"Then I have to stop you."
The girl in a dress reacted to the Attacker boy's words.
Ignoring the wind now, she spread her limbs a little to stand in the boy's way. He tilted his head in response.
"You're stoppin' my work. Move."
"This is my work. I'm supposed to stop any idiots."
The overlapping trion attacks combined with the shattering of the defense barriers, but they could still hear each other.
"Are you sure I'm the idiot here?" he asked.
After a moment, she smiled bitterly.
"It is true that Shiraishi has fallen into a fairly idiotic situation. But..."
"Just to be clear, we have one hell of an idiot at Border, so you don't stand a chance if it comes to an idiot-off."
"You mean that nudist?"
"Close but no cigar. He's both a nudist and a crossdresser."
"How awful..."
"You're wrong, so move."
"It would seem you are unfamiliar with the three-mistake rule."
A mechanical noise of something being drawn taut come from somewhere behind her. It was another attack coming from their general direction.
A Neighbor was about to be sent out near them.
"I can stop that."
"How?"
"Standin' in the way. ...Just as you're doin' now."
"That is a Neighbors. And one that looks bigger than the ones sent before."
"Have you already forgotten what you yourself said? You said you're stoppin' any idiots."
"That's true." She took a step back. "And that means I can prove you are an idiot by stopping you."
"Why the hesitation? ...Do you prove who someone is to know 'em?"
"That is the kind of business this is. It holds a history of resistance, betrayal, and grudges."
"That makes it a business of decoration.
The girl took a deep breath, lowered her raised eyebrows, leaned back, raised the corners of her mouth a little, and gave him a downward look.
"What do you know!?"
"I know that you understand nothin' of my essential genre."
She did not respond. She simply swung her body back while taking another step.
"We have our own ways of doing things!"
.
Chisato realized the situation from the previous night had returned.
Back then, the Attacker had said something odd and caused a malfunction in her car's starting up, but that did not happen this time.
She was surrounded by the tension of battle this time, plus...
...He mocked us!
He had called the business her family built a business of mere decoration.
What was he calling a decoration?
In order to resist, they had won battles with the people around them, they had fought to maintain themselves in Mikado City, and they were now figuring out how to deal with the Neighbors that Border could not get to.
...All of it was a desperate struggle!
She sensed the noise and pressure of the air being pushed out of the way behind her and a bed-like sensation opened up there.
It was what her family had personally been working on. The armor opened from waist to chest as if to embrace her from behind.
Each piece was red in color and filtered in similar to a centipede crawling over. It was not armor known by anyone else and had been designed for Chisato and Chisato alone.
"...Eh?"
The colors red and black arrived in front of her.
It was the Attacker.
...That was fast!?
That's strange, she thought.
Based on the night a few days before, having about a step's worth of distance from him should have allowed her to make some sort of quick escape before the Attacker could accelerate to full speed. That was why she had given herself two steps.
She had intended for that to be enough to equip the device and make a counterattack.
But the Attacker was faster. Her armor had yet to cover the area below her chest as he charged in below her gaze.
The reason for his speed was obvious.
...He turned to the side!
He had likely been building up energy inside him while they talked. Once he had expelled that from his body for incredible speed, he had turned to the side to reduce air resistance. The speed had only increased when he turned on his Trigger.
He was like a knife stabbing into the air.
The turned stance and the reduced air resistance gave him the speed and reach he needed. As for Chisato...
"Evade!"
She moved back and to the left and she twisted her body to protect her heart. If she made it even a single step back, she could finish covering herself up with the armor before the clash. So more than take a powerful step back, she used a quick and nimble step back as the incomplete portion of ten armor rang loudly.
She rushed herself.
The colors red and black arrived a moment later. While turned sideways, the Attacker had swung his arm to the side to pursue her diagonal retreat.
"If you're gonna strike one cheek, go ahead and strike the other for the hell of it! Here I go!"
His cry and the crash of a collision occurred concurrently.
.
Ikoma felt his blow land.
He had hit.
After a grazing blow to the left and right, he got a solid hit on the right.
He felt the impact and the creaking of armor through his right arm and the sound shook his surroundings.
The colliding air had nowhere to go and moved out from between him and Chisato. He had a thought as he listened to that harmonic vibration.
...I broke it! Crap! I also attacked someone using my Trigger!
He could see Chisato's face ahead and to the right.
She had not covered herself in her armor quickly enough.
