocketing upwards, but he also sensed Mei's presence covering her body with her arms and submerging herself up to her chin.

Inukai soon finished tying the elite agent to a nearby support beam.

"Now, then."

"Wait, wait, wait, wait. Hey, you're in the way! Completely in the way! I can't see down there! I can't see!"

I would love to look too, but only if I could get Oshiro in there with them, he silently agreed while keeping his back to the bath and blocking Jin's view. The elite agent's expression was one of pure despair.

"Kh… A-all I want to do is see some naked girls!"

"That's a hell of an expression for only wanting to see something. You should really stop that, though. You're starting to sound like Jinsei."


"Now, then."

A voice rang through the pathway.

The pathway was old and large. The walls and ceiling were made of hardened stone materials, but the floor was covered with packed-down mud.

The people walking through it looked miniscule. They formed a group of about twenty, but they would have had more than enough space to walk abreast and the ceiling was far above their heads.

The group produced mechanical noises as they moved and several noises surrounded the Sniper Captain of the group.

That was Suzaku. He was fully-equipped, including his headset and tablet.

"Look at this..."

His first words echoed from the ceiling and walls.

"It's the same composition as the areas Mogami had been digging up. But it's a little older than that."

"Are you sure it isn't just in poorer shape?" asked Toby.

Suzaku nodded and sent the data to all of their them via their Triggers.

"It's true the area was being preserved and this place has definitely seen better days. I think the crust temporarily sank down on one side and the material from the city poured in. But even accounting for that, I'm guessing this is about four or so years older than the area Mogami dug through."

Secretary: "That connects the history of Border in general, doesn't it? The first large-scale invasion was the first instance of people truly seeing Neighbors, but they had been coming through before been that. This place was probably built on their way to the rest of the city."

"But isn't this a lot bigger than those ones?" Jinsei looked up at the ceiling as he walked alongside Kon at the center of the group. "Hey, Amatori-kun, how much longer until we reach those guys?"

"Oh, right. To reach them...we need to go through the entrance down this way."

"Entrance?" asked Takehsi who was walking close enough to protect her. "But I see the sky back there."

"It's tilted."

"That's true," confirmed Chisato who wore a summer version of Ikoma Squad's uniform with her normal hood turned red. "That must lead to the main hall. The mud forms a slope leading up to that, so we can see the blue sky through the hall's broken ceiling."

Ortlinde: "Can we get any help from the surface group?"


Secretary: "We can help with your location. Based on the map Pyrínas-san gave us, that is indeed the main hall up ahead. Then you head down to the second main hall. Behind that, you should find a minor hall. ...Pyrínas-san was pointing us to that minor hall within a safe area, but the two Neighbors should be waiting in the main hall along the way."

They're so lucky, thought Akashi in the clearing by the area's space.

He had really wanted to see the Neighbors up close, but preserving the exit was an important job.

The exit was a large space located alongside a sewage drain that was no longer in use.

"This underground sure is big since they have to accommodate something large."

Ortlinde: "The Forbidden Zone is large as well. Most Neighbors have difficulty getting out of it, so the dug up places have been made for humans. At the time this was built, I imagine accommodating large Neighbors was common practice."

Kashio responded to Chisato while he worked at making sure the surrounding area was clear.

Kasio: "In that case, I can see why they remained on the surface afterwards. ...The bigger you build something, the harder it is to keep it from falling apart."

Iko: "It's also possible the people not knowing what was happening destroyed this place to keep the Neighbors away."

Those are some decent ideas, thought Akashi. I''l use them in my next novel. But this really doesn't feel like we're even in Mikado City anymore. It feels more like...

Interrupting his thoughts, Akasora spoke up while waiting for someone to finish the making the food.

"Good, good. The real fun of a study camp or class trip is to give some serious thought to the places you visit, so make sure you give it enough thought to write a report once we get back."

Being a student sure keeps you busy, sighed Akashi before he asked a question.

Secretary: "How are things down there?"

Kuru-ma: "Oh, right. ...Yuki just took off running."

Secretary: "Huh?"

Hold on, thought Akashi.

Secretary: "While investigating his surroundings, I hope! What in the world is he doing!?"

He soon had his answer. And from Yuki himself.

White Fox: "Chaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrge!"

"..."

Black Wolf: "I refuse to be criticized for that guy's sudden spurt of idiocy."

Honest Sister: "Heh heh heh. Don't worry, Kō-senpai. This honestly just happens with those who add Kiyome into their set."


Pórta was bathing in the sunlight entering through the hall's open ceiling.

Even as an Autonomous Trion Soldier, he enjoyed things that Miden had to offer. The only thing he disliked was the way he had needed to store and accumulate more trion when no one was looking. But that is not too different from eating, he thought.

Of course, that might have been a higher being overlooking the hardships of lower being. However...

...I'm so sleepy.

The sunlight was the real problem. The sun was especially dangerous.

As a Trion Soldier who had his own thoughts, he had learned the wonderful feeling of warming up in the sun while doing nothing in particular. When he warmed his body, it felt as if he was a celestial being who could ascend at any moment. His core, the object containing his entire being, warmed up as well.

When this sort of thing happened, his entire body would grow lethargic. And that made him sleepy.

Simply put, the summer sun made him sleepy.

Othóni is down below, but…oh, well.

I think I'll take a nap, he thought.

Just then, he heard a sound. It echoed through the underground, so it was impossible to miss. The underground were built to accommodate large Trion Soldier and other large lifeforms. His hearing had been fading lately, but that made him all the more sensitive to out-of-place noises.

"Oh, fine then. I guess we're starting the first and last showing of us older models."

Pórta hunkered down.

He positioned himself to protect the entrance leading deeper underground and he looked forward. He directly faced the hall's entrance.

"I believe people here would call our appearance dragon-like. Fine. We'll go with that then."

There was an upward slope on the other side of that entrance. It was left over after he dug through the mud piled-up and blocking the entrance. As for why had he not cleared out all of the mud…

Othóni takes everything so seriously…

The other Trion Soldier had insisted it remain in case pursuers or attackers showed up.

There had indeed been a time when they had been hunted like that.

.

...That was a few years ago, wasn't it?

That was long ago when they had been first created in a world so different from this current one. Their original models had been different and much smaller than their current form would suggest. In a way, it had been like they were just children.

Their original models had been made to sweet across different worlds. But after the great migration, there had been people who had managed to keep up with them by using the same technology they had been made up of.

