The trees were moving below the night sky.
A vast city stood with the Forbidden Zone to the east and the end of the city to the west.
That spacious area was shaking near the end of the city where the lights of Mikado City could be seen. A few long shapes cast shadows in the starlight there.
They were machinery bearing Mikado Construction's emblem.
Eighteen machines were not many, but the emblems on them were new. And something else existed in the depths of the shaking building below those new machines.
A giant wreck sat on a large plot of land.
The machines' frontal and overhead lights shined shined on three distinct objects, each having varying sizes.
People were examining those objects. The students wore uniforms from both Border and general companies with stoles to keep out the night air.
One of them sighed below the lights while standing atop the central wreck.
"This plaaaaace really toooook a beating. I guess it's fiiiiiine since oooour members are viewed in a gooooood light."
Red Sky: "That just proves that the Falcon did not hold back, Mukuro."
"Of course," replied the boy while casting a short shadow on the wrecked frame.
He was a lanky boy with straight hair. He opened up his phone in his hand and began recording his surroundings.
The recording gave the name Taiyōko Mukuro. He looked down at the wrecked building he stood on.
"Kushi-nee can't be fooooound, can she?"
Red Sky: "You will be a suspect too, after her."
Corpse: "Can I saaaay I would prefer I haaad not gotten my name uuuuntil later?"
Red Sky: "Do you know where Kushikage is?"
Corpse: "I oooonly saw her leave the offiiiice and walk outside. Nothing moooore than that."
Red Sky: "Got it. Then that's enough."
Corpse: "Why doooo you say that, Akassan?"
It took Akasora a few seconds to respond on the transmission.
But the teacher's words did finally reach Mukuro as if carried by the night breeze.
Red Sky: "Kushikage had used some people."
Corpse: "That juuuust makes me moooore jealous of thoooose people."
Red Sky: "Younger brothers should not actively try to rely on the kindness of their siblings."
Akasora's comment came with a hint of a bitter smile.
"Anyway," he continued.
Red Sky: "We have had a number of issues to deal with since you have your last name, so this was just how it worked out. And all kinds of people are plagued by lots of petty actions soon after getting their names. Did you have to go through anything interesting?"
"Hmm, I don't reeeeeally know," said Mukuro before remembering he was speaking to an adult and his boss.
He briefly yawned before realizing his phone was not picking up his voice.
"Phew. I really shoooould actually try to aaaanswer my boss's question."
Corpse: "Um, do yoooou mind if it's kiiiiind of silly?"
Red Sky: "Not if I can go punch you if it irritates me too much."
Corpse: "Ooooh, weeeeell, there was this one annoooooying thing I had to do. You see, I was laaaaate showing up this tiiiiime because I burned my hand."
Red Sky: "Was that burn in the daytime?"
"Just look," he said while holding up his currently unharmed hand.
Corpse: "Bakuto Denji had been ruuuuunning by, you seeeee. And he had deciiiiided to include a soooort of test for me when weeee crossed paths."
Namely...
Corpse: "It was thiiiiiis ridiculous trick wheeeeeere you place a cooked cheeeeestnut in your haaaaaand."
Red Sky: "Did he test you like that?"
Corpse: "Yes, but compleeeeetely out of the blue. I was waaaaalking home after leeeeeaving the branch offiiiiice and that iiiiidiot runs up, says 'catch!", and threwwwww it at me. I caught it, but it waaaaas really hot."
The memory of the event led Mukuro to shake his hand, but the device in his hand copied the action.
"Oh, whoops," he said while stopping his hand.
Corpse: "Now, on aaaany other day, I would have peeeeeeeled and ate the chestnut withooooout saying a word."
Red Sky: "Not reacting is certainly different."
Corpse: "That's not the poooooint, though. Seeeeee, I thought he wooooould attack me if I said anything at aaaaall, not that I couldn't defend myseeeeelf but that's neither here nor theeeeere, so I held in my voooooice. But the reaction found anooooother way of getting out. So there I aaaaaaam making the craziest faaaaaces that you could describe as 'sour' ooooor 'scrunched' and that idiiiiiot films the whole thing with the biggeeeeest grin you ever saw. I only gooooot through it by swearing to myyyyyyself I would just uses my blaaaades to cut him up."
