Viper: "Ooh, right to the face, right to the face. And he's rolling, he's rolling. Is he out? Is he out? Yeah, he's out."

Tono: "Nasu, that's not enough to qualify as commentary."

Leagues Above: "It's on the logs, but I got it on video, so what do we do with it?"

Blue Widow: "Could you give me a copy? I can reference it for combat training."

The inaudible "Bail Out" could be felt in their messages.

.

Sekai saw a terrible group begin discussing something dangerous off to the side.

A few seats down from him he could see one of the better agents give a pout alongside two dogs.

But what had caught his attention had been what the terrible ones were saying.

"Okay, let's do a history recreation for the punishment after his defeat. Since he just earned one of his future losses."

Demon Child: "Eh!? You're going to writing on him!? That's all!? At least make some gnocchi come out!"

Life: "He's still a first year in high school, so anything too harsh might scar him for life."

"Besides, doodling on the loser is a standard rule in the Far East."

"Arafune, that's only true in hanetsuki."

"Hey, guys? Doing it in ink is fine and all, but that kind washes off in water, right?"

That last comment came from the Senzai Squad Captain who had descended from the stairs, so there was clearly something wrong here.

Meanwhile, with the victor, Shigenaga on the screen…

"..."

The woman lowered her right leg but then raised it back up a few times.

Manager: "That was really impressive. When Agent Shigenaga there launched the additional Shield, she needed to launch it horizontally from very low to the ground. She realized that would be difficult with her hand, so she immediately kicked it instead."

White Fox: "Right. From the looks of it, that was an unusual case for her as well."

The way the woman was tilting her head and throwing test kicks into the air suggested this had been an adlibbed technique for her.

…Pulling that off in battle requires both experience and the instincts developed from that experience.

There were some natural warriors who could get by without practicing. Yuki was more on that end of things. He had an instinctual knack for combat seen in his sense of fighting and other aspects of his fighting.

But even he had required quite a bit of experience before he had what it took to be a reliable fighter.

And the boy Shigenaga had fought lacked that.

Any experience, instincts, and strengths he had were not suited for the battlefield.

That was why he had lost just now. However…

WorTri: "He misread Shigenaga's skill level. Or rather, he could not read it at all."

.

Akane thought back to the fight's final moments as she listened to her uncle's words.

"At the very end, Taichi tried to do something with the Sniper Triggers, but he should have run away again."

Still Young Girl: "You could tell, Akane?"

"Yes," she confirmed.

Shigenaga had kicked the decisive shield because she had seen what Taichi was doing.

Because she knew he was trying to do something, she had stayed away and kicked the shield instead.

There had of course been some distance between them. And he had carelessly turned his back on her.

But that distance had worked in Shigenaga's favor.

It had given her time to act even though he was trying something.

Even if her kicked shield had missed, she would have been able to make another move.

Of course, the stacked shields she had sent out earlier had blocked her view. Akane had seen that as a good chance for Taichi to strike back, but…

"Yoshiko-san, you were right!"

Still Young Girl: "Do you know why?"

"Yes! Even if Taichi tried to make a counterattack, he couldn't read the flow of battle. That was why it took him so long to make the decision and to act on it! …He tried to do something with the rifle barrels, but he should have done it while pretending he was making a slide!"

Still Young Girl: "Yes, after sliding head-first and flipping over to a sniping pose, moving to either side becomes almost impossible…"

"But I bet he didn't know any other way to fight!"

And…

"He doesn't have a lot of close range combat experience! He did figure out he should counterattack while Shigenaga-san's view was blocked, but he didn't know he needed to do it immediately! …After all, once her view was blocked, her very next move would be to make another attack to keep him in check."

Still Young Girl: "Sounds like you have learned how to view the battlefield."

"Not really," sighed Akane dejectedly. "I couldn't even try to do it in real-time. I can only say all this in hindsight."

Inukai did not react to the harsh shield bash from Shigenaga nor did he react to light flying in the sky.

What he reacted to were the sign frames that appeared.

During the entire encounter between Shigenaga and Taichi, he had ben held off from moving closer.

Toby took the brunt of the fighting by continuously circling around him while Hoshi provided support fire.

