Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The battle continued.

As long as there were opponents to fight and they both remained standing, the battle would not end.

But Mei did not understand anything as she stood up. Two simple words remained in her heart.

…I'm sorry.

She felt she had been scolded by her mentor again.

She thought her mentor was kind, she enjoyed being around her, and she loved her, but the woman was incredibly scary when she got angry. She did not get angry often, but she would get really angry when Mei did something dangerous or did not do what she was supposed to do.

If Mei disobeyed her, she would be slammed into the ground.

When Mei had been told she had to practice but she instead stopped somewhere on the way home, her mentor had gotten angry. She had been confused and asked if doing so was wrong. It was only around her that questions ever came from her mouth.

…But did she understand how scary she was?

Mei did not know. She simply found her mentor scary and wanted to avoid angering her if at all possible.

She had started training in order to keep her from getting angry.

The same thing had happened a few years before. She had hoped she could get through to her mentor at least a little, but she was still slammed into the ground.

At the time, she had sworn to herself she would never apologize, but…

…I'm sorry.

She had been forced to say those words and she had lost everything. She had lost her pride, the friends she had gained through that pride, her reputation, and everything else. It may have been a misunderstanding, but in her mind, she had lost it all because she had disobeyed her mentor.

It had happened again the other night and now it was happening yet again.

She could see her mentor stepping down from the ring.

…I'm sorry.

She felt she needed to stay on the ground and apologize.

She was no match for her mentor. She was no match for the woman's height, figure, strength, speed, techniques, or anything else.

She had no chance.

"…"

But, she thought.

Why am I standing?

There was no strength in the core of her body. She doubted she was standing straight. She could only feel her legs and their strength as they supported her. Her body was currently made from trion using the Black Trigger Shikifuku, but her mind had already decided to throw her for a loop.

Her field of vision shook, her eyes refused to focus, and she could only feel a vague heat throughout her body.

Why had she stood? Shouldn't she have stayed on the ground, apologized, and cried?

She was no match for this opponent, so she could only lose.

Everyone had seen what had happened those years ago and the other night, so they would know she stood no chance. If she explained it to them, they would understand. She just had to say she was no match for this opponent, so she had not stood a chance. Surely they would all…

…No.

She had a sudden though.

…Saying I simply didn't stand a chance and giving up…is wrong.

.

That isn't it, she thought.

There was something wrong with giving up because her enemy was powerful.

…That mistake…

She knew that mistake.

The enemy may be powerful, one might stand no chance, and everyone might urge them to give up…

…But I know someone who didn't understand any of that.

That's right, she thought with a nod in her heart.

For the first time in a long while, she had seen it in Mikado City so many times.

A certain idiot always wanted to do something that was clearly impossible, but he had decided to continue while knowing he was not alone.

That idiot was her first friend.

He had been worried for her when she had decided to come here, but if she ever decided to do something without giving up, she knew what he would say.

"Don't push yourself too hard, okay? If things get dangerous, come on back."

But…

"If you're gonna do it, then go do it."

…Yes.

A feeling reached her body. It came from her hair. It was cut short from when she had decided to follow a different idiot those years ago and it was what had woken her mind up a moment ago.

"—"

Move. Please move.

Her mentor was approaching. Her mentor swung her leg to kick her through the air.

But, but, but, but that isn't what matters.

…This isn't about my mentor.

I'm not supposed to think about her and apologize.

…I need to think about my idiots and get my body moving!

The kick scored a direct hit.

.

Several loud noises filled the room as a wave ran through the stockers and around a dozen of them broke and flew through the air.

The gray lion's body smashed through them and slammed into the wall like a shell.

That was the result of the direct hit.

Meanwhile, Pyrgos finished the follow-through of his kick while shards of blades and stockers scattered like dried leaves.

…What is this?

"You are surprisingly durable."

He saw his enemy before him.

She was not unharmed, but she was not unmoving either. She was on all fours, struggling to get up from the floor.

The Unmatched Valkyrie's student tried to stand up. Her weak hands grasped the floor, her trembling elbows pointed toward the ceiling, and she shakily lifted her butt and slid her knees along the floor.

"—"

She forgot about trying to attack her enemy, she forgot just how defenseless she was, and she simply tried to stand.

"Is she moving on instinct? No… This is a conditioned reflex built up by her training and everyday life."

It did not matter how much damage she had taken or how great a disadvantage she had. As long as she could move, she would stand no matter what.

She was not just relying on a Black Trigger's durability and regeneration.

She had to have trained both her body and her mind.

...It is exactly like Miden's normal soldiers.

So…

"You are going to stand, aren't you?"

She did.

His enemy leaned on a tilted stocker with half her face stained by trion. Her right shoulder may have dislocated because it hung limply by her side. It could be easily fixed, but it was uncertain if she could do it right now. She was out of breath. Her entire body trembled and she swayed as she breathed.

Nevertheless, she was standing.

Pyrgos did not know what had led her to stand, but he did understand one thing.

She would not be brought down by his current methods.

Even if he tried to knock her unconscious, she would recover quickly with the regeneration of a Black Trigger.

The only solution he could think of was to use a pinpoint attack to stop her completely, but wanted to avoid grappling with her when he did not know what she would do.

There were more surefire methods. For example, he could use a weapon to decapitate her.

This would no longer be a mere sparring match, but she did not view it that way anymore either. The most important rule in sparring was the fact that you could lose, yet she was not allowing herself that.

…I can always lop off an arm to have her go into her real body.

She would pass out if she went into her real body form the mental fatigue. Despite that plan, Pyrgos held a spear.

It was the same one she had used against him at the beginning.

He raised it and threw it toward the girl leaning against the stocker.

And he used his full strength.

.

Mei saw her mentor moving.

…Oh…

I've made her that angry, she thought.

After all, she refused to do what her mentor said, she refused to stay down, and she refused to apologize.

That was why her mentor had thrown that spear. Not to knock her to the ground, but to take her life.

There was no helping that. She had disobeyed her mentor. She was listening to someone other than her mentor. The real problem was how that other person's words fit so much better with her own beliefs.

There was only one thing on her mind.

…I will not give up.

When was it that her idiots had told her that?

The spear flew toward her stomach.

If it hit, she would not escape unharmed, but her body would not move.

Just like before, she begged it to move yet it would not. There was nothing she could do.

But she still had the same thought.

…I will not give up.

And she had decided to continue disobeying her mentor even if the spear hit her.

After all, she remembered something.

The other night, when her mentor had captured her and forced her to apologize, she had been unable to do anything, yet one of her idiots had said something to her.

"Don't apologize."

And…

"Because you're above doing that."

Right. As long as I am seen as a 'perfect', I will no longer apologize to you.

I will only speak other words to you.

But what should she do about this lethal attack when her body would not move?

…That's right.

What could she say when she was told not to apologize?

…Yes.

I will not give up.

There had been many time and many people who had spoken about what it really meant to use a Trigger and be a Border agent. Spirit and determination had no place in these sorts of fights.

They meant nothing when everything was so finite.

But then there had been the black object around her wrist.

...Shikifuku.

Black Triggers were always a mystery to everyone. How they worked and how they were really made were all mysteries. That was why she could feel the true weight of it now.

Because this portion of the Black Trigger was based on the emotions of the user.

It was the opposite of those finite battles everyone spoke about.

So I will definitely not give up.

Not when I know a person's life was used to make this perfect example of a human.

