"To tell you the truth, before I joined, Kiyoshi-san wanted to have Senpai join his squad first. I'll admit to being jealous of that."

Meishō Seiji looked over to the computer sitting at their Operator's desk with Ariake Mitsuteru seated next to him.

He saw the screen turned on from when he had been over there a moment ago.

"That's also something normal to feel. Don't worry about it."

"You say that, but that's a bit difficult for me to do since Senpai is a good guy and I'm just being petty about it."

"Did you feel that way when Shige-ko and Shinichi joined before you?"

Mitsuteru lifted his shoulders at that.

"You have a troublesome personality, you know that? But anyway, there is a lot you don't know about everything. That is just how it is, Seiji-san."

Black Wolf: "…"

"Are you going to ask me to wait to make my judgment until I do understand?"

"No, I'm not," cut in Mitsuteru. "Besides, you can still make your judgement since you at least know me well enough. If you don't understand before everything happens, then it's too late by the time you do. Then I'll really feel like a bad person."

"Are you talking to me here, or yourself?"

"Good question." Mitsuteru pulled his hood down over his eyes. "How about I finally start this old and unnecessary story?"

About…

"How those people left this ordinary person for a more hectic world filled with better things."

Arafune leaned against the Ninomiya Squad operating room's wall and raised his finger toward Inukai

"Listen," he said to gather the other boy's attention. "This might make for a good story and it might set the stage for something. You claim there is some major importance to your next match's opponents fighting each other. That sounds like an interesting historical suspense story, so I can use it like I do the radio while checking on the SS' manuscript."

"That's a good idea," said Inukai as he got up and opened a display window.

Inu: "Do you want to hear about Taiyōko Squad too, Jinsei?"

Arafune raised an eyebrow at what he saw. It was not because of who Inukai had contacted. It was…

"When did you change your chat name?"

"Huh? Oh, just today. After a nice talk with Oshiro, I thought it would be better to have it as a part of my last new instead of my first name. That way he won't get jealous that other people refer to me like that."

"You mind if I write that down to get some points with the SS?"

"Go ahead. If Oshiro and I end up in a doujinshi made by Suzume-chan, we will know that it's good work that we can be happy with."

"Glad to know that love really has made you insane."

He began to write down a note as Inukai looked over to the display window.

Life: "They do seem to have some kind of history, but are you sure it isn't a sad story that'll make me cry?"

TetsuG: "They're still active as Border members, so they must have had a positive outlook by the end. Whatever happened to them, they still want to stay here with us."

Arafune smiled bitterly when he saw Inukai look up.

"That's my thanks for giving me some points where it's needed."

"Tetsu-chan, you're in such a good mood you feel like someone else entirely."

"Good. That's what happens when I get something good happening to me."

"Was it because of Suwa-san~?"

"Shut up."

"Fine, fine," said Inukai while raising his phone higher.

Inu: "Um, okay. Let's talk about a mystery or slight oddity concerning Taiyōko Squad."

Life: "You saying the guys are actually dickless?"

Inu: "No, those guys definitely have dicks. As someone who has gone through similar struggles, there's something about their movement when they're hard that I recognize. …But that's not the point."

TetsuG: "That would be a surprise though, you have to admit."

"I suppose," replied Inukai as the two dogs close to him propped themselves up in interest next to him.

Inu: "This has to do with how they were even formed, the order in which it happened, so what even brought them together."

.

"Now," said Inukai as he scrolled through his display window.

All of this had been sent to Kimura as well.

She would provide information on the people with some connection to her former squad, especially when they had a connection to Yuki and Mei or were an important figure – and especially especially when they were from a period in Border's history that Akashi would invent weird fantasies about.

Ariake Mitsuteru fell into that category.

…We don't have much time, so I need to get right to the point.

Inu: "In all honesty, Kiyoshi and Fuji-san hit it off pretty well at first. Well, if you count yelling, cursing and unasked questions as 'pretty well'."

"That sounds awfully familiar."

Inukai wanted to shout "I knew you would say that!", but he could not stop the flush rising from his neck. He blushed far too easily when thinking about his own mistakes. Did he just have to get used to it? But…

Life: "I remember the delinquent boy using me as a mace at times. That was kinda fun. But what kind of relationship did Kanzaki and Ariake have with those two?"

