The battle in the forest of buildings continued as Yuki and Oshiro separately charged in at the trion soldiers who had been split between left and right.

Yuki thought to himself as he heard repeated sword strikes from Oshiro and Shikifuku on the other side.

…Well done!

Shikifuku's path did not waver. Unlike the irregular iai techniques of a ninja, he sent the arc of the sword toward the thickest part of the enemy.

It was a bold sword technique.

…The training he did after the invasion is coming in handy now.

Shikifuku was likely helping as well. Another blade from Shikifuku had come to him. It was light and dull, but it was effective as a blunt weapon. It was far from being a stealthy item and he was unsure a stealth agent should be wielding it, but he had no choice since it had taken a liking to him. Likely from Oshiro being the one to create it. He decided to think of it like a type of dog.

…When I think about it, I'm completely relying on Shiro here, but I can't let myself think that way.

But as he cut down the enemy with his attack…

"Oh."

He heard guns being prepared. The sound he heard in the noisy area was unique to humans, so he held up Shikifuku as a shield and bullets soon collided with it.

He realized the enemy's grasp of the situation was recovering and used the sounds to count the number he and Oshiro had defeated.

Together, they had reached a total of twelve or thirteen.

The leading teams on the left and right had each had ten members, so the two teams had been reduced by about seventy percent. Two additional teams were arriving from below, but they could not do anything with the automatons of the leading teams in the way.

This was well done, he thought.

White Fox: "Shiro."

He sent a prepared message as a sign and he made a wide swing with Shikifuku.

The slash pushed the enemy outward and up the slope.

He had a single reason for distancing them like that. He placed Shikifuku on his back to defend from behind and…

"…!"

He ducked low and charged toward the additional team below while Oshiro did the same on the opposite side.

.

Oshiro was relieved to be moving.

He had a variety of thoughts about having to fight, but he was here because of everything that had happened in the past.

…Doing what I can here is the least I can do for the others!

The enemy he drove back here was likely the same, so…

"Here I go!"

He held his side and seemed to move through the air as if gliding.

He moved on. Instead of utterly crushing the enemy, he had left a few behind him. That was to leave the possibility of friendly fire to stop the additional team from attacking.

"…!?"

Oshiro could see the area express itself via movement in the buildings and that revealed something to him. In the noisy night, the area was expressing its surprise at something that did not belong.

…A skewer!

He realized this was Mouri-02's attack at the same moment as Shikifuku moved from his back, circled around him, and arrived in front of him. An attack tried to gouge into the large sword raised as a shield.

But Oshiro had a sudden thought.

…Strange.

The attack did not continue. There was nothing more from Mouri-02 or the others up ahead.

…That was a diversion meant to draw my attention forward!

In the past, he had tried to cut down three hundred opponents and later fought in an invasion. His Trigger usage was weaker the more he let himself relax around others, but he had not lost the intuition that had given him.

"Behind me!"

Instead of using his hands, he had Shikifuku sweep behind him using its autonomous movements.

It hit, but it hit more than just one object.

…All of the remaining ones!?

He looked over his shoulder and saw the correct number of enemies, but something was different about them.

"Headless soldiers!?"

Their arms were held out toward him as they tried to grab him.

His strike had smashed them all as they attacked from behind, but beyond them, the previously damaged trion soldiers were holding their comrades' heads.

"I have determined he has noticed."

As soon as Oshiro heard those words, the headless trion soldiers he had hit with Shikifuku exploded at close range.

.

"Mouri-01 to all others. If you determine you cannot continue your mission or that you are obstructing the others, remove your core and memory device and then self-destruct. Your body can be replaced and this is an excellent chance to gain a new body. There is no replacement for victory and your new body can be a reward you have earned instead of a simple replacement. …Make sure your decisions are sound."

Mouri-01 heard everyone reply with "understood".

They were excellent replies. All of those here, herself included, had bodies of hardened and reenforced trion. The spheres of hardened trion that moved their bodies wore out quickly, but they ensured high performance on short missions.

