I don't own World Trigger! Daisuke Ashihara does.

Edit: Found that some words and line breaks got deleted, already fixed.

Re:Edit: I keep finding problems when formatting when I reupload new chapters, but this should be the final edit. I hope.

The Rank-Wars-turned-Exhibition-Match-Room was completely jam-packed.

C-rankers and journalists jostled for space, while B-rankers retreated to the relative safety of their squad rooms.

(In Takakoma's case, the living room.)

"For everyone who hasn't seen this before, participants are placed randomly on a pre-set map. Points will be awarded on who deals the most damage per death, and additional survival points will be added at the end of the match." Azuma explained.

Kido nodded for extra emphasis.

"Yosh!" Usami cried.

As the resounding cheer died out, the match began.

"There's actually a pretty even spread," Karasawa drawled. "Kageura Squad's probably got the best coordinates - they're all practically next to each other. Tachikawa's going to have a tough time, he's nowhere near Izumi and is stuck with Kitora."

"Miwa's near Kitora as well, but knowing him, he'll get Bagworm on and wait for the other two attackers to duke it out." Azuma said. "The upper management on the other hand, are having a pretty rough spawn."

"It might be possible for the Lieutenant and Director Rindou to meet up, but they're definitely going to run into Izumi. Director Shinoda's mostly surrounded by the rest of Miwa squad as well- oh, there goes Yuiga. Kazama's already got the first point of the match." he continued. "And there he goes again, fading out into his trademark Chamele-"

-Line Break-

"Directo Rindou."

"Izumi."

"Rindou!" Kinuta hissed. " Get out of the firing zone! How's the plan going to work if you're just standing there?"

"Calm down," he said, ducking into a nearby building to avoid the bullets Izumi was shooting (quite rudely) at him. "Masafumi can still do it."

Shinoda huffed up the final flight of stairs, annoyed. "You just had to run into Izumi in the first five minutes."

"But isn't this so much more fun?" Rindou sang, rolling away from another torrent of bullets, courtesy of Izumi.

"Not particularly." he muttered as he deactivated Bagworm,revealing the handsome dress uniform.

"Tomahawk!" he sneezed, summoning a flurry of cubes on the empty rooftop.

oOoOo

Izumi cursed as Rindou rolled away from his bullets yet again, quickly abandoning his initial plan of using Meteora, switching to Tomahawk instead.

Unfortunately, it was all for naught, and as the blue sky was lit up to a dazzling green, it became apparent that the Director had already beaten him to it.

"Jeez, the Director's always such a pain to fight! Why can't he just let us win for once?" the younger man complained, forced to pull up both of his shields as he dashed into a nearby house.
"Aw, you know Masafumi's a sweetheart." Rindou said loudly, though more for his and Azuma's own amusement to see how Kyoko would react later rather then for his friend's defence. "I'm sure he didn't mean to rile you up."

Shinoda made sure a few of his bullets swerved past his supposed best friend.

The two shooters emerged from their hiding places a few minutes later, Rindou in mild surprise, Izumi in shock.

-LINE BREAK-

Most of the audience in the Rank Wars room shared Izumi's feelings.

"He destroyed the entire street!"

"He didn't hit Izumi!"

"He tried to hit Director Rindou!"

"He didn't hit Director Rindou!"

Azuma tried not to laugh as he started up the commentary.
There would be plenty of time for that later.

"Right, after that startling revelation by Director Rindou, the two shooters are up and running again - though why the Director didn't just shoot Izumi down is beside me-"

"I suspect this has something to do with Kyoko." Kido rumbled. "She's on the street right behind them with Bagworm on."

"But wouldn't it be hard for her to take on Izumi with Rindou? I've heard that although she's a pretty versatile partner, she has a lot of trouble with him." Usami questioned.

"It's true." Azuma confirmed. "She actually works best with the Director - they both share similar trigger sets and have a similar fighting style, preferring clear-cut plans, but they do pretty well with whatever ridiculous plan they have and improvise surprisingly well."

"Stupid plans are exactly what Rindou provides plently of." Karasawa said dryly.