Inu: "Well, at first, Kiyoshi had gotten Fuji-san, Kanzaki and Kimura onboard with making a squad."

TetsuG: "Wow, so he was a player. So where did Ariake come in?"

Inu: "Um, well, this is kind of a pain to explain, but he was still new to Border in general, joining properly at the same time as Kiyoshi and Kanzaki."

However, self records described what happened later.

Inu: "When he had been rejected by Kō-kun, who had already joined the Suzunari Branch, he had told Ariake to get even better so that he could join his squad."

TetsuG: "So he forced that decision onto Ariake in order to fill a spot that should have gone to Murakami, huh?"

Life: "But why did he choose Ariake?"

Inu: "I wasn't told anything specific about it. The only thing I knew was a passing comment from Hatohara… Uh, Mirai, that is. She had gotten close to them before Kiyoshi had even joined, it seems."

"But," said Inukai.

He had a thought about the current boy who held a different name. To put it to words…

Inu: "The current 'Tsukiko Yuki' acts as if his former squad hadn't existed in the first place."

"Really, it was all a big pain in the rear," said Mitsuteru while seated on the sofa and eating a teacake that had been sitting there for a while now. "Kiyoshi-san was not my captain for too long. Probably for less time than I have been here."

"Yes, I was aware of that."

"You looked into it?" he asked without even looking over.

Seiji covered his mouth with a hand and smiled.

"Before even joining, I had been able to gather information because rumors easily spread."

"Then there's no point in hiding it. Think of this as verification from a contemporary."

Listen.

"All records say he had a squad of four.

"After that, he vanished. Rather, he died.

"But if we are including Kimura-senpai in that, he should not have had four members on his squad. A fifth one should have been down in the records."

"Right, but after his death, most records would-…"

Another blank comment came from the black wolf in the chat.

"I'll get to that later," said Mitsuteru. "Now, you seem to think you know about the treatment of that squad, but I bet you didn't know this."

This being…

"Everyone was just using each other."

Inu: "At the time, there was already a standard when it came to squads that was never mentioned but always implied. The two of you should remember something along those lines. That being you should look out for your squamates when fighting. I went back to look over some stuff after the incident with Kushikage-san and was able to view a ton of information about those guys. As well as remember some stuff."

He had learned something from tat.

Inu: "Those guys, for the time, were absolute monsters…I think. I can't quite track down all the information, but the way they did things could be seen as a worse version of how Kotowari Squad does things without Hoshi-chan."

TetsuG: "So you're saying that they only ever did things solo? When you bring it up, I do remember something like that going around at the time."

Inu: "That's where things get tricky."

Inukai viewed the records as he spoke.

Inu: "Fuji-san's name spread out first. And while she was building up a reputation with her Side Effect - something unknown to us at the time - Kiyoshi and Kanzaki started to gain some things to their names. …Ariake's time never came up."

Life: "Cause he was lazy?"

Inu: "Go have him kick your butt later, Jinsei. …Anyway, Ariake's only real accomplishment during that time was the fact that one could really remember him ever being on that squad to begin with. Although that never seemed to bother him."

TetsuG: "So what was that overly average boy doing before he got noticed as 'Ariake Mitsuteru'?"

Inu: "Well, from talk around the base at the time, I know that there was usually something on the battlefield that made those attack-heavy fighters start winning at a strange rate."

And…

Inu: "That 'something' had turned out to be Ariake."

"That sounds like a complicated friendship. Or squad-member-ship…yes."

"I have to agree with you, but we thought we were making things simpler at the time. Those guys were good to me, so I saw them as proper upperclassmen. If anything, I was in charge of planning, supporting, and dragging them along. Kimura-senpai did help me at the time. The other three were more like warmongers, monsters, or…you know how you'll get those kinds of people who only go at their own pace at all times? That's what I mean."

"Oh, so something like my former agency with me."

If they heard any of that, it was certain that they would rush back to him and prostrate themselves in front of him.

"Well, they weren't quite so dramatic. But, anyway, they did feel like a team, even when trying to fight only by themselves and for themselves."