The result of his strike could be seen beyond his right arm.
He looked to that arm was covered by a sleeve and a glove, but...
"Mh?"
He thought he had broken it, but he was wrong.
His arm had simply been caught inside the automatic body covering of the armor. Several armor panels had caught and bitten at his arm like jaws.
...Then the damage would've been distributed throughout. And is that...Trion?
Normal armor would have certain broken apart against an attack from a Trigger. Even if he had not used a powered up lunch like Mei or the blade at his waist, a simple attack using his body would have been enough to break that armor. The only way to be unaffected by such an attack would be to use the same type of attack.
A few pieces of expanded armor on the side were being rearranged. The armor was working to allow the damage to escape safely.
Ikom then noticed the sensation in the five fingers of his right hand.
That hand had a solid enough grip on something to dig into it. It was soft, but it had a firm core and was somewhat warm and damp.
"—"
He had forgotten about his thoughts concerning the armor.
He looked to Chisato's face. She was blushing, her mouth was spread horizontally and bent like a wave, and her widened eyes were staring down at her own chest.
To sum up the situation...
"You should really wear a bra in battle. This's just being careless."
"...U-um, Ikoma...-sama...? ...Sh-she was holding...her skirt...s-so she is probably...wearing a dress... ...And, um..." said Shobu. "...M-maybe it's...th-the kind of dress...where you can't...wear one...?"
I see. Now that you mention it, that's right.
...That explains it. And in that case...
"Right. Then this is what you call a special moment. ...A moment for my right hand that's special. An unwelcome moment since you're not one of the older sisters, but still."
A moment later, Ikoma was knocked into the air by a full-power kick. Next, Chisato gave a shout while holding her chest.
"Have you no shame!?"
.
Chisato was on the move.
She could not allow herself to think. She could not allow herself to think about anything right now.
She focused entirely on suppressing her target and had to act accordingly. But...
...Ahh.
A tremor or a shaking was wreaking havoc in her heart. She forced it down, telling herself she could not allow herself to realize what it meant. If she did realize that, she was certain something would go horribly wrong.
But...
...You...
It leaked out.
...You idiot.
Why is my vision so shaky? Isn't the sight device data supposed to be directly projected into my eyes? Then is it due to the speed? Yes. That must be it. It definitely isn't due to tears. My mouth is trembling, my cheeks are so warm and tense, and my pulse is racing because... because... Don't think about it. But this means... No, don't think about it. It can't...it can't be that. That could never happen to Shiraishi's third daughter. So this isn't that. It's the high-speed mobility.
"Uuh..."
She audibly groaned to slow her thoughts and then she began an attack on the Attacker.
.
Ikoma realized the crucial moment had arrived.
He told himself that whatever result he produced here would determine what happened later.
The strange armor arrived from directly ahead. The dark red armor resembled a female warrior and had no unusable parts.
The weapon had been specially designed to be a combination of human and Neighbors technology.
The metal felt like anything found on Earth, but it had been able to defend against Ikoma's body attack. It had to have some for of trion to do such a thing. That trion became apparent in the form of a semi-circle behind the armor.
...Here she comes!
The strange armor made his thought a reality.
He could see her. He could feel a weight over his eyes because he had lowered his goggles down to cover his eyes. To others, his eyes would be covered.
...I'm so cool!
But he instantly lost sight of the armor.
She had not vanished and she had not escaped to the side. She was twirling on the ground.
She had leaned forward. The blades of the armor were only two centimeters away from the platform. Her back could not be seen due to the semi-circle that had appeared behind her.
The armor charged toward him as if running up the horizontal axis. Even the line of acceleration light extending from the back was horizontal. It was not pointed upwards. That meant the armor was relying entirely on her sense of balance to run and all of her movements were directed forward.
Ikoma responded by reaching for his blade at his side.
.
The semi-circle vanished, as did the armor.
Everything in the small area lost its strength and fell.
The armor panels, semi-circle, and blades seemed to decay and crumble away before the two attackers could collide.
But as they fall, they were swallowed up by light and vanished.
That left only three figures.
One was Shirashi Chisato standing on the edge of the platform with arms spread, one was the Attacker in front of her, and the last...
"If I hadn't stopped, you would have been torn to shreds, Ōi-nee-san."
A girl with long golden hair decorating her shoulders stood between the two of them.
She was pale and had her eyes closed. She had a stern expression and she held both arms out toward Chisato. There were traces of the armor's blades having sliced into her arms.
