Eh? thought Kanzaki as she looked around.
This was the battlefield. She had decided to follow Kimura's instructions and Mitsuteru's direction, but on the way, she had found what she thought was a shortcut.
...I got as lost as naturally as being swept away by the current of a river...
That must have been destiny. In other words, it was not carelessness.
Good, she told herself. I haven't been careless yet today.
Kanzaki checked her surroundings. She saw a bit of destruction from a familiar sword slash, she saw Mitsuteru who she had tried to follow, and she saw the two guys she knew fairly well as Kiyoshi and Murakami. I would be in some real trouble if I had forgotten about Murakami-dono. But beyond him...
"..."
She thought it was Tachikawa Kei.
But she did not think there was a reason for him to be here, so what if it was another imposter acting like Tachikawa Kei instead of him? And the Tachikawa Kei she knew had two arms, but this imposter(?) was a little bit different. No, he was quite a bit different on that front.
So she asked.
"Um." She tilted her head. "Who might you be?"
"I am Tachikawa Kei, you fool!"
He scolded me. But what am I supposed to say? You have changed a lot, but I guess it was the missing right arm? That probably wouldn't work.
She chose her words carefully.
"Are you making the switch to being a southpaw?"
"My arm was cut off by that ninja, you fool!"
"That ninja...? Um, uhh... Oh! The one that stands next to Murakami-dono! That ninja!"
I see.
"From what I have heard, that ninja has been constantly feeling himself down below these days. And...!"
"Eh? I...I had my arm cut off by someone like that?"
Tachikawa looked to Mitsuteru.
"D-don't look at me!?" shouted Mitsuteru. "I figured there was something up, but... Well, he's a ninja, so maybe he can do it without anyone noticing!"
"I'm honestly a little impressed you could come up with a proper response to that one. ...But, I see. That would be why he was crouching down so much. Oh, and he must have attacked me because I'm just too sexy."
"Given the size of your chest, Tachikawa-dono, I suppose you would count as 'busty'."
"Ha ha ha," laughed Tachikawa while thrusting Kōgetsu forward.
.
Mitsuteru saw it after he moved away from the battlefield and escaped to a rooftop.
He could determine that Tachikawa's attack had entirely caught his former teammate by surprise. But...
...What?
The girl circled around to Tachikawa's side.
Mitsuteru thought it must have been an acceleration Trigger, but he could detect none of the wind that accompanied high speeds.
To Mitsuteru's eyes, it simply looked like his former teammate was walking. But Kiyome's sign frame was displayed at the girl's feet.
This was a new one. She had shattered the previous one when moving, but...
"...?"
Mitsuteru was confused. Why was the girl's speed not rising?
And...
...Light?
His former teammate's movements were light. They were even lighter than simply walking, so it was more like she was standing still. She stood by Tachikawa's side as if she had no weight at all. And so...
"—"
Tachikawa moved half a step away.
He was not fleeing. His eyes were somewhat narrowed and directed straight ahead. He was viewing everything around him.
He, too, had noticed there was something different about his former teammate. And...
"Hey. You said you ran here, right? How many steps did it take you?"
His former teammate looked puzzled by that.
Mitsuteru concluded that it was a silly question. Why ask how many steps it had taken after arriving from wherever she had been in Mikado City.
It would not even work as a trick to distract his opponent. Except...
...Answer?
Mitsuteru began some abnormal thought patterns. His instincts from working as a supporter for others against others told him something about Tachikawa's question.
...he's serious!
His former teammate was trying to answer it. She briefly looked up, raised her left hand, and started folding down the fingers.
"One, two, three, four..."
As the girl counted, Tachikawa took action. He made a horizontal sweep of Kōgetsu in his left hand.
.
Tachikawa saw it.
Kanzaki dodged his blade as it rapidly slipped horizontally through the air.
She had used Kiyome. But...
...Hold on. What's this!? It looks like fun!
Tachikawa had come across a few Kiyome users in Border when doing solo matches. It and its derivatives were not as popular as Grasshopper, but it still had its own sort of occult following.
It created a cumulative acceleration via purification - or the act of "pushing aside" - so it could only be used with long strokes and could not pull off changes in direction over short distances. But...
"You...!"
His opponent was relaxed. She had no speed and, instead of walking, only seemed to transfer her body weight over, like she was on top of a pulley.
Kanzaki broke through 37 instances of Kiyome and calmly dodged Kōgetsu's blade.
She dodged it slowly.
No, she dodged it because she moved slowly.
...She lowers and suppresses her speed enough to fully control each and every one of her joints, and then she makes the ideal movement!
She did not move quickly. While staying slow, she watched carefully, moved her body properly, and dodged with the smallest possible movement.
This was the ideal.
It was a technique that only upper-level swordsmen could pull off.
Tachikawa did not know what method she had used, but she had created an unbreakable Kiyome.
She was light.
And she circled to his side once more.
He looked to her face and she looked back at him.
...Ohh.
Her eyebrows were raised and her eyes were firmly focused on him. The way her mouth was shut showed him she was feeling a fair bit of tension.
That was not the look of a coward.
.
Tachikawa recalled when he had confronted this girl in the city.
He remembered her focusing on defense and putting up an insulting fight.
The cold look on her face back then was nowhere to be seen now.
Instead, he saw a girl's tense and serious expression. She had taken her own fighting techniques too far, so one wrong step and she could lose herself. She had the look of fearing her skill but also trusting in it.
Her own power would not let her grow careless. She would always stay at the top of her game to draw out her full power, which could even harm herself.
There was somewhere she could not reach without doing so.
She might die without reaching it even if she did so.
The look on her face said she understood that, but she still pushed herself and chose the battlefield.
I like that, thought Tachikawa. So you've finally arrived here, have you?
"Hey."
He thought about who he should call out to.
But whoever he directed his words to, he had a feeling it would get depressing.
He had promised Sekai and Denji that he would have fun in his fights all the way to the end.
So he simply moved. His enemy already held her spear at the ready. He certainly couldn't just say nothing and then get taken out.
Okay, he thought. I won't hold back.
He had never held back before, either.
After all, Tachikawa Kei was Border's #1 Attacker and student of Shinoda Masafumi, who was in charge of Border.
If he had done so much to get to that point and maintain his titles, how ferocious did he have to be to keep those titles easily?
If he was going to hold back, it had to be as someone at the pinnacle.
So he took action. If his opponent was going to determine the ideal action and move oddly, then...
"Yeah."
Tachikawa dodged his enemy's jabbing spear.
He slowly drew out all of his strength but used it to control himself.
His movements were the pinnacle ideal.
.
Mitsuteru noticed Tachikawa's "technique".
He had seen his former teammate move in what he could call the ideal.
But with Tachikawa...
...Is he serious!?
In an instantaneous exchange, Tachikawa had measured his enemy's skill. So unlike normal, he did more than just not hold back.
...He added in something extra!
He used his strength not for explosive movement but for calm action.
He made the smallest possible movement at the lowest possible speed. To do that, he had to be perfectly aware of his enemy's attack, perfectly see it coming, and perfectly respond to it.
His former teammate and the #1 Attacker slowly swapped places.
It was like a dance performance. It would have looked silly had Mitsuteru still been inexperienced, but after observing so many people, he could tell they were making the best possible actions over the shortest distance, and he could sense the great thought that had to go into it all. Similarly...
"...Kh."
They took the best possible action over the shortest distance to apply a lethal blow to their opponent, and they took the best possible action over the shortest distance to dodge that.
In that dense space, the strongest attack was met with the ultimate evasion over and over.
Tachikawa would dodge a jabbing spear by a layer of skin and send out his own blade alongside it without even ducking.
His former teammate would respond by letting the blade pass in front of her eyes by a hair's breadth and then use the pulling back of her hips to pull back her spear while re-aiming the tip toward the #1 Attacker's torso.
Their movements were almost leisurely, but with all excess excised from their movements, there was a lot of tension. But...
...Tachikawa-san really holds his title!
His former teammate was using an acceleration Trigger, but Tachikawa was only using his own strength. He also had only one arm, and he was matching things to his opponent's shorter height.
How much strength did all that take? And...
"...Toh."
Tachikawa slowly bent to the right to avoid the spear swung down on his left.
Mitsuteru had "read" that one too. And so he reached a certain conclusion: his former teammate would lose.
