So Denji did that much, huh?

Sekai thought as he ran through the Forbidden Zone of Mikado City. Next to him was Minoru and around them was destruction.

But that was not what he focused on now.

What was on his mind was...

You ended up dragging yourself out from your room since the base was being attacked. ...Looks like you had some fun doing what you do best through.

Denji had taken the hahatredred of his opponent head on and came out of it with no issues.

Once he had walked away from the fight he had messaged Sekai about the situation going on. Everything from the cages he had made to the way Jinsei and the brat had come in to protect him. There was even confirmation of this from Kumokawa as she was told to focus more on supporting those two than supporting him.

When he had finished explaining what had been going on, Denji had followed up with a strange message.

Gambler: "Because of my employer, I figured something out. So just do your best out there so that you can live up to your failures as a human being, okay!?"

It was a clear stab at his own past, but Sekai ignored it. What mattered more was what Denji had said at the start.

What did he figure out? And what did Mogami do to make him figure that out?

Asking him directly would be pointless. If it was easy to get information out of each other then there would be no reason to hold anything back. But so far there were only a handful of people they could think of going all out with.

Sekai let out a sigh.

"I would ask you if you're worried about the others, but..."

"Hah. There's no point in worrying about them. If they can't handle what comes in front of them then that's on them. What about you? The two with you ended up being sent in directions completely different from yours. Hah. That sounds like an irritation."

Minoru gave him a bitter smile that made him turn away.

He knew what it meant.

"I won't apologize for what I said."

"That's fine. As long as you understand."

Sekai looked up at the dark clouds and smoke ascended into the sky.

It was something he did not like seeing and felt more like a nuisance.

But he also saw something else.

Something raised up high as if put there to watch over everything happening around it.

It did not even come close to reaching the height of the base, but it drew a powerful sight into the distant sky.

...Is that...?

Before he could make a decision, it split apart in midair. It transformed into what looked like shards of ice in the smoky air.

"There's where Kanzaki is fighting. Let's hurry."

That was the traitor on the side of Aftokrator. He was known around Mikado City as Misó

Kanzaki Shizuka and Misó of Aftokrator were facing off ten meters away from each other.

But for someone who had already fought against Aftokrator Triggers, this could only be described as stupid. It was not that Kanzaki was too weak or the Neighbor was too strong; it was not that kind of simple dimensional question, but an even more basic and simpler paradox.

Basically, she knew nothing of this Trigger.

Figuring it out would take time.

In other words. Since Kanzaki had to use up her time figuring out Misó's Trigger, she wouldn't be able to end this fight quickly.

So Kanzaki's action was really comical.

But the Neighbor boy didn't say anything, or even show a smile of pity.

Misó raised one of his ice wings. Though they were about ten meters away from each other, it didn't matter to the twelve-meter-long water wing; instead, it may have been too close.

The ice wings that were infused with trion from tip to tip could each send out an attack that could wreck a city. Once he sent that, this area would be destroyed completely.

Misó didn't hesitate.

Even though he knew the devastation this would cause on the area.

The Neighbor that controlled wings raised the twelve meter ice wing in the air without hesitation.

Such a scene gave a look that a tower was collapsing. The air that was ripped became a fist of air as it scattered about, until the wind itself collapsed due to the ice wing. The ice wing came swinging down at Kanzaki with shocking speed.

It was all over.

Everything should have been over.

"!"

With a clear sound, the ice wing was sliced in half by a horizontal flash.

Who could have predicted such a scene?

Misó was stunned, and Kanzaki merely took a deep breath in response.

The trion-made blade that was hanging from Kanzaki's waist.

The moment she drew the sword, the twelve-meter-long ice wing was sliced easily like a bamboo tube. Also, the remains of the sliced ice wing immediately scattered into powder like an explosion and vanished.

Kanzaki didn't say anything.

The blade of the sword had already been sheathed silently into the black sheath.

The bangs of the Neighbor trembled slightly. The glass-ball-like eyes behind the bangs rolled about, seemingly looking for Kanzaki's weakness. Misó raised another ice wing from his back, as if it were an experiment.

This time, the ice wing swung over, and the storm it whipped up seemed like it would flatten everything.

But the same thing happened again.