But on the high-level platform, the eldest Shirashi sister lowered her shoulders instead of sighing.
"Don't get so worked up, Chisato. The battle should have not started."
.
...The battle should not have started?
Only after repeating her sister in her heart did she realize the sounds of attacks had ceased.
She could only hear the wind.
"Why?"
She then realized Ōi was looking toward the ground. Her inattention was casual, but unthinkable on the battlefield. She quickly followed her gaze.
...Is that...?
Border's representative stood at the base of the platform.
When did that happen? she wondered before realizing the Attacker had created a flashy show of power when he had initially gone for his blade. That took her eyes off of the smaller boy, meaning...
"Chisato. That is the true representative."
She had gotten all worked up over a diversion. But...
"Didn't Border's representative come here on the assumption that we would not be holding any sort negotiations?"
"There were two reasons for this. One is over there."
Ōi pointed into the area behind her. A large form was visible in the sky between them and the Border base.
It was a Border owned truck, most likely belonging to the Yagura Branch or the base.
However, one part of the truck was different from normal. The windshield attached to the front of the truck had a pole attacked to it and a large flag on the front read "Automatic Driving".
It was apparently being automatically driven toward the Shiraishi group. The reason why was obvious.
To show they understood what had happened.
That Shiraishi had done something with their items.
The usage of the trion and metal armor would have been a dead give away for anyone else, but the Attacker had probably sent the data as soon as he got it. Border must have known as soon as the data came in. A closer look showed the name "Border" written on the side of the truck.
"They are almost too kind to not send out a director or A-Rank agent with that truck."
"True," agreed Chisato as she viewed the truck moving toward them. She also saw a red uniform vanishing into the building's roof beyond the transport truck.
The Sniper was using his Trigger to take out the flying Neighbors closest to them and he had likely been the one to notice what was going on.
"That's going a bit far to score some points."
"It's only an annoyance for me. Now I have more people I have to scold."
Chisato responded to Ōi's comment with a bitter laugh and then a sigh.
...I'm really off my game here.
She agreed that the battle should not have started, so she looked up to face the Attacker beyond Ōi.
She suddenly wondered whether she should say something like normal or say something different from normal. Not that she knew what either of those things would be.
But...
"Yes."
There was no point in being reluctant when it came to someone who had kept up with her well enough that she had to show her true skill, even if just for a moment. More importantly, she was belatedly impressed that he had been able to face her like that.
In Shiraishi's business, no one could keep up with her normally in a spar when they did such things. Musashi was the only one with the necessary reaction speed, but he could not make the necessary movements. People who fought Neighbors were a bit of an unknown for Shiraishi, even though they prepared to fight them.
...But it seems their combat skills are solid.
She sighed in her heart as she decided not to be careless or to look down on him. She opened her mouth again to say something to the Attacker, but...
...Eh?
She realized he was looking down at the ground.
.
Chisato looked back.
The Attacker's eyes were turned toward Border's representative, but she recalled what Ōi had said earlier.
...There were two reasons the battle should not have started.
The first was Border understanding what they were using. Then what was the other?
"Ruri!"
Chisato saw the figure in the center of her vision.
The skinny girl's long black hair was blowing in the wind. She was smiling as she spoke with Border's representative, but then she noticed Chisato.
"—"
The girl waved and Chisato could read the greeting on her lips.
"I see," said the Attacker. "Good job! Shobu, did ya make us look good by showin' her my battle and my great moves!?"
This Attacker is one of them! thought Chisato as her jaw dropped, but something else required her attention more.
"Ōi-nee-san! Why did you bring Ruri here!? Na-..."
She forcibly swallowed the name she nearly spoke, but she spat out another a moment later.
"Neighbors are out here!"
A sound seemed to cut off her shouted question.
It was the sound of an attack from the western sky.
...A physical attack from the Kobayashi platform!?
Kobayashi's current representative Mogami Yoshiko had fired a sniper-like shot from a distance.
Using a trion attack would use less energy and have more stability right now, so there was only one reason to use a physical attack: detection. With no trion being out into the attack, there would be no way of a Neighbor detecting it since it would do no damage.
This would be the same. The sound of its flight followed after the attack, but Chisato knew its target.
A Neighbor floated in the sky near the Border base after having hit been shot down.
"The falcon Neighbor!"
The attack revealed its power in the sky.