As if to prove him right, her ideal movement—the best possible action over the shortest distance—went exactly where it should have.
.
Tachikawa moved.
While bending to the right to avoid Kanzaki's spear, he raised his left arm to counterattack.
He was not just relying on his strength. He did not use any more strength than necessary, he did not rush himself, he kept his elbow out while sending his arm and blade on the most accurate route, and he pushed them forward.
She reacted by trying to calmly circle to his left side. She tried to dodge his rising left arm and Kōgetsu like that. But...
"—"
Her pace was relaxed and calm, but she took the long way around.
...That's right.
He had kept his left elbow held outwards, so avoiding that elbow had eaten up some time.
...You won't escape my rising left arm fast enough.
But she had avoided Kōgetsu's blade. Activating its cutting power here would not help. She was leaning out to the left, which put her outside of Senkū's firing range.
So he used the hilt.
As Kōgetsu rose alongside his body, he pushed the hilt against Kanzaki's spear as she passed by.
And from there...
"Now, then."
He threw the spear and Kanzaki as if placing them on the sword hilt.
He tossed them. It was a lot like gently pushing a paper airplane out into the air.
But that action definitely sent her flying. When she twisted her body and rose up a little, he lifted her.
"—"
And he calmly threw her.
.
The overall distance was 40 meters.
As Kanzaki flew in a parabolic arc, she searched for the closest place to land.
She found it. She moved her legs over and placed her feet on...
...A pillar!
The wall around a house had been broken in the battle, so just one piece of the white birch wall remained standing, albeit tilted. It was unsteady, but...
"..."
Kanzaki landed on it regardless.
To keep her body level to the ground, she bent her legs and she killed her momentum while...
...Soaring Wings!
She used her footwork to gently but surely adjust her position on the pillar.
Her eyes were facing forward the entire time. In her current position, up was straight ahead and there she saw Tachikawa directing a power toward her.
It was Senkū.
.
Mitsuteru sensed the result.
His former teammate would lose.
Her acceleration Trigger, Kiyome, used purification by removing anything in the direction of her acceleration.
She needed somewhere to plant her feet if she was to accelerate.
Her current footing had her directly facing Tachikawa, but...
...It's gonna collapse.
If she lightly kicked off, she would push it back and it would fall over. She had just landed, so she had to be just barely maintaining her balance.
He knew what she was trying to do. He did not know how she had managed it, but during her ideal movements, she had built up Kiyome without it shattering.
So she would use that to charge straight across this long distance. However...
"..."
The pillar would fall over. The momentum she could not fully rid herself of in her landing was pushing at it.
What would happen when she took that first step?
The pillar would definitely collapse and when her feet met empty air, she would stall out. All of her accumulated acceleration would explode and she would be blown away.
Even if she did manage to jump forward, Kōgetsu's Senkū counterattack awaited her.
Even with the accumulation from Kiyome, she would have difficulty moving forward faster than Senkū could activate. After all, she would be cut as soon the slash reached her.
Mitsuteru knew it simply was not possible. But...
"—"
He heard a voice.
It was a song.
Within the calm but dense series of ideal and short actions, his former teammate sang.
"And."
He heard more.
"Dance."
In that instant, Tachikawa's voice reached Mitsuteru's ears.
He made a counterattack to break apart the girl's singing.
"Senkū - Kōgetsu."
.
After the destruction, the result arrived in silence.
Senkū's cutting power had cut through and smashed up everything for the area ahead of him.
Houses had scattered, the road was split, sounds of dust and rubble rang out, and all that noise finally ended.
"Now, then."
With Kōgetsu still lowered in his left arm, Tachikawa looked back.
He looked a dozen or so meters away just once, but he immediately nodded.
"Over there, huh?"
He looked about 30 meters away.
In the battle-torn city, someone was facing away and kneeling on the roof of an old house.
It was Kanzaki.
She was breathing heavily, unable to control herself, and supporting herself with her trion spear to just barely avoid collapsing.
Seeing her from behind, Tachikawa asked a question. Even on the battlefield, his booming voice reached her. And it said...
"Is your heart still not in it after everything that's happened?"
She did not answer, but he smiled thinly and bitterly.
"No, at your current speed, you'd have a hard time thinking much during a fight. You should probably ask Yuki about the best way to use that speed. And I think I'll do the same."
After all...
"How the hell'd you outdo Senkū's speed?"
After he said that, Kanzaki began to move forward.
The deer antler hair decoration on the back of her head split and her hair split, but...
"—"
That was all. She clung to her spear to stop collapsing. And...
"Ha."
Just as she took a breath and stood up, the front of Tachikawa's left shoulder split open and trion sprayed out.
A tremor similar to the beat of his heart shook his body. But...
"Now that was fun."
He bent his left arm, his shoulder pushed against itself, and the trion leakage stopped. He had held his shoulder in place to cover the cut.
But he moved no further. His left arm had been about half-severed. He could use neither arm now, but...
"Wanna keep at it a little longer?"
"No." Kanzaki took a deep breath. "I have somewhere I must go."
"I'm just one step along the way then?"
"No. You are a great wall that I will run across wherever I might go."
"Then you'll run across me again, huh?"
"Yes. I may have lost this time, but it was a necessary step toward eventual victory."
Tachikawa smiled bitterly.
"True enough. ...It was my left shoulder and your hair. My attack was closer to the center of the body. If we did it again now, I'd definitely kill you."
But, well...
"I've lost use of both my arms this time. Bring your best next time and I'll take you on then."
"I am in your debt."
Kanzaki bowed, and...
"—"
She vanished. As she stood up, she must have already started accumulating Kiyome. There was no point in trying to follow her by eye. At the same time, there was no need to worry.
She was already next to Mitsuteru.
.
"Ariake-dono-..."
"Um, about that." Mitsuteru held up his hand to stop her. "I finally decided to settle things with Kō-kun, so can we be more informal too? I would like that for our entire former squad."
This caught his former teammate off guard, but he held firm to his words.
He would make sure there were no empty words or promises.
After a moment of thinking, she nodded her head.
"I would also like that. In which case... Mitsuteru."
"Yes?"
It felt better this way.
"I believe there is something needing to be done with that."
She pointed to the black object left in his care by Yuki and Kō.
Before leaving, they had made sure to hand him the object with an idea in mind.
All he had to do was follow up on that.
"That's right," he nodded. "So let's go."
Grumpy Cat: "What are you still doing awake?"
Svantje was not surprised to receive a message from her cousin. The time of night seemed right for someone trying to finish a doujinshi by the end of the night.
The finishing touches would likely be done in the morning and submitted by midday.
He really does work hard at times like these, doesn't he?
His partner in crime liked to do the same, but she also enjoyed her beauty sleep. Sometimes Lukas would fall asleep at her place, so they always made sure to have a spare place for him to sleep. That was extended to Svantje herself.
Detective Sniper: "I was putting everything together. I think I figured out what I wanted to."
Grumpy Cat: "You mean the things that had been going on during the day?"
Detective Sniper: "That's right."
She had gotten Kikuchihara to help her, and they had even found out who had been running around. The news had only reached others after he had shown himself, so it became moot.
Detective Sniper: "Judging from the messages we got and how quiet things have been, I can figure out that Misó is already gone. A Gate opened just before nighttime, so he probably left through that."
Grumpy Cat: "But you don't think he left quietly, do you? Something was left behind, and you are figuring it out."
Detective Sniper: "You know me so well~"
Grumpy Cat: "We were always together since you were born, so it's the least to get what your thought process is."
It was true. Lukas understood that she would be up this late because she had found out that there was more to the current situation.
That understanding was likely the reason he had spoken up to her in the first place. Knowing what could happen helped to prepare for anything in the future.
So she made sure not to hold back.
Grumpy Cat: "So what did you figure out?"
Detective Sniper: "It took some work, and I had to get Shirō and Kasumi's help, but I know there is something set up in the Forbidden Zone. It's hidden from any radars, but those two were able to pick up the sound easily. Shirō took the time off, but Kasumi looks like he's still awake. He's probably trying to figure out what to do about it."
Grumpy Cat: "And what do you think it is?"
Detective Sniper: "Something that would hurt the city the most."
Grumpy Cat: "Are you implying that another invasion will happen?"
