The area would absorb voices.

On a vast cityscape, no one's voice traveled far.

But the acoustics changed when a series of artificial structures sat on that expanse.

It all had a unique sound when those structures were transport containers and moving vehicles.

The voices and other noises were not reflected up from below, so they always arrived horizontally.

"Hey."

"Over here!"

"The food goes in that place over there!"

Below the clear early morning sky, the clear sky was overpowered by the lights shining in the city from the buildings and elsewhere. The containers and ships cast dark shadows with the sunlight.

Sounds and people were moving throughout the land there.

"Hey."

Cargo was being carried to the transport ships labeled "Owner: White Rock".

A single voice could be heard past the footsteps, people, and vehicles.

"Are you sure about that, Kurauchi? That middle schooler - the one from Kotowari - picked a fight with that captured guy? And he's the one causing a commotion during the festival? Wow~"

"Ōji? To be clear, that's nothing but trouble for Border. I mean, he created an incident during the time we were trying to hold meetings. I am just glad it turned out fine in the end."

"What does that matter?" asked Ōji.

Workers and laborers were walking back and forth along the thin, packed-down area while linked vehicles carried material. Ōji spread his mouth horizontally and kept talking while looking at the area they had heard that Kotowari Squad boy had been before his showdown.

"Getting a little hot-blooded is perfectly normal. Especially for someone who was under that fox for so long. Besides, we don't go to that squad too much, so it's good to know that they have such wild people like them."

Honestly.

"He may be a bit too wild. But won't that be stopped by SenSen's squad during our match?"

"They were not being too secretive in how they spoke earlier. It is easy to figure out what they had meant," said Kurauchi while checking the information of each squad for their next match. "I mean, Senshi seemed to have no issues with them speaking about it, but we all know that it is troublesome coming up with a plan against them."

"Luck-based Side Effects, huh? They can be annoying, but they can also be tricky for both parties."

"Then we need to make sure they don't get too involved with our members until it is necessary, isn't that right?" Kurauchi pointed to the way out of the area. "Besides, you are just irritated about not being able to fight Tsukiko anyone."

"No, I've gotten over that one."

"Eh!?" responded someone from behind the nearby containers.

Shirogane and Shashin poked their heads out from behind the containers.

"Creepy! Creepy!"

"That's two words!"

Ōji plastered a fake smile and hit the ground with a stomp and the two fled.

"Honestly," sighed Ōji and Kurauchi patted his shoulder.

He gave a satisfied nod and sighed.

"You've grown, Ōji."

"That's not what this is about. It's just..."

"It's just?"

"Well," he said while looking ahead. There was an end of the road where Toby had once made a large leap. He walked towards the area across from it. "There's even more to the younger members, right?"

"Yes, there is. ...To be clear, I quite like them. After speaking with Kōchō I realize that being a 'fan' of the younger group is a bit exciting since it provides interesting support."

"A 'fan', huh? ...Heh, you are being kind of soft there, aren't you?"

Kurauchi shook his head and sighed.

"Well, they seem to be on the right track now, so I do hope they can get some of their own 'fans' without others needing to worry about them."

"Then don't shake your head at me over it."

"Don't worry about it and keep walking straight, okay? ...Anyway, we're focusing on Kotowari Squad now, but there are still other squads we need to think about here after all. If the rest of them are as relaxed as we are being right now, it's going to make things worse for when we have to deal with Senshi's squad."

"Yeah, but how much can we plan against those guys when their Side Effects are so troublesome?"

Kurauchi raised her eyebrows at that.

"Because anything can happen, you mean?"

"Yeah." Ōji's breath lingered in the air. "We know how to handle Yuba-san, Kotowari Squad is strange, but they are following that fox's path, but it becomes hard to plan against Senzai Squad."

"What, do you think they are untouchable?"

"Of course not," said Ōji. "It's just that they might end up taking themselves out before we can even try something."

.

Ōji recalled the times they had fought against Senzai Squad or seen them fight.

The results had always been strange and interesting considering who exactly had been fighting, but two things had held special meaning for him.

