"With that being over with..."
Takeshi fixed his scarf once more to hide his still red face.
Toby had retaken his sitting position off to the side as Suzume managed to calm herself down and stop the conversation going on in the Border chat.
"Let's reconfirm how our position are going to look. Just to make sure we didn't forget anything during that...incident."
They all nodded their heads.
"Toby and I will be our primary attackers. That means we most likely will be fighting Nasu-san, Kumagai-senpai and Katori-san. Seeing as those three are the ones who gain the points most of the time. Senpai will be our main support. She will be taking shots when she feels that it would be the best time. That being said... She will also be going after Hiura-san since she is also a Sniper. That is how she does things when not on the frontline. Tai-... Ahem. Hoshi will be our secondary supporter. She will be behind either Toby or myself and providing backup when needed. If given the chance, you should probably go after Wakamura or Miura as well. I breve oh can handle that."
No one said anything against the explanation.
They were all aware of where they would be needed and what they needed to do. It was agreed upon by the four of them as equals.
Hoshi had not been a part of their squad before, so that meant any knowledge on the other two squads had came from the other three. Logs could only do so much to portray what a person was capable of in these kinds of situations. Having three members of Kotowari Squad know firsthand how each person fought could only give them an advantage.
"Ah..."
"Hm? What is it, Tai-... Ahem. Hoshi. Is something wrong?"
"A-ah! No, no. I was just thinking... Um, if it is fine, may I use some prototype Trigger for this match? It may be a bit presumptuous of me to ask this since I am new to the squad... I have been working with some of the Engineers in creating new Triggers and would like to try them out in actual combat. Although it may be better to just use them in practice so that you all do not have the chance of going down in ranking."
"I don't see a problem with that. If it's something you have been working on then it's only natural to want to show it off."
"N-no, that is not..."
"If you want, we can use them too so you can see just how well they work. There may be better people to handle that, and you might want to just do it yourself, but we can help if you need it."
"It honestly does sound interesting. I have no issues playing around with prototype Triggers."
Hoshi watched with wide eyes as Kotowari Squad started talking about the prototype Triggers she had mentioned.
In a way, it was both expected and unexpected that they would allow her to use those unfinished Triggers. Even more so that they would want to use the Triggers themselves.
"So, what are the names of these Triggers? Let's honestly start with that. Then you can go about explaining them to us."
"Ah. Right. The first one is called Zanzō. The second is Fujin..."
"Like the Black Trigger?"
"That is correct." Hoshi nodded. "It is modeled after the Black Trigger known as Fujin, but it only works with Kōgetsu. With that being said..."
"Yeah. None of us use Kōgetsu. Sorry we can't try that one out ourselves."
"Ah... That is fine. I have Kōgetsu set for myself, so I can test it out personally."
That meant there was only one left.
"The last Trigger has no name yet and I am quite unsure as to what it could possibly be. My apologizes. I assume you will not want to try it out when there is no name to it."
"Nah, it's fine. I owe you a major apology, so I'll use that last one. It's only fair that I do something like that for you. Besides, I don't mind being the on,y one on the battlefield with a Trigger no one else has."
"I-i-it is fine if you do not want to test it out, Toby-kun! And there is no need to apologize for anything!"
The words went right through the boy's ears as he waved over to her with a grin.
By this point even she had become aware that he would not change his mind once it has been set. She had seen him like this before during school hours, but this seemed to be even more than those times.
This was a clear difference between them being classmates and them being teammates.
"Hoshi-chan, it's best not to argue with that dog over there. He won't be hearing over his own howling for a while. Although that is honestly not a bad thing this time since it seems that you still need to get relaxed around us."
Another person who was far different than what was originally seen.
"You have honestly worked hard on these, right? It would only be right to help you perfect them even more so that you can show them off to others and show just how great you are. If anything goes wrong then we will deal with it when we get to it. It is honestly that simple."
There was no arguing with any of them.
It was clear that they would be taking her suggestion of using these prototype Triggers happily with with confidence in her. Going against that would mean she had no trust in her new teammates.
It was very much different.
A loud sound filled the area as Kumagai slammed the palm of her hand on the table Nasu Squad sat at.
Nasu could only smile at the clear irrigation radiating off of the Attacker.
"Of course it would be Kotowari Squad and Katori Squad! We lost to Suzunari and Tamakoma, so of course we have to fight squads like those two now!"
"But Senpai, you looked like you were enjoying what was going on in the chat a second ago. Saying something like I that makes it seem like you just want to be a tsundere."
