Each shot was not meant to hit the man who continued to move around the battlefield.

Glass shattered and lights flew through the sky.

A lone huntress gave chase with a sniper rifle in one hand and a Bagworm over her shoulders.

Each step led into the next one as she ran atop the tall buildings' rooftops. The scenery completely changed as she jumped from one building to the next in short leaps that bursted before she took the jump.

Her scope had been removed and her eyes locked on another target.

A man wearing glasses moved through the falling glasses with little thought as another shot came above his head.

The shot hit the glass of the building next to him, shattering it and making a rain of false glass. It would not actually harm the man, but it provided the proper response from him in the form of arms raised above his head.

The huntress enjoyed a perfect kill, but that would not be the case here.

Her target was not someone who could be taken out so easily by a single fast moving shot that held little power. No, it would require much more than that.

That was where her Side Effect came into play.

The plan was not to take him out with one for her shots but to take the kill away from someone else who could manage to wear him down. Moving through the city provided this.

They would move through the tall buildings to where the other fights would be. Sthénos had been left behind so that she could keep up with the fast pace of the man who moved on the ground. It had been fine though since they understood that her speed was something that would decide the outcome of this fight.

She could not take out the man with one of her shots and she would have to wait for someone capable of taking him out to appear. From there she would wait for her chance to take him out. In the worst case scenario she would be able to take that other person out.

Tenki: "Ite, there's a good fight going on over there. Although I say to stay away from it since it involves the rest of Yuba Squad."

Archer: "And the inner plaza is still occupied by Senshi. Should I lead him over to Awdry who has taken out Kurauchi-senpai?"

Tenki: "You should be fine so long as you keep your distance and don't reveal yourself to him at any point in time."

Archer: "Keeping a distance did not seem to work for Kurauchi-senpai."

Tenki: "So what will you go for then?"

The answer was obvious.

One battlefield had teammates that could support this man.

One battlefield had her own teammate who would then weaken her own abilities a bit due to their Side Effects colliding and canceling each other out.

One was not a battlefield yet had a beast running wild in it.

So then what was the obvious choice?

Asano sat calmly while watching the match play out in front of her.

Directly in front of her was the glasses boy from Katori Squad and the lyrical girl from Motojime Squad. The both of them were watching the screening as intently as she was but for a different reason than her. They had people they wanted to watch while the match was going on and she was watching someone else.

I should just keep that kind of thought to myself…

The lyrical girl seemed to enjoy teasing her as well as the glasses boy without actually knowing what it meant for them to be there, watching the match and the people who were there in it. Her words were always meant to get a reaction out of the two of them, but they had managed to keep their reactions to themselves.

Well, at least Asano managed that. The glasses boy couldn't help himself here.

"So what do you think everyone's play is here, Asanocchi?"

The lyrical girl had spoken up while turning back to her.

Her words were not meant to tease her and instead an actual question pertaining to the match.

"Ōji Squad being down to a single member means he will be careful so he does not lose that last point. It would probably hurt him more if he was taken out by a Kotowari Squad member too."

"Going to that comment… What are your thoughts of what happened to Kurauchi-san? How do you think that will affect what Toby will do?"

"You are really asking a lot from me here. Remember who you are talking about. Coming up with something for them that relies on common sense is like asking for my captain to not go around challenging people."

"Ah…Yeah, she is still a bit mad at me for running away from her last time."

"Try not to get within her eyesight for a while. That won't end too well."

"Would sending Hime to her do any good?"

"Probably. But then we would have two battle crazed people near each other."

"Good point."

There was a small buzzing noise that had both girls pulling out their phones.

Asano's screen showed a chat linked to only her squad.

Overprotective Sister: "Hey, is someone talking about me behind my back? I feel like someone is. Whoever it is, come forward now! You'll only get a light scolding!"

American Idiot: "So she says… Aren't you being paranoid? I would think it's fine if it was about Kaede, but asking that for yourself just feels weird."

Overprotective Sister: "Is someone saying something about Kaede too? Who is it? Tell me now and you'll only get a harsh scolding."