First, there had been times when the captain of the squad had been defeated due to his own attacks, albeit with support from his opponents.

Second, their Shooter was always with one of the two others and the two others were never with each other.

The former meant a lot because it told him that Senzai could be fought without any actual fighting being needed or at least with little help.

That had brought an odd sense of relief but also a bit of irritation.

He wanted to berate the boy and tell him to get his act together.

During the times where Kuraichi had spoken about his friend, he had always made sure to bring up the bad luck that followed. Something bad always happened, at times to both parties, and wins against them should have been wins for them.

But Ōji still felt oddly unsatisfied with it all.

After all, it seemed rather unfair for something like that to be a major factor, he had not managed to really fight Senzai many times before, and he had only been there to witness the Bail Outs that had been caused by something else.

Even when he had been given chances to fight, he had not really had time to take in the fight due to the boy not feeling up to it. Worse, Kurauchi had managed to always get in a fight with Senzai Squad's captain, have losses collected due to that, and could ask for another fight.

So it was still a question what would happen in a pure battle without his Side Effect. Of course, the many overlapping factors on the battlefield did not allow for battles that did not involve Side Effects. An extended battle without something happening was nearly impossible.

But that could happen under certain circumstances.

Other rank battles had demonstrated something in fights against Senzai Squad.

They showed that those Side Effects could be nullified.

The opposing squad may not have noticed it or forgotten about it, but the records from those matches showed them getting both the captain and Sniper near each other. And since they had been working together, their power as a squad would have been even greater those times.

Yet they had managed to lose.

That was the reason behind Ōji's feelings.

...Although it's weird to feel like they beat us to it.

He might not have felt as bad if a top tier squad had done it, but he could feel one side of him growing intensely irritated with himself that a squad from the mid tier of B-Rank had accomplished that.

...When did I become such a gloomy person?

"I heard the fox once say I was being weirdly envious and spiteful, but that might be a pretty close match."

"Yeah, just when I think you have grown as a person, you start getting all smug about figuring out something everyone else figured out ages ago."

Kurauchi smiled at him.

"But that is fine."

"Shut up!"

But there was one thing about which he felt justified feeling so weirdly angry: deciding how to fight.

.

Kurauchi listened to Ōji's question.

"Kurauchi, did you see the records for any of their battles?"

"For their most recent ones?"

"Not those," he said.

He knew he did not mean those ones, of course. What a pain, he thought. That was why he had tried to steer the conversation elsewhere, but trying to be considerate was useless with this guy.

Fine, he thought half in resignation.

"You mean his battle with Shor during that meeting night, don't you? The unofficial one. They kind of made it a spectacle."

"What are your thoughts?"

"Awdry can fight pretty well. I mean, he essentially fought multiple opponents and came out on top. ...He might be better than most, given the proper training."

"Not that," he said again.

He knew that was not what he meant, of course. That was why he had tried to avoid the issue, but...

...He really is hopeless...

Fine, fine, he thought while responding.

"Yuba Squad is falling behind, but Kotowari Squad is gaining traction. Senzai Squad is in their usual place. And you know what?" he said to get ahead of Ōji's inevitable response. "It is good that they are our opponents. We know what we are dealing with. ...What, did you want Tsukiko to give you more attention? It would be why you are overthinking it this time around."

"It's not that."

He added an "it's" this time.

"Then it's what?"

Kurauchi added an extraneous "it's' as well. And to get ahead of him again…

"Looking at things as a whole, I think it's important to be looking from multiple angles to determine if Tsukiko was right to leave. Although with it being a four squad match, there will be a lot of factors to take into consideration."

"In that case...well, setting aside the amount of people on the field," said Ōji. "Are we going to do the same thing as we had before?"

...Ohh.

He had not expected this one.

But he knew what he was thinking.

"We can't."

"Why not?"

"Right."

He nodded and pointed toward the back of a transport truck that they had been passing by.

"We probably can't go near those kinds of things."

"Yeah, if I go near it, I bet it would be annoying to hear everyone telling us to stay out of the way."

