“We’re home”, came overlapping voices from the doorway.

Chika go through the door first, exhaustion already dragging at her shoulders: “Hi, Konami-senpai.”

Konami looked up from her phone. “Hey, Chika. Patrol run long or something? You guys are super late. Hurry up before Raijinmaru wipes out all the curry.”

“Hi, Konami-senpai,” Yuma greeted as he slipped off his sandals. “Sorry. An Ilgar got through the gate today, so patrol got a little chaotic.”

Konami nearly dropped her phone. “An Ilgar? Seriously? Don’t tell me another country’s trying to soften Border up before an invasion.”

“It was a decaying Ilgar” Hyuse said, still in his trion body and already started on his meal, answered between mouthfuls. “So probably unrelated.”

Konami grimaced. “Geez, have some manners, brat. At least turn your Trigger off before eating.”

“I checked with Jin on the way back.” Osamu added while setting his bag down. “He said not to worry.”

Konami relaxed immediately. “Good. By the way, Yuma, cleaning duty’s yours today. And don’t even think about using the puppy eyes on Four Eyes again. Also I need to finish my assignments today, so don’t cause too much chaos.”

And she closed her door. Thud—

Yuma’s face flattened into his signature pout yet somehow look offended: “Aw, mannn…”

“Start eating, Yuma,” Osamu said as he pulled out a chair. “At least it showed up in the Forbidden Zone this time. Not like the first one we ran into with Kitora-san.”

“Oh yeah,” Yuma said suddenly, facing at Osamu, “I almost forgot about that. Do you think she ever realized it was me?”

Osamu thought about it for a moment. “She probably figured it out after the Almost Civil War Incident.”

Chika giggled softly before glancing back toward Hyuse. “Ilgar probably costs a huge amount of trion, right? Using something that expensive only for it to explode later feels kind of wasteful.”

Hyuse leaned back slightly, starting to explain: “Well not entirely. Most of the trion investment goes into the armor and propulsion systems rather than the explosion itself.”

“The armor?” Osamu repeated.

Hyuse nodded once. “The armor.”

Osamu frowned slightly. “Then how is the blast radius so large?”

“Compression efficiency,” Hyuse answered immediately. “The explosion itself is not complicated. Once the internal trion destabilizes, the release spreads through the entire frame at once.”

Yuma raised his chopsticks like a teacher giving a lecture. “Think of it like overfilling a balloon, except the balloon is made of trion and can fly.”

Chika tilted her head curiously. “Huh… is it possible to do that with our Trion bodies?”

The table went silent for a moment.

Even Hyuse paused mid-bite.

Osamu stared at her. “That… is quite an idea.”

Chika brightened immediately. “Right? I kinda want to test it.”

Yuma looked immediately delighted. “Chika’s entering her mad scientist era.”

“I am not,” Chika protested softly, though she already looked deep in thought. “I just mean theoretically. Trion bodies already store huge amounts of trion, so if compression and destabilization are possible…”

Osamu looked like he regretted this entire conversation already. “Please don’t say it like that.”

Hyuse, however, seemed mildly interested now. “In principle, yes. A Trion body could likely be forced into an unstable collapse if enough trion were compressed beyond safe operational limits.”

Chika blinked. “So it is possible.”

“Yeah,” Hyuse continued. “But your Bail out system could detect those anomalies and bail you out a porper explosion could take place."

Yuma leaned forward onto the table. “But if we somehow bypassed those safeties…”

“Yuma”, Osamu warned immediately.

“What? We’re discussing science.”

“That is not what science looks like.”

Hyuse ignored them. “An intentional overload would still be dangerous. Trion reacts violently when structural balance collapses too quickly. The explosion size would depend on total trion quantity, compression density, and mostly release speed.”

Chika looked impressed. “So high-trion agents would be a great explosive, like m—”

Osamu immediately pointed at her. “Do not finish that thought.”

“I wasn’t going to!”

“You absolutely were.”

Yuma looked far too entertained. “Honestly, Chika accidentally discovering human self-destruct mechanics during dinner is kinda impressive.”

Chika puffed her cheeks slightly. “I’m just curious.”

“That sentence has historically led to terrible outcomes,” Osamu muttered.

After a brief pause, he sighed in defeat anyway.

