Lights and sounds filled the open space within Border. Both of them moved at the same time, but it was hard to differentiate where the noise was coming from.

A decagonal blade moved through the air from the back of Wen Sō's hand.

Kumagai had been the target. The blade was deflected and the decagonal blade retracted a moment after it's course had been altered.

That moment before it could do so was filled with more lights on the other end of the open area.

Nasu fired Viper.

The points, to lines, to turns, to lines came from multiple directions that could not be dodged while still in a different movement.

The Dogs moved forward.

The remaining Dogs opened their shields to block the Viper. This had left them open.

Other Vipers turned directions and tore through the two Dogs.

Wen Sō moved back as did Kumagai.

Unlike Wen Sō, Kumagai had stationed herself closer to Nasu once more.

Viper: "Stay sharp, Kuma-chan. We don't know what kid of tricks she will use."

Nasu fired even more Viper. They each turned once again, this time all of them were blocked by Dogs.

Viper: "It looks like she's depending on the Dogs for her defense."

Kuma: "So it does. We can take her down once the Dogs are all gone."

Kumagai grabbed the hilt of Kōgetsu with both hands once more.

Their battle would continue and the both of them understood that letting their guard down for even a moment would be fatal.

Resistance: "Hello, hello? I'm coming through, right? Kawa, you're patching me through correctly, right?"

The two girls were surprised to hear another voice come in telepathically. They did not let it show on their faces, but it was good to hear this voice.

Resistance: "Hey, Nacchan! Kuma! I'm here to support you! Oh, but I won't be coming out to help. Sorry about that. But isn't it better that I stay hidden anyway? It is, right? I'm not going crazy, right?"

Kuma: "Teikō, you're rambling again."

The line went silent for a moment.

A chain of apologizes came in soon after, making both girls smile in their hearts.

Support had reached them.

.

I'm running out of Dogs.

Wen Sō observed the situation while she had the chance.

It was only a small window of opportunity to do so, but she took it anyway.

The two girls in front of her had been slowly taking out the Dogs she had with her and the amount was only growing shorter as the time went on.

If I keep fighting like this, the odds will be against me. There's about five more minutes 'til the captain completes the job. And…

Her eyes traveled to the hallway behind the two girls.

She made sure their every movement was still seeable, but her main focus had been on that hallway.

It was hard not to think about what was happening beyond that hallway.

There had been some noise coming from the hallway, in particular a strange shout, and it was worrying to her.

I need to stop thinking about it. Shi is our perfect defense with Kipourós. She can stall out for as long as she needs. I just need to beat these two girls and then I can go to her.

There would be no need to go to her captain.

He would get the job done and complete their mission.

Shi Muon had no effective way of attacking. Her Trigger could attack if she wanted, but that was not like her. The strong points she had were in defense.

The only way she would be able to win her fight would be if Wen Sō could reach her.

And that could only happen once she had won her own fight.

So her choice was clear.

I can just use them all.

She rushed forward.

Dogs meant nothing to begin with. They meant even less if it meant winning this fight and advancing forward.

"Servitora."

The straw soldiers.

Activating her Trigger, Wen Sō moved forward.

The reflective properties of her Trigger had created intangible imagines of her. Each one was a reflection of the original and moved in a way to mirror her own movements.

None of them could be physically touched and none of them could be physically harmed. The entire illusion was a way for her to confuse her opponent.

"!"

But then something confusing happened.

.

Resistance: "Did I hit her!? Did I? I didn't, did I!? There were a bunch of sudden trion signatures that I kinda panicked and fired on reflex!"

Kumagai had been initially surprised by the sudden multiplication of their opponent. They had not expected for her to add more to her numbers without bringing in more Dogs.

She had been brought back to reality when a rain of shots came down on the new army of Neighbors.

Hitsugi had fired without any sort of warning, but she could not blame the girl for it either.

But what had she meant by "sudden trion signatures"?

