Kumagai watched as three people simultaneously Bailed Out in front of her. It was shocking to see one of them being her captain.
Not thinking too much about it, she ran forward, fully inventing to finish the fight herself.
Teruya met her half way, bringing her blade to meet with Kumagai's. The difference in strength was clear, but both knew what they had to do to gain an advantage on the fight.
"!?"
Both Kumagai and Teruya moved back as shots were fired at both of them.
A single shot was fired from their left.
A single shot was fired from their right.
Multiple shots were fired from Teruya towards Kumagai.
With the shots being fired, the fight began once more.
.
Teruya and Kumagai continued their back-and-forth by moving forward, backwards, right, and left. They continued to block each other's Kōgetsu while being mindful of the shots being fired from a distance. At the same time, they continued their own fight against each other.
When one would move their left foot forward, the other would move their right foot backwards.
If one of them went to the right, the other went to the left.
They continued to love as if in a dance, lights flying all around them with seemingly no end.
"Kh!"
"...!"
As they did their dance, they started to notice that their attacks would not being blocked or dodge like they had thought.
Teruya's body could be seen with multiple cuts on it while a few holes littered the rest of her body.
Kumagai chose to ignore the gashes in her arm and the holes in her right leg. She continued to move, using the swinging of her body to keep her balance with each hit.
Kuma: "Akane, wait until you can get a definite hit in! This is the point where every attack matters and can end it!"
Mad Hatter: "Right!"
Getting the confirmation from her teammate, Kumagai increased the speed at which she swung her Kōgetsu. Fighting against Shooter-type Triggers had left her a bit more vulnerable in close ranged fighting.
The number of swings continued with each defense she made to block the close-range shots. Their range was slowly getting greater as her arms extended out even more.
It's here!
.
Teruya was quick to notice the sudden change in her opponent's eyes.
She had been getting the feeling that the fight was truly about to end any moment. The two of them were ready to Bail Out, leaving only the Snipers. That would bring the fight to a standstill.
Her teammates had Bailed Out long ago, so that had left her alone on the battlefield.
Suzume is also alone here. Nasu Squad is the only one with more than one person still active.
Understanding her situation, Teruya made a moment's decision.
She took a step back when Kumagai made another wide swing from her left.
A single shot was fired from her left, hitting her right in the foot.
Hound!
Teruya fired shots in the direction the first shot had come from.
From her position she could see Kumagai take another step forward.
Still trying to balance herself from moving back and getting shot at, Teruya was stuck with her upper body towards the back with her lower body in range of Kumagai's attack.
So close...
Trion limit exceeded. Bail Out
.
Kumagai watched as the shots fired went in the direction she knew Hiura was before seeing her own blade cut through Teruya's waist with no issue.
"Aka-"
She knew she had messed up by taking even a second to talk to her teammate.
"Damn! Akane, you need to stay here."
Cracks and line started to run along her face and body as the damage done to her reached its max with the final shot fired at her.
Trion limit exceeded. Bail Out
Slick Girl: "After having taken out Agent Teruya, Agent Kumagai had been taken out by Agent Mi-"
Umi: "Look again."
Slick Girl: "Huh?"
Suzaku nodded his head when he heard the small sound come from Hiyami.
Yuzu: "Misaki-senpai's shot had missed its target."
Slick Girl: "It was Agent Teruya's shot that had taken out Agent Kumagai! It was a mutual defeat by both agents Kumagai and Teruya."
Umi: "The two of them did well. That final attack by Teruya seems to have missed Akane-chan, but she was still able to go toe-to-toe with Kuma-chan and take her down as a mutual kill."
Yuzu: "The two Snipers will likely not leave their positions after find new ones. That means they will both be getting a single surviver point."
Slick girl: "But can't Agent Misaki take out Agent Hiura by getting in close with Teleport? She should have relatively no trouble taking out the last person there."
Umi: "She might not want to do much right now in general. With everything that has happened in this match... I'm sure everyone has something to think about."