Red Sku: "Did you?"
Corpse: "He ran awaaaaaay, so I was going to chaaaaase after him and giiiiiive him some nice cuts. But I guess he goooooot others mad since your guuuuuys' top B-Rank captain fooooollowed before I could staaaaaaart firing at him. I went aloooooong for the ride, that's why IIIII was late coming here."
Red Sky: "Sounds like you were both to blame. But..."
Akasora's voice came from Mukuro's phone.
Red Sky: "Mukuro, you are part of the investigation this time. You know why, don't you?"
.
"Pretty much," confirmed Mukuro.
...That's really all I could do. Or rather, I hadn't really thought about it that much.
"I mooooostly get it. Given the ciiiiircumstances, I shouldn't be moooooving too freely or in secret becaaaaause Kiyo-nii was at Kurosaki aaaaand Kushi-nee is doing her own thiiiiing. Once again, I waaaas left behind to guard soooooomething that doesn't exist to them."
At this time, Taiyōko Mukuro was said to be involved with these incidents under Kushikage's command.
But unfortunately...
"Official records aaaand witnesses say I was the last oooooone to be seen with Kushi-nee, so I huuuuuurried here instead."
The events of the meetings had essentially passed him by since it was led by those older than him and fought at a moment's notice.
He wished he could have gotten here sooner, but it was what it was.
He had not come here so he could be involved in the meeting of the organizations or battle against the Wanderers's lost weapon.
He was not prepared to do that and his support came in a different form.
Red Sky: "What are your plans now?"
Corpse: "Let's seeeeee... I would reeeeeeally like to try and fiiiiind a place to sleep, but the location is neeeeeever important. I end up awaaaaake like usual. Also..."
Also...
Corpse: "I need to keep uuuuuup with the others. To me, mooooost of them are idiots, so I gueeeeeess I'll be assisting with their plans?"
Red Sky: "Yes, some of the others who can stay ahead, right?"
It was kind of embarrassing that Akasora knew what he meant.
In the entirety of Border, there would be squads who were viewed as something special given their status and rankings, like the top A-Rank squad and top B-Rank Squads.
There were also the younger Tamakoma members, the newly formed Yagura Branch, the directors who worked to maintain Border, and solo agents who were better off without their squads. The other branches also had things like Hisama's members or the group he had vaguely figured out involved his brother.
He too was part of such a group.
...We're apparently old enough to be asked by the directors for help.
They were people who had something unique to them. While squads and solo agents were the center of attention when it came to fighting, the ones who were asked by the directors were the center of attention when something needed to be done. They were as follows:
Jin Yūichi
Takato Mei
Hikigane Sekai
Chisato Ayumu
Tsukiko Yuki
Amō Tsukihiko
Taiyōko Mukuro
...I just noticed it's either because of Side Effects or information gathering/finding. Is this a major discovery? No, I guess not.
Jin and the two Operators were people able to tell what has yet to come. And Amō Tsukihiko would also be viewed as special given his usage of a Black Trigger and outstanding abilities with it. His Side Effect was also something not to look passed.
That left three: Hikigane, Mukuro, and Yuki. He was one of those.
But in this case, the focus was on his older sister instead of his disowned brother.
Corpse: "I don't haaaaave anything going for me so my jooooob will just be to go overrrrr everything as a lesser person. I considered tryyyyyyying to help them out early so I could geeeeet some more sleep, but there was no energy or rooooooom to do that."
Red Sky: "History moves quickly. And since you are still at the age of a first year, you had never experienced the rush of history moving just before a break."
Corpse: "I had waaaaatched it from the outside before, but it reeeeeally is a mess when you're on the inside."
He had recently come to realize how infrequently reality did what you wanted it to do.
Corpse: "I had wanted Kiyo-nii to coooooome here with Fuji-nee...do you know why? Anywaaaaay, it sounds like they want to geeeeet some sleep, so I need to have something reeeeeady for them."
Red Sky: "You really want your brother to be with you while he still has Mei, don't you? I'm still not old enough to see this as 'unfortunate', but I do feel bad that my idiotic student is acting this way toward you."
