Grumpy Cat: "With that, the time has ran out and no squads get survival points."

Spear Idiot: "I doubting of the remaining ones mind that too much."

Lukas nodded his head as the results of the match finalized and the three remaining participants went back to their respective squads.

Yoneya relaxed back into his seat while Karasuma let out a held breath.

He understood how they felt after having seen the match. There was some tense still in his shoulders, but most of it had dissipated into thin air at this point.

There isn't really one person in particular to blame for this. It was just that kind of match, I suppose.

Everyone had played their hands to the best of their abilities and they had all seen some amazing things that would stick with them.

Pushing up his glasses, Lukas focused back onto the screen in front of them all.

Below him he could hear two voices:

"I want to stay for the final commentary, but my squad has defense duty soon. Do you mind giving me a summary of it all later?"

"My squad has a match coming up, so I would appreciate a summary as well."

"That's fine. I'll make sure to tell you two the good parts later."

Down below, a Gunner and a Shooter stood from their seats before walking up the stairs leading to the exit. They had left a single girl alone in her seat, but she seemed fine enough. The way she looked at one particular side of the screen told him all he needed to know.

But it was now time for their final commentary.

Grumpy Cat: "Let's start with the score. The result is a tie between Ōji Squad and Kotowari Squad with both getting 3 points. Next is Senzai Squad with 2 points. In last place is Yuba Squad with a single point."

Spear Idiot: "At a surface level, Yuba Squad did the worst. But when taking into consideration who their opponents were, that's to be expected."

Torimaru: "That is something that was a constant in this match. Choosing the right opponents and connecting one fight to another."

Spear Idiot: "The best example of that, ironically enough, is the one who only had two fights this whole match. Toby started out this match with his fight against Kurauchi. The end of the match then became Toby against Yuba. Instead of going through it all, he went straight to the end."

If only it had been that simple.

Yoneya must have known he was thinking this since his next words continued his thought.

Spear Idiot: "But it was also everyone else's fights that led up to that final one."

Torimaru: "Kotowari Squad had probably agreed to have him sit out of any fighting after his first victory. If it had been a defeat then I'm sure they had something else planned."

Grumpy Cat: "Despite what he may seem like, Takeshi is the type to come up with a few different strategies. Most of the time they are linked by a single point and diverge from that single point. The fact this point relied one two completely different outcomes means that he is getting better with his planning."

Spear Idiot: "So you're talking about him now."

Lukas ignored Yoneya's comment to continue.

Grumpy Cat: "The fight between the mutt and Kazuki did something more than just get a point for Kotowari Squad."

Spear Idiot: "Right, it also set the premise of this match and showed what everyone needs to now be on the lookout for when facing Kotowari Squad. Kurauchi is no pushover and Shooters are a good matchup against Toby. For Toby to come out on top form that fight just means that he reached a new level in his fighting."

Torimaru: "Holding him back afterwards also made everyone else cautious. Awdry is usually the type to go from one fight to another without issue, so him staying behind put a good amount of pressure on the rest of them."

Spear Idiot: "The ones least affected by that pressure would have to be Senzai Squad. While Ōji Squad needed to be more caseous after having lost their Shooter."

Grumpy Cat: "Ite-san's good luck meant that there was little to really fear. That may have been why she ended up going after Yuba. Her hunting him for so long had ended up being the wrong choice though."

Torimaru: "In a sense, you could say that it was perfect though."

Lukas nodded in response.

Spear Idiot: "True, having the good and bad luck canceled out had put Shingai in a bad position by the end of it, but it had been the perfect way to have SenSen-san go all out. Most people disregard him due to his bad luck, but this was a good showing of how he is without his bad luck."

Torimaru: "The way he moved reminded me of Yuki-senpai. That kind of use for Teleport isn't something that just anyone can do. While Yuki-senpai begins his attack after teleporting, Senzai-senpai begins his attacks before teleporting. With normal speed you tend to want to figure out when you want your attacks to begin and when you want them to end. With Teleport it is complete based on if the user wants to start before or after the teleport. There is no in-between for them."

