When Kimura arrived in the hall, she saw the conclusion of the battle.

A Neighbor was collapsed on the floor and Yuki slowly sank to his knee before him.

It almost looked like he was kneeling in thanks.

Am I starting to think like Akashi?

"Yuki!"

"I'm fine. I will rest for a bit, so go and head out."

When he noticed the smile on Yuki's face, Kimura looked back to the others and nodded.

They had to head back since they had found what they came for.

There were already faint tremors running through he floor.

"You should hurry," said the Neighbor along with a rough breath.

He extended his forelegs, took a crouching pose, and then stood up.

"…You came here to visit underground, didn't you?"

"Yes," confirmed Kimura before asking a question. "Was it just the two of you down here?"

"Not even I know. ...It seems Pórta visited other places in human former, though. Also...everything else here is just rock and earth with only Trion Soldier remnants left."

"Trion Soldier remnants?"

"Yes," said the Neighbor a she unsteadily rose fully to his feet.

Trion light scattered from his entire body like spilling blood.

He was preparing to cease functioning.

His end was nigh, but he still managed to speak.

"As sad as it is to say this, I will feel guilt over not doing anything until now. I had heard a strange group came to visit you all recently. ...I doubt they are the ones from my memories and would have like to have met them. With that being said..." he said. "You should all go. ...Make sure to take a parting gift from us. We don't have much left to give, so we will gladly give you all something important. But know that we are only giving these to the ones who have defeated us proper. So..."

A tremor ran through his body, but he turned to face the other way.

Yuki and Ninomiya were there.

He lowered his head a little and spoke to them.

"You two...can have the core of my being."

"As you wish."

Yuki nodded, stood up, retied his wrappings, and raised his polearm.

"Then we will end you properly."


Tremors shook the entirety of the city.

The shaking could be felt across the lance and Yoshiko looked to the ground near where it was most prevalent.

Multiple silhouettes hurried south on the land.

Most of them were citizens of Mikado City, but there were some who had only been visiting. Yoshiko commented on the direction which had the most tremors.

"It looks like Border had found something interesting in their little search of the underground. I suppose we will be having a day of shaking before we have a day of rest."

"Yoshiko, how do you know that?"

She nodded at the slick haired man next to her.

"If they are causing this much commotion then it means they have prepared. If they already altered everyone to the basics of what they were doing, they won't need to hold any sort of meetings. What's more, they now have our complete backing and even have insurance in the form of Chisato. Although I know what they have found..."

Yoshiko lowered her shoulders.

A city opened up as she opened her eyes once more and looked out upon realizing what she had just said.

She walked toward the city with her eyes still on the ground.

"All I ever do is lose things, Denji."

"You still have me, jeez!"

"Things are always so cheerful with you around."

"That's right, jeez!" agreed the man as more people rushed by.

Yoshiko narrowed her eyes at the sound of them slicing through the wind.

"This is an age of change, Border. This is a good night for drinking. But…"

She looked to the southern sky.

There, the sky still contained some light from the summer afternoon.

"I hope you can realize what it means to deny someone something. I hope you discover the mysteries of those worlds. ...I was unable to delve too deeply into either topic. Even with the assistance of that family."


The tower simply stood there.

"Is it just me or does this thing look really fake?" asked the elite.

The metal tower pierced up into the night. The base was thirty meters across and as for its height…

"I've heard it is five hundred meters tall," said Inukai as he looked around.

They stood on a hill. It gave them an excellent view and a forest and city were located at the bottom of the hill. They had left their car in the forest and spent a few minutes walking the rest of the way.

But there was no defensive wall.

Perhaps to house guards, a few small, decorated buildings were located around the tower and they were all connected by a wall. Another wall surrounded the tower outside those buildings, but neither wall was tall enough to be any defense.

"I see." Inukai crossed his arms and turned to Kushikage who was also looking up at the tower.

"Kushikage-san, does no one have any intention of protecting whatever is in that tower? I can think of no other explanation for sending the someone like you over here."

"I believe the information and facts you already have cover that. Well, guess I can just come clean with this shit after the message we got earlier. There's a Neighbor in there. I don't know when he came over, bit he turned away from attacking anyone. He immersed himself in weird ass shit and was confined to his residence without being properly found out. However..."

Kushikage shrugged.

"From what I've heard, the fucker was all for the move to this tower."

"Really?" asked Oshiro as he stepped up next to Inukai.

He may have been interested because he himself had essentially been imprisoned for a time after his teammate had defected during the second large-scale invasion.

He wrapped his arms around Inukai's arm and asked Kushikage a question.

"Does that Neighbor think they are unwanted?"

.

"That's a good question."

Inukai saw Kushikage narrow her eyes at Oshiro's question.

"I think most everyone has thought that at some point or another. …Of course, that's just a fucked up personal worldview."

Those words pushed Inukai to look at Oshiro.

He seemed to think for a few moments but eventually bent the skin on his cheek and nodded.

"I see. Thank you very much. …That's right. I think both the Neighbor and you are normal people just like us."

"That so?" Kushikage's eyes bent as she smiled toward Oshiro. "I'd say it's especially true of someone like that guy. Border has an entire faction dedicated to taking them out. I personally don't give a rat's ass on the matter, but their personalities are often ignored."

"I can imagine so," said Inukai as he and Oshiro nodded.

...Neighbors like him, huh?

It was strange to hear Kushikage speak the way she was doing now and give no clue to her true intent. Mei and Jin might have known something, but neither one of them spoke up against her at the moment.

There had been some things that were bothersome about the entire situation, but there was something really troubling Inukai.

...In a way, you could say she is calming down since this has nothing to do with her own family.

When it came to that family of soldiers, they seemed to go overboard when it was unnecessary. But that only ever happened when they were with other people who could keep up with them or with family of their own being around.

And because that was the case, he knew he had to bring it up at his own risk.

"Kushikage-san...why have you done everything you have?"

All attention turned to him in an instant, eyes going wide. The only thing keeping him from running was the hold Oshiro had on his arm.

"I don't get why you have caused so much trouble. Especially with what happened when we were having trouble with the sponsors."

There had been so many problems that had been caused due to her interference during that time. there had been issues with the sponsors, issues with the Border agents, issues with the citizens of the city. Those had then led to issues with others. Minoru, Yuki, Mei, Kanzaki, Ninomiya, the 19s, and the directors. Inukai was fairly certain that it had all stemmed from this woman. He had it hammered into him to be nice to others, and he had maintained that, but this woman had always had something about her that caused others to worry or stay clear of her. Something that always brought trouble.

...Everything might have just built up inside of me here.

Oshiro tugged on his arm, so he turned to see what he wanted.

"Sumiharu, you really are a caring person, aren't you? Especially when it involves the people you care for."

...Giving me that impressed look makes it hard to know what to say, Oshiro. I mean, look behind you. Mei-san and Nono are gesturing for me to come over there.

He ignored the gestures, but he did look back and forth between Kushikage and Mei.

"Inukai, you should probably stop while you're ahead here."

"Oh? Have you figure dit out, Fuji?"

The way Mei turned away was a bit worrying, but he kept quiet about that.

"I gave it some emotional thought and figured it out... Jin is ahead of me on that, though."

"I see," said the large woman.

Jin and Mei had their connections more deeply rooted with this woman , so this topic was closely connected to them as well.

Inukai decided not to avoid this kind of topic in the future and to instead discuss it over team with a newspaper in one hand.

"Well, if you know this Neighbor...he might be a complicated individual. By the way, can we get a name for this guy? It would make addressing him easier."

"I guess that wouldn't be too bad. His name is Pyrgos."

Nodding his head, he looked up at the tower and noticed the only windows were on the stairway circling along the outer edge. The very top was solid wall.

"What do you think is going to happen here, Jin-san?"

He looked over but found the Tamakoma elite had vanished. Oh? he wondered as he looked around and spotted him by the entrance to the tower on the surrounding wall.

"Heyyy! Get over here, everyone! They say they'll tell us how to get in!"

"Ahhhhh! Why are you starting this on your own!?"

.

Inukai pulled on Oshiro's hand and walked over.

"This is dangerous territory, so it is too dangerous to act on your own!"

"What!? Acting on my own!? But you do that all the time! Like when you sit in the corner of the room and grin while imagining Oshiro naked."

"Oh, my."

Oshiro placed his hands on his blushing cheek, but the real danger was Fujimaru recording both that and puffing of Oshiro's chest.

"Oshiro?" he said so only he could hear. "Wh-while that may be…a little true, it's, um, inappropriate."

"Eh? Oh, right! I-I suppose it would be. In public at least. Yes."

Now that he had his understanding, he could make a show of denying it.

"I-I don't do that! Isn't that right, Oshiro!"

"Y-yes. Sumiharu would never do something so inappropriate. He has no interest in his boyfriend's body and he always focuses on his own things when I'm changing. Not that I would mind if he looked."

Mei and Fujimaru started gesturing him over.

The Unmatched Woman also said "oh, my" with a hint of warning in her voice.

"What's this shit about not imagining your boyfriend naked?" she asked him. "Listen. When you see your partner, it doesn't matter what they're wearing or if they're in another room. You need to use anything to imagine every inch of their body and your imagination can't fucking stop until you've pictured how you will mess with their bodies, take them into your mouth, and offer yourself up to them. And I'm not talking about later that night; I mean five seconds later."

"W-wait, Kushikage! That's taking this way too far!"

But Oshiro must not have known what the women meant because he tilted his head. All the same, he blushed and smiled at the Unmatched Woman.

"I don't mind if you don't imagine me," he told Inukai. "After all, you can actually look at me whenever you want."

He averted his gaze a little and smiled.

"You still haven't taken a good look, but…have you been looking without me noticing? I know I toss and turn in my sleep a lot, but my blanket has never fallen off by the time I wake up."

That is far too dangerous to mention without getting into the details!

"Ohh?"

Fujimaru and Mei glared at him from behind Oshiro and Fujimaru gave an extremely wooden comment.

"I neeeeever would have thought you were so kind, Inukai."

"You only look at him in his sleep? That's just creepy."

Th-that's not the case! I asked my sisters to fix his blanket every time he comes over! I haven't been looking! Not to mention that he likes to hold things in his sleep, so he holds the blanket in place. He sometimes grabs one of my sisters and they get too tangled in the blanket to escape.

He's so lovely.

But the next thing he knew, Fujimaru was recording from behind Oshiro and Mei was checking over the footage with a glare. And from beyond them…

"Heyyy! Hurry up!"

The Tamakoma elite was calling them, so Inukai pulled on Oshiro's hand and continued that way.

.

Mei hurried toward the wall surrounding the tower and heard Fujimaru say that Inukai had escaped. It did not take long for the idiot to come into view.