"All but your head is made from easy materials, so it will all return to our land eventually. If you detonate yourself, make sure to remove your head and core first and continue as we trained. Everyone remaining is to secure the heads and cores."

"Understood," the others replied just as another explosion rang out.

…Now, then.

This self-destruction was not a "last resort" for trion soldiers.

When they were acting in groups, even if only one survived, they could secure the cores and memory devices of the others and return with all of them.

And detonating their bodies after giving them instructions for an automatic charge could quickly turn the tide of a battle.

It was powerful enough to destroy an enemy's front line or put a fleeing foe on guard. This was why they had achieved a 100% survival rate and a 100% success rate in their unofficial skirmishes with other nations.

"But how will Miden's living agents handle this?"

.

…Shiro!

Yuki did not speak a word when he heard the explosion and saw the flash of light. An expression of surprise or panic would only aid the enemy.

His training allowed him to continue as normal no matter what happened in battle.

He still mentally expressed his worry, but was that due to confidence in his abilities or insufficient training?

"…"

However, he soon saw the colors of black and white push out from the debris scattered by the blast. It was Oshiro's hair.

He had swung Shikifuku back and hid behind it as a shield. He had also used a shield to control the flow of the air.

He was unharmed, but he and Shikifuku had been blasted into the air.

The danger was not over yet.

After all, a headless charge was approaching Yuki as well.

He heard their footsteps behind him. They had not caught up yet because he had started running faster than Oshiro had, but if the enemy further up the slope was planning to self-destruct…

…The additional team further down the slope doesn't have to worry about them!

That was exactly what he saw in front of him.

The additional team was readying their guns.

They no longer viewed the explosive headless bodies as comrades.

So Yuki lowered down a bit.

"Shiro!"

And he leaped high into the air toward him.

.

So this is what Miden calls a "ninja".

Mouri-02 calmly observed the ninja's leap.

Her additional central team was in the process of joining with Mouri-01's leading central team, so she left everything in the rear to the others and moved further forward. She rushed in front of her sister to protect her.

"…!"

She accurately threw three trion skewers toward the airborne ninja. She targeted his knees and ankles to stop his swift movements as soon as he landed.

…!

After throwing the skewers as if pushing them, she prepared more. She would throw these at the ninja's estimated landing spot, but something happened just as she gently spun around in preparation.

"Mouri-02!"

Hearing Mouri-01 call her name, she reversed her movements. Her sister was telling her to be cautious and that meant she must have gotten ahead of herself.

She kicked off the ground to quickly move back to the others. She accurately traced her previous movements in reverse and finally looked up.

She looked toward the ninja, but he was gone.

…!?

No, he was there, but he was not down below or to the left or right.

He was up above.

The ninja's trion reading was moving up.

He had jumped again in midair. Mouri-02 wondered how that was possible. She also wondered if it was even true, but another trion soldier shouted the truth.

"R2's attack was evaded!"

That meant it was true. In that case, she had to determine what had happened.

Within the Neighborhood it was not uncommon to see double-jump movement and there were similar movements and Triggers for floating or moving in midair.

But her sister pointed out the ninja way of doing this.

"Wires!"

More specifically…

"The earlier building disgusted as a living person form was thrown at us using wires. …I have estimated he grabbed that wire to pull himself up!"

In that case, thought Mouri-02. He must have predicted a situation like this back when he was disguising the building with the dummies.

He had left a means of assisting his movements on the battlefield and he had used the previous disguised building to make it look useless.

Mouri-02 decided this tactic was worth remembering and she also decided their enemy here was on the same level as them.

But…

"…"

The glass shook as the buildings shook and something fell behind Mouri-01. Mouri-02 and the others turned toward it, but it was too late.

After his double-jump, the ninja was attacking their eldest sister who was their central pillar.

.

The sudden attack from overhead was so unexpected that the trion soldiers were slow to react.