That was a fair conclusion to come to, but it was not the one she had come to. In all actuality, that would be easier to deal with.
We have people who can look into or calculate the future, so they could do that easily. An invasion could be handled with a lot of preparation. Those two look like they were doing other things, but anyone on the outside wouldn't be able to see that.
So what else could it have been?
She knew the answer.
Detective Sniper: "An explosion."
Grumpy Cat: "That does sound bad. But you guys found that out in the Forbidden Zone, right? There have been a lot of explosions. I doubt that another one will really matter. Even if they were going for the Border base, it would probably survive the explosion. Especially if it was only on one side of the building."
Detective Sniper: "That's true. But that is the only thing I can see it being. At least from what messages have been going around."
She was going to continue to explain her case, but there had been something that stopped her from doing so.
Someone had joined them.
Tinker Bell: "Hello, hello. It's me, your visiting genius. I noticed what you two were talking about and wanted to confirm that the explosion is real."
.
Grumpy Cat: "I guess it's a good thing I'm still awake. Now then, tell me why that is."
Tinker Bell: "Well, it's the obvious conclusion when you think about why two people with large amounts of trion were taken during the day."
Grumpy Cat: "Are you saying...?"
Tinker Bell: "Michelle and Tamakoma's cannon are safe. But they aren't the only ones with a lot of trion. They just have the most. But even so, they wouldn't be good for causing explosions like the one that was set up. Svantje, you know what I'm talking about, right?"
Detective Sniper: "Considering where you are, it's no wonder how you know about that."
Tinker Bell: "Yeah, well...you know how it is. But yeah, in this case, the two who were taken would do way more damage than those two girls."
Grumpy Cat: "Who are you talking about exactly?"
Tinker Bell: "Senzai Squad's Sthénos and...the girl who suddenly appeared in the city."
.
The girl with green hair who appeared with a boy who had red hair. News of them had spread around, but the actual information was being pushed down by someone else. Svantje had noticed the changes right away.
She had wondered who those people were, but she had figured it out the moment she had been taken with Sthénos. The culprit being Misó only went to further prove her right.
Tinker Bell: "The two of them have special qualities that would make an explosion really hurt the city. The Forbidden Zone is pretty messed up in some parts, but it would be even worse after what could happen. The base itself would be fine, but the surrounding area would be damaged, and the shockwave alone would probably be dangerous to the inner city. That's not mentioning the loss of those two girls. Something that would likely gain a lot of ire. Especially from someone like Shingai."
Grumpy Cat: "That girl cares a bit too much for children. It's like a curse for her. So if something were to happen to someone she is close to, I don't doubt she would cause even more trouble after that."
Tinker Bell: "Exactly. Border would be fine, but everything that would happen because of the explosion would cause more problems."
The image of a rain of trion arrows appeared in Svantje's mind, making her shudder a bit.
She wanted to think better of the Sniper girl, but she also knew how seriously she took things concerning children. And in her eyes, Sthénos was still a child.
Tinker Bell: "There's also something else I noticed while with the Engineers."
What was that?
Tinker Bell: "Those two guys - Sekai and Denji. It looks like they're going to be fighting in a bit. That wouldn't be anything to note right now, but something was strange with their wanting to message Border. I looked into it a bit and found that they switched up their Triggers so that they would not Bail Out after a loss. They would just go back to their real bodies."
Svantje went wide-eyed hearing this.
If that was how they had changed things, there was only one clear answer as to why.
Detective Sniper: "They plan on going out with the explosion!"
Tinker Bell: "Correct."
It had finally come together.
Svantje finally found what she needed.
Beyond finding out why Misó was in Mikado City and the reason for everything happening during the day, she had been trying to figure out those two men.
The majority of their situation had been solved by her for some time now. There was little they could keep hidden from her. But there was still something she had not been able to figure out about them. Something that had been missing a part.
Until now.
Why?
Why were they doing all of this?
Even if they wanted the best for others, why were they going against the people they wanted the best for? There were a lot of people they cared for, so doing these things made no sense, no matter how you looked at it.
But...
Detective Sniper: "They are going to cause problems for others to see if their work paid off... They are going to take themselves out and try to prove something with it! That's why they are making sure nothing will happen until dawn!"
It made sense.
It was also stupid in her eyes.
Tinker Bell: "Oh. I just thought they were lunatics. I don't know them well, besides the trip to Germany, so I didn't want to come to any unnecessary conclusions."
Grumpy Cat: "But that really does sound like the kind of idiotic thing they would do. We have been told about them before, but they really showed themselves during the day."
Tinker Bell: "Ah. Speaking of those two, there was something that caught my eye when looking through some information on the base. Apparently, one of them has been given a special privilege. It looks like it had been given a while ago, but was taken back."
Grumpy Cat: "And? What would that have to do with this if it were taken back?"
Tinker Bell: "Well..."
Svantje already knew.
The answer was obvious, but she let Katerina continue.
Tinker Bell: "That same person took back that privilege by force. What's more, he made sure that it wouldn't be noticed until it really mattered. I managed to catch it and am trying to undo the permissions for it. I'll give it to the guy; he's good at locking things down and making trouble for others. And speaking of which... There we go!"
Svantje's screen flashed for a moment. It was followed by a bit of static, then their messages ended up being displayed.
It happened in a blink, but she caught everything.
Tinker Bell: "Someone decided to take a peek at our conversation. I kicked them out, but it looks like they know about the majority of what we were talking about."
If that was the case, there was no doubt who it was.
Looks like they found me out.
Denji shrugged to himself.
Oh well. I just wanted to know what they were talking about.
Nothing could change what he had been planning to do. The time of night meant that most would be asleep. Besides that, finding the locations of Sthénos and the green-haired girl would only be possible for people within the Forbidden Zone.
And at the moment...
This is a battlefield. None of us will be holding back, so stepping into this place is like walking right into danger.
The anger he had long since built up was threatening to spill over.
But he held it in.
It was currently at a dull simmer that made him tense up.
He released his body and took a breath.
It still sucks that it was found out like that. I expected Kohsva to figure it out, but that girl really got it all down too. What's worse is that she had more access to do something about it.
That only meant he would need to end things with himself as quickly as possible.
For that to happen, he would be relying on someone else.
But...
That girl is still pathetic. I didn't expect her to fight me on her own, but only asking Kō isn't the answer either. Those two alone are in a bad position here.
He had made sure she understood he was no longer on her side. They would be enemies when they next met.
She had taken that as a challenge.
And now...
Here she comes.
The space was clear.
The air was clean as well, but the entire area felt stagnant.
I need to wait for Murakami-senpai.
Kumagai stayed on the outer edge of where she knew Denji was.
Rushing in against him would give him everything he needed to win.
But just sitting here doesn't feel right to me.
There were a lot of things she wanted to say to Denji. Things that both of them needed to hear and things that she needed to let out.
Staying still did nothing for everything that needed to be said.
So maybe I can-
A sight reached her.
"...Huh?"
It was light.
There were specks of lighting shinning.
If she had been looking up, she would have mistaken them for the stars above her. But she was looking towards the ground, so the stars would never be seen there.
If that was the case, what were they?
The answer came a moment later.
Denji saw his explosions go off.
This may be the battlefield, but I'm not against dragging others into my own fight. Sorry, Yūko, but this entire area is my plaything. Deal with it however you like.
There was no place safe from his wrath. Each place around this half of the Forbidden Zone had been chosen as his battlefield.
Even if it seemed like he was staying in this barren location, in reality, it was just the place he liked the most. The reminder of everything that had happened here made him feel like maybe Yuki was still around for him and Sekai, even if it was barely.
So with that in mind, I have no reservations about attacking the border of this area.
Yūko had been an idiot to think that she would be safe at that distance.
The light from his explosive attack was nice to see, but it left a bitter taste in his mouth.
The sound reverberated in the air as parts of buildings flew up before crashing back down. The noise would normally be something to worry about, but he had been told something interesting before the battle had even started.
That Neighbor girl used her voice to block out the noise in the area. We have no reason to hold anything back.
So he didn't.
Everything that happened tonight was a product of everything he had been feeling and everything he had given up on. Going easy on that meant no longer holding true to who he was as a person.
So come at me with everything, you pathetic girl.
The first thing Kumagai felt was surprise.
