(Inside Wall Emi, at the Walled District of Otonokizaka.)

"It is my fault. The Wall fell because of my failures as a leader."

At the Kousaka household, Hiroto Kousaka is depressed over his failure as commander of Love Live Corps. Under his leadership, the Love Live Corps led about eleven Expeditions that altogether hardly achieved any success or progress for mankind. The Corps loss 45 % of its members - the only "progress" that people recognise him for, despite the fact that previous commanders were worse than him.

Norio Sonoda is one of those recent deaths, both of them mourn for his passing. But right now, more pressing concerns are the topic of the duo's conversations.

"All this is my fault.", Hiroto lost confidence in himself. He sat down in disgrace. He loathed himself for failing to give the Legionnaires at least some satisfactory results.

"Shut up, Hiroto. You have no reason to blame yourself."

Kimi Minami, Hiroto's second-in-command, tries to convince Hiroto that there is nothing for him to be ashamed for. She stood near a window, looking at both the setting sky in front of her, and the demoralized man behind her.

"I can't help it. I have never done anything victorious for mankind. I was given the authority, yet I failed to use it to make new gains for our people."

"Every commander before you had the same misfortunes, Hiroto-kun. It is an inevitable thing - we fight Alpacas without enough information to conquer or outmaneuver them. The magnitude of their powers are highly superior over us. Our 3D Maneuver Gears managed to greatly improve our conditions, but even these weapons are not enough to solve the mysteries of the Alpacas."

She reassessed the overall tactical conditions of the Corps to help Hiroto rethink about his opinions.

"But even so, Legionnaire commanders are not easy to gain, especially that most people refuse to join our Corps in the first place. I became commander simply because my previous one died. I took this position in order to inherit his vision. As commander, it is my obligation to bring us one step closer to that vision."

Hiroto let out his sorrows. But he is too overwhelmed to think more reasonably. He is still troubled after he made Norio's daughter, Umi, cry after hearing her dad's death.

"But I failed and acheived nothing. I cannot stand that any longer. It will best for me to commit suicide. I do not want to continue living in disgrace."

"If I were commander - no - if I were in your position, I would not commit suicide for a tragedy I never am responsible for."

Kimi answered Hiroto with a very straightforward request. She revealed to him her true ambitions.

"Kimi.....do you want to be the commander of LL?"

"I will be honest. I want to be commander. I have my ambitions. But it is your call if you deem me ready for that position. I will not protest either if you promote someone else to replace you."

She replied in the most honest way a human being would. Nothing would make her happier than to serve mankind at the best of her abilities. Hiroto knows that full well.

"You look like you are ready to get men killed for humanity's sake....yet I cannot ignore the fact that you are very intelligent and talented. Humanity needs people like you, I believe it is inevitable for me to promote you because you are currently the best that mankind has."

"However, if you commit suicide, I will refuse promotion. I feel uncomfortable to receive your position that way.", she replied sharply.

"I see.....", Kimi "threatened" Hiroto to avoid killing himself for her sake. Hiroto realizes that Kimi is forcing him to reconsider his judgements for the sake of the Corps. Choosing a commander risks either the success or failure of the Legion - a choice he now remembers he must live to make.

"Dad?"

The door opened amidst the conversation. A little girl with ginger hair appeared before the two of them. She has been eavesdropping on them this entire time.

"Honoka?!", the little girl named walked towards Hiroto, her dad. Her eyes showed how eager she is to ask her dad something.

"Dad. You do not want to be a commander anymore?"

"Huh? Did you hear that from me?"

"I have been listening to you for a while, dad. When you came back home, I noticed how sad you were. I want to know what makes you sad."

Hiroto observes that his eleven year old daughter wants to hear the truth. Her expression gave him the courage to say it to her.

"Honoka, I am sorry for making you worry. Yes, it is true, I plan to give up being a commander. But that does not mean I will give up as a soldier."

"Huh?!"

"Honoka. Alpacas are scary creatures that represent mankind's fear. But we cannot give in to fear. We have to fight no matter what. I have to keep fighting. That is something I realized."

Little Honoka felt proud of her father's new view of himself and how he should live. Hiroto still had his doubts over his decision, but for his daughter's sake, he had to give her some hope.

"Dad. Someday I wanna be the commander of LL just like you!!!"

"That is nice to hear Honoka. But you are not yet ready for it yet. You need to learn how to value life first."

"Life?"