However, Mouri-01 spoke calmly amid their confused pause.

"This is nothing to worry about."

After all…

"Statistically, I predict their blade Trigger will be the first to drop down."

They soon saw the result of that prediction. The object dropping from above had a human form.

However, it was only the upper body.

The coat of the ninja's modified uniform descended while wrapped around Shikifuku.

Debris and glass scattered as it dropped straight toward Mouri-01.

But she had already taken a step out of the way.

The dropping sword did not hit its target and Mouri-01 predicted the ninja's actions as well.

"He will drop down from directly above the sword. I predict he wants us to think that the sword is a diversion and that he will attack from elsewhere."

Just as she said, a shadow shot down from above Shikifuku.

"No one move."

As soon as she said that, she used her gravitational control.

"Mine is not as powerful as Master Armand's."

She grabbed different spots along the ground, pulled up, and gathered them together as hard spikes.

"But this should make for a decent counterattack."

Three meter spires of crust stuck straight up from between the trion soldiers and the shadow fell toward that wide-range attack.

"Whoa, watch out."

The shadow jumped up in midair.

"…!?"

This true midair jump should have been impossible for the ninja, but…

"An unidentified trion soldier on Miden?"

.

Sthénos did not answer the enemy's question because she had already answered with a command.

She activated an acceleration ability built into her. She wrapped her fingers around a sphere of trion and opened four speedometers inside of her palm. Two were for acceleration and two for counteracting the recoil.

She often used this for her attacks when fighting as a trion soldier, but without any support to determine the angle of fire, she could not make any long-range shots.

…So it has to be close-range!

She had erased her trion signature with a reduction ability built into her and waited for the right timing.

They had all decided this would begin their path to victory.

After all, autonomous trion soldiers were dangerous enemies. She knew since she was one.

Her life on Miden had taught some people how immeasurably accurate autonomous trion soldiers' fighting capabilities were.

But, thought Sthénos.

…When you're too accurate, you only ever think about the best possible option!

That was why the enemy had predicted Yuki's attack here.

And they had not known how to handle her unexpected appearance in his place.

Sthénos' right hand was pulled back by her waist, but after confirming the enemy was caught off guard, she thrust the hand forward. Her palm broke through the speedometer and sent light scattering everywhere.

"Asteroid!"'

She fired a sphere of trion using one of Border's Triggers toward Mouri-01 as the trion soldier tried to turn toward her.

.

The sound of the blast filled the air.

Sthénos was about five meters from Mouri-01, so the opposing trion soldier could not avoid the attack.

The mountainous spikes she had created actually left her even less able to move.

But something did move.

It was Mouri-02 who was outside the spikes and quite nearby.

She used what she had prepared when predicting the additional attack above her sister. It was a different defense method from her sister's spikes.

"…!"

She used her gravitational control to lift up four trion soldiers who had met her gaze through the spikes and nodded. After saying "understood" via their shared memory, those four had removed their heads.

Mouri-02 forcibly launched them upwards.

She forced her arms up to instruct her gravitational control. She was generally in charge of more precise control, so she was not suited for this powerful and forceful manipulation. Her arms creaked under the strain.

"Don't hurt my sister!"

With those words, the four soldier bodies flew up as shields.

The four trion soldiers' heads dropped behind or in front of them and their bodies created a definite barrier between the eldest sister and the Senzai Squad trion soldier.

"…!"

Two were smashed by the direct hit, one was torn into, and one creaked but endured.

"Mouri-221, detonating." "Mouri-222, detonating." "Mouri-223, continuing as normal." "Mouri-224, continuing as normal."

Two exploded and the other two continued to act as a barrier.

However, the blast did reach the airborne trion soldier. Mouri-02 heard her wings moving and saw the light of a defense Trigger through the blast.

A capable trion soldier would have a countermeasure for a counterattack, she thought. She did not shift to defense so quickly by chance. That was the result of constant training.