"That's not it at all! Kotowari Squad was already filled with a bunch of crazy people, and now they added to that. That means we have even more strange fights coming in the next match. This girl - uh, Taiyōko? - seems fine, but so did Kotowari and Awdry when I first met them. That things will get weird once we start fighting."
Game Perception: "Who is she anyway? Her face seems familiar, but that is all I have. Nothing else comes to mind when I see her."
The voice that came through the phone brought up a question that seemed to plague both Kumagai and Hiura. The way they looked around or crossed their arms was a clear give away to what they were thinking.
The girl they were currently looking at gave a small smile in her picture while he posture and lowered shoulders made them all think that she was not the type to join any sort of battlefield.
"Should I explain who she is?"
Kumagai and Hiura both looked towards Nasu while the voice on the phone gave an indication that she was also paying attention.
"You know this girl, Rei?"
"I know of her. I know nothing more than her name and who she is related to. Sorry if I was getting your hopes up."
"That's fine." Kumagai looked back down before addressing her leader once more. "So, who is this girl?"
"She is Taiyōko Hoshi - like it says here. Akane-chan, you and Hanzaki-kun often go out to eat ice cream with her brother. That may be why her face looks so similar. The two of them, when out side-by-side, do not look that different."
There was a moment of silence.
Kumagai thought about what had been said and started going down a list of people who looked like that. There were a few who had similar facial structures, but none of them had soft expressions like the girl did.
Hiura on the other hand knew of only one other person who she would frequently go out to eat ice cream with. The boy had always been kind to both her and Hanzaki as he would pay for their frozen treats every time he was with them.
There really was only one such boy.
"Yuki-senpai!?"
The voice of their Operator came through the phone at the same time Kumagai turned to her.
Game Perception: "Taiyōko is related to Tsukiko-san? Didn't see that one coming."
As if to confirm the thought, Nasu nodded her head.
She looked from the phone to her teammates that were sitting next to her.
"That is right. Taiyōko is the younger sister of Tsukiko-san. He had told me about it before when we were both at the hospital. At the time, he had asked me to keep it a secret, but I have recently gotten person to tell at least you three."
"That's weird. Why did he suddenly give you permission?"
"He had said that it was only fair since Katori Squad knows that fact as well due to a recent incident involving her and them."
Game Perception: "Well that was nice. I guess... But how will that really help us?"
"It tells us that she is trained well."
.
Even with tone she had used, Nasu had not sounded too sure about that sentence.
Kumagai was sure that there was some truth to that sentence, but it was more of a guess on Nasu's part than an actual fact that was known.
It makes sense.
Even thought she had never fought against him before, Kumagai knew of the strength Tsukiko Yuki had as a Border agent. What was more was that he had managed to take down Midorikawa not too long ago in a solo match.
Then again, from what I have heard, Midorikawa has been losing to random people here and there. When they met, Kuga took him out, didn't he?
There were too many people to back up that specific fight, so she had no reason to think otherwise.
Beyond that single win were still more exploits that she knew were facts.
The first that came to mind was when Border had used Yuki to show the power behind the newly formed Yagura Branch. The boy had taken a bit of a besting, but she doubted that anyone she knew would come other of such a fight unscathed. Nasu had said as much when the two had watched the broadcast together.
Then there was the invasion they had fought recently. She had been told that Tsukiko Squad had fought against a humanoid Neighbor and come out victorious. While it had been stated that the three youngest members had been the ones to defeat the Neighbor, she had also been told that Yuki and Mei had been holding their own against the same Neighbor for a respectable amount of time.
There were a good amount of events that gave credit to the name "Tsukiko Yuki".
It was only reasonable to think that his sister was just as well off as he was when it came to fighting using a Trigger.
"She is a part of the Taiyōko family, right? The ones who were soldiers? Doesn't that mean she is really good at fighting?"
"Not necessarily, Akane-chan. Just because her family were soldiers does not mean that she is one as well. Besides, when compared to her teammates, she still seems like she would just be at their level."
"Which is still kind of scary."
Kumagai could only nod her head at those words.
"That's true. Rei, you've been helping out Kotowari and I have seen that myself. Even if she is just at their level, we should still be careful of her. Kotowari Squad is trouble enough as it is, so adding another one to them just increases the trouble."
"I am not denying that. All I am saying is that we should not overestimate her or underestimate her."
"Alright, then what are we going to do about this?"
"We can't look at this fight as just us against Kotowari Squad, remember that. Katori Squad is also a factor here."