"What is it, Ji-…no, um…"

He was wearing a different outfit and she wanted to believe it was a disguise and not his personal preference. However, she was not sure what to call him in that case.

"Oh, c'mon, Mei! My name is Yōichi! Call me Yōichi!"

Was that supposed to come from his first name while sounding like a child?

Anyway, Fujimaru gave her opinion as she too lined up in front of the tower.

"How about Mister Wit? First name: Dim."

"Oh, I guess my idea of Mister Stupid was a little too direct."

"Our girls are surprisingly harsh," added Inukai.

At any rate, the idiot was speaking with someone standing at the center of the path leading to the tower. Mei looked to the person standing beyond him.

A noble?

The woman wore an expensive uniform as a dress. She gave a kindhearted smile and another woman stood near the wide-open entrance to the tower.

"This is looking a lot like a brothel to me."

Fujimaru sounded concerned, but the woman speaking with the idiot only smiled.

"Surely you are at least prepared for that if you came here. Whether day or night, Pyrgos-sama is always searching for a partner. But by this point, plastering the neighboring city with posters isn't enough to bring anyone in."

The tall, well-built woman who seemed to be standing guard at the entrance nodded.

"Pyrgos-sama's policy is to never turn anyone away. If you will provide him some entertainment, then please continue. Or are you here to take someone back?"

At that point, she smiled bitterly.

"Surely you did not think you could simply make a casual visit."

.

Eh? Does this mean…?

Mei could not help but gulp.

"Ehhhh!? This is that kind of mission!?"

She turned around and found the idiot gesturing her over.

She ran over and the idiot began a scrum with the others.

"Good, girl. Now, stay, stay."

"Fuji, how are you treated in Border nowadays?"

"N-not like this! I assure you!"

At any rate, the idiot, Mei's mentor, and everyone else joined the strategy scrum. First, the mentor nodded calmly.

"How about we just climb on up and kill him?"

"K-Kushikage, why do you always jump to the most extreme option?"

"Then are you volunteering to go, Fuji?"

She could not help but fall silent at that.

"We have no choice," said the idiot. "I guess I'll go."

"Eh!? Wh-what are you talking about, Jin!? If Tamakoma's member had that kind of...fabulous relationship with a Neighbor, it would be like having a black belt in International Shudo and his approval rating all around would drop like a rock!"

"You really get worked up sometimes, you know that?"

"Personally, I think people would just think it's some sort of new physical comedy routine. Especially how he's been hanging around Jinsei recently."

Mei nearly agreed with Fujimaru but stopped herself. Regardless, the idiot scratched his head and glanced over at Mei.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. …But while it's true something might happen, Kushikage is way too strong when she gets serious and Inukai would be ignored from the get-go."

"D-did you have to throw an insult in there!?"

"What!? If you don't like it, then get to crossdressing, like Jinsei! He's definitely got the upper hand in life compared to some suit boy who can't even crossdress!"

So he has an upper hand in a race to the bottom? wondered Mei. And…

"Jin, um, well…"

"Call me Yōichi. You promised, remember?"

He quieted down when everyone glared at him, but then they slapped him on the back to get him speaking again.

"Anyway… Oshiro's definitely not an option here, right?"

"?"

Oshiro did not seem to understand what any of this meant, but there was no helping that.

"And Nonon isn't an option either," continued the idiot.

"Yeah, I have my sights on someone else."

"Right? So that leaves me."

The idiot left the scrum and turned his back. He looked to the tower, got down in a bowlegged crouch, and pulled on the crotch of his clothing to adjust the position. Finally, he slapped himself on the butt.

"Okay, I'll be going. I'll probably be back late, but wait to eat until I'm back."

"Y-you are awful!" shouted Inukai. "This guy is just plain awful!"

"No, um, w-wait a minute!"

Mei frantically called out to him. He had already been with Kushikage for far too long, so if he was taken away by this side of things a swell, she would be a disgrace to so many people. And so she spoke more on reflex than as a thought-out decision.

"I will go!"

.

Mei shouted without thinking, but…

Ah.

She was ashamed that part of her regretted the decision.

But she saw the Tamakoma member turn around in front of her and he looked to her with the ends of his eyebrows lowered.

"Mei…"

"Wh-what?"

"Right."

The idiot hung his head, placed his hands on her shoulders, lowered them, and then groped her.

"You just don't have the chest to pull it off."

She swung down a fist and tried to embed the idiot in the earth.


Murakami let out a sigh as he sat down with everyone else around.

The first team that had gone into the underground had made it out fine enough, but there had been two people with trion bodies destroyed to a major extent.

...Had those come from the Neighbor or had they attacked each other?

It was worrying to know how the two were currently fine enough in each others' presence. But that might have been due to some mental exhaustion.

Off to the side he could hear Kotowari Squad having a great time after they had won their fight. It was amazing how undisturbed they were of having to fight such a large and powerful Neighbor with Toby being the only one to take any damage form the fight.

Then there had been the other two who had taken damage during all of the trouble.

"Kon, Jinsei, are the two of you okay?"

The first to respond was his own squad's Operator.

"I had been in my trion body, so I am fine. While I was in danger of going back to my real body, I was patched up fast enough to where my body remained in tact."

As an Operator, she had very little when it came to trion. Almost any sort of attack would have forced her into her real body. But then he noticed something else. Another person who could have fixed that, to an extent.

Tamakoma's Amatori had a large amount of trion was her attacks with Ibis were like powerful cannons going off. If she had a link with Kon the entire time, it would make sense that she could have survived without going into her normal body.

"I got hit pretty bad, but it's all good. I'll just have to explain what happened to our captain."

"I will inform Captain-san that you were doing things like that without a tiron body. I am sure he will have fun with that."

"Dai-chan! Noooooo! I'll never survive!"

It was his own fault for being an idiot, but Murakami refrained from saying anything. He had heard how Jinsei had done what he did for Takeshi.

He wanted to know more about that, but stopped once he felt a pressure on his arm. Something had landed on his shoulder and kept itself there, not seeming to want to move.

Looking down, he saw that it was the head of a white fox.

"Sorry, Kō. It's been a long day and I want some sleep, but I need to keep myself awake. ...At least until I hear that she is safe. You mind being my pillow for a bit and waking me up when it looks like I'm falling asleep?"

"You do know that Suzume is currently drawing up a storyboard because of this, right?"

True to his words, the Sniper had already pulled out her tablet and began drawing viciously. Kako had made a spot next to the girl, pointing out some things he did not think he would want t know about.

"It's fine, let her," the white fox said with a wave. "She earned it after today. The three of them did so well. Meanwhile, I had to go back a bit and work with that idiotic cosplayer."

"Oh? Have you switched from airhead?"

"I knew it felt off! Thanks for reminding me, Kō! Hey, stupid airhead, you're a piece of crap!"

The top B-Rank captain only flipped him off as he continued on with his phone.

He's probably messaging Minoru right now.

It was best not to interrupt him any more than he already had.

So with a sigh, Murakami shifted his arm so that it hung loosely over the white fox's shoulder. He knew that it would be more comfortable this way. And while he would prefer if his friend went to sleep after everything, and considering his terrible health, he knew that the worry he felt for their upperclassman was not something to take lightly.

So he made a decision based on that.

"I'm worried about Senpai too, so don't worry. I'll make sure you're also up to worry about her with me. And once we get word that she is fine, we can both knock out and greet after waking up."

"Hm... Thanks, Kō. And remind me when we wake up to tell you something. It's something...unwanted."

There was no need for words at this point. So he only nodded his head.


The imprisoning tower was made of iron. The floors, walls, staircase, hallways, and even the chairs in the landings were all made of hard metal.

"They certainly were thorough."

Mei heard her voice and footsteps echoing through the metal spiral staircase. The well-built female guard at the entrance had insisted they enter one at a time, so she had gone in alone.

I knew it was turned as a prison, but I didn't expect it to be this sturdy.

The torches and the cloth covers on the chairs were the only non-metal materials. The only other things not made of metal were…

Me as I climb the stairs, and…

Occasionally, she would see someone collapsed on the landings or in the chairs placed in the viewing hallways.

Their clothes were disheveled, their skin exposed, and they were gasping for breath.

I-is this, um, what I think it is?

She could easily hear the heavy breathing and faint voices in the quiet hallways and staircases. The gentle voices echoed off the walls with an intoxicated quaver to them.

"Pyrgos-sama… You're so wonderful…"

"You're just so rough…"

"I don't think my body can survive much more of this…"

Ehhh!? That's really what's going on here!?

Mei very nearly stopped walking, but she instead quickly moved past those women while briefly glancing over at them.

N-negotiate! I need to negotiate! He'll understand if I explain the situation! Kushikage said he had a memo for us as well! Focus on getting that!

But what if he demanded her body in exchange for the memo?

"Then…"

She had prepared herself for this from the moment she volunteered to go. This was not an Operator's job, but an Operator could not allow others to be defiled.

But even so, she was certainly not enthusiastic about this job and had only volunteered by process of elimination.

That may have been why he had spoken to her as she had started to regret her decision.

"Hey, Mei. You don't have to go, you know? I'm not gonna force anyone to do something they don't want to. …Hey, Inukai. Drinks. Three minutes, okay?"

"Y-you're contradicting everything you just said!"

But once Inukai returned with drinks in paper cups he had bought at the vending machine located next to the tower, Mei had taken one and spoken to the idiot.

"What do you mean I don't have to go? If I don't, we won't get to settle this or get new information on Neighbors. Not to mention that the directors asked us to perform this investigation."

"Don't worry about it, don't worry about it." He had waved his hand dismissively. "My Side Effect tells me that everything will work out well enough. The things we need to keep an eye out for are still the B-Rank Wars and the things that happen after them, right? I'm sure by that point this place will be abandoned, then we can always get one of the top brace to buy the memo afterwards. Or if he takes it with him, we can search him out, have someone exercise with him, and get it that way. He might even know the Wanderers, so they might be used as bait, though."

"If that happened, I think our entire organization would get a little less chaotic."

As they had spoken, she had started feeling more inclined to go. It was less about knowing she did not have to go and more about knowing her friend was worried about her. She felt honored but also felt inexperienced for making him worry.

"So I suppose I came here to prove I'm a proper person."

She sighed as she climbed the stairs.

Did they say this tower is five hundred meters tall?

She could see the distant landscape out the occasional arrow slit or window. She could tell she was climbing higher because that landscape grew wider and wider.

"This feels like mountain climbing."

There had been an elevator that could have work on the first floor, but she had chosen not to use it when she did not know where it would take her. There were elevator entrances on each consecutive floor, but they seemed to be for the residents in the waiting rooms and required special keys to unlock. In other words, she had made the wrong decision at the very beginning.

How long has it been since I climbed this high on foot?