Corpse: "It's fine siiiiiince I know how things are. We haaave our hands full just dealing with idiots whooooo view our fam- aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh..."
Red Sky: "What's wrong?"
"Oh, nothing," said Mukuro as he let out a tired yawn.
The people below were looking up to see what the deal was and they were mostly older than him.
He wanted to be appropriately polite, but there was no reason to be too modest either. So he called down to them.
"I've foooooound the Neighbor's core."
Excitement filled the people.
"For real!?"
"Is it the automaton thing!?"
"I hope it's a really cool looking one! Y'know, the kind that looks like a marble that's also a bomb!"
"No." Mukuro shook his head and pointed down where they were below him. "Oh, there it went."
"'Went'?"
"That's riiiiiight."
Just as he said that, the wrecked frame shattered and a white rhinoceros beetle burst out. The rhinoceros beetle thrusted it's broken horn forward with a screeching noise.
"-..."
They all screamed and ran away. Mukuro looked down at the commotion while the lights swung about.
"Yeah, that's what I eeeeexpected. According to whaaaaaat that new guy sent me. ...Oh wait, I feel a yawn coming." The full yawn that came from him had been heard down below from the sounds of sighs and yawns from the others. "That would beeeee Rhinoceros Beattle 07 whooooo might have been really powerful or maaaaaybe not. He caused a looooot of issues and stuff, so it came to ram the Falcooooon. A note sent in says he later becaaaame known as something else, broke off thiiiiis part to get the core, and he's helping out... Neighbors, IIIII guess we can say?"
"Wait, it rammed that Falcon Neighbor!? How do you just gloss over that!?"
"-..."
They all screamed and ran away again. And while he watched, Mukuro pulled out his Trigger from his pocket.
Red Sky: "Mukuro, it sounds like you've run across some excitement. If necessary, I could fire an attack over there for you."
Corpse: "No, destroooooying that would make finding thiiiiings a lot harder. I'm going to try sooooomething while he's dooooown there playing with the others."
Mukuro readied one of his hands.
Corpse: "Nakagami, you're there, riiiiight? I might be borrowing some moooooney, so link to my dowry. That should be eeeeenough for now."
He lowered his hand and moved his fingers one by one.
"All checks finished."
And he released his voice.
"Chi-chan, what's with that howling?"
Akasora heard a colleague's question with the night sky above and the night city around them.
It was Rindō Takumi.
He wore a a coat to block the night wind, but he kept his arm hand on the cigarette in his mouth just in case.
He must have come out because the noise had confused and worried him.
Akasora initially looked across the schoolyard on which he stood.
And he explained the noise audible from the inner city.
"That is Mukuro's Trigger in action. Of course, only a small number will be able to hear it."
"Mukuro? You mean Taiyōko Mukuro?"
"You know him?"
"Vaguely." Rindō walked to the center of the schoolyard with his gaze directed up into the sky. "He's a part of your branch, so k wanted to check him out. His sisters and brothers are also given, so I couldn't just let it slide."
"That family of insane people, right. We learned some more tonight because of Kurosaki and that group's hard work. Toby also recently fought and caught a suspicious man who we then had some people 'talk to' and found out her had a small connection to Kushikage."
"Apparently he didn't know anything about Mukuro though."
For that reason, Mukuro had little suspicion placed on him when it came to light that he had been at the Yagura Branch.
"He said he was trying to get some sleep and overheard some thing from Futoyuki and Pyrínas."
"The Yagura Branch really doesn't care much for secrecy. And even with Yuki around, you seem to let everything out without issue."
"You know how things are with that family. Shokubutsu is my nephew and his friends are around, so lying to them is prohibited, beyond that no one wants to know that there are extra secrets to that family. But..."
Rindō pulled out the cigarette from his mouth to blow smoke in the opposite direction as Akasora.
A quick wind came from the opposite and blew the smoke right back to him and around him to where Akasora stood.
Akasora smiled bitterly behind him.
"Why do you even pretend to try and be considerate when it comes to that?"