But Mouri-02 heard another sound.

It came from up the slope behind her. It was directly below the location of the ninja's previous double-jump.

"…!?"

It was the ninja. He had removed his coat and let go of Shikifuku, but he was preparing to throw a sharp pole with only the movement of his forearm. And he was targeting…

"Sister!"

.

Yuki threw Idōgetsu as if shoving it forward.

His target was Mouri-01. She was the enemy's leader and she had created that group of spikes.

…So she can't form another barrier!

But, he thought. First Pyrínas' crash into White Rock and now this. Do trion soldiers naturally like walls or something?

…At any rate, we need to finish this here!

They had used up all of their tricks and autonomous trion soldiers could adapt too well for a trick to work on them a second time.

Not settling this here would be too dangerous.

He was concerned about their numbers as well. Including Oshiro, they had three fighters at top B-Rank or A-Rank level and the enemy had two. That was a large difference, but the enemy had plenty of other trion soldiers fighting with them.

Yuki's group was at a disadvantage for a long-term battle and they did not want to thoroughly annihilate their enemy to win.

That was why they needed to defeat the enemy leader to stop their advance.

And to do that, he was throwing Idōgetsu.

"…?"

But his hand suddenly stopped moving.

He had not decided to stop his attack. Instead…

…Idōgetsu stopped!?

.

As if it had hit some invisible barrier, Idōgetsu refused to move even when he pushed it.

It seemed like a gravity barrier, but that technique required the great output of something along the lines of the Black Trigger Murasame. And the idea that this was the trion soldiers' doing conflicted with another fact too.

…Because autonomous trion soldiers like these exist to serve their master, their personal abilities are only supposed to affect their master, themselves, and their fellow trion soldiers!

He had learned that from both Sthénos and Pyrínas.

But regardless, his weapon had been stopped.

"Wait just a bit there."

He heard a girl's voice he had not heard before and Idōgetsu began to move. However, it moved toward his waist and to its holder.

After Idōgetsu was placed inside like a child putting away a toy, an invisible hand lightly tapped on the holder.

This was gravitational control.

…What is going on?

Yuki was confused because this should have been impossible for a trion soldier.

"Yuki! Watch out!"

After Sthénos' shout, he was fired on from the left.

"Big sister, are you all okay!?"

He heard the same voice as before as thirty-odd trion soldiers charged forward with guns at the ready.

The group was led by a girl who kicked off building sides and poles to secure an elevated position.

"Mouri-03 is here with her unit of thirty-two!"

They split into groups of eight as they ran. They crouched low, aimed their guns, and accelerated further.

"Crush them!"

Mochizuki saw Chisato approach.

However, she was not leaning forward like before. She simply walked forward with light steps.

And…

"Now, then."

Chisato threw away her weapon.

She discarded it like she was merely leaving it there. And the trion-made lance clattered to the hard ground.

Then Chisato continued forward. She moved to pass by Mochizuki on the right.

She approached.

Mochizuki was unsure what to do.

Chisato was a normal living person and a current enemy. And she was walking forward while unarmed

She had no combat power. Because she had discarded her weapon. Even if this was some sort of trick, Mochizuki's processing speed could immediately detect Chisto's weapon being created.

So there was no threat in Chisato's action.

Mochizuki determined this to be "safe" and then she realized something.

Her opponent really had seen through her.

…She saw through my optimal decision as an autonomous trion soldier!

A harmless opponent was not an enemy. If someone took no hostile action, they were not an enemy. If they were not going to contact her, they were not even an obstacle.

She could do nothing.

But she had made all these decisions in an instant.

An autonomous trion soldier's processing speed could reach as high as a million times that of a living person. So Chisato had only taken a single step toward her. The girl's movements were horribly slow in that high-speed vision and the autonomous trion soldier had plenty of time to react.

So Mochizuki thought.

What could she do to make this person into an enemy?

