C-Rank Ranked Match — The Spectators

Marshmallow Smile’s Operator Room.

Confusion flickered across Niko’s face as she watched Shiki fight.

“Shiki… I always figured she had something in her, but this much…?”

Four teams wiped out single-handed, and now a dead-even fight against Tsubasa, one of the very best players in the game. Feats like these were beyond anyone barely ten days in. Niko especially had spent little of that time watching Shiki fight, so her astonishment ran all the deeper.

“That is the first time I have seen Tsubasa use a ricochet.”

The ricochet had been worked off the Aegis itself. Even Shiina, who had once been Tsubasa’s teammate, had never seen the move, so she’d had no way to prepare a counter for it.

“So she synced her shield with her submachine gun and set it up to bounce the rounds off the shield. Normally, eat that blind the first time and you’re gone — but Shikki did well to slip the direct hit.”

“Yes. Magnificent reflexes… no, I should say it is the breadth of her field of vision.”

Watching Shiki’s superhuman reactions, Niko saw another girl overlap with her.

It overlaps… somewhere, with Azuha…

No, there was no way. Niko shook her head.

“But at this range, it is Tsubasa’s domain…”

“Shikki can handle close-quarters too.”

“Even so, in that department Tsubasa has the edge, doesn’t she. If there’s one opening to be found…”

The key to the whole match was that one-shot-kill round.

“But with its trick already exposed, landing that is impossible. Tsubasa’s reactions are first-rate too. You’d have to draw her in awfully close, or it’ll never connect.”

“But there is no chance Tsubasa closes to guaranteed-hit range without a plan of her own.”

“So we lure her out. With the finest scheme (bait), that is.”

ChaCha wore a knowing little smile.

“ChaCha…?”

“What’s with that weird smile?”

ChaCha kept her eyes on Shiki, there beyond the screen.

“—What a terrifying girl she is. Honestly.”

Crimson Wings’ Operator Room.

Crimson Wings had no Operator. In the Operator Room stood only two: Kurenai and Ren. The pair watched the final showdown on their feet.

“First time anyone’s gone one-on-one with our boss and pushed her this hard since Shiina, huh,” Kurenai said.

“Shiina was a Balancer, so that much I can follow. But this one is a sniper. At that range, how is it she holds even with Tsubasa?” Ren shot back.

“Hard to swallow, is it? One Sniper to another.”

“Ohhh, obviously it is!”

The two Crimson Wings gazed at their boss.

“You figure she’ll lose? This fight?”

“That will not happen. Tsubasa will not lose. A fool beyond all reason, and a genius besides. A woman who will one day stand at the very summit of this game. That is why we threw in our lot with her. Is that not so?”

“No arguing that.”

Not the faintest trace of unease or worry showed in either of their eyes.

The top floor of the high-rise apartment block Moonlight.

Seika, who had been watching Shiki and Tsubasa’s battle, rose from her seat.

“Hm? What’s the matter, Seika?”

“…The Infinity Burst won’t happen. There’s no need to keep watching this match any longer.”

“Won’t happen? You mean this Shiki girl wasn’t the vessel after all?”

“That’s not it,” Seika said.

“Her opponent’s caliber is too low. Because of that, it can’t draw out anything past Shiki’s limit.”

“Hmm?”

“The Infinity Burst never manifests unless you’re pitted against an enemy you can’t handle at your current strength. The second time onward is one thing, but the first — the very first Infinity Burst — needs a battle against a formidable foe, or a desperate, do-or-die crisis.”

Seika, unusually, was speaking at length.

“But this time, Shiki won’t be driven that far. When she can win with the strength she has, she has no reason to go forcing out anything past her limit.”

Seika watched the screen out of the corner of her eye.

“…This girl. She’s dancing right in the palm of Shiki’s hand.”

The corners of Seika’s mouth lifted, just faintly, and she left the room.

Alone now, Seika’s mother faced the screen and let out a soft chuckle.

“You look like you’re enjoying yourself, Seika. For someone to make you pull a face like that… I might get a little jealous of this girl.”

She fixed her eyes on Shiki.

“Her skill, her reactions, her tactics — every one of them wonderfully terrifying. But the most terrifying thing in her…”

Her gaze settled on the light in Shiki’s eyes.

“…is that refusal to let a target she’s marked slip away — that obsession with her prey, like a starving wolf. I like it. Maybe I’ll take this girl for myself, instead of Seika ♪ She seems so innocent, too, and there looks to be all sorts worth grooming in her.”

She made a gun of her right hand and leveled its slender white fingertip at Shiki, there beyond the screen.

“I suppose, mother and daughter as we are, our tastes end up alike too.”