Border's total height was rather tall when compared to many other buildings. She would run up to Border's roof during training, but she decided she needed to train more in vertical movement.

She sighed again, placed both heels on the floor, and gathered her strength.

She looked to the wall and saw a metal plate that said "Not far now to Pyrgos's room!"

And after she finished climbing that flight of stairs…

"It really isn't far."

The hallway ahead curved gently and ended with only an elevator entrance and a large metal door.

.

Mei sighed yet again and took a light step straight up.

She jumped, landed, and realized her body was a bit weak.

It was partially due to the extent of the climb, but it was also true she had rushed a little too much. At any rate, she checked the elevator and peered down from the window.

Oh, I'm not that high up.

She was only able to think that due to the view she normally had from Border's roof. She also felt more relaxed than when closer to the ground, but that too may have come from being a resident of Mikado City.

There was a time when I constantly told myself I wasn't one.

She exhaled, breathed in new air, reached for the knocker on the large door, and told herself she needed to give a proper greeting as Border's representative.

"Now, then."

She pulled back the knocker and swung it forward.

But that light action was enough to move the large door before she could knock.

The door opened and darkness spread out before her eyes.

Eh?

Not only had it not been locked, but it had not been properly closed. Pulled by the opening door and the knocker, she took a few steps into the room. And…

"…Ah."

Oh, no, she thought, fearing they would think she had opened the door without even trying to knock. She feared they would think she had failed to follow the proper etiquette of a visitor.

But then her nose detected a certain scent: blood and other bodily fluids.

.

"…!?"

All of her body's hair bristled because this scent did not come from a cow or a pig; it was a human scent.

She smelled human blood, human flesh, and the fluids released when human organs spilled out, but it was far too much to come from a single person.

"Kh."

To put up her guard, she quickly began to move back and activated Shikifuku, but her back struck something.

It was the door. Once she realized the door had closed at some point, a tremor of caution filled her body. This was undoubtedly a dangerous situation, so she crouched down and swiftly turned her senses to her surroundings.

The room was just below thirty meters across. It had no windows and it had what looked like a giant bed in the center, but something else concerned her more.

What is this scent?

There was more here than just the smell of bodily fluids like blood and sweat. A strong, familiar scent was mixed in with the metallic smell covering the walls and everything else.

"Maintenance oil?"

It was the type used on weapons and it was a constant smell around Border's engineering department.

Just as she wondered why the room smelled so strongly of it, a sudden light reached her.

A light panel using candles was installed at the center of the ceiling and it lit up the entire room.

The object below the light was not a bed. It was a square stage with short posts at each corner. It looked like a metal pedestal and three horizontal chains connected the posts to cover all four sides.

Also, a thick figure stood in the very center. He had a well-balanced body that almost looked carved from stone, he wore a strange uniform, and he was looking her way.

His facial features and build were solid, his hair was long and blond, his face was adorned with a mustache, and his sharp gaze was trained on her.

But the man had one difference from a normal boy: he wore a girl's uniform.

Eh?

Mei reacted with a question instead of confusion or surprise.

"A guy?"

"Heh. Well done making it this far, my new challenger!"

The muscles below the girl's uniform moved more than necessary as he crossed his arms and thrust out his chest.

"I am, what you would call, a 'Neighbor'! My name is Pyrgos!"


"Pyr, we'll be leaving now."

"Hurry it up."

"Ha ha ha. Ranbanein, you and Mira always get along so well."

"We do?" asked Ranbanein as the ship began to float. "There's something I've been wondering, though. Pyrgos is your brother, yes? But what exactly made him a madman?"

"Oh, that. Well, there are a lot of reasons."

Pyr flicked her fingers to the side, an explosions going off in the distance.

"But the thing about my brother is...he's a real deviant."


Mei stood before the madman.

Um…

She was so busy wondering what exactly she was looking at that she was unable to react when the man named himself. However, crossdressing Pyrgos released his tightly crossed arms and pointed at her with both hands.

"You are Mei Takato, Border's perfect Operator and the Taiyōko family's first daughter's student, correct?"

"How do you know that!?"

"Ohhhh!? I may be actively imprisoned here, but with such a tall tower, all sorts of transmissions come pouring in! They're all cut off at the moment, though!"

Anyway…

"I know you were beaten to a pulp."

He nodded and narrowed his eyes.

"You poor thing."

"Unexpected Neighbor."

She raised her right hand and cut him off.

This man was a madman, but he was still Neighbor. If he could say cruel things, her words would be able to reach him and there was no need to reply to his provocation. She was here on official business, so she lowered to one knee.

"I have come to visit you with the request from Border. Originally I came here to check on what this tower was meant for, but that has clearly changed. I wish to gain some information you might have, as well as obtain the memo you have on you. If only to borrow it. It will then be returned to you."

"My, my. You certainly are-…"

"Are you willing to do that?"

She cut him off again and she could sense some real irritation inside herself, so she glanced up at him.

He definitely is muscular, but…

Kizaki had him beat in pure muscle volume and Hokari probably had a similar level of strength, so she saw no reason to fear him if it came to a fight.

But what is this smell of blood and other bodily fluids?

Her only guess was experiments. If he really was obsessed with Earth, he would need something to use.

However, this scent came from humans. She could only imagine humans had been torn to pieces here.

"…"

But was the man she saw here really someone who would do that?

Is he?

She did not know, so she spoke while preparing herself to overpower him if it came to it.

"Let me ask again. Might we borrow the me-…"

"You mean this?"

He teasingly held up a piece of parchment, rubbed it against the cheek of his square face, and looked to Mei.

"You cannot have it. …I might think about it on certain conditions, though."

She frowned at the word "conditions" and remembered the people collapsed in the stairways and corridors on the way up.

"U-um… You mean…my body?"

"Yes, that's right. Your body. …You will need to use your body for me."

Ehhhhh!?

She truly did take a half step back, but Pyrgos kept his sharp gaze on her.

"Yes, that's right. I need you to be my sparring partner."

"What!?"

That unexpected term filled her heart with confusion, but her body managed to react.

She stood up as she thought about what he meant by "sparring partner", but…

"…"

Pyrgos had vanished from the center stage.

Before she could even wonder where he had gone, something struck her from behind.

.

Even with Mei's senses and limited calculations, the attack was sudden.

It was only after being hit that she only realized it was a quick heel of the palm.

"!?"

She gave a confused cry as she flew through the air.

She had been standing before the large door, so there had not been anyone behind her.

And the attack that had bent her back had come from a woman's hand, not Pyrgros's.

"An ambusher!?" The palm strike felt slender and even soft, but it still knocked her toward the stage. She spun her body around to orient herself in midair, flipped toward the floor about three meters from the stage, and landed sharply on her heels.

She took a defensive stance and glanced around cautiously.

He had someone waiting for me, didn't he!?

She turned around to look in a full three hundred sixty degrees. The stage reflected the light and revealed what was located around it.

Weapons decorated the room in a radial pattern. Longswords, spears, hammers, maces, mauls, scythes, any number of other weapons were displayed in metal stockers.

Each one was made of trion.

They were all lined up within arm's reach of the stage.

Mei realized the maintenance oil she had noticed was coming from these weapons. That meant the weapons were used and maintained.

But why do that with trion-made weapons?

There would be no need for that.

"Wh-what is this!?"

"You don't know? I had thought your specialty was information and knowledge organization. Calculations, to be exact."

She heard a female voice from back and to the right, but just as she turned to the right, someone grabbed her left arm.

The other side!?

The thick fingers of the hands on her left arm were clearly those of a man. And…

"Sorry about the feint."

Mei heard Pyrgos's voice before her back slammed into the side of the stage.

.

Mei's back collided with the side of the metal stage.

Kh!

Before she could bounce off, she jumped forward to escape the stage.

But…

"You mustn't run."

She heard yet another female voice from the stage behind her.

How many people are hidden around here!?

She then heard someone jump toward her from the stage.

She responded by making a quick backhand blow back and to the right.

She decided they were coming from the right because of the shadow cast on the floor. The light panel on the ceiling was positioned directly above the stage, so the enemy's shadow fell toward her when the stage was behind her. And currently, the shadow on the floor had leaped toward her right side.

"There!"

She showed no mercy as she thrust her forearm out, but…

"You have good senses."

She felt a downward gust of wind behind her on the right. The enemy had lowered their hips as soon as they landed and thus avoided Mei's attack.

Her jab shot by over her opponent's head and she got a look at the opponent while pulled forward by her arm.

It really is a woman!?

She recognized the woman. She was the well-built one from the tower;s entrance.

"Ambushes are not fair!"

"Oh, this is perfectly fair."

The woman charged forward to tackle her.

"…!"

So she further accelerated her arm and used its pull to turn toward the enemy.

She twisted her hips around, raised her left knee toward the woman, and performed a stomping kick. She aimed for the woman's face as a counterattack.

The forceful twisting of her body paid off when the attack hit.

She heard the high-pitched sound of a slap and felt powerful elasticity on the bottom of her foot. She used the force reaching her knee to leap backwards.

It had been a solid blow. It had felt strong enough to smash the woman's face and it had been powered by a Black Trigger's strength. She had to give the woman credit for holding her ground and not being knocked back, but that was exactly why she had taken her leap.

And while in midair, Mei reformed a defensive stance and looked to her opponent.

How was that!?

For just an instant, the force of the counterattack nearly knocked the woman to the floor, but…

"Well done!"

She stopped herself by taking a stance similar to a crouch start. She held her right hand to her face while thin trails of trion escaped the fingers and dripped to the floor.

Her face had been crushed. The entire right half had shifted towards her ear in the shape of a boot print. The layers of her face were partially peeled from her inner body, but they were still fixed in place from the tension of the blow. The outline of the boot print formed a crack in the skin running from between the eyebrows down to the jaw and trion spilled from that crack.

"Yes…"

The woman used her fingers to force her broken nose back into place and ran straight toward Mei.

"I will not hold back!"

Mei did not need to reply because she had not been holding back in the first place. As she landed, she pulled a trion spear from one of the weapon stockers. The decorated weapon was three meters long.

She forcibly spun the spear around in her hand. The trion seemed no heavier than a tree branch in the powerful grip of a Black Trigger user. The trion shaft bent as she swung it around at high speed, but just as the tip pointed forward…

"You asked for this, so you have no one to blame but yourself!"

She let go of the shaft, quickly moved her palm behind the spear, and grasped the bottom. She then pushed the bottom of the spear straight toward the tip.

"Take this!"

She launched the spear toward the woman's face.

.

A moment later, Mei saw her enemy move.

Beyond the spear she had thrown, the woman shifted slightly to the right. She seemed to have caught sight of the spear with her crushed and bent half face, so Mei assumed she was ducking out of the way.

"Heh hehhh!"