Pórta and his generation of models had joined once they had been ungraded and both sides had reached a new point.

Would a Trion Soldier or a living creature inherit a nation who would unite both sides? A conclusion had eventually been reached.

In the end, the people had liberated themselves. While most of the Trion Soldiers had retreated or self destructed, Pórta and the others had occupied their own nation and resisted from there.

But not too long ago, for Trion Soldiers, they had been defeated and forced to retreat.

However, they had heard something during those battles.

It related to an earlier time. While the Trion Soldiers had expanded the battle lines and conquered more territory, the maker of them all had been defeated behind their backs. And it had been done by a group of unknown people.

Those one-off groups were composed of people summoned to ensure the Neighborhood remained as is or to resolve an issue that involved nations at a distance.

Who gathered them? Who were the ones gathered? No one knew. But Pórta and his group had refused to believe such a thing existed as they conquered the one of the more mild nations.

And some years ago, they had heard of a certain plan.

It was a plan for a mass invasion in a certain nation.

It was said to be one that would destroy a nation and leave no one behind.

Othóni had feared they would be blamed for the attack.

But that curious flying Trion Soldier had looked into it and discovered a certain fact.

Namely, nothing at all had happened in the specified nation. And the people had been busy with the creation of something that no one had particularly cared.

But that night, they had been attacked.

Their enemies had definitely been people, but those people ha used strange Triggers.

The Trion Soldiers had halved the number of enemies, but over the course of a few hours, they had taken even more damage themselves. So before dawn, the nearly-devastated surrounding soldiers had decided to retreat.

Pórta and his group had done the same for their own reasons, but their pride had not let them flee back to their own nation. They had instead split up to the east and west.

By that point, Othóni and the rest were fed up with a combat-oriented life. It had helped that the more secluded people had worshipped them as gods.

But they had realized something after they began living here. Namely—

"Whoops."

The enemy had arrived. At first, it was just one human running straight down the slope at the front entrance.

There were others behind him, but just the one warrior boy took the lead.

Seriously? Is he dumb?

A downward slope pushed your balance downwards and made it hard to move to the side.

"Fine! I am the 'white' one! Name's Pórta! Let's fight!"

If he fired a cannon here, he was toast.

So he did.

.

Yuki recognized the soldier's movements. He had seen this plenty of times before. Yes…

When soldier's breathe their beams, they fire it after a count of three.

Manager: "Hey, idiot, we still haven't reached the top of the slope. Are you okay!?"

White Fox: "I am fine! I mastered trion cannon timing last night. They fire after a count of three."

It fired after a count of two.

.

Suzaku saw the trion cannon launch out like a rod stretching forward.

The downward slope was torn through and destroyed. It hit almost directly to his left. That was the center of the slope.

I'm glad I was in charge of protecting the right side of the pathway!

With that earnest thought, he checked on the damage. After all, a trion cannon had scored a direct hit where Yuki was. There was only one possible result:

"Ooooooooohhhh! He was fried…!"

"You sure are enjoying this!"

He had evidence to argue against their complaint: he saw something white in the broken center of the slope.

They were…

"…Bones?"

"Not bones. Neighbors pieces," clarified Chisato as she calmly walked up behind Suzaku. She lightly kicked the dirt slope with the sole of her foot. "Even if the underground had slanted, I thought it was strange that the mud had piled up into a hill like this. ...This must be a Neighbor graveyard. I don't know if it was when they were still active or after defeat, but I'm guessing this one Neighbor and the other are are the ones to make this graveyard."

"But," continued Ninomiya while running down the right side of the slope. He faced forward and frowned while speeding up. "Why isn't that faker dead? He dodged it by running straight ahead with as much speed as he could muster. Tch. Looks like he's trying to go back to how he once was."

Up ahead of Ninomiya, Yuki was running with his hair fluttering behind him. He would reach the center of the hall in no time like this.

"He's alive...!" said Suzaku when he saw the boy.

"You'd really killed him off in your head, hadn't you!?"

The others' voices were answered by Yuki's voice from up ahead.

"To battle!"

.

Pórta prepared himself as Miden's warrior raised his voice and poured on even more speed.

...How is he going to do this!?

He saw him crouch down.

A moment later, he accelerated even more. He had used his Trigger as a sort of extension to launch himself toward him.

He closed the gap between them. However...

...Not yet!

He had not yet reached the range of his Trigger's cutting power. So...

...How about I take him out with a blow from beyond that range!?

He had yet to fully charge up a second cannon blast.

So he just had to make a swift attack from outside the enemy's range.

A punch was more than enough to kill any human.

So that was what he did. He pulled his head back to adjust the distance between them, and...

"Hh..."

He inhaled in order to launch his right arm out.

Just then, he saw the enemy use his Trigger's extension to launch the tip toward him.

It was still too distant to cut, but there was something on top of the extended Trigger tip.

"Acceleration Trigger: Racing Words. Good, it's working properly. ...Ninomiya Masataka has arrived."

.

Ninomiya accelerated.

His acceleration Trigger, Racing Words, accelerated in pursuit of a target object. It had been a modified version of Kiyome that had been quickly worked on by the youngest Taiyōko siblings. It was a Trigger meant for those who would not normally be able to keep up with others.

So he had pursued the Yagura Branch Representative and remained behind the boy's back.

And now I'm accelerating toward Idōgetsu's tip!

The two of them had not prepared this in advance.

Ninomiya had simply chased after the boy, thinking he might be able to help out somehow, and he had found a chance to move out ahead.

So he had done so.

He could not intimately exchange support with this boy since they would always be at each other's throats. It was just that this boy's original talent had been in racing forward, which created far too many openings. He cursed when he remembered when his enemy had changed from speed to teleportation. So…

"There is something severely wrong when I have no choice but to lend a hand like this."

The faker had probably only launched Idōgetsu's tip forward as a feint. And he probably had not given much thought to what he would do afterwards.

That left Ninomiya no choice but to move in ahead of him.

"Hound…!?"

He fired the multi-bullet Trigger. But in that very moment...

Is he going to shoot…!?

Pórta rethought his counterattack and used a Neighbor cannon instead.

.

Yuki saw Ninomiya riding atop his Trigger's tip.

When did he get there!?

Get the hell off, you damn cosplayer! he thought as he saw the Neighbor breathing out light.

That was a Neighbor cannon. It was a weaker blast since he had just fired one, but it was more than enough to take out Ninomiya and Yuki.