"Those guys tend to just follow the same plan of keeping Katori alive though. I won't miss adding them into the plan, but they are easier to figure out than Kotowari Squad."
"Then shall we get down to the planning?"
.
Nasu made sure she had everyone's attention before speaking up again.
"We know that Suzume-chan will be going after Akane-chan since she is going to be the only other Sniper out there. That means we can either have one of us stay close to Akane-chan in case we spot Suzume-chan, or we can have Akane-chan save any firing until we are certain we will be getting a point. If she can't spot a Sniper than we won't run the risk of having Akane-chan get taken out."
"That means Akane would actually need to hold fire this time."
It may have been meant as a joke, but Nasu was able to tell from the Sniper's expression that their last match against Suzunari and Tamakoma left a strong impression on her.
Instead of retreating and preventing a point from being taken from them, Hiura had instead fired against Kuga and only managed in having him give up his already severed arm.
Feeling bad for the girl, Nasu diverted the conversation to sooth the harsh joke.
"Even if she does fire and gets found out, we will try out best to back her up."
"Hm? Of course we will. We won't just let her get taken out. We still need her so we can have a better chance at winning."
That seemed to work as Hiura lifted her shoulder a bit.
Nasu smiled towards her before gaining control of the conversation once more.
"We can decided what Akane-chan can do about Suzume-chan later. Let's get to the main issues here."
Who those were was obvious.
"Kotowari-kun's relentless and powerful attacks will be trouble for you two while Awdry-kun can actually get through my attacks. While she isn't as flexible as he is with that kind of thing, Katori can also be trouble if she gets too close to me or ends up in a one-on-one with Kuma."
"Tch. I hate that that is true. I'll have a hard time against Toby too though. Rokkun and Miura I can handle if I get close enough, but that's all. And we still don't know what Taiyōko can do, so she is a wild card."
Game Perception: "Nasu-senpai seems like the best choice to deal with Kotowari-kun. Or Akane can try for a shot at him if one of you can put him in the right position."
"But if she misses her shot, it's game over for sure. If not from Suzume then from Kotowari himself."
Would she even be enough?
It was no secret that compared to Asano she was the better Shooter. Even so, it had been two against one and Tsukiko Squad had lost against the male Shooter.
As one of the people who has been helping Takeshi she was well aware of what he is capable of and that had been what she thought about when bringing him up.
That was where the issue came.
She knew just how dangerous he was as an opponent. Even with what she knew, he was still strong enough to be considered a threat.
"And what about Awdry? If Nasu-senpai can't hit him from a distance and Kumagai-senpai can't hit him up close, what do we do?"
Game Perception: "His Side Effect is annoying. Akane can't even try to shoot at him since he would be able to dodge it even without his Side Effect."
"Hey!"
The other Kotowari Squad boy was just as bad as the first.
Even if they could come up with something to fight against the Shooter, the Attacker would be their next problem that they had to face.
"This is very different from the first time we fought them this season."
.
Nasu's words struck her teammates hard.
The first time they had fought them in the second round they had been going through some personal issues and could be taken out by people like Kakizaki or be distracted by Hiura.
But now...
"Kotowari-kun is focused and Awdry-kun is more determined. Suzume-chan knows us because of our Rhythms while Taiyōko is an unknown factor. Compared to our last match with them... This will be tough."
"Does that mean we can't win...?"
The words from Hiura hung in the air for only a moment before an answer came back.
"We can win."
Kumagai held firm as she said that.
"It'll be really tough, but we can win! We just have to think of something new to deal with them!"
No one was unbeatable.
It was a fact that there was no one who could not lost at least once in their life. This was where their determination to prove that came up.
To find a way through this obstacle was just something they had to go through as a squad.
With that being the case, there were still other things to be used.
"Katori Squad..."
"That's right! We still need to deal with them too!"
"No. Well, I mean, yes. What I am talking about is using Katori Squad."
Multiple squads have done this before and it was nothing new.
"Katori Squad will also have a hard time considering how they normally go about things. We can use that to put more pressure on Kotowari Squad. We will take any hits we can on Katori Squad, but I'm sure both of our goals are the same."
"To contain Kotowari Squad."
Miura liked to think that Katori Squad could get along when they wanted.
"You two just need to back me up like usual. These guys aren't too hard to deal with if you follow our usual tactics."
"They know that already, so we need to come up with some extra plans for dealing with them. We might have been able to handle getting some points before when Kotowari Squad was dealing with issues, but they are different than that now."