She heard a laugh come from in front of her and looked up to see the lyrical girl showing off her own phone. There was a similar chat on her screen and that had been the moment Asano felt a strange sense of camaraderie with the lyrical girl.

"Um, getting back to this…"

"Right. So about what I think of this match."

.

The two girls nodded their heads as the glasses boy glanced at them with a raised eyebrow.

While there was only so much she could go off of, the positions where everyone had moved to showed what some of them thought of doing and what some of them were actually doing. The difference between the two was small but noticeable.

Now then, what to say here.

Her mind began to wander through the information she had on each squad and how their movements had been during previous matches.

Due to Tsukiko Squad not being able to make it to the top tier before she had not been able to get a proper understanding of what those kinds of squads could do. The best she could go off of were those who fluctuated between mid tier and top tier. Even then it was difficult since those kinds were the ones like Katori Squad and Senzai Squad, who were luck based a good amount of the time.

"I can only really speak for Kotowari Squad here. If I say anything particular about Senzai Squad I feel like I will need up on the wrong side of their luck."

"So what can you say for the former then?"

"The fact that Toby isn't moving too much after his win leads me to believe that he isn't being allowed to go to any of the other fights."

"So you noticed that too."

It was not hard for anyone to notice so long as they had gotten to know the members of Kotowari Squad even a little bit.

Toby was not the type of person to just sit around after having a fun fight with someone and even less of the type to not go back to his squad after a win.

"Koto-… Ahem. Take is probably planning something that is reliant on Toby and needs him to be in the best shape possible for it."

She was not ignorant to the way the two in front of her had quickly turned their heads at the way she referred to the Kotowari Captain.

From experience she knew not to give those kinds of people the attention they wanted. Especially since it would likely end up in some sort of friendly fire from all sides.

"If we look at who the top agents here are then it's obvious who he is saving Toby for. Given what we saw in the fight against Kurauchi-senpai we can tell that the long range ones are the real issue for him. Close range fighters should be fine since he has his Laser Shooter, but I guess even they are people he should be careful of. Although knowing him, he is probably just wearing them down so that they can be easy targets for his teammates. Oh, but I don't mean Hoshi. She looks to be too inexperienced which means he will leave it to the other two. Other long-range fighters tend to find a way around his Laser Shooter." Asano continued to speak while ginning the pointed looks from the two in front of her. "He will probably get yelled at later for it, but he will be using up all of his trion to deal a good amount of damage to Senzai and Ōji. If they take him out then he will probably take the blame for that. But it will be fine because Toby will be able to manage those two points he wouldn't be able to get. Hm… Now that I think about it, someone should probably tell him to stop that. I can, but I think someone else would be better here. Nasu and Kakizaki have been helping him a lot recently so they would probably be the best options. Right, I'll do that after this match."

At this point it was not a matter of ignoring the two in front of her so much as she had not noticed them at all. The boy fighting on the new stage had caught her attention to the point of blinding her to the other two.

Their voices, while being heard, were ignored in favor of planning her next actions. Behind that was thinking of what the next actions of the combatants would be.

The voices she had ignored had its own meaning that she would have no way of knowing about.

.

"Well it looks like we have a special case here. I don't think even you will get like that, Rokkun. Good job not being the most embarrassing thing around."

"That really doesn't sound like a compliment! And why would I ever end up like that!?"

"Because you found a princess who can look past you megane-ness."

"That sentence hurt me in more ways than one."

"I sure hope so."

"So what should be done about Asano?"

There was a short silence between the two of them so that they could look back to the focused girl.

The lyrical girl only hugged while turning back around.

"Girls like that can be a lost cause at times. It's best to just let things play out and tease her as much as possible later on. Oh, but we need to make it fair and get to Kotowari too so that he can feel that embarrassment as well."

"I was referring to her not focusing on the match anymore…"

"Oh… Just leave her be then."

Senshi was not ignorant to what was before his eyes.

His two opponents had made their way back to the inner plaza, but it was not by coincidence or chance that they had made it back. Even his own bad luck did not play much of a part in this turn of events. The reason for this had been clear the moment the Laser Shooter had moved back and away from the two opponents he faced.