Yuki could try to cancel it out with Idōgetsu, but Ninomiya was in the way on the tip.

If he activated Senkū now, Ninomiya would be cut.

That wouldn't be so bad, thought Yuki. But I doubt anyone would like it.

But he calmed himself down and continued that thought.

But I know this idiot can find a way out of this.

"Idōgetsu! Senkū!"

.

Ninomiya had half-expected the faker's decision, but at the same time…

D-damn him!

That boy had actually done it.

Ninomiya hurriedly reached a hand into the air. An shield was there. Firing Hound had been what prompted Pórta to use his Neighbor cannon. A sudden thought had caused it to be created lower, so he grabbed onto its edge with his free arm.

After floating up a bit, the shield lowered him back down.

He was safe now and the enemy would be wide open after firing the Neighbor cannon, but then Ninomiya saw a Trigger tip below his feet.

"—!?"

Idōgetsu had been quickly pulled back.

There was no point in asking "What are you doing!?" or "Are you trying to kill me!?" The faker had pulled it back to match the timing of the arriving Neighbor cannon.

"Damn him…!"

.

Pórta saw a scattering spray of light between him and his enemy.

It was trion light.

He had seen these bursts of light so many times in the past and they were as beautiful as ever today.

This meant the enemy had endured his cannon, but it also meant he had defended against their attack.

It was just like the past. No, Miden's humanity was even more frightening than that.

Trion Soldiers had no means of strengthening themselves outside of updates and experience, but humanity could endlessly strengthen their weapons and skills.

This was the same. Even those years ago, negating his cannon had been a difficult feat. But now…

"You can do it with a simple Trigger!?"

The light faded and the enemy was there.

They were unharmed. That much he knew. However…

I hit one of them!

Because the smaller boy had pulled back Idōgetsu, Ninomiya Masataka would have been hit by the cannon. Even a light hit would have been a full-body blow. So—

"—!?"

Pórta twisted his body to the left when he felt something as clear as empty air on his right cheek.

A moment later, something pierced through the space his right eye had just vacated.

It was a trion bullet.

Isn't that the same thing that were taking out multiple of the small soldiers last week!?

Then the wind whipped up and Pórta saw something beyond the scattering light. The enemy he thought he had hit was just fine.

This is both a strong point and weak point of humanity.

"You worry for your companions!"

The smaller boy was holding the artillery man, Ninomiya Masataka, in his right arm.

"I hate this guy! Mei would just be pissed if I didn't try and help him at least once!"

And a new cube of trion had appeared over his shoulder. At that size, it had to be a siege-class attack.

It had not separated like before.

It was a single attack meant to destroy him.

"Blast away. ...Meteora."

.

Ninomiya suppressed his emotions.

After all, he really should not have survived that.

Bail Out from this range is not possible. I would be sent back to my real body.

He would have died if he had not made a ridiculous decision when the spear tip had arrived below his feet.

I never thought I would be using Racing Words to pursue the faker.

He had not had time to adjust the homing direction. He had meant to accelerate backwards, but he ended up diving into the boy's chest because the default setting chose the target's center point.

The boy had caught him and light had exploded before his eyes.

"Honestly…"

He had fired toward their opponent's right eye earlier.

Living creatures would react subconsciously to visual information. It appeared that this Neighbor was no different. It had seemed to be modeled after a dragon or a wild animal and this one had noticed and responded to the attack on his eyeball even if he had not consciously understood what it was.

The Neighbor swung his face to the left, which was to the right from his perspective.

That was exactly what Ninomiya had wanted.

Meteora's cluster shot flew toward the center of Pórta's face.

But Ninomiya saw something.

"Fine, then."

With those words, the Neighbor's body blurred. Or so it seemed to Ninomiya. And…

"Too bad."

The cluster shot pierced through Pórta. But it had not hit or harmed him. The Neighbor had disappeared and the projectile had passed right through him.

"Take this."

But a moment later, the Neighbor reappeared and his left foreleg flew quickly toward him.

.

Ninomiya knew it was going to hit them. The Neighbor was going to hit them with all his great strength.

But his decision of what to do was somewhat delayed by a question.

What was that just now!?

Pórta had "left through a door" just as his name implied.

For a moment his mind when to the white fox holding him and the black wolf outside of the entrance. He quickly shook his head of that.

The cluster bullet had passed through him and Ninomiya heard the reverberating noise of it hitting the opposite wall.

He only let the surprise hold for an instant, but that was enough of a delay for the enemy's attack to hit them.

He could not let that happen.

So Ninomiya decided he would at least allow the faker to escape safely.

He turned around to shove the other boy out of the way, but then he noticed something.

The faker's face was covered with a surprised but beaming smile.

"That kind of thing is crazy! And Sensei beat something like that! That's incredible!"

Please don't grab and shake my shoulders…!

While he was shaken back and forth, Ninomiya realized they had completely lost any chance of escaping.

He decided to use Meteora to blow off the other boy's head while Ninomiya himself was killed by the Neighbor's blow.

This boy will be murdered and I will die honorably in battle. That is for the best.

"—!"

But then she saw a means of escape. And…

"Eh?"

It hit.

.

Pórta realized his full-power attack had swished through empty air.

Are you serious!?

He had targeted someone in midair. It was a lot like catching a falling Bado.

It should have been a sure thing. That was why he had gone all out.

But the enemy had just dodged his left foreleg.

They had performed a three-dimensional midair spin and passed over his left shoulder and left wing.

Something had struck the two of them.

And Ninomiya Masataka had caught the Trigger with a strudy shield.

It had launched the two of them out of danger.

"…A laser!?"

He looked over to see a scarf boy standing by the hall;s entrance.

"…Miden has a laser beam user!?"

.

Toby honestly commented on Pórta's words.

"Wow, even the Neighbors know about you…"

"I-I fired that to save people! See? Using those rules, I'm Border's rescue laser beam! How about that!?"

Takeshi pointed forward just in time for Ninomiya and Yuki to crash into the opposite wall.

They heard some cries of surprise and the two boys fell to the ground while tangled together.

Seeing that, everyone fell silent and motionless, except for Suzume who glared at Takeshi.

"What was that about rescuing people?"

"…I really don't think I did anything wrong."

"Then how do you explain this?"

"Well, it's really that wall's fault for being there. Don't you think? I had even managed to dull the laser into an impact instead of an actual attack."

But Toby could not help but ask.

"Um, Take? …Aren't you not supposed to shoot people like that?"

