The first thing destroyed after Yūma was the very ground they had been standing on.

Jin had moved in to attack, but had stopped upon seeing something. The ground had started to shake until...

No way!

Large blades made of magnets crashed into the ground, destroying it completely and causing the three fighters to enter free fall.

Maki caught himself and balanced out before they could hit the ground. Both he and Jin pushed themselves back upon landing.

"Well that was easier than I thought it would be...Makes things pretty easy now."

This was another part of what Jin had seen.

Maki understood that supporting Jin was his importance here, but that was made difficult when the person in question could already see ahead of the rest of them and act accordingly.

Their opponent had no idea of his Side Effect and its ability to look into the future, so it had already put him at a disadvantage. With Maki's presence there is only created that much more of a gap between them and him.

Even so, their opponent moved forward knowing his own disadvantages.

Grumpy Cat: "Leave the lighting to me."

The passageway they had fallen into did not light up, but Maki's vision had become more clear in the dark. And as it did...

"There!"

He saw the attacks.

Magnet bullets had been fired from different angles towards the two of them. The main target seemed to be Jin, but there had been some aimed differently.

With his sights on those bullets, Maki responded with bullets of his own.

Viper!

The bullets from his split cube of trion moved forward until they reached the magnet ones. Each one clashed and bounced off each other, but...

"!"

While Maki's bullets disappeared after hitting, the magnet ones only changed directions and moved in on Jin once more.

2.7 Maime: "Let's keep moving back for now."

Doing as he was told, Maki moved away from the forward moving Neighbor as Jin deflected the magnet bullets with his two Scorpion blades.

.

As Jin and Maki made their way back the space behind them opened up. They had left the small passageway into a more open area. The space was double layered and they fell towards the bottom layer.

The open area had been used to have both of them move to different sides of the area with Maki aiming for the second layer. Jin continued his descent towards the bottom layer while deflecting the next onslaught of magnet bullets.

Maki created a cube of tiron behind him and one in front of him, covering the former so that it would not be seen.

Without any hesitation, he fired.

The Viper shots moved through the air from the cube in front of him while the one behind him had a different path set.

To counter this, the magnets around Hyuse began to shift in the air and turn until something strange happened. He vanished from their sights.

As if putting a cloak over his entire being, Hyuse's body disappeared from before them and there was only the dark now. Even with night vision on, Maki had not been able to see where he was.

The Viper bullets hit nothing but air.

The next attack he had planned was kept in reserve, but there was no longer a need for it. The airspace around them was no longer one where they could attack, instead being one where they had to defend.

Bullets came from all around, ricocheting around the area with sound bouncing off of every surface around them.

Jin continued to deflect the bullets with his blades as Maki brought a Shield to defend himself.

But there was still an extent to their defenses.

While deflecting the bullets, Jin had taken a hit.

Seeing this, Maki made a choice.

He released the attack that was hidden behind him. The light from Viper flew through the air, each one curving and turning in different ways to fill up the space. It was a fast thinking idea to fill up the space with his own attack to either hit their opponent or strike down the ricocheting bullets.

It was not enough.

Maki lunged forward as one of the bullets crashed into him from behind. The damage had been minimal, likely due to it only being one that had been trying to get past him instead of hit him.

.

Jin saw it all happen.

It had happened once he felt the tug on his harm from the hit he had just taken.

The future had appeared before his eyes.

A noise could be heard on the upper layer.

Maki-kun probably took a hit there. He'll be fine though, that much I'm certain of.

For now he would focus on the boy who had appeared before them again.

His arm had slammed into the wall next to him and the boy spoke.

"That was less difficult than I imagined. Your friend cut off his arm without hesitation."

"Hmm... This uses magnetic force and reflection... A pretty elaborate Trigger you've got there. Handy in a lot of situations, and with a skilled user too."

"...!?"

"You should be a valuable asset, and yet..."

He had seen it.

"Why are you going to be abandoned here?"

He had wanted to only see the boy's reaction, but he could hear the curiosity in Maki's voice up above.