"Because I know you like to keep up your teacher image and I don't want to ruin that," explained Rindō. "Oh, and I've been thinking more about the ones under your care as I thought about the ones under mine. Those kids are fine enough, the new ones haven't officially joined, so we can't say much, so that just leaves those siblings. Have you figured out what you want to say about them?"
"Long ago. The easiest one would be my idiotic student while the next would be a tie between the brother and younger sister."
"I really wish you could just give it to me straight instead of trying to teach me."
"Yeah, that isn't going to happen. Not when we have a second Nagao Kagetora running around. Oh, but his one seems much more insane than that daimiyō of Echigo."
"I had a feeling," sighed Rindō. "Although it's interesting that you use that name instead of Uesugi Kenshin. It may have even gotten you in trouble during those times."
"Yeah, well, I like the name Kagetora way more than Kenshin. It reminds me of Masafumi. And if you can't find something as childish as that to remind you of a friend then what's the point of being longtime friends?"
"You really are learning some bad habits from your students."
He let out a puff of smoke while turning in a certain direction.
"What is that?"
Green light was rising from a point in the city.
That was the same point that Mukuro's voice and Trigger sound came from.
.
Akasora watched on the live feed from his phone.
Light was rising from the distant inner city.
It was trion light. It was colored green, but it was darker near his fingers.
The trion light came from his hands starting at his fingertips. They began coming out in small intervals like a blowtorch coming to life and the light began to grow on each finger until they were more like extensions.
The trion blades began to shrink down as they formed. The light gathered more as it started to fall with the movement of his hand, but no control over it had been lost.
Ultimately, the trion stabilized its length and...
Corpse: "It'll be a hit."
Light that reflected off of the surfaces known as trion light was dropped from its suspended position.
The blades that formed like blowtorches were aimed at the moving rhinoceros beetle.
The reflected light blades cut through the air as they dropped down like towers falling down.
"Oh?"
Rindō's voice almost sounded like a sigh as a change occurred in the falling blades.
Parts of White Rock tore away and some of the rebar twisted and broke, but it all continued along a narrow path down.
Once it was complete, the trion light cut through the rhinoceros beetle and the core like a blowtorch going through metal.
The movement from the rhinoceros beetle ceased within the wreckage of White Rock.
The primary sound was of blowing wind. The occasional sound reminiscent of glass clinking together sounded refreshing to a man who worked in a class for so long.
The light soared and the noise danced in the distance sky. But while Akasora watched, a sudden voice reached his ears. It came from a boy who walked into the schoolyard.
"Oh? I just received a transmission saying that something was going on, but it's already started?"
"Karasawa."
Akasora looked back to see a brown-haired man. His hair was slicked back and he held a jacket over his shoulder.
"Yeah," replied the man named Karasawa Katsumi. "I thought I should let you know I'd arrived."
.
Karasawa opened his closed eyes and looked to the light in the sky.
What he saw there only looked like lights to him.
...Ohh.
So he immediately opened up his own phone and began recording the scene on his screen.
For the first two seconds, the settings were automatically adjusted before settling on the best setup. He missed recording to the juicy beginning, but...
"Is it fine for me to record this?"
"We aren't exactly hiding it, but it's not really appropriate for one of our own to do it."
"Would that depend on my ethics?"
"It is based in the warrior regulations."
"Then I'll record it for Border. It makes for a nice excuse."
The teacher glared at him, but he did not mind. In fact, he took three snapshots of that expression.
"What do you think you are doing, Karasawa?"
"I won't treat you badly. And I'll make some money off of it."
Rindō slowly and nonchalantly tried to move away, but the filming had already locked onto him. Karasawa was not going to miss a thing.
"So what is...Mukuro, was it? What is he doing over there?"
"Staying in sight of everyone while checking over Shiraishi's building."
"Staying in sight? Isn't that a bit dull for someone like him?"
"He has the knowledge of what to do. It costs a lot of time and patience, but the results could at least help him survive the onslaught of people who hate him. This was originally just going to be for a bit, but that changed when Kushikage decided to not be as active. We still have her location, but she isn't doing much and the information we got from the man Toby captured was only a vague mention of her."
"How long with it take for him to be fine?"