Mogami's attack struck the flying Neighbor, a combat type Neighbor, which was defenselessly observing the battle.
Minoru looked back from atop the platform to follow the path of the shot.
It was a high-speed attack using what looked to be normal junk that would provide destruction for anything made on Earth. Based on the sound, it had been launched by using something akin to Grasshopper throwing it out. There was no shockwave or movement when it was thrown, so...
...Is that why this group left its defenses up even after the Neighbors began decreasing or moving toward the base again!?
No, Kobayashi's representative had been in control of the attacks this entire time, so this shot had not been made on a whim.
"Was all of this leading up to this one shot, Mogami Yoshiko-san!?"
Minoru faced forward again to see the fox on the Kobayashi platform rooftop.
The vixen was making the final motion of her dance. She swung the right of her two fans up in front of her and then spread it out. She reversed her wrist to point the front of the fan toward the sky, then she raised and closed it.
A moment later, a sort of explosion burst from the Blaze waiting in the sky.
The shockwave created by the force of impact had pushed the air out of the way on a large scale.
Pyrínas - formally Rhinoceros Beetle 07 - landed on the Yagura Branch's clear front steps with his fingers scraping across the surface, but before his slide had finished, his stance crumbled.
"Pyrínas!?"
Futoyuki noticed something from the Trion Soldier's side as he fell to his knees and slid to the floor.
...There's thrust pushing at Pyrínas' back!
He looked back and saw a small black orb. It was a perfect sphere with small tendrils of electricity surrounding it. It was a small Gate that Pyrínas could make as one of the Wanderers' Trion Soldiers.
"Is something calling you!?"
Pyrínas' body began reverting back to that of a rhinoceros beetle, but the transformation stopped once a safety activated. The countless shifts to the Trion Soldier's body told Futoyuki something.
"This is just like when one of our falcons malfunctioned..."
During a certain test run with his team, a falcon Trion Soldier had changed its form and core structure based on one abandoned in a battle. Most likely, that had been because of an action done by the Pyrínas System.
In that case, what would be causing the same reaction now?
"Is one of the stronger falcons here!?"
More than just fall to his knees, the sliding Pyrínas was about to topple forward. The flesh looking parts on his legs tore and the intertwining joints of the knees contacted the floor. Sparks and sounds of bending spilled out, but the small connection to the Pyrínas System forcibly maintained his balance. However...
...Oh?
Futoyuki realized Pyrínas' arm was swinging over toward him.
Of course, he had no recollection of ordering him to do so. Was he simply misinterpreting an action caused by the loss of balance? Or was this being controlled by Pyrínas' thoughts?
He did not know.
However, he decided it may have changed a little amid the small Gates that were starting to vanish faster than they appeared.
"But the real problem is that."
As Pyrínas' arching curve along the Yagura Branch's floor came to a stop, he looked into the sky.
The explosion was clearing up, revealing the constantly flying Blaze.
When he had seen it earlier, Blaze had been the kind that the Wanderers had made for their own purposes, but...
"So it stopped that attack after all. That means one thing."
As the explosion cleared, a giant form came into view. It was the red colored Trion Soldier resembling a falcon. Several barriers had opened around it and occasional static ran through it.
"Is it going to open a short distance Gate!?"
...Eh?
Someone had a thought within the wind.
It was Hiura.
The red flying Neighbor was too far from the Kobayashi group to see properly, so a large screen on the platform displayed a magnified view.
But...
"...?"
Hiura removed her hat and checked on the distance under the shade it provided.
However, she concluded there was nothing wrong with her sight and narrowed her eyes toward the image on the screen.
"Huh?"
Something was not right.
It were transparent.
The Neighbor with the color red on it was strange, so it shone oddly in the sunlight. She understood how that worked well enough, but...
"Now it looks kind of see-through..."
The flying Neighbor had held its right wing forward to block the high-speed attack, but its form would occasionally grow fuzzy, like static running through it.
Kura-uchi: "Was it trying to use some camouflage like we do with Chameleon, but something went wrong?"
Isa: "Or maybe it was trying to escape using a Gate or something, but it messed up? ...New guy!"
Kaze: "Oh, this is Futoyuki, yes! A little guy here is letting me use his account for this! Anyways. Ah! It's kind of hard to tell from where I currently am. Still, I doubt it was optical. If it was, it should have immediately gone back up after getting hit by a simple physical attack and whatever trion-based attack was on it. Besides that, Blaze just doesn't have that kind of thing in it."