Ignoring the one above him for the time being, he looked towards the boy and waited.

It was not long before he finally saw it before his eyes. The reaction he had wanted.

"Shut up! Don't mess with me!"

The boy had rushed in like he had predicted. The emotions in the boy had been clear from the very start.

Now that he had done what Jin wanted, it was only a matter of keeping up that pace.

When throwing around emotions like that, it became easier to control the tide of the battle for the ones who remained calm. Maki may have been curious, but he had remained calm throughout their situation. That fact alone made things better for them as their opponent had fallen to his own emotions.

So Jin did nothing as the boy moved forward.

Why was that?

"Viper!"

Because everything was working out like he wanted.

A rain of Viper came down from the upper layer. Even if he was stuck to something, Maki would be able to attack so long as he remained in the battle. Shooters were resilient in that sense, so there was no worrying there.

The boy reacted to the rain by moving back, but that had been his next mistake.

A loud noise filled the space as two large walls came from the wall Jin was attached to and the one opposite him. The ends of them clamped together with their open space capturing the boy.

"The barricade Trigger...!?"

The rain came down, pelting him from above, but not doing enough to take him out.

Jin spoke as he cut the section of the wall he was attached to.

"I wasn't messing with you. You see...I can see your future."

He had already seen it all.

There were only a few seconds left for them. The number on Mei's face continued to go down as they moved forward.

Their opponent had been throwing explosions at them since she had landed an attack on them. She was stalling them out.

If one of them left then the other would need to continue the fight on their own. The rest of their squad would be coming to support them, but the battle had become somewhat of a race against time instead of a fight against an enemy. That had created a need to finish the fight quickly within the two of them.

So as they ran forward to end the fight quickly, their opponent continued to stall out the fight and turn it into a fight of attrition.

Another explosion went off in front of the two.

...When looking at them head on, all attacks fall into three basic categories: piercing attacks or cannons are points, slashes are lines, and area attacks are planes.

Yuki's mentor had taught her that. Even throws and grappling were points or lines before one was grabbed. According to his mentor, once one understood that everything fell under those three categories plus the planes created by different attacks, the rest was easy.

Points were fast, but one only had to shift the area that would be hit and move forward.

Lines were long, but one only had to duck under that path and move forward.

Planes were wide, but one only had to circle around outside their range and move forward.

The rest was an issue of size and speed, but there were only ever three things to do.

Thinking of it that way, the explosions were planes. If one did not fear the sound of firing and took the shockwave into account, any of those attacks coming could be avoided. And...

"...!"

Mei arrived in a lowered posture by accelerating as if stretching forward.

She made sure to give Pyr no time to actually defend herself and brought her blade up, landing a real hit against the Neighbor.

She jumped back and saw that Yuki had come up from the other side while managing to do the same thing Mei did.

The plan was now set.

For an opponent who didn't know how Yuki or Mei fought, this would be difficult to handle. The two were able to easily mix together different Triggers for fast and precise strikes that only the best could dodge or block.

That was proven when Mei had been able to land another hit on Pyr.

She moved forward on light feet but with heavy hits.

Yuki's body lightened up and all the tension seemed to escape through his arms and legs.

Mei had cut Pyr's right side.

Yuki copied it and cut her left.

Mei tried to cut her midsection but was blocked.

Yuki copied it and cut her back.

Mei jumped back and used Viper.

Yuki copied it and used Asteroid.

The mirror attacks continued on as Pyr's anger increased. For every hit Mei got on her, Yuki was able to get the opposite side.

Each step they took seemed to increase their speed as any tension in their false bodies were released towards the ground with their steps or on their opponent through their strikes.

The teamwork between the two of them seemed to rival that of Kazama Squad and Azuma Squad; two teams well known for their power and skill as units. Even as they moved around while increasing their speed and through the explosions, they understood exactly what the other would do and followed up with an attack that would complement the other.

.

Only nine more seconds were left.

Pyr could see the number on the girl's face go down as she and the boy continued their mirrored pincer attack. While not at the level as the first time, this attack had been an onslaught that did not let up in the slightest.