However…

"After Fuji-san had built up a reputation, Kiyoshi-san and Kanzaki-senpai did the same. Then Kimura-senpai had begun to go around to other squads for her own reasons. All of them were amazing and people I could look up to with minimal issues. Then again, that is also normal, isn't it? I mean, I also look up to you and Shige-ko. That was why it was fine when no one thought of what had supported them during that time."

"And that was you?"

"Right," confirmed Mitsuteru. "Although it was just them using this average boy who had nothing to his name. And I figured I might as well do something else after Shige-ko had suggested I join Border. It would make me a bit useful."

So while only really being a Border member in name only, he met up with these people and joined their squad.

All three of the females were well received by everyone and, by the time his captain had been better known, he had started to put less pressure and tension on him, making it a fairly comfortable life with them.

"Their position as a B-Rank squad was secured and, by the time they wanted to join the BRW, even I had learned how to do things better. I even ended up being mentored by a special someone. Anyway, they wanted to reach A-Rank, so I thought about returning to being a solo agent."

"Why didn't you?"

Black Wolf: "Kiyoshi had told me about this part. Do you mind?"

"By all means, Senpai," Mitsuteru said with a shrug.

Black Wolf: "That's simple enough. Mitsuteru had taken Kiyoshi out into the city and asked for help choosing a departure gift for everyone."

"A departure gift? Was that really necessary if you were just going to leave the squad."

Mitsuteru gave a bitter smile as he tossed his head back against the sofa.

Black Wolf: "The thing was… Mitsuteru was only supposed to be in Mikado City for a bit. Once he had been scouted by Border he and his family had stayed in Mikado City for a whole year before he joined."

"Depending on how things went while I was a part of Border, we would either stay in the city or move back to our old home. The fact I'm here now should tell you enough."

"You were able to stay."

"That's right." He gave a weak thumbs up. "During that time I had been out with Kiyoshi-san, he asked me to continue working with them all if I had no real reason to return to that former home."

"He made a direct request?"

"Yeah. It was the first time he had ever done that, so I ran it by my parents."

Starting then, they had lived in peace.

He had never found out what the conditions for staying in Mikado City had been, but his parents had agreed to it regardless.

The rest of Taiyōko Squad had not been the type to let status or rank mess with them even if they wanted, so the days had passed relatively uneventfully.

But a certain time limit was approaching.

…What could we even do?

"Kiyoshi-san had tried to do everything in his power to prevent a certain person from returning to the city. The plan had been for him to speak with his parents in order to prevent that person from coming back and doing anything that could be viewed as drastic. It was thought that even they would benefit from it."

Black Wolf: "It was a way from destroying his entire squad as people. That person would have done so much worse if she came in contact with any of you. After all, what happened with Senpai was…"

"Don't say it, Senpai. Even I don't want you to be in that kind of pain."

"Then this can be a lesson for the both of you. But what happened to that plan?"

You could figure that out from the end result.

"Without warning, everything fell apart."

Inu: "The remaining parts that people can remember - even for someone like Kō-kun - is that Kiyoshi had gone to meet with his parents about something. At the time, they were trying to get in good with Kurosaki while disregarding Border for the time being. As you know, they were anti-Border, but only due to the way Border would not just hand out Triggers to just anyone. As long as the job was being done, they wouldn't go to extreme lengths to stop anything."

TetsuG: "Why wouldn't they just try for a compromise? I thought they would at least try to get something for themselves to help. Actually, yeah, why did they never try to join Border themselves?"

Inu: "You're asking too many questions about people were were much worse than the rest of us are. If Jinsei is the finical of stupidity, arrogance and unfairness, then these guys are the ones who laugh at him for just being a kid."

Life: "That's freaking scary as hell! And they're the ones who raised our idiot ninja!?"

TetsuG: "Wait… Inukai, how do you know that exactly?"

The harsh glare he got from Arafune only made him start to sweat in his heart.