"Not really. Kotowari is still just a brat and the dog never changes. He's annoying as hell, but we just need to shoot him up and that's that. Misaki is just weird."
"And Nasu Squad? What about Taiyōko being a part of their squad now? Stop thinking we can every 'annoying' thing one at a time."
"That little girl is the most annoying if them all. But I haven't even heard of her until I met her, so I'm sure she isn't that tough. Do you think she can even properly fight?"
He really thought that they could all get along well enough if they tried.
At the moment it was hard when Katori and Wakamura were constantly at each other's throat due to the losses they suffered in previous matches. It even seemed to be getting worse and worse for each match.
With Somei currently out due to her own reasons, it was up to him to deal with the quarreling duo.
Thinking of something as quickly as he could, Miura pulled out his phone while stepping between the two who were glaring at each other.
"Hey, since there really isn't much to go on concerning Taiyōko, why don't we ask someone who might know? We can start going off of that to see if she really will be a threat."
His two teammates gave him a look before giving their respective responses of a nonchalant shrug and a push towards glasses.
It was Wakamura who verbally answered him back after a few seconds.
"Who should we ask. From what I saw, Tsukiko and Murakami know her well, but I doubt they will give us any information."
"Don't you remember a certain someone talking about her before? I guess it would make sense that you would not remember since he was rather vague about it."
Looking down at his phone, Miura opened a private chat as he continued talking to Wakamura.
From the corner of his eye he could see Katori perk up a bit as his mentioning of someone else who knew the younger girl.
True Hero: "Shiron, can we ask you about something?"
Hero: "Oh, Yūta-chan, sure! But, um... Why do I feel like I'm being indirectly glared at right now? It usually happens whenever you message me with some others..."
Miura and Wakamura were quick to look at Katori.
The girl was glaring as hard as possible at her phone. She seemed to have realized that she was in the same private chat as her teammates and the Hogo Squad captain.
Not wanting to give the true answer, Miura hesitantly started typing on his phone.
True Hero: "Uh, about that... It might just be in your head(?). Have you been rest enough after helping other people?"
Hero: "Yes! Haru-san and Kawa-chan have been making sure that I rest up! I know it's not in my head!"
Talented Yoke: "Shut up, fake hero. Yūta, hurry up and ask him already so we can get this over with."
Hero: "Oh... That's why..."
"Hey, don't be rude to him like that! And you know how he hates when you call him a 'fake hero' when Yūta has his chat name as 'True Hero'!"
"I'm so sorry, Shiron... I promise to buy you lunch some time."
There was no helping how Katori disliked the kind boy. It was just something that they had to deal with when it came up.
"And Rokkun, I'm not the one who made that name... I don't even know who did."
Rokkun: "Sorry about that, Shiron. You can just ignore her."
True Hero: "So about that question... I wouldn't want to take up your time."
Hero: "Oh, right. Go ahead and ask. I will answer to the best of my ability."
It was hard to hold back from soothing the boy once it was clear that he was being a bit more reserved because of their captain.
He saw Wakamura mouth something along the lines of, "I'm messaging Inukai to take care of him. Just go ahead and ask."
Miura gave a nod, leaving things to their upperclassman.
True Hero: "Is there anything you can tell us about Taiyōko Hoshi? Her fighting style or how good she is?"
Hero: "Oh, uh, I'm sorry, Yūta-chan, Rokkun, but I already made a promise. Onii-san asked if I can keep from telling anyone about Hoshi-chan. But he also asked if I can not help Kotowari Squad for their next match."
True Hero: "I see... If that's the case, I won't push it. Thanks anyway though. See you later, Shiron."
Locking his phone, Miura looked back over to see Wakamura trying his hardest to prevent Katori from touching her phone's screen.
It was clear what was going on.
"Let go! That guy is never any help and he needs to know it!"
"No! Shiron is a nice guy and I refuse to let you bully him any more than you already have!"
"He's just a fake hero who needs to stop butting into other people's privacy!"
With a rather hard looking kick to the stomach, Katori won and started typing on her phone.
From the looks of things, Wakamura seemed to also be messaging someone. If he had to guess then the likely choice would be Inukai to tell him to delete the incoming message from their captain.
Maybe I should ask Suzaku-senpai to monitor Yōko's messages for a bit...
.
Katori could feel her anger start to boil over.
The irritating girl she had recently met was an enigma to her squad and one of the only people who knew what she could do was not helping them in the slightest.
There probably isn't much about her anyway. She looked scrawny and unreliable in a fight when I saw her.