Slick Girl: "I see. So that means we just wait until the time runs out."
Umi: "Correct."
"Are you okay!?"
"What exactly happened between you and Kotowari-kun!?"
Kakizaki could feel the intense pressure he was getting from his two young teammates and the look he was getting from their Operator.
Their questions were valid when they knew nothing of what happened and only that he managed to beat Kotowari Takeshi.
His mind brought him back to that fight and what happened after.
I thought I was done for against Kotowari. If he was in the right mindset... I would have been finished the moment he saw me. What he said, what I found out... I need to tell Tsukiko and Takato about it as soon as I can. They need to set things straight before things get any worse.
A thought like that sent shivers down his spine.
Something worse than it already is. That would terrify anyone.
Seeing that the eyes of his squad were still on him, Kakizaki gave the best smile he could to reassure them that it was nothing for them to worry about.
He would do what he needed to in order to help the younger boy however he could. He was that kind of guy. Yet he resolved himself to make sure that the one he would be helping would have to give proper apologizes to everyone who had seen him.
The ugliness he had seen in his fight was not something he could forgive right away, no matter what the boy thought or went through.
"But after everything is done, I'll make sure to forgive him..."
"What? Hey, tell us what happened!"
Kakizaki continued to grin.
Kumagai watched as her leader looked at the computer monitor with lowered brows and a frown on her face.
She knew that Nasu was not upset with the results or how they fought. What she was upset about was the fact that she could not do as Yuki had asked.
"Rei, you had no obligation to look after Kotowari."
"I know. Even if Yuki-san was the one asking, I still had my priorities. Believe me when I say that I did fight with everything I had."
"I would never..."
"But the thing is... I wanted to see for myself how Kotowari-kun was doing. He was always rather quiet, but never a bad person. You can call me sentimental, but I wanted to check on him because I wanted to do it. Someone like him seems like they need someone there for him. But that doesn't seem to be the current case since he appears to be pushing others away from him."
"Rei..."
"I'm sorry about that."
Nasu lightly patted her cheeks before putting on a smile towards the Attacker.
"You were great out there, Kuma-chan. You too, Akane-chan. You are preventing Suzume from getting survival points!"
Kumagai watched as Nasu continued on with a smile on her face and kind words towards the rest of them. Some compliments for the other squads were also thrown in.
Even with a smile on her face and compliments being said, Kumagai could see through it all.
There was a real want to watch over Takeshi in the way she spoke about him. It was unknown where it was coming from, but it resembled how she would watch over Hiura at times.
Knowing that there was no helping it at this point, Kumagai let out a sigh.
If those guys don't do something about him, I will personality kick his butt into shape.
Slick Girl: "And there it is. The final score is 2-4-2 with Nasu Squad being the winner."
Umi: "This was an interesting match. To say the least."
Slick Girl: "Now is time for the review and final comments. Starting from the begining, we had Nasu Squad and Kakizaki Squad trying to group up with Kotowari Squad seeming to do as they pleased. Agent Kumagai had been keeping track of the person closest to her, who happened to be Agent Teruya. She seemed to have no want to start a fight right away."
Yuzu: "That fight was forced on the both of them by Kotowari, who had started it to keep them out of his business."
Slick Girl: "We now know that he had left to find Captain Kakizaki so he could fight captain-to-captain."
Yuzu: "It wasn't as nice sounding as that. Kotowari probably planned to destroy Kakizaki-san as soon as he could. Something probably happened before the match started."
Umi: "Something probably snapped in Kotowari since he ended up going on that rampage in the building. He managed to get away from the trap Zaki-san set on him, but he went to track down Zaki-san like a hound."
Yuzu: "I think most of us want to forget seeing anything about that part. Kotowari's reputation was already getting bad as it was... Now it might get to a point of no one wanting to even see him. This match had messed things up for him even more."