The explosion had caught her off guard. Her initial reaction had been to get away, but she knew better than to do that. There would only be more explosives waiting for her if she tried to take a step back.
That led her to make a different decision.
"That was close..."
She had put up a Full Guard to take the explosion and everything that came after it. The shield would need to be small, so she had crouched down and lowered the amount of space she took up in order to make sure her shield was dense enough to take the attack.
With her body now a ball, the explosions had caused her to fly into the air.
That should be good.
She released the shield and prepared for a landing, but...
"Whoa there. I didn't expect you to jump at me from so high up."
"That isn't what happened!"
"Oh? My bad then."
She looked Murakami right in the eye as he held her in both arms. Even now, he seemed focused on making sure he only held her behind the knees and lower back.
But did he have to mistake what was happening!?
She went on to explain the explosions as he set her down. The two chose not to turn on their Bagworms, knowing that they had already been found out.
They both looked over to see Denji standing in the same spot Kumagai had first seen him in.
"So he already set something up. That isn't really like the Denji I know."
"If he sets something up, it means he's really going for the kill. He's the type to go with anything around him and not have things go his way."
"What do you think we should do then?"
She had not expected him to ask her that. It caught her off guard, tripping her up for a moment.
I thought he would have come up with something after hearing that. His experience is beyond mine after all.
But she had been the one to ask him for this help. This was not because he happened to be here.
Besides...
I know him best.
Denji was not as much of a mystery to her as he wished to be.
It would be up to her to think of what to do.
So she decided what to do.
The answer finally came.
Denji had placed his explosives around the area, leaving it up to his opponents to figure out what to do about them.
Their answer arrived in the way he had expected.
"What a bunch of idiots."
They ran.
Denji could see both of his opponents rush from outside the buildings bordering the open area. At the front was...
"That was a nice idea."
Murakami rushing with Raygust in front of him.
The explosions were placed on the ground, so he would have needed to step on them to activate them before Denji could.
From there, he would have needed to move away before the full brunt of the explosion could reach him. The timing needed to be perfect to the point that it would have been impossible for anyone who did not have their Mobility in the double digits.
But...
"What a bunch of idiots," he repeated.
Instead of worrying about the timing...
"What kind of person does that? Especially someone like that."
Murakami rushed forward with Raygust in his hands. Both hands held the shield tightly as it scraped along the floor. Once it reached one of the explosives, it would activate it, causing the area to be consumed by dirt being thrown into the air. Nearby explosions would follow after being hit, causing a chain explosion that would not stop for some time.
Denji prepared a cube of trion upon seeing the idiotic rush.
The explosions should have been powerful enough to push Murakami back before he could move forward, but...
"Heh. Heh heh. So that's what it is. Nice going."
The moment the explosions went off Murakami would put more downward pressure than forward pressure. This grounded him and held him in place to tank the explosions, and it settled him in place long enough to withstand the attack. All he needed to do afterwards was move forward and repeat the process whenever he came across another explosive.
It was a completely reckless strategy that worked due to Murakami's steadfast nature.
Denji had seen this kind of thing in Suzunari-1's last few matches of the B-Rank Wars.
This steadfast style was both good and bad for him.
.
I need to keep this up. It's overall as heavy as the canon attack from the hangar, but the slight intervals between explosions give me a bit of a breather.
Murakami continued to push through the minefield with Raygust in front of him. He held strong with both arms stretched out in front of him.
The explosive force from the explosions shook him at first, but he got used to them and moved forward. Each step was heavy, and the way he had to repeatedly slam down Raygust was annoying.
Alright, I think I'm at a good enough distance now.
Murakami took a big step forward and then did something unexpected.
He lifted his feet.
Thruster!
Slamming his feet back onto the ground, he pushed off the shaking ground as the Optional Trigger activated.
The shield tore through the earth like a plow. Each time there was an explosion, Murakami pushed his body forward along with Thruster. The explosive force lessened as the strain made his arms groan for a moment before being pushed forward once more.
Repeated explosions went off at a faster rate than they had before.
The intervals had been one every two explosions, but that had turned into one every five explosions. The explosive force started to become too much, but...
I've dealt with worse!
This would be the second time he went against Denji.
The first time had technically been a draw, but this time was different.
There was someone he was helping.
He was not alone in this fight.
Thruster!
Feeling the activation of the acceleration Trigger once more, Murakami moved his arms.
Unlike before, he did not push them forward.
He moved them up.
.
Denji saw Murakami's sudden action as he moved forward.
Above him, the trion cube had already been split that was left was for him to take aim and fire on Murakami.
But then Murakami made a different movement.
He activated Thruster while facing the sky.
Anyone's natural instinct would have been to look at where he was aiming, but Denji knew that would have been a waste of time.
There would be only one other person in this fight that Murakami would cover for.
Instead of worrying about what was above him, he aimed directly at the defenseless Murakami and prepared for Kumagai to come down from above.
The Thruster activation was likely a way for her to reach him faster or ride the explosions towards him. That would put Kumagai near him, allowing her to attack from a closer range while also allowing Murakami to get in closer.
All of this came at the risk of Murakami getting taken out before everything settled.
Denji decided to use that chance to bombard Murakami, take an attack or two, and then settle things with Kumagai.
He fired his shot at Murakami.
The multi-cut Meteroa shone in the sky where he had left it and would reach Murakami before Denji did.
He had timed everything perfectly.
Except...
"—!?"
They had gone off.
.
Denji knew better than to turn around to see why his Meteora had gone off before being fired. Looking back would distract him from the black wolf directly in front of him.
Instead of worrying, he used the explosion to push him forward. The sudden increase in speed made him alter his footing so that he would reach Murakami without having any of his guard disturbed.
But he did know one thing during all of this:
They got me!
The pathetic girl and the black wolf had done something he had only seen recently.
They had used the abilities of a weak person against someone strong.
The recent B-Rank Wars had shown a lot of people the power of the weak and the normal. One of Meishō Squad's Snipers was someone who strong people forgot about easily. To someone on Denji's level, his presence was nonexistent. It had been because of that trait that they had managed to get as many points as they did during that time.
Denji was reminded of that, but not the name of that Sniper. He had just been too forgettable.
But he knew that the same trick that Sniper used was exactly what had been used against him here.
With the black wolf directly in front of him, he had been focused on what he could do and how to take him out. His attention had been diverted to this strong person to the point that he thought he knew what that pathetic girl would do.
Normally it would have been easy for him to check his Radar and see if there was something amiss, but these two had thought of a way around that.
They should have been moving together, so it would have just seemed like there was one person coming at me! I figured it would have been a waste of time to check since Yūko wouldn't be able to do anything without Kō!
But it had only been Murakami who had been charging at him.
From that information, Dneji could figure out what had happened.
My natural thoughts had turned to thinking that Yūko was above, which was why Kō threw his Raygust into the air. She should have been coming down to attack me.
But.
They predicted that I would have an attack ready and decided to focus on that instead!
That pathetic girl had likely hit down, or diverted, the Raygust so that it would crash into his Meteora he left behind.
Denji felt that he was right when he saw Raygust begin to manifest once more in the black wolf's hand.
The trion it took to do that would likely be annoying, but it gave the black wolf back his steadfast defense.
That just means I need to break through!
.
Denji reached Murakami in only a few strides. When he did, he stomped his foot on the ground.
And an explosion rang out under him, causing dirt to fly into the air. Above him, a cube of trion formed before slamming into the ground.
The ground shook with the violent explosions.
Murakami raised Raygust to block the sword swing that came after the explosions and cut through the explosions themselves with Kōgetsu.
This proved to be the correct choice.
An explosion came from the same side that Denji attacked with his Kōgetsu.
Unlike last time, he was using the heavy offense blade over the transformative one. The difference meant that Murakami needed to think about this differently from last time, but that was a given since they were not in the city either.
There was no reason for Denji to even consider holding back here.
So he exploded.
Three more strikes with Kōgetsu arrived. Each one came with explosions that threatened to throw Murakami to the side. The use of Thruster when his shield made contact with the blade was the only thing keeping him in place.
Another strike was coming, but it was clear that there was a difference here.
Murakami swung Raygust up and moved Kōgetsu to the side. It had no edge to it, allowing him to activate Thruster once more. With Kōgetsu turned off, it took the next strike from Denji as another explosion reached Murakami on the other side.