“…I’ll ask Usami-san tomorrow if we can ran experiments”

Yuma pumped a fist into the air. “Teamworks wins again.”

Osamu rubbed his forehead. “I already know how much of a headache i will have tomorrow.”

[ Trion Supply System Destroyed. Bail Out. ]

The training room dissolved around them in a wash of light.

A second later, Chika reappeared on the top of the debris she just caused, looking completely fine thanks to the simulation room. While the monitors still displayed the aftermath of the simulation, an enormous section of the virtual map just simply gone.

Usami stared at the numbers on her screen.

“…Okay,” she said slowly, “So, right now, the simulation estimates Chika’s maximum radius is around 200 kilometers.”

There was a brief silence.

Yuma whistled. “Wow. Chika’s terrifying.”

“I said the exact same thing five minutes ago.” Osamu muttered, still horrified and fascinated from the results.

Chika looked pale, yet a little bit excited: “T-two hundred?!”

Hyuse leaned back in his chair, clearly interested: “So theoretically, if Chika got dropped into the middle of a battlefield, could we just self-sacrifice her and wipe out everyone?”

The room fell completely silent.

Even Usami slowly turned away from her monitor to stare at him.

“…Hyuse”, Osamu said carefully, “phrasing.”

“What? I said theoretically.”

Chika looked deeply conflicted between concern and curiosity.

Usami, meanwhile, actually considered the question.

“…It would likely depend on the battlefield environment,” she answered matter-of-factly. “Map size, terrain density, and whether others can escape the radius fast enough.”

Osamu buried his face in his hands, looked one second away from banning this entire experiment permanently.

Yuma pointed triumphantly at Usami. “See? She gets it.”

“I know, but that is not helping”, Osamu groaned.

Everyone just stood there in silence, staring at Osamu expectantly.

Osamu looked from Yuma’s openly excited face, to Hyuse’s disturbingly serious one, then finally to Chika, who somehow looked both nervous and thrilled at the same time.

He closed his eyes for a second before sighing in complete defeat: “Fine.”

“Yeah!” Everyone immediately threw both hands into the air in celebration, one more successful step toward pushing Osamu into their wishes on demand.

Right as the teleportation finished, Osamu knew his plan was dead.

Not compromised. Just not necessary anymore.

Because Chika’s positions is the dead center of the battlefield.

On their squad com channel, Yuma’s voice is barely conceived with his excitement, “…Chika.”

“Yeah?”

“…You’re thinking what I’m thinking?”

Osamu immediately knew where this was going.

“No.”

“Yes”, Hyuse answered at the same time.

Osamu closed his eyes.

“Hyuse, stop encouraging them.”

“I am encouraging efficiency.”

“…Osamu?” Chika asked again.

Yuma sounded openly excited now: “C’mon, it’d be funny.”

Hyuse added calmly, “The current deployment pattern maximizes enemy density within escape-limited terrain. This may be the ideal testing condition.”

Osamu pressed a hand against his face. He hated that both of them had a point.

“…You've been dropped in the ideal position.” he admitted weakly, “It’s probably now or never, really.”

Yuma immediately laughed. “Captain just folded instantly.”

“I did not fold instantly.”

“You folded before the match even started.”

‘‘Shut up’’

Hyuse’s voice remained completely serious. “If this experiment’s results is what we suspected last week, this battle will ends immediately.”

“How did your cover did not get blown is the question I ask every day” Osamu muttered before continue. “…Chika?”

“Yeah?” She replied

“Please…don’t overdo it.”

Yuma immediately burst out laughing. “That is NOT the sentence you say before detonating a nuclear bomb.”

Hyuse nodded thoughtfully. “It really sounds irresponsible when phrased that way.”

“Please just stop.”

Meanwhile, in the viewing room,

“Interesting opening formations this round,” Yoneya noted casually. “Chika spawned in a pretty rough position.”

“Yeah,” Izumi agreed. “She’s isolated right between multiple engagement routes. Tamakoma-2’s probably trying to regroup with her as fast as possible.”

Onscreen, multiple radar signatures were already converging toward the center sector.

“Looks like several agents are advancing toward Agent Amatori’s location now,” Karin added while watching the tactical display. “Interesting that she decided not to use Bagworm to escape despite her location already being exposed.”

“A risky call,” Izumi commented. “Especially with Ninomiya Squad in the match.”