No, setting up a conclusion in advance and trying to fit the calculations to that made for a fun puzzle, but it meant straying from reality.

She only had to view reality and guide things to the result there.

…Now, then.

Mochizuki thought.

"I am fighting this Miden combatant and the odds are good her actions are some form of strategy."

…So the odds are good she is an enemy.

"This Miden combatant was attempting to defeat me until just now."

…So the odds are good she is an enemy.

"In our current mission, Miden is an enemy."

…So if she is with Miden, she is an enemy.

"Miden took our pride from us, so they are an enemy of Pagoménos."

…So if she is with Miden, she is an enemy.

"Galopoula and Mouri are also attacking."

…So she is an enemy.

"Miden will eventually be our enemy during the fight for our 'Cancer'."

…So if she is with Miden, she is an enemy.

…I see.

As Mochizuki thought, she saw Chisato prepare to take a 2nd step.

She was approaching.

She was also defenseless. That meant she was not a threat and thus Mochizuki took no defensive action.

But, began Mochizuki in her heart. The past events suggest that Miden is very likely our enemy.

However, there was a problem. Was she perhaps giving an arbitrary advantage to the idea that Miden was an enemy?

So she thought some more.

"Under what conditions would Miden be our ally?"

…I have determined the bare minimum requirement would be for the time to accept us to have passed.

Then, thought Mochizuki. As that time has yet to occur, Miden must be our enemy.

Thus…

"—"

Mochizuki launched an attack against weaponless Chisato.

She fell back and threw a piece of explosive coal at the unarmed girl walking toward her.

.

Chisato pursued her opponent who fell back.

The coal approached and expanded.

"I see."

Chisato spoke with a smile just as the explosion erupted.

Where are they…?

Neither Hyuse nor Yōtarō had been spotted yet. Even with two pairs of eyes, they have not been able to spot the two of them at any point yet.

Using Radar would have been pointless when there was a large-scale battle going on near the base. They would only be seeing the trion signatures of everyone else so it would make noticing a single point hard.

They had no cues as to where they should be looking. The city itself was large, but it was almost guaranteed that they would be in the Forbidden Zone though since that would be where the fighting would be taking place.

All doubt of Hyuse wanting to go back to Aftokrator had been nonexistent from the very start.

Yōtarō had gone to meet up with him to stop him.

That is what Maki thought when he thought about the two of them.

Still…

There were words that still needed to be said and Border was still keeping him captive. It was just natural that they should find Hyuse so that he could not leave so easily.

That had been his reason for this search.

The rich bug with him had a different reason.

That reason was much more innocent and clear than anything Maki could come up with.

Friendship.

He had never been too good with children. Ones like Yōtarō only made things harder to deal with.

There had been normal ones like Michelle he had met, but it was still difficult to speak to them or treat them like others would. It was just how things were.

Even well behaved ones like this rich bug were difficult to handle.

But that crazy bug who was anything but well behaved and this well behaved rich bug had gotten along right from the start. They had become friends with the former deciding to be the "leader" while the latter being his "subordinate". Neither one had any complaints about that, both only smiling as they entered their own world outside of reality.

It was nice when he thought about it.

It was also sad when he remembered that he could not have that type of relationship until just recently.

From childhood up until the Aftokrator, he had not trusted many people, always thinking that they were only using him for his status. Even his own squad - Hatohara Squad - had not been trusted from the start. His captain even more so.

Minoru, someone who was all around a nice guy, had been the one he trusted the least. It hurt to think about that time now that he knew Minoru was having some troubles at the moment.

None of Hatohara Squad could be there to help him right now. Ninomiya and Inuaki couldn't be there to help him either.

So it hurt.

It hurts because I trust him now. I trust them all.

Hatohara Squad was not a group that he could not trust anymore. Each one of them had their quirks and groups, but none of them would use him for his status.

He found this out after the Aftokrator Invasion.

The same invasion where he had met and fought against Hyuse.