Even when the army had moved forward after blocking the rain of shots, none of them had seemed to be harmed in the slightest.

They had all defended and they all came out unscathed.

Hitsugi was not the best Shooter within border, not by a long shot, but that attack had range and power behind it that would make it impossible for an entire army to come out unscathed.

Then what-

Before she could finish with "is going on?" she was surrounded by all of the clones that had appeared. Each one was coming in and moving around her to circle her.

Swinging her blade to reach one of them, she found that there was no feedback from her blade that she had hit.

The blade had gone right through the body, but it did not cut the body.

There was no injury at all.

"Urg!"

She felt a cut reach her side.

Another one came from her arm.

There had been a physical body among all of the moving ones. She had taken her hits without being able to give any out.

Only one of them is attack! The rest are fake!

Wen Sō moved back after having gotten her hits on Kumagai.

For her part, Kumagai readied herself again as the sound of Nasu's Viper filled the air.

Kuma: "Sayako! Which one is the real one!"

Game Perception: "It's like Teikō said! There are a lot of trion signatures here! Data analysis can't keep up!"

"Viper!"

The shots flew through the air as points and pierced through the fake bodies as lines.

The amount of bodies made it hard to tell just which one had actually blocked the attack and which ones it had just gone through.

The rain of shots that came after only had a similar effect as two remaining Dogs jumped in the way to take the attack.

I want to fight her head-on, but she's intentionally keeping her distance.

She heard footsteps behind her and noticed the trail of black on the upper level.

Both Nasu and Hitsugi were moved away from the open area.

Viper: "Kuma, get back in the hallway. Let's move the fight to a more controlled space. Hitsu-chan, find a way to meet up with us over there."

Resistance: "R-right!"

Kuma: "Got it!"

The sound of Nasu moving back had been enough to tell her what to do before the words came in.

Kumagai pushed off the ground to move backwards.

As she did so, her opponent moved forward.

The look on her face had come as a shock.

A fierce want to keep them both within this open space.

It had come from out of nowhere.

"I won't let you get near Shi."

An onslaught from each and every clone came at her with a full intent to take her out.

Every angle was covered, cuts appeared all around her body, and the noise from her footsteps blended together. The images alone were not just making her hard to find, but the relentless offense she was putting up meant that they could not figure out which one to attack since it all moved as one.

A simultaneous cry of "Kuma" could be heard in two different locations.

"So there was another person hiding. That just makes another one to take out."

"Shit!"

Trion gas leaked from every cut that had appeared from the attack.

There had been no time to block any of the attacks that had come her way and that meant each attack had hit her.

The full intent to win had come over their showed in each and every cut she had taken.

I'm running low on trion from these attacks… I can't figure out which one is the real one! At this rate-

"Do you want me to come and help you?"

A certain voice came through.

.

"Hey now, this is pretty pathetic, you know."

It did not come through her coms. It did not come in person.

It came from the speakers above them.

Kumagai did not need to look up to know who it was.

"Hey, I'm talking to you, Yūko. This is a pathetic show. You want me to get going over to you? Want me to get revenge for you when you lose? Want me to rescue Rena over there? How about Hitsutei? That's what you want? Or do you want me to go and save you?"

Denji's voice filled the entire room.

Nasu said nothing and neither did the hiding Hitsugi.

Even the woman in front of her made no expression to the new voice.

"It would just mean another-"

"Hey bitch, shut the fuck up, would you. I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to that weakling you couldn't even take out."

His words held no malice towards the girl. They were spoken as if in a normal conversation.

But Kumagai knew.

She knew that all malice he had towards anyone was currently being directed at her and only her.

"I make my way up to the command room to watch the fun and I see you getting your ass kicked. What's up with that? …Hey bitch, if you try to move right now then I'll have this old man here teleport me to where you are. Just stay put while I lecture this idiot."

In a way it was amazing that words alone had been able to stop their opponent.

But it was not just their opponent.

Nasu did not move either. She did not fall back and she did not fire any Viper.