"Eh? It's okay if I'm rescuing people or training. I guess the B-Rank Wars are also good for that."

He set up a breakwater of counterarguments at record speed. But it was something else that mattered here.

"Are you allowed to shoot dragons?"

"Umm, not if they're true living creatures."

"Are you if they aren't true living creatures?"

"Yes. There are no rules saying I can't."

"That dragon is a Neighbor."

The scarf boy immediately fired.

.

Pórta quickly took evasive action.

That was sudden!

He could dodge this. The attack was quite fast, but that was not a problem when he had the strength and reactions of a strong Trion Soldier.

Assuming, that is, this was a straight-line attack.

It was not. The enemy's beam - no, this time it was a large bullet - drew a trail of light that showed its path was bent ever so slightly.

"...Homing!?"

He knew gunner Triggers could apply homing functionality, but if he could add that effect to such a high-speed shot…

"Talk about dangerous…!"

Pórta raised his tail and moved.

He ran.

Instead of guarding the entrance leading underground, he charged at the enemy along an arc from the right.

He had a reason for doing so: the enemy's homing bullet. A high-speed homing shot was an absolutely ridiculous attack, but there was a way of avoiding it: his tail.

Homing Triggers from the Neighborhood worked in one of two ways: dynamic homing that learned the enemy's shape and pursued that, or reactive homing that pursued the enemy's trion source.

A dragon's shape was hard to learn due to their tail, wings, and horns, so reactive homing was generally used against them. That may have been why his current model was the way it was.

That meant he had something to act as a decoy: his long tail.

By extending his tail, the tip would act as a decoy.

The pursuing arrow would be quite literally "tail"-ing him. Then he only had to swing his tail like a whip by the wall. Once the enemy projectile lost sight of its target, it would collide with the wall.

But to do that, he needed enough space to extend his tail.

He had to run. So…

I'll plow right through them!

Pórta ran forward to settle this all at once

His tail was extending and the enemy's bullet turned a forceful corner to pursue.

He moved forward.


"Oh?"

Ōji looked up as he turned from his Kōgetsu at his side by the entrance of the underground. He turned toward Kurauchi.

"Kurauchi, did you just feel a tremor? Like a deep 'thoom'."

"Eh?" Kurauchi looked up. He had been sitting sideways in a chair while checking over everything they had concerning information, so he looked back to what was around him. "Maybe that would be a better sound effect for an artillery Trigger representation."

"No, no. That's not what I meant."

Ōji looked to the wide entrance to the underground. Murakami stood in the center of the entrance with a hand on his chin and a gaze fixated on its depth.

"What's going on?" asked Girikage.

Ōji nodded.

"It sounded like something crashed into the wall."


Toby saw Pórta collide with the wall as if scraping his right side against it.

He had lost his balance while running toward them.

What was that?

It had happened just after he had gotten Takeshi's Hound shot to pursue his tail.

He knew what the Neighbor had been trying to do. He had been trying to use his tail as a decoy to dodge the homing projectile while he charged toward them in an attack. He had combined his defense and his attack into a single fell action.

While running, he had raised his tail straight up but by the wall so that Takeshi's homing bullet would lose sight of him.

And in that very moment…

"Jinsei, Kon."

Suzaku had spoken very quietly.

"Want to…make some ice cream?"

An explosion had followed.

And this funnel-shaped explosion was directed toward the location of Pórta's tail.

It was Takeshi's bullet.

.

Kuruma recalled the past.

...This ie because he is use to his lasers, isn't it!?

Takeshi had always used his laser-like beams to attack, but this time had been been different.

Takeshi had used, what appeared to be, a normal Hound bullet.

So why had it done what it did?

"Did you combine two of the Triggers into a composite bullet only a moment after firing at Ninomiya and Yuki...?"

"Yes." Takeshi nodded toward Pórta whose tail had been blasted upwards by the explosion. "I'm still learning how to use proper bullets. But I had some time right now, so I decided to just making something quickly and see how it turned out. So I made Salamander. If my bullet is thrown off course by any chaff, it will release its full power in the previous direction of movement. ...I guess that just shows how inexperienced I really am at using these kinds of Triggers."

"I see," said everyone who had seen how bad he had been at using normal Triggers.

"That's Take for you. He honestly pulls out all the stops when it comes to slaughtering the enemy."

"I know, Suzu. The same trick won't work twice against the Laser Shooter. ...That's so cool! Makes me want to keep him!"

"If you ask me," said Ikoma, "I wanna know why you've been learning to fight big ass opponents..."

"It's not like..." protested Takeshi. "Why am I being attacked like this?"

Nevertheless, he had been quite effective.

Blasting Pórta's tail upwards had knocked him off balance as he ran, so he crashed into the wall on his right. However…

"Watch out!"

"Right! …Be careful, everyone!"

.

Kuruma though, The enemy made the right decision there.

If he had continued down the center of the hall after his tail was hit, he would not have run into the wall.

But when he lost his balance, he would have been exposed in the center.

"So he intentionally moved to the wall…"

And he crashed into it. That had produced a loud noise and powerful tremor.

But when the Neighbor slowly began moving again, the wall was revealed behind him.

"He barely left a mark on the wall…!"

There was enough destruction to account for an initial hit, but there was no mark from such a large mass colliding with and scraping along the wall.

That meant the enemy had only pretended to hit the wall so hard.

"Here he comes!"

.

Pórta smiled bitterly.

Honestly.

To think he would pretend to run into a wall and take damage.

He would never have even considered such a tactic those years ago.

But this is nice too.

After all, he was the former vanguard now. As such, he had to disguise himself while he fought multiple tough battles with his body continually taking damage. This was a good way of doing that.

"Besides," he said as he moved.

He slammed his right side into the wall, used the rebound to move left, and charged toward the enemy group.

"I remember now…!"

He had a single target.

"There's a laser here...!"

.

The Neighbor's charge drew a shallow arc as it targeted Takeshi.

"Eh!? Wh-why me!?"

"Did you forget you're the one who blasted him just now!?"

"Th-that's true, but he just said something about remembering something…"

They did not know what had happened to him in the past, but they all rushed to react in time.

Oki moved out first.

Ibis was quickly formed in his hand and pulled upwards to fire at Pórta's face.

"You ready, Kōji!?"

"Maybe a little warning next time, but let's see if we can get a hit!"

He fired at him and hit. Or he should have.

Instead, the shot passed right through him.

The longer and stronger shot passed through Pórta's face and out his back.