"Jokes aside, the two of them should be able to hold off Izumi long enough for the Director to meet up with them. Although, Rindou doesn't seem to be betting on the Director arriving any time -"

"Escudo!" Rinodu roared, Asteroid bullets forming around him as an Escudo erupted from under Izumi, sending the younger agent flying.

Despite being flung upwards away from the ground, Izumi smirked.

Rindou was completely undefended.

"Meteor!"

Already, the explosive bullets were hurtling towards Rindou - Izumi's smirk widened -
Until the bullets sank into a shield that hadn't been there before.

His smirk flipped to a frown when he felt himself cut into two.

"Director?" he called, trying to crane his neck to see where the attacker had came from.

oOoOo

"I'll make sure to tell the Director that you were looking for him." Kyoko said sweetly, Kogetsu unsheathed.

"That's not what I meant-" he spluttered-

"Massive trion loss detected. Bail out."

Rindou gave Kyoko an innocent look.

"You've been spending far too much time with Masafumi, Lieutenant."

"Need I remind you that we are in the midst of an Exhibition Match, Director Rindou?" she questioned, springing towards the general direction of Shinoda.

"Well, it's a good thing we're going to go find Masafumi," he continued, ignoring her pointed look. "I'm sure he'll be delighted to see you!"

-PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT RANDOM THINGS IN THEIR TEAM COMS-

"Which do you think Kyoko prefers? Shrimp or Mackerel?"

"Chestnuts."

"That wasn't - why chestnuts?"

"Director Shinoda said that she liked roasted chestnuts."

"How-"

oOoOo

"I told you we should have just killed Yuiga off ourselves! Now Kazama's got a point already!"

"I'm sure it'll be fine-"

"Look! Now Izumi's dead as well!"

"Do you think Kazama brought another potato today?"

oOoOo

"Kaho."

"Yes, Captain?"

"Protect the potato. I have a bad feeling about what might happen."

ADDITONAL THOUGHTS BY AUDIENCE AND OTHER PEOPLE-

"What's going on?"

oOoOo

"Where's my taiyaki?"

"Hah! Konami didn't notice me eating her taiyaki! Now, on to Chika's!"

"I guess Konami didn't notice Yotaru stealing her snack- oh, there goes Chika's."

"I'll murder him if he steals Yuri's."

oOoOo

"Not allowed to kill Takumi - not allowed to kill Takumi - not allowed to kill Takumi - Hey, that was a pretty good Senkuu by Kyoko - WAIT NO STOP TAKUMI YOU SLIMY WEASEL- DON'T KILL DON'T KILL DON'T KILL-"

"Why did I let Netsuki convince us to hold this match? I should have listened to Masafumi…"

NOTES:
Thanks a bunch to everyone who stuck around despite the lack of updates. My laptop of 8 years decided to die suddenly and I lost quite a chunk of this chapter - luckily I write most of the chapters on paper so it wasn't too bad.

Also, I have to give major props to the author, Ashihara. How he planned out the Rank Wars and Invasions are way beyond me, given the way he keeps implementing new tactics and managing to make them all feel fresh.

As to how Rindou managed to use Escudo, Asteriod and Shield all at the same time… He didn't.

That was Kyoko's doing. Given that Escudo has a surprisingly long range and that she's pretty skilled in defense and support, it wouldn't have been too hard for her to pull a few Escudos under Izumi. All Rindou had to do was time it properly - and seeing how Kyoko joined Border the year it was established, I'm assuming that she has worked with him along with quite a few people - mainly with Azuma and Shinoda, probably (Miwa as well, since she was pretty friendly with him during the Galopoula Invasion).

Regarding any further updates… While I do have the basic skeletal structures of what happens in the Exhibition Match, I'm still going to take a a fair bit of time writing and rewriting the next few chapters.

AND FINALLY…

PLEASE RATE AND REVIEW! I'd love to know what you think of the recent chapters, especially what irks you, and what you hate. If you have any suggestions or ideas on what might happen next, do please leave a review.

(and is anyone enjoying the extra behind the scenes dialogues?)

Last question: Is this type of formatting better? Or would you guys like to see more spacing in between? (only in the form of oOoOoOo I'm afraid)