Slick Girl: "Moving away from that... We had Agent Awdry chasing after Agent Tomoe in order to initiate a plan I still cannot understand."
Umi: "From what I could gather, what was said before seemed to be where they were going, but ended up getting changed. Most likely because they did not think that Kotowari would lose to Zaki-san."
Yuzu: "Misaki-senpai and Awdry probably had to change their plan because of that loss of a point. Attacking Hiura-senpai at that point would have given away where Misaki-senpai was if Awdry could not take out Nasu-senpai on time."
Umi: "Speaking of which... Na-chan had ended up with a lucky score. Awdry led a point right to her while also not being able to get one on her. Overall, it looked like Awdry only chased people around during this match."
Slick Girl: "I believe that is because of his Side Effect. He might have thought that he would be safe against Captain Nasu because of it."
Umi: "He was. But that's all. He could not make the final hit on her while being safe."
Slick Girl: "That is where the final two captains were taken out. Due to having won his battle, and wanting to group up with his remaining teammate, Captain Kakizaki had gotten a point by taking out Captain Nasu. It did end up costing him a point by being taken out by Agent Awdry."
Yuzu: "That puts things into the final part of the match."
Slcik Girl: "We conclude this match with the fight that started it. Agents Teruya and Kumagai were still fighting when both of their captains were taken out. That fight finally came to an end when agents Hiura and Misaki started firing at them."
Umi: "Poor Misaki."
Yuzu: "If she had fixed her aim slightly she would have gotten another point. Instead, Teruya-san got a point while also losing one to Kumagai-senpai."
Slick Girl: "So, with the review done, is there any last comments you two would like to say?"
Yuzu: "At the rate things are going, we might not see Kotowari Squad back in the top tier of B-Ranks again. Maybe not even a squad."
Umi: "Harsh, Yuzuru. But not untrue. This seems more like it's due to Kotowari though. His attachment to Yucchi is unhealthy to the point that something really needs to be done about him. ...As for the others. Kakizaki Squad's odd loss in points is likely due to them not being able to group up, like they tend to do. They may have been too busy to be as cautious as usual."
Yuzu: "The fact they did as well as they did is something to be amazed with. They were all one-on-one this time around. Kakizaki-san even managed to get some points against strong opponents."
Umi: "I am not sure if she noticed it herself, but Na-chan also seemed a bit distracted at times. That may have something to do with her losing a point or two."
Slick Girl: "Well, thank you, to the both of you, for being here today."
Umi: "No problem."
Yuzu: "Mm."
Slick Girl: "That was the second round of the B-Rank Wars."
Takato Mei watched as he squad was quick to leave the room.
Both Toby and Suzume had said nothing to their official leader the whole time. The two had communicated during the match to figure out what they would be doing, but that was all. There had been no banter or snarky remarks.
She had decided to also stay quiet unless she needed to inform them of the positions of others. There had been no advice or calculations given, not even any encouragement from her. It had been because of the knowledge that they would not listen to her, along with her not finding a reason to say anything.
Letting out a sigh, she looked at the time on her phone, seeing a few messages also on it.
"Tonight is the meeting... Yuki, I want to tell you. I want to say something that will make you do something about this, but... I don't know what I would say. I am the worst at these kinds of things."
She closed her phone while standing up.
Words continued to leave through her mouth while they came from deep in her heart.
"My calculations are useless when emotions are out into play. I can calculate those in as well, but that's all. A person's actions, thoughts, and feelings are not based on something as idiotic as calculations. So I don't know what I would say to you."
She knew there was more to it than that.
She was well aware of Yuki's issue concerning things.
"You wouldn't know what to say either. You think of yourself as nothing more than a copy of what a human should be like. If you haven't gone through this before, you don't know what to do when something like this happens."
She gave a choked laugh.
A smile of complete sorrow spread across her face as she went for the door as well.
"We are both terrible people who have terrible conversations. That may just be why we need other people to guide us in the right directions all the time."