He did not hit.

Just like before, he briefly vanished and let the attack pass through him. But someone immediately reacted to this fact. Near the entrance leading underground, Ninomiya kneeled with Asteroid at the ready.

"How about this!?"

He fired the Trigger down to spray artillery fire from Pórta's head down to his hips.

He fired a total of eight cluster shots at slightly different heights.

The Neighbor would collide with the others just as those were arriving.

.

Did it work!?

Ninomiya ignored the the faker who was dizzy and sprawled out on the floor next to him.

Ninomiya also felt a little dizzy after Kotowari's "rescue", but the battle was not going to wait around for them.

This battle has some pretty harsh ups and downs.

With that thought, his eight cluster shots definitely pierced Pórta.

This was not meant to defeat him.

It was meant to keep him from hitting his companions.

He did not at all understand how the Neighbor's defense worked, but it negated their attacks.

So if he kept firing on him in the instant he collided with the others…

"He shouldn't be able to hit them!"

With that, the Neighbor reached the others.

.

Takeshi saw the Neighbor's leg sweep toward them.

It hit, but he heard nothing and felt no wind or shaking.

He vanished!?

It happened again. Pórta vanished.

And the wind passed between him and the others.

Or was it better to say it passed through them? The enemy's physical form had vanished and they were unharmed. Overhead, Ninomiya's cluster bullets solidly hit the wall.

What is this?

The charging Neighbor had "vanished". Most likely, that was to avoid Ninomiya's attacks.

That had saved them. However…

"Toby! Takeshi!"

Just as Suzume yelled their names, three things happened.

First, Toby slammed an extended Scorpion to the right.

Second, Kon grabbed Takeshi from behind and forced him to the ground.

"Kirikari-senpai!?"

And third, the crossdresser ran out in front of him. There was a light tremor in his back.

What!?

Takeshi did not understand, so he tried to escape Kon's grasp and get back up. But Kon…

"…These feel a lot nicer in the hands than I expected."

"Did Senpai infect you!? She did, didn't she!?"

But Takeshi saw the idiot look back as he stood protectively in front of them. The crossdresser faced him as he struggled to stand up.

He's okay, he thought. He isn't hurt. But…

"Is that all?"

With that announcement, the black Neighbor reappeared in the center of the hall. And in that moment…

"Jinsei!"

Toby called out to the crossdresser just as he was split.

His blonde wig was audibly sliced diagonally in half and the line of the cut extended down to his shoulder.

"Ohh."

The diagonal red line on his shoulder reached his upper arm as well.

He was injured. But that was not all. The same thing happened to Kon's left arm as she held Takeshi from behind.

"Oh, dear."

It split. No, it was torn. It was like stabbing a knife diagonally into a narrow fruit.

Don't tell me…

A green gas flowed from her arm. As for his arm…

"…!"

Blood sprayed out.

.

Suzume saw two movements.

The first was Toby raising his eyebrows and moving in front of the foolish crossdresser.

The second came from Takeshi who remained silent.

"…"

First, he quickly wrapped his jacket around Kon's arm. With her being in a trion body, he just needed to stop the trion form leaking out.

Kon gave Takeshi a calm look.

"…Thank you very much."

"You're the one that saved me."

Takeshi's eyebrows were somewhat raised and Suzume just about laughed when she saw it.

Honestly.

Kon was clearly intimidated by Takeshi. Now that Kon understood their situation a bit better, Takeshi's emotion reached her far too directly.

But Kon must have been confused by her own anger when Takeshi was also thanking her.

We have an excellent friend, thought Suzume. Her thoughts deepened: I'm honestly glad we have a friend who can demonstrate that contradictory combination of conscience and sacrifice that is in the gap between what one should do and what one must do.

"...Takeshi."

"Yes?"

"I see you didn't honestly panic."

"…I've grown."

Takeshi must have felt that short response was not enough because he clarified.

"I've decided to wipe away my previous 'normal' where I would be the one attacking others. I decided that when I made my first three friends yesterday."

.

"Really?" asked Suzume. "So you're honestly not going to put on an adorable show that makes others say, "Oh, I didn't realize you had that vulnerable side. How cute!' You don't want to be as cute as me with my fear of ghosts!? The way I honestly faint is super popular and oh so cute! Thud!"

"…Senpai, your eyes roll back in your head when you faint. Can you really call that cute?"

"You said it! You honestly said it, didn't you!? The whites of my eyes are cute! They're clean! A freshly cleaned white!"

Meanwhile, Kimura finally caught up from behind and she did not try to hide how out of breath she was.

"Um, what's going-…whoa, whoa, there's a dragon there! And Kirikari, did you stop crossdre-…no, you didn't! You just took off your wig! And your arm is bleeding…? Why weren't you in a trion body!? Wait, something happened to Kon too!?"

"Do we really have to explain everything just because you arrived late?"

"Could you sum it all up for me?"

"We were just having a little fun is all."

Takeshi looked to the foolish crossdresser's arm. The blood was flowing out and dripping down, but Takeshi sighed.

"...If we hold it in place tightly enough it won't be an issue later on, so don't work it too hard, okay?"

"Eh? I can't work my arm too hard?"

"…I didn't mean like that!"

When Takeshi said that, Suzume and everyone else fell silent.

After a while, a look of realization reached Takeshi's face.

"A-and by 'like that; I mean day-to-day activities! Yes, ordinary day-to-day activities..."

Fried Rice Queen: "Wouldn;t that be a day-to-day activity for guys? Well, more like three times a day."

Bullet Idiot: "There's really no other way to explain how well doujinshis sell, is there?"

Izumo: "Not again! You're trying to blame everything on me again, aren't you!?"

Kasio: "Everything? What do you mean by everything?"

Iko: "Ya don't understand? Ya have 'everything' when ya open up the memories submenu and can see all of the icons."

Ortlinde: "It would seem some animals live in a different world from the rest of us..."

Okay: "I see we're gonna ignore the fact that Kotowari-kun's name has changed. Got it."

Regardless, Takeshi wrapped his scarf around the foolish crossdresser's arm.

His elbow dug into his chest while he did so, but he was too focused on wrapping to notice. And he simply stared at his hands working at his arm.

While finishing it up, Takeshi spoke quietly.

"Toby."

"Yeah, I know. …I thought I had intercepted them, but he made it through to one of us."

Kon stood up and faced Toby.

"Awdry-kun. I don't fully understand…but it is because you fought back that Jinsei and I are alive."