Ōji: "So was its defenses not set up right? But it did stop the attack, didn't it? What's going on?"
The answer was they did not know.
...But really though. What is going on here?
Hiura leaned forward and heard Yoshiko speak quietly while finishing her dance and maintaining her final pose.
"Poor Ruri."
"Eh?"
Hiura looked over and noticed that Yoshiko's shoulders looked a little slumped.
Then the fox noticed the girl.
"Do you need something?"
As soon as she asked that, the red colored Neighbor vanished from the large screen in front of them.
The giant flying Neighbor utterly vanished before Hiura could ask anything.
And before she could react...
Zoe: "Whaaaaat!? The flying Neighbor just up and disappeared!?"
SenSen: "We can tell that, so you don't have to say it."
Suzaku: "B-but what was that just now!? Ah! Misaki! Please don't cover your ears and hide when this is all that happened! W-wait. Not between my legs..."
Honest Sister: "Heh heh. What are you saying, Suzaku!? A kiddy-looking flacon Neighbor just pulled off an illusion! This has to be the falcon god's curse against those who cheated the falcon! If you don't believe it, you can face the falcon's wrath all on your own! Like the Toilet God's Ultimate Electricity Technique: Bathroom Sandal (Shared)!"
...Oh, that's an original divine spell from Final Overthrowing III which has a lot of fun class changing, according to Sayoko.
As Hiura recalled that, lightning struck.
"Eh!? The sandal?"
Hiura saw the light of the lightning strike that suddenly occurred in the clear afternoon sky.
However, it did not fall. It was emitted in every direction from a single point in the sky.
That point was to the west, at the center of the Shiraishi group.
The light raced across the sky, but its source continued to create more without end.
This occurred on the lower platform, the Shiraishi group's vehicle parking lot near the Border car.
The lightning produced a tearing sound and it spread in every direction like ivy.
Whip-like blasts of lightning struck and scorched the ground. Blowing wind and impacts assaulted the bridge.
The light did not stop.
The light was so bright it seemed to dye everything white rather than just illuminate things and a few silhouettes were visible inside it.
The largest one was Ikoma the Attacker in a defensive stance.
He saw something at the center of the white light. Ruri stood there, but behind her...
...A strange as hell Neighbor!?
He could see the falcon-like silhouette backlit by the lightning and he saw it tearing at its throat as if to rip something apart.
What is this? he wondered.
It had occurred as he descended to the platform after ending his almost-battle with Chisato.
Ruri had suddenly held her mouth and bent over.
"Ah...!"
A tearful voice had burst from her mouth. He had thought something had attacked her, but then she had wrinkled her brow and bent as far back as possible as a great pressure appeared behind her.
It took the form of wind, but Ikoma had determined its true form was pressure. He had seen the mist that was actually scattering trion.
That was why he had thought something quite large was being brought behind her.
As he had wondered what it could be, the bright lightning had appeared as an answer. More accurately, it was an explosion of trion light.
Then it came. The flying Neighbor had appeared behind Ruri, either copying her movements or controlling her movements depending on how one looked at it.
It was the Falcon Neighbor. It was the one that had been so close to the Border base a moment before, but...
...It isn't transparent!?
It was solid. As its definite weight shook the platform, Ruri took the same actions as the falcon-designed Neighbor.
The hands on her throat powerfully and definitely dug down into her flesh.
"...!"
A moment later, Ikoma heard a crash.
It was Ōi. An armored woman in the sky behind them crashed knee-first into the falcon flying Neighbor.
.
The two bodies collided with each other, one standing and the other accelerating through the air.
A metallic sound was followed by repeated sounds of armor panels crashing together and raining down.
But it was meaningless.
With its wings on its throat, the falcon Neighbor blocked Ōi knee with its right wind edge.
"—!"
It roared and extended its right wing to knock the armored girl to the deck.
Rather than the sound of heavy steel crashing together, it was the sound of armor sliding across the polished platform. However, Ōi's slid her legs around to correct his stance.
"I'm not done yet!"
She gave a shout and a roar, but it was already too late.
The falcon Neighbor flew from the center of the light. It pulled back its right wing and raised its head like a cobra before making a great dash. It sent its right wing toward Ōi as she stood up.
The stance and everything else about the strike were a complete mess.
However, lightning surrounded its wing and the wrist onward glowed white.
"...!"