"So something like that happened... What do you plan to do about that? I would rather you not put yourself into your own mind for too long, but you can probably figure something out."
"Thank you for the concern, but I only plan to speak with Yuki about this. I don't think I can solve this on my own."
Minoru gave a sheepish smile as he spoke with the petite girl.
With the second round match being finish, Mei had sought out her cousin to talk to him.
He had gotten off defense duty and was already told a bit by Lukas, but this was an extension of the story he heard. It went beyond what he heard from Lukas and seemed to be enough to cause a large amount of worry in multiple people.
This worry would undoubtedly eat away at her.
She would continue to think about this, regardless of what she had said, and he did not want something like that to happen to her.
That was why a change of topics was the best solution.
"Well I hope Loki can do something about this. But for now... Why are we over here?"
.
"Because I was required to do this for the city. I brought you along because I thought I could scold you some more for fighting Mukuro before."
"Fair enough..."
Minoru checked the books and newspapers piled up to his shoulders.
...This just shows how much everyone was living their lives.
During the fixing of the city, they had looked back over almost the entirety of each area and cleaned it all up to lighten everything.
The most work during that lightening cleaning came from the weight of paper items and everyday items like clothing.
A single book weighed three hundred grams and Mikado City's population was rather high, so if each person had a single book, that was nearly thirty tons.
Books needed for school or work had been spared, as had ones with sentimental value, but...
"The unnecessary ones will be recycled as materials for internal bulkheads and building materials. And the storage area furthest from the Forbidden Zone is also used to host events, so we could even open a used book market."
But there was so much of it. It was too much to carry it all out at once, so this was their eighth time.
...Kimura-san and the others are getting strict with their weight sensors, so we keep finding so many books.
The East had historically had an active woodblock printing culture. They had also had paper-making technology, so plenty of printed materials filled the cities as entertainment items.
The people who transferred in from the West or Middle East were always surprised by how many books the Far East had and how casually the books were treated.
...Having books nearby was part of the reason some people moved to the Far East in the first place.
As he realized a culture had a way of drawing people in, Minoru had his dog -Taka - inspect the scale of the piles of paper. He also grabbed a few of them.
"Oh, The Tale of Genji. Didn't Murasaki Shikibu write this with a few other works? Meimei had said that it was worth the read. I have just never gotten around to reading it myself."
Resisting the urge to flip through it took some doing. Not all of the things there were old. Some had been bought at the city even as the recovery work was underway, some were newly issued newspapers, and some were documents used for meetings about the remodeling or at the work sites themselves.
Deciding whether to use them as materials or to resell them was someone else's job, but others also had to inspect them. That was where Mei came in.
"Please stand back, everyone. I will now inspect and sort them."
She looked at all the spines of the books.
Once they were sorted and written down, a city's provided helper would give her approval and the rest of the work would begin. Finally, the fate of the paper media would be determined.
It was a small job when compared to the enormous task of fixing Mikado City, but that fixing work was made up of these smaller jobs. The quicker they could finish these small jobs, the faster the pace of the whole.
...And that means the Border, citizens and others need to keep active.
Minoru looked to Mei and the city's helper as they picked up one of the items sorted by the smaller girl.
"Why do girls like this kind of thing, Takato-kun?"
"Right. That is just part of being female."
...Sorry, but that one was drawn by our Operator. Yeah. Look, it has a lot of material targeted toward males, doesn't it? It was a strange one.
Once the inspection was complete, he would move to where he needed to be next. And based on the Border chat log from earlier...
Life: "Hey, everyone, we'll be meeting up at the Red Lightning. It's been a while, so let's use the one I live at. Be there at eight."
Right, right, silently agreed Minoru.
...It really has been a while since we've met there.
He then nodded to Mei, the helper, and the others.
"I'll be heading to where I'm needed next, so you take care of the rest. There's a lot I want to ask you next time I see you, so keep that in mind."
"Right. You are going somewhere important."