It was rather impressive that she had not moved forward.

She had stayed just out of his range while continuing to fire on him to take his attention away.

Toby had only been getting so far though, so it all ended up more as a stalemate than anything else.

But that had changed.

With Taichi taken out, that left Shigenaga alone.

Toby took that chance.

I can't let them get this point!

Reaching Toby or Shigenaga at this point would be impossible.

So instead…

Hound!

From his gun and from a cube behind him, Inukai fired.

The tracking shots from the cube moved in wide arcs while the ones from his gun moved closer together.

Hoshi stood in front of him, so the shield she brought up would only be able to block one of the volleys.

Ninomiya-san and Kō-kun are over there, so I would like to get there soon. So even if it's only this one point, I'll take it to lighten the load.

There were there targets here.

Firing at multiple targets without support would not have been a problem if not for who those targets were.

Hoshi began creating small shields to lessen the impact of the shots as Toby and Shigenaga moved to clear a way from the shots.

Toby activated Headfirst Fall again before he could reach Shigenaga, so Inukai was sure that it was more of an evasive maneuver instead of an offensive one.

He had been proven right when Toby took a leap into the air instead of continuing on towards Shigenaga.

For her part, Shigenaga slammed her foot onto the ground.

A line was traced along the ground before a large shield sprung up from the ground to block the shots fired.

But…

"There."

The wind had built up.

When taking the leap, Toby had likely not noticed where he was moving and had thrown himself into the way of one of the narrow spaces.

The built up wind would push him to the side no matter what he tried.

All Inukai had to do was fire Hound at the right spot and Toby would end up colliding with it no matter where he tried to move to.

So that was what he did.

"—!?"

Yet nothing collided.

The Hound shots curved to track their target, but the target never came.

The wind had become nonexistent.

No, it was more like the wind could not reach them.

.

Shigenaga could only be impressed with what she had just seen.

Inukai had fired an attack at the falling dog in time with the wind funneling through the narrow space behind her.

Instead of the falling dog reaching the shots as planned, he had instead continued his leap and placed his feet on something.

A wall.

But it had not been one of the walls on the buildings.

That inexperienced girl created a shield that covered the entire opening so that the wind could not come through. It also worked as a platform for that boy, so now he can continue moving without losing his momentum. Clever.

The noise that had filled up the narrow space had exploded upwards with no other way to get out now.

The forceful wind that had gathered created a strange air current that Shigenaga knew would become dangerous if the shield was put down now.

So she aimed for the moment the falling dog would leap from the shield wall to escape the shots so that she could attack the inexperienced girl.

Both Kotowari Squad members seemed to be going at their own pace, dragging the rest of them along as they did so.

Stopping any more of that would be the top priority here.

The falling dog would need to deal with the shots rushing him, so that left the inexperienced girl to fend for herself at the moment.

I just need to-

Daybreak: "Shigeko, watch out!"

It was not ahead or to the sides that she needed to be wary of. Even behind her was nothing.

What she had been warned about was herself.

"Kuh!"

A cut appeared as a falling dog rushed by.

She had aimed for the moment he had moved from the wall, but that had been her mistake.

Doing something like that would only work for those who were on your level or lower. It could work with people who are at a higher level, but who follow basic fighting patterns.

The falling dog was not like that.

Kotowari Squad went at the down pace and forced everyone else to go at their pace or be left behind.

Shigenaga had been left behind.

She could not keep up with that sudden pace that was set by him.

Since she had tried to time herself with his next action it left her vulnerable to any other action he would try before or during it.

So the repeated sounds of sign frames shattering and overlapped with Mitsuteru's warning just before he had reached her.

The blade he had used was weak compared to her own, but it felt like it had not been meant for fishing her off.

They were his claws.

The falling dog used his blades as claws to tear into his opponents.

A tacit like this could be seen all over the place, but it had not been the tactic itself that made it so effective.

It's the person using it that makes impressive results.

She clicked her tongue.

The falling dog passed her by before she could lift her rifle to return the attack.

His claws had gouged deep into her side and tore her right side apart before he left.

"Now!"

WorTri: "Well that's that."

White Fox: "Looks that way."