It had been an area where Kurosaki had been supplying materials, but they easily curved off the path to the stay away from it. They were on the outer edge and did not want to be seen. He felt like that family might recognize them from the incident with their truck, but…

...We know how to keep our distance.

With that in mind, he continued their conversation.

"It shouldn't be too long before we need to consider even more possibilities. So even if we wanted to come up with something foolproof, we would still need to think about the current situation."

"Yeah, I guess that is true."

The match would begin very soon.

They did not have much time to think over everything.

"We did have to hold off from coming up with too much for our match given how we helped out with the sponsors in our own way. So instead of trying to hit every base, maybe we should hit the important bases and go from there. Basically, think of something for the more dangerous opponents and leave the rest for after that has been accomplished. We know who those dangerous ones are, so that makes it a bit easier."

"When did you become lax with planning?"

"I am saying for the moment. We still have time before the match, right?"

He knew waiting for the last moment for planning was a bad idea from every standpoint. For the moment they would have to think of things on a basic level before reaching a definite answer.

He was constantly reminded of how seriously he took things. It had been how they maintained their position in the top tier.

He made mistakes, but once he put his mind to something, he would see it through to the end. It was not the impression one got from him.

...Although that is fine since he knows what he's doing.

"We got off kinda lucky, didn't we?"

Yuba looked over to his squad's Sniper.

There was time before their match would begin and the entirety of Yuba Squad had joined together in their operating room to discuss their plans.

Before they could go over it all, said Sniper had spoken up and continued by adding,

"We didn't have anyone on our squad go deal with sponsors, taking on a wild dog in a race, or have an accident happen due to bad luck. I guess that means we had more time to focus on our match than the rest of them."

It was true that they had nothing as active as those things happen to their members. Yuba had watched what had happened with his former squad members while hearing some comments from Kakizaki about the Kotowari Squad captain. While he did not care too much about the latter, the former had gotten his interest as he watched both Ōji and Kurauchi fend off Kurosaki who had been using Hikigane.

Even if the man never seemed to care about the things going on around him and only tolerated his own squad, Yuba had respect for Hikigane as he had proven himself to be capable in multiple areas before while retaining his squad's standing as a top tier and former A-Rank squad.

If those two pushed back an attempted attack made by him then it means they really have gotten better. After all, he isn't the type of guy to let someone else stop him like that.

Along with what Kakizaki had told him, he had also heard rumors about how a black wolf had managed to hold back and be on par with the man.

That sounds stupid though. He can take on a dog.

It had just been people exaggerating about something they had no clue about.

But this had been different. He had seen for himself Ōji Squad's captain and Shooter push back an effort by Hikigane. That meant they were now capable enough to keep up with an attempt made by him.

Meanwhile they were...

"That doesn't mean we're guaranteed anything. It just means we have things planned out a bit more than they all do. And even that can fall part given who we are up against."

"There really are a lot of people so that can mean anything really."

"That's true, but... Obishima, you saw it, didn't you? The 'race' Awdry had during that festival."

The two turned to their youngest member. They had both been doing other things during that time, but they had been told that she had been at that festival with her parents.

"Yes. He was running on top of the stands with some others."

"How did that end exactly?"

"I am not too sure, but it has been going around the Border network for a bit that Awdry-senpai had won. They were moving pretty fast, so I couldn't really keep up with my sight alone."

"So that's what Misaki was going on about..."

There had indeed been an overflow of comments after that night. Some of which had been about other things, Yuba being involved in that as well.

Having been sent a few messages himself by the Hogo Squad captain, he became more determined to keep an extra eye on both the boy as well as the star girl he had mentioned. Said girl was also an opponent now, but that wasn't enough to hold him back should they come in contact.

That girl had joined a squad that was similar to his own in the fact that they worked independently from each other. It seemed out of place for her given her nature of helping others, but that did not seem to stop her from joining.

She was not the main issue with that squad though.

"You said they were moving fast, but how fast was it exactly?"