She knew what Denji would do if she tried anything as well.

The threat in his voice carried easily throughout the open space.

"Answer me, Yūko. What do you want me to do? I'll hear you out and think about the answer. After that, I'll personally kick your ass."

"I want you to shut up!"

"Then stop losing."

If only it were that easy.

This fight had gotten harder the more it went on.

There was an army before her that she could not touch.

She could not move back and she could not move forward.

What am I supposed to do in this situation!?

She got no answer.

She only got harsh words.

"Sekai and his buddy are out fighting the trion soldiers. #3 is off moving against those women and Kō is having fun blocking attacks like it's nobody's business. And what are you doing here? Losing. I bothered to tell you everything and you bothered to deal with any of my hate. That isn't something as simple as verifying someone's existence or accepting the happiness of everyone else. But you still decided that you would do it. If you could take my hatred then you should be able to win this fight."

But how?

How was she supposed to win now?

"You know everything about me after all."

Kumagai shot her head towards the ceiling. Where the voice was coming from.

Where he was watching her fight."

"Then tell me how to win!"

Her eyes widened at what she saw.

"I did my job here."

"Is that really why you came here, Denji? Just to help out Kumagai?"

Denji looked over to Shinoda.

The man did not turn his eyes from the screen and all attention from the others was now solely on him.

"Honestly, I just thought I should do something while I was here. I refused to join in this fight since it would get me some good hate from everyone afterwards, but I guess I couldn't keep to it when I found out the Yūko was fighting."

"Do you want me to tell the others that you did this?"

"What do you think?"

Shinoda only gave a nod in response.

"Well I'll be seeing you then. 'M g'nn' g' t'ke a n'p n'w."

Kumagai called out once she saw it.

Kuma: "Rei! Teikō! Look up!"

There, hovering near the ceiling, were small, diamond-like objects.

They bobbed up and down while in the air, but otherwise did nothing else.

But what they were was obvious.

"Viper!"

Shots were fired from behind.

They did not move towards the opponent and they did not circle around the clones.

They moved up.

The Viper shots moved towards the ceiling and to where the diamond-like objects were.

That had been what the actual physical form of Wen Sō's Trigger looked like and they just had to attack it.

"Asteroid!"

A new rain came down from above as the Vipers moved upwards.

Taking out the diamond-like objects would stop the images from appearing.

But it did not stop their opponent from moving.

Wen Sō rushed at her once more.

Denji would not come to help her and she did not need him to come.

He let this fight for her, Nasu and Hitsugi to finish.

"So we will!"

Wen Sō ran around her while the remaining images followed along.

Each one was moving in a different way with some of them going to the right and some of them going to the left.

She of the images faded from her sight as Nasu and Hitsugi continued to destroy the diamond-like objects.

There are still too many to figure out which one is the real one!

Defending against all of them would be difficult.

At this range she would have to be lucky to not receive a fatal injury. But luck was not something that she wanted to rely on here.

So she would not defend against these attacks.

She would attack herself.

Do I have enough trion for this!?

.

It had been after their match with Katori Squad and Kotowari Squad.

She had seen some amazing things during the match. One of those included a girl younger than her who did not back down when faced against opponents better than her.

Katori had seemed to have a grudge against the girl, but Kumagai only saw her as another opponent.

The thing was, she was weak.

When compared to Katori, the girl was nothing but a newbie. She was not too far off from Kumagai herself, but she was still underdeveloped when it came to abilities.

But she had not backed down in the slightest.

She had continued to fight against the two opponents who had clearly been better than her.

And in the end, she did not win.

But she did not lose.

That match had come to a draw.

The last three girls of that fight had taken each other out and brought the end of the fight to a draw with none of them gaining survival points.

Besides the sheer determination and grit of the girl, Kumagai had seen something else that amazed her. Something that girl had used to reach that conclusion.

A special Trigger that was only a prototype.