Kimura looked at Yuki and Sekai for a moment before looking back at the screen.

The attack Shigenaga had received looked like it would end her if not taken care of, but the two boys to her side were saying that it was over for her.

The Kotowari Squad Attacker had leaped away after using his claws to tear into Shigenaga. She had thought he would use a followup attack to go for her head, neck, or chest, but that did not seem to be the case.

With the Trigger she had seen Kanzaki use before, he had moved forward to where his teammate was holding off Inukai.

WorTri: "She got too caught up in her preparations that she forgot to look and what is directly in front of her. Hah. That's the problem with being too familiar with fighting."

"What are you two talking about?" she asked into her microphone.

Sekai must have thought it was too irritating to answer her since he only gave a sigh.

"Well," Yuki started. He gave her a look of pity, so she wasn't sure how to respond to that.

White Fox: "Shigenaga had been thinking of her next actions, along with the actions of her opponents. That is fine and all, but getting too into that can lead to you forgetting to react to what is already in front of you. You can use Jin as an example of this."

Manager: "Jin? Oh, because of his foresight, right?"

"Exactly," he nodded.

White Fox: "I had even asked him about it before too. Apparently some of the losses he had racked up were because he had been so preoccupied with looking into the future that he couldn't react in time during the actual fight. That's basically what happened here. She had been so caught up in planning that she missed how Toby actually moved. Likely, he had actually noticed what she was doing and altered his own timing to throw her off too."

Manager: "I see. Oh, but she looks like she is still ready to fight. Agent Shigenaga looks like the type to have Guts for long battles."

White Fox: "That reference was kind of…"

The way he looked away as he mumbled made her want to hit him.

"Anyways," he turned back to her. "That doesn't matter at this point. She already lost because of that."

Instead of continuing his explanation, Yuki only pointed back to the screen.

Following his line of sight, Kimura saw what was happening.

The answer to her unasked question was answered shortly.

Repeated sounds of something hitting were heard in the area.

Along with those sounds, Shigenaga gave a "kuh" and Toby clicked his tongue.

"I wanted to go for her neck, but I guess I couldn't right myself in time."

"N-no worries, Toby-kun!"

Inukai smiled as the result.

His Hound shots had missed their chance to take out Toby because of Hoshi's intervention. The shield wall had given him a platform to push off of while not having to worry about the wind.

Now that he was safe from the narrow space, Hoshi had released the shield and wind had burst out from the narrow space in an instant.

Within that same instant, he saw it.

After Toby had leaped away from Shigenaga, she had tried to bring herself up to fire back at him.

But…

"Damn you all."

The Hound shots he had fired were tracking Toby.

Since he had moved to attack Shigenaga they followed this lead.

Toby had failed to deal the finishing blow, so the pack of Hound right behind him tore through her body.

Multiple holes appeared all along her body as the reigning shots were stopped by a sudden shield.

Cracks started to form on Shigenaga's body starting from the holes.

"—!"

And yet she still moved.

Maybe as a last act of defiance, or may because she was just that much of a fighter, she held up her hand.

After having used his claws to tear into her, Toby had continued on to pass Hoshi by so that he could attack Inukai once more.

Inukai had been quick to respond by lifting his gun to begin firing again.

"Hikigane Shield!"

But he never reached.

Two shields had been thrown towards them from the girl ready to Bail Out.

Inukai pulled the trigger of his gun to match that of the shields.

Toby had stayed closer to the ground this time, but there were now two shields coming at him from behind and gunfire from above. That meant he could only move to the sides or jump up.

Jumping up now would slow him down and move to the sides would cause him to lose his momentum.

So what he did was…

"Hoshi!"

He called out to his teammate.

.

Hoshi had already started acting against the attacks moving towards Toby before he called out to her.

So when he did call out to her, she lessened the steps she took by one in order to reach the attacks.

Toby was directly in front of the gunfire, so she could do little against that, but the two Hikigane Shields were coming from behind.

Out of the corner of her eye she could see Shigenaga's body begin to be enveloped in light, so she could not launch another attack after this one.

The force she had thrown the shields with made Hoshi think of two walls being forcibly pushed forward.