He looked at her with a critical eye.

She responded with a nod of the head while also seeming to think back.

"He was moving faster than he had before. It was hard to tell since there were so many people, but it looked like he was using a Trigger."

"A Trigger used for speed... That goes against that squad's usage of Teleport, but I know you aren't lying. So that could mean Awdry put Grasshopper in one of his slots."

"He's already pretty troublesome to hit as it is. If he added Grasshopper and along with Teleport I don't think I'll be able to take a shot no matter how much I prepare."

"That's fine, I was planning on taking him out myself anyway. When it comes to the speed of attacks, I can do it as a Gunner. For Attackers, Ikoma's Senkū is also fast enough to keep up. You Snipers have the bad end of the deal when it comes to him."

"Shingai could probably get a hit in with her Side Effect."

The good luck Side Effect that was a selfish one.

They were aware of what Ōji Squad was capable of, they knew that Toby was the main threat of Kotowari Squad, but the two luck-based Side Effects from Senzai Squad made their plans' possibilities lower. There was no precise way of planning against something that was completely random on both ends and could cause almost anything to happen.

Yet that was also a weakness for them. Something that worked in their favor as well as against them.

Every member of any squad that was going against them understood that well.

Even so, due to the time given since finding out who they would be fighting, they had come up with a way to fight these squads.

"If we think about things stats-wise, Tono is all about the special tactics, but Shingai has mobility and Suzu's Big Breast Defense is too hard to get through."

.

Obishima turned her sight to the side at the mention of the strange defense that Nono spoke about. There had been times when she was taken by the strange Sniper and so it left an impression of sisterhood with her.

When looking around she noticed how the glare from the lights prevented any of them from seeing Yuba's eyes and Tonooka was artily trying to lose eye contact with any of them. Both were fair enough reactions in her book.

"I mean, those things are big enough to block some good attacks! But that's only if you're an Attacker, so this is also being directed to Obishima. In Tono's case he needs to keep away if she starts dancing."

"Uh... I really don't want to get involved when it comes to her strangeness to begin with. Besides that, I've been hearing that she isn't allowed to do that for the next few matches Kotowari Squad has."

"Hah!? But I really wanted to see some of her dances! That's just not fair!"

The exclamation came with a certain sound effect that seemed to also be around whenever Misaki was nearby.

...Or is that just something I hear when they are around?

It was not unlikely considering the strangeness of that older girl.

Tonooka could speak more about the girl's abilities, but she felt as if she could understand the girl's personality more. The times she had been taken when her squamates were not looking had been in the double digits at this point which then gave her more time with the older girl.

If she was not going to "dance" during her squad's next few matches then it meant that something major had to happen or she had made a promise to someone important.

The likely people for that promise to be made with her upperclassmen like Hiura, Satori, Kodera, or Köhler. Her own teammates were also options, but they likely would want her in top form and would allow her to "dance" all through the match.

She looked back over at her own Sniper teammate to see that he had gotten over the comment and was now paying attention again to their planning.

We could ask if it was Kodera-senpai since the two seem close enough.

Before she could speak up to ask, he had already started speaking again.

"Dai has also told me that they won't have Takato-san as their Operator this time. I don't know who it is, but he wouldn't lie."

An immediate response came a few seconds after. The first was from Nono who looked away with a click of the tongue. The second was from...

"We know."

.

Tonooka and Obishima were surprised at the amount of resentment that came from their captain. The response from their Operator was negligible since she already found out about Suzume, but the one from their captain had been unexpected.

Yuba's eyes were still behind the glare of the glasses, but they did not need his eyes to tell that he was holding something back. The hands at his side were curled into fists, his frown deepened, and the way he held himself was much more stiff than either one had ever seen.

"I don't know who Kotowari Squad is using for an Operator this time around since something has happened to Takato. It's likely that whoever it is was chosen by Tsukiko."

"An Operator chosen by Tsukiko-senpai, who doesn't have a squad yet most likely, and can keep up with Kotowari Squad... Is there anyone like that?"