She had just one thing to say, but it was not that she would fight or that she would defend.

…I will go.

That word encompassed both fighting and defending.

…I will go.

She had used that same word long ago.

She had used it when living with her parents. She had used it when she had finished studying and was heading out to play.

Her heart had been so much lighter when she had already done what she was supposed to do, but had she done what she was supposed to here?

I have.

…Yes.

She had not given up and she had stood, so…

…So…

"I will go."

.

A solid sound rang out.

It was the sound of the spear hitting its mark after being launched and tearing through the air.

However, it did not hit the gray lion. It hit the wall behind her.

It had missed its true target.

"—"

But Pyrgos saw where the gray lion was standing.

Her position was odd.

Just as before, she was leaning on the stocker by the wall.

But at some point, she had moved less than a meter to the right.

Her position had shifted just after he had thrown the spear.

The mentally exhausted and injured gray lion stood on her own two feet between the broken stocker and fallen weapon. She had a blank look on her face, but…

…What?

Pyrgos did not know when she had moved there.

It was only the distance of a single large step, but…

…How?

He did not know. He knew he had not seen it and he felt that meant he had let his guard down, but…

"…"

He saw the gray lion wobble and almost fall to her knees, but…

"—"

Her position shifted again.

She briefly vanished and suddenly reappeared a step away.

.

Pyrgos watched as the gray lion raised her unfocused eyes and exhaled with a hand on the nearby stocker.

…What is this?

There was something odd about the movement of her hand, the movement of her breath, and the movement as she coughed.

…What? What is this!?

They were all missing their midpoint. He could see the beginning of the action, but the next thing he knew, the movement had reached its end point.

When she placed her hand on the stocker, he saw her shoulder begin to move and her hand was suddenly already on the stocker. When she coughed, he saw her begin to breathe in and she had suddenly already bent forward after coughing.

He could not see the movement in between.

And she moved again.

With her eyes still unfocused and her body wobbling unsteadily, she started down the center of the pathway created by the destruction.

"—"

She vanished and reappeared yet again. She had likely tried to lean on the stocker, but when he saw her next, she was standing unsteadily in the center of the pathway with both hands raised.

The movement looked meaningless, but he realized the stocker she faced was shaking back and forth and creaking.

She had to have struck it during the unseen middle section of her movement.

…This is…

Pyrgos understood what had happened.

…This is a ridiculous explosion of instantaneous strength.

"There is actually a trick to moving quickly."

Inukai was embarrassed with himself for only understanding after Oshiro told him about Mei's state the night before and Fujimaru telling him how she had thrown a stone in the bath.

…I get it now.

"Mei-san must be beginning to understand that trick. Granted, I only know it because I'm friends with Mino and Kiyoshi."

"What is that trick, Sumiharu?"

"Strength."

He clenched his fist, held it up toward Oshiro, and shook it to tell him to clench his empty hand into a fist too.

But…

"Clench your fist even tighter."

"Eh? Oh, okay. Is this enough?"

"Yes, that is fine."

He raised his fist in front of his face again and lightly swung it from the elbow.

"Can you swing your wrist using a snap from the elbow like that?"

"Yes."

Oshiro tried to swing the wrist of his clenched fist a few times.

"I can, but only at a limited angle."

"If you want to swing it over a wider angle, you have to focus on the action and that slows it down."

But he opened his hand and waved his fingers around.

"How about like this? Try swinging your wrist using a snap from the elbow again."

"Okay."

He opened his hand and swung it. His movement and the hopeful expression on his face were exactly what he had hoped for.

"Right." He nodded. "When you spread your hand, you lose all strength, don't you? But you can move your wrist more easily and more quickly. After all, the movement of your wrist actually comes from your elbow and your wrist moves more quickly when it is lighter."

"You mean," added Oshiro, "if you keep the hand or foot looser, it will move more freely and more quickly?"

"Right. You only use your strength at the very beginning and you gradually move it from the source of the movement out toward the end of the movement. When you swing a sword, you move the acceleration from your shoulder, to your elbow, and then to your wrist, correct?"

"Yes." Oshiro gave a nod of understanding. "So speed comes from relaxing your strength?"

"Exactly right," confirmed Inukai while coming to understand something.

The night before, Mei had not known whether she was tense or relaxed due to having to use a Black Trigger.

…So she did not know what had happened when she experienced that unexpected speed.

"Mei-san has always been the power type and she only knew how to use her strength. That means she never let her strength lapse, just like when you lift something heavy or press against a wall."

Before, the Unmatched Woman had called Mei "diligent".

She was solid, tense, and could not move lightly. That certainly was a "diligent" use of her strength.

…And she is the kind of person to "diligently" stick to her role as the power type.

So he clenched his fist and held it up again.

"This is what Mei-san has been doing until now."

He opened his hand and moved his elbow for a snap of the wrist.

"But if she catches on, this could be what she does from now on."

"How do you distinguish between the two?"

"That is simple."

He swung his opened hand again, but this time he did not just leave it open. As it moved over a longer distance and accelerated, he closed it. It was open at the starting point and closed at the end point.

"This is how you would do it as a punch. You want speed when you throw the punch, so you keep your fist loose and open. But after building up speed and strength over the longer range of movement, you form a fist to do more damage in the end. That is why anyone who sees it done at higher speeds can only comprehend the starting point and ending point."

He breathed in.

"If Mei-san masters this, one would only be able to see the beginning and end of her movements."

Mei did not know what had happened to her.

…H-huh?

She was terribly off balance. Whether she was wobbling or tripping over something, her body was moving unsteadily back and forth. She tried to lean on the stocker next to her, but she ran into it with unexpected force. She was ashamed of her behavior.

She could not gather her strength properly and her mind would not clear up. For one, she did not know why her mentor was here.

…Um…

She could not remember. She was fairly certain she had come to get Pyrgos' memo and had ended up fighting him. She thought she had been badly beaten, but it seemed a fair bit of what had happened had been knocked from her mind. The fact that she did not remember the inconvenient parts seemed very unlike her, but she was grateful.

However, she did not like that she was only moving with her joints. Her ankles and knees were shaking, her body leaned forward, and she lacked the dignity of a Border agent. I can't let those two see me like this,she thought as she noticed a few objects on the floor.

They were parts of her uniform that she must have removed at some point. They were the hard points for her waist and neck, the skirt, and the coat. Removing them would lower her defenses, so when had she removed them, assuming it had been her to do so?

…I don't know.

Her dim thoughts were interrupted.

"?"

Her mentor was coming. Oh, no, she thought. Her mentor's movements were trouble. Her mentor would likely attack with her fists by using a right hook as she passed by Mei's right side.

If it hit, it could easily tear holes in her body. Jin would probably make a perverted joke out of that, she thought with a mental glare, but she also decided to at least try to avoid her mentor's attack.

However, it was obviously far too late. She could not move very much, yet her mentor's approach was fast and she did not have much room to move back.

"Oh."

The next thing she knew, her mentor was diagonally in front of her and had finished swinging her arm.

The woman's fist had not hit her.

Huh? thought Mei. It isn't like her to miss. Did she intentionally miss as a warning or something?

But then she gently hit the stocker to her left.

Huh? she thought again. This is the stocker I bumped into before.

But it had been two steps behind her.

…Did it move up behind me on its own?

That was when she had a realization.

"…Eh?"

Something was not right.

.

Mei came to her senses and realized something strange was happening to her body.