"Well." He nodded. "For some food plus a meeting."
"A new job?"
A female voice spoke in the dim light.
A black, dual ring-haired girl in a Mikado City high school uniform walked down a pathway with materials and cranes on either side. She held a bucket with a change of clothes and other bath supplies below her chest and her hair swayed as she looked to the person walking to her left.
Her eyes found a boy whose Mikado City boy's high school uniform was made to look more comfortable. He looked to the girl walking to his right and spoke.
"Well, I suppose you could call it a job."
"Heh heh. Is that so? He keeps finding new things to occupy himself, Arafune."
"Yeah. This work is important for us at the moment. We need to work hard around Mikado City when we can as soon as possible so we can get the cooperation of the general population. And so they can support the new branch that was made."
"Oh, my. You know a lot about these things, Arafune."
"Yeah. Yuki's been helping out with the information. But..."
Arafune faced the girl.
"Could you please stop pretending to be Kagami, Jinsei?"
.
Arafune saw the idiot give him a look of surprise, but he knew reacting would be playing right into the other boy's hands. Instead, he chose a comment to restrain the idiot.
"Besides, your face is nothing at all like Kagami's."
The ring-haired crossdresser froze in the middle of lifting his giant fake breasts with the bucket. The idiot then dropped the bucket in the passageway and took what he probably thought was a tragic pose.
"What's wrong with my costume!?"
"For one, you aren't anything like Kagami. The size and jiggle are completely wrong, you're completely insane, and I would go on but I don't want to hurt your feelings. Really, you should just stop this."
"Y-you don't hold back, do you!? And you hurt my feelings by trying not to hurt my feelings!"
The idiot gave an exaggerated sigh in a troubled pose.
"And now that you've 'sniped' my heart, I really am your wife."
He's as creepy as ever, so I need to ignore him, calmly decided Arafune. I need to change the subject. But where did that wife comment come from...?
"Why are you here? Given where we're meeting, shouldn't you be there ahead of everyone else?"
"Well, I peeped on the girl's bath near Teikō's place and now she's trying to kill me."
He looked up to see several targeting dots rising from the area near Hitsugi's house while displaying parabolic arcs of the predicted ballistic course. Those dots searched for their target from the sky above Mikado City. Arafune noticed people screaming and running away whenever the sights landed on them.
"W-wait, Jinsei! Those are shots for taking out Bambsters! I really don't want to be caught in that blast, so please get away from me!"
"Ehh, but Booby doesn't want to die aloooone."
"Jinsei, when shaking your breasts, you need to do it more like this and this."
"Oh, I've been doing some training with imaginary breasts while watching Teikō, but I guess it wasn't enough!"
"Right. You're focusing too much on it. Yes, be more restrained. ...Yeah. Very good. You've got the hang of it now, so go die on your own."
"Y-you aren't listening at all, are you!?"
Please shut up, thought Arafune as he ignored the idiot who was jumping up and down and waving his arms in protest. And you aren't controlling the bouncing properly when jumping around like that.
But, thought Arafune as he looked back to the crossdresser.
"You really don't change do you, Jinsei?"
Or is he only pretending to be the same? Even this crossdresser has to have felt something from everything. He has to have. Right? S-surely even he would...w-wouldn't he? I can count on that, can't I? B-but he is an idiot. Wh-which is it?
"Nnnn, Arafune-kuuun? What's the matterrrrr?"
"Kh. D-damn this boy!"
At any rate, reacting to the idiot would help nothing.
"By the way, Jinsei, wasn't Kimura supposed to be with you for the time being?"
"Yeah, but she peeped on the bath with me and now I think she's soaking in the bath thinking about the unfairness of our hierarchical society."
Kimura has a lot to worry about too, thought Arafune. Now that I think about it... Why was he peeping on the girls when he's confirmed that he swings the other way...?
Her current squad was damaged in the previous invasion. Takato Mei knew a lot about helping her for some reason, so she was trying to mend the issues. But...