He used that pull from Thruster and the explosive force from the explosion to make a full turn that threw Denji's Kōgetsu to the side.
Someone came out from the smoke around them.
It was Kumagai.
.
The speed at which Denji and Murakami were going was easy for Kumagai to follow. The strikes had been meant to be used for power over speed, something she thought fit Denji all too well.
Murakami pushed them back, and it looked like he had gotten the hang of what would be coming to strike him. That was what Kumagai thought as she tried to follow along with those same motions.
Her body was reacting well to the shaking of the ground, and she was sure she would reach the two of them in time to get an attack on Denji.
Then she saw it.
It was hard to see in full, but the glow from the trion made it easy to tell what was happening.
After his fourth strike, Denji moved in with Kōgetsu to the right as a cluster shot formed on his left.
This was a self-pincer attack against Murakami.
Isn't that dangerous for him too!?
All the explosions should have reached Denji too, and the trion usage for them had to have been draining him quickly. With a move like that, he would definitely get hit by his own attack while trying to take out Murakami.
At least, that was what should have happened.
Instead of taking the two hits like Denji had planned, Murakami reacted to both attacks by dulling Kōgetsu's blade and using Thruster to counter the explosive force from the blast. The end result was a moment of being thrown off balance for Denji.
She decided to take that chance.
In three steps, she had reached a spot that placed her level with Denji's chest. She was already in mid-swing, which allowed her to move more freely in her attack than Denji did in his defense.
"You really are-..."
She may not have been meant to hear it, but Denji spoke from above him.
Without any hesitation, a cube of trion formed above the three of them. It did not split up, instead coming down in a cluster.
He's being more reckless than he usually is!
Denji had always been the type of person to run in and adapt to whatever came his way. Kumagai had previously observed how he would only need to comprehend something before devising a countermeasure at the same time.
It always left her with a sense of awe whenever she saw it happen.
But this was different.
Denji was just being careless.
"Take this much."
It was said in a low tone, but she had been able to hear it from her position.
Crap! I can't move now! Does he plan to take all three of us out here!?
Then she saw it.
Something that prevented a loss.
Shield.
.
The cluster shot came down as a shield formed above Denji. The amount of space it took was small, but it was enough to cover him from the initial explosion.
The ground shook violently once more. The cluster shot covered a larger area than the rest, throwing up more than the ones before it.
Two bodies jumped out from within the explosion.
"Has he always been this reckless?"
"No... Throwing these sorts of things out isn't usually his style. Well, not this freely. Denji isn't the type to get caught in his own explosions."
"Then he really is taking this seriously."
Murakami and Kumagai landed with solid noise. Murakami placed Kumagai on the ground and turned with Raygust in front of him.
A new set of explosions arrived immediately after.
Following his previous actions, Murakami pushed Raygust into the dirt. It had been enough to defend.
"We need to end this quickly," Kumagai said as she stood behind the shield.
"Being too hasty can get us caught in those explosions."
"Yeah, but..."
Kumagai's sight went down Murakami's body until it reached his side.
A portion of his torso had been taken off by that explosion.
While trying to get Kumagai safe from the explosion, he had used his own body and Raygust to block the attack. The full force of the attack had been diverted by Raygust, but Murakami's body had taken damage from protecting her.
There was no reason to question why he had done that.
"The thing that's worrying me here is how he's able to fire off that many explosions like that. Those along with his shields, take up a lot of trion."
"I had been wondering the same thing. But knowing him, he did something to make up for that."
Neither one of them puts it past Denji to have come up with a way to continue firing like this without any reservations. It had just been the type of person he was.
"If we stay here and keep thinking about it, we won't get anywhere," Murakami said while activating Thruster again. The push from it countered the explosions that threatened to push him back. "I will continue to act as your shield. Don't worry. I will make sure you reach him."
"Just make sure you aren't taken out. I don't think I should be the only one to go."
Murakami smiled from behind Raygust.
This was not something as simple as defending and moving forward.
Kumagai had asked him for help in this battle. That meant going with her all the way to speak with Denji properly.
After all...
"You are now the only one who understands my situation here."
"That's right. I know how you feel. That's why you just need to keep moving forward with me here."
There should have been a third person.
Someone else who fully understood what it meant to stand beside someone who felt unneeded.
But there was none.
"So we need to just leave Sekai-san to Yuki and Nasu."
The ground violently shook at seemingly random intervals, but Yuki could tell there was a slight pattern to them.
They only occurred after a moment of peace.
He felt these vibrations for only a second before his feet left the ground again.
Lights passed him by as he moved along the ground. It seemed as if he was gliding, with his toes being the only things to touch the ground after a particularly short leap.
Each leap he took was followed by a body movement he had not expected to perform. The way his torso bent to the side or back made him long for the ability to do so in his real body again, but it would likely be some time before he could do that again. If he could ever.
So until then...
I'll keep going with this false body of mine!
The rush from moving like this mixed together his light steps and the speed he had been moving at.
It had not been too long since he got to move like this. Last time, he had been in a fight against a large Neighbor, but this time...
I can see him perfectly!
It was against Sekai.
Don't slow down for anything! Take a moment to wait, and he'll cut me down!
Nasu understood this as well. The lights that continuously rained down from above were her way of showing that.
Each Viper followed a different path. Some curved inward while others expanded outward. There was no hesitation in the attacks, so Yuki had been moving through both Sekai and Nasu's attacks.
This is why I made sure to have Rei with me. Compared to Kō, who acts more like a wall, I have an easier time moving through all of these attacks.
But so did Sekai.
From where he moved, Yuki could see Sekai twist his own body and shift on his light feet. Each time it looked like he would take a hit, he would turn his body and end up a few feet away from where he had been at first.
Yuki found himself in awe.
This was not the first time he had been awed by Sekai, but it never stopped him from feeling excited to see it.
I heard that Shigenaga had been pretty excited during their fight during the day. I can understand why that is. Especially if Sekai-san wasn't holding back.
Yuki moved backward while keeping his eyes on Sekai.
Normally, Sekai-san isn't too into fights. When we were at Kurosaki's, he had a small back-and-forth with Kō, but I could tell he wasn't really giving it his all.
Maybe because there were others around?
There had been other things going on at the time, so Yuki's attention had been divided.
Now he could focus on only Sekai.
Even while dealing with all of these attacks, he's still managing to make his way closer to me!
It had been more than just Nasu's attacks that had been raining down. Yuki himself had been firing some shots at Sekai as well. It was a multi-sided attack done by two people.
And Sekai was handling it well.
He's so cool!
As he thought that, Yuki heard a voice.
It came from directly in front of him.
"You aren't going to fight me with that thing at your waist?"
.
Sekai spoke up while moving through the onslaught of trion light raining down.
He spoke in a casual manner.
"If I remember right, those leaps you taught the brat is your own Hassou Tobi, isn't it? In that case, should I be comparing you to Minamoto-no-Yoshitsune?"
"H-huh!? Yoshitsune!? I mean, that sounds nice and all, but..."
"It would make Kō Benkei, wouldn't it?"
None of his words were meant to have any meaning. They were just things meant to get Yuki feeling happy about his own abilities.
It was the least he could do while not taking this fight seriously.
"I'm sorry, Sekai-san. What I had Daigo learn wasn't my own Hassou Tobi. It's just what I thought he and Hisato could learn."
"I figured as much. You wouldn't be so slow as to only make eight leaps. It really is something amazing."
"Right... And about Kō. I apologize to Benkei, but I personally think Kō is way more steadfast. A rain of arrows wouldn't be enough to take him down."
He probably thought that from the fight going on on a different battlefield. An explosive battle was occurring, so it would need a shield strong enough to withstand each explosion.
Sekai was aware that, if anyone could do it, Murakami was the best suited for the job.
"That's good to hear. If you have that much faith in him, it means the two of you really are fine without being on the same level as us."
Yuki's face fell, but Sekai knew it was the right thing to say.
"So what about right now?" he continued. "How will you overcome someone who is Unneeded, Yoshitsune?"
There was silence from Yuki.
The noise from the fight continued to rage, but Yuki himself had gone quiet.
Until...
"So that's how it is now..."
He spoke up.
The frown he had on his face had turned into an excited smile.
Sekai could only compare it to an innocent child who had been praised by their hero.