"Who knows? But..." Yuba shifted his head. With the glare of the light no longer hiding his eyes, the two younger members could see the anger in them. "As much as I hate to think of this as a good thing, this makes it easier to fight Kotowari Squad. Without Takato to help them they have a lot less power to them and calculating ability."

"Chu!"

Colors: "Will you really be able to make it to our match?"

"Of course, of course! Someone must be talking about me, is all! You see, I'm actually the Yagura Branch's secret weapon, their trump card, their ace in the hole, their-"

Lobo: "I get the feeling you're going to say something stupid, so I'm going to stop you there. Just confirm that you are fine to go into the match with us."

"Uwah! I thought this kid would become an ikemen playboy when he gets older, but he's harassing me like some sort of delinquent! Ah~ But if he can keep up the charm of not even knowing what he's saying when he's smooth talking then I'd be fine with that! He'd make a good enough boyfriend at that point. Too bad he's in middle school right now. Sigh..."

Lobo: "-!"

Lobo is experiencing some issues at the moment. Please hold on while we organize what is trying to be said.

Wow... This chat is a little too advanced for this world...

"We should really just call it a divine chat at this point..."

Lobo: "-!"

Colors: "Suzuka-san, please try not to kill our (arguably) strongest fighter before our match."

"Can't promise muuuuuuuch~"

"I do not want to rush our captain because it would look like we are waiting in fear, but I do not like taking it slow because it ends up leaving too many holes."

Near the cafeteria, lightly-clothed Shingai viewed some previous logs through her tablet. She focused individually on the few forms she constantly saw in the image. And while sending the video data to Senshi...

"Sthénos, you will be fighting later tonight if things are as we were told, so you should rest up some right now since we have yet to go into our match."

"Oh, right! I just thought I could contact a friend from back home if I was out here!"

In the air conditioned space, Sthénos opened a window on her phone while Shingai watched her.

.

Shingai's eyes followed Sthénos as she paced along the floor.

Sthénos was checking on the signal strength of the phone, but since the signal was pretty bad here because of their service provider, she kept altering her orientation and position while checking the phone.

She had enough training and on-site experience to stay out of the way of the others in the area who were doing their own things. That was appreciated, but none of them had expected Sthénos to be here. Whenever they passed by, they would greet her and encourage her, so...

"Oh, thank you! I will do my best in the next battle too!"

It was adorable how she bowed down to them despite being a B-Rank currently in the top tier.

...No, I get the feeling she will be like that as long as her core remains intact.

It made her a bit overwhelming as a "person", but the mutual courtesy would be appreciated in the long run. In Shingai's opinion, it was crucial to know where you stood with someone.

But while Sthénos paced around the area, she would occasionally come across one of the tables.

...Oh, my.

It was impressive how she hopped up the waist-height to the top of the table in a single step. There was no audible footstep when she did so, which showed why she had been able to win them some interesting points in previous matches and how she had managed to fight against higher ranked agents.

She was a promising "person".

What were we like last year or even before that? wondered Shingai.

"Phew."

She breathed from her nose as she watched Sthénos holding her phone to the west.

"Sthénos."

"Y-yes!? Right! What is it, Big Sis!?"

"Big Sis? Did someone come up and tell you to call me that?"

"Yup. Hisato said you're Big Sis and the Sniper with Kotowari - Suzume - is Massive Sis!"

That does not really work without a Sis, does it? thought Shingai.

Well, this just means I have to swat Hisato-kun in the ass with my bow next time I see him.

For some reason, she saw the nearby agents crossing themselves and praying toward her, but she soon recalled that some of the people within Border were strange ones and who worshipped things like big breasts.

...Do they worship me when Misaki is not around?

There was something wrong with praying to a huntress, so her shoulders kept drooping further and further. But...

"Sthénos, why not head down and use the connection with Piripiri instead of wandering around like this? Besides, I heard there is a lot of action at the moment because of a recent incident right now, so the directors, Senshi and his age group, and other important members are going to be using up most of the infrastructure. That should change when we reach mid day, though."

