B-Rank Wars Arc

The B-Rank Rank Battles Arc is the fifth arc of the World Trigger series.

A Flashy Debut
See also: Match History

Osamu meets Kido in the hall, and they discuss the press conference. Osamu reveals that he is aware that Kido had intentionally used him as a scapegoat. He warns Kido to never use Yūma and Amatori like that, lest be deprived of his forgiveness. Kido complies and simply wishes Osamu good luck. Karasawa and Jin also discuss this, with Karasawa telling Jin that he wanted to give Osamu a chance to defend himself. He also divulges the increase in applications to Border since Osamu's outburst. Tamakoma Second makes its debut fighting against Yoshizato Unit and Mamiya Unit. Though Osamu is unable to participate due to his wounds, Yūma and Chika easily outdo their foes. It is a stunning victory, which attracts the attention of unsuspecting spectators. The team rank goes from #21 to #12, and their next Rank Battle will be against Suwa Unit and Arafune Unit. While they celebrate their victory, Konami alerts them that their next two opponents would be much stronger. The three participating teams begin analyzing each other, and on February 5, they have their second Rank Battle of the season.

Tamakoma Second vs. Suwa Unit vs. Arafune Unit
See also: Match History

As the stage is Tamakoma Second's decision, Osamu chooses City C, a neighborhood sitting on a hill. It is initially met with surprise, as it would benefit the Sniper-oriented Arafune Unit. However, one of the battle's commentators, Azuma, reveals that his would force Suwa Unit to create an alliance with Tamakoma Second in order to prevent Arafune Unit from getting the advantage. Chika hides while Osamu and Yūma move on the offensive. Yūma goes to attack Hanzaki, but the two are shot at by Tsutsumi. While Yūma dodges the attack, Hanzaki is hit and Bails Out. Tsutsumi attempt to shoot Yūma, but Yūma dodges with his newly-gained Grasshopper and cuts him down. Yūma sets his sights on Hokari, but Arafune intercepts him and fights him with Kogetsu. Eight months before, Arafune had been a renown Attacker; however, he switched to being aa Sniper. Hokari supports his captain, giving Arafune the advantage. However, Sasamori comes intent on defeating Hokari. Osamu circles the battle zone, exerting pressure just by being there. Hokari decides to shoot Yūma, even though it means certain defeat at Sasamori's hands. Yūma is injured, and as he thought, Sasamori cuts him and he Bails Out. Yūma tricks Arafune into thinking that he would escape with Grasshopper, but uses the Trigger to launch himself towards his opponent and cut off his feet. Suwa comes to attack, and Sasamori, using Chameleon, traps Yūma for Suwa to get a clear shot, despite the fact that Yūma could stab him. Usami cues Chika to shoot at this moment, saving Yūma, but Arafune uses the opportunity to snipe back, hitting her and she Bails Out. Arafune and Suwa being attacking Yūma, but Osamu appears to shoot the two down, eliminating them, and giving Tamakoma Second the victory (6-2-1).

Tamakoma Second vs. Suzunari First vs. Nasu Unit
See also: Match History

Following its second Rank Battle, Tamakoma Second moves to #8. Its next Rank Battle is against Nasu Unit and Suzunari First. Yūma and Midorikawa have a Rank Battle, in which Yūma dominates. Arafune comes along, and challenges Midorikawa for announcing his prediction that Arafune would lose the Rank Battle. However, before that, the No. 4 Attacker Kō Murakami comes along, with Midorikawa stating that he was the reason Arafune quit being an Attacker. He asks Midorikawa to fight him, but Midorikawa states that he can't afford to lose any more points, capturing Yūma's interest. Yoneya also refuses to fight, saying that he wants to fight a Grasshopper user. Yūma himself volunteers, much to the others' disapproval. Murakami agrees, but with 2 conditions: the battle is 10 matches long, and there will be a 10-minute intermission between the fifth and sixth match. Yūma accepts. In the first 5 matches, Yūma wins four times, which makes Osamu think that he should center the team strategies on Yūma. However, Yoneya advises him to keep watching. Murakami wins five times in a row, becoming the first person to beat Yūma in battle. He reveals that he has a Side Effect of "enhanced sleep memory", where he synthesizes information extremely accurately when sleeping. Yūma's loss surprises those in Tamakoma, but the fact he got 40% of the points impresses both Murakami's team Suzunari First, as well as Tamakoma Second's other opponent, Nasu Unit. The Rank Battle begins on Saturday.