"It's true I managed to intercept the guy. I believe I had a definite lock on him during that invisible charge. But..."

But…

"People like me are ashamed if we allow other people to be harmed even sightly. Especially with Yuki over there. I'll take full responsibility here."

"Toby." Suzume spoke with an "I might as well" tone. "Take was able to wrap up the foolish crossdresser - seriously, turn on your Trigger already, idiot - and help Yuka-san because you positioned yourself in front of them. So this result was thanks to the cooperation between you and everyone else, myself honestly included. So what are you going to do form now on? None of us is thinking about this silly responsibility game. And you should honestly be thinking about it least of all. Do you know what I mean? If so, then raise your tail and charge at your prey! Go!"

"I tried silently listening, but that just kept getting worse and worse…!"

But Toby faced away from Jinsei.

"I understand. …When I need to protect, I am a guarding child. When I need to attack, I am a charging wolf. And right now I need to attack and finish off this enemy."

He took a breath and brought out his blades. The two blades were held outwards.

"You guys."

"Eh? What is it?"

The child answered the group.

"Feel free to order me to eliminate any burden I'm causing you all."

.

Toby took a breath.

He had sensed some kind of powerful presence during the Neighbor's invisible charge. And it had felt like the presence moved away when he launched an attack in that direction. However…

He has a slicing power.

Given that, Jinsei and Yuka had been right to protect Takeshi.

Suzume and Jinsei must have sensed a "gap". Their entertainer's instincts told them an attack should have come their way but did not, so they decided it must be headed toward Takeshi instead.

Toby guessed Yuka had acted on Jinsei's instructions, so…

This was another form of cooperation.

And that thought was accompanied by a voice reaching his ears.

"Toby."

"Yeah."

"Can I ask for anything?"

""Sure!" he agreed.

Ōji: "He'll be asking for his body, then…"

Kura-uchi: "Yeah. He even said this was the time to attack."

Lobo: "What are you people talking about!?"

"Then," said the idiot from behind him. "When I want some extra help in the kitchen, can you come over and put on this nice apron? Oh, but there's a strict no dress code over there, so make sure you're ready to at least show your ass for everyone to see."

A stir ran through everyone except for Takeshi and Suzume.

.

Lobo: "W-wait!"

Almost Everyone: "Oh, we're waiting. …Now, go ahead!"

Ortlinde: "Does this mean the guy was hit in the arm because he was distracted by the Kotowari Squad Attacker's ass?"

Kuru-ma: "Oh, oh? Awdry-kun, you should be just a bit more mindful of others. We know how much you like to move."

Lobo: "Mr. Tatsuya!? I-I wouldn't show a-a-a-a-a-nyone! That kind of thing!"

Manager: "But, Awdry, you tend to always get up close with people like that."

.

Takeshi thought to himself as he watched Toby prostrate himself before everyone with his fingers perfectly aligned.

...Th-that was a close one. I need to make sure any damage doesn't spread to me.

After all, he had learned that he would tend to get close to his opponents too.

Of course, that was only because he had fallen into that sort of habit without noticing until having it pointed out to him. But then Kon spoke up without warning.

"Kotowari-kun."

"Wh-what is it...?"

"You too enjoy getting close to-..."

"Ahhh! I'll fight! I'll fight! I'll head out there to fight alongside Toby!"

Takeshi could feel a dull feeling throughout his body as he looked in Kon's direction.

He sent toby a message containing what they knew about the enemy and what he could predict.

"Toby, Senpai, and I will kick that Neighbor's butt, so just leave it to us!"

.

...They will defeat that dragon Neighbor?

Ninomiya questioned Kotowari's words while preparing to create more bullets.

The neighbor had just finished changing direction and took a light step to face them.

"Kotowari, Awdry, and Misaki...are going to face him?"

Just then, the collapsed faker hopped to his feet.

He waved to the others.

"Listen up, everyone. I'm a pretty poor match for this Neighbor while I don't have Teleport on me...so can I go on ahead?"

...What did he just say!?

But Suzunari's Operator responded to the idiot faker by looking their way and forming a large circle with her arms.

"Good," said the faker.

He then patted Ninomiya's shoulder.

"You can stay here and be useless, idiot cosplayer."

There was so much Ninomiya wanted to say, but he swallowed it all.

He summed it up with a two word.

"Screw you!"

Then it was followed up with another.

"Why!?"

Why would that thought ever occur to him?

Why was he so selfish?

Why did he choose Ninomiya now?

But the boy responded without delay.

"Looks like you also went back a bit with me there. I guess there's no better battle partner for me than someone who wants to kill me as much as I do them."

Ninomiya listened as the boy continued.

"Of course, if I had someone else by my side, I would gain a different advantage from fighting alongside them. …But that is my reason for going with you here, you idiot cosplayer."

.

"—"

He is an idiot, thought Ninomiya as he fell speechless. This faker really is an idiot.

Ninomiya thought of his boyfriend when he saw the faker boy standing at ease in front of him.

...Minoru.

He's gone back to that time a bit. But he's still trying to be the him on now.

And Ninomiya understood something else beyond that. It was something only he and a select few understood.

...He could hold his own against a lot of people.

That boy had once thought of nothing but battle. And that had surfaced once more.

He was taking Ninomiya to the battlefield because he thought that would give him an advantage in combat. He would never even dream of something other than combat happening.

He was completely obsessed with battle.

That must be because of his family. He hates to admit it, but he knew that he enjoys it just as much as they do. It shows when he decides that his enemy should be his partner in battle.

Meanwhile, Minoru and Ninomiya were jointly obsessed with something else entirely. So they looked to each other and had enough mental leeway to clear away every obstacle to that goal.

But this boy was alone.

However, that was only because he lacked someone like Ninomiya in his life.

He was so obsessed with combat and the like that he did not have the mental leeway needed to look at anything else and he had no one to help him out.

Murakami is with Suzunari and Takato takes on different meaning when it comes to these things.

So he had relied on Ninomiya here.

"That is...that is a foolish decision. I am the one person who hates you the most. ...Why would you rely on that?"

Ninomiya turned to face the other way.

He faced the path leading farther underground and started forward.

"Rely on Ninomiya Masataka, not your worst enemy! The latter title is only available when we fight each other!"

.

Pórta turned around.

He was a little out of breath because he had not laid his hands on prey in a long while.

Hunting really was wonderful. His trion core was pounding with delight.

