Light poured down from low in the sky.

It was the sunlight of an early morning.

More than warmth, it carried a calming heat, and it cast deep shadows across the land.

Those shadows created waves on a three square kilometer grassy field surrounded by forest.

A faint breeze washed across the mown grass, creating waves.

But there was a gap in the waves. A small stream cut south to north across the middle of the field.

Two figures sat on the northern downstream bank on the southern end of that stream of shadowy water. Their legs were cooling off in the water nearly up to the knee, but neither of them had any sort of urgency to them.

One was a a girl in a shoer skirt with her legs dangling down and the other was a boy.

The boy kicked up the water with his normal legs. It was a carefree motion. With the movement of a long acquaintance, he turned himself toward the girl.

"Wow, it's only morning and the water's this cold! Is this what Miden children feel like, Arisa!?"

"Yes, it's a shame no one else could escape the scolding from the directors, Futoyuki!"

Still sitting, they both swayed back and forth while singing an anime OP.

" Don't you look down on yourself like that. Overthrow yourself so you have to look up at yourself. You can argue your case with incredible ease. Trust in yourself and your dreams will come true. If you've hit a dead end with the lesser cuckoo, just show your purity with a Ha-Ra-Ki-Ri "

After singing, the boy sighed and the suddenly looked back to the north.

A few white and black vehicles were visible beyond the tall grass hiding them. They were cars bearing different business emblems. The boy spoke up when he saw them in the morning light.

"Since the ones sponsoring Border knew nothing of what had happened yesterday, they had to go right to Border and find out if everything was alright afterwards."

.

The boy continued speaking.

"Even those of us who were not let in on what was going on or were not taking place needed to be told that everything was fine by the directors. It's a good thing no one made a big fuss after it all."

As he spoke, the wind blew. It was still early morning and the two of them would need to do some things within the city later.

But they thought nothing of it while their feet continued to soak.

As the boy and girl watched, the vehicles began to fade away into the distance and disappeared soon enough. They had not been a bother to the surrounding areas and had not noticed the two of them sitting there and soaking their feet.

"From what Boss has told me, those were Shiraishi vehicles. The emblem on them was a dead give away for anyone who knows what to look for, but now one of their own is in our branch and should be getting the information we are. I guess they just wanted to be certain that their information was correct and not something that was being said as a blank spot for them. As for Border itself..."

The boy looked even further north.

A large structure was visible in the distance and the sky could be seen beyond it all.

"They seem to not be blaming our rep too much and are only giving him a light punishment."

"Only because our branch is filled with people who would gladly fight back if they went heavy on the punishment. It might have caused a bigger incident that they didn't want happening since today is another round of their B-Rank Wars. Both our rep and his girlfriend's former squad are having their match pretty early today, so they must be getting ready for it."

The girl sighed, but the boy said that was not necessarily a bad thing.

"Things seemed different when the two of them walked into the office last night. They were dead tired, but both of them had smiles on their faces and they were holding hands like a real couple. Isn't that what a lot of people on Miden strive for?"

"True." The girl swayed as she sighed in a different way from before. "I wanted that with my mentor, but I knew it wasn't possible. Still, it's not like I don't want something akin to that too. Humans like being around each other, even if they don't like each other at times. Finding someone you like and someone to share everything with is the basics for a romance. So I'm glad the two of them are together."

"Then what about the rest of the people in our branch? Pyrínas aside, Chisato has a boyfriend, but the others don't really have anyone they seem to like. ...That look you're giving me tells me that I'm dead wrong on so many levels. Alright, I'll take it as a loss and say I don't know what's going on."

"Well, what about you? Has there been anyone you found that you really like while over here?"

"I guess," said the boy. "But it's more like I admire a lot of people here. Miden has always caught my attention since I first heard about it, so now I want to experience everything it has to offer. Afto has its own ways, and I see that a lot when I look at Hyuse, but that's why I want to try my best to remain a 'human' of Earth."

"I see. Do you mean you even want to go through the processes the rest of us do?"