It was a double shield bash that was meant to first throw off the opponent before hitting them hard.

In that case, I just need to slow them down! Stopping them might be too much for me, but slowing them down at least let's Toby-kun use his Side Effect to get around them!

So with that in mind, she made a snap decision.

She made her own shields.

After having joined Border, she had been taught a few lessons by multiple agents. She had always been thankful for that, but the ones that stuck with her the most were the lessons given to her by the person she thought of as a third older brother.

One of the lessons had been on making snap decisions.

"Listen, sometimes you don't have time to think things through in a fight. Making a choice as soon as something comes up is important when fighting more skilled opponents. Planning things out is nice, but it is not always something you can do when you see a Kōgetsu or Scorpion moving right for your face. Do you get it, Hoshi? You aren't like your siblings, so these kinds of snap decisions are something you will need to build up over time. But I'm sure you can do it as long as you keep trying."

His word had been followed by a hand lightly rubbing her head.

Even without being a proper part of her family, he had always looked after her like she was his own little sister.

So anything he told her had stuck with her, regardless of how trivial or important it was.

This was one of the important lessons.

"—!"

She created multiple shields in the way of the two Hikigane Shields to try and slow them down.

They did little to actually slow them down, so she made another snap decision.

She copied what she had seen before.

Creating a shield in front of herself, she threw her leg forward to kick it.

.

With multiple things happening at once, Toby felt himself begin to stall.

His body felt like it was locking up and his speed was wavering.

There was so much going on.

But he felt no pressure.

Multiple attacks were aimed at him and Hoshi was doing her best behind him, but he did not feel like he was being pressured.

No, it was something different.

He was excited.

There had been so many things that he could respond to, but he was still stuck in his own charge.

The speed he had built up was now slowing because he did not think he could make it in time. If he was slowing down then it meant he knew he could go faster but had yet to do so.

There was just so much in this fight that he could do, but there would only ever be one of him. A single body that wanted to do so much.

All the excitement had caused this stalling.

I need to do something more. After this match, I need to do even more to keep up with everything. I'll go to Ai for some matches. I might even be able to get Jun to join in. Oh, the Snipers have been a bit full of themselves. I can always go to them for some training too. It won't be as much as right now, but it'll still be enough for me. At least for now.

He knew his body was taking full charge since he could have these trivial thoughts while moving in to attack.

It was how his Side Effect worked after all. His body would move itself and give him time to think about whatever he wanted.

There was on difference this time.

We are the only ones who haven't scored any points in this match. Take and Suzume even had to Bail Out early on. We're pretty maxed right now for some reason, aren't we?

No, I guess I won't say that. I'm always going at full force in fights and Hoshi never stops giving it her all. Takeshi can be a bit of a downer at times, but even he doesn't relent during fights. Suzume is just crazy. I have nothing good to say about her at all. But…

But…

We are still behind everyone. Yuki is still far ahead of us. At this point I don't care too much about catching up to him, and neither does Suzume. Takeshi cares about meeting him at that place so far ahead, so I feel like we should at least do that much. All I want to do is stay here. Stay in this place where I can keep interacting with everyone. Where I can move however I want without anything or anyone holding me back. Fights are great because they give you this kind of freedom.

He had heard rumors about a woman obsessed with fighting.

Fighting was enjoyable to him as well, but he knew that he was not the same as her. Even if he had not met her yet, he knew that they saw things completely different from each other.

After all…

Fighting is my way of getting to know people. These fights are the best since they're organized, no one actually gets hurt, and I can go all out without worrying about anything else.

That was why he could feel sad knowing that he would lose in a few seconds.

His stalling was enough to cause him to lose here.

But that was fine.

Hoshi was still there.

She had helped him here in her own way, so he knew that complaining would only be an insult to her.

So instead of doing that, he made a choice.

Alright then. Let's get you out of here.

He took full control of his body.

.

As two Hikigane Shield pushed through the air towards Toby, another shield had been kicked in their direction.

The kicked shield slammed into the first Hikigane Shield with a good amount of force.

At the same time, a light flew off into the distance.

Bail Out.

An impactful noise could be heard alongside the gunfire in front of the shields.

One of the Hikigane Shield had been struck by the kicked one and started to turn slightly.