The fact it had taken so long to find more people he could trust made him bitter towards the instant friendship those two children had made. Not the children themselves but just how quickly and innocently they had been able to form that friendship.

They never have to worry about status or who they were just to make a friend. They just needed to be themselves.

That was why…

We need to find Hyuse. If we can at least do that, Crazy Bug will naturally get there too.

His goal was not to find Yōtarō. It was to find the boy who Yōtarō would naturally go to.

"Yōtarō… Where is he? I was going to tell him today, so where is he?"

The voice with him made Maki raise a brow.

The rich bug must have been talking to himself, forgetting that Maki was even there.

After all…

"I need to apologize to him."

He said something not like him.

.

Stepney felt himself do something very unlike him.

Unlike the "him" that had been brought up by his parents.

He extended out his body in search for someone.

He was looking for Yōtarō.

Maki had been looking for Hyuse much more than he was looking for Yōtarō, that much was clear even to him. It had been why he felt that he could forgo looking for the older boy and could instead focus on finding Yōtarō.

If he could not find him, the new friend he had made, he would continue to worry.

After all, he had to apologize for not being his friend.

"Hey, Rich Bug. What are you saying?"

"Huh?"

Had he been speaking out loud?

His parents had always said it was a bad habit of his. They always tried to make him stop doing that.

"What do you need to apologize for? If anything, it's that other bug that needs to apologize to you when we find him. Running off like that when you came over and even told him that Hyuse was missing. The little…"

"No, that's not-! …That is not the case."

"You don't need to speak formally like that. Kids speaking like that are pretty weird."

"…"

"Ah… Uh, sorry."

He wanted to reassure Maki that it was fine. He was aware that it was strange to speak like that for a kid.

Michelle and Mitsubachi had been trying to get him to stop talking like that while Yōtarō would not even answer back to him if he continued speaking like that.

But he felt that it would make things worse if he said anything like "Sorry" to Maki. Someone who already found it hard to deal with children.

"Um… Mr. Takahashi?"

"…Yeah?"

"Is it really fine to tell you? I know…you find it hard to handle children, so…"

There was a pause.

Stepney knew that Maki was really thinking about it.

He was smart for his age. But not because he was a genius like his brother.

He was smart because it had been forced upon him.

"Yeah. It's…fine to tell me. I can't say I can comfort you or anything, but I can at least listen to a kid."

That was enough for him.

"Mr. Takahashi, you are only looking for Mr. Hyuse, right? Not Yōtarō."

"…Yes. I'm looking for Hyuse more than I am that crazy bug. But if we find Hyuse, that bug will naturally be there too."

"Okay. But I will keep looking for Yōtarō over Mr. Hyuse. Is that okay?"

"If you're going to do it anyway, why ask if it's okay…? This is why I can't deal with children…"

It may have been a light joke, but Stepney knew better.

Maki was bad with jokes. So hearing a joke from him was unlikely.

"Uh, so, about why I need to apologize."

"Right. What's that about?"

"I want to apologize to Yōtarō because…I haven't been his friend. I-I-I mean, I felt like we were friends and all, but I'm not his friend because I met him by accident. Not like Michelle or Mitsubachi."

One of those names seemed to have gotten Maki's attention, but he said nothing about it.

So Stepney went on.

"My parents wanted to make sure that they would have a link with Border that isn't their money. So they…set things up so I met Yōtarō. And they wanted me to be 'friends' with him so they would have a link with the Ta-Ta-T… Ta-ma-ko-ma Branch. I want to say sorry for that."

"That…"

.

Maki felt himself get angry right away.

He was not angry with Stepney. Not at all. Getting mad at a child for this was something he could not bring himself to do, no matter how much he couldn't handle them.

No, his anger was at those who had made this child do something.

His parents, not one but both, had forced a situation onto him. With the well behaved nature Stepney had, it was likely that he had little to no objections to it.