"Yes." The boy nodded. "Pyrínas seems to like it here with those children, so I wouldn't every think of taking that away from him, but I don't think I want to stay in this city all of the time. I want to go see what else Earth has to offer. ...I spoke to Hyuse about it before. He wants to get back home after being left here, but we stopped talking about it after that. So for now, I want to focus on everything else. And the way you all choose your partners is so freeform that I'm really curious about it. ...I guess I got a bit jealous when our rep came back looking like that."

"Hm... That does sound like a predicament you have there."

"It is, but not really a big one that I need to dwell on for too long. There are still other things I need to focus on while I'm still in this city and even more I need to learn about. Miden was a goal for the Wanderers, so I want to bring them some nice stories the next time I see them."

"Then if you ever feel like wanting to know what romance on Earth feels like, just come and fall for me."

A silence fell over the two of them.

The silence covered the two of them as the girl turned red and the boy grinned wider at her.

Without another word, the girl slammed her face into her hands and shook violently.

The boy gave a loud laugh, but spoke up for her.

"I'd be fine with that! So be ready for me to fall for you!"

"Please stop already," she said while covering her red face.

The boy gave another laugh at her attitude and turned back around to give her some privacy.

After another moment she uncovered her face and spoke up. Her voice was small, but the boy didn't say anything about it.

"By the way...what else do you need to do in the city?"

"I need to find the mother of our former leader. I want to speak with her about him and know more about him. About how much of a human he was."

"I see... That is very sweet of you. I will make sure to be by your side during that time then. For any encouragement."

The boy thanked her with a smile and a nod.

"But from what I've heard, I'm not the only one who needs to speak with someone so important. Someone from Tamakoma needs to speak with her as well. Then there's the captain of our rep's former squad. Apparently he needs to speak with someone else who sponsors Border."

"Where did you hear all of this from?"

The boy gave a hum as he leaned back on his hands and faced the sky.

The smile on his face never faded, so she assumed he was allowed to say. Or that he didn't care about the consequences.

"I heard it from Boss. When he was talking with some others."

He opened his eyes to find an old wooden ceiling above him.

The structure was open on all four sides and the morning sun was shining in.

He was lying on his back and looking up at the center of the ceiling, but he could still see the rooftops and a street around him.

This was a canopy built on an out of the way building and that was where he had gone to sleep.

"Hah. That's not good."

He sat up with his lower legs dangling over the edge of the large bench.

He had laid back and gone to sleep last night while sitting on the edge here.

He touched his body to find he was fairly chilled. But...

"Looks like I'm still around. Hah."

He no longer felt no want to get up even as he confirmed that nothing had happened to him while he had slept in such a place.

He tried and had no trouble raising his arms in the track suit embroidered with the name Sekai.

"Hah."

He frowned a bit when he pulled his right arm back, but...

"Good enough."

He let his arms rest and then sighed.

"Sekai."

Someone was climbing the stairs leading to the bench from the nearby door.

Sekai's eyebrow rose when he saw the black-haired gambler.

"What do you want, Denji?"

"That's not a nice way to talk to me, you know? I came out to make sure you hadn't died and left me alone, jeez."

Denji held out a lunchbox wrapped in cloth.

"I'm going to sit next to you," he said.

"It's damp. Hah."

"From your tears?"

"Of course not," said Sekai while facing forward.

The bench was oriented a bit diagonally from the city's inner location. It faced southeast.

The bench and canopy was not equipped with lights, so the bench was built to get as much sunlight as possible. Denji's position on it gave him a view of something in the distance.

"Yassan is over there right now, speaking with our current bosses."

"Were you intending to go find her if that dragged on?"

"Even if I wasn't, sometimes you realize you should and sometimes people tell you to do it."

But...

"There's wasn't enough time for any of that. ...Is that a good enough excuse for being too weak to go see her by myself?"

"Being able to watch things play out should be enough," said Denji while untying the cloth wrapper, but Sekai could not agree.

"Yuki still thinks he's Unneeded, even when he's accepted everything," sighed Sekai.

"I made sure to give his first squad my condolences for that. It was mainly for you, though."

"I have nothing to give so long as they remain happy in my stead."

"Then what do you plan to do now?"

"You set me up for that question, didn't you?"

I'm taking this so lightly, thought Sekai.

But I'm probably faking how lightly I really take it. However...