"!"

Kanzaki's slash easily sliced that twelve-meter-long ice wing in half.

And Kanzaki's body hadn't wavered from the speed of the unsheathing sword or the weight. The moment the blade was drawn, it was sheathed back silently.

Ten meters away, Kanzaki calmly stroked her hilt.

The Neighbor stopped.

He seemed to be thinking of a new tactic to deal with this prey.

"I think that," Kanzaki taunted, "you do not have to be shocked about this level of counterattack. Seems like you underestimated this earthling called Kanzaki Shizuka."

Misó of Aftokrator didn't respond. What replaced it were two ice wings that crossed each other like pliers.

A loud sound.

The two ice wings struck at Kanzaki with a boom.

But Kanzaki flipped her body like a tornado, slashing the two water wings in half at the same time with one strike.

"..."

The bangs swayed about in the air, the eyes behind them rolled about, seemingly confirming something.

White Fox: "You know, if you used your Side Effect, this might be easier for us."

Wisteria: "You know, it would be pointless to do that with an opponent like this."

On one side was Mei and Yuki, ready for battle and right in front of their opponent. On the other side was their opponent, sporting multiple weights on her side, courtesy of Mei herself.

Mei had received the information about their opponent's Trigger and was already coming up with hundreds upon hundreds of strategies. It didn't help that she still needed to keep an eye on Yuki.

She knew they had to get the fight over with quickly for multiple reasons. The main two were that they needed to go help other places. The other reason being that neither wanted the rest of their squad seeing their fight.

Wisteria: "By the way, that Trigger of yours is very...stylish."

White Fox: "Now, now. No need to be jealous. The one you have is just too destructive. You know full well that's why Shinoda-san and Akasora-sensei forbid you from using it here. Besides, you would end up going full Rampage Dress on me, and that would never do."

Wisteria: "You're getting me a little mad now."

Seeing the smile on his face, she got into a fighting stance.

Wisteria: "Let's end this quickly."

But their opponent had something to say to them.

"Hey," she started.

"I know that look. You two were talking about something, weren't you? Tell me what it was about. The least you can do after putting these weights on me, bitch."

"..."

"Look, I'm going to destroy these, attack you two again, beat you down, hunt you down once you get back to your base, then take that guy by force. I want him, so I'll be taking him. So just go on and tell me what you two were talking about."

...This kind of woman is terrible.

There had already been someone like that in her life. Someone who only thought of violence and destruction, but maintained themselves to the point that it creeped her out. But that's the same, there were so many differences between this Neighbor and that person.

One of those differences was standing next to her.

Yuki had caught on to her thoughts and moved forward, but not in her way.

You still think of that sort of stuff even now, huh.

She did not question it. There was no need when she already understood him all too well.

He was not protecting her or getting in her way.

He had moved forward to give her a moment so that she could focus on their next attack and counter.

That was why she moved to the side as he swung Idōgetsu with full wrist motions.

And when he was done...

Now!

She pushed off the ground with a start.

I don't have my personal Trigger on me, but I didn't need it back then either. Ariake and Kanzaki aren't here with us like then, but we started without them. I fought that monster without that Trigger, so this one won't be any different.

From her push she closed the distance between her and the Neighbor. There were multiple ways this fight could go and she calculated each one out in her mind until she came to an optimal conclusion.

.

Yuki saw it the moment he teleported.

Mei had rushed forward with her mind already organizing every possibility using the information given to her.

Just like back then...

It hurt to see it again, but there was no time to complain about it. Mei would continue doing as she wanted until this enemy was taken out.

So he would make sure they took her out.

A blade of trion had been created at the end of Idōgetsu as he swung it down from his teleportation spot. The blade was that of a crescent and cut cleanly through the air.

He could see her arm already moving for his chest and he couldn't help but admire how skilled she was.

Going for the head or the heart would have guaranteed a win if she landed her attack, but it was also unlikely she would reach those spots against him. The speed and flexibility he had already shown was enough for anyone to figure out that reaching him would be troublesome.

So instead she is aiming for my center.

If he tried to move in any direction then she would still have an area to reach for. Attacking the center of a person meant that there was a larger area to reach for, even if it meant not hitting a weak point.

But that was why he let it happen.