"I heard that it would be best for him to be around someone until she comes back from a small trip she took."
"That sounds rough." Karasawa voiced the feeling in the very depths of his heart. "Having to stay in sight of everyone so that he has an alibi in case something happens or his family does something? Isn't that a bit much?"
"You do know how busy we are, don't you?"
"No, I don't. I do things differently. I leave branch members to the branch directors. Akasora, I know you like all that stuff while still trying to teach, but I hope you know it makes you lag behind the rest of us a bit."
"That is one downside of being a teacher,"
"If you understand, then I apologize."
With that, Karasawa puffed out some smoke from his own cigarette. He then pulled out a small device from his pocket.
It displayed a program that let him see what was going on in the same way Akasora was doing. Several of the shown images were changing, but...
"Looks like there's no room for me to intervene. Did you tell Mukuro how good at this stuff he is?"
Akasora responded by making a slight adjustment to his own phone.
Red Sky: "Mukuro, Karasawa says you're good at what you do."
Corpse: "Eh? Eeeeeh? Who did? Don't knooooow him...oh, weird."
A point in the sky shined extra bright. Mukuro had apparently made a mistake.
"What a lively kid."
"That's not something I ever hear about him."
"Akasora, I heard you were always brimming with confidence in everything you did."
"That illusion is one advantage of being a teacher. What about you, Karasawa?"
"I was in rugby back then. My dad was fine with it, but it still helps me out even to this day and gives a good conversation starter."
Karasawa checked his phone again. The "compensation" view that he shared with others had no changes outside of the existing ones. Which meant...
"Well then. Looks like he's going to keep this pretty tame. He's good, but he's still under suspicion."
"No, I think he just knew where to draw the line, unlike his brother. Look."
Karasawa looked in the direction Akasora pointed with his chin.
"Oh?" was his reflexive response to what he saw there.
His live footage showed the road clear as any other day with only the small bits and leaves showing to the side.
The was the road around White Rock.
It was not the entire road, just the edges around the destroyed building and that connected other buildings to it, but it was indeed cleared of any part of the building.
"That is only the outer area," explained Akasora. "There is no one around. You could say he has only made a path. His Trigger can't be detailed, so others need to be sent over to perform a proper cleanup. But his Trigger still greatly reduces the cleanup time and also does that thing people might end up hating so much: shows restraint."
"From the looks of things, I'm betting he really can change his image in a few months."
"No, I bet he will do that even faster than a few months."
"Why?"
"You don't know?" asked Akasora. "When you were started playing rugby, did you not hurry to make yourself look good? Mukuro is a kid who only looks at the world his family has made. And he will continue to try and stabilize that world made by others. Having a good image will mean a lot to him, so I'm certain he will reduce the improvement time. Then he can make sure his family doesn't look bad."
"In that case," replied Karasawa while closing his phone to stop the viewing of the roadway cleaning. "The young blood is going to outdo the rest of us. You get that, don't you?"
"I'm exhaaaaaaaaaaaausted!"
Mukuro sprawled out on top of the White Rock wreckage.
Above him, he saw the remains of the room and upper levels that had been destroyed during the fight. It seemed as if the edges had been cut just right to where it would not fall apart even more.
When he raised his head, he saw the rubble on the road beyond the White Rock wreckage he lay on top of.
He had made way for others to move on the road.
It was about 50 meters long, which was minuscule compared to the full city's length that could only continue to grow.
...And it being a test is no excuse.
That was the source of his exhaustion. Using his Trigger did not use his stamina as a power source, but he had to move around when he was used to laying around.
Trigger activations were based on vocal commands or mental one, so the existing bladed Triggers were formed the moment a person turned on their Triggers or by simply thinking up a blade in their hands.
But his was different.
Controlling the shape of the trion was a pain, so he had Engineers create a Trigger that creates a sort of "belt" that threw out his trion before sending it back on the or end of the "belt".
Once he decided on a length, it would shorten to that and then create the arc trion blades he used. And since the amount of trion put in and size of the blades can change faster than others, larger scale movements were possible.
He was aware he was a second-rate, if not third-rate, person overall. After all, he had decided to continue in the world his family had made because he had trouble keeping up with anyone.