...I can't believe this.

He had long since accepted so many things on the inside, but seeing someone else do such a thing both inwardly and outwardly only made it sting that much more. He knew this made him look like a fool, so...

...I can't take any of it too seriously or it would drive me mad.

"Y'know," he sighed. "That was quite a show last night. Did you see when Yuki's new Trigger arrived and Masataka came in to help him?"

"No, I was keeping track of Yassan, Michelle and Jossan, but I did hear the running commentary about what had happened after the fight way over from some of the cannibals."

"Man, you really have no dignity at all, do you?" Sekai rested his head in his hand. "We managed to barely maintain out neutral stance during it all and decided to hide the rest of the night out so that everyone else could get things done."

.

Sekai sighed.

...Hard to say if things ended too well or just well enough.

Someone they thought was at their level had come to accept everything about himself and chose a troublesome life where he and the people he knew could be happy. As someone who felt his basis lied in other peoples' happiness, he was fine with the end result, but it meant that the boy they had thought so fondly of was now someone who had gone with everyone else instead of staying with them.

They had decided that they would simply return to how they had been before. And after half a day went by, they had heard that someone important to both of them had returned.

They had only been able to watch, but that was why Sekai had come here.

This was where he had always been able to sleep with little to no issue and he wanted some time to think.

But he had not been able to focus on anything particular.

The battles that had happened recently continued to grow larger and it felt like he had even less to do during them.

"Yuki isn't trying, but it's kind of insulting when he still thinks he's unneeded," said Sekai.

"We have been too far into this to where we can feel insulted by this, haven't we?" said Denji.

"It's what we get for being the ones who decided we were unneeded to everyone else. Hah. We were a lost cause from the start."

He said what they both tried to keep a lid on without really thinking about it.

I'm being really cold, he realized. Cold and light. It's sort of like a certain type of metal. A bit much, though. Well, ice works well enough for that description, but calling myself ice seems like a stretch.

"But this was on another scale altogether."

"Everything concerning Former #3 you mean?" asked Denji.

"That's right. Hah. How should I put it?" said Sekai. "It was really irritating when we became Unneeded, right?"

"I can't agree with that since I was busy hating myself too much, but I did protest our loss of freedom."

"I'm not really sure what I mean myself, but...you know."

He tried to think back on those days where he thought there was a purpose for himself.

"–––––"

But he gave up on remembering what had happened in the depths of his own mind he had been focused solely on.

That probably expressed his innermost thoughts better than anything.

That was the part of himself he wanted to deny and the kind of person he wanted to be.

But this was a place for "everyone else".

So while making sure not to reject anything that happened back then, he skipped past those thoughts and faced what came next.

"When I saw how things progressed, it got me thinking. It made me feel like maybe nothing we do really matters."

"You feel powerless?"

"Hm, not quite. Hah. Feeling powerless is linked to irritation I felt upon becoming Unneeded. You know, the irritation of being treated as powerless when you know you're not."

"In that case," said Denji. "Since we weren't involved with the battle underground or the fights yesterday at all, did you feel powerlessness that isn't linked to that irritation?"

"Denji, why do you have to make everything so confusing?"

"It gets me some extra hate points from others."

Denji held up the lunchbox. It contained some boiled vegetables and grilled fish. The fish had its bones removed, so he must have wanted to test his finger movements. It also had a light rice dish, and...

"Where's the tea?"

"I'm not some waterproof container."

"Haaaaaaaah!"

The Border base was visible in the distance, looking hazy in the distant morning air.

That was proof of their current existence.

"What are we supposed to do now?"

Sekai did not know if he could just sit around stewing or not.

He doubted he had left his innermost thoughts behind in that past. He had gone through enough to know his place in the world and where he was allowed to go before becoming someone who couldn't stand himself anymore.

He was not dumb enough to overlook that.

He had already found his answer, but he did not have to give it right away, so here he was.

He was pretty sure he would descend the staircase once he had managed to calm down some more, but...

"I have a match starting in a bit, huh?"

That would give him plenty of time to think.

He had only just returned to his favorite place, so he was still not really sure if he wanted to go to that match or not.

Of the squads, he had heard Ikoma, Kotowari, and Yuba had been continuing to go at their own pace, but...