Two of the enemy had just gone to the lower floor. But that did not matter. He could see majority of Miden's forces were still here.

As long as the information gatherers were still here, he still functioned as a barrier.

There was no reason to buy time, but he still watched his opponent's movements. They nodded at each other.

Oh.

And they split up.

Three of them left their ranks: the laser boy, the blade boy, and what appeared to be a dancer.

The one he had cut and the only leaking trion were being guarded by a gunner and another blade user back in the main group.

"I see." Pórta spoke to the three who had opted to appear before him. "A laser user? So you really are haunting us."

.

Eh? thought Takeshi.

...With this and what he said before, what did someone with a laser do to him?

Then Kirikari called out to him from a short distance.

"I bet it was...y'know, that time before when you shot down a bunch of flying ones. Or maybe because you're copying the Banders' attacks."

"All I did was my job. My lasers are best suited for that kind of situation. And I was already using these before we even learned that the Banders existed. If anything, I should be the one complaining about copyright."

"That was a hell of surprise when one fired at us. Some squads freaked out, but we managed to avoid any trouble by knowing how to deal with you."

"Yeah, but it's pretty bad when we're more terrified of dealing with you than we are the Neighbors. Try and keep it to a minimum, okay?"

"Oh, I heard about that," said Pórta. "I was pretty shocked when I learned that other Trion Soldiers could fire lasers. It was pretty embarrassing. I didn't want to go aboveground after that."

"Then I actually helped Mikado City stay safe, didn't I?"

"Why are you smiling?" asked Toby, but Takeshi ignored her. All's well that ends well. Yes.

But he had something to ask Pórta.

"What happened to gain such a reaction?"

"I suppose Miden wouldn't know, all things considered. For us, it happened years ago and then some more after that."

Pórta breathed a glowing mist out of the corners of his mouth.

What is with these people? Will they actually listen to my words instead of attacking me?

They likely wanted more information as to how he and Othóni ended up under their city.

"They were part of a strange unit."

.

Pórta explained.

"Some years ago, our creator, who had even given us the ability of thought, was slain by people. It happened suddenly, but the absence of our creator caused the rest of our army to crumble. Our unification and survival had been going well until then, but after his defeat, we scattered as disparate factions."

This was such a nostalgic story. And...

"Years after that, we had heard of an incident in which 130 boys and girls would vanish from a certain nation in a single night. ...Fearing we would be blamed, we sent out a scout and discovered that no such incident occurred. However..."

Pórta was aware he was practically spitting out the words.

"On that night, we were attacked and out unit was destroyed."

.

Toby and the others looked to Takeshi.

Takeshi realized everyone was focused on him.

"I-it wasn't me! It really wasn't!"

Well, of coooourse it wasn't, thought Toby.

But someone else spoke up: Kimura. She raised her right hand first.

"You're talking about the snowy plains Akasora-san had mentioned before, aren't you? The place where a 'cancer' was created and a hole was dug up. Or at least something similar to that."

"Similar, hm? ...Interesting."

True enough, thought Pórta as he laughed. The Trion Soldiers-

No, I should say what I really am for once and let them decide on what to do after that.

Either way, his breaths shook the hall.

And beyond that shaking, he spoke.

"It is true that, those some years ago, there was a battle in which an entire city vanished in a single night for the creation of something."

"Wait," said Toby. "Were you involved with both incidents...?"

"No, I wasn't." He laughed. "And making people disappear like that sounds more like a True Trion Soldier things than a Crown Trigger thing. ...Of course, we wouldn't attack single individuals. But getting rid of an entire town or city's population without destroying anything else? That'd be easy enough for us."

"You..."

Toby started to utter some kind of rebuke, but Takehsi cut him off.

"So we can view your kind as...malevolent beings, can we?"

I see none of them brought up those key words I just said. Miden's general populace and soldiers must not know about what a Crown Trigger truly is.

"Yes. That's it right there. That presence." Pórta bent back as he spoke. "The group that attacked us later in the years had Triggers we had never seen before. And a man among them used the same term you just did. …And I hear it was the same earlier in the years."

The Crown Trigger raised the corners of his mouth. He showed off all of his fangs.

"It was a group of 130 from some unknown land. But you know what? After a very certain war, when we first came to Miden...we found people using the exact same Triggers."

"—"

"Do you understand now?" asked Pórta. "That force should not have existed in a war like that. I have to wonder if some of those people involved were from this very world we find ourselves in."

.

Kimura quickly sent a transmission.

Manager: "Akashi, can you check-..."

Secretary: "It's no use. Border may have been created four years ago, but we have records of anything before that. None that us normal agents are allowed to see, at least. During the time Border had started out, we were still gaining some ground. Do you know what was happening at that time?"

Du-Sis: "Gathering people. There, all done."

Secretary: "Wh-why must you be like this!? You're only fanning the flames of darkness within me!"

His darkness did not matter.

But Kimura had to ask further.

Manager: "Do we know anything about the time before the first large-scale invasion?"

Secretary: "We know a bit, but not enough to paint the full picture. It seems that there really are things we shouldn't know about."

Wait, thought Kimura.

And she looked to Pórta who looked back at her.

"Well?" asked the Crown Trigger. "The group who were still putting up a resistance at the time were destroyed, fled deep into another nation, and scattered about. But the people from that group were busy preparing for something of their own accord, so do you really think they could have dealt with us? In fact, it was our presence that was keeping them from doing as they pleased and moving out to attack others. They were afraid we would attack them from behind or steal the land they left unguarded. ...We even considered doing just that to regroup our forces."

"Then how were you destroyed?"

"Didn't I tell you? Invasions. ...Each time a similar incident was recorded down, some of our own would be wiped out somewhere."

Pórta laughed without smiling.

"There were also a lot of larger enemies in the group that attacked us. When we looked into it, it seems those were probably remnants of some other nation or heroes that could not hold back from fighting. And at the time, the Trigger user that seemed long-lived pursed them into another nation."

Kimura thought back and came to a realization. There had been a man Futoyuki of the Yagura Branch had spoken about.

"Hatomi!?"


Indeed, thought Othóni in the lower hall as he listened to the exchanged from upstairs.

Whether they were real or fake, the group had existed in each nation.

They had not appeared since that certain war, but Othóni had a guess as to why.

...Most likely, they were a mixed unit from multiple nations, both stringer and weaker one. Either that, or one or the other unit would send in the other.

That was why they left almost no trace and why they not appeared since that certain war.

