"Don't you think this is weird?" Yukino suddenly asked, brows knitted tight. "Why is the scale of this Apocalypse Game so absurdly huge this time?"
Megumi nodded. "Facing an entire galaxy's worth of bugs… no matter how you look at it, it's just not realistic."
Haruno added smoothly, "And the Apocalypse Shop doesn't even sell things like space fleets or anything that can cross the stars."
Her focus was always sharper than most. She'd already combed through the entire Apocalypse Shop early on—at the very least, she'd made sure they weren't walking in blind.
"Haruno—what does your Apocalypse Shop have?" Tatsuki asked, genuinely curious.
Haruno had basically memorized the catalog by now, so she answered cleanly and simply. "Food, melee weapons, ranged weapons, special weapons, and different models of armor."
"Yeah. Pretty much the same as before." Tatsuki didn't need more detail to get the picture.
It was the usual pattern: weapons and armor with different power cores and output—better cores meant better performance, and higher prices.
"Wait… Tatsuki doesn't have an Apocalypse Shop?" Yumiko caught the detail immediately.
They were all players in the Apocalypse Game. Normally, everyone should have access to the shop.
"Tatsuki-kun is special," Yukino explained with a straight face. "Ever since the first Apocalypse Game, he's never had an Apocalypse Shop."
Hearing that, Miyuki thought for a moment. "So Tatsuki-kun is a special case?"
"Hold on." Haruno suddenly cut in. "Do you remember the prompt we got before entering the game?"
Megumi answered instantly. "The Apocalypse Game detected an over-limit individual and forcibly enabled a special game mode!"
"Huh? We got that?" Marin and Chika blinked in sync—both of them completely missed it.
"We did," Yukino said. She remembered it clearly, and she immediately understood where Haruno was going with this. "So you're saying… because Tatsuki-kun's power is too far beyond normal limits, the Apocalypse Game itself is being forced into a beyond-normal setup?"
Haruno's warm brown eyes gleamed as she idly smoothed her hair. "Based on what we're seeing, that's the only explanation~"
And the very next second, the round table proved Haruno right.
The galaxy hologram vanished—and the table's projection reshaped into a multi-panel screen.
Lines of text began to appear:
[Detected an over-limit player. The Apocalypse Game has activated Special Mode: Roundtable Decision Mode!]
[Rule: The Roundtable Decision will select defenders to remain at the Survival Base. All other members will be randomly teleported together to a planet within the Swarm Galaxy. This decision triggers once per day.]
Before anyone could even fully process what that rule meant, the decision sequence started.
In the center of the screen were four spinning frames—each one cycling through faces from their group.
[Decision Start!]
The frames rotated top-to-bottom.
Faces flashed by in rapid succession. Five seconds. Then, two frames turned empty.
The other two displayed: Yukino and Miyuki.
[Decision Complete!]
[Defenders: Yukino, Miyuki]
[Combat Team: Tatsuki…]
[All Combat Team members have 15 minutes to gear up. Defenders may not leave the Survival Base.]
"…"
To newcomers like Yumiko and the others, it was mostly just shocking and strange, but for Tatsuki's group—people who'd already survived multiple Apocalypse Games—this was a big deal.
"This is completely different from before!" Chika practically shot upright in her chair, her soft curves bouncing with the motion like even the air had to make room.
Megumi's eyes went to Tatsuki immediately. Her expression stayed calm, but there was a clear edge of worry underneath. "The Apocalypse Game is targeting Tatsuki."
It wasn't just them. Even Tatsuki himself hadn't expected something this blatant.
This decision mode was practically custom-built to screw him over.
Tatsuki sneered. "So the Apocalypse Game is panicking."
A planet full of swarm bugs—If he went all-out, he'd just erase the planet and end the game instantly. No survival involved, but Yukino and the others, even with abilities, weren't remotely at the level where they could purge an entire biosphere.
Against an ocean of swarm bodies, all they could realistically do was survive, and it got worse—Miyuki and Mrs. Yuigahama had no abilities at all. Total rookies.
If the group got split wrong, surviving would be borderline impossible.
"Tch. So what—now it can't win, it starts playing dirty?" Tatsuki clicked his tongue.
He truly hadn't expected this thing he'd always considered mysterious and untouchable to pull something so petty and targeted.
Looking back over the four Apocalypse Games—the first one at least had some actual game to it.
After that, for him, it was basically been one steamroll after another. He'd already been over-limit back then.
So why change tactics now?
The shift made Tatsuki's thoughts turn darker. "Is it possible… the Apocalypse Game is nearing its end?"
"Because it's nearing its end, it's getting desperate?" Haruno blinked, eyes glowing with interest. "That's… kind of impressive. It's pretty intelligent, isn't it?"
"According to the prompt, my mother and I have to stay behind." Yukino stood, then flicked a glance toward Miyuki.
After a brief, visible struggle—she still made her choice. She crossed the aisle and stopped in front of Tatsuki.
With her small hands, she carefully straightened his collar, fingers neat and deliberate. "Tatsuki… you have to come back safe."
Tatsuki looked into her clear, shimmering eyes.
In that moment, there was only him in them—worry and tenderness threatening to spill over.
Warmth spread through his chest like a quiet stream.
He leaned down slowly.
Yukino noticed—and trembled as she closed her eyes.
Their lips met.
A wordless exchange—pressing everything they couldn't say into one simple, intimate truth.
The others were already used to scenes like this, but Yumiko had always thought Yukino was basically an ice-cold machine.
Only after joining the Paranormal Research Club did she finally see the other side—the side that melted completely in front of the person she loved.
Inside the club, Yukino still kept that cool, frosty composure.
Tatsuki's teasing would still earn him a sharp snap or a poisonous comeback, but when he actually wanted a kiss or a hug…
Yukino would still—like a shy, obedient cat—offer it, even under everyone's eyes, and with Yui being another living example of a huge transformation…
Yumiko couldn't help but feel it deep in her bones. Love really could change someone.
Haruno, meanwhile, watched her mother's expression with clear amusement.
Miyuki's face was full of shock… but even more than that, her eyes were tangled with complicated thoughts.
She'd always known her youngest daughter was stubborn and difficult.
She never would've imagined that stubborn Yukino could become this forward with a man—not only doing it in front of a crowd… but doing it without hesitation in front of the mother she'd feared and respected for so long.
Even from across the round table, the sounds of that kiss carried faintly over.
A kiss that intense… and Yukino isn't even trying to hide it anymore?
Her daughters really had grown into adults, and Miyuki—unable to name what she was feeling—could only sit there with a heart full of mixed, messy emotions.