"She's like a damn princess. I doubt she'll be any trouble during our match. Why are we giving her this much thought?"
"We need to take into account every one of our opponents. We can't put off any one of them since anyone can make an impact during large fights like these."
"A load of crap. The only ones who will really be doing anything are those of us with talent. The rest of you are just there to cover us. So that means it's just going to be Nasu and Awdry having to deal with me while the rest of you slap each other around."
"That's not how it goes at all! You have seen what Kotowari Squad as a whole is capable of and Kumagai was able to fight against that kid from Tamakoma and Murakami during their last match!"
"She got her ass kicked."
It was the beginning of a new argument.
Since their losing streak had started, she and Wakamura had been getting into even more arguments than usual.
Somei had been around to stop them most of the time, but there was only Miura.
She was well aware that the boy was rather spineless compared to their glasses-boy teammate.
"C'mon guys."
There it was.
It was how he would usually start his try and breaking up their incoming argument. The count had gotten passed thirty at this point and now she could only focus in the next time he would increase the number of the tally.
"Why don't we just go through each person and see what we can do about them? Even if it does end up with Rokkun and I backing you up, we can still think about what to do against everyone."
"Do whatever you want. Doesn't matter to me."
It was a bit entertaining seeing the glasses-boy glare in her direction as Miura tried calming him down.
Even if there was no point in going over what they already knew, there was also no point in stopping the two boys from doing so.
.
Seriously... We managed to get by with having them back me up, so what's the point in changing that?
They had also lost because they continue to repeat the same actions.
Glaring at nothing particular, Katori lifted her arm. With a single sweeping motion, she moved her arm to the side.
She ignored the looks from the two boys and proceeded to move her arm again. She made sure to have her arm in the same position and move across the same imaginary line she had made.
Her motions were "the same" on a different level than what was let on.
If someone tried to copy their own handwriting from the past, could they reproduce it perfectly? This was something to get overwhelming results by remaining on the existing course and never being able to leave the category of "same" no matter how restrictive and disadvantageous that could be.
What they had built up was what made them powerful.
They had taken what everyone understood as an idea or as a concept and raised it up to a paint where they could win by following through with it.
Multiple squads were the same way. Kakizaki Squad continued with their squad tactics, Kazama Squad continued with their stealth and combination attacks. Azusa Squad followed a similar attack style using their two Attackers for combinations.
Each squad would change how they moved during a fight due to the different situations, but they would still follow their own way of fighting that they had built up by practicing it over and over again.
Then there was that squad.
Those guys are terrible. How the hell do they win anyway? That really pisses me off.
Kotowari Squad - and the former Tsukiko Squad - had always been the same. Nothing was actually planned out and any plans made with them were always tossed out as if they did not exist. Everyone they did was ad-libbed with no preparation put into it.
Ikoma Squad seemed to be the same way, yet they never seemed to make plans at all. It worked for them seeing as how they continued to be in the top five B-Rank squads. It felt much different than Kotowari Squad who blatantly disregarded any plans told to them.
Now there was something else that did not remain the same with them.
Taiyōko Hoshi had become an addition to their squad. Instead of disregarding her because of how their former captain had left them, they had allowed her to join seeming immediately.
She isn't much. I know she isn't much because she doesn't give any sort of good impression. She's just a princess who thinks she can fight on the front lines like the rest of us.
The princess-like girl had no right to join when she did not understand what she was getting into.
If I find her during our match then I'll show her just how rough it is to fight.
This unknown factor in a strange squad was just an addition that could not add more to what was there.
Toby was the main threat of their squad.
Takeshi was a secondary thought if you could get close enough.
Suzume was just a strange girl.
This girl is nothing compared to them.
She had not done any battle tactics repeatedly during real fights with a squad and she had not been on a squad at all to gain the position she had with Kotowari Squad. There was no data to show she had done anything at all to be involved in a fight with her own squad or Nasu Squad.
Hard work was for fools who thought they could get over their limit and end up failing due to the futility if that thought.
Talent was something a person was born with that placed them higher than others because if what they could do. Even then there was a limit for them. Something Katori realized during her time at Border.
But what about this girl?
She seemed to have no talent besides seeming like a princess. There was no data that showed she worked hard to get her position on Kotowari Squad.
She was in an area that Katori hated.
She doesn't seem to actually be talented and she doesn't work hard. Even with this damn four-eyes complaining all the time about hard work, he's at least done something.
With those bitter thoughts in mind, Katori stood up.
She ignored her teammates as she walked towards the door.
I guess I'll deal with her during our match then.