"What should I do? Hah."

He knew everyone else would be doing their own things and moving further away while he stayed here asking that question. Especially...

"I bet a lot of those guys have all sorts of plans for causing trouble during the match."

"You hadn't heard?"

"Heard what?"

"Minoru and I are gonna be the commentators this time around. As a special treat for you in particular, Sawamura had asked to be the main commentator for this. Apparently she wants to confirm something by watching you."

I guess I don't have a choice in this matter then, thought Sekai with a sigh.

He looked to the sky to view the light blue surrounded by the forest of buildings.

"Today looks like it's going to be an irritating time."

"No."

"Why not!?"

"Because you're annoying. And you're only going to be even more annoying."

"I'm noooot! I swear that I wooooon't!"

"Who even let this guy in here?"

"What are you going to do to whoever answers?"

Ikoma watched as Chisato pulled out a trion lance of out of nowhere.

Her reaction time with those things's gettin' better.

He was proud of his girlfriend for how accustomed she had gotten to Border's Triggers in such a short amount of time. But now did not seem like the time to bring that up, so...

"Chisato, make sure you get 'em real good for me. This guy's butting into my time with you."

"I know, Tatsuhito. Just stay put for a quick second and I'll finish this."

He nodded as he relaxed in his seat. There was no need to go to her defense when she had been able to keep up with him from the very start.

It was only now that he realized that she had been wearing the black and red shirt he had gotten for her during the festival the day before.

There had been no other reason to do so other than him wanting to give her something to show off that she was his and that she would cheer on his squad during their coming matches.

With a start, he sat forward and made sure to get a good look at her.

"Hey, Chisato."

"What? I'm busy right now."

"You're makin' me fall for ya again. And ya look hot in the shirt I gotcha."

"...Don't mess up my tempo. But thanks. Oh, and I keep falling for you, so you better stay with me."

He gave a thumbs up when she turned her head to see his reaction.

The two of them were on the same page again so he reclined back once more.

"Oooooohhhhh!? Chisato's having some nice gf-bf time right in front of me! I've gotta tell you're parents and sisters abou- Yeeep!?"

"Say anything else and I'll make sure that you go through the door next time."

Damn, that's hot, he thought when he saw her use her lances to pin the idiot to the wall.

There had been no hesitation and he could not be any happier because of it.

"Hey, doncha think we should be tryin' to stop this?"

"She's Iko-san's girlfriend, so he can deal with it."

"Oh? So when Fuyushi-senpai comes 'round, we'll leave it to ya?"

"Oki, you're 'bout to get hit in the face if ya don't stop."

If this conversation had happened a month ago, he would have said something along those lines too. But since he had Chisato, those words had no effect on him anymore.

I've leveled up above ya'll, so take that, ya damn ikemen!

There was still a bitter feeling there.

.

"Why do you even want to go?"

Chisato felt her patience begin to waver the more she had to deal with the high energy idiot stabbed into the wall before her.

When she woke up earlier, she had planned on meeting up with Ikoma Squad before their match to make sure they were ready to fight. As she had imagined, they had all been goofing off an talking about nothing important.

She had smiled at that.

Then someone had opened the door. A voice followed it, along with a body being thrown in her direction.

Without turning around, she had lifted her foot, turned around, and gave an axe kick to the idiot who had thrown themselves at her. The solid sound of a body hitting the floor had silenced the entire room, but she knew that Tatsuhito was giving her a proud look, so she overlooked the silence.

Now she was faced with that same idiot being pinned to the wall by her own trion lances.

Kotowari Musashi grinned back at her from where he was almost impaled by her lances. His high energy was pouring from him and she felt it was kind of smothering.

"Fine, fine, we can compromise here! I'm good at compromising! Like the time when I found one of your sister's bras laying around, sold it for a good price, then told her that her boobs were too small for that kind of size!"

"She then beat you to a pulp. And that wasn't a compromise at all. You were just being an idiot."

"Is there a difference?"

I suppose not for you, she thought.

This had gotten old before he had even come here, so she sighed and pulled out another trion lance. She pointed it at him, but he only looked around as if a show was being put on.

It annoyed her.