Inu: "Well… Because I had met them before. And not in a situation like Kō-kun either. It was in a terrible situation where there was only chaos and confusion. You see, that entire family has a bad habit of just being destructive when they try to help others. It's probably why they are good soldiers. Every time they try and do something for someone else, it's usually through a distorted and dangerous method. For example: say they wanted to end world hunger. The way they would go about that is by having everyone reach the point of starvation to have them realize that it's better to share and not waste food as opposed to just tossing out leftovers that are only a few hours old. That seems to have fallen off by the third child - Mukkun - but the two two children and the parents are like that. They truly do think they are doing something good, but I think that's just an excuse."

Arafune frowned at that.

…Oh, nothing gets past him.

I should have known, thought Inukai while Arafune's face was illuminated by his own phone.

TetsuG: "What do you mean they truly think they are doing something good, but it was an excuse?"

Inu: "Well, this is something that had to stay between us. Or rather, it's a special issue that is in some records but would be discredited as misinformation if you tried to spread it around."

TetsuG: "Whether or not I send it to Misaki to draw is for me to decide."

Then this should be safe, decided Inukai.

"We know of the issue Yuki and Mei-san have with Kushikage-sas. In a similar vein, you can say that Kimura, Kanzaki and Ariake have issues with the parents."

TetsuG: "What kind of issues are we talking about here?"

Inu: "More or less the kind you would find with an overprotective brother threatening his sister's lover. What I'm basically getting at is that those parents quickly became harsh to the ones they viewed as bigger failures than the son they saw a failure."

In other words…

Inu: "Everything happened all at the same time. Those parents had given their thoughts, that person had made it back, Kiyoshi was bak in a den of lions, and all of Taiyōko Squad would be caught up in it since they had that sort of connection."

Jinsei: "But that was a shared connection using Border."

Inu: "Connections can be viewed in a lot of different ways. Even if we have connections because of Border, there are also connections as schoolmates, age groups, or just because we know the same person. All of those connections only stacked on top of each other for that family."

Life: "So what happens because of those connections?"

I guess there's no holding back now. Yuki has been ignoring me since that morning, so I'll just tell them what I can.

TetsuG: "We should hurry along here. Besides the match coming up, if Akashi gets word of this, it'll only end terribly for all of us. So what all happened exactly?"

Inu: "In basic terms. Everything bad that could happen, did happen. In order of events… Kiyoshi had arrived at his home; that person had made it back; Kurosaki had gone to see those parents; Kiyoshi had left, knowing that those parents would do nothing now. And after that… Well, Taiyōko Squad had their own incident. Kimura and Kanzaki were elsewhere at the time, but I got to see firsthand what caused one of the biggest incidents in Ninomiya-san's life."

"That was…"

Inu: "The incident between Kiyoshi…Yuki and Ninomiya-san. And at the same time, the first instance of Rampage Dress showed up. The kicker that finished the day off, news of the Taiyōko parents' deaths came out. No one but the oldest daughter knew what happened."

"I still don't know why, but things changed so quickly." Mitsuteru thought back to when it happened. "At the time, it was a single day from the start. O had never really thought much about what was going to happen during the day and, when I heard that Kiyoshi-san was going to see his parents, I was just glad didn't have to mess with all that."

"Well, Have heard that that family didn't do much concerning the actual meters of Border, so why would you have thought much about them?"

"True enough," he agreed. "For that very reason, no one had actually bothered to go near that family unless it was absolutely necessary. But that had probably been why Kiyoshi-san felt safe going there. And why I figured it would be fine if he went without telling anyone else. Since that was the case, I suppose I should apologize to Senpai for being a terrible underclassman like that. I'm pretty average at everything, but those guys had turned me into a delinquent for a moment."

Black Wolf: "Where do you think I started? Before that guy came along, I liked to think I was pretty good as a person. Recently, it feels like I'm really giving into some selfish demands."

"In any case…"

But what happened in there?

He only knew that it had resulted in a hardline stance on viewpoints that were never changed.

"My only raise is for everyone's decisiveness when it all came down to what they wanted."

"What do you mean?"

"Right. Rumor has it, they could be heard arguing in the house during the time and neither side gave an inch. A simple matter of not wanting to see a sister had caused that noise."

Thinking back now, he was glad Kiyoshi was the kind of person.

Because once it was all over, he had managed to follow him around a while and forget his own troubles.

But back before they knew what the future held, they had chosen a different path.