The stage is the riverside one, in stormy weather. The map is composed of two segments of a city divided by water and connected only by one bridge. This is most likely to subdue Chika's Sniping abilities. None of the teams have all members on the same piece of land, making the bridge a central location. Nasu Unit's strategy hinges on them being able to group at the bridge before the other teams. However, this is quickly interrupted when Chika blows up the bridge. Unable to regroup, Nasu decides to clear her side herself, while Kumagai is approached by Murakami. She puts up a fierce fight, but is unable to keep up and Bails Out. Hiura attempts to shoot Yūma, but she misses, inadvertently giving her position away, and Yūma cuts her down. Yūma and Murakami are the only ones remaining and begin their fight. It seems to be an even battle, but slowly tipping in favour of Murakami. Seeing that using old techniques is useless against the latter, Yūma has Murakami step onto a Grasshopper to launch him into the river, where Yūma stabs him and defeats him, but is now stuck in the river.

It is revealed that Hyuse has been kept prisoner in Tamakoma Branch and he comments on the battle throughout its course.

Meanwhile, Nasu begins to barrage the opponents on her side, and manages to take out Betsuyaku and cripple Kuruma. She gets locked into a fight with him. Osamu has Chika break the dam, releasing the river water into the city. This bogs down Nasu, who has been relying on her maneuverability. Nasu manages to defeat Kuruma with Tomahawk, but before he Bails Out, he shoots Hound bullets. The bullets hit Nasu, severing her arm. Osamu uses this moment to try and claim a point by defeating Nasu. The attack is in vain as Nasu purposely had several Tomahawk bullets miss Kuruma so that they could be used against Osamu. Osamu Bails Out, but Yūma approaches, having survived the river. With significant Trion loss, Nasu is forced to Bail Out, giving Tamakoma Second its third victory.

Information and Training
Following Tamakoma Second's victory, it is bumped up to #6, and has Ninomiya Unit, Kageura Unit, and Azuma Unit as its upcoming opponents. The next day, Rindō takes Yūma, Osamu, and Hyuse to HQ. There, he is interrogated by the upper echelons, but he refuses to say anything. With Hyuse being a useless source of information, Kinuta takes Osamu and Yūma to their other source: Enedra. Parts of his psyche remained intact in his horns following his death, which allowed it to be put into a Rad. The Rad (Enedrad) contains Enedra's knowledge and personality. Enedra reveals that Aftokrator had come to Earth because it was in the middle of a civil crisis. Its god, the human that powers the planet's core via their Trion, was dying and Aftokrator had to fight a suitable replacement lest the country be destroyed. Thus, Hairein brought his Hairein's Expedition Force to obtain a person with high-Trion, which they nearly did. Enedra pledges his allegiance with Border for the sole reason of revenge, but Yūma detects this as a partial lie; he has a second motive. After the interrogation, Osamu has a chat with Kikuchihara, who warns Osamu that his team would not be able to reach the Expedition Force since it is too dependent on Yūma.

Back at Tamakoma Branch, a visitor has come: Masataka Ninomiya. Mikumo Unit has a discussion with him regarding Rinji's disappearance. He sheds some light on the circumstances surrounding the disappearance. His former teammate, Mirai Hatohara, had been discovered to have smuggled Triggers to civilians. She disappeared on the same day that Rinji did, which presents a possibility that they were collaborators. Ninomiya believes that Rinji might have manipulated Hatohara into doing such a thing since she was incapable of being so elaborate. Chika admits that that is something her brother might have done, but Osamu believes that both were fully complicit of each others' motives. Ninomiya leaves, refusing to divulge any more information until the unit has reached A-Rank. He also tells Osamu that Mikumo Unit's only honest way of getting Rinji back is to send Yūma into an A-Rank unit on the Expeditionary Force.