Spear Idiot: "You heard that from Yuki-san, didn't you?"

Torimaru: "He really likes going in-depth when it comes to Teleport."

This time both Lukas and Yoneya nodded. They were all aware of how their upperclassman viewed that Trigger in particular.

Grumpy Cat: "None of them must have suspected that he could do something like that though since Takeshi had been taken out quickly while it took Yukari, Hoshi-san, and Kazuaki to fight against him. Even with the injuries they had sustained during the fight, they had an amazing amount of trouble against him."

Spear Idiot: "That was where you really saw what Ōji was thinking. Instead of trying to take out SenSen-san, who at the time looked unstoppable, he wanted to get the points from taking out Obishima and Taiyōko before he would lose."

"When you put it like that, you make it sound like I'm a coward."

Kurauchi looked towards Ōji as he pouted off to the side.

They all understood the situation and he could not blame Ōji for his actions, thinking they were right during the time.

"Senzai Squad had to show their best move during this match and you were able to keep up with it. Think about it like that and you will feel better."

"Yeah, but…"

Grumpy Cat: "This all happened because of Kotowari Squad."

Kurauchi gave a bitter smile at the words that came through the speaker.

It was an indisputable fact that Kotowari Squad had been to blame for Senshi moving the way he did. There was no stopping it since he had been defeated first and could not figure out what was happening until it happened.

Grumpy Cat: "Kotowari Squad probably thought that Senzai Squad would be weakened if they did not have their Side Effects active. To an extent, it was the truth. Ite-san was weaker without her good luck, but…"

But.

"Senshi is a monster when he does not have his bad luck holding him back."

"You knew that but didn't tell us. Kotowari Squad at least had no clue because those two teams, even when that damn fox was around, never really fought each other."

"I didn't think it would come to that. I had preferred to take out one of those two before anyone even had a chance to do that."

"You got bested by their beast. No reason to feel bad. Even Yuba-san got a loss from him. And that was after having fought you."

It was a terrifying thought.

Kotowari Squad's beast had been trouble for them. Even with the element of surprise, it should have been a battle that was won by Kurauchi. The experience he had over Kotowari Squad's beast should have been enough.

But it wasn't.

Yuba's experience should have gotten him the win as well. His own speed and power were greater than Kurauchi, and he worked best at close range, something he had over Kurauchi. It should have been enough.

But it wasn't.

The truly terrifying part is how young he is. If he keeps this up, keeping on being a Border agent, he will definitely move far ahead of others.

"But he will end up leaving his team behind."

Ōji gave a bitter laugh at his words. It was not ignored, but Kurauchi thought it best not to respond to it.

"There are still more matches after this. When we are done here, we should focus on those ones after."

Senshi nodded his head to no one in particular.

It had been a fair assumption that he would also be weakened without his Side Effect. It had just been a matter of experience. Experience that Kotowari Squad did not have.

"Oh. So that is what this match was."

Nodding to himself again, Senshi looked to the screen, right over the large shoulder of Tekitai.

Tekitai looked at him from the spot in front of the monitor.

"What is it?"

"Give it a moment. I'm sure they will get to it soon," Senshi raised his hand in response.

"Hey, Senshi."

In the spot next to the monitors of the operating room, Shingai shifted in her spot with a towel on her head.

She leaned down onto the desk with both of her elbows.

"I thought we did pretty well for ourselves when considering everything, but is there something I am missing here? If it feels like they are holding something back."

"I guess so. I see where this matters to us, but it might not be so important if they aren't mentioning it."

Senshi was drying off his hair and Shingai put a hand on her chin.

"Hmm," she groaned with a tilt of the head. "What exactly am I missing then?"

Senshi responded to Shingai's doubt by opening something on his phone. He pulled a list of their opponents from their finish match.

"You actually had the best opponent in multiple ways. Even if the result is what it is."

At the same time, another screen was brought up.

It showed some of the younger agents elsewhere. They bowed with grins on their faces.

"These are the ones who were cheering for you the whole time."