Othóni thought that about the spirited boy he had met years ago when he had lost so many comrades.

He had been searching for an enemy he had once fought.

"Do you wish to finish them off?"

He had shaken his head at that.

"It's already over."

So...

"I want to ask them to join me."

But they had failed to determine if that person belonged to the group that had attacked them.

After all, they did not know where that group had gone.

They still did not know.

So they had probably scattered after the battle.

Instead of returning to their original home, they would have spread out across the Neighborhood to find a new place for themselves.

By defeating those malevolent beings, they had wiped clean their pasts and their place in the world.

That's a purification.

But what about the ones before and after that?

He did not know.

Both before and after that, those groups had had a certain objective.

Would Othóni be able to get that across to these people?

If possible…

I hope my opponents here are up to the task, he thought.

"Welcome."

He stood up and crouched down on all fours.

Two boys stood at the hall's entrance.

The one in gray wielded a strange polearm and the one in black was followed by a cube of trion.

...Yes.

He had fought people like this long ago.

So he opened his mouth. He bared his fangs and viewed his enemy.

"Push yourselves to the very limit, Mi-... No. Humans. You stand before one of Crown Triggers who once protected something important. ...To ensure you are not conceited enough to think you can save the world when you cannot even defeat a Crown Trigger..."

Yes.

"Push youselves to the limit and prove it is not mere conceit, humans. Face this dragon known as Othóni - the 'black' Crown Trigger!"


Chisato felt a rumbling from the floor below.

And it was not a slow shaking. It was a powerful, vertical tremor.

...Is that...?

She had seen the Falcon up close, so Chisato recognized this.

"That's the sign of a large beast fighting quite fiercely."

"That means Othóni is taking this seriously," said Pórta. "And just so you know, I've sparred with him many times, but not once have I won."

Miden's trion-leaking girl raised her right hand.

"Are you bragging about how weak you are?"

How ill-advised, thought Chisato, but the crossdresse shook his head next to her.

"Hey, Kako-san."

Fried Rice Queen: "I know. …Even when they're both the same sex, people like to compare themselves to the person they have feelings for."

"I see." The trion-leaking girl nodded and then faced Pórta again. "So you love him."

.

Toby saw Pórta attack to the side instead of at him.

"What are you doing!?"

Her natural ability to provoke people is off the chart.

Everyone screamed and ran away, but Amatori remained out in front. She had created multiple blue plates around the area.

The group's speed increased. Meanwhile, someone was targeting the Neighbor who had his back turned toward Toby's group.

"Hit!"

Takeshi fired a thick cluster shot.

.

They don't leave any openings, do they!?

Instead of reacting to the sound of the blast, Pórta took action when he sensed the presence behind him.

They were a troublesome bunch.

The group did not move as a single individual. Many individuals moved as a group.

Their skill at adlibbing was so great that trying to crush the threat before your eyes would only get you attacked from somewhere else.

The most annoying part was how well they cooperated.

When the laser boy fired on him, no one else made a similar attack.

They had been trained to not waste any of their attacks.

But, thought Pórta.

"If I know you're cooperating, I can use that to my advantage…!"

He quickly crouched down and moved his entire body back.

He was confident that the laser boy's cluster shot was not a homing shot.

After all, if a homing shot detonated like the last one had or if he dodged it, the fleeing group would be hit.

His guess proved accurate.

A rapid gust of wind raced by just above his lowered back.

There was no point in looking up to see the cluster shot fly out of the hall and into the sky.

Instead, he turned toward the laser boy's group.

He did not use his legs to turn.

He used his tail.

By swinging his long tail into the underground entrance, he propelled himself around the other way.

He smashed the dirt-covered floor and the Trion Soldier bodies buried within. His four legs drew arcs along the floor.

He was directly facing the laser boy now. He was in his follow-through motion after loosing his cluster. He knew he would not receive a proper form of support if he did not properly follow that form.

But he realized something.

The bladed one is gone…!

In that instant, Pórta's instincts pulled his body back. He ducked his head down and pulled his shoulders back.

Just then, a piercing power dropped right in front of his eyes.

It was the gray wolf.

This could not have come out of nowhere. He must have sent out his blades along with the laser boy's shot.

The hall's ceiling had collapsed, but some of it remained. his blade had seemed to transform into something more akin to a whip and had grabbed onto that and rapidly pulled him up above his head.

Instead of just dropping down, he had launched himself down using the whip-like blade and he held something like a cube.

Inside was the shot fired by the laser boy.

The cube seemed to bounce the shot around within it.

The most frightening part was how the cube had been aimed at his eyes. However...

"I have you now…!"

It was too late to aim a cannon toward the falling enemy. And firing downwards would not sweep away the laser boy and dancer.

So Pórta moved. He got up and sent his left foreleg forward to strike the gray wolf. And…

"—!"

.

Kimura saw it happened while she hurried along the right side of the hall to reach the passageway in the back.

Pórta was to their left. His giant body had just peformed a back dash.

Eh?

It was a light action.

She could not believe that a body so large could move so quickly. But she had also not expected him to move backwards. It reminded her of some previous battles.

Most Neighbors had not been filled with anything and would simply try to crush them.

...I thought Neighbors always moved forward and focused entirely on attack.

This Neighbor was different. When he sensed danger, he would evade, even if that meant falling back. And as a result…

"Kh…!"

As Toby fell, an explosive pressure flew from his arms and toward Pórta.

That was the destructive power of Takeshi's shot.

When it lost its homing lock on them, it would detonate to hit them that way.

Toby had wielded that blast as a weapon.

He had pursued Takeshi's shot and created a shield while using the prototype Trigger Starlight to catch it. He had first used the cube as a bludgeoning weapon. In the best case, that would work. But if it did not, the enemy would think he had dodged the bludgeoning weapon just before it blew up in his face.

That had probably been Toby's plan.

But the enemy had dodged it.

This was not just a raging Neighbor. It was a Neighbor who would do what it took to defeat the enemy.

He was not a mere machine.

And his next actions proved it.

He hunkered down, opened his maw, and directed it toward Toby, Takeshi, and Suzume.

"You know those two who went on down? One of them said he was a poor match for me. …But you know what?"

Pórta laughed.

"He'll be an even poorer match for Othóni. …He's probably learning that the hard way right about now!"

With that, two tremors shook the underground.

The first was a scream of air produced by Pórta's trion cannon.

And the second…

Yuki!

The shaking of battle arrived from the floor below.