But something else happened at the same time.

"Kh!"

Weight suddenly filled her entire body. Her numbed body awoke and her mind began forming multiple calculations and even weight returned.

…What is this!?

She remembered what had happened up until now and the sudden weight just about caused her limp body to give out below her.

"Have you woken up?"

Her mentor's voice sounded both curious and relieved.

…No! That is not my mentor!

It was Pyrgos.

That definite enemy swung his fists at great speed once more while untwisting his body.

…What should I do!?

Mei made a split-second decision.

If this attack hit her, it would likely pierce straight through her.

In her previous battles, she had always relied on her durable body and the great strength that let her stand firm, but she would lose if she tried that here.

If she let this enemy hit her with all his strength, her own strength would not be enough.

…So…

She could sense what she had been doing earlier.

She had been moving at tremendous speed. That extreme short-range acceleration was difficult to control.

She did not know the details of how she did it, but she could remember what had happened.

The other night, she had thrown a broken Neighbor piece when her body was still unsteady from her injuries that lingered in her mind.

And just now, she had gained such great strength when her body was unsteady from the damage taken here.

What was the common point between the two?

As soon as she asked that question…

"—!"

Pyrgos' fist struck.

.

A great sound of impact rang out.

Pyrgos checked on his stance after swinging his arm: An excellent movement.

…But!

He could see his prey flying through the air, but something was different from before.

His prey was no longer the prey.

The gray lion had been knocked away and leaped through the air, but…

"…!"

Her heels slid along the ground by the wall and she remained standing with her guard still up.

She had not fallen.

She had raised her left arm in defense, so the clothing was torn and the skin below was torn and leaking trion.

The lion's entire body trembled with tension and wobbled from the mental strain and lingering self numbness. The sudden movement caused her to breathe heavily and her eyes had still not focused.

Nevertheless, she stood there with her guard up.

She had endured his attack and remained standing.

Pyrgos observed her in the Unmatched Valkyrie's form.

…I have no sense of danger, but my sight and other senses picked up something different this time.

When he had drop-kicked her to the wall earlier, he had felt her resisting the impact he was giving her.

But this time…

…Instead of resisting, she moved back to redirect it.

"Yes," he said as he analyzed her. "You are no longer relying on your durable body to hold your ground by force. You moved back with that strange high-speed movement you demonstrated before, didn't you? And you did so while taking my attack."

That pointed to one fact.

"You successfully moved back in the very instant that you took my attack."

The gray lion was not listening to the words directed at her.

She took erratic breath after erratic breath and her eyes looked around the room, as if seeing something only she could witness.

That showed she had released her extreme tension. That showed that what she had done had essentially been a gamble.

…She did not know if it would work, but she tried it anyway.

But she finally did something else: she breathed deeply in.

"Nn."

She began to tilt to the right.

"Hh."

And she immediately corrected her stance. She used the quick movement to have her shoulder tug strongly on her limp right arm.

"—"

The dislocated shoulder popped back into place with a short, dry sound. Her hand instantly clenched, her elbow bent, her wrist was lifted in front of her face, and…

"Owwww!"

.

…That woke me up!

I shouldn't have done that, she added, but she was back all the same.

The strange thing about Black Triggers was how they could be altered at a moment's notice sometimes.

That was exactly what she had done.

Maybe it's because this is a representation of human emotion, but being able to turn on and off pain is kind of interesting.

Her mind had cleared and her body was finally reconnected.

...It's strange to have a clear mind while also having my calculations going on.

She felt pain.

She was exhausted.

She felt shaking, sluggishness, heat, and all sorts of other things.

"Right."

But she understood what all the previous attacks had done to her.

…I relaxed all the excess strength in my body.

Those attacks had been too powerful to resist. It had taken someone on her mentor's or Pyrgos' level to do actual damage to her and their attacks had smashed through the strength she had gathered to resist them.

…Yes.

She could not quite put it in words, but…

"I feel light."

Simply moving her lips brought pain now, but she could actually move her hand to wipe the tears of pain from her eyes.

The Black Trigger continued to respond to her wants. Her want to feel it all at the moment.

It was far from perfect, but she had recovered.

…Yes. This will probably only be a short-term fight.

But she had not given up and so she knew she could fight.

After all, Pyrgos had attacked her in her mentor's form…

"And I redirected the force."

She had not known if she could do that. That was different from resisting and holding her ground.

…This must be the same as my mentor's high-speed movement.

She doubted it was exactly the same. She was inexperienced and had only just begun to understand the technique.

…But if I can do it, I can keep doing it and learn to do it even better.

So she breathed in.

When she exhaled, she wiped away her tears and turned her gold eyes to her opponent.

"I will name myself now. I am an A-Rank Border agent and Kushikage's single and only student...

She wiped a cut leaking trion from her face, licked it from her fingers with her lips, and continued.

"...and

"I will name myself again. I am the Ultimate Operator of Border's B-Rank Kotowari Squad…"

She wiped blood from her face, licked it from her finger with her lips, and continued.

"…and soon-to-be member of the Yagura Branch, Shitokei Fuji - or currently called Takato Mei."

.

"Understood," said Pyrgos with a nod.

As a runaway from Aftokrator, he felt that he should reply in kind if this Miden resident named herself, so he returned to his male body and replied.

"I am Pyrgos, former resident of Aftokrator."

He then changed form and prepared his fighting stance. He searched for the optimal female form and opened his mouth to speak.

…I will maintain my imperial behavior.

"How about you come at me? Or do you like making someone like me go to all the effort?"

.

The lion moved first and the human moved second.

A moment later, their movements intersected.

"…"

Neither one of them stopped fighting.

A deep sound came from the sky.

"The level of force has changed," said Oshiro as he looked up to the tower.

Inukai nodded as he looked in the same direction.

…What is going to happen?

He knew the battle was growing longer.

The two guard women said the sounds coming from the sky were "different from normal" and the Unmatched Woman said it was "far from over".

But Inukai could not help but speak up.

Mei-san had to have been injured. Even with a Black Trigger, I don't see how a longer battle would be-…"

"Oh? That girl may not know how to handle herself, but I can say one thing for sure."

The Unmatched Woman cut him off to provide her own opinion.

"The standard tactic of the Taiyōko family is to fight a short but decisive battle."

The entire circular room had become a battlefield.

Far from just using the floor, the two combatants also used the stockers, the curved walls, and the ceiling as footing for accelerating or changing direction as the two of them intersected and pursued each other.

Their paths continually crossed.

Mei knocked back her enemy's charge with a kick and landed on a stocker. Pyrgos accelerated by jumping from the floor and ceiling several times like a ricocheting bullet and he threw a piercing kick toward her from above.

But by that time, she had instantly leaped to a stocker behind her.

"—"

From there, she jumped to the wall with a swing of her body and kicked with her toes as if to dig into the curving surface. Her movements appeared light, but her repeated and intersecting footwork allowed her to run along the wall.

She ran around the room.

Pyrgos pursued her by leaning forward atop a broken stocker and releasing his built-up strength in a great leap. He flew straight for the wall, but he made sure to rotate around as he did so the soles of his feet landed on the wall. He ran after Mei along the wall while crouched "down" against it.

Meanwhile, Mei back-stepped around on the wall and stuck a hand toward her back.

She prepared a trion sword she had grabbed when standing on the stocker and hidden in her clothes.

And there was more than one. She had enough swords to hold between all of her fingers.