His offense in those trion orbs had been left in the inner plaza and Senshi had watched as each one slammed into each other before accumulating into a single orb that hung over the area as if it was another false sun.

After that had been seen he had kept track of where everyone was placed by having Tekitai tell him the locations of his teammates as well as the opposing fighters. This had been done within that small amount of time that his two opponents had left him alone in the inner plaza.

Now that they were back…

"…"

He wasted no time in his next actions.

Instead of moving forward he moved back, closer to those tall buildings.

Ōji followed that movement as Takeshi made his way back to the inner plaza.

But it seemed that they had been a moment too late.

The Laser Shooter raised his hand to his scarf and began to fix it as the trion orb over their heads began to fire.

The first attack had been a single beam fired directly towards the ground in front of the Shooter.

From there the beam split into two.

From there the two beams split into four.

From there the four beams split into eight.

From there the eight beams split into sixteen.

From there each beam continued to split up to double the number of beams.

They rained down on the area from high above the ground. The split beams would take a large portion of the Shooter's trion, but the area it covered as well as the offensive power it provided was not something that could be overlooked.

From his position near the tall buildings, Senshi could not help but see this rain of seemingly endless beams as a tree diagram that came from the heavens to smash into the ground. An amazing light display that would rip and tear through any defense that tried to defend against it.

And as luck would have it…

"Oh?"

His body felt light.

.

When bad things happened to people, others would usually think of the simple lines like "The luck has run out", "You were unlucky", "Better luck next time". They were easy to remember saying that held no real meaning for the people saying them or the people hearing them.

For Senshi it was different.

There was no luck that could run out for him. He was never lucky to begin with. There would be no luck for "next time".

He was an unlucky person because of his Side Effect.

There was no indication as to when that bad luck would reach him or others around him, but…

There is always a heavy feeling whenever my Side Effect is active.

His body felt strangely light.

The only way to counter my bad luck is to have someone with good luck just as strong. Then there would be an equal amount of both lucks and they would cancel each other out. Since that's the case, it means that we got too close to each other.

His teammate was close enough to him that their Side Effects canceled each other out.

If there was always a heavy feeling on him because of his Side Effect then there was always a sort of light feeling on that lucky girl. If his heaviness was gone then her lightness was also gone.

Now they were only a boy and a girl. There was nothing lucky or unlucky about them.

If this is the case then…

Placing a hand to his ear, Senshi began to speak while moving away from the tree diagram attack from the sky.

SenSen: "Ite. Sorry about this. Looks like they caught us. Can you hang out for a bit while I get us some points?"

Archer: "My opponent is Yuba-san while we are moving towards that beast and you are asking me that?"

SenSen:"Yeah. Sorry for the trouble."

A sigh came through.

Archer: "It is no problem. Just be aware that I may not be able to make it through to the end then."

Sthé-chan: "What about me then? Should I go help Ite?"

Their own Shooter seemed to have nothing to do since Yuba had been left in the hands of their Sniper.

Seeing one of the beams come close to him, Senshi shifted his feet while turning. It was not the same sliding turn that Yuba had been able to pull off before. His action was different from that.

As the beam split once more to reach him he began a new movement by moving his Raygust to the side as if to cut through the beam.

"Thruster…"

And that was exactly what happened.

The blade that had already been in motion because of its turning accelerated even more as the Optional Trigger was activated to push it forward even more.

The blade itself went from a relatively thin blade to that of a broadsword in a single moment.

The swinging blade cut through the beam that had split off from the original one. Although it did not stop the beam completely, it had managed to create a new moment for him to escape.

The push from Thruster had managed to let the blade cut through the beam while pushing his turn even further. The spin of the turn increased while his feet pushed the ground to move away and continue the turn.

Once the full rotation had been made he was within the tall buildings where the Sniper ruled the battlefield. From his spot he could see that Ōji had managed to get away from the beams as well, albeit at the cost of his side.