However, the woman twisted her body just a bit and ran toward the spear.

She was letting it hit her.

What!?

Mei was already beginning her next move on the assumption that the woman would duck, so this was unexpected.

However, the enemy completed her action. The spear flew toward her right collar bone and the tip instantly stabbed through her and out her right side. The enemy had been pumping her arms as she ran and she used that motion to grab the tip as it burst out her side.

"—!"

Before the spear lost its momentum, she pulled it out into the air behind her.

Mei heard the wet scraping sound as the object was pulled from the woman's body and she saw trion spraying back with the weapon.

However, the spear was indeed thrown back behind the woman, and…

"Excellent!"

The woman's charge did not slow. She used the momentum of her entire body to crush the impact. As for the pain…

Does she not feel anything at all!?

With sharp, instantaneous attacks, sometimes one's mind could not transmit any sort of danger to the rest of the body and cause even Trigger users to not worry about being hit.

But this woman had consciously pulled the spear from her body. If her mind was functioning enough to take that kind of action, she should have felt the worry of everything coming at her.

"Since you didn't hesitate...do you have no sense of danger!?"

"That's right! You only now caught on!?"

Of course she had. This was her first time against an opponent like this. However, she was well aware of this kind of condition. After all…

It shows up all the time in Akashi's weird novels!

Some people's minds did not transmit any signs of danger.

And one unique characteristic was their inability to regulate their strength.

Whenever a human did anything, they instinctually tried to protect their own body. When holding something sharp, the pain in their skin told them to loosen their grip. That was a combination of pain and instinctual self-defense.

But those without a sense of danger did not feel any worry of feedback or recoil, so they could draw out the kind of strength that a normal human never could because it would destroy their own body. The same did not apply to trion bodies, but that sense of danger remained in the mind no matter what body it was.

That was how the woman had endured the previous kick. It was also how she had pulled out the spear and maintained her charge.

And so Mei did not hesitate in her next move. Her timing was thrown a little off, but she could overcome that with brute strength.

"Honestly! That's an ambusher for you!"

She pulled a large hammer from one of the stockers and performed a full rightward swing toward the side of the approaching woman's face.

"I should have expected something like this!"

She felt the blow land, the woman's entire body spun like a top, and the woman slammed into the stockers on the left.

.

Mei heard a loud crash to the left.

The line of metal stockers there had been hit hard enough to dent a few, bend a few, and knock a few of them form their bases. The solid sounds of the impacts continued and the stocked weapons sparkled in the light as they flew through the air.

"I'm not done yet!"

Mei did not hold back.

...I really have become wild without my calculations, haven't I?

The lack of danger allowed those without it to immediately resume fighting, so she needed to continue attacking and leave her opponent physically unable to move. In other words…

I need to destroy her body!

If she smashed the woman's entire body, tore all of her limbs, and destroyed her sense, the lack of danger would mean nothing. So...

"Hoo!"

Mei grabbed the stocker to her right and tore it from the floor, but she was not trying to hit her opponent with the stocker. She wanted the weapons. She threw the stocker into the air, it hit the ceiling, and its hammers scattered downward. Mei reached up toward them and grabbed a convenient one.

"One!"

She tugged it down with all her strength and slammed it into the enemy who had come to a stop after breaking through the left row of weapons. The sound of impact harmonized with the broken stockers and weapons caught in the attack.

"Two!"

Mei rotated around and grabbed a handle from the air. The weapons hit the floor and bounced toward her, but she used her knees to scatter them away like ocean spray.

"Three!"

After four, five, six, and seven, she stopped counting.

But the solid sounds, flying fragments, and crashing weapons did not stop.

After a total of around fifteen, she grabbed the stocker with both hands as it was the only thing still falling from the ceiling.

"How about this!?"

She shouted while swinging the stocker and a breath left her lungs amid the fading reverberation of the metallic blow.

She breathed in again, arose from the lowered stance of swinging down the stocker, and straightened her back.

"You should look over here."

A voice reached her from the right side of the stage.

.

Mei turned toward the female voice.

This was not the same woman as before, but she still recognized the voice.

That's the woman who was speaking with Jin at the bottom of the tower!

Just as she wondered if there had been two hidden fighters, the woman jumped from the stage with a smile and jabbed her hand forward at high speed.

She moved quickly, but Mei could follow the movements and therefore could react rationally.

The previous series of attacks had left something scattered in the air: the weapons that had been in the broken stockers.

One of them was a trion-made longsword. The blade seemed to float as it slowly rotated and the tip was facing Mei.

But she did not care.

She swung a hand and grabbed the tip of the blade between her pointer and middle fingers. Then she only had to flick her wrist to send the sword toward the woman's hand.

The blade seemed to drop down.

The woman's hand was held flat and the blade reached it between the fingers.

There was a dull sound like wood being struck.

In an instant, the sword blade tore through from fingertips to wrist. The weighty blade split her arm down to the elbow and stopped when it hit the end of her upper arm.

As soon as Mei heard the chilling sound of blade on body, she released the sword from her fingers.

She cannot complete her jab!

The woman's arm had apparently been twisting as she thrust it toward Mei.

"—"

Her split fingertips twisted her thumb downward and her little finger upward and the entire arm was split in a spiral.

And once the woman took a breath, the response of what happened sprayed trion outwards. Trion steam rose before Mei's eyes, but…

"Eh?"

The woman was still moving toward her.

The sword fell from the spilt arm she should not have been able to use anymore.

However, Mei saw something else.

"The wound…"

The split in her arm was rapidly reconnecting. Almost like clothes being fastened, the wound filled in as the woman raised the arm a bit.

Mei saw the arm undulate as it quickly pasted together from elbow to wrist. And by the time the woman reversed her wrist…

High speed regeneration!? It makes sense if she is a Neighbor with an unseen Trigger, but that would require so much trion!

"That wasn't enough."

Mei felt a chill as the woman's jabbing hand reached her chest.

The slender fingers arrived at her scarf.

Kh!

She tried to lean back and out of the way, but the enemy's hand grabbed the scarf.

Mei tried to sweep both hands up to hit the enemy's arm from below. She assumed a full-power blow from below the elbow would break the arm.

And as soon as she fired her arms upwards, she saw something.

"!?"

It was something that should not have been and seeing it stopped her for just a second.

And that second was enough time for the woman to throw her through the air with that one arm.


A few sets of eyes looked up at the heavy sounds coming from the distant sky.

"Sounds like it's started. I hope Mei's okay."

"That stupid little girl can be careless."

A woman smiled while standing next to a wall and in front of an elite and a mentor.

"But it is extremely unusual for Master Pyrgos-sama to have started so soon."

"Agreed," agreed the well-built woman standing at the tower's entrance. "I wonder how much…no, I hope she is powerful enough to satisfy Pyrgos-sama. He is a complete madman and deviant, after all."

"Hold on there. Is Pyrgos really that amazing?"

"Yes." The smiling woman nodded. "Because he is a deviant. …Yes, that is everything there is to know about him."

"Yeah, but… Mei's pretty strong. She might tear your bossman to pieces."

"Oh ho?" said the Unmatched Woman in both surprise and joy, but the smiling woman did not seem to care.

"Tear him to pieces? That wouldn't be possible. As we said, Pyrgos-sama is a deviant and a madman."


After being thrown onto the stage, Mei just barely managed to stick her landing. Her skirt spread out around her and she landed while down on one knee. She raised both heels to make sure she could begin moving immediately and she noticed someone standing on the eastern post.

It was Pyrgos and the crossdressing man looked down on her with arms crossed and chest thrust forward.

"Wellllcome to my precious, precious sacred ring!"

The word "ring" led Mei to check her surroundings.

He's right!

This was no stage. Now that she was on it, she could tell it was a combat ring with trion chains stretching between the four corner posts shaped like angels.

But her eyes quickly moved to one point in particular: Pyrgos's right shoulder as he stood on the eastern post.

His girl's uniform had a hole in the right shoulder and in the right side.

"Those holes…"

Mei bared her teeth, raised her eyebrows, and shouted.

"Those are the holes from the spear I used earlier, aren't they!?"

"Hmmm? So what if they are?"

Mei realized then what this man was.

"A deviant…"

That referred to someone who deviated from the norm, but he was not just a bizarre person. His very existence deviated from the norm.

...Is this like what Pyrínas can do with his ability to change his body's shape and structure...or is it like that mud Neighbor that Denji had fought?

Either way, she knew what to call what he was doing and did so as she stood up, raised her right hand, and pointed at him.

"Self modification. That is what you are doing!"


"Really, you can call my shit of a brother the completed version," said Pyr as she watched her comrades sitting around their observation table. "The two of us are shit as living creatures, so he wanted to change that a bit and shift from a 'living creature' to a 'semi-living creature'. I took up destruction as a hobby and ended up here with Vómva as my own Trigger of pure destruction and annihilation. It fits me so fucking well. Don't you think, Ranbanein?"

"Hahaha. Yeah, it really does."

Ranbanein was looking across the room to see if any of they others would be reacting to their conversation, but none of them thought it was worth listening to, instead focusing on their own things.

"Opposed to your side of things, he decided to go with tolerance and reformations. That's why he was messing around with other things for so long. I don't know if he managed to make a Trigger or just put it as a part of his natural body, but he had managed to create something without a sense of danger, high-speed regeneration to go with his massive trion resources, and..."

"The ability to transform into anyone you want. ...It was self modification that he probably got from those shitfaces that came to visits us before. The ones who went to Miden a little after we did."

Pyr lifted her hand as a number appeared on her palm and suddenly...

"Don't," said Hairein.

"Don't worry."

She tightened her fist as the number detonated, creating a small explosion in the palm of her hand.

"see? If something like this hits, I'd need to cover it up or just get rid of my hand. Reforming our trion bodies later is a downside that sucks when we are invading others. It doesn't happen often, but it happened when we attacked Miden."

"Yeah, the two of us lost pretty badly. We managed to take some of them out, but we were the ones who had the odds stacked against us there."

"Shut the fuck up, Ranbanein, we got suckered into terrible positions. And they had some shitty trump card against the old man."

There was a small hum to recognized what they had said, but nothing more than that. There was apparently one other person listening to them talk.

"Anyway, what I'm getting at is that he can keep doing whatever the fuck he wants while in the safety of his own home. That fucker loves taking trion to store and use later on. It's kind of like those rooms Enedora got trapped in when he attacked, but it only works for him. I guess he'd give that permission to someone, but that's not his style. And...well...this kind of shit tells me I'm a normal part of things."

"Then Pyrgos is...?"

"He's too damn kind. He can't sense danger, but he still imagines it. When we fucked up before, I would get smacked around when I made a mistake, but that never happened with my brother after he figure dit all out. So..."

So...

