Gunfire was exchanged from both sides, with Mika engaging the the Gourmet Research Society sans Izumi, who was quickly taken out by Mika after she made the mistake of approaching the latter, which allowed Mika to grab her by the head and slam her to the floor, quickly knocking her out.

Mika fired a few rounds aimed at Haruna, who tilted her head a little to evade the bullets before repositioning, though one still managed to graze her by the cheek. The missed bullets ended up heading straight to one of the fish tanks, but before it made contact it was stopped by a pink barrier.

Mika glanced at the direction of the one who raised the barrier with a smile. "I'm really curious where you pulled that shield or how it's doing this, Yume."

"Like I said, It's a long story!" Yume replied as she ran in front of Mika to block a volley of gunfire with her shield before Mika returned fire from behind cover. "I'll do my best to keep the fighting from damaging the fish tanks!"

"Is it really important that the fishes remain unharmed?" Mika asked. "You mentioned a name earlier."

"My junior loves fish, so yes!" Yume said as she fired a few shots from her pistol.

"What a caring senior!" Mika admired the girl's resolution as she reloaded before she ran to the corridor when the firing stopped for a moment, intending to flank the remaining members of the GRS. "I'll try to keep the damage to a minimum!"

"Well well well, this is a conundrum…" Akari said as she eyed Mika's movement through the glass while Junko and Haruna moved closer to the entrance of another corridor. Due to Yume's barrier, she couldn't just shoot through the glass, but the same could be said of the girl currently attempting to flank them, so she turned her focus on the shieldbearer.

"Sorry in advance, Miss Yume, but we need to take you down to be able to escape!" Akari fired using her grenade launcher at Yume, who blocked the round with her black shield. The dust from the explosion made Akari lose track of Yume. Akari had a bad feeling and quickly turned around, where she was bashed by a shield.

"Guh…" Akari groaned as she shook off her dizziness before she fired at Yume. who blocked it with her shield. "You're fast, Miss Yume."

"Ahahaha…Please stand down. I really don't want to fight you all…" Yume made an awkward laugh as she did a suppressive fire with her pistol, which cut off Akari's escape route and allowed Mika to rain down on her with bullets, which knocked her out.

"Ugh…" Akari collapsed to the floor as she was knocked out as Yume blocked incoming fire from Haruna and Junko, who were trying to widen the distance between them.

"Haruna, I REALLY think we should give up on the Gold Maguro!" Junko's voice echoed in the corridor as she emptied an entire magazine at Mika before she escaped to the circular corridor. Mika merely shrugged it off with a slight frown as she dusted herself off before chasing them.

"But Junko, are they merely not an obstacle to our Epicurean pursuit?" Haruna said as she shot Mika right to the head, which stunned her briefly. But before she could fire a second shot Yume started closing in while firing a few rounds from her pistol, forcing Haruna to abandon her position.

"I get that, but it's like we're fighting the Head Prefect head-on in such a small area!" Junko complained. "If it weren't for Miss Yume's insistence to avoid damaging the fish tanks we would have lost a long time ago!

Haruna glanced behind Yume and saw members of the Justice Task Force showing up one by one at the end of the corridor, with one of them managing to catch a few words with Yume during a lull on her end.

"You make a good point…" Haruna said.

Mika, Yume, and the Gourmet Research Society were inside some sort of barrier created by Yume's shield, which prevented anyone from going inside or leaving, though it seemed that sound can travel through just fine as one of the JTF members did talk to Yume for a bit when the fighting got close to them.

Another thing that Haruna observed was that every time a stray bullet hits one of the fish tanks a pink barrier appears to block it, preventing it from being damaged.

The Gold Maguro's tank in particular was protected by a smaller, but even sturdier barrier that prevented Haruna and the others from just stealing the fish, which forced them into fighting the two Presidents to be able to obtain it.

I had a feeling that Miss Yume is strong due to being trained by Sensei, Haruna thought as Yume caught up with Mika and talked with her. Speaking of Miss Mika…

Haruna didn't recognize who the pink haired Trinity student was at first, having only a vague sense of familiarity as she paid more attention to Yume in her attempts to act as a bridge between the two groups. It was only now that she fully recognized their current enemy.