So after some thinking and talking with her squad, she had decided to try out the Trigger itself.

Since the girl had used the Trigger in a B-Rank War match it meant that the Trigger, even while being a prototype, had been approved by Border for others to use.

She had taken that Trigger and added it to her slot.

And that Trigger was…

.

"Fujin!"

As Wen Sō moved towards her target, something amazing happened.

Kumagai's blade that had been solid the entire fight exploded.

It did not send shrapnel in every direction and every part of it had remained attached to the hilt.

But the blade itself had exploded outward in what could only be described as a blooming fashion.

The blooming blade extended out, thinning each part that moved. The stillness of the blade became loose and began to move with the wind generated from Wen Sō running. One it had finished its activation, there had been no blade to speak of and instead was only a hilt with ribbons of light streaming out of it.

Kumagai clicked her tongue.

"Damn! Not enough of them!"

In total there had been five ribbons coming from the hilt and guard of the former Kōgetsu.

Wen Sō looked at the ribbons of light with wide eyes as she continued to toe forward.

She could not stop her momentum from her running in time to change course.

The blade that she had seen had suddenly turned into the ribbons of light. That in itself was terrifying.

From the information they had gotten form Aftokrator, only the Black Trigger Miden had should have been able to do that.

The ribbons of light were slashes waiting to be made and could run along surfaces to reach the target.

But Kumagai had just created that Black Trigger using her White Trigger.

It was truly a terrifying thing to think about.

"Crap!"

But the time to think about that was over.

The images from Servitora were decreasing and she was already moving towards Kumagai.

There was no stopping the attack.

Kumagai had also seen this as she prepared her own attack.

Unlike the Black Trigger, this one could not run along surfaces to attack, but instead it gave the user the ability to manually control each ribbon of light as if it were an extinction of their blade.

And that was exactly what she did.

Kumagai swung the light sword through the air to strike at one of the Wen Sōs.

When she felt that ribbons flight did not give any feedback, she knew that it had just been another image.

"!"

The real one was at her side.

A heavy footstep had come from her left to attack her.

With her body already in a swinging motion, she would not be able to defend or dodge.

So she attacked instead.

Using her control over the ribbons of light she commanded one of them to move to her left.

There was no feedback.

She commanded one of the ribbons to move to the right.

There was no feedback.

She commanded one of the ribbons to move even further to the left.

"Tch!"

There was feedback.

The ribbon of light made contact with the real body of Wen Sō.

A cut appeared on her arm as she continued to move forward.

Kumagai did not relent upon finding the real body.

"Fujin!"

With her vocal command, the remaining ribbons of light moved through the air, pushing against the wind generated around them.

Each one of them moved at a different angle. They all converged on the same point, cutting off the entirety of Wen Sō's arm.

Once the ribbons of light were used up the user would need to recreate their blade altogether.

Knowing that, Kumagai moved back, kicking Wen Sō away while making the movement.

A voice came near the hallway.

"Every scratch you left on Kuma… I'll return them to you all at once."

.

Lines traced along the ground and the air above them.

The green lines had started as points before turning into lines. Those lines had made sharp turns before turning back into lines.

These lines spiraled.

From top to bottom, a relentless barrage of Viper slammed into Wen Sō's back and stomach.

She tried to block the ones form below, but that had only made them toss her into the air.

The Viper coming from the air shot down.

Viper from the open air connected with Viper using from the ground.

Wen Sō's body was torn to pieces.

.

Nasu and Kumagai watched as their opponent's upper half and bottom half slammed into the ground near them.

She stared up to the ceiling as the two girls moved towards each other.

From above them they could hear the sound of rapid footsteps getting closer.

With a sudden shout, Hitsugi jumped down to meet with them.

"That was amazing, Kuma! I have never seen that Trigger before! When did you equip that!?"

"Oh, I did it after our match with Kotowari. I haven't been able to ask Taiyōko anything particular about it yet, so I plan on doing that later on."

