The yataglass took the ball again.
　This time it was a different color, a blue ball.

　I was waiting for the scorching heat to come again - but it was different.

　The environment didn't change, it was the yataglass that changed.

　The crow that took in the ball changed into the form of a human--.

d*mn!

　I started a reflexive evasive motion.
　It was the right thing to do.

　A bullet was fired into the place where I was standing.
　I dodged it by moving first with a hunch.

　The transformation into human form was one of several guesses, but it was a rather bad pattern.

　The yatagaras transformed into me.

　I'm not like Alice Ryotin or Ryota from Plumbum.
　It looks and feels exactly like me, a doppelganger, if you will.

　The next thing I knew, he was right in front of me.
　In an instant, it was close enough to me to unleash a high kick at my head.
　I quickly raised my arm to guard it.
　Then the entire guard is blown off, and I am blown away while spinning vertically.

　Then he shoots a wall bomb in a flash.
　He grabs the bullet and applies the emergency brake in the air.

　My doppelganger was chasing me.
　While he is confused for a moment because my emergency braking has shifted his timing, he hits a cross counter to the face.

　The doppelganger is blown away with the same momentum as the one that chased it.
　That guy also used an ironclad bullet to brake suddenly and regain his stance.

　Being transformed into the same thing as me is the most troublesome pattern for adventurers in this world.

　The adventurers have the supreme task of getting a "stable lap".

　Even if they can't do that, they have to come back victorious.

　If you are transformed by a stronger opponent, you can give up.
　But that doesn't mean you can't win if they're just like you.
　It's too good to throw away, but the effort involved is subtly out of balance with the effort required to plunge in.

　The doppelganger system is such a tricky pattern for adventurers.

　However, it's not so much of a problem this time.

　This time it's an investigative battle, not a roundabout one.

　We only need to win once.
　And I've fought a lot of doppelganger types.

　I've timed it right, and I've entered the world of acceleration with accelerator rounds.

　The other side read that and tried to fire an accelerator round, but I went in early.
　If I didn't, I'd run out of time before I could match up with everyone else (and they did), but it was better than getting hit by an accelerator.

　I went into acceleration first to adjust during the acceleration.
　I accelerated and kicked the ground to flesh out my doppelganger.

　Then.

"--Hey!　The stone of absolute rock.

　The moment I was approaching, my doppelganger, which could barely move, went into invincibility mode with the Absolute Rock Stone with minimal movement.

　The all-SS status and the overwhelming defense built up by the Absolute Rock Stone.

　Even if I got beaten up one way or the other while accelerating, I wasn't sure I could get through it.

　I thought about it for a moment and came up with another means.

　I pulled out two pistols and loaded them with ironclad bullets.

　The first thing I do with those ironclad bullets is to "nail" my doppelganger.

　The ironclad bullets stop his movement with the ironclad bullets to stop him from moving further from his relative immobility in the accelerated world.

　The gun is taken away and the stone of the absolute lock is also crushed.

　Then I cover it up with more vanadium-enhanced ironclad bullets.

　My all-SS is indeed strong, but I don't have much of a special ability or anything.

　If it's covered in ironclad bullets, I can't escape either.

　And then time begins to move.

　My doppelganger struggled, but it didn't move at all.
　I waited and waited.

　The vanadium-reinforced steel bullets no longer advance, but instead are so tightly packed that they can stop space from closing.

　Covered by it, my doppelganger couldn't move at all.

　Now it's just a matter of timing, waiting for my friends' timing.

...... Huh?

　Not in the form of a yataglass, but how do you measure the timing of this?

　Maybe this is why Emily or Celeste couldn't get their timing right earlier?

　Just as I thought that, the doppelganger turned back into a yataglass.

　One of the yataglass' legs was broken, but that leg healed quickly and was back to three legs again.

...... Is there another tricky pattern?

　A pattern that Celeste and Emily couldn't match.

　I was able to overwhelm my doppelganger, though.
　The Yatagaras attack is back to square one, three times.