...She has to deal with problems like the former Tsukiko Squad, doesn't she?
They were in their own minds for the better part of the days, so that had apparently caused difficulties for her. At the same time, she was continuing to assist them however she could based on her experience in this mental battle because of the people she knew and the ones she had once dealt with.
Others were also working to strengthen their equipment, their skills, or themselves, but...
...That could easily be a sign of how worried we all are.
.
How much will the improvements here really matter? wondered Arafune.
Their enemies were Aftokrator, their invaders, and their "god" who they had no idea about due to living in completely different worlds. Not only did Aftokrator have the backing of their own might, something they saw firsthand, but they controlled other Neighbor nations and had conquered others they did not know about.
They essentially controlled an unknown amount of enemies at this point.
...Our enemy is powerful.
Meanwhile, what were they doing?
Mikado City's weapons and other modifications were meant to fight that enemy, but no one knew if they could actually win again.
Most likely, Mikado City and everyone else were strengthening themselves as a way of sweeping aside their unease. To put it another way...
...We only just barely trust ourselves.
The organization named Border led by the directors had been the ones to decide on some modifications and to continue with their current policies. No clear opposition had turned up, but that was only because the residential districts of the city had been split up on the surface and because Director Netsuki was using his knowledge of the public opinion to manage information on the network. So...
"We need to move on to the next step as soon as possible."
"Tetsu-chan."
The crossdresser smiled his way while squeezing and lifting his giant fake breasts between his elbows.
"Don't rush things, okay?"
"What are you talking about?"
He decided to answer the idiot this time and someone standing at a corner up ahead turned his way.
"Arafune."
He looked over and found the real one.
"Kagami."
The idiot clung to his right arm and wiggled his body.
"Master Arafuneeee, who is that girrrrl!?"
"Oh, my. Dried Plum-san, are you visiting the human world dressed like a girl today?"
"I kind of expected this, but she isn't listening at all..."
The idiot hung his head, so Arafune started dragging him toward their meet up point. Meanwhile, Kagami laughed quietly in her throat.
"Heh heh. Dried Plum-san, you're a little tired, aren't you?"
"...Is he really?"
"Hey, Tetsu-chan. Why do you look so surprised? I get tired too, you know? I can't give you any details, but, um, well, I've been up late at night a lot, you know? You know what I'm talking about, don't you?"
"Do you have any idea what it feels like to be told something you really don't want to know?"
"Now, now." Kagami cut in with a bitter smile and looked toward the crossdresser. "Yes. The aura surrounding your body has had that color for a while now."
"Ehhh?"
The crossdresser frowned, but Arafune could not tell if it was for show or unintentional. But Kagami was a good judge of character, so he could trust what she said.
"Kagami, how about we take this…thing…by early and get something to eat?"
"Okay. We're meeting up at the Red Lightning, aren't we? In that case…"
Kagami lined up alongside them and faced the right, toward the outer city.
"...?"
Suddenly, Arafune's attention turned in a different direction.
A few loud noises were heard to sound the alarm and to tell everyone to stay away from the materials yard near the Forbidden Zone.
"What…?"
…Did some of the materials collapse?
Arafune opened his own phone, he saw that Yuki had instructed people he knew to check out what happened. Kagami asked a question while looking in the same direction.
"Should we examine that materials yard on the way to the Red Lightning by the Hisama Branch?"
"Oh, um, Yuki just arranged to have that done, so no. And we aren't going by Hisama."
"…? But that's where the Red Lightning is."
"Yeah. It certainly is."
As they walked down the residential road, a home/restaurant came into view on the right. The restaurant portion was small, but Kagami read what the metal sign on the edge of the eaves said.
"Red Lightning?"
"Yeah. There's a Red Lightning here too. …This one is Jinsei and his family's home."
And...
"This one is also known as the Main Red Lightning. It's where we're going to prepare for the meeting with the citizens tonight and confirm future plans."