What mattered was maintaining some good for his family and keeping things away that could harm them.
Only he could maintain that image now, so if he simply focused solely on the important things around him, the trivial things would catch up.
So he came over to help with the removal of the wreckage and the opening of the space for the Mikado City workers. However...
"I'm not uuuuused to so much moooovement and controlling the aaaaaarc trion blades for so long."
...I tried training with some dance, but I guess it wasn't enough. I guess that's what happens with insomnia.
At this rate, how long would it take him to improve his family's image?
That hint of disappointment and worry drained his body of energy. But just then...
2.7 Maime: "Good evening! It's your ever-cheerful elite, Jin!"
.
Corpse: "Oh, Tamakoma's fuuuuuture seer?"
2.7 Maime: "Hey, Mukuro! How are you doing? I heard you were running a test!"
Mukuro received a transmission from one of life's trolls: a bonchi eating clairvoyant.
Mukuro had never actually met Jin Yūichi. Mikado City was a big place and he had only recently returned to it. And his branch was in a location farther away from Tamakoma than most other branches and more aligned with themselves, while Jin belonged to the Neighbor vouching Tamakoma Branch. But the clairvoyant was quite well known, so he still felt like an acquaintance.
...Even if most of my knowledge on him is based on what Kiyo-nii and Ho have told me. He also barely knows me.
Mukuro decided to keep that in mind as he spoke with Jin.
They discussed the work he had just completed.
2.7 Maime: "How are things near my favorite part of the city? In those clean stores, the people are so polite and the night air is so cool that I can forget all about some of the annoying stuff and enjoy a peaceful life."
Corpse: "Yes, of coooourse, of coooourse. The snacks served at the wooooorker's quarters was fine enough. Rice with yaaaams, mountain vegetables, a thick ooooomelet, and some miso soup. ...I almost died when they triiiiied to get me to eat more than the riiiice."
2.7 Maime: "How much do you normally eat?"
If not for the view his older brother and younger sister had on this man, he was sure this conversation would have been over by now.
It was due to his family's connection with the man that he found nothing wrong with saying more.
Corpse: "The process of eating aaaaaand the feeling of being fuuuuull tend to make me even more tiiiiired. I just drink milk mooooost of the time and have some easy to swaaaaallow food. For anyone else, it woooooouldn't be an issue, but I end up staaaaaying awake no matter how tired thaaaaaat makes me."
2.7 Maime: "You can sleep near Shobu-san, can't you? Yu-... Kiyoshi has told me that you have a few people you can go to sleep around."
He used the correct name when talking to me. ...He is good.
Corpse: "Do you aaaaalways eat that well, Tamakoma's future seeeeeer?"
2.7 Maime: "...Lately I've been eating a good amount of junk during random times when I'm not paying attention and I keep getting boxes filled with bonchi. I'm not complaining about the latter one though."
Mukuro learned that even clairvoyants can lose track of things.
Corpse: "Do you loooooook after your heeeeeealth to keep your weight dooooown?"
2.7 Maime: "Yeah! I don't really feel like ending up with a large gut because I spend time in my trion body... Wait, Reiji-san, don't say losing weight makes me more sensitive!"
Jin was apparently with the other top members of the Tamakoma Branch.
...I'm talking with some strange people here, aren't I?
2.7 Maime: "So were you set up enough over there?"
Corpse: "Yes. At least enooooough for a test. From here on, I think IIIIII'll have to prepare a different calculation and resuuuuuult. I have some other unimportant activitiiiiiies to do, so I'll ask the directors if I caaaaaan use some resources for those since my arc trion blaaaaaades aren't enough."
2.7 Maime: "So you're saying it was a success? Congratulations!"
This future seer is a pretty okay guy, thought Mukuro.
Corpse: "I did compleeeeete what I had planned to complete, so I gueeeeeess that counts as a success. Although Mikado Construction saaaays they want some data on my method so they can inspeeeeect it."
2.7 Maime: "Why? Is the Mikado Construction main office thinking of switching over to your method?"
Corpse: "No, I haven't heard aaaaaanything about that. It just seems liiiiiike the higher ups want to take this methooooood of mine into consideration. How should I puuuuut it? Um..."