She threw them. It was a weak movement of her shoulders and elbows, but…

"—"

When the swords were released from her fingers, they flew toward Pyrgos with instantaneous force.

He did not bother avoiding them. He grabbed the first one between his fingers and tossed it up to the ceiling.

"Did you think someone from Afto would not have been trained in swordplay!?"

Several solid sounds rang out as all of the swords were knocked away, but as he looked through the reflecting light of the blades, he saw the gray lion jumping. That black-haired girl kicked powerfully off the wall, rotated upside down in midair, and placed a piercing step onto the ceiling.

So Pyrgos also jumped. He had already started to fall due to his greater weight, so he stabbed a sword into the ceiling and kicked off the wall while pulling himself toward that weapon. And in the instant he passed by the sword, he kicked off of it.

He had caught up, so their powers intersected.

She deflected his stabbing hand, he avoided her fists, and their kicks collided.

"—"

They both performed a midair flip and landed in the room's central ring.

Pyrgos stood on the northern post while the gray lion stood on the southern post.

Pyrgos crossed his arms and threw out his chest while the gray lion let out a heated breath.

Immediately afterwards, the two collided in the center of the ring.

The sound of the collision rang out and more followed with increasing speed.

.

Mei did her best to control her trembling mind.

…Calm down!

She needed to control her mind at the moment, not her body.

She desperately held back the desire to rely on her strength that was trying to control her body.

After all, the overwhelming difference between her and her mentor was an issue of speed and she could see the answer to that in her body at the moment. She was beginning to understand.

To oversimplify the answer, it was to not rely on her strength.

...This is what Yuki has to do every single day!

Then a bitter thought came to mind.

That means I have to do this or I will have to break up with him!

It was quickly purged alongside the rest of her unneeded thoughts.

And a certain moment had led to this realization. When battling the Trion Soldiers the night before, she had thrown a broken Neighbor piece, thinking it would not hit in time, but its unexpected speed had allowed it to hit and had laid the groundwork for ending the battle.

While wondering what had happened, she had tried throwing a small stone in the bath, but as expected, it had not worked.

There was a simple reason for that.

When throwing the stone in the bath, her fingers had been tensed with strength from beginning to end. She had been so focused on how to produce that kind of speed that she had remained tense from the start of the throw to its finish.

That was the wrong way.

That constant tension was not a throw.

…That was pushing it.

To throw it, she had to release it.

She had to only place her fingers on the stone to control it, swing her shoulder, swing her elbow enough to make sure it was not fixed in place, and do the same with her wrist. Each time, she could only gather her strength at the very beginning and then throw with each joint in order to release the stone.

In other words, she "threw" by swinging her shoulder, elbow, wrist, and fingers in that order.

And if she built up some force to begin with, the stone would fly with even more force.

Her entire body was the same.

She could not keep her body tense and push it forward. If she dug her toes into the floor, bent her relaxed body, and threw herself by pulling with her toes, she could launch herself quickly forward.

It was a lot like bending a ruler to launch it forward. She built up her strength before moving, released it in phases, and poured as much initial speed as possible into the leading edge of her movement.

…This is nothing like before.

In a power-focused battle, she needed to hold her ground and thus took a stance centered on her heels, but now she stood on her toes, quickly bent and released her body, and turned at her destination to reach for her enemy.

…This is…

It was much like a dance.

She had yet to learn how to move her body properly and she would occasionally give a jerking shake and lose her speed.

But this was all she had.

This was what she had to do now.

So she repeatedly used the stockers or the walls as footing even though they only gave her enough space to stand on her tiptoes and a single mistake would mean falling.

When she got the timing wrong, the object she meant to throw would pull on her and cause her to shake.

When moving, it felt like jumping along small, round stones. To make sure she did not trip on those stones, she placed her foot firmly down, gathered her strength, and released it all at once.

She focused on her movements like that to allow her body to learn.

She continued on, jumping again and again.

…Honestly.

This was so very strange and made her wonder what she had been doing all this time.

No, it was just that she had never before been faced with a battle that required this kind of movement. With her Trigger and strength, she had been able to endure any attack and crush any opponent just by keeping her strength built up inside her.

But that meant she was always tensed up and it slowed her down.

She had realized that way of fighting was a constant habit when her enemy had smashed her body.

His strikes had outdone the strength built up inside her and she had abandoned the strength she had subconsciously kept as a form of resistance.

"I feel so light."

Yes, she thought as she realized something.

She finally understood why her mentor had treated her like a child.

"I…"

She had not known how to "use" her own body's strength.

She had been "drawing out" that strength, but she had not been "using" it.

She understood that now.

How pathetic, she thought. How could I think I was protecting anyone like that?

But did her mentor understand something else? While she had only now realized how to use her body to fight…

…I…

She had long ago learned how to get back on her feet without giving up.

.

Pyrgos felt some resistance from his enemy.

As the two of them continued their exchange of attacks and speed, he could tell his enemy's form was quickly growing clear.

…Oh, my.

That inexperienced being was clarifying and settling on her strength and techniques at great enough speed to elicit that silent voice of admiration.

At first, she had pulled back her attack in confusion three out of ten times, but now it was only one in twenty or even thirty times and her attacks were growing more accurate.

…Excellent.

She had likely grasped how to make use of her body during their interaction.

This had also happened to the others he had fought here. In their battles with him, they had gained a thorough understanding of their own abilities and so they would thank him afterwards.

But there was one thing different about the gray lion before him now: this lion was clearly trying to surpass him.

She refused to give up.

And Pyrgos sensed something from the persistent lion. The resistance from the attacks and speed of her growth had yet to reach completion.

She was still incomplete.

And it was that lack of completion that allowed her to never give up.

…No.

There was more to it than that. She had stood back up even before realizing she was incomplete. That was a way of life carved into her instincts, so her own will no longer matters.

…I'm so jealous.

What about me? wondered Pyrgos.

He could change his form and alter his abilities, so he had to be incomplete as well. But…

"—"

I have given up, haven't I? he thought.

He had accepted himself, but he had given up and not hoped for anything more.

There was a reason for that.

He did not know who he was, his comrades had not acted like comrades, he could only understand others via his imagination, and even his position had been given to him by others.

He himself had never been anywhere.

He had never been his own person.

…We are a lot alike.

He had a few elements in common with the girl before him. She had been put into Border by someone and even her mentor had become her enemy. And yet...

…I'm so jealous.

Even if nothing else, he envied her refusal to give up.

And the persistent form he sensed in the resistance was changing further.

She was like a newborn beast. Desiring its perfect form and wishing to live, the small beast would stand on its four legs and learn to walk and roar.

"—"

As he observed his changing opponent, Pyrgos nodded in his heart and said what he needed to say.

"Victory will be mine!"

She was changing, but how far would she go?

If his enemy was going to change and better herself, he only needed to reach an optimal form that outdid hers.

He had pioneered the technique of changing oneself as a weapon.

It had then been used to create a "cancer".

But he ignored that.

"…!"

So he transformed.

.

Mei saw pure ferocity and it was in constant flux.

Pyrgos continued to transform in order to match not just her attacks but also her movements and speed.

For speed, he took a nimble form. For strength, he took a well-built form. For techniques, he took a skilled form.

By rapidly changing himself, he matched every part of her. But…

"—"

Mei stole his speed, took his techniques, and surpassed his strength.

She threw those elements straight back at him and further improved herself.