Its wing tore through the air. A ring of water vapor spread and scattered through the air, but...
"Ruri!"
Chisato's mobile armor rushed. In the long shadows of the vanishing light, her strange armor pulled long spears of green light from the empty air. There were eight in all and her target was the falcon Neighbor's right wing.
The green jaws bit down with enough force to sever that limb.
They hit.
However, they were broken. The first, second, and third shattered and the fourth broke into pieces. The fifth and sixth split at the joints and the seventh broke in two. The eighth vibrated until it was destroyed.
By that time, sixty-four of them had been added and they drew a large arc.
This was no longer a slash or any other kind of lance technique . The dozens of meters of spears were going to crush their target. But the crimson falcon spread its wings this time and light burst from all six of them.
"—"
Its cry became forward motion and it changed direction.
It faced Chisato instead of the armored older sister.
Chisato chose to face the red speed head-on. She held herself steady and controlled the thirty-two pairs of spears as they raced through the sky.
But the Blaze was faster. It leaped in a straight line between the spears sent by Chisato.
The green blades were too slow. The Blaze's outstretched claws were going to hit. However...
"Honestly!"
Chisato hurriedly raised a hand in the air behind her.
"If you have a grudge against me, just say so, Ruri.
The strange armor grabbed the poles ejected into its hands and prepared to use them as a counterattack.
But a sudden voice rang out. It came from the Border representative.
"...You can't...!"
.
Ōi did not understand what had happened.
"Mh..."
She was looking forward.
He was on the platform of the Shiraishi group's vehicle parking lot. That was where she had originally been, but the scene had changed.
The Blaze Neighbor had vanished and the moderate Gate above it had been entirely annihilated.
Not much time had passed. According to her machine's memory records, only a few seconds has passed since she had stood up and this silence had filled her surroundings.
It was enough time to die, but still not a particularly long span of time.
However, they were alive. She could see the platform with the mark she had left while sliding along it. The sky was blue and the black sphere was nowhere to be seen.
The flying Neighbor shaped like a crimson falcon was nowhere to be found. It had disappeared.
The only movement was the wind.
She looked up into the sky as if seeking the wind blowing down from there, but Chisato was not there.
"Chisa. ...Did she die?"
"I'm alive. I'm behind you. ...But don't turn around."
"Don't ask the impossible. The cameras have a wide range of vision."
"And I'm in Thrúd's small blind spot right now."
"I see."
The strange armor's artificial sensation processing handled the sigh she could not express as just a machine.
...But...
A single thought came to mind.
...Ruri triggered that, didn't she?
She looked straight ahead and found Ruri collapsed below the platform. Border's representative sat on the platform, supporting slender Ruri and holding the Shiraishi VIP's hand between both of his own. His extreme nervousness was plainly visible.
That bangs boy, while trying to deal with his nervousness, simply embraced Ruri and gently shook her in an attempt to wake her.
Then he called out to the unconscious girl.
"...A-are you...okay...? ...Are you...?"
.
When the Blaze had appeared, Shobu had not known what was happening.
He had sensed a sudden sound, a sudden wind, a sudden shaking, and all sorts of danger. Plus...
...Shiraishi's...VI...P...
He thought her name was Ruri. The girl had seemed to be suffering. She had bent back, bent forward, squeezed her own body tightly, and cried out.
Shobu would be lying if he said it had not scared him. But another thought had come to mind too.
...So much pain...
That thought was not about himself. It was about something inside Ruri.
He could not sense it and it may have been something he would have easily understood if he chose to look passed his hair, but he had simply felt like the girl was suffering from something inside her.
Like something was being taken out.
It could have also been something else.
That was why people struggled and gave up. There were times when people could struggle and times when they could not keep up the fight to the end. There were also times when people could give up and times when they could not.
Whatever was with this girl – whatever its shape, whatever its size, and whatever its temperature – did it hurt? Shobu did not know, but he knew there was something he could do.
He knew what he could do for someone who was worried and who could not see their surroundings.
...Jist like...Yuki-san and...Uncle did for me...
"...Um..."
No. That quiet voice would not get through with all the noise around him. So...
"...U...um!"
He spoke loudly, or at least as loudly as when singing for someone. He raised his voice because he wanted to do something about the girl's cries and pain.
"You can't!"
He called to her and for a brief time that girl turned to face him.
...Good... thought Shobu. ...She noticed me...
But then the girl went limp and collapsed. That was why Shobu quickly supported her, but...