Then Chika lowered her rifle and closed her eyes.

The commentators paused. “…Huh?”

Izumi leaned forward slightly.

“…Wait. Is it just me or is she glowing?—”, Shun looks between the other commentators for confirmation

The commentator booth went dead silent for three whole seconds.

Alarms suddenly blared across Border.

[ Emergency Trion Instability Detected ]

Karin stared at the warning display, “…Why does Border even HAVE a warning specifically for trion instability?”

“…Izumi-senpai,” Shun asked hesitantly, “She is charging a Meteor, right?”

“Nope” Izumi answered immediately.

BOOM

The entire battlefield turned white. Light swallowed the city whole. Every radar signal vanished simultaneously.

Then the Bail Out messages began.

[ Trion Supply System Destroyed. Bail Out. ]

[ Trion Supply System Destroyed. Bail Out. ]

[ Trion Supply System Destroyed. Bail Out. ]

One after another after another. Every single combatant. Gone. Just gone.

The battlefield dissolved into light. Silence filled the arena.

The audience stared at the monitors showing what used to be the map.

Now there was only a crater. A very large crater.

The commentators stared in stunned silence.

Finally, the microphone crackled back to life.

“…Well,” Shun said weakly. A long pause followed.

“All combatants have bailed out. Since Agent Amatori caused every elimination, all 9 points will go to Tamakoma-2.” Katagiri squad’s operator nervously commented.

The No.2 shooter just stare at the remains. “No survival points awarded this round,” he said flatly. Then, after another pause: “…Tamakoma-2 wins.”

Silence again.

Then,

“…Yeesh”, Shun muttered.

Izumi let out a slow breath. “That was terrifying.”

“The quiet ones usually are.” Yoneya added

“…Touché.”

Another long pause passed while all of them stared at what used to be an entire city block.

Yoneya finally pointed at the crater on the screen, “So… this is absolutely getting banned by the end of the day, right?”

Izumi didn’t even hesitate, “Yep, definitely. This is even worse than last week when Tachikawa almost burn the cafeteria”

Yoneya blinked, "Wait, that fire is Tachikawa doing?"

Izumi just averted his eyes and ignore his own slip up: "What's a fire? Is it edible?"

“…”

“…”

Karin finally end the silence, “I guess we’ll be taking a short break while Border reevaluates several safety regulations.”

"..."

Somewhere in the audience, a voice said. “I think we can upgrade Chika’s nickname to Nuclear Missile and not just Cannon anymore.’’

In the Ninomiya Squad’s room,

“…That was terrifying” Tsuji whispered.

Ninomiya said nothing, his eyes fixed on the crater.

Inukai leaned forward. “So… can we learn to do that?”

“No.”

“Aww.”

---

In Nasu Squad’s Room

“Where did she even learn to do something like that?!” Nasu asked.

Izuho remained silent, still staring in shock at the aftermath of her friend’s bombing.

Sayoko adjusted her headphones, just breathed out one word: “…Scary.”

Yuko nodded immediately. “Very scary.”

---

In Azuma Squad’s room,

Koarai stared at the screen, “Are we sure Chika isn’t actually a Neighbor like the rest of Tamakoma’s aces?”

“She isn’t.” Azuma replied calmly.

Okudera just blankly commented, “I think she qualifies as an All-Rounder now.”

And lastly, in Tamakoma-2 Squad’s Room

Chika sat bundled in a recovery blanket with an energy drink in both hands, still tired and flushed from trion exhaustion and laughing so hard she could barely breathe.

Yuma hopped off his bed and held out a fist toward Chika. “Nice shot.”

Hyuse immediately joined in. “Excellent destructive capability.”

Chika smiled sheepishly and bumped fists with both of them.

Osamu watched the exchange, still high on adrenaline, and muttered, “…We are never hearing the end of this.”

Right on cue, his phone vibrated violently.

99+ unread messages.

Osamu stared at the screen in dread.

Half were just variations of ‘‘WHAT WAS THAT?!’’

One from Jin just simply read:

LMAOOOOOOO, Good work!

And Amo somehow has his number and just texts:

can she do it again
i wanna know the maxium of her blast radius

Director Shinoda is now calling him.

Osamu slowly lowered the phone.

“I hate all of you,” Osamu said weakly.

Nobody believed him.