He probably wanted to say something on the inside, but he knew that it wouldn't matter. I get that all too well. After all…

He was the same.

Maki understood what it was like to be forced to do things by a parent just because they could not say anything against it.

His mother had put him in the business of modeling and became his manager. The agency had then enlisted him into Border for publicity without him knowing. But his mother had to have known.

She was his manager and they were his agency.

He had little to no say during that time.

That was exactly what Stepney was going through now.

Those parents - the ones who had political power and as much money as possible - had forced him to the point of feeling terrible for making a false friend. For lying to that false friend. For bringing their current situation onto that false friend who was now looking for his actual friend.

Maki hated false friends, ones who only became friends with others just so they could get something out of it.

But that was also why he could not hate Stepney for this at all.

Stepney was out here, looking for that supposedly false friend so that he could apologize and tell him everything.

That's not something a false friend would do.

Stepney did not want to be false, she would continue to look for Yōtarō first and Hyuse last.

That was fine.

It only meant that the both of them would keep a keen eye out for those specific people they were looking for.

And when they found one of them-

"Oh ho? What's with this? I thought all of Border's agents would be out fighting right now. Well, all except for one stupid girl who refuses to wake up after her beating."

The temperature went cold.

No, it only felt that way to Maki.

It felt like everything had stopped and the world came to a standstill.

The voice that appeared was unfamiliar, but the way it sounded was enough for every alarm in his head to go off.

"What's wrong with you? Did you figure something out here? Hey, answer me already. I'm holding back from cussing here since there's a kid here."

Looking around he found that there was nobody around to give that voice. But that voice had to come from somewhere.

Was it in his head?

Could he be hearing something in his head?

Maybe someone was talking to him through a telepathic link.

But there were no names coming up to show him who was speaking.

In that case-

"Heeeeeeeey, fool! Are you listening!? If you want to get on my nerves and get a beating that badly, put the kid down first. I don't want him to see anything he shouldn't!"

The voice was right in front of him.

It belonged to a tall woman with hair dyed red and sticking out as if they were flames. Her outfit was very extreme, but it seemed to fit someone like her.

Noticing that he was looking at her now, she moved back to give him a predatory grin.

That grin made him feel like there was a monster staring at its prey.

"So hey, what are you two doing out here? I've seen you around the Tamakoma Branch before, but not the kid. Something happened there or what? Didn't you guys have a fu-… A prisoner there?"

"U-um…"

"Excuse me, miss! We are looking for two people! Well…actually, an animal too."

"Oh? Really now? I just happened to notice two people and an animal. Although they were in different locations. If they keep going then they'll meet up for sure though. Might be who you two are looking for."

How could Stepney speak to this monster without any issue?

He had looked at her with his innocent eyes and spoken to her like any kid would speak to an adult.

No fear could be heard in his voice and his heart rate was no different from before.

It made no sense.

Maki could not keep his eyes not his woman without having to wet his lips.

"Well, if you're looking for them then I'll just point out where they were. The guy with the hood was over there," she pointed at the Border base. Or at least near it. Her finger then moved over slightly to the side. "The kid with the animal are over in that direction."

"That you very much, miss!"

"No problem, kid! Have fun over there!"

"What are you going to be doing, miss? If you…do not mind masking."

The question had been smart.

The area they had been walking through was not one that allowed any normal people to walk through. So it only meant…

"I need to go put a stop to a fight. Probably mess around a bit. Throw some people into buildings. So nothing much. Now I need to go. See ya around."

Before the words fully registered in his mind, the woman was gone.

She had disappeared from before them, but not in the way someone would use Teleport. It was clear that she had used speed for her departure from the way the wind had moved after she left.

And now that she was gone, he could voice his words.

The ones he had been holding in the entire time.

The way she had been looking at him had made him freeze, but the Stepney had spoken to her made him think that it was only because of their natural sense of danger.

So he had decided that holding back was the better option.

Now that she was gone, he felt more free to speak.

"What was…that woman?"