"Why do you want to watch the next match?"

"So I can see my little brother."

"As a younger sister, that only pisses me off more."

Musashi's smile fell a bit.

But it's the truth, she thought bitterly. My sisters had been there for me since the beginning, and they've stayed by my side the entire time. But this guy...

He had gone so long without contacting his younger brother and had even refrained from speaking of him until it was brought up.

As someone who valued her family a lot, she thought that he was too careless with the way he made his decisions concerning his brother. And...

...He says that his brother is always wrong while he is right.

He had said that while having low energy. It was what let her know that he was being serious about it.

Disregarding his normal behavior, he truly believed that he was always right when it concerned his younger brother.

...Ōi-nee has her moments of superiority, but she tends to make up for them by knowing when she's wrong and helping us correct our own mistakes. Yoshie-nee can be a bit much, but she always looks out for me whenever she can. But this guy...

He was wrong.

She could only see him as wrong when compared to her own sisters.

"Chisato, just calm down and sit over there with me."

She didn't just at the arm that was placed over her shoulder. It was a nice weight to keep her temper down so that she wouldn't skewer Musashi right here.

Tatsuhito gently guided her away from the wall, lowered her lance, and turned her focus away from the idiot.

She was sure she could heard Kōji and Kai taking out the lances keeping Musashi in place, but quickly changed her thoughts away from him before she went back to pin him again.

"I'm glad to know you're lookin' out for Take-chan like that, but ya don't need to worry. Take-chan's Fuji and Kiyoshi's kid, so there's no way he ain't strong enough to deal with an idiot like him."

"Iko-san, they're officially called 'Mei' and 'Yuki' now," Satoshi called from behind.

Tatsuhito waved him off as he sat down.

She followed his lead and took the seat next to him.

Now that he had been freed from her lances, Musashi was standing in front of them all with visibly less energy than before.

"I say let the guy watch our next match. He can see just how tough Take-chan is and see that he's the one who's wrong here."

"Why do you think he's so tough when he can't even understand others?"

Tatsuhito raised a brow and she could hear Satoshi scoff from his own seat. The two of them knew Musashi's brother better than she did, so she let them take over the conversation.

It was Satoshi who took over talking this time.

"The little guy's made some friends already. Besides that, he's got himself a girlfriend since yesterday. And that girlfriend's beaten one of our A-Ranks."

"What does that-"

"Do ya have any of that?"

Musashi was quickly shut up.

Chisato smiled inside at that.

"Do ya fight against Neighbors? Do ya fight against other people who'll kick your ass? Do ya deal with cannibals who'll tear ya apart for doing the smallest things? Take-chan's pretty damn tough for bein' a kid. Hey, ya saw what he could do didn't you?"

Satoshi turned his attention to her and Tatsuhito. She knew why he did and thought back to two days ago.

There she was seen just what Kotowari Squad was capable of.

Their wolf had relied on his teammates to devour a large Neighbor while their dancer maintained the pace and tempo of the entire fight. She had thrown her lances into the fight and they were easily used alongside that wolf's fangs. It had been a sight to behold. But there had been someone else there. Someone who kept things in check simply because he had been there.

"Musashi, your brother is pretty cool. To put it lightly, he kept a strange girl and a wolf company while throwing attacks at a tough opponents."

"...What am I even supposed to make of that comment?"

She shrugged before continuing.

"He's way better than you are."

"Damn, that's some good praise there. I'm 'cool' to her, so if Take-chan's 'pretty cool' then he's really up there to her."

"You're cool in everything you do. He's pretty cool for being able to do what he does."

"This's why you're also cool."

"You're going to make me blush if you keep that up."

"So what if I keep going?"

"Then I'll take you away from your squad and you'll miss your match."

"Sounds worth it."

"No, no, no, we need you around, Iko-san," the entire squad chorused.

They were right about that. If their captain was not around then they wouldn't have their fourth member to make them stand out.

So with a light push, she turned back to Musashi. His face was scrunched up as if he had just eaten a lemon whole.

I'll throw him into sewage later for that one.

But right now there was something else she needed to focus on.

What Musashi wanted and what Satoshi had said.