Kizaki reveals that Ninomiya Unit was demoted to B-Rank as a result of Hatohara's actions, and advises them to keep the incident a secret. Osamu calls Karasuma for more Shooter training, but Karasuma has him train under specialists. The first one is Arashiyama Unit. Arashiyama asserts that Osamu need not act differently than he already has because Shooters have a tendency to assume a supportive role. Nevertheless, he and Tokieda train Osamu to better his skills. Next, Osamu visits Tachikawa Unit's operation room, where he experiences an unfriendly greeting from the weak but arrogant Takeru Yuiga. Yuiga's flashy nature is quelled by Tachikawa and Izumi. Izumi tells Osamu that teaching him composite bullets is pointless at his skill level, but he will do it if he can beat Yuiga 100 times in battle. Yuiga is appalled at this deal, but Osamu and he go ahead with it anyway. Osamu is unable to defeat Yuiga to the specified number, but refuses Izumi's offer to reduce it to 50 victories.

Chika and Natsume do Sniper training where they shoot at targets. They are easily outclassed by Narasaka, but Narasaka advises them to take a look at the Snipers who didn't aim for the bullseye; rather, they made flawless designs with their bullets. The Snipers are Tōma and Yuzuru Ema. Tōma introduces Ema as his pupil, though Ema says that the only person he considers to be his mentor is Hatohara, the girl who went missing with Rinji. Chika asks Ema for more information regarding Hatohara. Ema reveals that she was an excellent Sniper, but she didn't have the conviction to shoot at people; rather, she shot at their weapons. It was this weakness that caused Ninomiya Unit to be dropped out of the Expeditionary Force, in spite of the fact that she met the requirements. Chika admits that she too struggles to be able to shoot people. Ema mentions that she should not have said that, for he is part of Kageura Unit, Tamakoma Second's upcoming opponent.

Yūma and Murakami have a Rank Battle, resulting in Murakami's victory. Murakami takes Yūma to Masato Kageura, the captain of Kageura Unit, one of their upcoming foes. Moments before Yūma and Murakami arrived, Kageura had decapitated two trainees (in their trion bodies) for speaking ill of him behind his back. Murakami tells the trainees that Kageura possesses a Side Effect which let him read their mind, and assures them that they would not be harmed in their real bodies. They flee, regardless. Murakami introduces Kageura and Yūma to each other, and the two discuss Tamakoma Second's goal and the upcoming Rank Battle. Kageura leaves, but not without asserting that he wouldn't let a weakling beat him. Murakami explains to Yūma that Kageura's Side Effect is actually feeling others' emotions.

Azuma Unit begins strategizing for their Rank Battle by coming up with an idea for the map. Koarai suggests choosing a gimmicky map like the one Nasu Unit did, but Azuma and Okudera suggest otherwise. Tamakoma Second meets up. Osamu scolds Chika for revealing her secret, but Yūma defends her by stating that Ninomiya and Azuma, having known Hatohara, likely saw the resemblance between her and Chika, and having the only unaware opponent know is not too signficant. Kageura Unit watches records of Tamakoma Second.

Tamakoma Second vs. Ninomiya Unit vs. Kageura Unit vs. Azuma Unit
See also: Match History

The commentators for Round 4 are Kako, Kazama, and Ayatsuji. The map that Azuma Unit has chosen is a snowy City B. Kako and Kazama correctly guess that Koarai was the one to choose it. In the battle, Kageura Unit's Gunner Hiro Kitazoe makes the first move by shooting several Meteora, though all miss. Ninomiya decides to go hunt down Kitazoe and Ema while he orders his comrades Tsuji and Inukai to hunt down Tamakoma Second.

The Attack on the Ship
Following their loss against the upper B-Rank teams, Osamu asks Jin to join their team. When Jin asks Osamu for his reason, Osamu states that he wanted to go on the expedition more quickly since Yūma was running out of time before his death and he wanted to reunite him with Replica. Jin refuses because there were other things to which he had to attend. Later, Jin goes to a meeting where the subject of another invasion is brought up. Two of three planetary nations coming near Earth are vassals of Aftokrator. Due to their small size, an all-out invasion would be unlikely, so a covert mission could happen. Additionally, Jin did not see any casualties happening in many citizens' and Border agents' futures. Just in case, a special barrier is in place until the planets leave Earth's proximity and the A-Rank units are on alert. Enedra explains that because Aftokrator would have to deal with their internal issue of choosing a god, Hairein would send those two countries to do their work.

Tamakoma Second vs. Katori Unit vs. Kakizaki Unit
See also: Match History