"It sounds nice and all, but I kind of don't like being told that! I don't need a masterpiece like Usumidori at my side! Idōgetsu is more than enough for me, so I'm sorry, Sekai-san! I won't bother trying to compare myself to Yoshitsune! After all, I'm not dead yet! So I'm going to be fighting you like the needed, still living, idiotic Tsukiko Yuki!"
The faker Sekai had been watching for a while now and had finally given up.
He was living an honest life now.
And...
"I hope I can impress you with my actual Hassou Tobi!"
He disappeared a moment later.
.
What just happened...?
Sekai tried to understand what he had just seen.
It would have made sense if he heard a familiar noise and saw the air fill some empty space. It would have meant that Teleport had been used, something Yuki had always been known for using.
But none of that happened.
Instead, it seemed like Yuki had simply vanished from his sight.
It was only when his instincts warned him of an oncoming threat that he realized where Yuki had gone.
Throwing himself forward, he went into a roll as a blade moved above his head.
Using his legs more than his feet, he sprang back up and moved back a few steps.
"—!"
There he was again.
Yuki was already in motion to attack him. Behind him was an army of Viper that spread out to his sides.
Calm down and look at the situation clearly.
Sekai slowed himself down and prepared to counter the attack.
Five shields formed in front of him as he was being thrown forward.
It was his Hikgane Shield.
Each one was meant to take care of a different problem. The two on the outer right and left would deal with the Viper shots, and the two on the inner right and left would restrict Yuki's movement. The middle was meant to force him to move up or down to dodge the attack.
Sekai saw the result.
"..."
Yuki chose to jump up to dodge the attack while the Viper shots collided with the five shields.
Sekai created a sixth shield and threw it at Yuki. While in the air, it would be more troublesome to block or move. There would be no footing for him to move. So Sekai followed up his shield attack by firing his own Viper shots into the air.
Then he saw it.
.
Sekai's eyes opened wide at the sight before him.
...What?
Even after falling a bit, Yuki was still far too high up from his amazing leap to be anywhere near Sekai. Nevertheless, the small white fox acted like he was hopping over a small stream.
"Hah."
He rose up, using the thrown shield, and the dim light of the night sky washed over his back.
Once his leap reached its peak, he descended and finally...
"There."
Yuki nimbly landed in front of him.
It was a light landing. He did not have to eliminate his momentum; he did not pitch forward, and there was no instability beneath him. He then rushed over.
Sekai felt a little disturbed by this.
Nasu tried to understand what she had been seeing.
The way Yuki had been moving before made sense to her. They were the movements of someone who was trying not to get hit while moving forward. In a way, they mirrored Sekai's movements. Likely from Yuki's Side Effect acting up.
Then those movements changed.
More than simply copying what he was seeing, Yuki had started new movements she had not seen before. They were minor, and she had to alter her position to properly see them, but she noticed them.
But...
"I can only see them as they are ending."
Yuki was performing movements that made it seem like he vanished and reappeared somewhere else. It went well with his use of Teleport, but there was something about them that reminded Nasu of a child who was finally able to play outside.
It made her want to do the same thing.
"I wish it were that easy," she said under her breath. "We can move around in these trion bodies, and they feel the same as our real ones, but there's always a clear difference that our minds can't get over."
So why did it seem like Yuki was enjoying himself as if that difference was not there at all?
Naus had tried to get over that mental hurdle multiple times, but there had always been something that brought her back to the reality of her situation.
It was always annoying. But she made sure to never show it.
White Fox: "Rei, I'm going to be enjoying myself tonight. Would you like to join me?"
The fact that he had found time to tell her this gave her the impression that he was not taking the situation as seriously as he should.
She was going to tell him as much, but he continued before she could.
White Fox: "Sekai-san always looks out for others' happiness, so I thought it would be fine to just let myself go tonight. At the same time, I want to drag him into this fun, make him lose his mind, and maybe dance around a bit. I know that's Suzu's thing, but tonight's alive."
So that was it.
Even while moving like this and messaging her, Yuki was thinking about how to go about their current situation. His movements were his way of showing off to everyone else that he could still enjoy himself even while his real body was a deteriorating one.
That left her with two options in front of her: join him or continue fighting.
"Hmhmhm. I see that even you can learn something from Suzume-chan."
Green lights flickered all around Nasu as he started to turn her body.
Some of the lights shot into the air, and others moved along with her hands. Each one of them followed the path she decided to make.
When firing Viper in real time, there were three things that were needed. The imagination to visualize something that wasn't actually there as if it were, an objective viewpoint that grasps the state of the surroundings, the spatial awareness to correctly perceive the distance to the target, and any obstacles. In short...
"You need to have a free mind."
Someone who could enjoy themselves while in their situation should be able to fire as many Vipers as they want without any reservations.
That was just what she did.
"Okay. I think I will join Yuki-san in his fun."
What are they doing...? Sekai thought.
Yuki's movements had increased in speed to the point that he found it hard to keep up with the flashing lights going around him. Each one followed strange lines as well, but there was more of a pattern to them than what he was seeing from Yuki.
Everything was only made more difficult by how light Yuki's steps seemed to be. There was little to no sound coming from him, and he only touched the ground for a moment. Nothing he did was enough to understand where he would be going.
The worst part of it all was the amount of trion he was using.
I thought he would be using Teleport here, but he's only using his speed. Even then, I thought he could only do that when he was using Kiyome. So why...?
Why was he moving like this?
Sekai prepared his next attack above his head. A cube of trion had formed and was fired in all directions before it could be taken down. Nasu's attacks were also something he had been keeping track of.
Countering them would have been easy if not for the fact that he could not use his shields. The one thing he had become strangely adapted to using.
Hikigane Shield had become a go-to attack and defense option for name had come from someone else, but he remained its user. There had been someone who tried to imitate his shield usage, but she was currently too offensive to properly use them as he could.
With Yuki running the way he was, it became a non-option for him to use his Hikigane Shields. They would only turn into platforms for Yuki to use while moving around.
So instead...
"—"
He tried to follow.
With each step Yuki took, Sekai took three.
Each time Idōgetsu moved past him, he would have to tumble out of the way.
There was no direct attacks against him, likely a product of Yuki not being able to keep up with his own speed.
But as this went on, Sekai began to notice something.
...This isn't speed.
.
Yuki could see it from Sekai's expression.
He's starting to understand what's going on.
Teleport had been his specialty, but speed was his origin. Due to his family life, he had gotten to the point of using his speed and size to his advantage. He had begun to use the Option Trigger Teleport over his own speed after discovering it.
It was only recently that he found himself in the world of speed again.
And it feels great!
But it isn't the only thing I learned from those crappy parents.
They had hardly known about it when he first brought it up with them. Their confusion made him a bit cautious at the time, but now he could understand why they were adverse to his ideas.
They weren't used to the things you can do on Earth.
In a way, he and his siblings had something over their parents.
That had been what made him decide what he wanted to do with his own body.
Building muscle was hard for him, so he thought of ways he could use the muscles he already had. One of those ways was putting strength into his legs when it mattered the most.
Daigo looks like he builds up muscle the same way SenSen does, so this kind of Hassou Tobi isn't good for him. Those leaps are definitely better for him and Hisato. Actually, I'm pretty hard-pressed to think of anyone else who can really do this as well. At best, they could get the basics down, but this kind of thing would take them some time to learn.
He thought this as he vanished from Sekai's sight once more.
Or it would have seemed that way.
In reality, he was only moving part of the way. The rest of his movements were lacking and held back to the point where it felt like he needed to let his Side Effect take over so that he would not move too far forward.
This was his Hassou Tobi. A usage of Shukuchi.
Covering enough distance in a short enough amount of time that he would have seemed to be vanishing. Teleport and its variants would guarantee him a spot to appear, but using Shukuchi allowed him the freedom to move at any moment, in case he was found out.
The use of Shukuchi, combined with his ability to control his own body, resulted in Hassou Tobi.
And it was on full display here.
.
Sekai made a mad rush and turned his body around.
Yuki's speed was strange to him, so he made a point of clarifying something within himself.
Just how much of this am I going to take?
Yuki seemed to be having fun, but what would that mean for him?
If I lose here, then it will give them the right to take me back. Knowing them, they will probably try to talk me out of this.