The front Hikigane Shield was sent off course and now flew to the side so that it would crash into the nearby wall.

The second one made it.

Toby was pushed forward by the second Hikigane Shield.

"—!"

Or that was what should have happened.

With full control of his body, Toby turned himself so that his back was facing the oncoming gunfire while his front faced the second Hikigane Shield.

Multiple sign frames appeared at his knee and foot at the same time a scorpion blade appeared in his hand.

With a quick motion, he used the blade to cut off one of his legs.

With his remaining leg, he pushed off the ground.

Grabbing hold of the cut leg, he threw it into the air. The other leg was moved up to match the height of the second Hikigane Shield.

With the activation of Headfirst Fall complete, he moved forward in time to crash into the second Hikigane Shield.

The sound of his cut leg getting hit by the gunfire could be heard. It ran out parallel to the sound of him crashing into the second Hikigane Shield.

Toby looked to the side as he continued to push against the shield.

He looked at Hoshi.

She had understood what he meant and turned her back to him.

This was her way of telling him that she would leave this battlefield, but would make sure to get something in return.

More gunfire was heard from behind.

The direction it was aimed seemed to be in the same direction Hoshi was moving.

So with his foot still pressed against the second Hikigane Shield, Toby made another movement.

He jumped.

Using the second Hikigane Shield as a springboard, he threw himself into the air while moving backwards.

His back made an arc as he flew through the air.

From the air he could see the second Hikigane Shield continue forward. The speed it had was almost gone and cracks were already appearing all along it.

But it still moved.

The second Hikigane Shield moved forward into it, rammed right into Inukai, pushing him back from the force.

"Headfirst Fall. Scorpion."

With those words, a sign frame appeared at his knee while a blade appeared at his foot.

The blade was resale into the air before shattering.

Using the shattered blade as a step, he finished his arcing flight by landing on the ground, but not stopping.

He continued to fall while only on one foot.

He fell forward to meet with Inukai.

The second Hikigane Shield shattered as the same time Toby fell forward.

From in front of him, Toby could see Inukai stomp his foot into the ground in order to balance himself once more.

There was only a meter between the two of them now.

So with a final push off the ground, Toby brought out one of his claws.

"—!?"

But…

"Damn it!"

A flash tore through the pitch black night.

Inukai lowered this upper body to dodge it.

The flash pierced Toby's forehead.

Bail Out.

"Tch. Sorry for being so careless."

"It's fine. Mitsuteru got us a strong point here and it was because of your final attack."

Shigenaga clicked her tongue again.

She had wanted to do more than that, but she would take what she could get.

Taking out Taichi had not been much, but that combined with the point from Kotowari Squad made things even out to her.

"So how are the other two doing?"

"Hm. Fine, I guess. Our captain is keeping his distance while Suzunari continued the fight against Ninomiya-san. Shinichi has taken some shots already, but the threat of getting found by Ninomiya-san is kind of high here."

"So are they going to wait for Mitsuteru or will they be going after Inukai now that he is alone?"

"Huh? Mitsuteru won't be attacking Inukai?"

Shigenaga shook her head.

It was all too clear to her that he would not be doing that.

"He now has something else to worry about."

"Huh? But he and Shinichi are basically invisible on Radar and to the naked eye at this point. Ninomiya-san can probably take them out since he can just bomb areas, but that's only him."

"It's not that simple now. There's still one person in this match who is so inexperienced and so weak that there is no way she has forgotten about him. Awdry is at a pretty high level, so it's no shock that he forgot about Mitsuteru and got taken out because of it. But this girl is not that strong."

"She managed to copy your Hikigane Shield Kick though."

With a third click of her tongue, Shigenaga slammed her fist down on Kenzaide's head for a hard sound.

She looked at the screen to check on her teammates while pushing up her sunglasses.

You guys better not get too sucked in with that guy's wants here.

"Maaaaaaaan! That was pretty fun. I guess you were right, Take. I completely forgot about Mitsuteru at the end there."

Suzume gave a laugh from her throat as Takeshi only sighed.

The two of them waited for Toby to make it over to the computer so that they could all see what was going on.