At least not until the number reached the single digits.

Once the number on the girl's face had gone down to ten, the boy had moved back while maintaining an area of effectiveness against her. No matter where she moved, he would be able to reach her and keep her in place.

As for the girl...

"I'll be taking you with me now."

She rushed forward.

Without the boy nearby, she corrected all of her mistakes and moved in a certain path. There was no opening and she held her body close to the ground, but in the air enough that she could easily change directions.

The two of them were planning a suicide bombing.

You idiots think it'll be that easy!? I've already blown myself up so many times and had other idiots try that shit on me before! You're not original and you're nothing special!

"You idioooooooooots!"

"That is rude, all things considered."

Pyr felt an impact.

It was not from the girl's words but rather from something behind her.

Turning her head, she saw it. The wrecking ball the boy had been using before had managed to reach her back and slam into her, pushing her forward. Right into the girl.

The strange part was that the way had been within her field of vision, and still was. There had been no possible way for him to throw his weapon at her and have it hit from behind.

Unless there was something to control it.

And there was.

It was difficult to make out because of the situation, but Pyr could see something akin to a wire hanging in the air. The start of it seemed to come from the boy and the end of it reached the weapon he had thrown.

These two!

There was no chance of moving now.

The girl had already made her way in front of Pyr.

The explosion was inevitable.

.

Bail Out.

Yuki watched as a flash sped through the air.

He got ready to attack again for another one-on-one battle.

Both he and Mei had known that a simple attack like that wouldn't be able to take out their opponent, but that wasn't why it had been done.

Once the smoke started to clear that fact was obvious.

Pyr standing there with only injuries to her trion body.

Wisteria: "Looks like we were right. Something like that wouldn't take her out. Even if the explosion was relatively large."

White Fox: "It's fine. I know you had other things on your mind, Mei. If you had been completely focused, we would have taken her out without needing that suicide bombing."

Wisteria: "Just to let you know... They finally arrived."

"About time."

.

"You...fucking...shits..."

It was easy to see just how mad that single attack had gotten Pyr.

The Neighbor started to stalk forward while multiple rocks could be seen being tossed into the air.

With a good amount of power, she threw the rocks straight at Yuki.

"I'll make sure you both fucking die now!"

A large grin could be seen on Pyr's face.

She would win.

That was her mission and she would complete it.

She would...

"Asteroid."

A heated noise filled the air as a laser-like beam tore through the air horizontally, completely capturing the rocks that had been thrown. The green light continued to run through the air until fading out.

"Hahaha!"

Blinking and gathering herself again, Pyr realized what was happening the moment someone new had appeared in front of her vision. The body was rather small, but it moved lightly with blades in its hands.

In three quick motions, the boy in front of her had cut through her cloak before moving back to dodge her reaching hand.

The explosion that had been meant for the boy had instead thrown her into the air.

"Honestly."

A small flash sped through the air.

Without any sort of balance in the air, Pyr got shot in her mid-section. The holes in her cloak the boy had made were used as targets to attack her.

The shot had been aimed at her head for a quick win, but she had used a small explosion to twist herself before it hit.

As she landed on the ground, she picked up rocks and threw them in Yuki's direction.

They were quickly shot down.

She glared forward while picking up more rocks.

"Nice to finally have you guys here."

"I'm sorry we're late, Senpai."

"We tried to get here quickly, but had to deal with the other Neighbors!"

"We'll honestly try our best to make it up to you."

"It's fine. You're here now and that's what matters. Now let's finish this before any more damage is done."

"Roger, Captain!"

There, in front of Pyr, was the full Tsukiko Squad.

She was having trouble with only Yuki and Mei.

Having the whole team there would mean...

It would mean...

"Suicide bombing it is then! Let's see how you like this, you fuckers!"

.

White Fox: "Mei-chan, give these three the info we've got."

Wisteria: "Already on it."

Where would we be without you?