"I thought you wouldn't use it here since the drawback of losing your blade would hurt too much."

"I was low on trion anyway. So it was either now or never. Although…"

Looking down at her hilt, Kumaai noted just how light it became without the blade there for weight.

"It really is tricky to use. Even if she is the one who made it, I'm honestly surprised that Taiyōko had been able to use it so well when she fought me and Katori."

"That just goes to show how dangerous that squad is now."

Looking back up at Nasu, Kumagai couldn't help but smile.

The girl returned it in full, not knowing what it was for.

"You know, Rei, with you helping out Kotowari so much, maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing to have more practice matches with them. Toby already bugs me for a match as it is. This would kill a lot of birds with a single stone."

Now knowing the reason for her smile, Nasu's only grew.

"That does sound nice."

A new noise filled their ears as they looked up to see where it was coming from.

"Aw. Looks like we got here too late."

Kikuchihara and Utagawa stared down at the girls.

Kikuchihara had his hair tied back and was cleaning on the railing while Utagawa waved over to them.

With a smile on his face as well, he called out to them.

"Nice job here."

.

Wen Sō looked at the ceiling with half-shut eyes.

She had lost in the end and could not move her body.

Even if she could, half of it was somewhere else and she could not reach it.

Looks like I managed to keep five of them here. I guess that's good enough.

But it was only good for the mission.

Wen Sō knew exactly why it was not good for individuals.

She had been trying to reach one of those individuals. They had been on her mind the entire time the fight had been going on.

Shi…

Shi Muon was in one of the hallways after this open area.

She had been stopped by some opponents and was fighting by herself.

The girl had never been much of a fight, always wanting to just take the passive route when it came to conflicts. Even her Trigger had been used for defense more than it ever had for offense.

It was just who she was.

And it was because of that that Wen Sō felt herself regretting her loss even more.

She had not been able to win and had not been able to make it to that hallway. To where Shi Muon was.

"Shi. Don't push yourself too hard, okay?"

She sent words of someone who had lost.

And someone who could not help.

Shi Muon felt like crying.

She had received the message from Wen Sō and the noise in that open area had stopped.

Wen…

She was not dead and she would not die. Her trion body would return her to their ship and she would be okay.

But she had lost.

Wen is so serious. A loss like that might get to her. And…

And Shi Muon had not wanted for Wen Sō to lose.

The older woman had always helped her out, taken her side, and been with her during troubling times. Knowing that such a person had lost while on this mission reminded her that it would stick for some time.

Their captain would finish their mission in only a few minutes and she only had to hold out for those few minutes. It would be easy for her and her defensive Trigger.

But that did not take away from the loss they had just taken.

Miden's fighters were freed up from a fight and could now move to assist where they would be needed.

Shi Muon gave a bitter laugh when she thought about it.

Wen probably thought she did well because she held them back at all.

It was something that she would think. She knew this from having been around the older woman for so long.

That fight had indeed held back some Miden fighters and it gave them all some extra time, even if she had lost.

There was nothing to feel sad about when she thought about it.

Wen Sō would return to their ship. She would be fine after this loss and they would accomplish their mission because their captain was strong.

He is a Black Trigger user. He can't be anything but strong! So I need to be strong too! I don't need my strength to attack! All I need to do is follow Wen's example and hold off these fighters until our strong captain has accomplished the mission!

With a new resolve in mind, Shi Muon focused on her opponents.

One was a blue haired girl with a dull expression and the other was…

"Um… Is he okay?"

She couldn't help herself but to worry about her opponent.

.

Hisoka tilted her head at the question their opponent had asked.

She knew the woman was talking about the boy behind her, but it was odd for someone like a Neighbor to worry about their opponents while they were busy attacking.

Even so, she took a look behind herself to see what was happening with Tsuji.

From where she was, she could see his head speaking out from the far corner of the hallway. His entire body was hidden by the corner and his eyes were looking everywhere but their direction.