SenSen: "Sthénos. You stay hidden. You will be our reserve member for now. If one of us gets taken out and it comes down to it, we will go for a tie. Can you stay quiet for that long?"

Sthé-chan: "I'll try my best! Only because I know these guys won't last too long if you're really going all out here!"

"Are you sure you don't want to watch Kotowari Squad's match?"

Murakami looked up from where he sat on the sofa.

He was in the Suzunari Branch Office with his squad. Across from him sat Yuki who, up until now, had been looking down at the tablet in his hands. A bottle of pills was placed on the table between them and Kon was being cautious as she watched Taichi move closer to his upperclassman.

"Hm? Yeah, I'm fine with that. While it would be nice to see SenSen go at it with them, Ōji would probably get on my case for having watched his match."

"What did you even do to get on his bad side?"

"Who knows," Yuki shrugged. Murakami found this investing since he was aware of the reasoning for this as well. "That guys can be as bad as Akashi at times, so I just ignore them for the most part. Don't worry too much. I don't really get along with him like I do that asshole cosplayer."

If not for the fact they knew him well enough, Murakami was sure that they would not know who he was referring to.

"But you know."

He watched as Yuki tilted his head towards Taichi. The fox boy gave a sideways look while raising an eyebrow at Taichi.

"I would have thought you would be watching that match. You're really close to SenSen, aren't you?"

"Yup! SenSen-san always takes care of me whenever he's around! He doesn't complain about my mess-ups and he always lets me hang off of his neck! He also let's ride on his back or shoulders whenever I want!"

The way Taichi was talking brightly was a bit blinding, but his words did not go unnoticed by everyone else. Murakami could feel his brows lower in sympathy for his fellow Attacker. He could see the way Yuki looked back to him in a similar way while Kon looked ready to explode what they were hearing.

If Kuruma was here then he would surely be able to calm down the girl.

"Oh, but he can be scary at times. Especially when fighting."

"Yeah, his luck can get like that."

Murakami raised a brow at the way Taichi shook his head.

The way the boy smiled showed just how much fun he was having with this conversation.

"No, no, no! SenSen-san is super scary when he doesn't have his bad luck!"

"I've seen him when his Side Effect is turned off, but never when he's fighting. His bad luck is always active whenever we have some solo matches."

"The same goes for me," Murakami said, finally speaking up. "Now that I think about it, who actually has seen that kind of thing?"

"Eh? But I thought all of you knew already!"

There had not been anyone around to see such a thing, yet Taichi knew.

It was something they all understood as a possibility, but not something they could verify for themselves.

None of them had known Taichi to be a liar, so there was no reason to doubt him. If anything, he was the one to trust when it came to the Senzai Squad captain.

Seeing that the other two occupants were just as confused by this, Murakami spoke up again. His words were being directed towards Taichi while covering for the other two.

"So what exactly is he like? When his Side Effect is shut off."

"He's ultra scary! I don't know if he's as good as Kō-san when he gets serious, but he is probably near that! Kō-san can attack and defend because of Kōgetsu and Raygust, but SenSen-san defends while attacking with only Raygust! He's also really, really, really good at mixing in other Triggers."

"He's asked me before to help him with Teleport..."

"Yeah, that's why I said he's scary! Oh, but there's a big downside to this! Shingai-san ends up losing her luck. So if someone takes her out, his bad luck comes back! That means he's not as scary!"

Murakami took this knowledge heavily.

Suzunari-1 had fought Senzai Squad before, but they had never tried to cancel out those luck-based Side Effects. No one but Taichi had experience with seeing what that was like and he would be the best person to trust in for this information.

"I guess I hope no-one tries that… But if they do then SenSen-san will probably win… Aaaahhh! I don't know what I want to happen!"

"Why not just watch it? You caught my attention with that, so I'm a bit curious as to what will happen. Here, here. You can even sit next to me, Taichi. Oh, but I won't be as good as SenSen when it comes to patting you, so keep that in mind."

It was amazing how quickly Taichi had jumped into the seat next to Yuki. It was less amazing how he looked up expectantly.

Next to him, he could see Kon shake her head. He only gave her a smile while reaching for the nearby remote.

