Count this as yet another thing that slipped under my nose but easily saw coming. Shame on me.

Late last week, 2chers caught wind of news that there would be a new ending theme. Fast-forward to a few days ago and it's finally confirmed by Avex.

"The long road ahead" (遠い道の先で Tooi michi no saki de) by Ai Takekawa

While the single comes out on March 3rd, I'm not sure when it'll debut on TV (most likely with 18). At any rate, there continues to be zero sense in Sunrise's placement for new endings. Nevertheless, I gladly welcome it given how terrible Diamond was (full version came out last week).

Source: Ai Takekawa homepage

Thanks to FSC for the tip-off. God knows when I would've figured this out on my own.

Edit: Don't freak out, I've also done a bit of tweaking to the way comments are shown.