"My brother started to think that he might not even be a functional existence. That's why he only continued doing that shit, left Afrokrator, and threw himself to Miden before hiding himself in that tower. I would've gone to see him, if we had the time. If only to blow him up a few times. But I hear those idiots who 'greeted' Miden used a city near him, so they probably gave him a great chance to increase his trion sources."

With that said, Ranbanein stood up.

"We can always check and see if there's something there to let us know what's going on with him."

"Are you sure?"

"Even if it will be a hassle, we can ask Misó to see if he he went to that tower."


"Do you understand!?"

Pyrgos's voice reverberated across the metal room as he stood on the corner post.

Standing in the center of the ring, Mei saw him spread his lowered arms.

"I! I have never once felt danger! No matter how much I carve myself, crush myself, melt myself, or burn myself, I return to normal right away!"

He pulled a sword from his back while once more asking if she understood.

He had not been carrying the weapon on his back. It had been stored there by piercing his flesh.

And with a quick movement, he lopped off his own right hand. After a refreshing sound much like a fruit being cut, the severed hand fell to the floor.

"See?"

But as it fell, it dissolved. Starting with the fingertips, it transformed into what looked like trion steam and, by the time he swung his right hand again, the supposedly severed hand had grown back. It was still surrounded by a bit of trion steam, so…

...That is protection using trion to dissolve and regenerate.

She did not need her calculations to know this had to be the cycling trion feature that Pyrínas had.

By cycling trion from somewhere into themselves, they essentially embedded it in their bodies and create a cycle where it would be more like trion storage than simply having that amount already. She had gotten an extensive explanation on the process from those at the Yagura Branch.

"This is also…quite amazing."

Pyrgos moved the blade again to stab it horizontally through his neck from left to right.

There was a deep sound as it pierced his spine and severed his trion-made innards, but…

"Do you understand?"

She did, but she could not put it in words. After all…

...He cut his his throat and anything beyond that, but he's still speaking!? Even in a trion body, that would have some sort of effect!

"You see… I do have a human form and my body regenerates like you've seen, but you know what? My respiration and circulation is really just for show. As in, they aren't even there. They are now just trion. I seem to only need my active nervous system and my muscles to move, but they don't work like other people's do. Those are also more trion-based than anything."

So, you see?

"What am I if I made it so I can't die? There was a time when it was not like that, but I hear there are some stranger things out there in the Neighborhood. Thing such as an illusion maker and a 'cancer' to nations. Well, in other words, I have begun to think I might be even more than those things. And so I train my body. Y'know, like a sculpture. You've seen the Renaissance sculptures, haven't you? I trained myself to look just like those."

Pyrgos laughed and lifted up his skirt.

"But when I looked into it, apparently the Miden gods were hermaphrodites. That's when it hit me. I had trained my male side to the point of a divine sculpture, so it was time for the female side."

As he spoke, he changed form. First, the well-built woman from the tower's entrance appeared. Next, the one who had stood near the wall. And after that…

The women on the stairs and in the corridors!

That was not all. He raised his speed and switched from woman to woman at a dizzying pace.

"These are all such wonderful people, you know? After all, they tried to give me pain. They climb onto this ring, you see. And they use weapons or chemicals to carve me up, crush me, or split me open. I had even made trion-based weaponry for them to use. And yet… And yet…"

"And yet?"

"Yes." Pyrgos's shoulders drooped. "They all fell to their knees without ever making me feel pain or danger."


"You all look pretty strong, but you're saying you couldn't do it?"

The well-built woman nodded at Jin's question. She pulled a spear out from behind the entrance.

"To be honest, I'm from the military and I was hired to assassinate Pyrgos-sama."

She wrapped her arms around the spear and shook her head.

"But no technique I'm aware of could do it. I couldn't even make him feel danger."

"Yes. I was actually asked to poison him…but it didn't work. The protection of his regeneration and defenses is just too powerful, so he sweated it all out." The smiling woman lowered the ends of her eyebrows. "All one hundred and two people living in the tower came here to take his life and we fight him every day or even every hour."

"Is he kind to you?"

"Yes. He is a kind person protected by his own merits and his attempts to make himself divine have very nearly made him a hermaphrodite. ...He has surpassed the boundary between man and woman. True to history, he has no interest in women. Or sex at all, for that matter. That is why we have not told Border about him."

"Sounds like the opposite of Kushi-san."

"Oh, honestly. I-I only do it with people fit for it, you know?"

"So you don't deny it?" muttered Fujimaru as the Unmatched Woman put her hands on her cheeks and wiggled back and forth.

However, the unmatched combatant then looked to the two women.

"Do you two idolize Pyrgos?"

"Right. Our power is no match for him and yet he does not exterminate us."

"He makes sure it's a proper battle, though. We can use our full strength, but we're still no match for him. Even with those tiron weapons he had made and explained to us."

The smiling woman lowered the ends of her eyebrows again.

"Yes, we are no match for him. …He is kind enough to accept us even though we can't rid him of his loneliness."

She looked up at the tower.

"So we offer all of our techniques up to him and train with him. He is truly wonderful. …He uses our techniques and our bodies, but he goes far beyond that."

So…

"What do you think? Will your envoy be able to make Pyrgos-sama feel danger?"


"I am talking about danger!"

Mei saw Pyrgos jump from the corner post.

He jumped high. He almost reached the ceiling despite starting at a standstill. She saw him fly high with his limbs spread out, so she hurriedly escaped to the chains.

He then crashed into the metal ring.

He sent his entire body into the metal surface at once.

Don't tell me…

"How much of a god am I!? Even as I use all my strength to prostrate myself before the guardian angels of the cardinal directions! I feel no pain or danger!"

He used brute strength to jump back up. Mei noticed a drawing of god on the metal surface of the ring and several faint human-shaped dents covered it.

That was proof that he had prostrated himself like that countless times before.

"Watch closely!"

He jumped from the eastern angel post once more.

He collided with the floor, but he immediately ran to the western angel post and performed a somersault from the top.

"—!"

He collided with the floor again and ran to the south after getting up. He continued the process and jumped from the northern angel post.

More sounds of impact followed and Mei belatedly realized that the floor surrounding the ring was carved with a diagram of heaven.

This sacred ring was made to sacrifice oneself to god, the angels, and heaven.

He jumped again and again, moved around and around, sped up, and continually slammed his entire body onto the heavenly ring.

But no matter how many times he tried it, he could not reach the bottom of the ring.

"Whyyyyyy not!?"

He got up on his knees, swung his arms outwards, and looked up toward heaven.

"Because! Because! Because I am a failure that cannot understand people's pain anymore! At first, I thought my works had made people abandoned me, so I decided to rely on Miden! I gathered so much information and considered going to Miden where many people of all kinds live! I studied everything we saw around to see if they would be any help, but all I saw was the same thing I saw back home! Because…"

Because…

"This is a dangerous time for Aftokrator! So! So wouldn't my truly living and destructive sister be far, far better suited to fight with them!? So! So I thought if I disappeared..."

Mei knew what he was going to say.

"You mean... You were forced to escape?"

"Yes?" Pyrgos nodded. "And there was not even a trial just for show. I was tossed out because I had gone overbaord and they wanted to much from me at that point. But I could not follow through and so deicded to escape."

He laughed.

"Isn't that weird? Why is that the one time they followed the rules without using interpretations!?"

She did understand why they would do that. Everyone who had power felt the need to change rules as they saw fit and go by those rules as they saw fit. It placed a burden on those involved, but that was why they had decided to do as they pleased by trying to force this man into something.

They had likely planned on even making him into what he was striving for, but in the worst way possible.

"Whyyy!?"

Pyrgos did not feel he was suited for life anymore.

"Shouldn't they have taken my sister and leave me alone!? And if they couldn't do that, they should have done something to use my own stuff on someone more fit instead of trying to get me to become their God!"

She understood. People had already decided to place her in a high position in their minds as a Perfect Operator who could work as a Combatant. Pyrgos must have wanted to eliminate himself from the list of candidates and then use his own knowledge to support everyone else.

"Whyyy!? Why was there no taaaaaaaalki!?"

There was nothing she could say. The man before her questioned his own existence even as no one understood him, his own home made use of him, and he had his freedom robbed from him.

But after taking a breath, he stood up.

And he gave a quiet laugh: heh heh.

"But you see," he continued. "It doesn't really matter now. I will be free soon. …Because you know what? I will die here."

What? wondered Mei. How can someone like this die?

As she questioned herself, the answer came to her.

"Are you going to use something to make yourself officially 'dead'!?"

The tower was near a city already attacked, so it if was anything...

...Is it a revolt against Mikado City?

No, she decided. They were near the city, but this place was still a good bit southwest from the city. No one would reach it.

But, she thought. There is a way to bring a battle here.

It can't be, she thought, but once she thought of a certain individual, she was certain she was right.

Kushikage!

"Is it through Gates!?" she asked with her eyebrows raised.

Why had her mentor been placed as their guide?

And why had her mentor not returned home once they had arrived?

Is this why!?

"You plan to open Gates around here to gain more attention from both cities, don't you!? And Kushikage is meant to fight them as she currently is!"

"Do you understand what that means?"

"Yes." She nodded. "You want to cause a commotion that would bring in strong Triggers that have the highest chances to destroy you. Or at least make it seem like that is the case!"

Which meant...

"You are trying to also throw Border into something terrible and keep them form Mikado City!"


"Is this...something else you have planned for, Kushikage-san?"

Inukai questioned and protested what he had been told by the Unmatched Woman.

"You did this when you knew we would get a good amount of our people into the underground."

But the unmatched Woman only smiled.

"Well, there is only an hour left until that important meeting now and the entire day has been leading to gaining a lot in battles, so there is something to be gained for this too."

"You seem awfully calm about this," muttered Inukai right before he figured it out. He knew why she had acted the way she did today. "We're still in the middle of the B-Rank Wars and there have been some shady rumors going around Mikado City, hasn't there? So when the meeting starts in an hour or so, they will likely be related to that, so you want to check on everyone, but are focusing on a single point at the moment. Am I right?"

"Yeah. I've been moving around the city recently, but held back from punching anyone in the face for their stupidity. I was also looking around for a certain someone, which was why I had bothered to talk to that idiot Seikai. I used him to find that person, but left him to his own devices afterwards. I don't know what he did after, though. ...Still, I'm impressed you figured that out."

The Unmatched Woman placed a hand on her hip and gave him a smile.

It embarrassed him how Oshiro smiled back as if he were being praised himself, but he was tearfully grateful for the sensation of his arm around him.

"Anyway," he said while taking a breath and writing up the general series of events on his phone.

Meeting at the Border base in one hour.

Planned attack against the city in forty five minutes?

Border agents in the underground planning to go back to base in twenty minutes

"So does that sum it up?"