Her breathing grew heavy and her mind went a mile a minute without stopping, but…

…This isn't over yet!

She was still far from matching her mentor. She knew that from her experience of being defeated and beaten to a pulp, but…

…I will reach her!

She could tell all resignation was vanishing from her mind and resolve was taking its place.

She was fighting.

Her confidence in that allowed her to build her resolve to defeat the enemy before her eyes. By defeating him, she could declare this runaway and former Aftokrator member "imperfect" and put him at ease.

She had thought up a way to make him feel pain and danger. It had come to her quickly inside this metal tower, so she had decided to try it out as soon as she had a chance.

She raised her speed and strengthened her attacks that could already knock him into the air.

"!" As she danced, her moving feet sounded out on the metal ring.

She was mentally exhausted and her trion body was injured, but it all turned to heat with every breath she took and that told her that her body was there.

Yes, she thought. Even the negatives have meaning here.

She could tell they were both improving themselves each time they picked up speed, attacked, or defended.

They seemed to be consuming the battle to grow.

She then noticed something about Pyrgos's rapidly changing form.

…He's stopped changing?

No, that was not it. His transformations were gradually approaching a single form.

That was likely the form he felt could oppose anything and everything.

It had to be something he was unable to create before. It was his truly ideal form that he could not picture in his head and needed to experience to create.

That form would allow him to survive on his own no matter what happened.

And if he had created that here…

…It can't be…

That meant he too was inexperienced.

So Mei sent more resistance his way.

"—!"

Suddenly, wind exploded in front of her.

She knew what had happened.

Pyrgos had completed his new form and he had quickly surpassed her still inexperienced self.

"…!?"

He appeared behind her.

.

Mei saw her opponent as she turned around.

…Blonde hair, tall, blue eyes, huge breasts, Jinsei when crossdressing… No, wait. This isn't a word association game.

Her opponent moved too fast for her eyes to keep up. He kept low but swung his body.

…!

Before she could fully turn, he jumped toward her back and she was surrounded by wind.

…Oh, no!

Her crouched enemy had wrapped his arms around her waist from behind. He then bent backwards, lifted her by the waist, and gave a yell.

"German suplex!"

.

Pyrgos used his special attack.

Instead of throwing or releasing his opponent, he kept his arms around them, bent his body, and dropped them backwards.

He slammed the back of their head into the metal floor to knock them out. All that needed to be done was put some form of trion there.

That was his plan.

Even if she absolutely refused to give up, there was nothing she could if she was knocked out cold. He doubted she would give up, but he would have left by the time she came to.

…I offer this match up to you!

But he would be the winner.

Convinced of his victory, he enacted his plan.

To drop his opponent's head to the floor, it was crucial he made an arching bridge with his back. Otherwise, his own head would be caught between the floor and her back.

He picked up speed as he perfected the steep angle of his back and he tightly clutched his arms to pull his opponent from the floor.

"Hoo!"

With that grunt of effort, he completed the technique.

The object in his arms would be slammed head-first into the floor behind him.

However, something was not quite right.

The enemy was no longer in his arms.

"What is this!?"

His clutching arms held nothing but empty air.

Mei had vanished.

Soon thereafter, his own high speed arch slammed the top of his own head into the metal ring.

.

After a great rumbling sound, Pyrgos stood all alone, forming a three-point bridge with his legs and head.

"Hmm…"

After some thought, he realized what had happened.

"Is that what happened!?"

Still forming his bridge, he spread his clutching arms and explained.

"Your chest is simply so flat that my arms were not enough to hook onto you, so you slipped right out!"

He knew the perfect way of describing it.

"A flat-chest evasion!"

A moment later, he was loudly slammed against the ceiling.

Her face bright red, Mei had made a full-speed approach and thrown a kick right into his back.

.

It was a powerful kick. After crashing into the ceiling, Pyrgos stuck there without falling for about eight seconds.

Finally, he peeled away and gently fell back down.

"Take this!"

Thirty-eight longswords made of trion stabbed into him as he fell. Four great trion axes whipped up the wind as they flew by and audibly severed his limbs.

The axes stabbed into the ceiling and he fell, unable to remove the swords without his limbs. He tried to move, but the countless blades entering him from below prevented not just his joints but also his general body from moving properly.

However, his severed limbs turned to trion smoke in midair. The deep cuts of the blade were also being closed by his inner trion protection, so the swords were about to fall out.

He would likely regenerate and remove the blades before hitting the ring, but…

"…?"

Something struck Pyrgos from below as he fell face-up.

The impact that shook his torso and slammed him back into the ceiling came from two hammers.

.

Pyrgos realized he had been pasted to the ceiling once more.

The blow seemed to have reversed up and down.

Not just one but two hammers large enough to smash stone had dug into his back and created deep depressions in his body.

…But I still feel no pain or danger!

With that thought, he tried to place his palms on the ceiling and raise his elbows. He was trying to fight the momentum pressing him into the ceiling so he could jump back down.

However, his arms had yet to regenerate. Neither had his legs.

…What!?

Timing-wise, he should have been surrounded by trion smoke and his limbs should have returned.

But they had not.

"Why not!?"

He looked to the floor behind him and saw the regenerating smoke down below.

That green mist had yet to reach him.

…Was that the purpose of the hammer blow?

"You knocked me away so the regenerating smoke couldn't reach me!?"

He knew why she had done so.

…To buy the time she needs to gather her next weapon!

As if to prove him right, a brilliant green light shot between him and the ceiling as he peeled away from it.

As expected, it was another hammer.

However, it was not just a hammer. Something was wrapped around the handle.

"One of the ring's chains!?"

As soon as he voiced that question, the chain was pulled from below and the hammer end also pulled back down. It wrapped around him like a whip as he was peeled from the ceiling again.

The hammer acted as a weight and the chain wrapped tightly around him, the many blades, and the two hammers in his back.

The blades were stabbed back into him and the hammers broke through skin until they entered his body and might as well have been part of his skeleton.

"…Hoo!"

Constricted, his lungs had less room and his breaths grew smaller.

But, he thought. I do not need to breathe. If I asphyxiate, my regeneration will simply begin from there. This squeezing is meaningless.

Also, the trion regenerating smoke was approaching him. With that, his limbs would regenerate and he could immediately break free of this chain.

The trion smoke reached him and began to form small spirals to remake his limbs, but…

"You did this to me earlier, didn't you?"

After that comment from below, a sudden tug reached his vision.

It came from the chain.

"Spin around!"

He was ripped from the trion smoke and the green spirals came apart in midair as if confused.

A moment later, his entire body crashed into the wall along with the great weight.

.

The wind roared, destruction followed the sound of the chain, and great impacts played the tower like a musical instrument.

It was a bell.

With the five hundred meter tower as the bell, Pyrgos as the bell's clapper, and Mei as the musician, it produced great noise.

"…!"

Mei truly went all out this time. She instantaneously accelerated her entire body to throw the arm holding the chain. The chain extended like a solid bar, tore through the wind, and struck the wall as a weight.

The air shook and the metal roared.

But she had already released the next strike. The chain would briefly form an arc, but quickly go taut with the weight trailing only ever so slightly behind.

"…!"

The weight tore through the stockers like a paper forest. Weapons flew through the air, but the weight broke through them all as she spun it around again for more speed.

They all broke.

The sounds of breaking metal acted as accompaniment and the whipping wind turned the metal snow into a blizzard.