"No, this is a personal call! So I don't think I should use the Piripiri's connection!"

That did make sense to Shingai. And then Sthénos clapped her hands once.

"I know! I just had a great idea! And it should work since I have you around! I'll call a different friend first!"

Jin-san's Fan: "Hey, um, Older Kawa-senpai? I have a quick question."

Manager: "Huh? What is it, Kusakabe Puppy?"

Jin-san's Fan: "Sthénos just sent me a mail asking if you could relay a message for her."

Manager: "Don't intercept someone else's messages! That gets you in trouble!"

Jin-san's Fan: "No, she apparently wants to talk with a local friend and she says she doesn't care if someone listens in."

Manager: "That is really something... Anyway, that would be Suzaku-san's call. Suzaku-san, can you see whether or not we can do that?"

Umi: "Eh? Wait just a second, okay? I'm just about finished preparing some food."

Life: "Wait, does this mean Shoo-chan and Sthé-kun are friends!? Is this the end of the Dog Trio as we know it!? Feeling lonely, Sumi-chan!? Then how about I run with you in the nude? Hm?"

Haru: "What!? I have Oshiro! I don't need a nudist running up to me unless your name is Oshiro, you have one (fake) red eye, and can look good in a Fallen Angel Erotic Maid outfit!"

Life: "I can make all of those happen! So waiiiiiiiiit for me, Haru-saaaaaaaaan!"

Mi-Kon: "If you think about it, Hogo-kun is younger than you, so this means he prefers to be around younger people than you, Jinsei."

Ortlinde: "Tatsuhito? Have they started their super lunatic time I've heard about?"

Iko: "Don't worry, Chisato. They're nowhere near that yet."

White Fox: "Why did you think that would be reassuring?"

Jin-san's Fan: "Also, I'm not a dog. That was just a name you guys came up with for us."

Haru: "That's right! And I'm not a dog either! I'm the one that raises...well, that looks after them! A dog shepherd!"

Demon Child: "Kagami? Should we tell him how he's usually presented in doujinshi?"

Artist: "No, Mako. The temptation to tell everyone how they're presented would be too great."

Umi: "Umm, ignoring this idiocy...Midorikawa? Right now, Border is applying some security to transmissions from outside, so mail can get in, but an actual call would be difficult. There was a hiccup before, remember? So I would appreciate it if you asked your friend if this can wait until tomorrow morning when everything important is complete. ...Will that work?"

Jin-san's Fan: "So this is what it feels like to be seen as a dog or a child..."

Life: "C'mon, you shouldn't doubt yourself! You're Shoo-chan and you'll always be Shoo-chan!"

Jin-san's Fan: "Fine, I'll just blame it all on you!"

"Ah! I thought it was a great idea, but it didn't work!"

Shingai nodded at Sthénos's words.

"The rest of us use Piripiri's transmissions for private stuff, so no not worry about it. I generally use a specialized one after winning a raffle, but I will relay it through Piripiri's transmission to add to the range."

"Um, sorry! I don't really get what you mean!"

"Even though you two come from the same place?"

"Pretty much!"

Archer: "Piri, add Sthénos to your transmission permissions group."

□□凸: "Eh!? Why!?"

Defender: "You should know by now that questioning what we do is meaningless."

Archer: "If you are worried, you can route Sthénos through a secondary line. But give her the same official use privilege we have."

□□凸: "Oh, that's fair enough. Wait 3 minutes!"

Shingai spoke to Sthénos who was holding her phone up toward the sky.

"You'll have a connection if you wait 3 minutes."

"Eh!? Did you use some magic!?"

After 2 seconds of thought, Shingai nodded.

"I did. My familiar is checking the transmission environment of Japan's Buddha."

"Wow! So magic is a Neighborhood thing!"

"My time spent as a child was not used up for nothing. Flesh and blood are most powerful in the afterlife. ...So wait just a bit and you can speak with your friend."

It's nice being a proper upperclassman from time to time. I should probably treat Piripiri to a coffee dumpling in the cafeteria at some point.