Nodding to herself, Hisoka turned back to the Neighbor with a worried look.

"He is fine. It's just that no one told him that my opponent was a woman."

"Is that an issue?"

"It is."

"…What if I hide my breasts?"

"You would still be a woman."

"If I cut my hair?"

"You would still be a woman."

"Um… What if I just cocoon myself in my vines?"

"You would still be-"

Hisoka's words were cut off by the sudden movement of the vines coming from the Neighbors device on her back.

The vines extended out far behind her and began to wrap around her figure before Hisoka had any chance to move.

Once the vines had stopped moving, the entirety of her vision contained only the large cocoon of vines that took up the space of the hallway.

"Well that is not good."

She looked behind herself again and saw that Tsuji was still refusing to look their way.

Hisoka herself was not a problem for him. Not since Oshiro had come along and managed to get Tsuji to conquer his fear of females.

It was just a shame that that fear was only conquered when it came to Hisoka.

With no way of breaking through the cocoon, Hisoka called out behind her to the shaking boy behind the corner.

"Hey Shin-kun, that woman isn't here anymore. She left after making this wall of vines. Can you cut through the vines so I can get through them?"

Tsuji said nothing, instead only shaking his head rapidly.

His perfectly combed and neat hair shook with the shake of his head. The part of his hair that was to the side moved closer to the middle of his forehead and parts of his hair could be seen sticking out.

"Well this really is not good."

How was she supposed to break through those vines?

She had only said what she did to get Tsuji moving, but when she thought about it, it was likely that this opponent really did just make a wall of vines while making her escape.

It would only make sense given the situation.

If they were kept in place in this hallway then she would be able to go back and help the Neighbor who had been in the open space passed the hallway. The noises from that direction had come to an end, but that could have meant anything.

Looking down at her guns, she shook her head.

The strongest Trigger I have is Asteroid. Those are pretty strong, but it took Shin-kun's Senkū to break through those vines. If she layered them like she did before then I won't be able to break through with just what I have on hand.

She did not sigh and she did not glare at the cocoon of vines in front of her.

There was no feeling in what she was seeing and everything she was thinking about were facts on the current situation.

"Out of my way. Just being around you is maaaaaaaking me sleeeeeepy. If it wasn't for this trioooooooon body, I would already beeeeee asleep. You're shaking so daaaaaaamn much that it's aaaaaaalso annoying. If you caaaaaaaaaaaan't fight, mooooooooove out of the waaaaaaay."

.

Hisoka was confused by the voice from behind her.

Wanting to see who it was, she turned around. Just as she did so…

"Don't move."

Something shot passed her.

A green light had appeared next to her extending out and going towards the direction of the cocoon of vines.

With her back now facing the cocoon of vines and her front facing the end of the hallway, she could clearly see what all of the talking had been about.

The one originally tasked with this fight was standing there, hand extended out with a green light coming from his fingertip and extending out.

The tired looking boy glared in her direction with one foot on the ground and another on top of Tsuji.

For his part, Tsuji was on the floor, looking to have been kicked there. He laid flat on the ground with the tired boy's foot on top of his back.

It was a strange sight to see.

"You twoooooooo were having trouble wiiiiiiiiiiith this thing? It only takes one of my arc trion blades to pierce iiiiiiit."

Each sentence that came from the boy's mouth had contained a yawn within it.

Even with her lack of ability to understand emotion and express them, Hisoka still got infected by things like yawns and sighs. With the way this boy was doing it, she could feel a yawn start to build up within her body as well. Even if she did not feel tired.

It was dangerous to focus on his yawns any longer. So she turned back around to see where the supposed arc trion blade had connected with the cocoon of vines.

True to what the boy had said, the arc trion blade had pierced through the dense vines. It seemed to go even further as a small cut could be seen through the vines.

"Shinodaaaaaaaaaaa-san, this is Taiyōko. I've maaaaaade it to the hallwaaaaaay. Engaging in combaaaaat now."