The room had grown stormy, but Mei accelerated further. She spun her body, pulled her arms, and poured more speed into the chain she hauled around.

"Break!"

As she slammed him into the walls, she never let his speed drop, she continued to raise it, and she suddenly increased the frequency of the impacts.

"Is that a bell?"

Oshiro tilted his head and Inukai saw Fujimaru frantically shaking her head behind the boy.

…H-how am I supposed to explain this?

The tower's two guard women were looking up in confusion and the Unmatched Woman looked up into the sky with a hand on her hip like always.

…Is she measuring it?

The Unmatched Woman was lightly tapping her toes on the ground. At first, she was matching the grandiose metallic sounds from overhead, but before long, she was filling the gaps as well. It almost looked like she was recreating the steps taken by the bell's ringer.

"Are you worried about Mei-san?"

"Oh? All skilled people are short-lived, you know?"

"Ah! I'm short-lived! I'm seriously about as short-lived as a mosquito, so give me a feel of those boob- Why are you two guard ladies glaring at me, too!? Like you know what kind of person I am! How about I feel you up, too!"

Fearing a drop in the Tamakoma Branch's reputation, Inukai decided to calm the elite down. However, the ringing overhead had started at even intervals, but it was now much more random and the sound was growing in intensity.

"Doesn't this sound like a debt collector knocking on the door?" asked Fujimaru.

"What's even going on in there?" asked the elite. "That's gotta be Mei doing it, so that Pyr-whatever guy's gotta be dead, right?"

"N-not to worry." The smiling woman looked back up at the tower with a slight shadow hanging over her expression. "Impacts like this are not enough for Pyrgos-sama to feel pain."

So…

"All of this you're hearing will be ultimately meaningless."

Pyrgos spoke among the flurry of impacts.

"This isn't working!"

He was slammed into the wall.

"This isn't working!"

He was thrown into the wall.

"This isn't working at all!"

He still felt no pain.

The process sped up and the power of the impacts grew far greater than before. He deemed the frequency of the barrage to be truly wonderful.

But…

…It doesn't hurt!

When his body shook from the impacts, he briefly felt something like an itch, but…

"That is not enough to call pain!"

The noise was tremendous, the impacts travelled through him, and his entire body broke, but he immediately regenerated within the chain. The trion smoke of his limbs was floating around and had yet to catch up to him as he was quickly flung this way and that.

…But this is useless.

"It may look impressive, but it isn't enough to reach me!"

He was thrown into the wall and destroyed, but none of it hurt. Wasn't there a more constant kind of pain that left his entire body unusable?

"!"

He crashed into the wall again.

It was just more of the same.

…Don't you have anything more?

He wished for something else, but it seemed his enemy was only going to continue.

It was meaningless, so he thought about escaping this situation.

His body was currently filled with swords and hammers and wrapped up tight. He considered taking a smaller form to escape, but he knew the chain would simply tighten further. Also, the two hammers in his back acted as cushioning that prevented the chain from tearing completely through him. It was a well thought out method of tying him up.

To escape, he would need his limbs. The trion smoke currently could not reach him as he was swung around, but its speed was starting to catch up. That meant he only had to lower his speed.

…I need to disturb her!

He changed his form in order to affect her mentally.

"Mei!"

He had taken the Unmatched Valkyrie's form.

"What do you think you're doing to your own mentor!?"

He was immediately thrown into the wall.

"Was it just me or was that one especially strong?" asked the elite.

"I just felt a fucking chill for some reason," said the Unmatched Woman.

"Oh?" Oshiro tilted his head and pointed up. "Sumiharu. I see a light."

Inukai and the others looked up and saw a line of light running across the tower's outer wall.

"The wall…is breaking?"

Oh, no, thought Pyrgos.

His opponent's power had definitely increased after he took the Unmatched Valkyrie's form.

…Sh-she shows no mercy even against her mentor.

She must have had a harsh upbringing, the poor thing. It is true she lacks a lot of feminine appeal in certain places. If only she could transform like me.

But while he pitied her, this increase in speed was not good. The trion smoke would never catch up now.

And so he changed into yet another form.

…This one is sure to work!

He had seen Tamakoma's member and elite agent when he had first raced towards the tower, so he took on that form.

.

While swinging the chain around with all her strength, Mei saw one of her idiots' face at the end of the horizontally swinging chain.

"Mei!"

The idiot was speaking in the idiot's voice. It was the same voice she always heard and he pleaded her with a desperate look on his face.

"Please stop!"

She knew this plea was fake, but it still moved her.

…J-Jin!

To push her further, his words continued. It was a phrase she had heard him say countless times.

"Did I do something wrong!?"

Her mind gave a full nod and she slammed him into the wall like usual.

"It broke!" shouted Fujimaru.

Light appeared on the tower's top floor and they heard something like shattering glass.

The crack in the metal blossomed in the night sky, its edges glowed from the light within, and the scattering fragments reflected that light into the sky. Finally, a resplendent object was thrown into the heavens.

When the smiling woman saw it, her expression grew harsh.

"Pyrgos-sama!?"

Pyrgos was thrown out into the sky at over five hundred meters up.

His opponent had let go of the hammer chain binding him, so he was tossed into the sky just like the hammer throw.

Still, he had more than thirty swords piercing him, two hammers embedded inside him, and a lack of all four limbs. Almost his entire body had been smashed by the many impacts, but…

"Ha haaaaa!

He laughed in the female form he thought had the most beautiful smile. He had broken through the tower's outer wall and he had reached the same height as the tower's roof.

...Is that what this was!?

"Did you think you could make me feel pain by throwing me down from this height!?"

It was nonsense. Even if he did strike the ground after his fall, it would only last an instant.

He could not feel pain in an instant and the great fall would crush his body within the chain, allowing him to almost entirely regenerate. Most of his body would be turned to trion smoke and he would be freed from the chain.

He would have regenerated before his enemy could descend from the tower.

That meant he only needed to leave before she reached the surface. The time had come and there was no point in redoing the battle on the surface now that they had both seen what the other had to offer.

His enemy had essentially helped him leave, so…

"Ha haaaa!"

He laughed and laughed and then realized his vision was blurring.

He did not know why that was, but he did reach a certain conclusion in his heart.

…It was no use!

In the end, it had been no use. He had managed to achieve something close to perfection in a female form, but that body contained none of the pain one needed to be person.

He was only a doll. He had a person form, but he was not person. And…

…It was no use.

As he began to fall, something left his feminine eyes and spilled down his feminine cheek. However, that overflowing substance and all else lost to the speed of his fall and scattered in the wind.

He saw the color green spreading out from the tower.

It was trion. The trion smoke was spreading out into the air as if to embrace him and soothe him. It seemed to burst from the fissure of blossoming light in the tower and it pursued him.

In that instant, he saw a light. Below the cloudy night sky, a light suddenly jumped out from the tower.

Someone broke through the trion smoke, scattering it, and chased after him.

He saw black hair glowing in the pale light rising from the surface and he saw who had leaped down toward him while turned to the side to slip past him.

"The gray lion!?"

.

The gray lion jumped quickly into the night sky. She held a chain tied to one of the ring's corner posts beyond the gaping hole in the tower.

"Toh."

As soon as she passed Pyrgos, she pulled on the chain.

She moved back toward the tower with great force. She then let go of the chain, never slowing even as she threw herself into empty space.

"…!"

The straight line attack knocked Pyrgos back toward the tower.