Yuki pulled on the wire he had attached to Idōgetsu too. The Trigger flew back from where it had been thrown by the explosion, Yuki grabbing it as the other three received the information.

Now that the rest of his squad was there, he didn't have to worry too much. He would have backup ready at any moment.

He looked over the three and saw that they all looked as ready as him.

Werewolf: "Leave it to Yuki to be able to still be fighting after something like that!"

Colors: "Mei-san did well too."

Honest Sister: "It's honestly a basic Trigger, don't you think? Ranged fighters like me or Take are honestly enough. If Toby would stop being an idiot then even he could do something."

Yuki smiled a bit when he heard Toby and Suzume start to have a small argument.

It put his mind at ease a bit.

Wisteria: "Whether it has a basic function or not doesn't matter. What matters now is that you three are here and she is already weakened quite a bit. It shouldn't take too long to take her out."

Yuki looked around and saw that the area was completely leveled with no place to hide like before.

Due to the large explosion that Pyr had caused there was no way for Suzume to hide and take her shots without being spotted beforehand. That was never much of an issue before though.

White Fox: "Suzu, you need to keep on your toes when you shoot. Take, get something strong ready for the finale. Toby, you're gonna be with me in distracting her."

"Got it!" they all said.

White Fox: "Now, let's go."

.

Yuki took the first step forward.

He ran forward with Idōgetsu spinning at his side.

The three behind him also went into action. Toby followed Yuki on the opposite side while Suzume jumped back and three trion orbs appeared around Takeshi, each glowing and ready to attack.

"I'll take the two new fuckers as my pets as well! I'll just blow that bitch's boobs off though!"

Pyr threw a large amount of rocks at the two running forward before throwing a large piece of the ground at them.

Yuki and Toby were gone in the blink of an eye and reappeared closer to Pyr and farther from the rocks.

Yes. We'll set the stage and you can let the rage consume you.

Three laser-like beams coming from the orbs floating around Takeshi's head had destroyed all the smaller rocks in the air. The three laser-like beams started to all aim right at the piece of the ground and destroyed that as well, scattering the earth around.

Toby used his chance to move around Pyr and deliver multiple shallow cuts on her body.

Yuki noticed the spots Toby had cut and brought up Idōgetsu in its Full Moon form, ready to strike.

Before he could land a hit, Pyr jumped into the air.

That was where she saw her mistake.

Three laser-like beams were fired while a single shot was aimed at her as well. She had used her explosions to twist herself in the air again but still managed to lose an arm and get a hole shot through one of her legs.

From her spot in the air, she stuck her arm out and easily grabbed a blade that was aimed at her head created by Toby. A mark was placed on the blade before glowing brightly.

Yuki noticed the glow and used Idōgetsu to cut Toby's blade. He put a hand on Toby's shoulder to keep his balance and brought his leg up to kick Pyr back.

Once he landed on the ground, Yuki threw his shoe to the side as it started to grow brightly and exploded.

He started spinning Idōgetsu until it was back in its base form.

Tsukiko Squad watched as Pyr grinned, full of holes and missing body parts, but not affected by them in the least.

"Blow up, you damn pieces of shit!"

The ground started to glow.

Toby looked down to see a large "1" on the ground.

Yuki only spoke while looking forward.

"Takeshi, use it now."

"Roger."

Takeshi quickly got into the air and was followed by the orbs.

The three orbs smashed into each other and seemed to fuse together to create a single orb. From that single orb came a single laser-like beam. Once that laser-like beam was fired it split and multiplied by two.

Then the two multiplied by four.

Then the four multiplied by sixteen.

Then the sixteen multiplied by thirty-two.

In only a few seconds a rain of these laser-like beams came down and slammed into the ground.

The glowing stopped.

"Suzu."

"Yes, sir!"

From her spot a few feet away, Suzume shot a small, quick, and deadly shot.

Pyr hadn't noticed the attack and would have got the hit to the head if it wasn't for some kind of hole opening up and taking the shot in before closing up.

"Hm. Looks like Mira's being a little generous towards me."

Yuki narrowed his eyes when he saw the wormhole.