"...It's...going to be...all right...okay...?"
By the time he questioned the girl, sat down with her in his arms, and held her hand, Shobu noticed the change to his surroundings.
The area had quieted down and heat had returned to the sky.
.
Ikoma sensed the color blue and the normal wind. He had a single thought as he spread his arms in the air and prepared a difficult movement with his legs.
...When Shobu calmed Ruri down, the Neighbor disappeared?
He did not really understand, but the Neighbor had vanished after Shobu's shout of "you can't". No, it would be more accurate to say it fell back into the Gate. And...
"Could you...let go of me?"
The object in his right arm spoke to him. It was the strange trion armor used by Chisato. The strange armor had released its right leg and right arm and it twisted its body around.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"You can't tell?" he asked. "I saved yer life."
"I didn't ask you to do that."
"Then," he said. "You intended to die."
"—"
"Well, anyway..."
He looked to a collapsed form. It was the person who had been standing with Shobu by the platform.
"Ruri!" shouted Chisato.
"Pipe down. First you want death and then you try to save someone. How can I trust you?"
"Then what about you? You tried to fight me and then saved me..."
"My actions are perfectly consistent. ...They always go to the best way to get to a cute girl by the end of it."
The one-legged strange armor kneed him with a "Why you...!" for good measure.
"You are the worst!" said Chisato. "So you only tried to fight me and saved me to show off to Ruri?"
"Heh. ...If you wanna think of it as scorin' points, I won't stop you. The fact remains that I'm makin' gradual progress."
The strange armor resisted, but she barely did any damage since he had adjusted his grip on her waist. Meanwhile, he looked to Ruri collapsed on the platform.
However, his thoughts were not focused on her.
...What's with that Neighbor?
It had resembled a falcon and it had been identical to another one: the one far, far from here he had only been able to see using his Trigger's enhanced vision.
"That's the same one that was hangin' around the base, wasn't it?"
Out of the corner of her eye, Hiura saw Yoshiko lower her fans.
Her eyes were focused on the screen displaying right in front of them.
It displayed the area around the Border base after the staticky crimson Neighbor had vanished. Rather, after it had left.
There was movement there.
The Bados that had been flying were no longer there, instead either falling to the ground or already there. However, a small Neighbor seemed to barely be flying.
It was a small Rise, so the Neighbor had been hit yet continued to fly in the sky.
It was nothing compared to the other ones. It seemed as if it had no attack power and was only managing to glide with the wind.
"...It's trying to fly."
Hiura recalled what Kimura had said about the Trion Soldiers that had come from the Wanderers the day prior.
This one had a name of Rise, but...
...Why is it not doing anything?
Its sight was clearly focused on the Kobayashi group. It was "looking" at Mogami Yoshiko. And...
"—"
The Rise tilted forward as if giving a deep bow.
"Ah."
The footage on the screen filled with the green light from the body.
It was trion. It was spraying trion out from where the Rise had been shot previously as well as by a new shot. The core had been destroyed by a sniper shot from the Border base and was now simply falling ungratefully to the ground.
Ōji: "The Neighbors are all taken care of now. Everyone seems pretty calm about it."
The trion and parts scattered as the trion began to glow faintly with the fall. The wings folded in and the head ducked toward what could be its chest, so it just have decided it would not be attacked again.
A small explosion went off. It was not large enough to even take note of.
And that was why Yoshiko raised one of her fans and closed it.
The large screen turned off, leaving only the monitor and its stand, the base, and the Forbidden Zone in view.
However, no one was moving any longer.
"You fool." Yoshiko hid her face behind her spread fan. "Even after being taken away from me, you went to make what you wanted to show me? Show some independence, boy."
"Eh?"
Yoshiko froze in place when she heard Hiura's voice.
"What do you mean 'eh'?"
"Well, I had kind of figured as much...but you really do know what that Neighbor was, right?"
Finally, a tremor ran through Yoshiko's shoulders. After a few breaths, she took one final deep breath, and removed the fan from her face. The smiling fox wiped tears from her eyes.
"Honestly...I laughed myself to tears."
There was nothing Hiura could say. Yoshiko simply smiled at her with damp eyes.
"Is there anything you want? Snacks, a proper meal, water, or juice? Anything at all? For example..."
She paused before continuing.
"How about a meeting to set in motion the future of not just us sponsors and not just Border, but of how everything will go done?"