She used a longsword. The thick blade stabbed into the back of his head from the neck and came out between the eyes.

It pierced the medulla oblongata, severed the nerves, and caused an instantaneous tremble in his body.

Mei maintained her momentum as she charged toward the tower, carrying Pyrgos with her.

But after recovering, Pyrgos smiled.

"You fool! The break in the tower is up above! Are you going to fall with me!?"

And…

"That instantaneous attack isn't going to hurt me!"

.

Mei did not care.

She had no intention of returning to the tower through the broken wall. She was trying to use her diagonal trajectory to collide with the metal tower. And she would use the process that followed to achieve her true goal.

"I will provide you with pain!"

First, she pulled two chain fragments from her pocket and stuck them in her ears.

They were earplugs.

After cutting off the surrounding noise, the gray lion crashed into the tower's wall with the sword still piercing through Pyrgos.

As soon as her parabolic course along the wall hit that wall, she pulled the sword from him. But the instant that wound began to fill in, she kicked him against the wall to flip him upside down.

"This is the spot!"

She followed the sensation of the previous wound to stab the blade back in at a sharp angle.

She pierced his medulla oblongata.

At the same time, her feet landed on the wall.

She stood on that wall with the sword sticking straight toward it.

Then came the instant in which Pyrgos's upside down body trembled from his nerves being severed.

"—"

That was when Mei stuck the tip of the sword against the metal wall.

"…!"

It was something she had learned from watching Denji's fight at the base. Ironically enough, that had also been against an Aftokrator Neighbor.

It was something she made sure to never forget.

And it only worked that much better when using Earth's steel instead of tiron blade.

As the sword tip scraped against the wall at maximum speed, she ran vertically down the five hundred meters.

An intense metallic sound screeched through an area outside of the next city over form Mikado City.

The persistently swelling metallic scraping played the tall tower like the string of an instrument.

Those watching the tower from below covered their ears.

"…!?"

They could not even hear their own voices and the elite spread his fingers and held them out as if surrounding two spheres.

"…!?"

When all the others glared at him, he fell to his knees.

Meanwhile, Fujimaru trembled.

…Wow.

The sound was beginning to trace along her hairs. It both tickled and itched.

…I know what this is.

Mei had done it really loudly during class one day.

…It's like nails on a chalkboard!

Mei continued her downward run with sparks and scraping following behind her.

She was oriented perpendicular to the ground, so the surface was located directly ahead.

It was a five hundred meter distance.

She held the longsword's hilt and the blade was stabbed through the upside down Aftokrator runaway.

That enemy had yet to recover. When it had lasted an instant, the sensation had not felt like pain, but…

…What if I drag it out!?

The swelling bitter noise came from the space between the wall and the sword pressed against it. She had earplugs made from the broken chain, but…

"How about this!?"

Pyrgos fluttered skyward from halfway down the sword stabbed horizontally through the back of his head.

And then he seemed to lose control of his body.

"Ah."

She faintly heard a voice, Pyrgos's voice. Beyond the sparks and surging noise, his voice rose countless times, was cut off, and occasionally trembled.

"Ah! Ahhhh! Abh…ra…aaaa….ra! Ra! Brrraaraaa!"

Each time he spoke, his body raged. He was only a torso and head with no limbs, but he would flail around and transform into something else.

However, that transformation was broken. He would gain a woman's head with a man's torso, the left side would not match the right, half of his face would be something else, and something like tears scattered from him.

"Ahhhh…kaaaah!"

His tongue extended from his mouth like a snake and his body shook again and again like a fish.

He could not control it.

It did not matter what he intended or what he thought. The sword was pumping metal vibrations directly into the nerves that controlled his entire body. The foundation of every single nerve was being torn at from within rather than without.

It filled him with pain.

The method was simple. His own protection regeneration had only let him feel it for an instant, so she had made sure it would continue.

His own protection was automatic and had a number of resistance patterns built in. The pain of severed nerves should have been instantly shut down and so would anything that sent constant pain to his nerves.

Anything perceived as pain would be shut out, so he could feel no pain.

But he had said he could not swap out everything.

…And what if something not perceived as pain is amplified and kept constant?

Pyrgos had no sense of pain, but his mind still controlled his body and his other parts were autonomously controlled. That meant his nerves had to be functioning. Those nerves could not receive any external pain, but they would actively respond to anything from within. That was how he lacked a sense of pain.

In that case, if a vibration was created inside his nerves, he would receive it as an active pain.

His body was out of control, but not because of any external force. The vibration within his nerves was causing him to shake his own body.

He would be unable to move as he wished and he would feel a vague surprise and trembling.

…Altogether it creates a feeling that makes him want to call out for help!

His own protection would likely shut out any trion attack, meaning non-trion based ones were even more useless. This only worked by stabbing him through with a blade and extending the instantaneous tremble with a vibration much greater than mere sound.

His body shook on their own and writhed about uncontrollably.

"Ahhhh!"

His entire body undulated, his eyes opened wide, and his tongue stuck out into the air.

"Ahhhh…ra…aaaaaahhhhh!"

He was crying. He was feeling something that made him want to tell her to stop and to forgive him. Faced with his raging body, he seemed to want to reject everything.

He looked like a child throwing a tantrum at himself.

"—"

But Mei sped up.

.

Mei ran down the tower wall with the night's sky washing over her.

She played the five hundred meter metal string with her sword pick.

She continued on.

She shot her own body toward the ground below.

Once, twice, thrice, she added a quick burst of speed.

With each acceleration, Pyrgos's body hopped up. He would contract and extend, bend and straighten, and transform into more and more different forms. He was searching for the optimum solution.

He could no longer control his body. His mind had to be in a scorching state, but his own protection was still trying to protect him. That transforming protection sought the optimum form for the damage he was taking. A few times, he swelled up and burst before rapidly narrowing and twisting back down.

"—!"

But he never found a fixed form. His body would change, rearrange, come apart, and constantly transform.

…But there won't be an optimum!

After all…

…This vibration was never expected!

When his own body was shaking him from the inside, there was nothing his own protection could do. Unless he eliminated himself, this situation would never be resolved.

And Mei had a thought about the tearfully raging Aftokrator runaway.

…I think your comrades must have cared for you quite a bit.

They may never have done anything to him and they may have treated him differently from others, but the protection he had created for them had not given up even while he was harming himself.

With each step another attack, she ran and she swung her body forward and downward.

At the three hundred meter mark, the blade tip broke.

She pressed further down and the broken blade produced an even nicer sound than before.

…Oh, dear.

If I had known it would sound this nice, I would have done this sooner.

The chain-wrapped mass of flesh and trion hopped even more spectacularly, but that was also a representation of the sound. She had taken music classes as the Operator for Suzume, but she quite liked them and had good grades in them. Since her voice was on the higher end, she was often paired with Tsukimi and her powerful voice, but she had never expected to come across such a nice instrument here.

Each time she accelerated, the sound grew even nicer, so she decided to accelerate.

"Lrr…"

Her voice escaped to join the sound. It was the growling of a lion.

"Lrr… Lrr…garrr…"

That growling was the origin of the word lion.

The gray lion began to sing as she played her instrument below the night sky.

The wonderful sound carried through the night.

"Lrr…rrr…rrr…"

The swelling, leaping sound coincided with her actions. Whenever she accelerated, it would cry out and sparks would decorate the air.

She was moving.

And then she saw the view from the tower.