The hand reaching out for him moved with his body as he swung Idōgetsu downwards. There was no time to teleport away and he was already in midair.

So he reached out.

Focusing his attention on the arm reaching for him, he mimicked the action with his free hand. He reached out until their hands were inches away from each other. And once they were that close, he moved.

His arm slid past her arm and he took hold of her wrist.

Before she could register what was happening, he twisted his body using her arm as a center point for him. His entire body rotated in a similar way to a street dancer performing their routine. The entirety of his body was used to move from in front of her to the top of her until he made a full rotation where he stopped on the other side of her.

From his new position he could see her moving her other arm to reach out for him, but...

"!"

Something came forward and knocked her arm into the air while using her own cloak to touch her arm.

It was Mei.

She had used a sheathed Kōgetsu to run it into the Neighbor's arm using her own cloak so that her Kōgetsu could not be marked.

Nice going, Mei!

With his full momentum not being stopped, Yuki used the chance to cut through the Neighbor's cloak and shoulder, causing trion to spray out from the damage.

He did not relent as the blade vanished and he used her arm to jump back.

The large wrecking ball appeared on the blunt end of Idōgetsu a moment later. He used his full motion to crash it into the recovering Neighbor.

It was a direct hit.

The Neighbor was blown back by the hit.

But that was when he noticed it.

A number. It appeared on the wrecking ball of Idōgetsu. It had already started glowing.

"—!"

The explosion went off.

.

Mei did not look over to see if Yuki was fine.

He's like a cockroach. Something like an explosion wouldn't take him out.

Something caught her eye as she moved back and behind some rubble.

It was Idōgetsu.

The pole-like Trigger flew through the air before stabbing into the ground easily enough.

A moment later came a body that grabbed the Trigger and ran to where she was.

"Sorry for the wait."

It was Yuki. He had made it out of the explosion and reached her.

"There's nothing to be sorry for. Just make sure you don't do anything like that around others. You would worry them."

"If we're talking about those cannibals, I highly doubt that. But I shouldn't do that around them for a different reason."

"It's all the same: don't do that again."

He added an "anyways" before looking back behind the rubble.

"That cloak is pretty annoying. It acts as a defense and can regenerate itself. I managed to cut through it, but that may have been because it was moving already. Cutting through both it and her isn't something I can do every time."

"Using Lead Bullets seems to be out of the question. From what you sent me, she can just blow up the weights and regenerate the cloak."

"So what should we do then? The two of us are more reliant on close ranged combat and I'm more into stealth combat. Neither one of those is particularly applicable for this situation."

It was true that both preferred to feel the direct feedback of their attacks. Moving in to reach their opponents had been the way they fought before and it felt strange to fight any other way.

But there was no time to be picky.

Their enemy was not someone who would let them change their tactics on a whim and not exploit that.

"In that case... Fine. I guess we should make haste with this."

Lifting herself up, Mei looked down at her partner. She did not hold out her hand and he did not reach for her hand. There was no time for such sentimentalities.

"Yuki, we're going to be going ahead of the rest. Make sure you're prepared to apologize to those three once this is over."

He only smiled and stood up himself.

.

Pyr held nothing back as the boy and girl duo rushed her again after having left the rubble. The destruction she had caused created multiple locations to hide behind, but she had intended to blow them up as well. Any place they could use to hide would be destroyed and they would have to face her.

But they had done so already.

Both the boy and the girl rushed her without any hesitation. Even after knowing what her Trigger did, they did not wait to move forward and attack her.

So she acted against that.

Pyr grabbed multiple rocks around her and tossed them into the air. Each one of them had been marked and would detonate before they could reach her.

The smoke that came from the explosions covered the field of vision, but she did not think much of it. Instead of moving into it she began moving around it. More rocks were already in her hand and three blades were created using her trion. Each one of them had numbers on them that ranged from single digits to double digits.

The only place you can go is-

"Behind!"

Turning her body completely around she saw the boy of the duo appear behind her. His eyes caught hers and she threw the rocks that were in her hand.

He can just do that whenever he wants! There's a time lag between the times he teleports! If I strike after he teleports then he won't be able to escape like that!

It was one of the weaknesses she had found.