And...
It might work.
So then what should he do?
I guess I should have done this from the start. It's pretty pathetic of me to hold off just because I might have been feeling nostalgic.
He made sure to make up his mind.
He would be getting serious.
WorTri: "Begin."
He gave a single-word order that was followed by a line of text.
[Authorization: Hikigane Sekai. Model: Hikigane Sekai.]
Holding on to Kōgetsu, he performed a sliding turn to the right and around where he already was.
Yuki was now fully visible to him. He had tried to attack Sekai and was not moving forward in front of him.
A light from the sky reached the ground a moment later.
Sekai watched as the shot tore through Yuki's body with a violent noise.
Then...
"..."
A wrapping fell in front of him. The middle had been destroyed, making the two halves flitter to the ground.
Sekai made a half turn and pulled Kōgetsu from its sheath. The next noise was quieter, but the feedback was what he had expected.
Yuki was in front of him, held in place by Kōgetsu.
Before he could pull away, Sekai lowered Kōgetsu into an arc that went past the crescent blade of Idōgetsu and into its inner space.
He pulled back Kōgetsu in an attempt to throw away Idōgetsu.
"Keh!"
Yuki deactivated Idōgetsu, turning it back into a plain black rod. The blade had disappeared.
Sekai used his pulling motion to move back and create distance between the two of them.
.
Yuki moved back instead of forward to chase Sekai.
He's taking this seriously now.
If he wasn't, then he would not have almost caught Idōgetsu.
White Fox: "Rei!"
An omnidirectional attack came from above. It circled around Sekai in a spiral and created a sort of tunnel down towards him.
But...
Crap!
It never reached him.
Multiple shields formed around Sekai, each blocking the Viper shots fired at him.
Sekai never seemed to register this, instead moving forward to cover the distance between the two of them.
Then he vanished.
Shukuchi!?
Yuki followed Sekai's movements by pushing off the ground and moving backwards. His steps were still light, and he felt little when he pushed, but he noticed something while moving back.
A cut had happened.
The front of his uniform had taken some damage.
Not wondering why, he covered more distance in his single step. The wind pushed against him, but it felt different.
Something else had appeared.
A bright light caught the corner of his eye.
It isn't just from above!?
Taking another attack would mean using more trion to escape it. Yuki wanted to avoid doing that. It would cost him more in the long run.
He decided it would be better to escape by putting distance between him and Sekai.
The light shone bright before being fired in the spot he had been in.
A new light reached him, this time from his side.
Forcing his body to move again, he pushed off the ground. This time to the left.
He refused to give another chance and moved again after his toes touched the ground.
Mitsuteru only said that attacks came from above! They shot down from high in the sky, so I figured that would be our best bet! Looking out for those would be easier!
As if to prove him right, three lights came down from above. They shot down like arrows from the sky.
But they were not aimed at him.
No, they were aimed at a spot in the distance.
That's where Rei is!
Nasu looked at her arm as she moved to the side.
The arrow of trion light had been fast, but she had already been in motion to turn. Instead of taking the full attack, she had sacrificed her arm. The lower part of it and her hand flew off to the edge of the roof she was standing on.
"We were careless in thinking that we wouldn't notice the origins of the Vipers. I thought I did pretty well hiding it, but I guess this really is Hikigane-san."
White Fox: "If you need to, put on Bagworm and hide for a bit. I'll do my best to hold him off until you think it's fine to attack again."
Viper: "While that sounds nice, that isn't an option. After all, he found out what you were doing and started copying it, didn't he?"
It must have been difficult for the copycat to be copied, but that could be saved for later.
Yuki must have known this to be true.
White Fox: "I knew he would figure it out. I just didn't expect him to get it down this fast. Kage had been trying to use Shukuchi too, but even he can't really get the hang of it."
"This really is Hikigane-san," she repeated into the air.
Another light appeared above her as she did.
Nasu made a large leap from the roof, letting the building be destroyed by the second impact it took.
It was terrifying to think about how accurate the arrow of trion light had been. Neither one of the two shots had been any distance off from hitting it. It had only been because she moved that they had missed at all.
"That is certainly-..."
Nasu stopped once her feet touched the ground.
Something had not been right. A violent feeling shook the ground, and light could be seen in the distance.
It came from the direction where the previous ones had been.
I can't get distracted here.
Another arrow of trion light shot down from the sky, as if to tell her she was right.
But she still found worry in her heart.
That was the direction where Kuma-chan is fighting.
Would she be okay?
Nasu shook her head at the thought.
"Kuma-chan is with Murakami-senpai. I should be focusing on this fight now."
Two lines of trion circled around her before being fired into the air.
Viper: "Yuki-san, we need to add a bit of a rush to this fight. Like you, Hikigane-san seems to be the type to take in the things shown to him."
White Fox: "For as long as I've known him, that seems to be the case. A person who can take things in and use them however he wants."
If that were true, rushing here would be considered the right choice.
So...
"Viper!"
She would rush alongside Yuki.
A circle of lights came from every direction.
A different set of lights bloomed outward and spread out like a flower.
A white fox moved through both of these lights on light feet. The shaking and distant light caught his attention for a moment, but that would need to be saved for later. Reaching his opponent was currently what he needed to focus on.
The lights began to consume his figure as well. They threatened to devour him.
Each time one of the lights looked like it would catch him, he disappeared from where he had been. Sometimes there would be a sound, and sometimes there would be silence.
A tengu followed his movements as multiple shields formed around him. Each one of them was destroyed upon impact by the lights circling around him.
Overall, it looked like an army of snakes slithering through the air while a pack of dogs moved to devour their prey. The green lights illuminated the area the white fox and tengu were moving into.
And more than them...
"—!"
Two more lights were seen through it all.
One was from a blade made of trion.
The second was a crescent made from the same material.
The crescent and the blade clashed from within the flying lights.
Arrows of light would shoot down at times, destroying the ground, but neither one of the fighters minded that. They could only see each other because they were illuminated.
"Thanks," the white fox said.
The other remained silent while striking with his sword repeatedly.
Each strike was followed by an arrow of trion light from the sky.
"Thanks for showing me your serious side."
The tengu did not respond with words, only moving to strike down the white fox.
The white fox gave a bitter smile before disappearing again.
Unlike all the times before, he did not circle around the tengu or go to the side.
He was on the blade made of trion.
"So this is how I'll show my thanks."
He moved forward and took part of the tengu's shoulder.
.
Sekai turned on his heel and attacked with Senkū as Yuki landed.
Yuki had already started to push off the ground, but the slash still reached him. A cut had formed on his back, causing the trion to start leaking out.
There was no relenting with the next three attacks he made with Kōgetsu. Each one of them was meant to throw off Yuki and his Hassou Tobi. Movements like the ones she had been using needed precise footwork. If that was thrown off, then it would be nothing but trouble for him.
That was why Sekai gave an unrelenting charge that was always followed by a pack of Hound.
Moving to the right or left would be impossible with the threat of the cluster shots hanging in the sky above them. Moving forward would mean running back into him. That only left one place for Yuki to go.
"!"
He made a leap backwards as the Hounds began their chase.
As they did so, another volley of vipers came down from above. As they started to get closer, Sekai gave a mental command.
And...
[Firing three.]
Three cluster shots from up above came down, shooting down the oncoming Vipers.
But due to that, he could no longer see Yuki.
Then it came.
The sound of teleportation reached his ears. With the way Yuki had been fighting, it was no surprise where he had ended up.
Senkai turned around in time to see what was coming.
What wonderful heroics!
Yuki was rushing him, Idōgetsu in hand. Making an image around him were spheres of trion that stretched out into seven different groups.
Once the second step had been taken, the spheres of trion shot forward. Each one of them took different paths that Sekai would have been unable to keep track of.
This fox still has a lot of tricks.
It was too bad that he never needed to worry about that.
[Creating shields in optimal positions.]
Multiple shields appeared around him in a dome-like manner. They covered the majority of the space between him and the moving trion shots fired at him.
Each one of them was destroyed on impact.
Sekai raised his Kōgetsu in time to meet with Yuki's Idōgetsu.
Not wanting to lose this chance, he reached out to grab Yuki. Between them, a shield was created around Idōgetsu, preventing it from moving back.
.
The hand moving forward was not a threat as it moved, but what could be done once it reached Yuki was enough to make him start to move back.