"When we departed for the morning, Kiyoshi-san called out to me and said this: 'I'm sorry for keeping you here for so long, Mitsuteru.'"

"Mitsuteru?"

"That's right. That was the first time he had called me by name, but I just accepted it without thinking too hard about it."

…If I had thought about it, I could have figured it out. I was so stupid to leave it to an upperclassman like him.

"At the time, I laughed and told him he had nothing to apologize for and that it had been fun. You see, that conversation had led to Kiyoshi-san asking that I leave his squad. So if that was going to be the case, then I had to at least keep up with strange people like them, so I said this to Kiyoshi-san."

He had wanted to look like a matured underclassman in front of the boy he saw as a skilled captain. So…

"'I'll make sure to keep up in case you all need help again.'"

"Oh my."

"I will never forget the look on his face when I said that."

"Was he happy?"

"Not a chance."

Mitsuteru smiled bitterly. Kiyoshi had scratched his head with some red dusting his cheeks that could have been interpreted as hoy or resignation and he had beaten on Mitsuteru through his clothes. Over and over.

"He told me I was stupid. …But I already knew I was stupid, so I again accepted it without thinking too hard about it. And that was a mistake."

He had calmed Kiyoshi and gone back home without really knowing what any of it meant.

He remembered it being a long trip.

"By the time I woke up the next day, I had heard that a lot of things happened and that two certain people had been hospitalized. The names were all too familiar to me, so I made sure to skip school that day, as well as the festival going on, to go see them. When I finally got there and was told the girl had been sleeping, I went over to the boy's room. Once I got to him, he suddenly spoke to me."

He said…

"'How should I put this? You should probably stop addressing me the same way you had been until now.'"

Black Wolf: "…Sorry about that."

Please don't apologize, Senpai. That's just unfair.

There had been another boy there, but the look on his face had been a pained one.

Mitsuteru did not want to remember that boy for the time being.

Black Wolf: "That is when Kiyoshi had 'died'."

It was.

"I had assumed he was just being weird again and wanted me to stop using an honorific with him. I remember that his expression had been much softer than I had ever seen, so it felt more like one of Kimura-senpai's jokes. I could see that others had already visited him and I said 'are you talking nonsense again?' with a sigh."

He had responded with a "no".

"I pointed out that I can't start disrespecting him just because he got hospitalized."

He had meant it as a bit of a cruel joke since he had always refused hospital visits and he knew his former captain hated the plain rooms. But…

"He had told me to call him by a completely unfamiliar name."

.

"––––––"

Should Seiji's silence have made him feel proud or made him laugh at himself.

He still did not really get it.

"He gave me a name to call him by when he had never cared about that stuff before. I don't get what my upperclassmen are thinking sometimes. But I did finally understand why Kiyoshi-san had wanted me to leave his squad. And why he had made sure to make the procedure happen quickly."

You idiot. Stop looking down on yourself by assuming people are being considerate or cruel.

He had not thought much of anything about that idiocy. But…

"Well, I got really angry with him. But I had to calm down immediately since I was in a hospital and he was a patient."

Black Wolf: "I don't think he has ever made that kind of expression again."

"And what happened after?"

You're enjoying this aren't you? he thought about Seiji's reaction.

"I made sure to get the situation down in my memory. Senpai had to explain it a few times for me since I only have an average memory. He was clearly leaving things out, but even I understood that he couldn't say everything."

With that, he had realized that everything connected to his former captain had been involved and had been why he had "died".

Kiyoshi had wanted to cut his connection with his entire squad.

He wanted to make sure that they would not be involved.

Kiyoshi had wanted to make sure that every bad connection he had could not possibly touch all of the good connections he had made with others.

"Of course it became hard to speak with him or the girl who had also started going by a different name after that."

Kimura and Kanzaki had been told as much as he had, but they had not tried anything afterwards. They seemed to accept it all to the best of their abilities and move on. Kimura had gotten involved with a nice person and became his Operator while Kanzaki had continued to gain points as a solo agent. He had not understood how they could do that so easily, but he chose to not think about it too hard instead. By that time he had decided to join Shigenaga in the squad she was a part of.

"But even that small time of figuring things out had come to an end."

"Ariake," Kimura had said when walking up to him. "I heard that 'Yuki' had gotten a new squad. They are all relatively new. I thought you would like to know."