It was up to her to decide if she would call her family to drag him back or allow him to stay and watch the match.

"...Fine. I guess you can stay."

But...

"I reserve any right to throw you across the room if you annoy me too much."

"What!?"

The morning sun shined in.

A clear but sweltering light shined down from low in the blue sky.

The light also showed itself by how deep the shadows cast on the ground were.

One shadow was especially large.

It was cast by a massive structure in the center of the city.

The large building was something impressive itself. Although, there were buildings scattered all around the city that were also part of that building in their own way.

The Yagura Branch Office was one of those smaller buildings. The city was spread out around it and a park was nearby.

This was where a group of people were.

The branch itself was rather plain when compared to some other buildings.

It was still early morning and not many people were moving around just yet and the most amount of noise was coming from the single building.

But the single building had enough people in it to make up for the lack of any outside. And they were performing strenuous activity despite it being morning.

"Goddammit!" shouted a voice. "Why did we end up having to deal with everything!?"

.

It's more annoying for those who have matches than it is for regular agents, noted Kimura.

She was seated in a shadow at an elevated point that gave her a view of almost the entire area.

That location was...

"I'm glad we made this into a sort of rec room."

The tatami-floored room had all its short windows open.

She was resting her elbow on the short windowsill with her legs casually resting on the tatami mats. Her captain's dog Krümel was with her.

...Is it his strange-level intelligence that lets him think it's relaxation time?

The small dog was lying on the edge of the windowsill, but he would move to a different spot whenever he grew too warm and he was currently rolling over to the edge. That said, he show just how smart and cute he was by always staying within arm's reach of her.

"Kimura, how about some barely tea while we wait for the next match to start?" asked a voice from behind her.

"Sure, that sounds good."

She nodded back toward Mei and a set of arms poured the chilled barely tea in a teacup and carried it over. They gestured for her to take the teacup, so she did so and then they returned.

She glanced back to see Mei performing a figure four leglock on an idiot.

As Mei picked up speed and collapsed backwards time after time, the idiot would arch his back and shout "ow, ow!". The strange sniper was pounding on the floor and shouting "Foolish former captain!? Do you honestly give up!? Do you!?" while Awdry shouted "Yuki! Don't tap out after coming so far!" and Kotowari said "Oh, sorry. I need to pass by above your head with this tea." In other words, business as usual.

Kanzaki was asleep while Inukai and her captain were relaxing next to each other.

"Oh."

Then the wind blew in. The winds blowing across Mikado City tended to carry some heat or chill along with them, so it was recommended to be careful when having an open window during those times.

"The wind isn't too bad, but the moisture rises so quickly it ends up being kind of dry."

"Especially here because the wind has to climb up to a more elevated location than downstairs, you know," said Mitsuteru, who was looking over some videos with the Taiyōko younger sister in a seat by a window. He set his tablet down on a desk and fixed his hair in the back. "We should be more careful to make sure no one just ends up throwing water around."

"Yes," said Hoshi. "And the sun won't be as high in the sky."

"But that will also be the most annoying part of the day." Akashi was seated with his feet up on the windowsill so the wind blew through his bangs. "It would seem these days still have many more trials in store for us."

Is there anything he can't make cringey? wondered Kimura as she caught sight of Hitomi out of the corner of her eye. The girl had been sleeping face down on the tatami mats, but she got up to look to Akashi.

She wrinkled her brow in a smile.

"Don't you have a manuscript to complete?"

"Heh. What did I just say about these days and their many trials?"

"If you don't submit yours for printing along with the rest of ours, you'll end up paying a lot more."

"I am ready for whatever life throws at me."

Hearing that, Hitomi opened her phone set for a call. And after a short pause...

"Hello, Kappa Printing? Oh, yes, silly me. Hemisphere Printing, that's what I meant. …Anyway, Boss Kappa? Our literature club guy is running devastatingly late on his manuscript and refuses to admit it, so feel free to take away his entire early-submission discount. …Right. And it would be great if you could increase my discount for delivering this hot tip."

"H-Hitomi-kun! Must you eliminate all room for excuses!?"

But Hitomi had already plopped back down on her cushion and resumed napping. Koarai fanned her with a fan, but Hitomi showed no sign of waking.