Hiroto smiled at Honoka, happy that his child is curious enough to care about the world. He remembers that he has a family that supports him despite the fact that his profession is very dangerous. His daughter and wife cheer for him despite knowing that he may die anytime outside the Walls. He is a hero to them.

"I am glad my little daughter here helped to cheer me up. Still, you have my thanks, Kimi-chan, for helping me realize why I fought in the first place."

"Really? I felt like you listened to your daughter over me."

Hiroto has now recovered. Kimi looks at Honoka as she hugged her dad. This expression helped Hiroto to notice something about Kimi.

"By the way, how is your daughter, Kotori?"

"Kotori is fine now. Her doctor managed to give her a new medicine which is gradually improving her recovery. Our maid is guarding her well."

Kimi is relieved to find that her daughter is recovering from her sickness after the Expedition. Like Hiroto, she is a mom who was worried for her daughter's life. As much as she wanted to help mankind, she also wanted her daughter to live a free and safe life. This desire is one of the reasons she joined the Corps - to give her daughter a safe world free from the terror of Alpacas.

"Hmmm....now that I think about it....something was strange about Kotori's doctor."

"Hmmm? Something wrong?"

"Her doctor, Noriko Yazawa, left in a hurry after she gave her treatment yesterday."

"Is that something you need to worry about?"

"I guess not.", said Kimi with uncertainty. She is uncertain as to why it bothered her anyway. A moment of silence lasted briefly before Hiroto spoke once more.

"Noriko Yazawa, huh? She is the wife of our former comrade, Mori, right?"

"Yes. Speaking of that, I do not criticize Mori for leaving the Corps. I believe he made a better decision to retire."

"I feel bad for him.", said Hiroto.

-----

(Outside Wall Emi, at the open fields which are now under Alpaca control.)

SHINZO MATSUURA'S POV

The Expedition took off just about eight minutes ago yet as soon as we left the gates, Alpacas started sprinting at us to chew us. The men around me looked really scared - even my daughter, Kanan, is anxious of what they could do.

"Everyone!! Scatter your formations!!!", said the commander as he shot a red flare up into the sky.

We horsemen spread through the fields. Our first priority is to protect the cannons that are being carried by about 15 divisions. They need time to be set up before they can be used against the Alpacas.

The objective of the Expedition is to make a slow march into Wall Aya. It was agreed upon that a mobile, quick, but scattered journey into Wall Aya is not the best way to get there considering our manpower and the fact that Alpacas will keep coming in no matter what. Hence, it was safer to kill Alpacas as we make our way to Wall Aya than to risk overextending our formation.

Besides that, we have cannons coming with us. They are slow and heavy to carry and set up even as they are being carried by horses (two horse per cannon), so we cannot move as quickly as we could.

Moments later, another commander shot a blue flare. It signalled the Expedition to begin arranging in defensive formation.

Here is how our defensive formation worked: The Expedition will arrange itself in a circular formation. At the center of our formation are cannons meant to shoot any incoming Alpacas. Their purpose is not to kill them, but to incapacitate them long enough for the soldiers who use 3DMG to get to the nape of their necks and finish them off.

At the surrounding frontlines of our formations are horsemen who will serve as bait to distract the first wave of Alpacas that are coming in. We are part of that group.

"Dad, these are the Alpacas?!!"

"Yes, Kanan. As long as we keep our distance, we will be fine."

The horsemen are scared at the sight of these large monsters. But we all kept ourselves calm for the sake of the 400,000 people who are fighting outside the Walls right now.

We rode away from the Alpacas at a certain distance. We kept ourselves away so we could aim at them from a safe range. We would use our bows and guns to shoot their eyes and blind them - arrows and bullets will never be able to penetrate the Alpacas' weak spots.

My daughter, Kanan, aimed her bow cautiously. It was hard to hit them at this distance. I could see she is dong whatever she could to calm herself for the sake of the operation.

Four alpacas were blinded. Soon, four Legionnaires came in to finish them off. Four girls - we would later know them as Kira Tsubasa, Anju Yuuki, Erena Toudou, and Eri Ayase - flew behind them and slashed their napes. It was a quick and coordinated move and they continued to move on to the next wave without saying much.

I am worried for them because they are all too young to be part of the Legion. Even so, we followed them to keep up with the formation.

This is our pattern of attack: horse archers and gunners blind and distract the Alpacas, cannon crews shoot at them from a distance, then 3DMG users come in to kill them. This pattern continued until all threats were eliminated, then we journeyed forward deeper into Wall Aya.

The beginning was the easy part. As we travelled further, things became more brutal.