If he would continue to move like this then she only had to narrow down her attacks to precise moments that would force him to move in different ways. If he could not do that then he would be taken out and it would be her win.

Like right now.

"Hm."

The boy only smiled as the rocks moved closer to him.

The reason came soon after.

Appearing from the smoke behind her, the girl of the duo rushed past her, grabbed the rocks, then threw them back at Pyr.

The fuck!?

The detonation had already started by the time the girl had grabbed them.

Now that they were being sent towards her...

These two!

The blades made from her own trion were thrown forward. They caught on the rocks and soon multiple explosions spread across her vision.

More smoke filled the area in front of her as the smoke behind her started to settle.

It was the perfect chance to attack.

That was exactly what they did.

With the boy in the lead, the duo began attacking her with their blades.

Each one of them moved to opposite sides of her while swinging their blades.

Pyr could read their movements and so decided on which one to defend against.

It was the girl.

The boy's blade felt much weaker than the girl's, so she decided to respond to the girl's blade by reaching out her hand. More than that, she created explosions in the air to push aside the blade that threatened to reach her neck.

The explosions she created were not ones meant to destroy these two and instead were there to push aside any of their attacks. The area they covered was small due to the marks appearing on the small pieces of rock that were thrown into the air from the previous attack.

The duo continued to move around her as the small explosions pushed them back little by little.

Then she noticed something.

It was not subtle, but it something most would ignore due to the situation.

When one of them would move forward, the other would be on the opposite side of her to attack. It felt like one was real while the other was only a mirror image. In this sense it was the girl who was the real one while the boy was just her shadow or mirror image.

As the girl got pushed back, the boy moved in a way similar to her, but with more balance. Every time the girl seemed to be caught off balance, she would look to the boy as an example before righting herself and moving in for the next attack.

It was a set of attacks that relied on more than one person, but it was something that should have been easy to deal with. Pyr found that the more she let it continue the more she found herself trapped in this pincer attack that felt more like someone attacking with their shadow.

.

Yuki could feel the strain on his body as he moved.

There was no muscle fatigue or loss of breath, but he felt himself starting to lose against Mei. The rate of her attacks started to increase with each hit and he had been trying to keep up since her fifth attack. The accuracy had gone up as well, but that was something he was already accustomed to, as was the speed she was using. When compared to his own she was still moving relatively slow.

But every time she had been pushed back she seemed to correct herself more and more. That alone started causing him problems.

Because of his Side Effect he had become her shadow; a mirror image that reflected every action she took. It was all done by his body and his mind recorded every movement down. Without needing to worry about controlling his body, he had no need to worry about keeping up when it came to the general physical abilities Mei had. But that did not mean he could maintain it all the time.

All people made mistakes no matter what they did. They would correct those mistakes when they came up, but it usually took time to do so and therefore allowed their bodies to properly adjust to the new changes. Mistakes made were seen by most as something everyone did and something to overcome.

But Mei was different.

Every time she made a mistake, she corrected it right away and her body understood what needed to be done. Everything that went wrong had been fixed in a fraction of the time it took to make the mistake. This had been something she did naturally and had not realized until it had been pointed out to her by a monster of a woman. Once it had been cleared up, it had only escalated with her Side Effect. Everything involving her started to see an increase in proficiency and accuracy once she had noticed the mistakes she made.

As opposed to that, Yuki could only do so much in situations like that. He could correct his mistakes on the fly as well, but it still took time for his body to catch up to what he wanted to correct. Now that he was allowing his Side Effect to be free and copy every one of Mei's movements, he could see just how behind he was.

All of the mistakes she noticed when attacking were instantly corrected when he continued to look at Mei. Those corrections were put into his mind, but his body had trouble keeping up with those corrections and so made him lag behind a bit. To cover this up, Yuki had increased the speed of his attacks and focused less on the accuracy of them. All that mattered was keeping up with these corrections while not giving the enemy a chance to counter.

This is pretty bad though. Each correction she is making is getting done faster and faster. The last time this happened...

What happened the last time?

Yuki felt something cold at the memory of it.

There had been times that these sorts of corrections came up, but they had not been in battles this important and had maintained a steady rate of them.

Expect for one time.