"Having Hoshi be the last one of us on the battlefield worries me a bit. But I see your reasoning behind it."

"I wasn't really thinking of a reason when I did that. I just felt like she would be the better choice to keep around. I can keep going in a fight, but ultimately I end up losing against either Masataka or Kō. I would get some hits in on the latter, but that's all. Really just shows Yuma's skills since he actually beat Kō. But Masataka's another thing. I can't reach for him with the way I am right now."

"And what about the others? Inukai-senpai was giving you some trouble there."

Toby furrowed his brows as he thought back to his fight.

There had been something off with the way Inukai had been moving, but he only realized that now.

During the fight it felt like things were normal, but now…

"Huh… He felt kind of…desperate? Like he wanted to stay in the fight for a long as possible."

"Heh heh. Foolish dog, that was just you. Not everyone loves battles as much as you do."

"No, you idiot. Not like that. More like…he had something to do but had to fight the rest of us first."

"What does that even mean? This is an official match, so of course he would have to fight whoever appeared before him."

Toby ran his hands through his hair with a loud noise.

"I don't know, okay!? That's just how I see it!"

His teammates looked at him with varying degrees of disbelief.

He wanted to smack the both of them right now, but he knew that would accomplish nothing.

Instead, he turned to the computer where Nakagami was typing away to provide information to Hoshi.

"Alright, leaving Inukai-san to the side, there's something I want to ask you three."

Without turning away from the computer, Nakagami spoke to them.

Her usually joking tone was lowered and sounded almost serious to them.

"That guy… Ariake. Did you guys do something to him?"

.

"Not that I remember. Actually, I think we have only spoken to him once since joining Border. Why?"

She gave a hum while putting something up for them to see.

It was the current points each squad had.

The sight of seeing "0" next to their total hurt a bit, but they still looked to the other squads.

"Two of the three points we lost and two of the points Meishō Squad got were from Ariake taking our Takeshi and Toby. I think he was aiming for your guys from the start, so I want to know if you guys harassed him or something to make him want to target you guys. Hoshi-chan seems fine since it doesn't seem like he's targeting her, but he went to the trouble of being near Ninomiya-san just to take out Takeshi."

"It's like Take said; we only ever spoke to him once. I don't really remember what any of us said, but it couldn't have been bad enough that he would target us specifically."

"I see…"

The trio looked to each other at hearing the dismissive tone.

Remembering things from before they became their current squad never put them in a good mood. Hearing that they may have caused even more problems than they knew would only make them feel guilty here.

Suzume gave a hum as she gently swayed her body.

Even with her and Toby still full of energy, the lingering thought of something they may have done before still stayed.

Manager: "With that, Ninomiya Squad and Meishō Squad gain another point each."

White Fox: "It was like we said with Shigenaga. There's no reason to go over it again, so we can just say she should be careful next time."

WorTri: "Your kids are having a tough time this go around though."

White Fox: "They aren't my kids, Sekai-san."

Turning around now would lead to a dangerous situation. That was what Obishima's instincts told her.

So instead of looking back, she faced forward.

"Boo! Toby lost way too easily there! Boo!"

"Midorikawa, you would not have made it through that either."

"Of course I could have! It's because he decided to go to Headfirst Fall instead of Grasshopper!"

"Doesn't it mean he's better than you since he's using a Trigger that relies on his own speed? Also, I'm pretty sure it's called Kiyome."

"Why are you being so harsh, Tomo!? Ema I get, but you're not like this!"

"And you won't admit you were wrong about the name…"

"Just ignore him, Tomoe. We know he won't stop for a while."

Obishima felt herself nodding along with the statement.

The fact Midorikawa had been as focused as he was already had them on edge, but they now realized that he was just watching their upperclassman intently. Likely to mess with him after the match.

I should probably go with him afterwards. Not to mess with any of them! I just want to talk with Hoshi some more.

Saying how happy she felt that Hoshi was still in the fight might have caused Midorikawa to go more crazy, so she held her tongue on the matter.

Among their small group she knew that Midorikawa would make the most noise, but there had been someone else she was surprised to see so many reactions from.

Ema has been making some faces during the whole match too. He isn't loud, but it's clear that he's really thinking about what is going on here.