"Well let's all watch this together then."

Ōji found it odd that he had not been the only one to get away from that attack.

The rain of beams had covered a wide area and he had taken some hits, but he had managed to get out of it with as minimal amount of damage as possible.

At least that was what he had thought.

A good distance away was an unscathed Senshi holding a bulkier Raygust than before.

As the rain of beams subsided and disappeared from before them, he saw the way Takehsi looked towards them. When his eyes fell upon Ōji they looked as if he had expected much, especially given how close to the edge he already was.

But when he looked over to Senshi, his eyes grew a bit wider as the hand on his scarf tightened around the accessory.

So Take is also surprised by this. I would have thought his bad luck would get the better of him there. Or did that bad luck affect Take?

He shook his head.

No. If that was the case then I wouldn't have gotten out of that so easily. So what happened then?

A sound filled his ears a moment later.

His two opponents seemed to want to collect themselves once more, giving him time to listen to what his teammates had to say.

Both Kurauchi and Kashio had been taken out, but that did not mean their words would be useless here. In fact, it would be best to listen to them given the situation.

"What-"

Kura-uchi: "Ōji, get away right now! You can't be within Senshi's range!"

He wasted no time in moving back. It had gained the attention of his two opponents, but that was not what mattered here.

Kurauchi had been the one to warn him and that was enough for him to comply. The Shooter would not react in such a way if it was something trivial or something Ōji could handle easily.

He looked between the other two in the area and saw that Takeshi had taken his lead by following with a similar movement. Unlike Ōji, he moved a bit slower and was not as fast to respond.

Kura-uchi: "Those guys got it wrong."

It was Kurauchi again who spoke through the comms.

Kura-uchi: "Kotowari Squad was trying to get Shingai and Senshi close to cancel out their Side Effects. That is not something you should do if you are fighting against them. While it might help with fighting Shingai, it will only cause problems when trying to handle Senshi. Make sure you aren't with a teleporting range of him or in rage of a quick Thruster. If you can…hold off until Shingai moves away or gets taken out.

Something about the way Kurauchi had been seemingly praising Senshi along with his warning had made a competitive feeling begin to boil up from inside. While the temptation to go with that feeling was strong, Ōji's want to win was just as strong.

I need to just go along with his warning for now.

Besides, I would also need to deal with Take firing at me. Letting one of them get a single point is better than losing our chances of getting any points.

With a bitter smile, he began to move back.

"Hold on."

The calm voice from a distance came with a worried undertone that Ōji couldn't help but enjoy a bit.

A laser-like beam followed that voice as it tore through the air. The heated noise had been aimed properly towards him so anything less than teleporting would have meant an instant defeat.

But…

"Are you sure you should be focusing on me right now?"

Ōji did nothing to try and evade the laser-like beam.

Why? Because there was no reason to do so.

Without any movement from his part, the laser-like beam with a heated noise moved in a direction other than where Ōji was moving back.

From where he was moving, he could see a streak of red in the air just above the Laser Shooter. A green blade had already been in the motion of a swing and the body attached to that red was making a full mid-air rotation in only a single fluid motion.

I don't know why he didn't go after me instead, but I'll consider that a good thing. Maybe Take had done something to upset SenSen. Either way…

The body of red and green had chosen Takeshi as his target instead of him. While it gave him a slight feeling of relief, it also irritated him in a way he only felt when around a fox-like boy.

The realization of that fact had made him go wide eyed as he got out of range of the laser-like beams.

So that's how it is… That's why I feel so bad about these kinds of thoughts…

.

Takeshi felt his body tense up at the sudden appearance of a body above his head.

It was an odd sensation - having this trigger used against him like this.

Due to their former captain throwing himself to find the best ways to use Teleport, his entire squad had followed along and learned how to use Teleport as best they could. Toby had managed to understand how to use it well enough while Suzume had rarely used it, instead focusing on Scorpion as a secondary Trigger. Takeshi himself would use it when needing to escape a situation, so he was not too unfamiliar with how to use it. The appearance of Hoshi had only increased this with her specially made Teleport known as Zanzō.