He decided the there were things there that were not so easy of a task to be written down.

...One careless move and things really will go downhill for a lot of people.

But if they returned and allowed the Gates to open over here, they would have a hard time making it back in without even more issues.

Either way, they could not avoid a desperate fight until they knew the conclusion within the tower.

...I suppose she is fine with that since it involves fghting.

It was true the situation had been set in motion sooner than the Unmatched Woman had expected, but they were using that and the urgent situation created to their advantage.

"What do you think? It seems like things have a good change of going to shit. Of course, the city might target Border to deal with their stress."

She wrapped her arms around her own body.

"But even if something goes wrong, I'm here. I can protect all of you and protect the city."

That's probably true, thought Inukai, but after a while…

This is all I can say.

"It may not be my place, but…I must refuse."

.

Inuki put up his guard a little and spoke his rejection toward the Unmatched Woman's smile.

Past her, the Tamakoma elite tilted his head while receiving some coffee brewed by the women protecting the tower.

"Huh? Inukai, shouldn't we let Kushi-san protect us? It'd be easier. She's got huge breasts."

"You really are trying to take things easy with this, aren't you, Jin-san? But that would leave us being the ones unable to stop this. We should avoid making any decisions until we can run them by Kimura, at the least. I know it's rude to speak of unlikely possibilities here...but Kushikage-san might do more than just 'protect' us."

Oshiro stepped up next to him with two Shikifuku blades floating on either side of him, and spoke clearly to the Unmatched Woman.

"Would you protect us even with me here?"

"It would be interesting with your situation."

...She is clearly powerful.

She did not hesitate to reach for the greatest possible reward. Some would call it greed, but it was the same as a predator showing no concern for its prey.

She was not the same as the rest of them.

Calling it greed just showed how soft they were.

When resisting, strength is the only option.

He hoped Mei would return soon, but…

"Wait, wait. Inukai, Kushi-san. Quit talking without me."

"But, Jin," said Fujimaru. "Were you listening to what Inukai had said? It looked to me like you started staring at Kushi-san's breasts from the side, measuring their volume, and paying an inordinate amount of attention to what you could see up that spear lady's skirt."

The Tamakoma elite glanced back and saw the spear woman frantically fixing the bottom of her skirt.

"Oh, damn. …Nono, don't say that kind of thing! You're ruining my hidden fun!"

"So did you or did you not hear what that Gunner boy said?"

"What?" The Tamakoma elite wrinkled his brow. "I-I-I did! Of-of course I did?"

"Jin-san, I would like it if you didn't look down at the ground when you said that."

As Inukai complained, Oshiro tugged on his sleeve.

"How would you sum up what you said before, Sumiharu?"

"Right. If we decide anything for ourselves, Kimura will be super mad."

"Wow. Now that is easy to understand." The elite scratched his head. "Well, you heard him, Kushi-san. We can't rely on you until we ask Kawa. Sorry."

"There is no need to apologize. This just means I have to forcibly drag you along. It will probably be a lot of work for you if you try to resist, though." The Unmatched Woman smiled at them. "Hey? If you assholes won't accept my protection, then think about where you want to take everything. I'll give you a certain level of help as an individual."

"That we will gladly accept. But…" Inukai looked up at the tower. "If Pyrgos will use Gates to attack to mean his 'death', then this is our only opportunity to acquire that memo."

That was likely why Border had sent them here.

"Now, then," said the Unmatched Woman. "I will not help with that. After all, I shouldn't crush her pride any more than I already have."

"I wouldn't be so sure."

That comment came from the Tamakoma elite looking up at the tower with crossed arms.

He smiled a little and said more.

"Mei holds onto her pride more than you think, Kushi-san. And I don't need my Side Effect to tell me that."


"Nowww, what to do?"

Mei listened to Pyrgos from the center of the ring.

He leaned against the eastern corner post and threw a sword her way.

Mei caught the flying blade as if slapping it with her right hand.

"You want me to make you feel pain with us?"

"I feel like having some fun before I am freed. Okay?"

He put the memo in his pocket and literally stored it in his chest.

"I hear your meeting begins in one hour and that your forces will arrive back at their base in twenty or so minutes."

But…

"Until then, I am the godlike Neighbor who needs no Black Trigger to fight against many. So I will give you a chance until then. A chance to take this from me."

He was telling her to fight him. He hated his position as a runaway, but he would fight her as his final job and to show he would not cooperate with the enemy.

How noble of him, she thought. But…

"What if I can't make you feel pain and take it from you?"

"I will leave this tower as soon as the attack starts. I suppose I will head to England. But..."

He lightly struck his chest.

"I will take this memo with me. After all, it should be enough insurance in case something happens."

"That would be the worst case scenario."

Disregarding the man leaving to another country, starting an attack using Neighbors outside of Mikado City would be something they all want to avoid at all cost. But there was something on that memo that had made this just as important, something that she should not let go of here.

If that happened, Border's reputation would hit rock bottom. She had to avoid that.

And she felt all of the decisions rested on her shoulders.

It comes down to danger.

As soon as she started to think about how to make him feel danger or pain, she felt a gust of wind to her left.

The smiling woman was there.

"It has already begun, you know?"

A flat handed jab flew toward her.

.

The battle in the ring began with an exchange of strikes and evasions.

First, they both pursued the other who was trying to move around to their side.

They pursued each other like a ballroom dance, but they also rotated their bodies with quick hooks and backhands or tried to land a lethal blow by jabbing a hand at them.

But neither of them forgot to have a backup plan if their attack was avoided. As they spun about like blooming flowers, combination attacks were added in after the fact.

They did not stop.

They would throw a kick to tear into their enemy's advance or launch a quick kick from below when that enemy was focused on their upper body.

Their footwork was primarily composed of stepping forward and immediately evading. They would charge in with all their strength before twisting their body and leaping away.

They would spin, step in to attack, evade, and spin some more to move back in.

They would dizzyingly swap positions and Pyrgos would sometimes put some distance between them.

"Hmmm."

He would swing his body into the chains and use the reactionary force to charge quickly forward.

Mei responded by determining the point he would begin his lariat or knee-blow and hit him with her heel or a slash of a sword. But with his instant regeneration and lack of danger, no amount of crushing or cutting would stop him.

The wind whipped up, sounds of impact rang out, and blood sprayed.

High-density actions produced countless noises in the center of the large steel room's illuminated ring.

And instead of stopping, those actions and noises picked up speed.

"—!"

A voice escaped both of them. It was a groan that sounded both delighted and furious.

"…!"

The sounds of impact grew even stronger.

.

What a troublesome opponent!

Mei thought while deflecting her opponent's attacks with the sword in her right hand.

This enemy used more than just physical blows. He would sometimes spread his fingers and grab at her joints by entangling his fingers around the back of her knee or her wrist. She had nearly been thrown several times and she had actually been lifted from the ground a few times. Each time, she had kicked off the floor to accelerate the throw herself and escape.

I'm at the disadvantage here, she thought.

Don't be so fainthearted, she scolded herself, but facts were facts.

For one thing, their rate of recovery from injury was completely different, even with Shikifuku active. A torn off arm would be a major disadvantage for her, but he would recover instantly.

Currently, he was rushing toward her.

"…!"

She brought her heel down on his knee, destroying it, but that crushed knee regenerated after only a moment.

In fact, his knee pushed up on her heel and sent her flying into the air.

She spun around in midair to regain control, but…

"You really are troublesome!"

"I love that you aren't calling me a 'monster'."

With those words, Pyrgos sped up and she saw someone circle around to her left.

A woman!?

She had never seen this woman before. Her brown hair fluttered behind her, but…

"He's faster than when he was a man!"

She knew why. In his male body, Pyrgos had the ideal athletic form, but the male body was large and entirely covered in muscles.

When those muscles were perfectly balanced, they included muscles that provided acceleration and muscles that provided endurance.

The all-purpose male physique was quite inefficient for high-speed movement.

Its initial speed was slow and its maneuverability was poor. That sort of thing was easily transferred to a tiron body through the mind.

On the other hand, the female physique was skinnier and shorter, giving it maneuverability and flexibility.

In a limited space like this, the female form could fight at greater speeds than the male form. And…

His muscle density must not be what it seems!

This was still Pyrgos's body. When he became a smaller woman, his body would grow denser.

He was a maneuverable woman with the explosive strength of a man contained within.

As a man, he could make large movements. As a woman, he could make precise movements with instantaneous power behind them.

He was switching between the two forms more and more quickly as the battle progressed.

"Kh…"

As the woman rushed in to her left, Mei threw a left backhand and she kept her fingers together for a finger jab bent like a duck's neck.

However, the woman accelerated even further. She transformed into an even shorter woman and leaped behind Mei.

"…!"

Acting on reflex, Mei jumped forward.

And she heard something like clapping hands directly behind her where her head had been.

The movement of the shadow on the floor told her Pyrgos had tried to grab her in his male form. He had brought his hands together to grab at her head.

To hold him back, she swept back the sword in her left hand and she turned around. As she did, Pyrgos swung his hands straight down, leaned his upper body forward, and…

"Here I goooo!"

He accelerated in his male form, but a moment later, he became the spear woman, the smiling woman, an unfamiliar woman, and consecutively smaller women while continuing to lean forward.

That's…!

It was her. It was her black hair and black eyes. The only differences were the holes in the right shoulder and right side of the strange uniform.

"I have more or less figured…nn, you out!"

With those words, her other self rushed toward her.

.

Pyrgos jabbed a hand forward as he ran.

What a wonderful body!

This multi-purpose girl had been born with an amazing body that was fit for all kinds of tasks. And from what he had heard, she was the Unmatched Valkyrie's student.

Her body was made to hunt her opponent. She would have no problem moving just like a human and her wrist joints and other points on her skeleton were well-balanced for attack.

His initial jab was enough to tell him that. A normal human needed to explicitly move to thrust their hand forward, but with this body, he simply had to attack and leave the details up to the body.

He did not need to twist the body beyond its limits and he did not need to focus on turning the joints. As long as he decided he wanted to thrust his nails into his opponent and then swung his hand, the rest happened automatically.

This was a beast's body.

He had not yet perfectly read the positions of her joints and muscles, but if he could move like this already, just how much could he do once he read it all perfectly?

"Magnificent!"

He then quickly moved within range of his opponent.

.

"!?"

Mei's mind was taken over by surprise and confusion.

That was fast!?

She understood that her opponent had copied her body.

But why is he faster than me!?

The way he was carried by his initial speed was completely different. She did think he had built up acceleration by starting in his male form and transforming into smaller and smaller bodies, but his speed had not dropped even after remaining in her body.

In fact, his speed had increased.

Mei was confused.

"…"

As he attacked, she made a broad counterattack by swinging her sword diagonally upwards.