At some point he had even switched seats with Tomoe.

Now with both Ema and Midorikawa next to each other, the two of them were giving their reactions to everything happening in the match.

Since she was on one side of them it was hard to tell how the last boy and Tomoe were reacting, but the latter would say some things at times.

She tried to look over Ema and Midorikawa without seeming strange.

Tomoe had turned back to the screen, saying something about how he didn't want to be around if his female teammate and Shigenaga interacted.

She could understand the feeling.

But past him, the last boy seemed to get even smaller as the match went on.

Maybe because Ema moved over a seat? Oh, but Tomoe is at least trying comfort him. …Huh? His arm? Is he putting his arm around him!? Isn't this-!?

She began to go red when thinking about the kinds of things she had heard about from Fujimaru when the older girl had been talking with Kotowari Squad's Sniper.

There were things someone her age should not have known about.

This just like they were talking about! The "forbidden love"! And that's what they do when seated like that!

Both older girls had apologized after noticing her being there.

They had gone on about like, "We should really not speak of such things around her! Hey, Suzume, next time censor some things! You never know when it'll happen again!"

She had been a bit confused on what they needed to censor since it didn't sound like wrapping an arm around someone else was all that bad. But that must have been something only an older and more experienced person could fully understand.

When she asked them as much, they had both stopped moving, patted her head, and said that kissing is the most any person should ever go to.

She had been confused, but there was some embarrassment that came with being told something like that when it concerned two boys.

The effect it all had on her still stayed.

Um… Should I take a picture? I hear getting points with them is really good and can save someone. So…what do I do? But Midorikawa is jumping up so much that it will be hard to do that.

Even with her nerves acting up, she slowly pulled out her phone without being too obvious.

Slowly. Slowly… Huh? Ema? Did he notice me? He's looking at me! It looks like he wants to say something! What!? Are you going to tell me not to? Please tell me that nothing is happening and that I don't need any "points"!

He looked at her for a few seconds before turning to the other side.

He tapped Tomoe on the shoulder, gaining his attention.

Before she could confirm what he was doing, Tomoe turned to her with wide eyes.

Huh? What did Ema tell him? Wait wait wait! Don't go red! Ema, what did you tell him!?

She began to raise her voice to ask them what they were talking about, but both Tomoe and Ema stopped her with open palms.

The last boy next to Tomoe seemed just as confused as her since he glanced over to them all.

Tomoe and Ema curled their palms into fists and held up their thumbs. Red could be seen on their cheeks, but she had no clue what that was about.

"Alright! I guess I'll go along with Obishima and root for Hoshi-senpai now! She is always nice to me, so I'll keep rooting for her even if it looks like she will lose!"

Midorikawa's shout brought them back to the match.

Feeling her embossment grow with the seconds, Obishima put away her phone to look back at what her new friend was doing.

Off to the side, she heard Ema finally say something.

"Oh. It looks like we're reaching the end of the match now."

Each hit filled him with a sense of want.

A want to continue protecting.

Murakami would not say he was throwing his body around, but each time he saw an attack coming he would somehow make it in time to strike it down or block it with Raygust.

Kuruma's rapid gunfire continued as well. There was no hesitation or worry about if he would get hit or not.

Instead of moving back, the two of them moved forward while increasing the rate of firing from Kuruma.

"We're still not at the best range to fire, so please keep blocking, Kō!"

"Right! Just eave defense to me and-"

Before he could finish his response, a flash came.

The pitch black was nothing more than a thought to them at this point. Kon had been keeping up with the visual settings for some time now.

So at the sight of the flash, Murakami swung his arm around.

The flash slammed into Ragust.

Unlike the time before, Raygust was in motion. It was more accurate to say that Raygust smacked the flash away.

Kuruma moved forward from behind Murakami and threw his body towards the swinging arm.

With the force from his push, Murakami's arm was sent in the opposite direction.

A second flash came soon after the first one.

Murakami repeated his previous action in reverse.

The second shot was smacked away the same as the first.

Kuruma turned his arm without taking his eyes off of Ninomiya.

The single remaining rifle in his hand was now aimed towards one of the narrow spaces.