The single time where the corrections had been made had been increasing at such a rapid rate that it had caused an incident in Mikado City that required a lot of people to put a stop to.

And even then we needed her to completely stop it.

If the same incident were to happen again then there would not be many ways of stopping it. Especially since the person who had originally stopped it was no longer in Mikado City.

Since that was the case, Yuki made a quick decision. One that changed the battle completely.

.

"Mei!"

Pyr heard the boy call out to the girl.

As their attacks went on it had become clear that the girl had been moving ahead of the boy as she corrected her mistakes and counters at a rapid rate. It had started to become too much for Pyr to handle as her rate of hitting had continued to be cut in half until it reached the point where the girl had been able to constantly reach her and attack.

But she had left the boy behind. His speed had managed to keep up with the girl, but only barely. His rate of attack and the accuracy of them had gone down in favor of keeping up with the girl.

Now he called out to that girl, gaining her attention.

Pyr had thought of reaching for the girl, but decided that the boy was currently more of a problem.

His teleportation had caused enough issues as it was and the girl seemed to already be on her way to self-destructing.

She reached out.

It would have been easy to cause him to explode if she could only graze his skin.

She was stopped from doing that.

The girl had moved under her arm and forced it to go into the air.

Seeing the new chance, Pyr lifted her knee and brought over her other arm.

This time it was the boy who moved her arm away from the girl.

But it also caged the girl between them.

"Mark, set."

A number appeared on the girl's face as she and the boy were sent flying by a kick.

The two landed a short distance away, but Pyr did not move towards them.

She looked over the two of them with a grin set on her lips and her leg being brought down.

"Looks like I went a bit easy without even realizing it."

"..."

"Don't look at me like that. Be happy that you have that much time until you explode. I could have gone for a shorter time, but that's not really how my Vómva works. The thing is pretty tricky if you aren't careful."

Pyr looked at the number set on the girl's face. The large "60" that took up the majority of the side of her face glared back at her. If she had a choice, she would have gone for a single digit number.

But Vómva sets the number to the first one that comes to mind. It's annoying when I'm not focused and just give a random number out. But at the moment...

It didn't matter.

"Since you've probably figured out my Trigger by now, I can gladly say you only have 60 seconds until her face explodes."

.

Yuki listened to what their enemy had said. It was because of his mistake that Mei had taken a hit and had been marked. And unlike the ones before, this one could not be taken off so easily.

He let out a sigh as the number started to go down with the seconds.

Whit Fox: "This was my bad."

Wisteria: "You aren't going to let that get to you."

That was right. He accepted the fact he messed up, but there was still the task in front of him. Letting something like this get to him would have to wait until it was all over.

And even then, he knew he would be fine. Mei would not be angry with him and no one would fault him considering the circumstances.

He instead focused on something else.

White Fox: "How can we use this?"

Wisteria: "You really asked that."

Mei's reaction was not meant to criticize him, he knew. She's thinking the same thing after all. But he felt a pang of regret for using her like this.

But this was the situation they found themselves in.

Wisteria: "It's simple. We continue the fight. Once the number has reached single digits, you stay away while I continue to stay close until I explode."

The way she casually said such a thing hurt him inside, but he maintained his calm. This was just how things were with them.

"Right then. The other three should be here soon. A few more seconds are all you have left. Let's make sure you get some things done before you have to leave."

"What the hell is with those explosions?"

"If I had to guess... It's the fight Yuki-senpai is in."

"Then we need to hurry the hell up!"

The rest of the Tsukiko Squad made their way to where their leader and Operator were. They couldn't help the feeling of worry that bubbled up within them as they continued on.

As they got closer, they saw the scenery change from destroyed buildings to rubble scattered around to an almost open area.

They had faced the trion soldiers multiple times and had managed to defeat one of the new models, but they felt as if they were traveling from their own world to a deserted one one. It didn't help that large explosions constantly shook the ground every few seconds.

"We haven't seen a Bail Out yet, so it's safe to assume that neither Mei-san or Yuki-senpai have lost. But for them to take this long with an opponent..."

"Hey Take, have you ever seen Mei fight? I know Suzume hasn't, but you've been with them longer than either of us," Toby asked as he cut down some weaker trion soldiers.