Her own face ducked below the blade. It was an instantaneous duck, there was a smile on the face looking up at her, and that smiling face continued up toward her chest.

He's so fast, she thought. But how? she also thought.

His initial speed was completely different. The rest may have been the same, but there was an overwhelming difference in that initial speed.

"Just to be clear, I'm keeping my body layout as close to yours as possible."

Meaning…

"The two of us are the same right now. Except...as far as the quality of the body is concerned, mine is a strengthened-by-trion version while yours are due to a Black Trigger. Yes, so yours should be superior."

Mei was confused by that comment in her own voice.

Then why is he faster than me!?

She received an answer in another statement.

"In other words, I know better how to use this body. I have copied so many different people and studied the formation of their bodies, so…yes. I use their body better than they can and surpass them. …That is what I do. So…"

As her own face approached, it seemed to ripple and distort. It showed its teeth in what could be seen as a smile or protest.

"What am I!?"

Then the attack arrived.

.

She is slow, thought Pyrgos while observing his enemy.

She had not mastered the use of her own body and she was simply relying on its basic abilities to fight.

While she could very well be strong that way, she became a heavy tank that lacked the advantages of a female body.

"That's not how you do iiiit!"

Pyrgos jabbed his sharp fingernails forward again and again.

After throwing his right hand forward, he pulled it back, reversed his rotation, and threw in his left hand. He then swung his outstretched left hand to the outside, rotated his body to the left, and thrust his right hand up from below.

He kept stepping further and further forward as if making quick jabs with his feet and he would use each step as a launching point for his hands while making sure his opponent could not escape to the left or right.

She could only continue moving back with an occasional large leap away.

"…Hoo!"

So he spread his hand and tried to grab her instead. She shrank down during her jump, avoided having him grab her during that stiff moment, and immediately dropped back down.

She has excellent reflexes, he thought. And she seems to have a knowledge of joint locks and throws.

She had likely been trained by one of her fellow fighters. She was especially good at escaping in the instant when he grabbed her and tried to knock her from her feet.

That was why he could try to grab her as a simple feint to control her movement.

However, she continued to avoid his attacks and she would occasionally counterattack with solid blows. She seemed to have adopted a tactic centered on evasion and defense. She had already dropped her sword onto the ring and only attacked with her more maneuverable bare hands.

But you have nowhere else to go!

She had just about reached the western corner post and she would have no escape once he pursued here there.

They were three steps away, then only two, and finally…

One step!

There was still the one step left, but Pyrgos made his attack there. He forced his way forward.

A moment later, the enemy took action as if she had been waiting for this.

"You were luring me innn!?"

She did not answer, but she was staring directly at him.

She sent out the nails of her right hand as he stepped forward. It was a diagonal slash from below, making it a difficult attack to see.

.

Pyrgos forcibly twisted his body.

As Border's Perfect Operator's attack raced diagonally from the lower left to the upper right, he tilted his body back and to the right.

He tried to lean away from the attack and he had perfectly judged its range.

"—!"

So he managed to dodge it. Her nails tore a deep gash in his left cheek, but the wound would heal in half a second. He doubted it would pain her heart to have hurt him either.

And now that he had dodged, it was his turn to attack.

He used his leaning body to move his right foot outwards and his left foot forwards. As he swung his body forwards, he launched his left hand straight forward to corner his opponent.

He targeted the center of her body: the chest.

In an instant, she pulled her right hand back from its failed attack to guard her neck and chest.

That was a wise decision. She was protecting the center of her body and her neck.

But Pyrgos did not mind.

…Your body has more than enough strength to tear itself apart!

He would break through her defenses and pierce his hand through her and out her back.

It would destroy his arm, but that would regenerate soon enough.

Victory was his.

With that in mind, he simply launched his hand straight forward.

But then he saw his opponent vanish from before his eyes.

"…!?"

He knew why: her speed had increased.

But how!?

His hand gouged into something.

It stabbed wrist-deep into the angel-shaped corner post he had cornered her against.

And then he sensed his enemy circling around behind him.

He had thought of her as slow until now, but she had suddenly sped up.

How!?

.

Mei's body felt light.

Pyrgos's back stood before her with his hand stuck in the corner post. It was identical to her own back.

The only difference was the uniform.

Pyrgos wore a strange girls' uniform, but…

I removed mine!

Something floated in the air by the corner post past Pyrgos's back.

It was a uniform. She had removed the coat and skirt, including the hard point parts.

She had removed it just before her earlier evasion.

When thinking about her speed, she had reached a certain answer.

Fighting in an unfamiliar uniform was dangerous.

Mimicking Jin, she had decided to wear a uniform similar to her normal Border one. But that uniform had quite a few metal-like parts and excellent natural defense, but her former squad uniform on which her personal combat uniform was based allowed for more graceful movements.

That made a large difference.

So when she had made the diagonal swing of her arm, she had removed her waist's hard point parts and her skirt. When she had pretended to bring her hand to her neck and chest to guard, she had actually removed her neck's hard point parts and her coat.

She now only wore the inner suit and the tights. She could not lighten herself anymore without stripping down to her underwear or completely nude.

She removed as much of the unfamiliar clothing as she could and then attacked.

"…!"

She grabbed the sword she had dropped on the ring and went for…

The neck!

As her other self started to turn around, she made a rising horizontal slash.

It flew through above the shoulder and into the center of the neck.

The quick slash produced a sound much like chopping through a tree.

"How about that!?"

And her own head flew through the air.

.

I did it!

It's a good thing he wasn't wearing my usual clothing, thought Mei.

Anyone with a combat position, as she was told by Kushikage, was trained in slaughtering livestock and dissecting animals, so the sensation of the attack and its result were not enough to fill her with revulsion.

But I have never done it to myself before.

So I'm glad for that slight difference, she thought as she watched her own head fly through the air. Besides that, Yuki's Side Effect is a basic version of what he had done. I had fought him enough time by now to know how to deal with myself.

At any rate, that ends this, she also thought.

Decapitating him would prevent his body from moving. The severed hand had turned to trion smoke earlier, so the beheaded body would likely do the same and move to the head.

That meant her enemy had lost his body. And…

"This is my chance to take the memo!"

Leaving him unable to move and swiping the memo had been her plan for victory.

The memo had always been her only objective here, so as long as she got that, nothing else mattered. She did not even need to continue fighting. That was a very un-Operator-like thing to think and she felt some shame, but…

I honestly don't think I can win.

Their skill or their pure "strength" was too different. She was hardly one to talk with her strengthened body, but his transformation ability, lack of danger, and rapid regeneration was a veritable smorgasbord of unfair abilities even for a Neighbor.

She needed to find victory somewhere outside of defeating him in battle.

And that was what she was doing. She stepped forward and took action to rob the airborne head of its freedom.

"…!"

She thrust her sword up into her other self's head to pin it in place.

But instead, a certain color exploded before her eyes.

It was the green of trion smoke.

That was the smoke that appeared during Pyrgos's regeneration, but it had not come from where she was expecting.

It was the headless body that was supposed to vanish.

But that proved wrong.

Instead, her own decapitated head vanished from the air in front of the sword.

"The head disintegrated!?"

"That's right. The thing about my body is…the bigger part is always the main part."

Black hair suddenly spread out atop the headless body in front of her.

He was regenerating quickly and she saw black eyes turn back toward her.

Then!

He had said he wanted to feel pain.

"Then…!"

As her own face turned toward her, she pierced her raised sword through its side.

With a cold and solid sound, the blade stabbed through the side of her own head and into the medulla oblongata.

"What about this!?"

.

Mei felt the version of herself before her eyes looked like a corpse.

She had taken three steps away as soon as she made the stab, but she had let go of the sword.

And ahead of her, her other self had stopped moving. The sword was stabbed in up to the guard and most of the blade was sticking out the other side of her own face.

This tilted that head in the opposite direction, but…

"How very heavy."

Her other self gave a casual comment and smiled a little.

"That was a good idea. …It really was."

Yes.

"Even if my head can regenerate, I still see with my eyes and hear with my ears. In that case, it is my head that tells my body what to do, so you might be able to stop me by attacking there. And if you're going to do that, you should go for the center of the nervous system. You should make a quick attack on the brain and medulla oblongata that send instructions to my body. Yes, there were parts of my body that even I could no convert."

Her other self tapped on the guard of the sword sticking from Mei's side of his head.

"And if you leave the weapon there, the constant damage to my nerves would cause me pain. Was that your idea?"

He was right and she saw no other possible way.

However, Pyrgos pointed something out to her. He slowly stuck a few of his fingernails between the blade and his skin.

"Let's see…"

He peeled both sides away as if spreading them to create a gap.

The blade and sliced portion of his head opened up and she could see inside.

That's insane!

But she could see inside all the same.

"Well? The cut is so clean, isn't it?"

"—"

The sight just about made her want to vomit, but he was right. She could see the cut, but there was no trion or any other kind of anything. It looked like it was lined with soft glass.

"It can't be… Did your regeneration power block off the cut as soon as the blade stabbed into you?"

"If anything, it was my self modification ability that did it. I transform into the kind of creature that would survive being cut without removing the blade."

Her other self laughed and returned the blade and gap to normal.

"It's true I feel a brief twitch when something hits my brain or medulla oblongata, but it's more like an itch and it never reaches the level of pain. If you want to do it…"

"I need to continually use new blades?"

Her other self nodded at that impossible suggestion and that enemy used the downward motion of the nod to grab the sword's hilt from below.

"There."

With the sound of breaking bone, Pyrgos pulled the blade through the top of his head like removing a hairband. Mei realized something when she saw it.

"You didn't feel pain even with the blade moving through your head?"

"Not at that speed, no. It was blocked from the beginning. And you know what?" He threw the sword aside. "No one has ever succeeded in making me feel pain or danger."

He turned toward her in the time it took the sword to fall.

"Now, I think I've figured it out."

"Figured out what?"

She knew the answer, but her pride as the "real" one forced her to ask. And the "fake" one was forced to answer.

"You. …Yes, I've mostly read how you work."

With those words, her other self rushed toward her.

And at a speed she had not seen before.

.

Mei did not hesitate to fall back.

She was light and he was fully-equipped.

Full speed away!

She moved back, but not by back-stepping. She turned her back and ran with all her might. She poured in all her strength starting with the first step and she was moving toward something three meters ahead and a little to the right.

The western corner post!

She would jump over it and land beyond it. If he pursued, she could attack in the slight opening as he landed. If he sensed that stopped, she could put some distance between them and prepare herself for what came next.

"…"

She gathered strength in her thighs and made the three meter dash.

And she saw herself run right in front of her.

.

"!?"

Mei was truly surprised.

She had nimbly moved away and then run at full speed, yet her other self had still cut in front of her.

How fast is he!?