He fired.

"—!"

The gunfire rang out in the narrow space and Murakami knew there was a reason for that.

Meishō has his Lead Bullets. We already got hit by that once. We need to be wary of a lot of people this time around.

All of their current opponents were long range or mid range fighters who could stay away from Murakami while still attacking.

That was what made him being here so important.

Kuruma was the way they would attack, but that would require him to lower his personal defense.

But Murakami made up for that by providing an impenetrable defense.

No longer would they need to rely on him alone for offensive power.

He could switch his position to better defend instead of attack.

And this was where he could show it off.

.

I guess I didn't want to outshine Yuki or something. Well it's not like we were competing anyway. Our styles are way too different from each other.

He could bring up a seemingly unbreakable defense, but Yuki could escape almost anything.

Murakami found himself more steadfast in his fighting style and that opposed Yuki's reliance on different tricks.

Even their Side Effects seemed to want them to be as different from each other as possible.

While Murakami could memorize things in his mind, Yuki memorized them through his body.

While Murakami added more to his fighting style, Yuki created different ones.

While Murakami had managed to reach the top of Attacks, Yuki could not compare to anyone in any specific position.

It was just how things were.

And yet…

He's still my best friend.

They got along well.

That's probably why I feel like I need to be blocking as many shots here as possible. This is Yuki's only enemy. As his best friend, I need to show him that I can stay on the same stage as him.

No. That was not it.

Yuki never thought of himself as someone on the stage at all.

He would only ever think of himself as someone so unneeded that he did not even need to be remembered.

But that was impossible.

Even if he wanted that, there were at least two people who could never forget him no matter what happened.

One was Murakami - his most trustiest friend.

The other was…

"I'll take back what I said."

Ninomiya - the only person he thought of as an enemy.

"What did you want to take back?"

Even as they poke, Murakami continued to block the attacks that were coming from multiple locations.

His trion was beginning to run out, but he did not stop.

I don't want to think that I've become as bad as everyone else, but good job, me! You're managing to really hold up the defense here! If I start laughing now then I really will have become that terrible. Oh, but Senpai usually pays more attention to the worst people. Would that be so bad? Hm… Yeah, I think I'm fine with staying the way I am. Anything more and I may end up losing to their lunacy.

He nodded his head to confirm with himself.

Kuruma's looked of worry could be seen from the side, but he waved it off as he held strong against a particularly strong attack.

This power is pretty intense.

"That faker doesn't know how to do anything but run away and leave terrible things behind. You are still here and managing to block this many attacks. You can't learn anything from him."

You aren't really in the clear, you know? You pick fights with him as much as he does you.

Saying that now would only lead to much more powerful attacks, so he did not bring it up.

He decided on something else instead.

"That's not true. There's still a lot of stuff I can learn from him. I already have, so it just shows I can keep learning new things from him."

"Then you know what he recently did."

"Is this something that is really eating at you right now? You of all people wouldn't be talking while firing like this otherwise."

"You just proved that you don't know. You wouldn't be talking like this otherwise."

"Fine! No, he hasn't told me about what happened recently. But I won't be pushing on on the matter. He already knows that I'll listen regardless of what it is."

Was it the tension that had built up between them that made both of them converse like this, or was it because they felt like they had gone back in time for a moment?

Murakami found it hard to tell between the two of them.

"Fine. I refuse to tell you anything since it is an important matter for me. But if that damn faker… No, he's not some simple faker anymore. That unneeded existence. If he tells you about it then feel free to confirm with me."

There was nothing warm now.

Everything in Murakami felt cold as he blocked another sniper shot.

The grip on Raygust tightened as he forcibly swung it to the side.

Before Kuruma could move forward to push his arm again, he activated Thruster to push his arm back.

Raygust struck down the second sniper shot with ease.

Black Wolf: "Kuruma-san. I'm going to be using up more trion to strengthen our defense. Please make sure to keep firing. Don't stop."

Kuru-ma: "R-Right! But Kō… Don't go ahead."

"It's fine," he said as he blocked more shots.

Black Wolf: "I just want to finish this match as soon as possible now. After all…"

After all…

"I might end up charging at him if he keeps talking."