Wisteria: "You three, that's a wormhole making Trigger that has appeared at the end of the fight Izumi was in. A woman with black horns had appeared to take back the Neighbor."

White Fox: "So we can assume that the woman you're talking about would rather take this woman away instead of kill her... Alright then."

Yuki held out his arm and spun Idōgetsu in the air before stopping.

A large blade stuck out from the side of the pointed end. This was the scythe form that Idōgetsu was capable of using.

White Fox: "Takeshi, your job is to wait until they come to get this woman and use the Laser Shooter to get the Black Trigger user."

Colors: "Alright."

Yuki lowered his body and began running, Toby following once again. The two moved around easily even while the ground under them continued to explode.

They both used Teleport to appear by Pyr. While Toby started attacking with his two Scorpion blades, Yuki used his arm-length scythe to destroy any defenses that got in his way.

The two were quick and light on their feet. Pyr couldn't keep up with then and ended up with multiple cuts on different parts of her trion-made body.

It didn't take long for large amounts of trion to start leaking from Pyr's body once more.

Yuki noticed that there was some glowing from under Pyr and told Toby so.

The two jumped off to the side as an explosion went off and caused dust and dirt to fly into the air.

.

Suzume used the dust as a smokescreen and got close enough to take Pyr's second arm off with her own Scorpion blade.

She jumped back a moment later to dodge a kick. When she did this she brought up her arm as her Lightning appeared in her hand. She pulled the trigger and fired a shot right at Pyr.

"You bitch!"

Pyr kicked her falling arm towards Suzume, intending for it to explode right in front of her so that she would have one less opponent to deal with.

Before the explosion could go off, Yuki appeared in front of his teammate and sliced the arm in two.

He put markers on the rest of them!

Pyr let out a breath before slamming her foot on the ground.

"Fine then!"

Pyr started moving as well, so as to dodge the shots fired by Suzume as well as any attack that Toby tried to get off.

With every step she took, a number appeared on the ground.

She quickly twisted her leg and started again, this time forward - towards Yuki.

Before she reached him, she used her momentum to jump into the air. Once her feet touched the ground behind Yuki a large number appeared under her.

That was when every place she had stepped on, every number she had placed, started to glow. One after another, each spot started to explode.

This chain explosion went all around the area and came back a few feet away from Pyr.

That was when the final, extra large, explosion went off.

For one of the last times that day, the ground shook violently in small intervals as the ground continued to get destroyed and distorted by the explosions that bombarded it.

That should do it.

Pyr, wanting to make sure that she had won, waited until the smoke started to clear up a bit.

When it did...

"Man, that was a close one."

Instead of being caught in any sort of explosion, Yuki, along with Toby, was standing safely behind a dome of trion.

The dome was put down as quickly as it came and a cube of trion appeared next to Yuki before breaking up.

Pyr reacted to the shots fired at her by moving to the side.

How the hell are these pieces of shit still alive!? Screw it! I'll just take them all out and have Mira take this guy from their HQ!

This was it. Pyr faced the squad before her with a grin on her face. Using her Trigger, she placed a mark right on her own stomach.

"No way-!"

Pyr went wide eyed when Yuki was instantly in front of her.

She had made a mistake when fighting against this squad.

She had lost focus when fighting them.

.

Yuki appeared in front of Pyr, already going in to stab her with Idōgetsu while it was in its base form.

A second later, two sides of a guillotine-like blade could be seen coming out of Pyr while trion started leaking for the two new wounds she sustained.

"Why you..."

Yuki jumped back as an explosion went off.

Once he landed on the ground, cracks starts running along his face.

"Oh. I guess I used too much trion. Hah. You three have to stay until the very end. Even if I'm not around, you have things to do around here."

Trion limit exceeded. Bail Out.

In a flash, Yuki turned into light that quickly sped towards the Border base.

Yuki landed on one of the four mats in his squad's operating room.

It had taken a lot, but the fight between the single Neighbor had finally finished.

"Just take it easy now. Leave the rest to those three."