She thought that she should treat the Abydos Student Council President to a dinner one of these days as thanks for actually keeping one of Trinity's three Presidents and the rumored brawns of the Tea Party from indiscriminately using her strength to resolve the situation.

I didn't entirely believe the rumors regarding the strength of Tea Party's Misono Mika, but as it turns out it's true. I wonder if she can give Hina a run for her money? Haruna thought as she and Junko ran in different directions to throw off Mika.

Yume on the other hand was distracted when Izumi regained consciousness and started firing at her, which exposed her back to Haruna, who took the shot.

"Bullseye," Haruna muttered as Yume was thrown off by the force of her shot. She ended up flying closer to where JTF students were on standby outside her barrier; she turned mid-air and stopped before colliding with one of the shorter students around.

Right. I forgot she can do that, Haruna thought as she recalled the times she saw Yume floating in mid-air whenever she was in SCHALE. Is she holding back because she's in Trinity?

Whatever the case, it was to their advantage as Haruna also noticed that the outer barrier broke, which meant that they could now escape.

Junko also noticed this as she yelled, "Scatter! It's every girl for herself!" while dodging another of Mika's shots, which ended up causing an explosion that destroyed a portion of the now exposed outer wall that led to the outside.

"Ah…" Mika seemed flabbergasted before she composed herself. "Well, it's not like there was a fish tank there but…!"

Well, I'm not about to complain when an escape route just revealed itself but… Haruna thought as she took one last glance at the Gold Maguro's tank, which was still protected by a now cracked barrier. She was tempted to try her luck at breaking the barrier to obtain the fish, but was forced to give up the attempt when Mika closed in on them even faster than before.

"Hehe, I'm not that suicidal to try my luck against you right now, Miss Misono Mika of the Tea Party~" Haruna said as she escaped through the hole—

And was stopped by the barrel of a shotgun aimed right to her head.

"Kiehehehehe!" The terrifying visage of the Justice Task Force's President, Kenzaki Tsurugi was the last thing that Haruna saw before she was shot in the head.

She saw Junko off in the distance, who tried to go back and help her but stopped as she continued her escape by herself.

I shouldn't have hesitated to escape, those were Haruna's last thoughts as she lost her consciousness.

…

…

…

On a rooftop some distance away from the aquarium, shortly after Mika destroyed the wall…

"Any movement, Sensei?" Azusa asked. "I'm seeing no movement in my sight."

"Nothing yet, I'll tell you if I see someone."

Sensei split the Make-Up Work Club into two groups, with Koharu, Hanako, and Hifumi working to reinforce blind spots in the JTF's encirclement. All the while they maintained remote communications using earpieces he always carried around for occasions like this.

"Since you're only observing for now, how about you go over the plan one more time?" Sensei said as he fiddled with the Shittim Chest to observe Hifumi's side of things and gave them instructions when he noticed they started fighting Akari and Izumi.

"We're covering a possible escape route in case they manage to escape Mika, Yume, and Tsurugi," Azusa explained as she scanned the area in front of her once more.

"That's right," Sensei said as he tapped his earpiece to contact Hifumi's group while keeping an eye on the area. "How are things on your end?"

"We ended up intercepting two Gehenna students named Akari and Izumi with Hasumi. They tried to sneak away in the ensuing chaos that resulted in a wall collapsing. Koharu seemed really happy to be able to fight with Hasumi even if it was only for a short while."

"Sensei, I believe one of the GRS is heading your way," Hanako joined in. "She's about Koharu's height."

"Ah, I know who you mean—Wait, I'm seeing her now," he said as he saw the familiar figure of Junko sneaking around and muttered an apology to the girl before gesturing at Azusa to ready herself. "There. Can you make the shot?"

"Yes," Azusa said. A short moment later, Junko was nailed in the head and was knocked out.

"Great shot, Azusa," Sensei said with a smile as he patted her head.

"Y-You don't have to keep patting my head to praise me, Sensei…" Azusa was a little bashful as Sensei kept it up for a bit before removing his hand. As Sensei moved to go down, Azusa whispered to herself, "It feels nice though…"

Azusa watched as Sensei quickly jumped from roof to roof before he landed next to the unconscious Junko.

"He really is strong…" Azusa muttered in awe before she made her way down to the street using the fire exit.

Author's Note:

Here's the rest of the aquarium fight!

As always, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.