It had been nice of her to tell him.

Those new members must have been having a rough time dealing with him.

"I should probably make sure he isn't causing trouble. Even if Fuji-san… No, she's 'Takato'-san now… Well, even if she is there, we all know how much of a handful he can be."

Upon finding him, he said…

"'Ariake, this is my squad.'"

"And what did you say in response?"

"I hate to say it, but I honestly don't remember."

That showed just how overwhelmed with emotion he had been.

Part of him was certain he had said something, but part of him was certain he had not.

And would he have even had the words to reply back then?

"I got to see firsthand how he was trying to get rid of the past. His name, the 'first squad', and how he called me. It was clear that he wanted nothing to do with things that had happened before he had 'died'."

He took a breath.

"And then those three showed me their true colors."

"You mean…?"

"Shortly after he had gone off, those three spoke to me. Well, two of them did. The third one hadn't even turned in my direction during that whole time."

The older girl had made some comments about him, but it felt more like she was playing with him. The second boy had been ready to fight him in a solo match, but clicked his tongue and turned away once he told him that he was a Sniper and that would not do.

"Apparently I had made a bad first impression with them, or they really thought so little of me."

Black Wolf: "Those three… It won't make up for their behavior, but their respective situations were not the best so them acting out like that makes sense."

That was fine.

He did not need reassurance on the way he had been treated.

They had been underclassmen and the ones that his former captain had chosen as his next squad.

Still, it hit to think that ill-behaved underclassmen like them were who his former captain had chosen.

But he had no right to express any of that.

He could only stand by and accept it.

"Why is there so much you only understand after you lose something?"

Dammit.

"I was so stupid to misunderstand what was going on with every around me. In a way, revealing my stupidity must have led Kiyoshi-san and Fuji-san to realize their considerate efforts were wasted on me. It's obvious now that starting over was the only way to properly get things done and escape what had happened."

They had really been thoughtful upperclassmen. But…

Black Wolf: "There's more to the story than even that…"

Seiji's expression was something rare to see. A look of complete shock.

"Yeah. There's one last part. It's the reason for everything that's been going on with me recently."

Had he managed to catch up to those upperclassmen?

It was a bit late to be asking that, but he had to get the answer.

"I had heard that the new squad had disbanded."

He was disgusted with the small amount of joy he had felt at the time before squashing it down. And…

…This is how I really felt.

"I started to resent those three even more. I felt disgusted by their behavior once I learned how they had been acting up afterwards."

Those three had taken a dangerous downward spiral simply because they did not have a team with him on it.

What had happened to the team before that? Where were all of those members now that they had been asked to step down from their positions on that forgotten squad?

I really am stupid.

"I see… Teru-kun? You, who had seen him before his 'death' and after his 'death', feel like those three had no right to act the way they did. Especially since he was not 'dead' to them."

"Exactly." He stood up. "That's why I will be going all out in this next match. We have reached a point where we can finally face them. I know they have changed, but I want to see them for myself. What kind of people have they become after going through so little when compared to the rest of us? I want to find that out today."

He lowers his hood. When he looked over at the screen in the other room, he realized just how embarrassing a story he had told. However…

"They aren't the only reason I'm doing this. For at least a single moment, I want to see what my upperclassmen have to say about me now. The ones who will be watching…and the ones I will be fighting."

Black Wolf: "That's not all, is it? There is one other person who you have a small grudge against."

That was right. One other person in this next match had also been on his mind when telling this story.

The regret from feeling this way would come once everything had been let out. Someone as average as him should have never felt anything as strongly as this, but all of the tension from the coming match had been too much for him to simply breath out.

"Yeah. There was one other upperclassman who played a part during that time. So I want to make sure that she was correct in her assessment of me."

He moved over to type some things on the computer in the other room.

And he took a breath.

Just as easily taking it in, he released that breath.

"Story time is over, so it's time to face reality. …I will be properly focusing on this match once it starts, Seiji-san, Senpai. It's extremely selfish of me to do this, so I'll also be moving on no matter what the results are."

He could not see it due to being in a different room, but both of his upperclassmen smiled.

"That is a normal thing to do."