She was briefly reminded of her mentor. When they had fought near the Forbidden Zone, her mentor had also demonstrated abnormal bursts of speed like this.

This brought back the thought that had been carved into her heart years before and had returned to the surface just the other day.

It was the thought that she could not stand up to her mentor.

But that was not accurate.

"What's wrong?" asked her other self.

Her mentor was not the only one she could not stand up to.

It was one thing when she was no match for an ally, but this opponent was an enemy as well as a copy of herself.

And I still can't do anything!?

She felt something hit her left side. While circling in front of her, her other self had used that motion to perform a roundhouse kick.

The sound of impact reverberated through her entire body and she was torn from the floor and into the air.

.

The chains that caught her lightened body gave a heavy groan.

The corner posts supporting the chains were made of metal, but they still bent from the force.

The recoil sent the chains back forward and launched Mei high above the ring.

The other gray lion jumped up to meet her there.

Her enemy lowered down until he was skimming by just above the metal ring's mat and then he used his great strength to jump straight up. He used his entire body as a giant spring, but used it to produce speed rather than height.

"Here I goooo!"

The right of his spread legs hit Mei back down.

As soon as her body bent downwards, the other gray lion's left leg flew upwards and kicked her bent body toward the ceiling.

The midair double kick produced a tearing sound and moved their bodies apart in the air.

The kick from below sent Mei upwards and the other gray lion dropped down.

However…

"I'm not done yet!"

The fake gray lion used the recoil of kicking Mei to perform a flip.

Using the acceleration of his great strength, he stretched out his body for a roundhouse heel kick from above Mei.

That made three midair kicks.

It sounded more like a stake being driven into her flesh than a simple blow to her flesh and she quickly shot diagonally downward. The fake gray lion kicked off the ceiling and jumped in the opposite direction.

They rapidly flew diagonally down to the west and east where the ring's chains awaited.

They fell.

Mei and the other gray lion were simultaneously stopped by the chains. Mei's entire body shook from the shock and she sprawled out limply, but the other gray lion looked like he was lounging on a sofa.

"Next."

One of them was thrown into the air, the other jumped up into the air, and they crossed paths.

As they crossed, the fake gray lion flipped onto his side and shrank down.

"…!"

And he hit Mei with a repelling drop kick.

Mei was sent right back to the chains.

She had already lost control of her body due to the repeated strikes, but the other gray lion showed no mercy. He flipped around in midair, landed in the ring, and moved below Mei as she was bounced back by the chains again.

"Now, time for the main eveeeeent!"

The fake gray lion grabbed her ankle.

For an instant, some slight life returned to Mei's face. After all…

"Heh hehn. I'm not going to do what your mentor did."

As he spoke, the false enemy spun around. He stood on his right toes with Mei's right ankle in his left hand.

"Half giant swing!"

The fake gray lion spun in place, tore through the wind, and waved Mei around like a flag.

And he accelerated.

By the third rotation they were producing a tremendous sound, by the fifth the wind was shaking the entire room, by the ninth the weapons were rattling in the stockers, and by the fifteenth…

"Max speeeeed!"

The fake gray lion threw what he held. Instead of just letting go to make a side throw, he forcibly bent his entire body forwards for an overhand throw.

It resembled a one-armed shoulder throw, he bent far enough for his forehead to reach the floor, and he launched Mei.

"That's where you wanted to go, wasn't it?"

She collided with the western corner post.

.

The post bent at its base and the chains burst off of it.

A wave of metallic sounds filled the room and chain links sprayed outward while reflecting the light.

After taking the blow to her back, Mei saw something in her blurry vision.

"Now, then. When I make my body so small and skinny, it leaves something to be desired in attack power. Then how about I try this?"

She saw her other self spread his arms and change form in the center of the ring.

That's…

She recognized the crimson hair, the height, the sharp eyes, and the huge breasts.

This was the Unmatched Valkyrie.

.

Seeing her mentor's form shook Mei's heart.

"—"

Her body was still shaking from the beating it had taken, so she could not move. She had a concussion and the swinging had thrown off her inner ear and her center of gravity.

She could not stand and she even slid down the tilted post until her butt reached the floor. However, she kept her eyes open to view what stood before her.

Her fake mentor demonstrated the same instantaneous acceleration as her real mentor had.

"…!"

But this fake hit her chest with a drop kick using both feet.

She no longer felt anything.

It's no use.

She did her best to hold back the thought that she had lost. If she let herself think that, she knew she really would lose.

But her body could do nothing about the attack and simply became a medium for the force to travel through.

The western corner post broke from its base behind her.

"—"

And she was sent flying through the air.

.

The angel-shaped corner post flew through the air.

Below it, the girl known as the gray lion was knocked outside the ring.

Her light body crashed into one of the stockers of trion weapons surrounding the ring.

"—!"

It broke and it was not the only one. Like a spreading wave, several of the weapon stockers were destroyed and the grips attached to blades or blunt trion flew up into the air.

A moment later, a crashing sound came from the western wall of the round room. Mei had reached the outer wall and she was buried in a pile of broken weapon stockers.

All that remained was the fake Unmatched Valkyrie standing in the ring.

The airborne weapons and fragments clattered loudly on the floor and other objects that had fallen ahead of them.

The overlapping sounds almost sounded like rain or applause.


"The sounds have stopped," said the smiling woman at the wall's entrance below the tower.

The spear woman at the tower's entrance gave a deep nod.

"Pyrgos-sama excels at that combination attack. He rarely makes it to the end, though."

"Didn't he get to the end with you?"

"No." The spear woman smiled bitterly. "He slammed me against the post and then stopped just before making the finishing blow. And he was using your form at the time. I had no idea what was happening to me."

"I see," said the smiling woman. "But it sounded like he made it to the end this time. And it seemed faster than usual. It must not have been my form. I'm too light."

The Unmatched Woman nodded and sighed.

"That pathetic girl must not have been able to keep up. She can be rather slow." She placed a hand on her hip and sighed even deeper. "She's always been so smart and diligent. …And that's what slows her down. She overthinks everything."

"Her Side Effect is to-"

"That has nothing to do with. 'Rampage Dress' is just a stupid title you people gave her. It's her fault for letting her mind wander like that."

"Hm? Is Mei really that slow? I'm not sure I get it."

"Well," began Inukai as he looked up at the tower.

He saw Oshiro worriedly holding his arm and gave him a reassuring nod.

And then…

"As far as speed is concerned, Mei-san is not all that fast. It's only her Trigger."

.

I'm being harsh, but it's the truth, thought Inukai.

"She lacks speed both in her attacks and her movement. I'll set aside Kanzaki and Kiyoshi since their speed isn't exactly measurable, but she is the slowest of those from back when outside of Mittsun-kun. The only reason she has any sort of speed is because of her Trigger."

"Are you one of the faster ones, Sumiharu? And does this have to do with stamina?"

"Well, I am relatively quick and my stamina is pretty decent… Why are you recording this, Nono!?"

He turned back to the elite before continuing.

"Anyway, you know this well enough without any sort of example, but reflexes are vital in battle. But on the vanguard where one uses their whole body, attack speed and movement speed are more important. Of course, someone who uses a sniper rifle is different. But as I said, Mei-san is only a little higher than most in attack speed and movement speed. You can find it all in the measurements we have taken."

"Then why is she has been able to fight on the vanguard?"

"Her constant attacks with her fists, her extra strength from her Trigger, and her endurance."

It was because she lacked natural speed that she used her Trigger to protect herself and to continuously attack without stopping.

...But she doesn't have that Trigger now.

Against normal agents, she could still manage with her superhuman strength and endurance. Depending on how she fought, she could even handle someone on the level of an A-Rank.

But at the top tier level or higher, that was no longer the case. One only reached that level by having skill, speed, and strength.

Inukai felt Mei was at a serious disadvantage here.

But…

He mentally tilted his head. He had long known Mei as an upperclassman, so he had a solid understanding of her speed.

"Did you give Mei-san that Trigger because you had noticed her speed? Is that it, Kushikage-san?"

"Didn't I tell you? That stupid girl is too diligent. That's why I thought the Trigger would suit her better than my large blade."

"What do you mean by diligent?"

That seemed odd to him. It was true that Mei was diligent. At the base, she would take it too far by normal standards, become overly conscious of things, and be teased by others.

And a lot happened in the past, too.

"What happens because she is too diligent?"

"You don't know? Overly diligent people tend to overthink things. And with her case, that will happen far too often."

He did not know what that meant, so he guessed it was something only Mei and the Unmatched Woman would understand.

But then he felt a tug on his arm and saw Oshiro tilting his head.

"Um, you keep saying Mei-san is slow, but I think she is plenty fast."

"Eh? Oh, well, we were talking about a different standard for speed."

"You mean in battle, right? Then she showed plenty of speed the other night."

Oh, thought Inukai as he found himself speechless. Oshiro had to mean what Mei had done in the battle the night of the attack.

That high-speed throw.

As if to agree with his thoughts, Fujimaru smiled and spoke.

"She seemed to be thinking about something when we bathed in the open air bath today, but I think it was about that. So…yes. I think she will be fine," she said. "After all, people who don't simply stew in their thoughts and instead search for an answer are sure to find that answer somewhere."


Pyrgos sighed in the ring.

Two minutes had passed since the final attack, but there was still no sign of his opponent moving from the corner of the room where he had sent her.

This is over.

My final job as a runaway is over, he thought.

Technically, he had never done any real work, but that was exactly why he thought what he did.

...As a runaway and brother to Pyr I did nothing that would give another nation a piece of Afto.

Still in the Unmatched Valkyrie's form, he tapped the right chest of his uniform, where the memo was sealed.

As a runaway, he had protected the records left by the family that had trusted him with this secret.

And he had driven back a representative of Border, that organization that had quickly become the talk of every other city.

He had shown the other nations that a runaway could easily handle an attack from a Border Combatant.

"Will my sister think I was at least a little bit capable now?"

The enemy remained motionless, but he did not let his guard down. This was the Unmatched Valkyrie's student. Even if he had felt the blows land and even if she was battered and concussed, he doubted her body had broken or that she had been fatally wounded.

She is not moving because her heart is no longer struggling. Even with a Black Trigger, he mind has already decided to put a burden on her.

She had decided she was no match for him.

Once he had begun his high-speed combo, he had no longer sensed any ambition in her movements. The surprise and resignation on her face had been especially strong when he had taken on the Unmatched Valkyrie's form.

"I did something horrible to you, didn't I? I really did."

But it is over now, he thought while turning to the room's exit.

In the end…

"Even as a runaway, I still don't know what I am."

As soon as he said that, he heard a noise.

It was a metallic noise.

In the corner of his vision, he saw black hair swaying and rising on the western edge of the room.

The battle was not yet over.