Just as Yuki was about to answer back, he turned on his side and started coughing.

The coughing continued on until blood started coming out. By this point Mei was ready with a water bottle and pills in hand.

Yuki looked down at the blood on his hand and let out a small sigh.

"This isn't good..."

Mei couldn't do much more for her friend and captain as he walked over to sit against the wall, next to Mei's computer.

"Take a nap. Even if you don't want to, it'll help you out."

"Yes, yes. Just let me stay awake for the end of this fight at least. I still need to find out."

"...If you say so..."

Mei sat back down in her seat and turned back into the fight concerning her squad.

She pressed a few keys so that Yuki could now hear his squad members talking. Even if he was out of the fight, he could still assist in guiding them to victory. That was just how the squad worked.

She watched as Takeshi fired three laser-like beams and finished off their opponent.

Colors: "I'm sorry, Senpai."

"It's fine, Take, it's still one enemy down."

Yuki put his head on his knees and held it.

"Mei, what do the other battlefields look like?"

"A Black Trigger Neighbor was rampaging throughout the base. Suwa Squad and two of Hikigane Squad, along with Shinoda-san, seem to be taking him on at the moment. Jin, Takahashi, and Kuga are facing off with two more humanoid Neighbors. On another part, Karasuma and Mikumo are taking the C-Ranks to HQ. Izumi, Yoneya, and Midorikawa are headed in that direction."

"Hm... Jin, Maki, and Kuga should be fine on their own, and Shinoda-san will most likely take care of the one in the base... I want you guys to go help Karasuma and Mikumo. Make sure that the C-Ranks are safe and are able to make it here. Even if you have to use yourselves to take attacks, make sure they are fine. It's better if you Bail Out than to have them get captured."

"Yes, sir!" they all said.

"Take, if anything sudden comes up, I want you to take charge of the other two."

Colors: "Roger."

"Give it your best, guys," Mei said before the line was cut. She looked over at Yuki and saw that he was covering his face.

.

"Are you alright?"

"...Yeah... Just thinking..."

"That's odd. That solemn aura you've got doesn't suit you."

"It's fine. I'm just tired, is all. Not too sure, but I think it's time I go back to being a bit sunny."

Yuki lifted his head enough to where his eyes were shown looking at the ground. There had been a lot going on and he had only wanted to make sure that everything was fine for those around him.

"Besides... After such a small amount of time...we said those names. We promised to never say them again, yet we said them without any reserve."

"That was because of the situation. I hate to admit it, but it was fun to fight again. Fighting together made things even worse for the two of us. It brought out those names from us. We can't just pretend that it didn't happen, and we can't just ignore the fact that those names will come up again with your family back."

"..."

"Yeah. I know that I shouldn't call them that, but it is the sad truth. We have to deal with it and make sure that no one else has to. It has become our job to keep them from everyone else out of fear that Jin and I will never be able to lead everyone towards the best future. Your-"

"It's fine. I already know all the hard times that are coming due to everything going on and everything that will be going on. I just want you to confirm for me that you won't calculate anything involving those two. I don't want to drag you back from the harsh parts of your own mind."

Mei looked down at her captain with soft eyes.

She had forced herself to keep her thoughts simple. To the point where they would be considered "normal thoughts."

"I will try."

Yuki let out a sigh, already knowing that was the best he was going to get from her.

Mei followed up with more, her voice becoming something that was only heard by a handful of people.

"Just to remind you... I'm here to help. You need to remember that we are both under the same light here; on the same course. As much as I want to say we are parallel...we both know that's not true. We are similar forces, so being parallel is an impossibility. So whatever choices you make... I'll follow along with them. I will scold you for them later on, but I will continue to help you with whatever it is."

"As one of the five people you would ever say that to with confidence... Thank you."

Mei said nothing more and chose to continue monitoring her team and the battlefields still around the city.

Yuki lowered his head once more.

"For now, I guess I'll take a small nap. It's never fun to get a scolding from you, no matter what."

"I'll wake you up later."

"Thanks."