…She sure has distinct on and off settings.

But she would likely wake up in time for her squad's own match later in the day, so maybe this was fine.

Then a new wind blew in without warning.

A certain scent was mixed in with the fluctuation of the air. It was a strong, aromatic, and yet faintly sweet scent.

"What is this?"

It was vaguely familiar, but Kimura could not quite place it.

Kotowari turned back toward her while handing a paper cup of barely tea to Koarai.

"It's fried rice. Because Kako-san is working on a dish below us."

"I thought she was banned."

"Did you forget?" said Okudera while reviewing the previous matches on his own tablet. "It would be a problem if she didn't make at least something after everything, so we can't just tell her not to make it. You were the one who suggested that she use the Yagura Branch's location since it's already a madhouse here a lot of the time, Kimura-san."

"Well, yes, I did say that."

"Fine, I'll explain," said the Suzaku younger sister. She flipped through the screens of Okudera's tablet without asking him first. "Everyone became super pent up after the weird incident yesterday. So a lot of people will be using today's matches to get them all out, but that only works for people who are in those matches. The rest of us need to find other ways of doing that."

But...

"That's why we can't cause any trouble for anyone else who doesn't know about the situation."

"That's right. Yesterday should have only been a festival, so that's what the general public knows about everything that happened. Border showed off what it's like to others who can't watch the rank wars. That means we should be safe from any sort of flak people want to give us."

"Question." Koarai raised his hand. "But what do we do now? What do we do if anyone else asks about what really happened?"

Kimura crossed her arms and groaned.

"To be honest, there isn't much to say. I mean, we know the general idea behind yesterday, but only Yuki and Mei can say for sure what all happened. But on the other hand..."

She opened her phone displaying a message Border's own base had sent them all through the network.

"Border's directors still want to keep an eye on Yuki to make sure everything is safe."

.

"Really? Even after everything was settled?" asked the Suzaku sister.

"Even if the two fakers were caught, and Yuki has accepted everything himself, there is still some doubt. And even if things have settled, it wouldn't look good for Border as a whole if they didn't do something about their own former suspicion."

But...

"So they gave a total of 10 days probation. ...Of course, they also have to consider that he's the Yagura Branch's representative."

Awdry looked up when he heard that. He opened his phone and spoke.

"So his probation will stick even after this season has ended then. Even if it's cut short, that's still something to note. ...Soare they telling us not to lose sight of him during that time?"

"Yeah, it seems that way. If we keep track of him now then it won't be a problem, but there are other things they also want to focus on."

"Does that mean he's going to be in plain sight the entire time?" asked Koarai.

"I'm going to be watching the matches I can, so I'll probably be stuck at the base or over here for those 10 days."

Everyone fell silent at that.

They all looked over to see that Mei had let him go. It was slightly disappointing to see.

"It'll be fine. I had a pretty good sleep last night and am feeling pretty good right now. When I need to move around then I'll have have my Trigger with me. And when I need to move around too much...I'll ask someone for some help."

"But what if there isn't anyone around to help you at the time? What then?" asked Hitomi.

Yuki nodded.

"Then I'll call on someone and wait for their help to come. That means I'm gonna be relying on some people a lot."

"Then are you going to be watching our match today?" asked Awdry.

"Hmm," was all Yuki felt like saying.

But he could not just groan in thought, so he resumed speaking.

Kimura thought that it was a bit much, even for him.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm not actually going to go for you guys. I'll suppose you guys, don't doubt that, but there's something I want to check up on while I watch the match, okay?"

Akashi's hand shot up and he brushed a hand through his hair once everyone focused on him.

"You want to see if that constantly irritated guy can actually be beaten, don't you?"

"That's right. It's going to be a way I will rely on everyone there."

"So you want to see if we can beat someone that's in our match?" asked Toby.

Everyone stopped their own things to focus on him after that question.

...None of them are doing anything.

Then I might as well, she decided while adjusting her seated position. She removed Krümel from the windowsill, placed him on her lap, and opened her phone.

"Then listen up. We're going to be good upperclassmen and help out Kotowari Squad with planning for their coming match."

After all...

"Yuki made such a mess that they had no time for it."