Some messages came through from those same agents.

Shingai smiled at the children, even knowing that they could not see her do so.

"Oh, are you trying to distract me from my own question?"

"Ite, you really don't lose focus on things."

"I can leave the trivial things to you. Senshi, make sure to thank them all for me."

"Hee hee," laughed Sthénos from behind them. "You really love them all, don't you, Ite?"

"I suppose so."

Shingai wiped off her face with the towel. She was wiping off the water she had splashed onto her face.

"Okay," she said with some more cheer to her voice than before.

"I am ready to listen to what they have to say. No matter how much I usually wish to shoot at Yoneya, I will listen in as a B-Rank agent."

Yoneya ignored the feeling in the back of his head to be careful with what he said.

There had been other times when this feeling came up, but he had ignored most of them. This time would be no different.

Unlike those times, he had safety in being a commentator. No one could get at his throat for what he said here since he could say that he was speaking as an A-Rank agent instead of as Yoneya Yōsuke.

Spear Idiot: "This math was definitely one of experience. The inexperienced against those with more experience. In this case, the experienced had won the small battles while the inexperienced had won the major battles."

Torimaru: "As strange as it is to say this… The experienced ones might have had too much experience."

Spear Idiot: "Oh, that's a good way of putting it!"

Yoneya grinned with a thumbs up. It was returned kindly by Karasuma.

The sound of a sigh from the other side was not missed, but it was definitely ignored.

Grumpy Cat: "Going off of experience against wild beasts like the mutt really isn't the best option. On the same track as that; using experience against Senshi ended up being a failure to some extent. If not for Ite-san losing when she did, Ōji Squad would have been completely out of the fight."

Spear Idiot: "We did not mention it, but that is probably because there was on need to. There was a particular moment that we should at least note. A note on what not to do."

It was a rather harsh way of saying it, but it had to be said.

Holding back with his words here would only make things worse.

Grumpy Cat: "The way Kashio went at Takeshi… Well, it isn't hard to see why he lost so easily. There was nothing to think about with the way he moved in for the attack."

Torimaru:"He is usually calm enough to not do something like that. And even when he might, his squamates can stop him. The fact that it happened means he must have really been wanting to get that point."

Yoneya halted in saying anything.

If these guys have anything to say then they need to say it now.

Grumpy Cat: "Or he wanted to take out Takeshi."

There it was.

It had been the tone and words that he had been waiting for.

Grumpy Cat: "He was thinking about what had been done before. He let that take up his thoughts instead of the fight itself."

Good job!

The quick glare he got had made Yoneya turn away without a word.

There was no hiding his thoughts at the moment.

Well it isn't like he is in the wrong here. If anything, he is more in the right then anyone. But I did my part for all of this. Up to Take-chan to do the rest.

Grumpy Cat: "In short, something like that can always mean a loss."

Torimaru: "I guess over explaining things can end terribly too…"

Grumpy Cat: "Well there is not much left to say here. Thank you both for joining me today for this match."

Spear Idiot: "Being professional now doesn't take away from the rest of the time~"

The last glare he got only made him grin even more.

.

Tachikawa chose not to look back as the sound of footsteps got further away from him.

There was no reason for him to question the boy as to where he was going since the match had ended. The both of them had seen what they wanted to see and understood something better than they had before.

It was something they had to do as A-Ranks.

Others began to exit the hall, but he chose to stay.

Losing that boy within the crowd was something he could not stop. It was bound to happen when there were even this many people around.

"Heh. I guess he had something to do and didn't want me tagging along. But it's not like I would be able to do that anyway. I have my own things to get to."

The thought of his previous actions came to mind. But not because he had suddenly started to regret.

No, it was the opposite.

I should at least push him properly. Minoru is his mentor, so I can't really push too hard or else there will be people after me.

It was not just Kotowari Squad's beast that was on his mind.

Everyone in the match would have their own parts to play soon. Those parts would be both key roles and minor ones, according to someone else.

With those thoughts in place, Tachikawa pushed off the railing.

A grin set in place as he started to walk out of the hall.