"...No. I came in a little after Mei-san became Yuki-senpai's Operator. I heard them speak about trying before, but have never actually seen them go at it," Takeshi answered as he shot more down.

"I bet she looks really cool when she fights." Suzume shot a few more enemies.

"If she trained with Yuki then of course she'd look cool!"

"But why would she switch from being a Combatant to an Operator? If she really is that good, then wouldn't it be better if she was fighting?"

"Good point. Maybe we can ask them about it when all of this is done."

"Yeah... Let's speed up. We also need to help around other places as well."

"Roger!"

Mikumo placed his hand on the pad connected to one of the openings leading to Border.

But nothing happened. The door remained closed and no reaction came from the pad.

"The door won't open!?"

"What's going on!?"

"Did HQ betray us!?"

"It's a trap!"

Mikumo looked back as two names appeared before his eyes.

Torimaru: "Usami-senpai. Why won't the door open?"

Megane Operator: "Well, the thing is... I can't get in touch with HQ. Something might have happened to the communications room, or something could have broken during the Illgar attack."

"What should we do then?" Mikumo asked.

"We have to try another way, or go directly to HQ."

All options were limited and the time they had was restricted. Moving backwards would mean taking more time, but with the current situation, it had been the only thing to do.

The A-Rank and B-Rank agents agreed on that much and began to move once one.

But...

"They're coming toward us. There are two of them. They're fast."

Amatori had spoken up. Her voice carried to the two of them as she faced a different direction.

The two turned at her words.

"What's this?"

"! It's her Side Effect. Chika can detect approaching enemies."

"For real? It hasn't been that long since Reiji-san and Ketssan were taken out."

As he said that, the two faced the same direction as Chika. When looking into the clouded sky they were able to see two figures moving towards them from the air.

It was the old and young man duo they had been fighting before.

Their speed left little time to move away and their flight path was leading them directly towards their group.

"That old man has a Black Trigger."

"...!"

"Fall back towards the rendezvous point with Jin-san. Take care of the C-Ranks."

Karasuma brought out his gun while calling out to the others.

The two Neighbors standing before them stayed where they were, but both prepared for the fight that was to come. They had been pushed away once, but that had been with the assistance of two other A-Rank agents. With that no longer being the case, it left little in the way of defense for the group.

But that only made what happened next even more of a surprise for them all.

Something crashed directly in front of them.

.

Something came from above and at an angle. It tore through the air until it collided with the building between the group of Border members and the two Neighbors of Aftokrator.

Dust flew into the air while the destroyed building parts were forcibly thrown from where they had been.

Both sides looked on in surprise as something started to emerge from the rubble. The first thing that came was a voice.

"Ouch... You could turn it down a notch, Replica-sensei. I guess it's fine since we needed to arrive on time though."

"Jin-san!"

Jin waved to the glasses-boy as he moved to stand in between the Border group and the Aftokrator duo.

"Nice to meet you, people of Aftokrator. I'm the talented elite agent, Jin Yūichi. I'm afraid I'm going to be dealing with you now."

A noise filled the air a moment later. It was actually more like two noises that happened at once to create a single sound. The result from these noises remained the same though.

They were attacks.

The first came from the sky and the second came from the ground.

The one from the sky came down like a missile, ramming into Viza with power to destroy the round and create a crater.

The second from the ground moved towards Hyuse from multiple directions. Green lights flashed in the air as they closed in on him.

"My bad. I meant to say that...we will be dealing with you now."

.

Maki moved out in front of the group to stand beside Karasuma.

His attack had been sent out at the same time that Yūma was pushed forward.

Neither attack had managed to properly hit their opponents, but it created an opportunity for them.

"Kuga...! And Takahashi-senpai...!"

It felt nice to be noticed like that, but this was no place to enjoy such a thing.

Instead, he focused more on the two standing in front of him.

"Whoops. I wasn't supposed to fight outside of the Forbidden Zone."

"Don't worry about it. This is an emergency. Oh, and good to see you finally caught up, Maki-kun."

"No thanks to you telling me to change directions. Next time be more certain about where you want me."

"If only it was-"

Everything stopped in reaction to something.

Maki could see Jin turn back as Yūma dodge something aimed for his head.