But this was different.

It was not a Kotowari Squad member using it and it was being used against him instead of by him.

He knew that by no means were they the only ones to use the Trigger, but it was still not something he was used to seeing.

He was unprepared to handle this.

Yuki had taught them how to use the Trigger once they had brought it up. He had also taught them how to counter the Trigger properly. It was not something that he would fail to do since he knew who else used the Trigger.

So then why did nothing come to mind?

The answer was painfully obvious to Takeshi as he finally moved his body.

I still couldn't see much during that time. It's my fault that I'm in this situation.

It was too late as the red and green body came down before he could move. His arm was the consequence of that moment of stagnation.

Wouldn't it be better to go after Ōji here? He is more dangerous than me.

Oh, that's why, isn't it? Because I am less dangerous he wants an easy point. That makes sense.

If I was like that mutt then I would probably say something like, "I'll show you I'm dangerous too!" Or maybe, "I'll show you how dangerous I can be!" Most likely something akin to, "I'll at least take you out with me!"

Yeah… That last one sounds like it would fit him, doesn't it?

It was a secondary sadness that he knew what his teammate would think at a time like this.

Those two sad realizations were pushed aside as he moved his remaining arm while his body rotated to face the ones who had cut off his arm. Two orbs of trion appeared next to him, both glowing a brilliant green.

Aiming and then firing would take too long, leaving the only choice to fire without any aim. A blind attack that could take off his remaining arm like it had before.

The orbs glowed brighter as they began to fire their shots.

"!?"

But they were far too slow.

The red and green body moved forward the instant Takeshi had begun his rotation. It moved forward while applying a rotation as well.

The length of the blade in his hand grew even more as he rotated. The blade's extra length reached that short distance in a single quick motion of the wrist.

The blade cut through the orbs ready to fire while never stopping for a moment.

The large blade continued to move through the space between the cut orbs and Takeshi. While it did soothe cut orbs' light flickered for a moment before detonating as they were supposed to.

The explosions that followed had been enough to catch Takeshi off guard again, but did not so much as scratch the hand holding the blade.

Due to the changing ability of Raygust, the blade had extended its reach a bit more to cover Sensei's hand from the explosion. The same could not be applied to Takeshi who had taken the brunt of the explosions as well as the slash from Raygust.

Or that was what should have happened.

.

Senshi was not surprised upon seeing the two straps fall to the ground in front of him.

This was another form of Teleport that he had not been properly introduced to until now. A replacement Trigger that allowed for an instantaneous escape the moment the user was hit.

The fact that two straps fell to the ground instead of one showed just how much Takeshi had tried to escape.

The first one is because he tried to escape the explosions. The second was a quick one so that he could escape the slash. In which case…

Without moving his body at all, Sensei's eyes turned towards the side.

A noise filled the space he had occupied before a new heated noise tore through the air.

Upon landing at the teleportation spot, he readied himself for the next attack.

He was right in doing so.

A laser-like beam tore through the air to reach him. From the corner of his eye he could see the first beam fading away as this new one became the main source of attacking.

"This is bad…"

It had not been his words that filled the space. Those had been the words from the one who had fired the beam.

Standing a sea distance away was Takeshi. The arm that had been severed was now leaking trion at a tremendous rate and green lines were running along his face.

Instead of blocking the attack, Senshi sidestepped it while leaning forward.

The green beam seemed to be the final attack Takeshi could provide in this situation. It was his way of trying to make less work for his teammates later on.

But it meant nothing here.

"Do you want me to cut you? Do you want to shoot yourself through? Do you want to run out of trion? Do you want to try and escape first? What do you want to do?"

This time it had been his own words that filled the space.

He was questioning his opponent as he ran forward towards that opponent.

Takeshi was fixing the beam so that it ran along a different line to reach him, but it was still too slow. He could still move around that beam.

"What do I want to do?"

Senshi nodded.

"I want to win."

Senshi shook his head. The distance was now even smaller, even as his opponent backed up a bit.

"Then I want to still be here for my teammates."