She saw villages, forests, rivers running through them, and…

…That's the city!

To the north, a large city was thickly besieged. She saw many lights in the city, countless fires flickered outside its border, and shadows of cars could be seen on the road.

She had once protected that city and Border would soon need to speak with them.

But we will be heading home after this, she thought.

"Lrrooo…"

The voice that escaped her throat no longer had the breaks that followed a nice tempo. This came from a lion's instincts to call someone else.

"Lrooo…oo…oo…ooo…"

Her throat trembled as she released that joyous call.

She gave another quick burst of additional speed as the roar shook her entire body.

Her movements left even the wind behind now. She passed the two hundred meter mark, but she started making repeated jumps forward and downward.

She passed the one hundred meter mark almost immediately, covered half of that, and found she could only see the ground.

At that point, Pyrgos's body gave an extra strong shake.

However, this was not the uncontrolled movement brought on by the vibration. His entire body shook as if bringing itself into order and regaining control.

This was the final resistance of the Neighbor's own protection as it tried to escape this.

.

Mei responded to Pyrgos's resistance by letting go of the sword.

She used both hands to thrust the sword forward and downward.

For just a moment, the sword scraped itself against the wall as if taking autonomous control, but that did not last long. It soon decelerated and Pyrgos began to regain control.

Mei gave a jump, but she was no longer running vertically down the wall. She turned her head downward as if diving down the wall.

She continued onward.

She extended and released her body to make a great downward leap, but she immediately shrank down in midair, rotated around, and positioned her feet toward the ground.

Her feet were targeting the decelerated sword. Specifically, the side of the blade.

"You did this to me earlier, didn't you?"

She hit the blade with the same technique Pyrgos had used before: a dropkick.

Given even more momentum than before, the longsword scraped into the wall and let loose a scream that seemed to tear into the air.

Pyrgos's body lost complete control.

This sudden blast after the moment of recovery was just too much for him to bear.

"…!"

Mei saw him bite the tongue that had extended to give a cry of rejection

And he had taken a female form befitting that suicidal action.

"Are you admitting you're feeling pain!?"

He was experiencing something worse than death. That was what it meant.

"An Aftokrator fighter must not kill himself!"

She forcefully accelerated the sword stabbing through him so it moved downward.

His head was split in half from the medulla oblongata, including the tongue he was trying to bite.

The sword came free.

The halved head began to paste back together, starting from the neck, but Mei did not stop there.

She grabbed the falling sword's hilt and swung it straight upwards.

The blade sliced him in two, from his recovered head to his crotch.

"I will save your life!"

.

Mei sliced the Neighbor in two with enough force to cut through the chain as well.

She tossed him away.

His two halves were quickly thrown apart where they slammed into the ground and burst. But as soon as the flesh exploded, the Neighbor's own protection kicked in.

Pyrgos's entire body turned to the regenerating trion spray.

The sword shattered and the chain broke, but…

"—"

With the flying bloody spray in the background, the gray lion kicked off the wall in a leap.

She rotated around and landed with the tower behind her.

All of the trion smoke gathered together and whipped up the wind.

At the same time, the surrounding forest exploded. The birds and beasts frozen in fear of all the noise and the lion's roaring had begun to move once the great reverberation vanished.

An overflowing number of birds flew up toward the cloudy sky.

While listening to the countless flapping sounds, animal cries, and distant howling from the forest and while sensing the spiraling wind of regeneration on her skin, Mei slowly lowered her arms and cried out.

"Victory!"

.

Mei took a breath. Around her, a large whirlwind carried a dark trion mist through the night, but the energy did not reach her and she could not smell it. Pyrgos was likely in the process of regaining his form.

She also heard some footsteps from a short distance away. They came from the two women who had been at the tower's entrance.

"Pyrgos-sama!"

When she heard the tone of their calling voices, Mei decided to leave Pyrgos to them.

But there was one thing she had to do first.

…Here it is.

A memo on parchment had fallen among the scraps of uniform found between the chain and sword on the torn ground.

That memo was important to Border.

Mei picked it up.

"…?"

She saw a naked form lying on the grassy ground.

It was Pyrgos, but…

…A girl?

This was not the male form she had first seen. It resembled the form he had completed during their battle, but it was still different. The girl lying unconscious there looked a little softer and a little less solid.

Had the Neighbor's own protection provided him with the optimal female form during the battle?

Or…

"Was he really a woman…but was forced to take a male form at a young age to become a fighter?"

I'm reading too much into this, she thought. But, she also thought.

"—"

Well, it doesn't really matter, she concluded with a shake of the head. He would be the one to decide what form he took from here on.

He had confirmed that he could feel pain and had therefore become a child of people.

So…

…I'm sure he'll choose the form he actually wants and not one he feels forced into.

As a fighter, she bowed toward the sleeping Neighbor.

Looking down, she saw Shikifuku glistening in the moonlight. The faint pink glow it had had become splendidly vibrant at some point.

...You are Akasora-san's wife, right? I should thank you as well for this chance.

Smiling down at the Black Trigger Portion, she turned it off to give it a break.

The two women ran past her.

"Pyrgos-sama!"

She turned her back on their voices and faced forward.

The others were there.

.

Mei looked to the others as if she had not seen them in a long while.

One of them rushed forward.

"Jin."

She smiled at him as he scratched his head, looked directly at her, and approached.

Suddenly, she remembered slamming him into the wall during the battle.

"You really saved me?"

"Why was that a question?"

Oh, that's right, she thought. While wondering how to explain, she took a step forward to hand him the memo. And as she got closer, a familiar scent reached her nose.

"…"

She fell to her knees and her mind went dark.

Her tension left her and she passed out.

Suzaku sighed after receiving word via normal phone text.

He faced forward and spoke into the clearing in front of the collapsed underground.

"I just got a text from Jin and the others over there. Apparently...um, they managed to get their hands on a memo while checking out that tower."

He was speaking to Kimura who sat next to him on one of the clearing's benches.

Manager: "Sounds like they did a good job. Was that Shitokei's doing?"

Umi: "According to Fujimaru, Takato tore Pyrgos to pieces in a locked room, jumped humming from a great height, sliced him in two, turned him to mincemeat, and had him reincarnated as a beautiful girl."

Ōji: "Yeah, that'll happen."

Dino Boy: "Eh?"

They were sharing their communications with each other, so Suzaku looked forward and saw them frowning at each other. Suzaku decided to ignore all of them and she had something more to say.

Umi: "It seems Pyrgos has 'retreated' along with his bodyguards. After Jin-san received the memo from Takato, he gave it to the Taiyōko older sister, so their mission from the directors is complete. They are apparently headed this way, but…"

Manager: "I doubt they will be able to make it to the meeting at this rate."

Honest Sister: "That's right. Anyone who is not a captain honestly can't go to that meeting, so that means we will need to leave it up to Take to go for Kotowari Squad. From the looks of things, it seems like he will be fine."

Izumo: "Do we happen to know what this meeting is about?"

"Well..." Suzaku said. He glanced over to see that both the black wolf and the white fox had fallen asleep on top of each other.

They really did wait for news on Takato's group. I'll make sure to tell her how well they did.

There was a slight cough reminding him that he had yet to answer.

Looking down at his phone, he began typing a message.

It would only be sent to the squad captains.

Umi: "We will be talking about the rumors concerning Tsukiko Yuki going around and illegally handing Triggers to the public."