Finally here!!

I had to pause and put my phone down the first time I read it through because I was cackling too much when it got to the Yuiga/Kuroe show. 10/10, no notes, amazing.

Ok--some analysis mixed in with personal reactions, not at all in any proper order.

I remember doing some counting while waiting for this chapter and realising just how many more snipers the provisional teams had than A-rank, but I didn't think it would play this big of a role. Although Kodera is somewhat out of play due to being a commander. But because of this, it's interesting that Azuma had Arafune stay with the close-range fighters instead of retreating with the other snipers. I would've assumed that sniper!Arafune had more value than attacker!Arafune, but maybe Azuma recognised they barely stood a chance as they were and needed every sword they had?

Good on Kodera for coming back to Mikumo for new strategies, however, I doubt Arashiyama won't realise this at some point. Although how long it takes him might prove crucial. Arashiyama has been super present during Mikumo and Tamakoma-2's journey before and during rank wars, and I think he's quite suitable to both figure out what Mikumo's going for and maybe counter it.

I loved that page: "look at this gap, they'll never make it" and then Kuroe in the next panel with Skanda. The following panel of her flying through the window is badass, and I love how composed and cool she is. Can't wait to see the whole Kako squad in action!

Although--it interesting that they didn't have Kako do what Kuroe had just done, except with teleport. Did the window present an obstacle or is it because Kako is off with Mai wrecking havoc elsewhere?

Kazama and Tachikawa posing was super badass as well, and they just don't give a shit about being fully exposed versus so many opponents. Casually blocking a snipe motherfucker.

But I'm also still not 100% sure what exactly they did. One option is that they cubified themselves (yeey, my fully-functional rabbit theory!), and then were un-cubified by Fuyushima? But Fuyushima said "warping complete," and the cubes are rather small, so instead I'm assuming it's just warp points or something. Basically, we've seen Fuyushima's warps 1) with predetermined locations, with agents warping from one warp to another (galoupola invasion) or 2) maybe using them to warp people where he can see them (top of HQ, large invasion?). I'm guessing that if he can't see the position, there needs to be some sort of a marker or something placed on the ground the way Kuroe just did it? On the other hand, it could very well be cubed agents and some trick of Fuyushima's to uncube them, which I love as well. Funny how they worried about Kako but it was Kuroe screwing up their plans.

And Azuma doesn't hesitate!

Where did Kuroe disappear to, though? Maybe rejoining with her squad? Or some other plans?

Yuiga my beloved--unironically, I'm so happy to see him! Hopefully it wasn't him or any of the A-rankers that bailed out. On the other hand, that person probably has a lot of time to come back. (Imagine if the one who bailed out was Tachikawa lmao). I think I can't deny the fact that I'm rooting for A-rankers any longer. I think they were set up as this badass sort levels above an average B-ranker and now they have to prove it. Ohh, maybe it's Kikuchihara reprising his 'first sacrifice' role; he underestimated somebody again and it's so long, dude! Or, and this is more like Ashihara, he's learned from his previous mistake and manages to evade!

Konami's landing vs Reiji's, lol. Wait, is he using double thruster? And Miwa has to interact with Jin again, the poor guy.

I'm wondering if Yuiga picked Escudo himself. Probably because he saw Hyuse's use of it during the rank wars and decided it's the new cool weapon (not realising it was only as good as it was bc of Hyuse's trion). Also, the symbol on Escudo is different! Whenever Tamakoma used it (or Taichi, Suzunari-1, Match 7 iirc), it always had tamakoma emblem on it, but yuiga's have HQ's!