No, it isn't aimed at him!

It was aimed at someone behind him.

From where he stood, Maki could see that what had been aimed was something fired from the railgun-like object one of the Neighbors had on their arm. The black metal and electricity around him were magnets from what he had been told, and those agents had been launched towards the group of C-Ranks.

More specifically at Chika.

Instead of looking back to see who had taken the hit proper, Maki continued to focus on the two before them.

Taking his eyes off of them would give them another chance to attack. Besides that, the noise around him told him all he needed.

"Nice going there, Megane-kun."

"Osamu-kun, are you alright!?"

"I'm fine! Let's go! They're after you!"

"I'm counting on you, Kyōsuke and Megane-kun. You can't use the passages, so go to the base directly. Watch out for trion soldiers."

Wait.

"Why did you need me here then?"

Jin had not told him to go with them, so there was only one other reason he would have Maki here with them all.

"To fight with us, of course."

.

Hyuse watched as one of the three combatants let out a sigh.

He was the one who attacked me... But what was that? I came from out of nowhere.

The attack had been similar to the ones used against him earlier, but they had felt different this time. Unlike before, these bullets had moved in an almost unpredictable way. It had only been at the last moment that he brought up Lampyris to defend against the attack.

That had been unexpected, but it did not hold him back from continuing with their hunt.

The tracker he had meant for the small girl in the back had instead been taken by the glasses-boy. He had managed to step out and take the hit from Lampyris.

Now that they were aware of what needed to be done, the large group had begun to move away from them. The small girl was being directed along with the others by the gunner and glasses-boy while the other three combatants stood their ground here.

Viza had been faster in pulling out his Trigger to keep them from getting away.

"Don't move."

The moment those words had left the white haired kid it happened.

Chains sprang from the ground, wrapping around Viza's neck and holding him in place.

Not wanting to be held back any longer, Hyuse began reforming Lampyris to fire more projectiles out.

"Escudo."

But he was also too late.

Multiple walls sprang up from the ground as the ground shook. Each one of them had the same logo on the front of them and all of them had appeared just behind the boy that had attacked him.

Barriers...!?

"You won't capture them now. That's what my Side Effect tells me."

"What...!?"

Shattering chains could be heard to the side as Hyuse continued to look forward. The use of a Side Effect meant that this person was not someone they could think of as a simple fighter. The way he moved also made it hard to believe that he had not seen his fair share of battles up to this point.

Even so.

"Miden has so many cunning people."

There was something they needed to get done.

"Lord Hyuse, we must change our plans. We must keep these two occupied, or we won't be able to chase the baby birds."

.

2.7 Maime: "Accoridng to Reiji-san, these two form a dangerous team. The first one has a Trigger that captures enemies with magnets. And the other has a Black Trigger with a strange cutting power."

UMA: "Then we need to separate. I don't know how you fight, Jin-san, and Maki-senpai's fighting style doesn't go too well with mine. So we're at a disadvantage if we all fight together."

Maki Roll: "So that means I'm on support for Jin while you handle the one we don't."

2.7 Maime: "Then I think it's clear who we need to take on."

UMA: "I'll fight the old man. I've already placed a seal on him. And I don't really get how those magnets work."

Maki Roll: "So that leaves us with the other guy."

2.7 Maime: "Think you can keep up?"

Maki Roll: "I'll try."

.

"What will we do now? Fight then two-on-three, or separate?"

"Neither is a problem."

Fighting as a pair would mean they could work together to win, while separating meant that the three in front of them could not coordinate with each other and attack one of them instead of both.

Still, that guy there gives me a terrible familiar feeling.

The one who had spoken to them and brought up the barricade had the same feeling as someone else. Hyuse knew that they were different in so many aspects, but they were fundamentally the same from the way they held themselves to their smaller mannerisms. Since that was the case, it became hard not to think of that person.

Viza must have noticed this as he glanced to the side with his brows lowered.

"Thinking of that young man will do you no good. He has already left and you remained."

"...I know. Sorry for being so sentimental at a time like this."

It was not the time for anything but their objective. All that mattered was their goal and the results they brought.

That's why Hyuse cleared his head for a moment and resolved himself even more.

"I have a backup plan either way."

With a start, the fight began anew.