Senshi shook his head again.

"I don't want to lose. But that doesn't look like an option."

Senshi nodded.

"Damn. In that case…"

Cracks began running along Takeshi's whole body at this point.

As a show of sportsmanship, Senshi activated Thruster once more. This time he had aimed for his opponent's legs.

Takeshi fell to the ground with a soft noise as the last of the beam faded away.

"Can I ask that you go after someone else's squad instead of mine?"

Senshi nodded for the last time.

He bladed his blade above Takeshi. In one quick motion he cut cleanly through his opponent's neck.

A light filled the spot his opponent had occupied before flying off.

Bail Out.

Grumpy Cat: "That is a point for Senzai Squad. They are now in second place for this match…"

Spear Idiot: "You don't sound too crazy about that."

Grumpy Cat: "I'm only saying what we all know here. With Kazuaki making his escape, the fight between Senshi and Takeshi has concluded with the former taking the win."

Yoneya grinned in his place next to the glasses boy. The usage of the Laser Shooter's name did not go unnoticed by him or Karasuma. Even so, neither said anything about it and focused back on their commentary.

Torimaru: "What changed there though? Even if he was using a lot of trion, Takeshi seemed to be doing fine enough. It was just a moment before Senzai-senpai was able to gain control of the fight."

Spear Idiot: "If I had to guess… It would say the little teleporter just got outmatched by a better teleporter. But there was also something there that some of you might not have noticed."

Torimaru: "You are talking about the lack of bad luck for Senzai-senpai or Takeshi, right?"

Spear Idiot: "Exactly."

Grumpy Cat: "Kotowari Squad may have been planning to turn off both Ite-san and Sensei's Side Effects so they would not have to deal with so many random factors. That looks like it backfired though since Senshi seems to do better without his bad luck around. That does make sense though."

Spear Idiot: "I don't think there are many people who have seen him without his bad luck around, so this was actually a bit surprising to see. Oh, but don't get me wrong here. I know that SenSen-san is really capable the it comes to fighting."

Torimaru: "That's right. Some people are under the impression that he is reliant on his Side Effect, aren't they?"

Grumpy Cat: "Correct. You can hear it here and there around the base. Not believing in something like 'luck' is fine and all, but there are people who take that luck to mean that there is no value in the person in question. The same applies for Ite-san, if not more so. This should be a good reminder that their placement here is not a mistake or anything of the sort."

Torimaru: "If anything, the reason they aren't placed higher is because of those Side Effects."

.

"…"

"Are you okay?"

"…Of course I am. No reason not to be."

"Oh? Then why are you fiddling with your hands so much?"

Kōchō couldn't help the small laugh that escaped her lips upon seeing Asano quickly separating her hands from each other.

The entire time the fight had been going on she could tell that Asano had been paying close attention to both fighters. Seeing it finally end may have finally gotten to her as her shoulders slumped low while she let out a small breath.

Wakamura may have noticed as well, but it was hard to tell from the way his glasses reflected the screen and the way his shoulders were a bit higher than normal.

Am I the only one who is being calm about all of this?

She shook her head. There was more to this than what she was thinking.

They are both tense because they understand what is going on better than I do. They are used to fighting in fights like these and understand what has happened here. The most experience I have is a few solo matches and fighting Neighbors.

It was the clear difference between those who are competitive and those who were not.

"Well Asanocchi is now fine enough since Kotowari-kun is no longer fighting. Now we wait to see for Rokkun. Will he last the rest of the match or will Taiyōko-chan get taken out first. We shall see!"

This received a double glare from the one next to her and the one behind her.

"What about you? Aren't you worried about Toby? That's the reason you're here, right?"

"Nice try, Asanocchi. But unlike you two… No, I guess it's really just Rokkun at the moment. Anyway, unlike that, I can admit to my reasons. I came here to watch as a 'fan' of Kotowari Squad, but I hope to see more of Toby. It's always fun to see him so energetic after all."

"Thank you for that."

The two girls looked over to see Wakamura putting his phone down. On the screen they could see him exiting a recording app.