Idōgetsu was trapped inside a shield. Pulling it out would mean being grabbed by the hand. Moving back now meant losing Idōgetsu.
There was no winning in this situation.
"You're really forcing my hand here," Yuki said. He released Idōgetsu and started moving backwards.
It wasn't until he was ready to push off the ground that it came.
"—"
A slash arrived.
It did not come from Yuki or Sekai.
It came from somewhere else entirely.
The slash reached the shield, destroying it in the process.
Yuki grabbed hold of Idōgetsu again and pushed off the ground.
He disappeared for a moment before reappearing a few meters away.
Yuki and Sekai began to look at where the slash had come from.
"...!"
They were stopped before they could.
Sekai reacted first, bringing up Kōgetsu to block the sudden strike aimed for his head.
Someone had arrived between them.
"Ketsu-san!?"
Lines of explosions erupted from the ground. Anyone walking along the ground would have been thrown off by the violent shaking that followed.
For Kumagai and Murakami, it was something they needed to push through. Raygust and Shield were deployed to shield them from the explosions going on around them.
Murakami had stopped using Thruster and planted Raygust deep into the ground to hold himself in place.
The repeated explosions formed cracks long the shields and Raygust.
"Something really is off," Kumagai noted. She stood with her back to Murakami to minimize the amount of space their shields took. "I know Denji is well off with trion, but this is too much! This is more than just a few Meteroas! I also know he never set anything up like Sekai-san, so this just makes no sense!"
"Not being able to move forward is also bad here. If he is using something to help with these explosions, then we will be the first ones to lose. Using these shields is taking up too much of the finite trion."
"And besides your Thruster, neither one of us has any Triggers that will let us move quickly or instantly..."
Their situation was bad.
Denji had decided to forgo any sort of tactics, instead using Meteora to devour the two of them.
"Either dawn comes or we get taken out... We really are the worst opponents for someone like him."
"If you think that, it's probably true," Murakami said. "Still, you want to reach him before either of those conditions are met, right?"
"Of course I do! I need to give him at least one good hit before I tear into him!"
"Then I need you to do me a favor."
Kumagai turned her head to look at Murakami but let him continue.
"I'm not too sure, so I need you to check for me. Look and see if there is a moment where the explosions don't go off. They look like they are back-to-back, but the explosions themselves don't seem like they are going off at the same time."
"So you think that they are set on a timer or something?"
"Even though they are fired in sequence, they must still be created and fired like any other shooter trigger. I want to know when they can be created."
It made sense when Murakami pointed it out.
Firing these sorts of attacks from a gun was sometimes faster than doing it freeform as a Shooter, but even those times required some time before they could fire again. Meteora's power came with that sort of drawback.
Kumagai understood that and readied herself by facing forward.
"Get ready with Senkū too."
"Understood."
.
The first thing Kumagai noticed was the shaking.
The violent shaking continued from the explosions all around her and Murakami.
Denji really isn't giving us much space, is he?
This was most likely his way of venting his rage on them. Explosions would hide his face from view and hold them back until one of his conditions for winning was met.
But even he can't completely get rid of the downsides to Triggers.
It was now up to her to find the downside to this repeated use of the Trigger.
The explosions themselves were distracting, with each one making a lot of noise and shaking the earth. The cracking of their shields added to the noise, and there was nothing for her to see.
Not at first.
Having a Side Effect like Misaki's would be great here. Too bad that sort of thing is attached to a lunatic.
The strange dancer had always been someone Kumagai found hard to get along with. Their personalities had been too different, and she went at her own pace, which was too much for Kumagai to keep up with. Each in a situation with others around, they could only speak to each other for so long before Kumagai needed to walk away.
This was a situation where that strange dancer would be far more useful, though.
Kumagai shook her head at the thought.
I need to pay attention.
She did not have a Side Effect like the strange dancer, but even she knew what she needed to do here.
Looking at the situation from a normal person's perspective would only make her realize how pointless fighting back would be.
So...
I need to look at this like a lunatic.
There was a tempo she needed to follow to understand how they would deal with these explosions.
All of the attacks are coming from above now. They also take some time to hit, so they are probably high up at the start. They are also not directly hitting the shield, so Denji probably can't tell if we moved or are staying in place.
In that case...
She only needed to figure out when they would need to counter and time it right with Murakami.
"I think I got it!"
"Then tell me when."
.
Three more explosions crashed into the ground. They shook the earth like the ones before them.
Just as they did, Kumagai moved to turn toward Murakami's side.
"Now!"
As she yelled the single word, Murakami expanded Raygust until its surface covered the both of them. He shot his arm upward, making Raygust face the sky.
Thruster was activated.
Raygust sped into the sky, cutting through the smoke and tossing earth.
Another explosion came.
It stopped in the air before it could hit either one of them or the ground.
Murakami followed this up by pulling on Kōgetsu. As he drew it from its sheath, a light appeared.
An extended slash was released into the air after Raygust.
A new set of explosions went off upon hitting the extended slash.
Kumagai released her own slash that cut through the smoke around them.
As the slashes were let out, Murakami reformed Raygust into his hand, with a new set of explosions already hanging above them.
He pushed forward a few steps before making sure that Kumagai was directly in front of him.
When he confirmed that she was, he let go of the shield in his hand.
"Thruster."
Kumagai was sent forward at an amazing speed.
.
The moment explosions rang out in the air, Denji knew he'd been discovered.
Worrying about it would take his attention away from what he knew was coming. Giving it any thought would distract him from what he needed to do.
He only moved forward to meet Kumagai.
The smoke was forcibly pushed aside, revealing Kumagai rushing at him on a Thruster-boosted Raygust.
Denji was already in the process of activating Senkū.
He released the slash.
"!"
Since she jumped from the rushing Raygust, Kumagai must have understood him better than he thought.
The slash from Kōgetsu reaches the rushing Raygust and cuts it in half. With his blade already out, Denji lifted it to block the oncoming attack.
Kumagai met him after steadying herself in the air.
Instead of rushing into the attack, she began to back up and plan her next move.
It was her own Meteora.
He readied himself to counter the attack but stopped himself when he noticed something.
Raygust had not disappeared, and no light moved towards the Border base.
The moment Kumagai fired her Meteora towards him, he moved to the side and prepared for something else. Something he was expecting but had no idea what it was.
He was right to do so.
.
When did-...!?
Kumagai cut her own thoughts short upon seeing Denji move to defend himself.
Her own attack had been rushed and lackluster at best. Something she knew he could defend against easily.
He had chosen to evade it instead of defend against it.
She had found this odd at first. But the answer to her unasked question came immediately after.
Someone else had come in to attack him.
A fist push down on Denji from above. The only thing stopping it was the raised Kōgetsu.
That alone was amazing to her, but then she saw fragments of trion light around the two people.
Did he use his fist to break through Denji's shield!?
As she thought this, she noticed something about the person pushing Denji down. Besides his black hair and freckles, there was something that caught her attention.
On the man's fist, reaching his wrist, was an emblem that looked like a Lily of the Valley combined with a snowdrop.
A familiar emblem.
The man landed on the ground and prepared another attack.
He stomped on the ground, cracking it a bit, steadied himself, then moved his fist again.
Denji began to move back and raised his Kōgetsu again. Three layers of solid shields were formed.
With a breath of "Yushi," the man shattered the three layers and moved to punch Denji.
Denji won't make it! There's not enough time for him to try and counter!
If this punch connected, then Denji would be taken out. This much she was aware of.
Denji must have known this too. It explained why he placed a blue plate in front of him.
If he's trying to escape, then putting it behind him would have been better!
But he had not been going for that.
With his foot forward, the man stepped forward, accidentally landing on the blue plate and being sent into the air.
Denji looked toward the sky and glared at the man.
Kumagai could see his mouth moving and saw what he was saying from his lip movements.
"You have nothing to do with this...Minoru."
The man must have noticed what he said since he also spoke up.
"That's why I'm here for a different reason."
A shield formed above where the man had been thrown into the air.
He righted himself and placed both feet on the midair shield.
Then he pushed off.
Performing a single flip, he brought one foot out and started to bring it down.
"Yushi," Kumagai saw him say.
The same emblem as before wrapped around his foot and ankle as his body came back down onto Denji.