He remembered what it was they had told him.
Corpse: "They said theeeeey might be able to 'reproduce and verify' my methooooood."
2.7 Maime: "I see... Well, good luck with everything else. I never did get to go in any of those buildings that were owned by Shiraishi, but they took good care of that area."
"Right," said Mukuro while learning just how skilled this company had been while using the destroyed building.
He had heard the result of the meetings that took place a few hours ago and how Shiraishi's workers managed themselves against the Falcon alongside two Border members.
The third daughter of the family had wanted to leave, so they all watched her leave with someone she cared for deeply.
...It's incredible.
He was not sure what was incredible, but he still felt that way.
Corpse: "For now, I'm gooooooing to finish the cleanup as quiiiiiickly as I can and move on to my neeeeeext job."
2.7 Maime: "Your next job? Do you mind if I ask what that is?"
Corpse: "Checking Kurosaki and Kobayashi. Or maaaaaaybe I should say Mogami? There had been incideeeeents there during the meeting as weeeeell, so I want to show some Taiyōko support and check ooooon them.
So...
Corpse: "I need a waaaaay to get through any negative thooooooughts they have on my family."
2.7 Maime: "I see. Then feel free to use Tamakoma's members' names as much as you need. It will give you some credit and I'm sure no one will mind. You also have your own branch to fall back on. Yuki's name should be good at Kurosaki and mine might work with Yoshiko-san. Even if it will end up with my entire room filled with all types of crackers that aren't bonchi! Too many times..."
Being a future seer must be rough, thought Mukuro.
At any rate, he had confirmed his current position.
Based on his conversation with the directors, he would likely not be participating in the battle that is likely to occur later tonight, so he would only be borrowing some supplies from the Yagura Branch and any that were nearby while checking on things.
Corpse: "Tamakoma's future seer, whaaaat are your plans? Are you cooooooming here?"
2.7 Maime: "No, no one from Tamakoma has a reason to go over there. And I think Akasora-san and Shinoda-san's groups are going to do their very best once they get started. The rest of us are headed there too, right?"
That made Mukuro tremble.
"—"
He got up and looked into the sky for no real reason.
He could only see the silhouettes of the buildings there.
But he knew what was beyond those buildings: the Border base and others who had important parts at all times.
When they wake up, they had to prepare to set up some areas around the Border base.
If they gone it done quickly, they would have a safe place to fight.
Of the members of Border, Tsukiko Yuki, Hikigane Sekai, Jin Yūichi, and Takato Mei would be among them. The other two, Chisato Ayumu and Amō Tsukihiko had different orders for the night.
"That means I'm the only one who isn't 'here'."
He had no real choice in the matter, but he still regretted it.
Of course, he was not big on fighting. He had improved his abilities for sitting out of the fighting.
2.7 Maime: "We too have our own actions to take here. Mukuro, please work hard at your job."
"Also," said Jin.
Corpse: "Hm? What is it?"
2.7 Maime: "Try not to worry about your siblings too much, so remember to invite others over. Even if things get tricky because of how your family changed things. But there is something beyond the box you're in, so don't worry too much. Someone will definitely help you out of it."
I feel like you're exaggerating, thought Mukuro, but it still let him give a bitter smile.
Corpse: "If someone liiiiiike that does come fooooorward, I'll make sure to puuuuush them away or neeeeever let go."
With that, he stood up.
The next battle for Border was beginning in another few hours, but he was facing a Jon that would take longer than that.
"How's this going to turn out?"
In the schoolyard, Rindō saw Akasora and Karasawa talking to each other about how they would go about dealing with the second brother.
He was doing a good job, but they wanted to be sure he would be fine.
He was worried about that family too, but the three younger ones seemed to be fine.
...So we need to find-...
Before he could think "her", a vibration came from his pocket.
...Sawamura?
The message seemed to be important since a second and third one followed.
He did not hesitate to see what it was and was a bit surprised at the content.
It seemed to be directed towards a few people, so he spoke up while messaging his branch members.
"Hey, we found out where Kushikage is!"