Asano raised an eyebrow at the boy, but understood exactly what he had done.

As for Kōchō…

"Oh, can you send that to me, Rokkun? I want to send it directly to Toby after their match is over. I'm sure it will be interesting to see what happens."

The one next to her and the one behind her made simultaneous sounds. One sounded like someone choking while the other was a sigh of resignation.

"At least you tried, Wakamura… I guess this girl just likes teasing Toby too much to care."

"What are you talking about? How could you not enjoy teasing someone like that? Oh, but don't worry. I am putting my feelings in teasing him."

"Is that really supposed to be a good thing….?"

Kōchō shrugged her shoulders.

She turned back to the screen in front of them as the match continued on.

There had been no falsehood in her words, but it had not been the complete truth either.

That is for another time though. For now…

I'm so pathetic…

Takeshi gave a dull look towards the ceiling. The bright lights that hung over him seemed like nothing compared to the ones he had seen moments ago.

The lights from his own attacks were much brighter than the ones above his head. And yet they still felt as if they were extremely dull when compared to other lights he had seen.

Unless we ask for something specific, the lights won't change. The same light coming from my Laser Shooter and the light from that Raygust are the exact same. I know that, but it still feels like that blade was brighter. I felt like my own weapons were dull.

Holding out his hand, he tried to will one of those orbs into existence. The only things that were guaranteed to come when he called for them. Those same ones that also gave off a brilliant light for him.

Nothing came.

That was more than enough of a confirmation that he had lost.

He had been facing two opponents and lost. He had planned ahead to deal with then and lost. He had used his offensive abilities to their fullest and lost. He had been given a point to work with form Toby and lost. His plan had gone fine enough and he lost.

He lost.

I lost…

It was an undeniable fact now.

Since he had decided to take it as a fact, he slowly got up from the mat he had landed on after having Bailed Out.

He fixed his scarf as he began to walk over to the monitors that were placed in front of Nakagami.

The entirety of his fight played in his mind. The way Senshi had moved to the way Ōji had escaped. From the way he fired his shots to they seemed to not matter to his opponent.

Everything played out in his head so that he could repeat it for his teammates and warn them of what they were now dealing with.

He had lost, but he was not out of the fight completely.

He could not fight against anyone anymore, but he could assist his teammates. Even if he had been useless on the battlefield, he could do something here.

Even so…

I'm still pathetic…

With that final pessimistic thought, he looked to the monitors displaying the information on the match.

Nakagami did not look away from the screens as he approached her. Her words were still directed towards him though.

"So what next?"

A voice followed hers from the monitors.

Lobo: "Sorry, Take. I guess my plan backfired there. Pretty hard too. Don't worry. I'll make up for that by scoring us another major point."

"Were you just trying to get me to Bail Out so you could fight again?"

Lobo: "Of course not, you idiot! I didn't think you would get taken out! That looked like a fight you would totally win!"

"Well I didn't. And you saying any more will make me want to fire on you even more."

Lobo: "You can try, but it won't work!"

It was the sad truth.

"Which one will you be going after?"

Lobo: "Who do you recommend?"

Nakagami looked up from the monitors while waiting for that answer. She had not been the one to ask, but she seemed interested in the answer.

Takeshi knew that they would listen to his words, but his experience in this case was nothing compared to his teammate's. The difference in figuring out which opponent to go to was too vast for him to clearly decide on the answer.

Since this was the case, he only gave a short reply.

"You pick."

The howl laughter that came through the speakers irritated him to no end. But…

He knows what to do.

This was how he would play his part as captain.

He would trust in his teammate to know what to do here while he thought about the entire situation as a whole.

A single fight could make all the difference here, but the entire situation also needed to be viewed properly to decide the right outcome for the match.

That would be what he would do. While he had been taken out first among their squad, it gave him a chance to view the entire match from a safe space where could properly think.

"Suzuka-san, I will probably need your help to figure this out."

"You aren't as much of a smooth talker as Lobo there, but that's fine. I'll help you out with whatever you need."

He could only nod in response to her.

It was his turn to move everything in a proper way.